A film by Max Linz. In German with English subtitles.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

The Institute for Cybernetics and Simulation Research is threa­ten­ed with clo­sure – the start­ing point for this sati­re about how the uni­ver­si­ty sys­tem is to be trans­for­med into a tur­bo-capi­ta­list rese­arch machi­ne. Phoebe Phaidon, a high­ly qua­li­fied, up-and-coming young aca­de­mic, accepts yet ano­ther tem­po­ra­ry tea­ching con­tract. With her pro­gres­si­ve ide­als on cli­ma­te rese­arch still more or less int­act, she acts as a link to the frus­tra­ted, yet com­bat-rea­dy stu­dents who have occu­p­ied the libra­ry. On the other side of the batt­le lines are the estab­lished facul­ty, who­se will to sur­vi­ve in the cess­pool of third-par­ty fun­ding acqui­si­ti­on has ground them down into vain cynics for whom no ridi­cu­lous con­ces­si­on to eva­lua­ti­on mad­ness is too gro­tes­que. Max Linz crafts his film with a keen sen­se of Berlin’s sen­si­ti­vi­ties, urban back­drops, office décor and aca­de­mic atti­re. And he exag­ge­ra­tes deca­dent uni­ver­si­ty jar­gon with gus­to, its buz­zwords func­tio­ning almost like the bait in beha­viou­ral stu­dies. By the end, the film has prac­ti­cal­ly beco­me a musi­cal, with a cat­chy tune that could be a post-capi­ta­list revo­lu­tio­na­ry anthem: “Why can’t it be nice here, why are we not happy?”

[nbsp]
Credits:

DE 2019, 80 Min.
Regie: Max Linz
Kamera: Carlos Andrés López
Schnitt: Bernd Euscher, René Frölke
Mit: Sarah Ralfs, Sophie Rois, Philipp Hauß, Bernd Moss, Maryam Zaree, Bastian Trost, Leonie Jenning, Luis Krawen, Martha von Mechow, Max Wagner, Anna Papenburg, Olga Lystsova, Kerstin Grassmann, Jean Chaize, Friedrich Liechstenstein

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer (Ausschnitt):

A film by Gabrielle Brady. In English with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

Christmas Island, an iso­la­ted part of the world, loca­ted bet­ween Indonesia and Australia, is one of the of-ter­ri­to­ry sites Australia uses to detain peo­p­le see­king refu­ge or asyl­um (or a bet­ter life) on its ter­ri­to­ry pro­per. The tro­pi­cal island is also the site of ano­ther kind of migra­ti­on: Usually at the begin­ning of the wet sea­son thou­sands of red crabs make their way from the forest to the sea shore, a pas­sa­ge that finds pro­tec­tion from the peo­p­le on Christmas Island. In one sce­ne in Gabrielle Brady’s docu­men­ta­ry we see her prot­ago­nist, the the­ra­pist Poh Lin Lee, careful­ly clea­ring the road in order to avo­id crab road­kill. Her main task on the island (and her voca­ti­on, we may sur­mi­se) is to help some of the detai­nees on the island, who suf­fer from the uncer­tain­ty of their sta­tus, and who often react by har­ming them­sel­ves. Poh Lin Lee offers an ori­gi­nal the­ra­py using a sand­box as a device to address trau­ma. ISLAND OF THE HUNGRY GHOSTS is as much a subt­ly radi­cal poli­ti­cal docu­men­ta­ry as it is a deep­ly moving medi­ta­ti­on on extre­me con­di­ti­ons in a place haun­ted by ghosts of all kind – the big­gest ghost being the unjust world order against which the­re is no easy offe­ring. (Bert Rebhandl)

[nbsp]
Credits:

DE/GB/AU 2018, 94 Min., eng­li­sche OmU
Regie und Buch: Gabrielle Brady
Kamera: Michael Latham
Schnitt: Katharina Fiedler

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer:

Im Kino mit deut­schen Untertiteln.

