AR/BE/ET/DE 2023, D: Edmundo Bejarano, A: Elijah Reid, Kalkidan Abiy, 85′, OV with English subtitles, DCP
A young jazz musician roams the night-time slums of Addis Ababa with his guitar. Michael has agreed to move back to Brussels in three days to live with his mother and sister. Even though he hates Europe. There are only a few moments to say goodbye: during a jam session and extended caresses in bed, in a bumper car ride. Mulatu Astatke, the godfather of Ethiopian jazz, makes a guest appearance and is otherwise omnipresent. It rains frequently, neon lights phosphoresce in the night, Michael dances one last time as a Michael Jackson lookalike. South Americans Edmundo Bejarano and Carlos Vargas met in Berlin years ago and made this wonderfully unagitated film on a small budget on their adopted home continent of Africa. A melancholy film about rootlessness.
| Fri 6 Sept | UT Connewitz |
| 6 pm | € 7 (6 reduced) |
AT/DE 2023, D: Martha Mechow, A: Selma Juana Schulte-Frohlinde, Ann Göbel, Joseph Löcker, 100′, OV with English subtitles, DCP
In a living room, the mother of little sisters Flippa and Furia is swallowed up by her sofa. She abandons her domestic duties and leaves the children behind. Years later, Flippa flies to Sardinia to meet Furia, whom she has not seen for a long time – she lives there in a women’s commune surrounded by nature. There, they raise children without men, organise spontaneous village parties and commit petty thefts.
Martha Mechow’s debut film is rebellious, playful and very funny. From biting readings of Jane Austen, chainsaws that cut the baby Jesus from a statue of the Virgin Mary and materialistic views on the oppression of women to a camera that moves curiously and a rhythmic editing. A film that inspires hope.
| Thu 5 Sept | UT Connewitz |
| 9 pm | On 5.9. in the presence of Martha Mechow € 7 (6 reduced) |
Opening film
AR/DE/CH 2024, D: Lola Arias, A: Noelia Pérez, Estefanía Hardcastle, Paula Asturayme, 82’, OV with English subtitles, DCP
A hybrid of documentary and fiction, first-hand storytelling and musical, REAS opens up a view into the Caseros women’s prison in Buenos Aires. There, women and trans people reconstruct their prison experiences. Former inmates themselves become performers, telling stories, singing and dancing. Yoseli is singing about her wanderlust while airport security pulls a drug parcel out of her suitcase. The story follows Yoseli to Caseros. Harassment and experiences of violence characterise her (non-)arrival, as do romantic love and her attempts to temporarily free herself. In REAS, capturing freedom in prison means expanding the imagination, affirming deviation from the norm. Along the bars, people are voguing and jamming.
In the presence of Lola Arias
| Thu 5 Sept | UT Connewitz |
| 7 pm | € 7 (6 reduced) |
Polyester US 1981, R./D.: John Waters, K: David Insley, M: Charles Roggero, D: Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Samson, Ken King, Mink Stole, 35mm, engl. OV
The “American Dream” in a dripping wet headlock of AA meetings and fetishes, depression and glue sniffing, religious double standards and a dysfunctional family. Mother and housewife Francine Fishpaw (Divine) is faced with the ruins of her middle-class idyll: husband Elmer (David Samson) turns out to be a wannabe playboy and secretly runs a porn movie theater. The children also indulge in their hedonism; son Dexter, for example, becomes a criminal because of his obsession with feet. Francine takes refuge in alcohol until the real savior, super-hunk Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter), appears on the horizon. “Polyester” is not only the “Filth Maestro’s” first studio production, it also marks Waters’ turn towards established forms of cinema. In terms of narrative and visuals, he seeks to engage with Hollywood melodramas in the style of Douglas Sirk. The humor remains tasteless as usual.
Hairspray US 1988, R./D.: John Waters, K: David Insley; M: Kenny Vance; D: Ricki Lake, Divine, Debbie Harry, Vitamin C, Sonny Bono, Leslie Ann Powers, Ruth Brown, Jerry Stiller, 35mm, OmdU
Waters and his muse Divine love the exalted colors, fashions, gags and characters of the classic Hollywood musical. The “camp” that this shrill world of lived dreams contains. They take it all up, but turn it into something different, something queer: their retro musical, which was to remain Divine’s last appearance, is eye-candy like the classics, but also a critique of puritanism, racism and the body standardization of the post-war decades in the USA. And it is the first film in which Waters enters the mainstream – despite the clear Baltimore underground spirit.
Fr 05. Juli | John Waters double Feature LuRu Kino in der Spinnerei 14 Euro for combination ticket. |
| 7 pm | Polyester (US 1981 engl. OV, 35mm) € 8 (7 reduced) |
| 9 pm | Hairspray (US 1988 engl. Original with subs, 35mm) € 8 (7 reduced) |
