Nov 28, 2024
Berlinale Spotlight: Generation & Berlinale Shorts – Guests at the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation

The Berlinale has been present worldwide for many years with specially curated programmes. The Berlinale Spotlight extends the festival period and makes the Berlinale's activities visible throughout the year.

After last year's very well attended Berlinale Spotlight, Generation and Berlinale Shorts are once again guests at the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin. Three events are planned for December and January.
On December 19, Generation will present the festival favourite Sieger sein (Winners) in a morning programme for school classes and other groups. Under the motto “Even if we don't know each other...”, Berlinale Shorts will show four short films that premiered at the Berlinale on December 21. The Spotlight will conclude with a screening of this year's Swiss submission for the Oscar for best international film Reinas (Generation 2024) on January 14, 2025.

Generation

At the centre of Sieger sein (Winners) is Mona, who fled Syria with her Kurdish family and ends up at a primary school in Berlin-Wedding. Things are tough there. Even in the girls' football team that Mona joins, everyone plays against each other. But only “team work makes the dream work”.

Reinas takes us to Lima in the turbulent year 1992, when Lucia, Aurora and their mother Elena decide to move to the USA. The reunion with their estranged father Carlos, Elena's ex-husband, leads to a departure with mixed feelings.

In very different ways, both films draw on the autobiographical experiences of their directors and tell of flight, of children finding their way in a world marked by political violence, of marginalisation and racism and of searching for and finding their own strength.

December 19, 2024, 10.00 am
Sieger Sein (Winners)
Director: Soleen Yusef
Germany
Generation Kplus 2024
The screening of Sieger sein (Winners) will be accompanied by a moderated film discussion.

January 14, 2025, 6.30 pm
Reinas
Director: Klaudia Reynicke
Switzerland / Spain / Peru
Grand Prix of the International Jury for the Best Film in Generation Kplus 2024
The director Klaudia Reynicke will be present at the screening of Reinas.

Berlinale Shorts

The short film compilation “Even if we don't know each other...” tells the story of people who know nothing about each other or have never met before and yet care for one another.
In Adieu Tortue, five-year-old Inci wanders alone through the vast hilly landscape by the Black Sea. Her mother has just died. When she meets the grown-up Zeynep, she decides to join her. Zeynep also lived here once and has returned after many years abroad. In the animation film Circle, a girl draws a circle on the ground. Passers-by step into it, one by one. Soon the circle is full of people struggling to make room for each other. The documentary film After/Life follows men in the border region between Mexico and the USA. They want to help those who got lost in the desert heat on their way to a new life. All too often they arrive too late. El Buzo portrays the diver Julio César Cu Cámara, who salvages scrap the size of cars or mattresses from the depths of Mexico City's sewerage system. Without him, the sewerage system in this city of millions would clog up and collapse.

The films will be followed by a film talk with the director Selin Öksüzoğlu. The short films are subtitled in English, the discussion will be translated into German. The event is part of the annual Short Film Day, which is dedicated to short film throughout Germany on December 21 – the shortest day of the year.

December 21, 2024, 7.00 pm

Adieu Tortue
Director: Selin Öksüzoğlu
France / Turkey, 24’, Berlinale Shorts 2024

Cìrcle
Director: Joung Yumi
South Korea, 7’, Berlinale Shorts 2024

After/Life
Director: Puck Lo
USA, 15’, Berlinale Shorts 2018

El Buzo
Director: Esteban Arrangoiz
Mexico, 16’, Berlinale Shorts 2016

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

Venue:
The Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation
Stresemannstraße 90
10963 Berlin

Press Office
November 28, 2024