Fiction Film
In this section, the short or full-length feature films tell the stories that are important to up-and-coming filmmakers from all around the world. The films draw their inspiration from current trends in filmmaking being either poignantly funny or epic in scope. In this section the prizes for Best Feature Film and Best Short Film are awarded.
Feature Film
Germany, Spain | 2022 | Feature Film | 94 Min. | German, English, Spanish (English Subtitles)
Bruno and Toni are partners in crime. While in Spain, the two emigrants make a living with occasional jobs. Between financial hardship and emotional dependence, conflicts threaten their unusual symbiotic relationship.
Director:André SzardeningsScreenplay:André Szardenings
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Feature Film | 61 Min. | German
A confession, an argument and five minutes later Charly is standing alone on a highway. With no direction, no money and her cell phone battery is also empty. In search of a charger, she stumbles through the night from one encounter to the next and incidentally finds herself.
Due to technical difficulties, “Charly” can only be screened in its original German language without English subtitles. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Director:Alisa KolosovaProducer:Luisa BeuschleinScreenplay:Zoe Hagen
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 51 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
In an evangelical parish on the outskirts of Berlin, a self-proclaimed priest gathers those who find no place in society. But even among those forgotten, the disparate Egon finds no connection – and yet he feels the light of the world.
Directors:David Vajda, Saša VajdaProducer:David Vajda
Screenings:
Italy | 2021 | Feature Film | 90 Min. | Italian (English Subtitles)
When Lia moves into the long-abandoned house next door, Giulio is hooked. Her aloof, sullen manner fascinates and confuses him. But her greatest secret seems to be concealed in the old villa at the other end of the garden. A coming-of-age drama about relationships, commitments and first love.
Director:Beatrice BaldacciScreenplay:Beatrice Baldacci, Edoardo Puma
Screenings:
Austria, Germany | 2022 | Feature Film | 77 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
For several days, Jasmin and Lee are accompanied by filmmaker Amira. Through intimate daily interviews, their relationship to each other becomes increasingly clear. With a pared-down directness, a portrait of contemporary dating and relationship life is drawn.
Director:Elena WolffProducer:Julia WindischbauerScreenplay:Elena Wolff
Screenings:
Short Film
China, Hong Kong, Singapore | 2021 | Short Film | 22 Min. | Mandarin (English Subtitles)
The young mother Lili flees from the countryside to the city to support her family financially. There, however, she falls into the clutches of a surrogacy agency and directly finds herself in another desperate situation. Within the oppressive building complex, Lili searches for security and independence.
Director:Jing ZouScreenplay:Jing Zou
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 10 Min. | Arabic (English Subtitles)
In a claustrophobic chamber play, the filmmaker processes his own experiences in a Syrian prison. Sealed off from the outside world for a long time, the prisoners memorize the phone numbers of the other families in order to escape dehumanisation.
Director:Daood AlabdulaaProducer:Lara Miléna BroseScreenplay:Daood Alabdulaa
Screenings:
United Kingdom, Netherlands, Switzerland | 2021 | Short Film | 22 Min. | English, French, Spanish (English Subtitles)
In dreamy-melancholic 16mm images we dive into Naomi's flat and her mental world. Here she explores together with her boyfriend their bodies, their relationships and their parental traumas. The transition from childhood to adulthood presented as a tentative game of intimacy and affection.
Director:Naomi PacifiqueScreenplay:Naomi Pacifique
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 4 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Suppressed frustration makes its way to the surface when a man gets bumped into on his way through a crowded city. With fast-paced orchestration his thoughts spiral into violent phantasies as his anger takes on a life of its own.
Directors:Nicolai Zeitler, Marlene BischofProducers:Rebecca Meining, Nicolai Zeitler, Philipp ZeitlerScreenplay:Marlene Bischof, Nicolai Zeitler
Screenings:
Belgium, Netherlands | 2021 | Short Film | 14 Min. | French, Fulah/Fulani, Dutch (English Subtitles)
Ousmane and his sister Tiguidanké are stranded on the streets of Brussels at night and ask a passing couple for help. From an observant, uninvolved perspective, we see the situation come to a head and a subtly critical view of society unfold.
Director:Simon Van der ZandeScreenplay:Levi Jacobs, Simon Van der Zande
Screenings:
Switzerland | 2021 | Short Film | 19 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Silvia’s day could not have been worse: First she is fired a few years before her retirement, then she gets fined during a traffic control and finally, she loses her choir solo. Enough is enough! Silvia decides to engage in an act of silent resistance.
Directors:Jumana Issa, Flavio Luca MaranoProducer:Filippo BonacciScreenplay:Jumana Issa, Flavio Luca Marano
Screenings:
Brazil | 2021 | Short Film | 20 Min. | Portuguese (English Subtitles)
João always believed that life would be like a musical. Now, as a food delivery boy, he is confronted with the sobering reality. Between existential fear and social injustice, we accompany João and his colleagues through the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Director:Leonardo Martinelli
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Short Film | 20 Min. | English (English Subtitles)
Between musical success, performance pressure and procrastination, a young artist finds herself in her own bedazzled hell. While being mistreated by her inner child and the personified society, she tries to finish her new album.
Director:Brenda Lien
Screenings:
Poland | 2021 | Short Film | 11 Min. | Without Dialogue
Flora focuses on the delicate connection between the female body and nature. The filmmaker relies on a documentary film style with which she moves between reality and associative visual impressions.
Director:Karolina Monwid-OlechnowiczProducer:Krystyna DoktorowiczScreenplay:Karolina Monwid-Olechnowicz
Screenings:
France | 2021 | Short Film | 20 Min. | French (English Subtitles)
Tonio scours not only the Corsica landscape, but also his dating app. Here he meets the "Oracle", who lets him in on the island's cruising scene. With skilfully used animation and slow narration, Tonio discovers the unknown corners of the island.
Director:Jean CostaProducers:Juliette Arradon, Myriam Martou, Colomba SansonettiScreenplay:Jean Costa
Screenings:
Germany, Austria, Great Britain | 2021 | Short Film | 15 Min. | German, English, Farsi (English Subtitles)
A poem in their mother tongue connects two people in the midst of the hustle and bustle of everyday London life. Poetry poetically implemented. Widow & Orphan is an emotional story about the longing for comfort in a foreign country, which seems like a fleeting snapshot.
Director:Niklas PollmannProducer:Dominic Spitaler
Screenings:
Costa Rica | 2021 | Short Film | 17 Min. | Spanish (English Subtitles)
Luisa and Antonio meet at a club and she takes him home with her. But the night takes an unexpected turn. When Antonio evades the situation, Luisa decides to confront him.
Director:Esteban Garita VarelaProducer:Mickey RyanScreenplay:Esteban Garita Varela, David Loynaz
Screenings:
Thailand | 2021 | Short Film | 18 Min. | Thai (English Subtitles)
Superstition and modernity are closely situated on this film set in Thailand. Young Piano has a lot of responsibility as a production manager. She finds herself faced with an insurmountable task as she is supposed to plant the lemongrass to protect the film shoot from rain.
Director:Pom BunsermvichaScreenplay:Anocha Suwichakornpong
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Short Film | 17 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
A small encounter in the hallway turns Lucy's life upside down. Suddenly Anton is standing there, and he is into Lucy, and Lucy is stumped. Since, well, Anton is HIV-positive and Lucy is actually in love with Anton, too. With lightness, an eye for detail, and disarming honesty, apparent certainties are shaken up.
