Jakobine Motz

The “Film about the Father” is a difficult genre. Andreas Goldstein, son of the GDR cultural functionary Klaus Gysi (1912–1999) has tackled this task with a complete lack of vanity, but with insistence: measured and calm, honest and intellectual, analytical and personal. He uncovers a mosaic that renounces both the teleologies of the self-styled winners of history and the simplifications of (West) German Oscar nominees. This film is not about the lives of others, but about his own life. Not about yesterday, about today, too.

Summer 1989, East Germany. Adam works as a tailor, Evelyn as a waitress. They are planning a vacation together when Evelyn finds out that Adam is cheating on her and decides to leave for the holiday on her own.

Summer 1989, East Germany. Adam works as a tailor, Evelyn as a waitress. They are planning a vacation together when Evelyn finds out that Adam is cheating on her and decides to leave for the holiday on her own.

Summer 1989, East Germany. Adam works as a tailor, Evelyn as a waitress. They are planning a vacation together when Evelyn finds out that Adam is cheating on her and decides to leave for the holiday on her own.

Sarah Khoshjamal, a 20-year-old Taekwondo superstar, is the first female professional athlete from Iran to qualify for the Olympics. This skillful vérité portrait follows the unassuming Khoshjamal in the nine months leading up to the 2008 Beijing games. Living in an Islamic country, she is required to wear a hijab at all times and, unlike her fellow competitors around the world, cannot train with men; however, the power in her fighting resoundingly breaks down stereotypical barriers. Khoshjamal’s experience as a world-class athlete may be familiar, but captured here is the importance of the coach-athlete relationship. The bond she shares with her feisty and much-admired female coach is revealed through everyday moments as both struggle through inequality to make their mark—in sport and society. Though it’s still the male athletes who are ultimately celebrated in her country, Khoshjamal’s accomplishments and lasting influence on scores of girls in Iran are undeniable.

Reveals the courageous lives of pioneer camerawomen from Hollywood to Bollywood, from war zones to children’s laughter, in a way that has never been seen before. Based on a book by Alexis Krasilovsky, the film tells the stories of camerawomen surviving the odds in Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Mexico, the U.S. and other countries, as well as exploring their individual visions.

"Lovers, Liars and Lunatics" is a dark, screwball comedy about a neurotic suburban family that gets held hostage in their home by two inept burglars. Only as the night progresses do we realize that the Machiavellian machinations of the family are actually drawing the burglars further and further into their nefarious familial schemes, until reality blurs, and we no longer know who we should be rooting for: the family, or the burglars.

Second Breath presents a portrait of Berlin’s long and intractable history through Holly Zausner’s dramaturgy. Inspired by her time living and working in the city in the 1990s, Zausner created a series of three outsized figures made from rubber silicon and knitted material. This film features Zausner interacting with these figures in a sequence filmed at key landmarks in the city, including the Potsdamer Platz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Spree River, and the now-demolished Palast der Republik. In every scene, we see the heft of the figures counteracting her manoeuvres of them, turning the idea of the body as a metaphor for the weight of history from abstraction to physical reality.

Prüfstand VII is a 2002 German docudrama film directed by Robert Bramkamp, about the V2 rocket and the rocket research in the Peenemünde Army Research Center. The film deals with the history of ideas surrounding the rocket research and the conquest of space, with Bianca as the spirit of the rocket guiding the viewer around different aspects of rocket research. It is partly inspired by Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow and features dramatization of some selected scenes from the novel.

Eva has a persistent stutter. One day, she witnesses how Suzy gets killed in a car accident. Unguardedly, she puts Suzy's abandoned mobile phone in her pocket. That innocent move will lead to the most bizarre and unexpected consequences.