Dec 14, 2023
Berlinale Spotlight: Berlinale Shorts & Generation Guests – at the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin

For many years, the Berlinale has been present around the world with specially curated programmes. The Berlinale Spotlight extends the festival period, and thus, makes the activities of the Berlinale visible throughout the entire year.

The next Berlinale Spotlight will take place at the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin and will present films from the 2018, 2021 and 2022 festival editions in the scope of two events.

The series begins on December 21 with the programme “Compass of Memory”, featuring screenings of two short fiction-films which celebrated their premieres at Berlinale Shorts in 2018 and 2022. Chhngai Dach Alai (Further and Further Away) tells the story of a pair of siblings in Cambodia whose Indigenous home village is flooded during the construction of a reservoir dam. The brother is drawn away to the big city, while the sister wishes to remain, in order to enable the souls of their deceased parents to find peace. Each has their own way of taking leave of the place that was their home. In Imfura, a young man, Gisa, travels to his mother's village, a mother he never met, as she disappeared during the Rwandan genocide. Gisa seeks to understand and to honour her memory, speaking with those who remain and standing amid the ruins of the house that she left to him. Imfura won a Silver Bear in 2018.

Directors Polen Ly from Cambodia and Samuel Ishimwe from Rwanda will be on hand for the subsequent Q&A. “The two films describe an uprooting from different perspectives and treat the question of how one can find one's own inner compass and place in a present shaped by a past which one is unable to influence. I'm looking forward to the conversation with the directors and audience,” comments Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck, moderator for the evening and head of Berlinale Shorts.

The event, which will take place in English, is being presented in the scope of the annual Short Film Day on December 21, 2023 – the shortest day of the year, which is devoted to the short-film format all across Germany. The event starts at 7.00 pm. The following films will be shown:

Imfura
by Samuel Ishimwe
Switzerland / Rwanda
36’
Berlinale Shorts 2018

Chhngai Dach Alai (Further and Further Away)
by Polen Ly
Cambodia
24’
Berlinale Shorts 2022

On January 17, 2024, Berlinale Spotlight will present Hamy Ramezan's film Ensilumi (Any Day Now), which celebrated its premiere in 2021 in the scope of the Generation Kplus competition. As a child, director Hamy Ramezan fled Iran with his family to escape political repression, to Finland, where he has lived ever since. His debut film is told from the perspective of 13-year-old Ramin, who lives with his family, who also fled Iran, in a refugee shelter in Finland. Every day can be the day that the deportation notice is delivered —in spite of it all, the family attempts to create a little piece of home in the precarious situation, insisting on their right to happiness and dignity in a life oscillating between courage and joy, desperation and anxiety.

This event will also include a film talk, led by Generation section head Sebastian Markt and section manager Melika Gothe. The following film will be screened:

Ensilumi (Any Day Now)
by Hamy Ramezan
Finland
81’
Generation Kplus 2021

Berlinale Spotlight: Berlinale Shorts & Generation is a co-operation between the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation and the European Film Market (EFM) of Berlin International Film Festival. Admission is free of charge.

Event location:
Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation
Stresemannstraße 90
10963 Berlin

Press Office
December 14, 2023