9. - 16. october 2024
Discover award-winning films from festivals in Berlin, Venice, and Cannes that are shaping the art film world. Get to know the wider connections, discuss with the makers or just let yourself be carried away by the powerful stories
The city of New Rome is the main conflict between Cesar Catilina, a brilliant artist in favor of a utopian future, and the greedy mayor Franklyn Cicero. Between them is Julia Cicero, her loyalty divided between her father and her beloved.
Director Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison just prior to fleeing Iran, and his spellbinding and powerful film has at its centre a once tight-knit family devastated by political turmoil. Iman, an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, grapples with mistrust and paranoia as nationwide political protests intensify and his gun mysteriously disappears. Suspecting the involvement of his wife Najmeh and his daughters Rezvan and Sana, he imposes drastic measures at home, causing tensions to rise. Step by step, social norms and the rules of family life are being suspended. Daringly including real-life footage of the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 – and of the regime’s subsequent brutal and lethal crackdown – The Seed of the Sacred Fig is an urgent and devastating film, and a bold tribute to those who have and continue to resist. Show more
Nobody knows where the woman comes from. She is sitting on a park bench and diligently playing a child’s recorder. She says she is from France. With no money or means of supporting herself, she has been advised to teach French. This is how she comes to have two Korean women as her pupils. The woman likes to walk barefoot and to lie down on rocks. And when she is feeling up to it, she tries to see each instant in a non-verbal way and to live life as rationally as she can. But things remain as hard as ever. She relies on the Korean alcoholic drink of makgeolli to provide a bit of comfort every day.
1962. Johannes Leinert, together with his doctoral advisor, travels to a physics congress in the Swiss Alps, where an Iranian scientist is set to reveal a 'groundbreaking theory of quantum mechanics'. But when the physicists arrive at the five-star hotel, the Iranian guest is nowhere to be found. In the absence of a new theory to be discussed, the physics community patiently turns to skiing. Johannes, however, remains at the hotel to work on his doctoral thesis, but soon finds himself distracted, developing a fascination with Karin, a young jazz pianist. Something about her seems strange, elusive. She seems to know things about him - things that he thought only he knew about. When one of the German physicists is found dead one morning, two inspectors arrive on the scene, investigating a homicide case. As increasingly bizarre cloud formations appear in the sky, the pianist disappears without a trace - and Johannes finds himself dragged into a sinister story of false memories, waking nightmares, impossible love and a dark, and a roaring mystery hidden beneath the mountain.
After murdering his adoptive grandfather, the Emperor Tiberius, Caligula seizes power and begins to dismantle the Roman Empire from within. A treatise on the corrupting influence of power, Caligula undertakes a harrowing journey through depravity, madness, and destruction. 40 years after its original release, Penthouse Films International presents a completely new cut of the shocking cult classic Caligula. This unprecedented reconstruction is made up entirely of never-before-seen footage. One of the biggest scandals in cinema history, the Ultimate Cut of this notoriously decadent film finally presents the complete performances of the legendary cast for the first time, in the manner it was always intended to be seen. Starring Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, John Gielgud, and Helen Mirren.
Set against the landscape of the Polish transformation from communism to capitalism, WOMAN OF… spans 45 years of the life of Aniela Wesoły, who lives more than half of her adult life in a provincial Polish town as a man. Aniela's journey to find personal liberty as a trans woman reveals hardships in marriage and parenthood, strained family relations and complicated attitudes in her environment, which constantly place her in impossible situations. What choices will Aniela have to make? Will she be ready to sacrifice all to become who she truly is?
November 2021. 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin, the present-day Republic of Benin. Along with thousands of others, these artefacts were plundered by French colonial troops in 1892. But how will the homeland, whose path has been dramatically altered over several decades, receive them? The debate rages among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi. Show more
During one dismal afternoon in an empty elementary school, the two mothers of Armand (6) and Jon (6) get into a desperate fight when one son is accused of crossing sexual boundaries with the other. Where the truth lies is impossible to know, and soon everything evolves less and less around the children, who we never meet, and more around the adults. Veering between the serious and the absurd, Armand is stylish, provocative and unforgettable, and ultimately plays out as a hard-to-grasp study of human morality, allowing for riveting performances, led by Norwegian star Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World)
In the heart of a bustling Times Square kitchen, dreams and desperation collide as the staff each chase the elusive American dream.
It follows Vincent who finds himself under attack for no apparent reason overnight. When the phenomenon intensifies, he must run and change his way of life completely.
