Code of Survival

Code of Survival

A film by Bertram Verhaag.In ger­man language.

The film opens with far­mers in the USA. Here, every year, the fields are spray­ed with mil­li­ons of ton­nes of “Roundup”, a pesti­ci­de who­se main acti­ve ingre­di­ent is the che­mi­cal gly­pho­sa­te. Multinational che­mi­cal com­pa­nies mar­ket Roundup for use with plants which are gene­ti­cal­ly modi­fied to be resistant to it. The idea is that far­mers can app­ly the poi­son to lar­ge swa­thes of farm­land, kil­ling ever­y­thing except their crop. But this wea­pon is losing its power. Nature is crea­ting gly­pho­sa­te-resistant weeds which spread at a bibli­cal rate and grow incre­di­bly fast – allo­wing them to quick­ly over­power and kill the crops. We meet far­mers who’ve been dri­ven to despe­ra­ti­on. No lon­ger able to con­trol the­se “super­weeds”, they have no choice but to aban­don huge are­as of good-qua­li­ty farm­land – losing their liveli­hoods in the process.

The film explo­res poi­sons such as Roundup and the ways in which they have see­ped into our lives: alt­hough Germany is vir­tual­ly GM-free, gly­pho­sa­te can now be detec­ted in all of our bodies. Using powerful images, the film explains how the lar­ge-sca­le appli­ca­ti­on of poi­son is des­troy­ing soil bio­lo­gy, caus­ing a glo­bal drop in soil fertility.

Deutschland 2017, 95 Min.
Regie: Bertram Verhaag
Kamera: Waldemar Hauschild, Gerald Fritzen
Schnitt: Hauke von Stietencron, Corinna Lösel, Melanie Singer, Verena Schönauer

Ich wünsche Dir ein schönes Leben

A film by Ounie Lecomte, In french with ger­man subtitles.

Elisa, phy­sio­the­ra­pist, went to live with her young son, Noé, in Dunkirk, the town whe­re she was born under X. A few months ear­lier, she began rese­ar­ching her bio­lo­gi­cal mother, but the woman refu­sed to reve­al her iden­ti­ty. In search of an unknown mother, her past and their histo­ry, Elisa did not give up and wants to under­stand as luck will chan­ge their expectations …

Je vous sou­hai­te d’êt­re fol­le­ment aimée
Frankreich 2015, frz. OmU,  100 Min.
Regie: Ounie Lecomte
Buch: Ounie Lecomte, Agnès de Sacy
Kamera: Caroline Champetier
Darsteller: Céline Sallette, Anne Benoit, Elyes Aguis, Françoise Lebrun, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Pascal Elso, Micha Lescot, Catherine Mouchet

Deportation Class

A Film by Carsten Rau & Hauke Wendler. In ger­man and alba­ni­an with ger­man subtitles.

They come in the night, tear fami­lies from their sleep, give them just enough time to pack and put them on a pla­ne: this is the role of the so-cal­led ‚trans­por­ta­ti­on com­man­dos‘ com­pri­sing poli­ce offi­cers and immi­gra­ti­on offi­ci­als. Last year, over 22,000 fai­led asyl­um see­kers were depor­ted from Germany. The docu­men­ta­ry DEPORTATION CLASS pres­ents a com­pre­hen­si­ve view of this sta­te enforce­ment mea­su­re for the first time: from detail­ed plan­ning in the office to night-time ope­ra­ti­ons at asyl­um see­ker accom­mo­da­ti­on blocks and the arri­val of asyl­um see­kers back in their respec­ti­ve home­lands – and the ques­ti­on of what awaits them the­re. Following exten­si­ve rese­arch, the film crew led by Carsten Rau and Hauke Wendler were pre­sent at a coll­ec­ti­ve depor­ta­ti­on in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A pro­ject favou­red by Interior Minister Lorenz Caffier who was pre­sent in per­son at the depor­ta­ti­ons. Haunting, moving images unli­ke any­thing seen befo­re, repea­ted week after week as hundreds of asyl­um see­kers are flown out, most­ly to the Balkans. Two years ago, Rau and Wendler docu­men­ted how Germany reac­ted to the­se new arri­vals in their hit film ‚Willkommen auf Deutsch‘. With DEPORTATION CLASS, they show whe­re things lead as the mood shifts against the refu­gees. As more and more count­ries are declared to be ‚safe count­ries of ori­gin‘ and basic rights are rest­ric­ted. The film depicts the­se ‚retur­nees‘ as peo­p­le with digni­ty and their own opinions.

 

D 2016, 85 Min.
deutsch-alba­ni­sche OmU

Regie: Carsten Rau, Hauke Wendler

Kamera: Boris Mahlau
Schnitt: Sigrid Sveistrup

6 Jahre, 7 Monate und 16 Tage Die Morde des NSU

A film by Sobo Swobodnik. 20.,21. +  28. May at the fsk. In ger­man language.

In the space of 6 years, 7 months and 16 days, the National Socialist Underground (NSU) mur­de­red nine migrants and a German poli­ce offi­cer wit­hout being stop­ped. Sobo Swobodnik’s black and white film essay acts as an audio­vi­su­al memo­ri­al to the victims.

 

Deutschland 2016, 73 Min.
Regie, Kamera & Buch: Sobo Swobodnik
Schnitt: Manuel Stettner.

Loving

A Jeff Nichols film. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles

Mildred and Richard Loving were arres­ted in 1958 for the crime of get­ting mar­ried. According to the sta­te of Virginia, she was „colo­red,” he was „white,” and their mar­ria­ge was ille­gal. Both were sen­ten­ced to a year in pri­son — a sen­tence that was only sus­pen­ded on the con­di­ti­on that they lea­ve Virginia. The cou­ple fought that judgment befo­re the US Supreme Court, which ulti­m­ate­ly ruled in their favour, brin­ging an end to Virginia’s anti-mis­ce­genati­on laws. This inspi­ring film from Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter) tells Mildred and Richard’s sto­ry of romance and inju­s­ti­ce with ten­der­ness and wisdom.

The Civil Rights move­ment is still in its infan­cy when Richard (Joel Edgerton), a con­s­truc­tion worker, pro­po­ses to Mildred (Ruth Negga) on the same Virginia acreage whe­re he plans to build their home. It should be the begin­ning of a blissful peri­od, but trou­ble is alre­a­dy bre­wing. Someone informs the aut­ho­ri­ties of Richard and Mildred’s uni­on. It is not long befo­re poli­ce break down the cou­ple’s door and drag them off to the coun­ty jail. They face this indi­gni­ty with stoi­cism, but the worst is yet to come.

Edgerton is taci­turn but vul­nerable, using body lan­guage to trans­mit both fero­cious love and righ­teous outra­ge. Negga is not­hing less than a reve­la­ti­on, con­vey­ing tur­bu­lent emo­ti­ons with a glan­ce. The subt­le power of the­se per­for­man­ces is heigh­ten­ed by Nichols‘ refu­sal to redu­ce his sto­ry to spee­ches and high dra­ma. In kee­ping with David Wingo’s sombre score, Nichols does­n’t push sen­ti­ment. He allows his cha­rac­ters‘ sto­ry to steep for grea­ter resonance.

Loving does not revi­sit histo­ry mere­ly to flat­ter the pre­sent. Rather, it reco­gni­zes how far we’­ve come while impli­cit­ly remin­ding us how far we still have to go.

USA 2016, 123 Min., engl. OmU

Regie & Buch: Jeff Nichols
Kamera: Adam Stone 
Schnitt: Julie Monroe

mit: Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga, Michael Shannon, Marton Csokas

Zwischen den Stühlen

Zwischen den Stühlen

A film by Jakob Schmidt.. In ger­man language.

The main­ly theo­re­tic uni­ver­si­ty tea­cher trai­ning has for deca­des been fol­lo­wed with bureau­cra­tic regu­la­ri­ty by two years of stu­dent tea­ching, the prac­ti­cal part of the trai­ning. It’s com­pa­ra­ble to a leap into icy water when pro­s­pec­ti­ve tea­chers work for two years in the field of ten­si­on bet­ween gra­ding and being gra­ded. They must edu­ca­te and are edu­ca­ted them­sel­ves. From day one they are forced to play con­flic­ting roles. It’s a per­ma­nent test, always caught bet­ween two stools.

Student tea­chers must disci­pli­ne clas­ses and be disci­pli­ned by their tutors. They must dis­tri­bu­te gra­des while they panic befo­re their own test les­sons. And they are always both stu­dent and tea­cher. Some start out with idea­lism and pas­si­on, others for lack of alter­na­ti­ves, others see them­sel­ves as future pro­fes­sio­nals in solid employ­ment. Step by step they beco­me – wil­ly-nil­ly – the repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of a sys­tem that has shaped each of us. “To Be a Teacher” fol­lows three very dif­fe­rent cha­rac­ters on this ten­si­on-fil­led path.
Ralph Eue

D 2016, 102 Min. 
Regie und Buch: Jakob Schmidt 
Kamera: David Schittek, Evgeny Revvo, Jakob Schmidt 
Schnitt: Julia Wiedwald

filmPOLSKA 2017

The twewth edi­ti­on of the polish Film Festival in Berlin takes place  from Mai 4th – Mai10th. Some films are shown with ger­man subtitles.

Films at the fsk:

 

 

 

Das Ende ist erst der Anfang

A Bouli Lanners film. in french with ger­man subtitles.

Esther and Willy are han­di­cap­ped. And in love. And on the run. Perhaps from Gilou and Colise, two bur­ly, beard­ed snoo­pers in the van who are try­ing to get a fix on Willy’s mobi­le pho­ne? Or from the man who calls hims­elf Jesus and has the stig­ma­ta on his hands to pro­ve it? Or from the men from a near­by warehouse who are sear­ching for the per­pe­tra­tor who has vio­la­ted the wife of their boss? And who is the mum­my in the slee­ping bag? Set in a spar­se European land­scape dis­sec­ted by elec­tri­ci­ty pylons and roads, Belgian direc­tor Bouli Lanners’ film is a weird­ly beau­tiful­ly late wes­tern in which roughnecks show their soft side and the fact that two peo­p­le belong tog­e­ther is sym­bo­li­sed by their wea­ring of high-vis jackets. Terseness meets love, vio­lence meets faith. Michael Lonsdale cul­ti­va­tes orchi­ds and the incom­pa­ra­ble Max von Sydow as a priest sings a fare­well song to a corp­se. Lanners, who also plays a lea­ding role, directs with a talent for sur­pri­se and exci­te­ment. The film hides clues about the plot in buil­dings, cars and in the dia­lo­gue. And anyo­ne who thinks they have figu­red out the sto­ry after five minu­tes is wrong.

OT: Les pre­miers, les derniers
Frankreich/Belgien 2016, 98 Min., 
Regie, Buch: Bouli Lanners
Kamera: Jean-Paul de Zaeytijd
Schnitt: Ewin Ryckaert
Darsteller
Albert Dupontel, Bouli Lanners, Suzanne Clément, Michael Lonsdale, David Murgia, Aurore Broutin, Philippe Rebbot

The First the Last / Les Premiers les Derniers (2016) – Trailer (English Subs)

on screen with ger­man subtitles

Ein Tag wie kein anderer

A film by Asaph Polonsky. In hebrew with ger­man subtitles.

When Eyal com­ple­tes the tra­di­tio­nal Jewish week of mour­ning for his late son, his wife urges him to return to their dai­ly rou­ti­ne. Instead, he gets high with a young neigh­bour and sets out to dis­co­ver that the­re are still things in his life worth living for.

Shavua ve Yom, Israel 2016, 98 Min., hebr. OmU
Regie & Buch: Asaph Polonsky
Kamera: Moshe Mishali
Schnitt: Tali Helter-Shenkar
Darsteller:
Uri Gavriel, Tomer Kapon, Shai Avivi, Jenya Dodina, Sharon Alexander, Carmit Mesilati Kaplan

EIN TAG WIE KEIN ANDERER – Teaser

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht

A film by Romuald Karmakar.
In ger­man and french with ger­man sub­tit­les. Some scree­ning with eng­lish subtitles.

For DJ Roman Flügel his work is ever­y­thing and some­thing that he would never com­pro­mi­se. Romuald Karmakar’s new docu­men­ta­ry takes a look at five pio­neers of elec­tro­nic music for whom work is their rai­son d’etre. The film com­men­ces with a still life of elec­tro­nic equip­ment in which we find our­sel­ves loo­king for seve­ral minu­tes at a wide shot of cables, con­so­les, ampli­fiers, key­boards and ‘con­trol­lers’ as Ricardo Villalobos – who was the sub­ject of Karmakar’s 2009 film – will later call the flas­hing switch­boards in the back­ground. In bet­ween elo­quent thoughts from the musi­ci­ans in inter­views, quiet obser­va­tions of them at work at their DJ home, and images of swea­ting mas­ses at raves, a sel­ec­ti­ve image gra­du­al­ly and very quiet­ly emer­ges of a music sce­ne in tran­si­ti­on. Ata descri­bes the cur­rent music sce­ne as a vast, den­se­ly woven car­pet, the end of which is out of sight. It is a sce­ne which, sin­ce the 1990s has dif­fe­ren­tia­ted and evol­ved into some­thing far more com­plex and hard to grasp. Karmakar does not attempt to pro­vi­de a seam­less his­to­ri­cal sur­vey, rather he allows his images and his prot­ago­nists to speak for themselves.

 

Deutschland 2017, 100 Min.
Regie: Romuald Karmakar
Kamera: Frank Griebe
Schnitt: Robert Thomann, Anne Fabini
mit: Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata, Roman Flügel, David Moufang/Move D