Director:Marleen ValienProducers:Christine Duttlinger, Markus Krojer, Ludwig Meck, Lotta SchmelzerScreenplay:Christine Duttlinger, Ludwig Meck, Max Rauer, Marleen Valien
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 17 Min. | German, English (English Subtitles)
A second date after six months in a wintry park. Between two trees, the two feel their way towards each other, try to get to know one another without being predictable and to surrender without losing control. The result is an intimate encounter of a very unique nature.
Director:Ada LabahnProducer:Ada Labahn
Screenings:
Georgia | 2021 | Short Film | 20 Min. | Georgian (English Subtitles)
Ice-cold snow surrounds young Ana’s body. The ski instructor Nika, with whom she had an affair, tries to solve the case. But why is he hiding the location of the body? A quiet crime thriller that takes an unusual look at the subject of femicide.
Director:Gvantsa MeparishviliScreenplay:Gvantsa Meparishvili
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 28 Min. | German, English (English Subtitles)
Livia wakes up from a wet dream. She has a vivid fantasy about a man physically abusing her. Struggling to understand what this desire is about and how to deal with it, she tries to figure out what the line is between passion and violence.
Director:Sarah Miro FischerProducer:Maximilian Seidel
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 30 Min. | German, English (English Subtitles)
While the ambitious commander Nova fights with Ivy and Lucia for leadership of the first Mars mission, she makes a momentous mistake. In addition to the competition, she is now confronted with doubts and a question: Is she even the right person for this mission?
Director:Steve Bache
Screenings:
Lithuania | 2021 | Short Film | 18 Min. | Without Dialogue
Techno is Berlin. Berlin is techno. This is exactly where Nikita wants to go, away from his cold-hearted mother, to the big city, to his father and straight into Berghain. Putting his plan into action is going to be harder than he thought.
Director:Saulius BaradinskasScreenplay:Saulius Baradinskas
Screenings:
France | 2021 | Short Film | 20 Min. | French, Mandarin (English Subtitles)
Li is a professional queuer, devoted father, and illegal immigrant. He suffers in silence and does everything he can to prevent his daughter from following in his footsteps. A sensitive film about refuge, racism, and fatherly love.
Director:María Claudia Blanco
Screenings:
Mexico | 2021 | Short Film | 16 Min. | Spanish (English Subtitles)
A student protest, a party on the outskirts of town and aimless walks through the deserted nocturnal city at night - but the protagonist seems to be floating lost above it all. Carried by an atmosphere of melancholy, the film gradually brings us closer to the circle of life.
Director:Jorge Eduardo Franco Castillo
Screenings:
Lebanon, France | 2021 | Short Film | 16 Min. | Arabic (English Subtitles)
Mohammad is a Syrian migrant working as a crane operator in Beirut. One morning he volunteers to man one of the tallest and most notoriously dangerous cranes. Dozens of metres above the city, away from everyone’s eyes, he is able to experience freedom and to live out his deepest passion.
Director:Dania Bdeir
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 8 Min. | German, Bosnian (English Subtitles)
Director:Sandro RadosProducers:Clément Pelletier, Peter Riedl
Screenings:
Hungary | 2022 | Short Film | 8 Min. | Hungarian, Slovak (English Subtitles)
Two men meet in a subway underpass. One is drinking beer, the other would like to drink beer. Northern Shore, a project from the FreeSZFE-Initiative, is an analogue filmed one-shot that offers a humorous parable about the value of art in just a few minutes.
Director:Marcell TörökProducer:Gábor Ferenczy
Screenings:
Documentary Film
In this section you can find films that feature a single snapshot in time, films presenting personal portraits, or films revealing a shocking investigation. Both the short and full-length films explore current issues and touching twists of fate in their larger contexts. In this section the prizes for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short are awarded.
Documentary Feature
Germany, Ethiopia | 2021 | Documentary Feature | 93 Min. | Without Dialogue
In rural Ethiopia, somewhere between modern and traditional midwife care, moments of intimate community are created between the women of the village. In the midst of all this: the heavily pregnant farmer Huluager (25), who lets us be part of her story, openly and self-determined.
Directors:Sarah Noa Bozenhardt, Daniel Abate TilahunScreenplay:Sarah Noa Bozenhardt
Screenings:
Georgia | 2021 | Documentary Feature | 73 Min. | Georgian (English Subtitles)
The camera takes a close-up look at the lives of a community of lesbian and non-binary people in the Georgian city of Kutaisi. Around the football matches the protagonists meet to celebrate, discuss, dance, love, laugh and thus create a safe space far away from the outside world.
Director:Ketevan KapanadzeScreenplay:Ketevan Kapanadze
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Documentary Feature | 81 Min. | English, Dari, Greek, French (English Subtitles)
Thousands of people remain in the refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. War drove them from their homes and hope to Moria. For some it is a transit station, for others a dead end – but it can’t be a home to anyone. This film tells the stories of the refugees, Lesbos residents and Doctors Without Borders.
Director:Jana Stallein
Screenings:
Documentary Short
Georgia | 2021 | Documentary Short | 35 Min. | Georgian (English Subtitles)
Directors:Magda Gvelesiani, Leah PeirceProducers:Magda Gvelesiani, Nino Shengelaia
Screenings:
Belgium | 2021 | Documentary Short | 17 Min. | English, French (English Subtitles)
“Where to flow with all my liquidity?” Somewhere between reality and fantasy lies Atopia, a place where everyone has a place and the sexes are fluent. In a very personal video essay gender identities are being explored.
Director:Olivier De Vos
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Documentary Short | 32 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Bautzen II – formerly the most famous political prison in East Germany. More than a hundred political prisoners, many from West Germany, were locked up here. Everything was top secret but suddenly, just for 32 minutes, the doors are open to us. Individual memories come together in a form of collective processing.
Director:Johann Olenitsch
Screenings:
Belarus, Germany | 2021 | Documentary Short | 26 Min. | Russian, German (English Subtitles)
Summer 2020, the uprising against the belarussian dictator Lukaschenko is brutally put down and many of the demonstrators are arrested. In a minimalist yet expressive re-enactment, Handbook visualises methods of torture and imprisonment as a cold-blooded choreography.
Director:Pavel MozharScreenplay:Pavel Mozhar
Screenings:
Spain | 2021 | Documentary Short | 23 Min. | Catalan (English Subtitles)
After taking a severe blow to the head, Agus is confined to a wheelchair. He learns to see photography as a form of self-care to help him cope with his trauma and gives us insights into his artistic approach.
Director:Aina Palomer SitjàProducer:Jane Claudine CantorScreenplay:Aina Palomer Sitjà
Screenings:
Portugal, Belgium, Hungary | 2022 | Documentary Short | 16 Min. | Portuguese (English Subtitles)
There is nothing to see here. Or is there? What about the light shapes on house facades, the pastel hues, the traces of airplanes in the sky? With a meditative and attentive manner, the north of Portugal is gently being explored. A journey for the eyes.
Director:Nicolas BouchezProducer:Victor Candeias
Screenings:
Netherlands | 2021 | Documentary Short | 24 Min. | Dutch (English Subtitles)
The wolf Naya becomes a regional sensation after she moves from Germany to Belgium and settles there. This voyeuristic visual collage of wildlife and surveillance camera imagery captivatingly explores the relationship between humans and this iconic wild animal.