A Film by Thomas-Moritz Helm. In German and English with  English and German subtitles.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

Summer in Berlin. Two Berliners, Maria and Niels, and one British stu­dent, Chloë, are three twen­ty-some­things. Drifting libi­di­nous­ly through Berlin, they plun­ge head­long into a care­free and chao­tic love affair with each other. Boisterously living life to the full, they grasp ever­y­thing and any­thing they plea­se. Their only com­pass seems to be the plea­su­re they expe­ri­ence tog­e­ther – which works per­fect­ly well until Chloë unin­ten­tio­nal­ly falls pregnant. Insecurity and anger, jea­lou­sy and doubt now break out. An abor­ti­on is plan­ned, and rejec­ted. Who is allo­wed to have a say, and when, and about what? Their unu­su­al tri­ni­ty dis­sol­ves and their once balan­ced rela­ti­onship muta­tes into shif­ting con­stel­la­ti­ons of two – until it seems it might be pos­si­ble to res­to­re a pre­ca­rious equi­li­bri­um, at least for a moment. Is their uto­pia within reach or is this just the calm befo­re the storm? To love dif­fer­ent­ly is hard work. The world is not pre­pared for Maria, Niels and Chloë. And neither are they.

[nbsp]
Credits:

DE 2018, 93 Min.
Regie & Buch: Thomas-Moritz Helm
Kamera: Stefan Neuberger
Schnitt: Elena Weihe
Darsteller: Paula Knüpling, Maximilian Hildebrandt, Tala Gouveia, Roland Bonjour, Nora Decker, Carrie Getman

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer:

A film by Maria Alché.  In Spanish with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

Marcela’s world beco­mes stran­ge and unfa­mi­li­ar after her sis­ter Rina dies. She feels lost in her own house, and her rela­ti­onship with her hus­band and child­ren seems to suf­fer. But when Nacho, a young fri­end of her daughter’s, unex­pec­ted­ly drops by, she starts to talk and walk with him. Gradually Marcela beg­ins to have con­ver­sa­ti­ons with rela­ti­ves from ano­ther dimension.

[nbsp]
Credits:

AR/BR/DE/NO 2018, 91 Min., span. OmU
Regie & Buch: Maria Alché
Kamera: Hélène Louvart 
Schnitt: Livia Serpa 
mit: Mercedes Morán, Marcelo Subiotto,
Esteban Bigliardi, Diego Vélazquez

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer:

A film by Sabrina Sarabi. Starts August 29th at the fsk. In German with English subtitles.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

Nineteen-year-old David dreams of being a con­cert pia­nist on the inter­na­tio­nal stage. Although his talent made him spe­cial in his home town, he soon rea­li­zes that at the con­ser­va­to­ry he is but one of many talen­ted stu­dents. His class­ma­te Walter is his stron­gest com­pe­ti­tor, and not only musi­cal­ly. Only an affair with Marie, a con­fi­dent voice major with a zest for life, gives him the cou­ra­ge to com­pe­te for a high­ly cove­ted scho­lar­ship in New York. Yet with expec­ta­ti­ons of him rising all around, David’s life starts to get out of control.

[nbsp]
Credits:

DE 2019, 95 min.
Buch und Regie: Sabrina Sarabi
Kamera: Max Preiss
Schnitt: Hannah Schwegel, Jan von Rimscha
mit: Louis Hofmann, Liv Lisa Fries, Johannes Nussbaum, Ursina Lardi, Jenny Schily, Saskia Rosendahl

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer:

A film by Emma Davie & Peter Mettler. In English with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

An inspi­red col­la­bo­ra­ti­on bet­ween film­ma­kers Emma Davie (I Am Breathing) and Peter Mettler (The End of Time) and radi­cal wri­ter and phi­lo­so­pher David Abram (The Spell of the Sensuous), Becoming Animal is an urgent and immersi­ve audio­vi­su­al quest, for­ging a path into the places whe­re humans and other ani­mals meet, whe­re we pry open our sen­ses to wit­ness the so-cal­led natu­ral world—which in turn wit­nesses us, promp­ting us to reflect on the very essence of what it means to inha­bit our ani­mal bodies.

