Berlinale Selection 2023

Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush

Friday 27 January 2023 at 8pm

With Greek and English subtitles

The screening is part of the Berlinale Selection 2023 organized by the Goethe-Institut Cyprus

Rabiye Kurnaz is someone you might generally call an ordinary woman, except that she is a real dynamo. Taking care of her children and much more, she is the one running the show in her terraced house in Bremen. Shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, her son Murat is accused of terrorism and is (one of the first) shipped off to Guantanamo prison camp. This marks the beginning of a journey into the heart of world politics for this resolute German-Turkish woman. Together with human rights lawyer Bernhard Docke, whom she soon has completely on her side (like almost everyone around her), she battles for the release of her son – using her very own brand of self-taught English – all the way to the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Premiered at the 72nd Berlinale in the Competition 2022 section

Directed by: Andreas Dresen

Meltem Kaptan, Alexander Scheer, Charly Hübner, Nazmi Kirik, Sevda Polat, Abdullah Emre Öztürk, Şafak Şengül, Jeanette Spassova, Abak Safaei-Rad, Alexander Hörbe

Awards:

German Film Award 2022: Silver Film Award for Best Feature Film

Best Female Leading Role (Meltem Kaptan)

Best Supporting Male (Alexander Scheer)

German Acting Award 2022: Best Actress in a Leading Dramatic Role (Meltem Kaptan)

The Forger

Saturday 28 January 2023 at 6pm

With English subtitles

The screening is part of the Berlinale Selection 2023 organized by the Goethe-Institut Cyprus

Berlin, 1942. A young Jewish man, Cioma Schönhaus, refuses to let the Nazis take away his love of life. When he discovers his talent for forging documents – especially passports – he sees this as the ideal way to help not only himself but also others escape deportation. Thanks to his knack for creating new identities, he dares to venture out of hiding and navigates round the authorities with inventiveness and charm…

Premiered at the 72nd Berlinale in the section Berlinale Special Gala 2022

(2022 , 116’)

Written and directed by: Maggie Peren

Louis Hofmann, Jonathan Berlin, Luna Wedler, Nina Gummich, André Jung, Marc Limpach, Yotam Ishay

Come With Me to the Cinema – The Gregors

Saturday 28 January 2023 at 8pm

With English subtitles

The screening is part of the Berlinale Selection 2023 organized by the Goethe-Institut Cyprus

The title refers to the eponymous 1937 poem by Else Lasker-Schüler, in which the poet writes that “what once was: love” can be found at the cinema. Two decades on from this, it was a love of cinema that brought together two people who significantly expanded – today one might say, diversified – the film history of post-war Germany, encompassing both the way films are viewed as well as the discourse surrounding the medium: Erika and Ulrich Gregor.

Premiered at the 72nd Berlinale in the Forum Special 2022 section

(2022 , 155’)

Written and Directed by: Alice Agneskirchner

Cast: Erika Gregor, Ulrich Gregor

A E I O U - A Quick Alphabet of Love

Sunday 29 January 2023 at 6pm

With English subtitles

The screening is part of the Berlinale Selection 2023 organized by the Goethe-Institut Cyprus

Anna is 60 and her acting heyday is now behind her. She lives on her own but has a friend and confidant in her downstairs neighbour Michel, who is also single. Reluctantly, Anna accepts a job as a language coach for 17-year-old Adrian who has a speech impediment and is something of a misfit. She recognises him as the boy who recently snatched her handbag in the street ...

Premiered at the 72nd Berlinale in the Competition 2022 section

(2022, 104’)

Written and directed by: Nicolette Krebitz

Sophie Rois, Udo Kier, Milan Herms, Nicolas Bridet

Born in Evin

Sunday 29 January 2023 at 8pm

With English subtitles

The screening is part of the Berlinale Selection 2023 organized by the Goethe-Institut Cyprus

Director and actor Maryam Zaree seeks to shed light on the circumstances of her own birth in Evin, one of Iran’s most notorious prisons for dissidents. Forty years ago, the Shah, and the Iranian monarchy with him, was overthrown. After gaining power, Ayatollah Khomeini, the new head of state and religious leader, had tens of thousands of political opponents arrested and tortured, including the filmmaker’s parents. The family, that was later able to flee to Germany, has never discussed this period of their lives in detail. After years of hesitation, Maryam Zaree finally decides to address the decades of silence: how did their trauma as a result of persecution and violence inscribe itself in the bodies and souls of the survivors and their children? How do survivors cope on a personal level with the fact that the perpetrators still enjoy positions of power with impunity? And what does it mean politically when one of the parties involved tries to cut through the dense undergrowth of repression that exists amongst the closest members of her family?

Premiered at the 69th Berlinale in the section Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2019

( 2019, 95’)

Written and Directed by: Maryam Zaree

Awards:

Berlinale 2019: Kompass-Perspektive-Preis

Fünf Seen Filmfestival 2019: Awarded the Documentary Film Prize (Maryam Zaree)

Hessischer Filmpreis 2019: Newcomer Prize (Maryam Zaree)

Deutscher Filmpreis 2020: Best Documentary Film (Alex Tondowski, Ira Tondowski)

German Acting Award 2020: German Fairness Award