Jan 15, 2020
Heimatfilm and Heimat Horror

With a compact programme of eight films, in 2020 Perspektive Deutsches Kino celebrates the world premieres of four outstanding feature films and four documentary films. From more than 200 registered works these visually, formally and substantially interesting films stand out. The year 2020 will be the first time that Kino International will serve as the premiere cinema for Perspektive Deutsches Kino. All eight films compete for the Compass-Perspektive-Award, which is endowed with 5,000 €. The director Mia Spengler, the screenwriter Bernd Lange and the producer Melanie Andernach (MADE IN GERMANY) will decide on the prize for the best film in the programme, which will be awarded on Friday, February 28 at 7.30 pm at Kino International. Afterwards the winning film will be shown.

Which perspectives can German film unfold? And what forms of cinematic expressions do the directors find for their first works? The Perspektive Deutsches Kino shows what motivates the new filmmakers and what questions they pose in reflection of society and its social and political orientation. “I see every film in the programme as a Heimatfilm, not as a transfiguration in the romantic, kitschy style of the 50s, but as a confrontation with the world we live in - right up to Heimat horror”, comments section head Linda Söffker with regard to this year’s selection.

In almost all of the chosen films, the directors cast a light primarily on dynamic female characters, women who determine the fate of the world in small and large contexts and who have their own ideas as to what constitutes home. Within these films inevitable questions become visible and need to be asked in a world where the concept of home is changing.

How can you live when work disappears through automation and digitalisation? (Automotive, D: Jonas Heldt)
To what extent does our past have an influence on future generations and how do we define ourselves because of it? (Ein Fisch, der auf dem Rücken schwimmt, D: Eliza Petkova; Schlaf, R: Michael Venus; Walchensee Forever, D: Janna Ji Wonders)
What impact does escape, displacement and integration have on our identity? (Im Feuer, D: Daphne Charizani)
How can you create an emotionally stable sense of home for your children under precarious circumstances and patchwork conditions? (Kids Run, D: Barbara Ott)
Do hobby rooms as a projection of your big dreams offer an alternative to our hectic life? (Garagenvolk, D: Natalija Yefimkina)
And how do we want to live in the future and in which direction is our country moving? (Wagenknecht, D: Sandra Kaudelka)
The programme will be completed on the Berlinale Publikumstag with the winning documentary film of the FIRST STEPS Award Out of Place by Friederike Güssefeld (Sunday, March 1 at 8.30 pm in CinemaxX 1).

Automotive
Germany
by Jonas Heldt
World premiere / Documentary form / Debut film

While Sedanur spends the whole night in Ingolstadt sorting car parts, headhunter Eva is looking for specialists in logistics automation. Two very different representatives of a generation in which, sooner or later, everyone will be replaceable.

Im Feuer (Sisters Apart)
Germany / Greece
by Daphne Charizani
with Almila Bagriacik, Zübeyde Bulut, Maryam Boubani, Christoph Letkowski, Gonca de Haas
World premiere

Rojda, a German soldier and native Kurd, volunteers for a mission to train female Kurdish soldiers in Iraq to fight ISIS. No one must know that she is actually looking for her missing sister.

Schlaf (Sleep)
Germany
by Michael Venus
with Gro Swantje Kohlhof, Sandra Hüller, August Schmölzer, Marion Kracht, Agata Buzek
World premiere

Mona’s days are filled with concern for her mother, a woman broken by her belief that her nightmares are real. In search of answers, Mona arrives in a village where she encounters an old family curse in a strange hotel.

Wagenknecht
Germany
by Sandra Kaudelka
World premiere / Documentary form

Left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht’s working day is marked by applause and admiration but also doubts and intrigues. This film follows her and her team: from the 2017 election campaign to her withdrawal from political leadership in 2019.

Guest of Perspektive Deutsches Kino

Out of Place
Germany
by Friederike Güssefeld
Documentary form

Three young Germans sent to an educational project in the middle of Romania. This quietly observational film brings us closer to Kevin, Dominik and David – their loneliness, their desires and their turmoil – in this remote place.

As of January 15, 2020