Director:Sebastian Mulder
Screenings:
Argentina | 2021 | Documentary Short | 17 Min. | Spanish (English Subtitles)
An experimental video essay that combines found footage with the filmmaker's personal experiences and thought processes to negotiate sexuality in its own unique way. The result is a self-reflexive study of the history and present of pornography and sexual representation.
Director:Paloma Orlandini CastroProducer:Manuel PasikScreenplay:Paloma Orlandini
Screenings:
Austria | 2021 | Short Film | 2 Min. | English (English Subtitles)
Silent shots of a pear are subtitled with comments which illustrate how the female body is reduced to fruit shapes. Shot in black and white on Super 8, ideals of beauty are placed into question and taken ad absurdum within a very short time.
Director:Natalia Kasik
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Documentary Short | 21 Min. | German, Vietnamese (English Subtitles)
What does it mean to be your parents’ daughter? Three shots, three families, three encounters. The filmmakers sit down for open conversations with their families, explore the limits of parent-daughter relationships, and address traumas and fears.
Directors:Quynh Le Nguyen, Stella Deborah Traub, Katharina Soon-Hi ThalerProducer:Marlon Hofmann
Screenings:
Finland | 2021 | Documentary Short | 21 Min. | Finnish (English Subtitles)
On a mild summer evening by the lake, four train drivers reflect on how fear, grief and bitterness caused their own mental constitutions and how they can process the pain. A soulful short documentary about traumatic experiences and how they can be overcome through mutual support.
Director:Elias Kahla
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Documentary Short | 15 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
A dancer roams the city picking up sounds and movements from her surroundings to compose her very own music in dance. Through this musical and lively journey, she challenges our current perception and understanding of sound. Her personal advantage? Her deafness.
Director:Cadenza ZhaoProducer:Anna Maria Pürthner
Screenings:
Austria | 2021 | Documentary Short | 28 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Over cigarettes and wine, Hermi chats about the past, not so much about the future. She doesn’t want to hear about age, men, or dogs. In short: about change – and still, it seems like a turning point in her life has been reached.
Directors:Gabriel Monthaler, Samira FuxProducer:Samira Fux
Screenings:
Genre Film
This section shows films that give you insight into other worlds, reviving the classic genres such as Sci-Fi, western, horror, thriller and fantasy. There is no limit to your creativity. Reach outside the limits of genre convention and breathe fresh air into them by thinking differently. Sehsüchte offers rich genre cinema for hungry popcorn-lovers.
Brazil | 2021 | Short Film | 20 Min. | Portuguese (English Subtitles)
João always believed that life would be like a musical. Now, as a food delivery boy, he is confronted with the sobering reality. Between existential fear and social injustice, we accompany João and his colleagues through the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Director:Leonardo Martinelli
Screenings:
Georgia | 2021 | Short Film | 20 Min. | Georgian (English Subtitles)
Ice-cold snow surrounds young Ana’s body. The ski instructor Nika, with whom she had an affair, tries to solve the case. But why is he hiding the location of the body? A quiet crime thriller that takes an unusual look at the subject of femicide.
Director:Gvantsa MeparishviliScreenplay:Gvantsa Meparishvili
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Animated Film | 18 Min. | English
The amateur musician Slouch already sees himself on the big stage but plays in front of empty clubs instead. Driven by ambition, sensationalism, and his musically gifted demon Nuffti, he neglects his girlfriend and drifts further and further into a spiral of excess.
Director:Michael BohnenstinglProducer:Linda Krauss
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 30 Min. | German, English (English Subtitles)
While the ambitious commander Nova fights with Ivy and Lucia for leadership of the first Mars mission, she makes a momentous mistake. In addition to the competition, she is now confronted with doubts and a question: Is she even the right person for this mission?
Director:Steve Bache
Screenings:
Animated Film
From stop motion via animated cartoon through to CGI: Sehsüchte dedicates this section to the most inspiring animated works. In this section the prize for Best Animation Film is awarded.
Germany, Qatar, Palestine, Jordan | 2021 | Animated Film | 16 Min. | Arabic (English Subtitles)
The dust of war keeps the eyes sleepless. In the destroyed town, the night brings peace and sleep to all people. Only the eyes of the mother of a missing child stay restless. Night has to trick her into sleeping to save her soul.
Director:Ahmad SalehProducer:Jessica Neubauer
Screenings:
Germany, South Korea, United States | 2021 | Animated Film | 6 Min. | Without Dialogue
A Minotaur appears, blurs, dissolves, and takes on new forms. As shapes and sounds intermingle, the boundaries of masculinity and femininity are explored and broken up.
Director:Chaerin Im
Screenings:
United Kingdom | 2021 | Animated Film | 9 Min. | Without Dialogue
After a small mishap, Ronin finds out in an undesirably sweet way that ignoring problems and to-do’s doesn’t make them smaller. On the contrary, they grow and grow and grow...
Director:Roel Van BeekScreenplay:Julie Nørgaard Bonde Jensen
Screenings:
Germany, Ukraine | 2022 | Animated Film | 3 Min. | Ukrainian, English, German (English Subtitles)
A dream scenario somewhere between psychedelic images, humorous absurdity, and harsh social criticism. Closer to reality than the first glance would suggest: The club is closed, the ambulance doesn't come, and so you walk through the city with your inner monsters.
Director:Polina Piddubna
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Animated Film | 7 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
In a minimalistic visual letter, Clara tells her younger self stories from her life. Stories about how words can hurt and how one learns to stand up for oneself. Above all, she gives herself the long-needed promise that everything will get better.
Director:Clara Stella HünekeProducer:Clara Stella HünekeScreenplay:Clara Stella Hüneke
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Animated Film | 5 Min. | Without Dialogue
The apparent tranquility of a mouse's home is abruptly destroyed. The mouse has to fight for its life in roaring floods. But who is watching the mouse and who is watching the observers? In minimalist black and white shading a multidimensional reality is created in which things are not as they seem.
Director:Yiying Gao
Screenings:
Belgium, Pakistan | 2021 | Animated Film | 8 Min. | Without Dialogue
At the speed of thought a soul travels through a landscape of dreams, feelings, and spaces, discovering the dichotomy of darkness and light in human life by diving into a fantastical dreamscape and exploring the poetry of contrast.
Director:Qurratul Ain Saeed
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Animated Film | 5 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Franka has a problem that shouldn't be one: body hair. Between social norms, hair removal possibilities, and inner insecurities, a young woman guides us through her very personal experiences and her deliberate decision to proudly accept and love her own body.
Directors:Thea Sparmeier, Pauline Cremer, Jakob Werner
Screenings:
Finland | 2021 | Animated Film | 10 Min. | Finnish (English Subtitles)
Mai-ja’s cell phone never seems to remain silent, constant calls keep the stressed mother on her toes. The scattered phone calls show insights into her chaotic life, between alcoholism, autism and absurd situations that seem to haunt her.
Director:Iiti Yli-Harja
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Animated Film | 5 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
To finance his drug and gambling addiction, Sebastian toils like a bear on the construction site. Gambling brings him quick luck, but also suffering in his life. A short documentary between high scores and failure.
Directors:Alexander Conrads, Emily Ufken
Screenings:
Germany, Chile | 2021 | Animated Film | 3 Min. | English
Get in the Mood! This animated film project breaks taboos, celebrates female pleasure and is a feast of body positivity.
Director:Carolina CruzProducer:Khristina Demenshina
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Animated Film | 3 Min. | Without Dialogue
In this parallel universe, the focus is not on people, animals or plants, but on nails. In their reality, they try to imitate objects and living beings of our world. An allusion of our digital environment in the form of a hypnotic sound scape.
