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.

UK/TH 2019, D: Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong, C: Siraphun Wattanajinda, Arak Amornsupasiri, Primrin Puarat, 93’, Orig. with Eng. subs, DCP

According to the Buddhist calendar, 2562 is they year of the films’ making, 2019. KRABI, 2562, the first collaborative work of Anocha Suwichakornpong and Ben Rivers, explores landscapes, mythology and stories of the local community of Krabi, a tourist hotspot in southern Thailand. We encounter a film crew shooting a quirky commercial and learn of a phallic fertility shrine assisting one’s wish for a child. Seamlessly shifting between documentary and fictional modes, the question of what is real is of minor importance: in the end, all is cinema. A playful, shimmering, quicksilverish séance.