Berlin Critics’ Week 2016

The German Film Critics Association informs
First films of the 2nd Berlin Critics’ Week (February 11-18, 2016)

The second edition of the Berlin Critics’ Week will feature the latest work of the exceptional French director Philippe Grandrieux. Avant-garde filmmaker Lewis Klahr arranged ten years of Pop Art collage shorts to a full length work which recently premiered in New Yorks’ MoMA. Amongst the other confirmed features are Syrian documentary filmmaker Sara Fattahi’s intimate portrait of three generations of women facing civil war, and Ukrainian director Igor Minaev’s reflection on his own work under Soviet censorship in a fictitious search for traces.

First Films in Programme

The animated collage “Sixty Six” by Lewis Klahr was created between 2002 and 2015, so it not only works as a self-contained film but also a retrospective of this remarkable New York film artist. Through 12 episodes a hypnotic Pop Art dream reveals itself. Comic superheroes encounter places of Greek mythology in an iconographic journey through time. The special cut-out technique offers a complex interplay of visual arts and audio elements, a conceptual yet stimulating cinematic experience.

In “Coma” young Syrian director Sara Fattahi tells a subtle war story as it unfolds within the walls of one apartment. The films’ limited indoor view reveals the daily life of three women rooted in different generations. It is formal experiment that challenges our perception of the political conditions in the Syrian capital city of Damascus.

“Malgré la nuit” (Despite the Night) is the latest film of Philippe Grandrieux. Once again the prolific artist and scholar succeeds in creating a radically sensual and physical film experience. It’s one of his most emotional as well as narrative works: erotic, openly sexual, abstract and dreamlike relations between its characters culminate in passionate, foreboding frenzy.

In “Blue Dress” Ukrainian filmmaker Igor Minaev looks back on his own creative work in times of Soviet censorship. Three of his barely seen short films of the ’70s and ’80s are embedded in a fictitious journey of a son searching for the mother, a former film actress. It is the recollection of a fading past from its cinephilic and poetic traces.

All films will celebrate their German premiere. “Blue Dress” will have its World premiere at the Berlin Critics’ Week.
 
During seven nights, February 11th to February 18th, the screenings will spark debates on questions of film culture, politics and aesthetics.

Contact:
German Film Critics Association
Frédéric Jaeger
E-Mail:  buero@vdfk.de
Tel.: +49 (30) 555 79 737
www.vdfk.de