Director:Viacheslav Romanov
Screenings:
France | 2021 | Animated Film | 20 Min. | French, English, Italian (English Subtitles)
A father and his estranged daughter meet unexpectedly on their way to Naples to identify a corpse via DNA-test. In the shade of the Italian summer, the two get to know each other again and dive together into the memories of an unprocessed past.
Director:Marie Larrivé
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Animated Film | 18 Min. | English
The amateur musician Slouch already sees himself on the big stage but plays in front of empty clubs instead. Driven by ambition, sensationalism, and his musically gifted demon Nuffti, he neglects his girlfriend and drifts further and further into a spiral of excess.
Director:Michael BohnenstinglProducer:Linda Krauss
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Animated Film | 5 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
At the age of eleven, Otto Dov Kulka survived the death march from Auschwitz to Groß-Rosen. Nineteen years later, he testifies in a trial that confronts the German people with their past and gives voice to the silenced. A historic audio recording illustrated in a minimalistic collage.
Director:Jakob Werner
Screenings:
Focus Production
With its section Focus Production, Sehsüchte is one of the only festivals that throws a glance behind the scenes and into the production offices. What we worship here is not only what is ultimately to be seen on the screen, but also the oftentimes long and exhausting process that led to the result. At Focus Production, filmmakers can score points with innovative financing methods, fair working conditions, convincing gender equality concepts, sustainable use of resources and much more, which is often forgotten elsewhere. In this way, students from German-speaking universities can be awarded for Best Production.
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 15 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Protests shake the city as revolutionaries disappear within its streets. Impressive black and white images show a martyr whose uprising threatens to die before he does. Lost between revolution and resignation, the question arises of whether there is still a way back.
Director:Ben VoitProducers:Malte Kutz, Julia PallescheScreenplay:Luca D. Calluso, Ben Voit
Screenings:
Ukraine, Germany | 2021 | Documentary Feature | 56 Min. | Russian (English Subtitles)
In 2014, a part of the Donbas fell under separatist control. The Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Aseyey reported from his hometown of Donezk. In 2017 he was abducted because of this, only being released in 2019. In 2020, he works on a book in Kyjiw in which he processes his experiences in prison “isolation”.
Director:Iryna RiabenkaProducers:Felix Krumme, Iryna Riabenka
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Short Film | 33 Min. | Ukrainian, Russian, German, Yiddish (English Subtitles)
In Nazi-occupied Ukraine, the 12-year-old Mitka joins a resistance group. When Mitka discovers that high-ranking SS officials will be staying at the inn where he works, he hatches a plan. Only, its implementation would also place Mitka’s friend in mortal danger.
Director:Andreas KesslerProducers:Max Breuer, Janick GootzScreenplay:Fabien Virayie
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Feature Film | 71 Min. | German
In various episodes are introduced to an opera singer on a speed diet, a reserved brunette and a charismatic macho guy, redheads at a party, a schizophrenic, a night porter, a waitress and a stranger.
Director:Minh Anh NguyenProducer:Kevin Beckmann
Screenings:
Austria | 2020 | Short Film | 20 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Betty is all alone at the wedding – surrounded by her family, who don’t feel any responsibility towards her. The father of her unborn child dances with his new bride, her stepfather sees his spending time with her as a favour, and her mother is drunk. Topfpalmen shows tragedy in dazzling colours.
Topfpalmen plays out of competition
Director:Rosa FriedrichProducer:Dominic SpitalerScreenplay:Rosa Friedrich
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 34 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Mara is overwhelmed by her emotions when she finds out that she is pregnant. She decides to visit her mother. Once there, she remembers a time when she carried less responsibilities. As her fears of failing as a mother herself grow, Mara must make a decision.
Directors:Jenny Elisabeth Kleine, Pia MozetProducer:Frederike MerkelScreenplay:Jenny Elisabeth Kleine
Screenings:
Austria | 2022 | Short Film | 20 Min. | Without Dialogue
Upon entering a jazz club, a young guest immediately loses himself in the beautiful singer’s enticing music. Taking a seat in front of the stage, however, requires the consent of all those present. With alternating strategies, he charms the grotesque guests and gradually becomes the perfect guest himself.
Director:Lisa HasenhütlProducer:Victoria HerbigScreenplay:Lisa Hasenhütl
Screenings:
Future
This section of Sehsüchte features films for children from the age of six onwards and for young adults from the ages twelve and up. We present exciting, entertaining and unconventional short- and long film productions from different genres. Not only this particular target group, but people of all ages are cordially invited to join. However, the award winners will solely be selected by young judges. In this section the prize for Best Children’s Film and Best Youth Film will be awarded.
Future Kids
Qatar | 2021 | Animated Film | 7 Min. | Arabic (English Subtitles)
Fatima wants to help her dying grandmother from her deathbed with the help of a spell from the Ramadan-crier, who calls for morning prayers. Can she catch the magic spell and save her grandmother’s life?
Director:Hassan Al-Jahnni
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Animated Film | 7 Min. | English (English Subtitles)
Moving to another country can feel like landing on a new planet. What is it like to lose one part of yourself, while gaining another?
Director:Anna Ryzhkova
Screenings:
Belgium | 2022 | Short Film | 10 Min. | French, Berber (English Subtitles)
Issam loses a part of his childhood while on a car ride with his older brother and father, when his brother tries to educate him about the supposed virtues of manhood. Can this circle of toxic masculinity be broken?
Director:Khaël TouagProducers:Thomas Cassiers, Yannick VerdonckScreenplay:Khaël Touag
Screenings:
Belgium | 2021 | Documentary Short | 12 Min. | Portuguese (English Subtitles)
Cauã spends all day alone at home without parental oversight, fluctuating between boredom and adventure. He is accompanied in a documentary as he befriends a street cat and passes the time with the neighbourhood kids until his father gets home.
Director:Victoire Bonin Grais
Screenings:
Uruguay | 2021 | Short Film | 14 Min. | Spanish (English Subtitles)
Montevideo, 1990s. Clara is bullied by her classmates and has yet again not been invited to a birthday party. But this time will be different: she pretends to her mother that she has gotten an invitation. Now she’ll do everything she can to keep the truth a secret.
Directors:Andrea Treszczan Azar, Sol Infante ZamudioScreenplay:Andrea Treszczan Azar
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Animated Film | 7 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Greta has the most boring grandma in the whole world. When she falls asleep on the sofa, Greta gets the idea to play funeral with her grandma. This confronts the two with questions they haven’t asked themselves before. Because in the end, what is it that remains when you have to leave this life behind?
Director:Damaris ZielkeProducer:Chen JiayanScreenplay:Manuel Ostwald
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Animated Film | 5 Min. | German
If your mother is a strawberry, and your father a pineapple – what fruit are you? And where do you belong? FRU-FRU! tells of her parents and their differences, which are united in her.
Director:Anastasija KretzschmarScreenplay:Anastasija Kretzschmar
Screenings:
Belgium | 2021 | Animated Film | 5 Min. | French (English Subtitles)
During his work on the factory assembly line, a bird proves that everyone has a talent – as the motto goes: you shouldn't judge a fish by how well it can ride a bike.
Directors:Stéphanie Ponsaers, Maxime Pire
Screenings:
Germany, Norway | 2022 | Animated Film | 7 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
During a game of hide and seek, Vanja leaves the bright living room and enters a dimly lit courtyard, which has far too many dark corners, weird shadows, and strange noises. To overcome her fear, Vanja becomes a dangerous tiger!
Director:Marita MayerProducer:Fabian DriehorstScreenplay:Marita Mayer
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Documentary Short | 6 Min. | German
In their very own news programme, 20 children from the Neukölln Neighbourhood Association explore the true meaning of democracy. To do so, they embark on a journey through time to the beginnings of early Greek forms of government.
Director:Christian Schneider
Screenings:
Germany, France | 2021 | Short Film | 30 Min. | French, Creole (English Subtitles)
Two siblings on the island La Réunion must stand up to their addict mother during a vicious storm. In their imagination they fight against the “toilet witch”, in order to protect their family.
Director:Joey Arand
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 2 Min. | Without Dialogue
Various individual images merge into a meadow, on which flowers and grass move rhythmically to music in the wind.
Director:Giulia Falciani
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Animated Film | 1 Min. | Without Dialogue
The curtain is open, the stage prepared, the microphone on - everything is ready for the performance: but the young singer suddenly uses the microphone on stage in a wholly unexpected way.
Director:Hao Yu
Screenings:
Netherlands | 2021 | Short Film | 12 Min. | Dutch (English Subtitles)
Revelinho is a big fan of Dutch folk music and tries to process his parents’ problems through his songs. Together with his friends, he will do everything in his power to set things right again at home with his performance at an open mic concert.
Director:Idriss NabilProducers:Robijn Boekelman, Stan Egberts, Hannah Van HeldenScreenplay:Pepe Favela
Screenings:
Poland | 2021 | Short Film | 26 Min. | Polish (English Subtitles)
Wojtek battles with his weight and the classmates that tease him about it. He motivates himself to do sport and eat better. Will he succeed in gaining new confidence not only for himself, but also his mother?
Director:Maciej JankowskiProducer:Poland Film School in LodzScreenplay:Maciej Jankowski
Screenings:
Germany, United States | 2021 | Animated Film | 3 Min. | Without Dialogue
Lily discovers a bright, colourful world, rich in music and adventure. But to bring her friends there, will take all of their skills combined.
Director:Anne Isensee
Screenings:
Future Teens
Germany, United Kingdom, Austria | 2021 | Documentary Feature | 89 Min. | English, Spanish, Cantonese (English Subtitles)
Protests for a better future are growing worldwide. Rayen is protesting for social justice in Chile. Pepper is fighting for democracy in Hong Kong. Hilda is taking action against the devastating effects of climate change in Uganda. What are the three women risking in the process?
Director:Franz BöhmProducers:Franz Böhm, Johannes Schubert, Ansgar Wörner
Screenings:
Spain | 2021 | Short Film | 15 Min. | Spanish (English Subtitles)
17-year-old Alex is working in his father’s video store, when Fátima enters the shop. A special bond develops between them, based on their mutual love of film. The two soon realise that the encounter has awakened a unique and precious feeling in them both.
Directors:Teo Planell, Alejandra KikidisScreenplay:Alejandra Kikidis, Teo Planell
Screenings:
Belgium | 2021 | Documentary Short | 16 Min. | Dutch (English Subtitles)
Jules & I follows Roos, who talks about her experiences and the influence of her transgender sister Jules. A portrait of the love between sisters which shines a light not only on their similarities, but also their differences and difficulties growing up to be young women.
Director:Anne Ballon
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 10 Min. | French, German (English Subtitles)
This documentary self-portrait shows the filmmaker Liselotte in different phases of home isolation during the pandemic. Her hopes and plans seemingly slipping through her fingers.
Director:Liselotte SéchetProducer:Liselotte Séchet
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 9 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
When Ada and her two sisters have to once again cope with a day alone, Ada’s period kicks in. But the visit to the supermarket turns out to be more tumultuous than expected, when the owner drives Ada to a drastic knee-jerk reaction.
Director:Silvana Damm
Screenings:
Canada | 2022 | Short Film | 7 Min. | English (English Subtitles)
The magic potion made of ground dandelion and spring water is supposed to conjure up great love, but it doesn’t really work: maybe the right person didn't drink the magic mixture at all?
Directors:Brianna Russell, Dylan Duff, Tegan ArmstrongProducer:Brianna RussellScreenplay:Dylan Duff, Brianna Russell
Screenings:
Kazakhstan | 2021 | Short Film | 23 Min. | Kazakh (English Subtitles)
The young Shoqan travels from a Kazakhstan of the future back in time with his school class. During one of these virtual excursions, he is confronted with his own family history and suddenly holds the fate of several generations in his hands.
Director:Kuka BeisekovProducer:Magzhan Madiyev
Screenings:
Australia | 2021 | Short Film | 8 Min. | English
An Australian school class’ online lesson turns into a Zoom fairy-tale, in which two smitten schoolgirls can visit each other through the screen, entering their own fantasy. Here, the virtual and physical worlds blur, making for some magical moments.
Director:Emmanuelle Mattana
Screenings:
Spain | 2021 | Short Film | 14 Min. | Spanish (English Subtitles)
Amelia had hoped that she would be rid of her medical corset in time for the school outing. But the doctors have bad news for her. All while it had been her biggest wish to wear a pair of jeans with star patches on the big class trip. Now only her best friends can give her new hope.
Director:Carmen PedreroProducers:Carlota Rodas Jimeno, Desiree Yi PergueroScreenplay:Alberto Herrera
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 18 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Leo just wants to build huts out of tree branches in the woods with Emil, but then a pivotal event occurs. Leo is thrown into an identity crisis with the onset of their first period.
Director:Tajo HurrleProducer:Patrick BüchtingScreenplay:Hurrle Tajo
Screenings:
360°
The section 360° explores the possibilities of visual storytelling. The audience experiences a new cinematic environment that is not limited to the big screen. Immersive storytelling creates potential for new stories and poses challenges for filmmakers, which makes it particularly interesting for newcomers to the film industry. This section awards the Best 360° Film.
Germany | 2021 | 360° | 5 Min. | English
Poetically, the film journeys from a bleak, white room full of fridges, turtles, and absurdities into pure nature. It begs the question: How big is a toothless grin?
Director:Kristin JakubekProducers:Leon Brandt, Kristin Jakubek
Screenings:
Germany | 2019 | 360° | 26 Min. | English
In Cubanía - Between Berlin and Havana two cities, thousands of kilometres apart, meet whose commonality and the simultaneous connection between the residents form a single dance, through whose passion both cultures feel closer: the salsa.
Director:Sharon Ryba-Kahn
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | 360° | 9 Min. | English
While we dive into the monstrous, yet aesthetic and bustling world of shipping containers, sailors tell us about their lives, which became even more dreary during the pandemic.
Director:Niklas Grüter
Screenings:
Belgium | 2021 | 360° | 6 Min. | English
In an inconspicuous, small room something begins, that gradually escalates into a frenzy of images, and becomes a visual experience whose extraordinary dimensions are to be explored.
Director:Jules De Pauw
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | 360° | 5 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
A poem, accompanied by portraits of seemingly random places that visually investigates humanity’s inner being.
Director:Katia Sophia Ditzler
Screenings:
Poland, Germany | 2022 | 360° | 15 Min. | English, German
Can the human being as part of nature still be an interesting inspiration today, as in the 19th century? A 360° Film / VR Experience, inspired by Modern and Romantic Era poems from Poland, Germany, and England. A mix of 360-degree 3D footage in the Neo-Gothic interiors of Babelsberg Park buildings.
Director:Wojciech Olchowski
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | 360° | 12 Min. | Without Dialogue
An abstract journey through imagination, full of darkness and light, full of strands and void. “Strands of Mind” takes us through a forest into a world we cannot grasp.
Director:Adrian MeyerProducer:Laura Messner
Screenings:
Retrospektive
The section Retrospektive has been a part of the festival since 2016, and is developed out of a cooperation with the master program “Film Cultural Heritage”. The programme’s material is mostly provided by the university’s very own large film archive, displaying the film university’s production history since the 1950ies up to today. Not only does the program shed a light onto older films from the archive, but also presents their meaning and aesthetic experience in the programme’s bigger context.
Germany | 2011 | Documentary Film | 86 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Energieland takes a look at the controversial energy transition in the Brandenburg region from various perspectives. In doing so the film shines a light on the relationship between democracy and commerce. We ask: How independent can documentary film remain, when it is increasingly funded by the private sector?
Director:Johanna Ickert
Screenings:
German Democratic Republic | 1973 | Documentary Film | 24 Min. | German
An honest portrait of the living conditions of assembly workers who were involved in the northern light gas pipeline. Most of them hoped for good wages. But director Gerd Wille discovered only great resentment over poor supplies and sanitary conditions as well as a lack of leisure activities.
Director:Gerd Wille
Screenings:
German Democratic Republic | 1980 | Documentary Film | 33 Min. | German
1980, Prenzlauer Berg: Heises friend’s motorbike has been stolen. Instead of going to the police, the director sets out to find the thieves himself and encounters two brothers, who seem to be involved. He accompanies them through the milieu: difficult entry into the job market, a lot of alcohol and the social margins.
Director:Thomas Heise
Screenings:
German Democratic Republic | 1974 | Documentary Film | 37 Min. | German
Königsheid children’s home: children and young people tell of life in the home and the dreams and opportunities they hope for in their future outside of the home. The film lets the home’s residents and outsiders have their say and follows the children on their way into their own lives.
Director:Peter Heinrich
Screenings:
Showcase
Every year we offer both films from the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, which hosts the festival, as well as an international partner university the opportunity to present their most exciting or current films in this section. The programme will be presented outside the competition.
University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA)
United States | 2020 | Animated Film | 4 Min. | English
A young woman talks about her life, reflecting on the ups and downs of her own well-being. Different forms of water symbolise her changing emotions and states.
Director:Victoria CruellScreenplay:Victoria Cruell
Screenings:
United States | 2021 | Short Film | 17 Min. | English
1927: in an alternate reality, a diver embarks upon a dangerous mission to find the last freshwater reserves and save humanity. On his dive he encounters the unimaginable and must decide how much he is prepared to sacrifice for his mission.
Director:Connor RyanProducer:Dillon DipietroScreenplay:Connor Ryan
Screenings:
United States | 2020 | Short Film | 6 Min. | English
The film serves a poetic exploration of the freedom and multi-facetted nature of black masculinity. With a new self-determination, these Kindred Kings write their own histories and renegotiate their own identities.
Director:Tramaine Raphael (Trey) GrayScreenplay:Tramaine Raphael (Trey) Gray, Jo Hatcher
Screenings:
United States | 2018 | Short Film | 17 Min. | English
In 2015, nine African Americans were shot dead in a church in South Carolina. The attack received additional media attention when family members publicly forgave the killer at his hearing. In this documentary, family members and local residents talk about their experience.
Director:Nathan Knox
Screenings:
United States | 2020 | Documentary Short | 18 Min. | English
After years of transitioning in front of the camera, Aydian Dowling talks about his career, the importance of visibility and what role YouTube can play in the creation of role models within the trans* community.
Director:Ash Malone
Screenings:
United States | 2020 | Animated Film | 4 Min. | Without Dialogue
A dance duet escalates and leads to a permanent fusion.
Director:Claire Allen
Screenings:
United States | 2020 | Short Film | 12 Min. | English
Best friends Kurt and Carter are overjoyed to finally move in together. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that living together is not as easy as they thought it would be. After a heated argument Carter awakes to find that the flat seems to have suddenly been turned sideways.
Director:Daniel Robert SmithScreenplay:Ben Trauner
Screenings:
United States | 2020 | Short Film | 12 Min. | English
A young girl grows increasingly sceptical of the cult she grew up in. When she discovers the truths, her power-hungry leader is hiding, she begins to recognise his manipulative nature.
Director:Caroline (Caro) KnightScreenplay:Emma Morgan, Brian Storck
Screenings:
Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Germany | 2021 | Documentary Short | 19 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
White sheets, a wing chair: images like these have haunted Markus all his life. To escape his memories, the 55-year-old abuse survivor is constantly moving in his mobile home. A journey between freedom and the shadows of the past.
Director:Paul ScheuflerProducer:Victoria Frances Anders
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 15 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
Ella finds herself in front of the camera for a dog food commercial. But her four-legged scene partner does not want to follow the photographers’ directions and gets banned from the set. For Ella’s clients this much is clear: she must take over the role of the dog.
Director:Alison KuhnProducers:Sarah Dreyer, Laura ZeuchScreenplay:Alison Kuhn
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Animated Film | 12 Min. | German (English Subtitles)
A convict is visited by the prison warden in his cell. The warden announces that the man’s execution has been scheduled for the following day. But shortly after his visitor has disappeared, his cell door opens as if by itself…
Director:Christoph BüttnerScreenplay:Christoph Büttner
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Animated Film | 15 Min. | Without Dialogue
Nemo looks different. Nobody else wears a diving suit and such a big helmet, and as a result no-one takes him seriously. When he meets Laika, an astronaut, he finds a kindred spirit and recognises his own strengths.
Directors:Jan Gadermann, Sebastian GadowProducer:Johannes SchubertScreenplay:Jan Gadermann
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Animated Film | 7 Min. | Without Dialogue
In a dystopian reality, a figure loses itself more and more in the escapist realm of the television. Zapping through the channels being spurred on by purchasable keys which promise emotional manipulation.
Director:Hagar FaibishScreenplay:Hagar Faibish
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Short Film | 9 Min. | English
In a textile factory beneath the earth, endless lengths of fabric are passed through blue dye. Alba and Samy work here, their lives determined by the rhythm of the machines. Alba begins to tell the story of a girl who lived at the bottom of the sea and wanted to free herself from her enslavement.
Directors:Adam Graf, Mandy PeteratProducers:Barbara Flügel, Milena SchäpersScreenplay:Mirjam Khera
Screenings:
Schreibsüchte
Not as a pre-stage of the future film, but as its own piece of art – this category is all about innovative ideas brought to life by outstanding writing and narrative skills. Innovative stories that are brought to form through precise narrative craft have the chance to win the award Best Screenplay (German only). The nominated screenplays will be read out loud by professional dubbing actors at a scenic reading called “Kopfkino”. But also before the completion of a book, authors have the opportunity to present their ideas. Students can convince the jury and win the prize for Best Pitch (German AND English).
Pitch!
Germany | 2022 | German
A world formula, promising unlimited progress, throws an entire sanatorium into chaos. An absurd, paradoxical series, which incidentally also deals with the insatiable human desire for power, inspired by Friedrich Dürrenmatts work “Die Physiker”.
Directors:Jenny Elisabeth Kleine, Miriam Lena Haspel, Pia Mozet, Cäcilie Willkommen
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | German
A personal documentary film with animated elements. In it, Jelena tells of her greatest fear: her father’s immanent release from prison. And of the illness which brought him there. A father-daughter relationship - between unconditional love and boundless fear.
