In an insightful and simply captivating interview, director Truong Minh Quý examines his latest short film THE MEN WHO WAIT (original title: “Les Attendants”), which parallels two storylines that seem to be completely disconnected from each other at first, yet gradually fuse together as the film progresses. This film is a raw, emotionally arresting account of two parallel desires: the need for sexual encounters and the need for a home. Shot entirely on analogue film, the intimacy translated seamlessly through camerawork.
Today’s ReScreenings:
ESQUI, Director: Manque La Banca, Argentina / Brasil, 2021 21:30h, Silent Green
On the fifth day of the Berlinale special edition, we had the pleasure of “interrogating” director Yana Ugrekhelidze about her recent feature film INSTRUCTIONS FOR SURVIVAL. In an insightful interview, she presents the story centred around a couple whose lives are a constant battle yet decide to stick together against all odds.
Director Ronny Trocker’s second feature film, HUMAN FACTORS (original title: “Der menschliche Faktor”) is a subtle family drama that smoothly transitions between different perspectives of an event. It circles around the microcosm of family and questions our perception of reality and how we experience it. A must-see feature that keeps you on the edge of the seat.
“Who are you?” – “The queen of punks, in the land of pain in the ass.” Seven girls live under the same roof but haven’t chosen each other, just like a family. Emerging from difficult backgrounds, here in the safe house, the girls find a new community, in a way they’d never experienced before. They are sharing joy and pain, passionately rebel against the shortcomings of their surrounding – the young women’s temperaments are different, their lust for life large, their place in society too precarious for things to be all peace, love and harmony. Home director Lora is always there for them when they need her. Or is it the other way around?
Resembling a rediscovered film reel from the early days of cinema, Conrad Veit and Charlotte Maria Kätzl’s short film imagines a utopia where any and all life forms are equal. The experimental documentary defies the socially constructed binary classification of male and female and challenges the viewer to question the boundaries between humans and animals. This one is not to be missed!
Our final interview of today catches director Peter Hoar introducing the British series IT’S A SIN in a lovely talk with Zsombor. Created by the legendary BAFTA winner Russell T Davies, the series deals with the AIDS crisis in Great Britain in the early 1980s, a topic still so enormously relevant today.
TEDDY veteran Livia Huang joins us today, on the third day of the Berlinale Summer Special, to introduce her latest short film MORE HAPPINESS. Drawing upon her own family’s experiences as immigrants in the US, the film offers a touching insight into the challenges and isolation people are faced with when they don’t feel part of a community.
The Berlinale Summer Special has finally arrived and what better time to celebrate our wonderful LGBTQ+ films and artists than during pride month! Starting today and running until the 20th of June 2021, all films nominated for a TEDDY 2021 will be screened in open-air cinemas around Berlin!
Breaking the ice on the first day of festival is the feature BLISS (original title: GLÜCK) directed by the wonderful Henrika Kull! Shot in a real brothel, the film breaks down the negative stereotypes and stigma associated with sex work through the passionate relationship of two female sex workers. More details about the film and other screening dates can be found on our BLOG. Watch the full interview with Henrika Kull here:
We just can’t get enough of this buzzing festival atmosphere that was so dearly missed! Screening today is a delightful short film directed by Diogo Costa Amarante: A PRESENT LIGHT (original title: “Luz de Presença”). Save the dates: 09.06. / 21:45 / Freiluftkino Hasenheide 10.06. / 21:45 / Freiluftkino im Filmrauschpalast Don’t miss out on the other screenings taking place today on our BLOG .Catch Amarante discussing his idea for the film on Vimeo:
Diogo Costa Amarante in conversation with Jan-Felix Wuttig
Over the course of two days and one night, as Lisa moves out of the apartment she has shared with Mara and into the one where she will live alone, many things will break and some will be repaired. Like the titular spider’s web, the film has a perfect, fragile geometry. Set almost entirely in interiors, it is also an involuntary summary of the paradoxical age of the pandemic. The transition from one abode to another, and the energy that is released between one story ending and another beginning, puts the entire ensemble into an altered state of grace. …read more
“They say when you get goosebumps, your soul touches your body.”
It‘s Masha, Iana and Senia‘s last but one year of high school. Among the thriving pot plants in the classroom and to the sound effects of a Biology lesson about physical signs of stress, the young protagonists grapple with themselves and with one another. 16-year-old Masha is the quiet center of Kateryna Gornostai’s feature debut. …read more
