Reise nach Jerusalem / The Chairs Game

Wednesday, 27 April 2022 | 06:00pm GMT
Terenure Library, Dublin 6W

Dir.: Lucia Charlia, in colour, 120 min., Germany 2018
German with English subtitles

After Alice loses her job as a freelance editor and author, she is left without work for the first time in her life. In order to claim benefits, she has to undergo mandatory job training and workshops hosted by Berlin’s job centre. To add insult to injury, people at the employment office keep telling her to go for a completely new profession. Fearing the stigma of unemployment, Alice tells all her friends and former colleagues that she is only temporarily without a steady job all the while enjoying the perks of a flexible work schedule.

Frustrated with her situation and the training which Alice perceives as dull, she abandons the job centre and benefits to take on various small gigs reviewing products for market research institutes. The only payment she receives are petrol vouchers – the only problem is that Alice does not have a car. As she watches her old life fall apart, she desperately tries to show everyone that she is still in control.

”Reise nach Jerusalem“ (”The Chairs Game”) marks the debut feature by Berlin-based filmmaker Lucia Chiarla. Witty and honest, the film raises questions about the future of work and the often precarious nature of freelancing.

Chiarla’s film was first screened at the Max Ophüls Prize Festival in Saarbrücken and won the Best Film Award at the Achtung Berlin Film Awards in 2018.
 
Presented by Terenure Library Dublin and the Goethe-Institut Irland.