Director:Jelena Ilic
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | German
Ina Fontana is 60 and wants to return from her job at the hardware store to the German “Schlager” stage. Only, a lot has changed in the music scene since her last and only hit 30 years ago. But Ina doesn’t care: if anyone should adapt here, it’s the industry! A turbulent dramedy series about German cultural identity.
Directors:Andreas Kouba, Marie Thönnissen
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | English
Since her unconstrained nomadic existence in the 90s, Nuts has finally gotten some peace and quiet back in her life. But then several old acquaintances from her time in the “tekno-punk” scene wind up dead. Looking for answers, Nuts embarks on a wild trip through her long-repressed past.
Director:Niina Walter
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | German
When leftist activist Lea discovers that her life partner Flo is an undercover investigator, her life is thrown off course. A fateful game of cat and mouse begins, negotiating loyalty and betrayal in private relationships as well as those between the individual and the state.
Directors:Josia Krug, Joschua Keßler
Screenings:
Kopfkino (Screenplay)
Germany | 2022 | Feature Film | German
Jakob and Julia are trying to get pregnant. But how can they, with all this stress? Anonymous threatening phone calls, an unsympathetic boss, and a pushy married couple in matching outfits trying to get all the childless couples on the estate to sell their homes: this calls for drastic measures! And Jakob is ready to take them.
Screenplay: Lukas Wesslowski
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Feature Film | German
A village with houses for 1500 people and no cars on the roads at night: most of the villagers have already been resettled. But a persistent group still resists, despite the opencast mine encroaching on the village border, poisoning the air around it. Will one last desperate act turn the tide in the fight against the energy company?
Screenplay: Sven Angene
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Feature Film | German
Ann works night shifts as a nurse at the hospital, silently wandering through the rooms and corridors while almost everyone else there is asleep. This routine is interrupted when an accident occurs at a nearby mine. Among the workers brought in: Ann’s father
Screenplay: Hanna Thomschke
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Feature Film | German, Japanese
Saki and her parents are used to moving. For as soon as Saki’s classmates learn that she is from Fukushima, the insults begin – and ‘toxic bacteria’ is still one of the harmless ones among them. But through her passion for music, Saki suddenly finds something completely unexpected at her new school: friends.
Screenplay: YabanJim
Screenings:
Germany | 2022 | Feature Film | German
Gabo (15) is in love for the first time in his life; but not with his boyfriend Max (15), but the nine-year-old boy next door. Overwhelmed by this realisation, Gabo seeks out other people on the Dark Net who feel the way he does and soon finds himself at the centre of a criminal investigation.
Screenplay: Stephan Kämpf
Screenings:
Exhibition: Beyond the Frame
The section Exhibition: Beyond the Frame features projects which involve the creative use of technology and novel forms of storytelling next to the traditional movies of the festival programme. These could involve for example XR, artificial intelligence, projection mapping, sensor-based systems, or web-based experiences.
2020 | Exhibition Piece
"Above and Beyond" represents a series of augmented portraits. Augmented reality combines art with technology, by adding digital elements. The painted illustrations depict faces from all over the world. This project uses technology as an extension of traditional art, thus the viewer experiences animated paintings. The public needs access to the internet and to download the Artivive app in order to access the augmented content.
Artist:Andra Purdea
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
AXES OF GOOD shows its spectators and its main characters in their disorientation. When the language becomes an atmospheric maze, its relevance to being understood literally disappears. The images as well as the sound dissolve in their own materiality. At its center arises the question of when to resist and whether this is possible inside a totalitarian regime. The film is more of an interactive encounter than a solution. In repetition lies its power to create meaning but also to question it. However, the cycles reveal themselves ring by ring.
Artist:Sriram Srivigneswaramoorthy
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
Screens reflecting us. Development and replacement. A graveyard of memories and emotions. The soul as an incompatible outdated software. An object that doesn’t exist anymore. An error for the new generation. A pile of slightly out-dated elements. They have no more use and have been replaced by better, faster and more ergonomic technologies. They are the keepers of our youth, the mediators of what we are. We are the only element that validates their past existence. We can bring them to life by granting them that comfortable but strange moment when no more updates are possible.
Artists:Cristina Pop-Tiron, Andreea-Cristina Mircea, Mauricio Brito
Screenings:
2022 | Exhibition Piece
The project "Angst" represents the experiences of three people with their fears. With the help of augmented reality, three images are brought to life. Through visual and auditory impressions, the subjective experiences with fear are made tangible. The project wants to bring the inner feelings of the people to the outside by trying to visually and auditorily represent changes in perception. In this way, the posters can be understood as an illustration of the outside, while the viewer gains access to the inside with the help of AR.
Artist:India Aparicio
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
A transmedia project about the ways the pandemic influenced the personal lives of people living in blocks of flats around the world. Due to the recent phenomenon of the global pandemic, we, as social creatures, were conditioned to regress and put up our own concrete fences meant to bring us safety. Concrete Nests invite you to knock on one of the neighbours’ digital doors, step into their apartments and explore their way of living, discovering what they’ve encountered during recent times.
Artists:Örs Tamas Rezi, Maria Scînteianu, Cosmina Prundurel, Adrian Craciunoiu, Adela-Maria Druta, Amanda Maier, Anamaria Geger, Antonia Ciuc, Csilla Peter, Rares Tabacu, Iasmina Iabloncic, Oana Petrea, Horatiu Florea
Screenings:
2022 | Exhibition Piece
“Factory” is a nu-film created by Sts Peter and Paul. The main character is Romania's biggest fertiliser factory, called Azomures, owned by the German shareholder group Amorepa. Its explosion would lead to the complete destruction of its surrounding city, killing over 200.000 people. Even though the citizens, as well as the environmentalists, demand the factory to be shut down, it seems that the decision is above the local politicians. “Factory” allows the viewer to get inside the facility, without breathing in the ammonia showing what powerlessness looks like in multicolor.
Artists:Márton Pál Gáspárik, Leidl Péter Zolcsák
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
An interactive installation meant to give the audience a space where they can become one with the sound and the glitch effects, explore their real-time perception through RGB colour model or be travelling particles of information in the stream of data, then transcend into abstract ways of expressing raw emotions and finally, be transposed as a digital painting of both the macro and micro universes manifested all around us every day.
Artists:Örs Tamas Rezi, Maria Scînteianu, Cosmina Prundurel, Adrian Craciunoiu, Adela-Maria Druta
Screenings:
2022 | Exhibition Piece
"GROTÄ" has no meaning. It's a synesthetic retreat, catering to our primordial need for warmth and intimacy that is supposedly missing in modern technology. So if you want to hide from all the hustle and bustle for a little while, look no further.
Artists:Andreea-Cristina Mircea, Marco Winter
Screenings:
2022 | Exhibition Piece
Darkness covers the streets in this small town. The lamps cast their light down onto the sidewalks, a woman receives a call. Quietly, someone on the other end whispers: "The man is your target. Look for a key card." She approaches a window in the basement of a large house and opens it quickly to climb over the wooden table into the room. She finds herself in the apartment of a middle-aged man. Which path will the lady take to get to her destination? Will she achieve what she wants? That is in your hands from now on. You decide what happens – in the interactive film "Grannyflat".
Artist: Les Furieux Du Cinéma
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
An immersive interactive experience inviting the audience to disclose the hidden, augmented digital extensions of the human bodies through new media technologies. Revolving around the idea of tangibility in human connections, the aim is to unveil a bigger connection while representing the duality between the real world and the virtual realm.