Shot in and around Grand Teton National Park, with its diz­zy­ing diver­si­ty of wild­life, trails of curious humans in RV’s and bil­li­on-year-old geo­lo­gy, the film is a gey­ser of pro­vo­ca­ti­ve ide­as and heigh­ten­ed sen­sa­ti­ons rela­ted to the sub­li­me cir­cuit­ry that con­nects us to our ever-shif­ting sur­roun­dings.  A snail’s body beco­mes an immense land­scape as the sound­scape immer­ses us in shi­ve­ring lea­ves, rus­hing rivers and the weird spacey pitch of elk bug­ling at night. Becoming Animal embraces the sen­so­ry tools of cine­ma to trace how the writ­ten word and tech­no­lo­gy has affec­ted how we see.

Driven by won­der, curio­si­ty and a desi­re for balan­ce bet­ween eco­lo­gi­cal and tech­no­lo­gi­cal impe­ra­ti­ves, Becoming Animal is an invi­ta­ti­on to explo­re our rela­ti­onship with this “more than human world” and reco­g­ni­se it for what it is: an exqui­si­te­ly intri­ca­te sys­tem in which ever­y­thing is ali­ve and expres­si­ve, humans, ani­mals and land­scapes are inex­tri­ca­bly inter­de­pen­dent, and the­re is no such thing as emp­ty space.

[nbsp]
Credits:

CH/CA/GB 2018, 78 Min., engl. OmU
Regie: Emma Davie & Peter Mettler
Kamera: Peter Mettler

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer:

Ein Film von Nadav Lapid. Ab 5.9. im fsk.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

Yoav ist nach Paris gezo­gen mit der Absicht, Franzose zu wer­den und sei­ne israe­li­sche Herkunft abzu­strei­fen. Kein hebräi­sches Wort soll ihm mehr über die Lippen kom­men, er will nur noch fran­zö­sisch spre­chen und übt die Sprache, indem er ver­bis­sen Synonyme auf­zählt. Schon bald nach sei­ner Ankunft lernt er ein jun­ges Paar ken­nen, das all das ver­kör­pert, was man gemein­hin mit Paris asso­zi­iert: bei­de sind gebil­det, gut geklei­det, leben in einer geschmack­voll ein­ge­rich­te­ten Wohnung. Sie hel­fen Yoav mit etwas Geld aus und klei­den ihn ein. In die begin­nen­de Freundschaft mischen sich bald eigen­nüt­zi­ge Interessen. Der Film basiert auf eige­nen Erfahrungen des israe­li­schen Regisseurs Nadav Lapid. Er erzählt mit viel Humor und sati­ri­schen Einlagen davon, dass man sich selbst immer mit­nimmt, wenn man weg­geht. Und auch die bösen Geister der Vergangenheit krie­chen aus dem Koffer. Yoavs gespal­te­nes Verhältnis zu Israel und damit zur eige­nen Identität ist der Preis eines Lebens in stän­di­gem Kriegszustand. Auf der dies­jäh­ri­gen Berlinale wur­de SYNONYMES mit dem Goldenen Bären und dem Preis der Filmkritik ausgezeichnet.

„Und der Goldene Bär für den bes­ten Film? Ging tat­säch­lich an den bes­ten Film. (…) SYNONYMES spielt mit klei­nen Verneigungen vor den Klassikern des fran­zö­si­schen Kinos. DER LETZTE TANGO IN PARIS, JULES UND JIM, die gro­ßen ero­ti­schen Urkonstellationen aus der Ära der Nouvelle Vague wer­den her­auf­be­schwo­ren.“ David Steinitz, Süddeutsche Zeitung

„Der Film (…) geht auf eine gewitz­te Weise mit sei­nem nicht eben leicht­ge­wich­ti­gen Thema um, steckt vol­ler ori­gi­nel­ler Bildideen, komi­scher Situationen und skur­ri­ler Momente.“ Berliner Zeitung

