Bruno Sukrow, who called himself a “film tinkerer” throughout his life, was born in Berlin in 1927 and died earlier this year at the age of 94. Originally trained as a machinist, he switched to being a film amateur at the age of 82 – from then on, he created a remarkable oeuvre on his home computer. In them, Sukrow created a new world for himself, completely steeped in his personal preferences, whose quirky second-life-aesthetics are full of heroes, monsters, plot twists and jokes that run into the void. The films following this approach were initially thought for a family context – no one dared to dream that his private, computerised auteur cinema would make it to the International Film Festival of Rotterdam.
SATURNUS is the planet promising eternal life. Astronauts set out in a space shuttle to rescue the last survivors of an earlier expedition. Accompanied by ambient music, they stumble across the planet that Sukrow has filled with all kinds of fantasy creatures. The decelerated mystery thriller MARTINS FEUER is situated in a British small town. A psychiatrist is shot, Martin was his last patient. The police begins to look behind the curtains of the single-family homes. VERGISSMEINNICHT concludes the triple: small town plus aliens. Tulip-Toni becomes entangled in a romance and is contacted by an UFO – the animations here are more filigree, the soundscape more organic. You can tell that Bruno Sukrow has been tinkering for several years.
| Sa 17 Sept | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 7 pm | With an introduction by Alexander Klotz regular: 6,5€ / reduced 5,5€ |
SATURNUS
DE 2011, R: Bruno Sukrow, 30′, OmeU, DCP
MARTINS FEUER
DE 2013, R: Bruno Sukrow, 44′, OmeU, DCP
VERGISSMEINNICHT
DE 2021, R: Robert Sukrow, 18′, OmeU, DCP
ES/FR/TR 2021, D: Chema García Ibarra, A: Llum Arques, Nacho Fernández, Rocío Ibáñez, 97’, OV with English subtitles, DCP
In the Spanish town of Elche, the girl Vanessa has disappeared without a trace. While the mother Charo asks for help on local news channels or from the grandmother Carmina, who was once a well-known clairvoyant, we see Vanessa’s uncle José Manuel with his ufology group. After the sudden death of their leader, he plans to carry out his hair-brained master plan himself. Chema García Ibarra’s feature debut THE SACRED SPIRIT was shot on 16mm with amateur actors from the area. There is an eerie, calm atmosphere in the scenes, which repeatedly slips into the bizarre. The entire village seems almost statuesque, which is further exaggerated by the clear, colorful and detailed imagery: Perfectly squared images make places, people and situations seem tragicomically staged like short plays. In THE SACRED SPIRIT, Ibarra confronts a disturbing story with an amused but also reckoning tonality that triggers a glimmering unease in us.
| Fri 16 Sept | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 10 pm | regular: 6,5€ / reduced 5,5€ |
FR/IN 2021, D: Payal Kapadia, Doc, 96′, OV with English subtitles, DCP
“Eisenstein, Pudovkin! We shall fight, we shall win!” students of the state film academy of Pune are chanting – their demonstration is directed against the designation of a right-wing, conservative actor as a new faculty director. Resistance has built up because of the policy of the Hindu-nationalist governing party BJP, which systematically degrades religious minorities, women and Dalits. Director Payal Kapadia depicts these conflicts also from the perspective of the lover L., who gets a hold of her lover – who belongs to another caste – only by letters. Beside the longing messages from L., mostly monochrome, self-shot images manifest themselves, which are poetically entangled with material of TV reports and surveillance cameras.
| Fri 16 Sept | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 8 pm | regular: 6,5€ / reduced 5,5€ |
GER 1977, D: Helga Reidemeister, Eduard Gernart, in collaboration with the Bruder Family, Doc, 84′, OV with English subtitles, DCP
Irene and Günter Bruder are living with their four children at Märkisches Viertel, a Berlin new buildings district with 17.000 apartment units built for up to 50.000 people. The members of the family reveal their everyday life: their housekeeping with them sometimes compulsively keeping things clean, cooking, going to work. They are dealing with numerous conflicts in front of the camera and talk to Reidemeister about difficulties and anxieties, like passing on their social status to the next generation. The fifth and oldest child Michael, who has been consigned to a reformatory hell years ago, also gets a chance to speak. The Bruder family, which Reidemeister got to know in the context of her neighbourhood and social work, were actively involved in the creation of the film.
| Thu 15 Sept | Luru Kino in der Spinnerei |
| 9 pm | With an introduction by Madeleine Bernstorff regular: 6,5€ / reduced 5,5€ Double ticket with ES STIRBT ALLERDINGS EIN JEDER…. (HOLGER MEINS) & FILMTAGEBÜCHER 1975 – 1985 € 11 / 9€ red. |
WE ALL DIE, THE MAIN THING HOWEVER IS HOW AND HOW WE LIVE OUR LIVES (HOLGER MEINS)
GER 1976, D: Renate Sami, 51′, German OV, 16mm
FILM DIARIES 1975-1985 (FORAYS)
GER 2005, D: Renate Sami, 32′, German OV, MiniDV
In her first work as a director WE ALL DIE…, Renate Sami interviews companions of Holger Meins (1941-1974), who studied and worked with him at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb). The stories of his fellow students compose a picture of a man who radically tried to combine aesthetic and political concerns, and ultimately saw no possibilities anymore to accomplish his political goals with the means of film. In the case of FILM DIARIES 1975-1985 – silently shot on Super8 – Sami entangles highly diverse portraits of friends and places to a poetic and private study.
| Tue 15 Sept | Luru Kino in der Spinnerei |
| 7 pm | regular: 6,5€ / reduced 5,5€ Double ticket with DER GEKAUFTE TRAUM € 11 / 9€ red. |