Artist:Adela-Maria Druta
Screenings:
Germany | 2021 | Exhibition Piece
Four people from different disciplines form the team of "In Blau". Funded by the Institute for Artistic Research, they found a way to combine music, sound, text, animation, scenography and their four languages to create pieces that break stigmas, raise awareness of unhealthy behavioural patterns, encourage people to get together, let go, rethink. The main topic of "loneliness" unfolded not at the beginning, but over time. Their interactive, audiovisual installation and the radio feature now stand as the results not only of their research, but since the pandemic, as the new/old basics needed at all times.
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
An interactive installation designed as a meditative experience set in an outer space fantasy world, offering the participants the possibility to escape from the stress of their daily lives for a while, if they choose to relax. An obscure contemplative parade, through highly refined, dream-like landscapes, by balancing darkness and light in perfect equilibrium. Also, it presents the unstable nature of inner peace. The destructive nature of fire comes to create a beautiful equilibrium, in contrast to the beautiful and peaceful silence.
Artist:Alexandru-Eugen Nagy
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
Water is at the core of sustainable progress and is critical for socioeconomic development, healthy ecosystems and for human survival itself. As the physical world of water is closely bound up with the sociopolitical world, water often is a key factor in managing risks such as famine, epidemics, inequalities and political instability. Meanwhile, daily personal use of water is characterised by frivolous unawareness. "Liquidity Trap" is an immersive installation which embodies this dilemma, and gives a glimpse into a global crisis radiating from this often overlooked yet indispensable resource.
Artists:India Aparicio, Orkun Aydinli, Lucas Grey, Johanna Hartmann, Malte Hillebrand, Ula Przybylska, Sylvia Rybak, Sebastian Wilhelm
Screenings:
2022 | Exhibition Piece
A new media interactive installation that focuses on the hidden realms of human perception. It is inspired by astral projection experiences – the esoteric idea that the soul is separate from one’s physical body. The audience is encouraged to explore this idea by interacting with a combination of animation and sound. Focusing on the idea of our deepest desires and dreams, the installation’s aim is to connect the audience with their inner self and to encourage self-reflection.
Artists:Toma Barbulescu, Ana Bocaniciu, Lucia Codreanu, Florin Marc, Bogdan Dumitras, Iustin Filip
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
In early 2020, the Coronavirus spread rapidly in China, turning the situation into a national epidemic. Although domestic control efforts have been successful, they have brought back several deep-rooted problems. Especially in the prevention work of cities, streets, and village communities, a wall built by words became visible, which was used to try to keep the turbulence outside. The artist composed these slogans into a new poetry through the method of gathering information. The visitor, through his gesture, releases a part of these slogans and receives this fragment of a new poetry.
Artist:Tian Wu
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
Our lives are determined by logic, bureaucratic orders, individualistic conventions and capitalist patterns of behaviour. But what happens when all this is suddenly replaced by our subconscious? An average Western guy, single, young and passive, needs to face many questions in this absurd radio play. After a paperwork tête-à-tête at an office, an accident catapults the physicist out of his comfort zone. He finds himself forced to take journeys into his own subconscious. Balancing on a knife’s edge an acoustic spectacle unfolds in which he encounters all kinds of crazy inner and outer contemporaries.
Director:Angelina UrbanczykProducer:Gregor Nehring
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
In this work,ä a dialogical process of enquiry was developed with the community of Sherkin Island, Ireland. Working remotely, a virtual, socially engaged collaborative project emerged,
capturing the essence of the island during lockdown. As well as collaborating on this sensory map, which can be seen in the central area of the virtual gallery space, the artists also worked on 3D proposals for individual island artworks. These works included displays of data-visualisation, audio-mapping and 3D modelling, developing a multi-faceted experience of island spaces without being physically present.
Artists:Sinead McCormick, Ann Burns
Screenings:
2020 | Exhibition Piece
Sequentium is a transmedia documentary project that tackles the subject of Death by transcreating an unfolding narrative that leads the user on a journey through various explorations of loss, memory and legacy. The project, which includes a short documentary, two interactive platforms, an exhibition and a social media platform, is aimed at people who want to reach a deeper understanding of Death.
Artists:Bogdan Sorlea, Dani Saracut, Razvan Micorici, Alexandra Cincea, Bogdan Florea, Emanuela Motrescu, Bence Prokop, Olivia Dumitriu, Gunay Mutlu, Ana-Bianca Tudorica, Andra Purdea, Ruxandra Hule, Teodora Zamfirache
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
Virtual reality provides an opportunity to experience digital artworks in new ways. But the VR environment in this sense should not mimic the paradigms of art consumption we know and trust by rebuilding art galleries and viewing cinemas as we know them. Instead, it should be used to present artworks in ways that breach the limits of the physical world. By these means, the VR environment itself also becomes a supportive and collaborative artwork alongside the pieces it has been designed to present, thus augmenting the combined artistic and creative experience.
Artist:Tillman Jex
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
The little Unrund wakes up alone from its hibernation and sets out to find its pack. On its journey, it has to overcome various obstacles and its own fears until it finally manages to find a new friend. The story of little Unrund focuses on dealing with fears, and attempts to address this both in terms of content and technology. Children are encouraged to discover a new world alongside the character and to follow its adventures by using 360° and gaze control to interactively help him to tackle all the challenges ahead.
Director:Florian Raphael PanzerProducer:Barbara FlügelScreenplay:Florian Raphael Panzer, Lea Sommer
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
Undiscovered areas of space, closer than a pile of sand in the hand, and farther from the farthest sun we perceive. Space Microscope is a video installation mimicking a virtual spatial Microscope machine that explores undiscovered places from the outer space, since our knowledge of the outer universe is limited, which gives us unlimited possibilities to imagine that these spaces may be found in one of its boundless areas.
Artist:Alya Ola Abbas
Screenings:
2022 | Exhibition Piece
URSUPPE creates a space in which analog raw material is infinitely reassembled by an algorithm, striving for a higher order. The basic elements: archaic animation sequences, scratched directly onto film material and experimental orchestra sounds. Both composed following a predefined modular vocabulary, resulting in points, lines, particles and transients, timbres and textures. The material is dissected, distorted, stretched, repeated, contrasted and rearranged by an algorithm - unpredictable and in realtime. When all forms are dissolved, who establishes the context? The artists? The machine? Or the mind of the viewer?
Artists:Simon Stimberg, Justin Robinson, Sophia Schönborn
Screenings:
2021 | Exhibition Piece
"XERX3S" is exploring the relationship between traditional and modern art as it depicts the inevitable, the new replacing the old: A temple that has been built over the course of decades and stood to harbour generations is destroyed by a single laser beam within the blink of an eye. Greek architecture was modelled after nature. Columns were man-made tree trunks, designed to stand the test of weather and time, but even the most durable tree decomposes so that a new generation can rise from the ashes, forever connecting generations through death.
Artist:Malte Hillebrand
Screenings:
Event Programme
Our event programme makes sure that your Sehsüchte experience is unforgettable. Delicious catering and fresh drinks, top music acts, interesting workshops and panels as well as a radiant scenography appeal to all your senses and ensure that you have a unique time during the festival. We also invite you to explore the Filmuni and Potsdam during one of our guided tours, either on foot or by bike. Let’s have intriguing discussions, long nights with good music and an overall great time together!
The event programme can be found in the programme overview by days.