„Hier ist ein Hauptdarsteller zu ent­de­cken, der die Fähigkeit besitzt, einen Film zu beherr­schen, wie Daniel Day-Lewis oder Denis Lavant.“ Indiewire

„In Lapids künst­le­ri­scher Verwandtschaft ist vor allem ein Name zu nen­nen: Jean-Luc Godard. (…) Das gro­ße Gelingen des Films besteht dar­in, dass er sich der Sprache ver­schreibt. Auch das Kino ist eine Sprache, und wenn man die­sen Film sieht, fällt einem auf, wie sel­ten das heu­te gewor­den ist.“ Philipp Stadelmaier, Filmbulletin

[nbsp]
Credits:

IL/ FR/ DE 2019, 123 Min., frz., hebr. OmU 
Regie: Nadav Lapid
Buch: Nadav Lapid, Haïm Lapid
Kamera: Shaï Goldman
Schnitt: Era Lapid, Neta Braun
Darsteller: Tom Mercier, Quentin Dolmaire, Louise Chevillotte, Uri Hayik, Léa Drucker

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer:

A film by Sophie Kluge. In German with English subtitles.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

Ava moves back in with her mother and her new boy­fri­end after uni­ver­si­ty. Since she can‘t find a job, she interns at a thea­ter whe­re she meets actor Jonas.

Axel Timo Purr | indiekino

[nbsp]
Credits:

DE 2019, 93 Min.
Regie & Buch: Sophie Kluge
Kamera: Reinhold Vorschneider
Schnitt: Katja Dringenberg
Darsteller: Henriette Confurius, Max Krause, Inga Busch, Franziska Machens, Hanna Hilsdorf

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer:

A film by Stephan Hilbert.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

In cri­sis-rid­den eas­tern Congo, one of the poo­rest regi­ons on earth, three Europeans are forced to ques­ti­on what it means to help. Raul, a French-Spanish eco­no­mist, rea­li­zes that his pro­ject funds are lea­ding his Congolese col­le­agues into gre­at tempt­a­ti­on, put­ting their stu­dy on rebel groups at risk of fai­ling. Peter, from Germany, is strugg­ling to pre­ser­ve his iden­ti­ty as an aid worker when he rea­ches reti­re­ment age after 30 years in Africa. And the rela­ti­onship of the young Belgian Anne-Laure is put to the test when her Congolese boy­fri­end, after a stay in pri­son, beco­mes a high-pro­fi­le regime cri­tic. Deeply per­so­nal insights into coexis­tence and coope­ra­ti­on bet­ween Europe and Africa – and the ques­ti­on: how hel­pful is the help of the West?

[nbsp]
Credits:

DE 2019, 90 Min., OmU
Regie: Stephan Hilbert
Kamera: Daniel Samer
Schnitt: Miriam Märk 

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer:

A film by Ron Mann. In English with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

Once the cen­ter of the New York bohe­mia, Greenwich Village is now home to lux restau­rants, and buz­zer door clot­hing stores cate­ring to the nou­veau riche. But one shop in the heart of the Village remains resi­li­ent to the encroa­ching gen­tri­fi­ca­ti­on: Carmine Street Guitars.

There, cus­tom gui­tar maker Rick Kelly and his young app­ren­ti­ce Cindy Hulej, build hand­craf­ted gui­tars out of reclai­med wood from old hotels, bars, churches and other local buil­dings. Nothing looks or sounds quite like a Rick Kelly gui­tar, which is the reason they are embra­ced by the likes of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Jim Jarmusch, just to name a few.

Featuring a cast of pro­mi­nent musi­ci­ans and artists, and some vir­tuo­so per­for­man­ces, the film cap­tures five days in the life of one shop in the heart of Greenwich Village that remains resi­li­ent to the all-too-quick­ly vanis­hing way of life.

This film is dedi­ca­ted to Jonathan Demme.

[nbsp]

Credits:

USA 2018, 81 Min., engl. OmU
Regie: Ron Mann
Buch: Len Blum
Kamera: Becky Parsons, John M. Tran
Schnitt: Robert Kennedy 

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]
Trailer: