ES 2019, D: Silvia Navarro, Miguel G. Morales, Doc, 63’, Orig. with Eng. subs, DCP

This documentary essay reflects the creation of the myth of the Guanches, indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands, and the history of Spanish domination over the territory up to the Franco dictatorship. Between the 1940s and 70s, anthropologist Luis Diego Cuscoy tracked down Guanche cultural remains and documented it on film and tape. Complemented by further material, these recordings prove to be an effective instrument for a reinterpretation of the present. The depth of the editing work generates a compelling effect, shifting between legend and history, imagination and testimony, representation and spontaneity. Grand Prize for the best film at IndieLisboa Festival 2019.

supported by the embassy of Spain in Berlin

ES 2019, D: Nuria Giménez, C: Ilse Ringier, Frank Lorang, 72’, Orig. with Eng. subs, DCP

“Lies are just another way of telling the truth”. This ambiguous quote initiates the extraordinary archeological work on a story that Nuria Giménez carries out in her first feature-length film, driven forward by imagination. A 20-year-long marriage is told based on Vivian Barrett’s diary, which can be read in the subtitles, complemented by 16mm colour pictures by her husband Léon, which underpin, contradict and hypnotise. MY MEXICAN BRETZEL plays with narratives, the authenticity of images, their decontextualisation and their reinterpretation, on the receptive level of spectators and that of the protagonists.

supported by the embassy of Spain in Berlin

ES 2019, D: Eloy Enciso, C: Misha Bies Golas, Nuria Lestegás, Celsa Araújo, 90’, Orig. with Eng. subs, DCP

In a small town in Galicia, a political prisoner returns after the civil war. His encounters along the way make him aware of the Franco regime that has taken hold of everyone. The night in the title is the refuge and nightmare of the persecuted, as well as the natural environment of ghosts through whom the past gains access. The drama does not emerge from acting or staging, but from the structure itself: supported by increasingly urgent texts – first theatrical dialogues, then testimonies of exiled authors and finally letters from people sentenced to death – the luminous night photography of Mauro Herce and the defencelessness of the protagonist.

supported by the embassy of Spain in Berlin

SY/LB 2015, D: Sara Fattahi, Doc, 98’, Orig. with Eng. subs, DCP

Bright daylight penetrates into the darkened rooms oft he spacious city apartment only here and there. A shadowy microcosm of war-torn Damascus, atmospherically captured by the camera, is the setting for a drama affecting society as a whole as well as private life. Three women of three different generations live here: grandmother, mother and Sara, the filmmaker, who has created an experimental “home movie“ with COMA. While the war is raging outside – constantly conveyed by the running television or radio – the family members fight battles with themselves but also with one another.

AT/SY/LB 2018, D: Sara Fattahi, C: Raja, Heba, Jaschka, Doc, 95’, Orig. with Eng. subs, DCP

Enriched with fictional elements, this documentary film portrays three women and her inner “states of war“. One of them left Damascus, another one is still there: As a kind of parallel countermovement we observe an older woman arraging the room for an ever absentee, as if he could return anytime. Both of the women portrayed have experienced loss, both a spatial and an inner isolation are palpable. While the latter one looks out the window of her apartment, we can hear the detonation of bombs in the distance. In Vienna finally, the camera follows a third woman whose identity remains enigmatic.