IN 2022, D: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, A: Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn, Shantanu Maheshwari, 157’, original with english subtitles, DCP
GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI tells of a woman who, in childhood, was sold to work as a sex worker in the red light district of Kamathipura during the 1950ies. Thereby, Gangubai is forced to assert herself – as a human in a ruthless job, as a woman in a misogynistic society and eventually, as a political player who fights against a religiously shaped elite that deprives her of her right to exist.
It is a film full of abundant, sensual stimuli, genre citations and Bolly-wood emotionalism. The obligatory musical sequences are used to contrastingly narrate relationships and feelings of the figures. Even though Alia Bhatts’ depiction of Gangubai does not partake of subtlety, she still performs the heroine with big sway and as much complexity as the form allows.
| Thu 14. Sept | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 9:30 PM | € 6,5 (5,5 reduced) |
BR/PT 2023, D: João Salaviza, Renée Nader Messora, A: Ilda Patpro Krahô, Francisco Hỳjnõ Krahô, Solane Tehtikwỳj Krahô, 124’, original with english subtitles, DCP
The film centres on the relationship between a mother and her daughter: we see the mother living in the village and doing her daily chores in strolling images – she becomes more and more convinced that a person from the community should represent them at a big conference for indigenous rights in Brasilia. She is worried about her daughter because she cannot sleep and has visions in her dreams that she cannot decipher. As “embedded filmmakers”, the director duo João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora lived and worked collaboratively with the indigenous Krahô community for over 15 months. From the perspective of the Krahô, the film tells with lyrical beauty about their lives, rituals, memories and dreams – and about their resistance.
| Thu 14. Sept | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 7 PM | € 6,5 (5,5 reduced) |
AT/DE 2023, D: Selma Doborac, A: Christoph Bach, Cornelius Obonya, 130’, OmeU, DCP
How can cinema engage with complicity in crimes against humanity and extreme violence without conniving in it? DE FACTO finds answers to these questions in a meticulously directed play of two actors, a precisely compiled film script and a deliberately reduced setting. In long and static shots and separately from each other, two actors present texts that refer to concrete forms of dehumanisation and to the perpetration that goes with it. They are based on facts and are presented by the two characters – In the form of court transcripts, perpetrator statements and reports on everyday events.
| Wed 13. Sept | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 8 PM | € 6,5 (5,5 reduced) |
Carte blanche | CINEMA ARMATA
AS I WAS LOOKING ABOVE, I COULD SEE MYSELF UNDERNEATH
CH/XK 2022, D: Ilir Hasanaj, Doc, 62’, OV with english subtitles, DCP
The film depicts the stories of seven Kosovan LGBTQIA+-people from different backgrounds and generations. In their own words, and for the first time in a Kosovan film with their real names, voices and faces, they tell of the discoveries of being queer and their lives in an environment of non-acceptance and exclusion. It is about hopes and dreams, about loss and defeat and about the meaning of home. The contrasts between the stories of the younger and older protagonists reflect the social changes that Kosovo has undergone from the 90ies before the war up to the first Pride parade at Prishtina in 2017.
Di 12. Sept | CINEMA ARMATA Luru Kino in der Spinnerei |
| 7 PM | In the presence of Ilir Hasanaj € 6,5 (5,5 reduced) |
Retrospective | ANIMAL REALITIES
PRIMATE
US 1974, D: Frederick Wiseman, Doc, 105’, English OV, 16mm
Like so often, in PRIMATE, US documentarian Frederick Wiseman enters an institution to depict it in a sensual and less didactic way to the public with his observing methods: he enters Yerkes Primate Research Center for primate research. Wiseman is especially interested in the experimental procedures, less in the individual perspectives of the people working there. Its concentrated gazes upon animal experiments puts many a person to the test. “A mixture of horror- and science-fiction-film, in which a group of primates asserts their power over another group of primates.” (Hannes Brühwiler)
Tue 12. Sept | ANIMAL REALITIES Luru Kino in der Spinnerei |
| 9 PM | € 6,5 (5,5 reduced) |
