Germany @ BISFF 2021 - Films

We are happy to once again collaborate with the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). Besides supporting the production of this prestigious online Festival, now in its 11th edition, this year's German contribution includes the Short Export - Made in Germany 2021, an exciting specially-curated package of German short films.

With the 16th edition of Short Export - Made in Germany, outstanding German short films once again travel the world. In an unconventional yet authentic manner, they deal with change and challenges, home, arrival and overcoming trauma. They are powerful, loud and calm – and sometimes humorous.

The six films were selected from 455 German submissions to the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and illustrate the artistic, stylistic and thematic diversity of German short film making. 

This project is a Franco-German cooperation between AG Kurzfilm - German Short Film Association, German Films, Goethe-Institut Lyon, Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg and Festival International du Court Métrage Clermont-Ferrand.

This year’s package:

© nachtschwärmerfilm

INNdependence | Michael Schwarz | 17 min. | German
Corona lockdown 2020. All hotels, guest houses and youth hostels are closed – except one business hotel, which is housing 29 homeless people. However, their stay is only temporary...

© Thomas Hartmann

Michael Schwarz was born 1979 in Nuremberg. He studied film- and theatre studies in Mainz and was master apprentice of Prof. Dr. Harald Schleicher (Art Academy Mainz, film class) in 2011/12. His films have been presented at over 170 national and international film festivals and received multiple awards.

Wochenbett (Postpartum) | Henriette Rietz | 5 min. | German 

Henriette Rietz

The film describes the chaotic phase the protagonist enters when she becomes a mother for the first time. Pumped full of hormones and lacking sleep, this intense time has burned itself deep into her heart.

© Florian Kolmer

Henriette Rietz is a Berlin based visual storyteller with a loud and straight forward style. As her alter ego Herzette, her core work is focused on illustration & gif-animation. With her animated short film Postpartum she is now stepping into the short film scene.

© Jonas Riemer

Der übers Meer kam (The One Who Crossed The Sea) | Jonas Riemer | 11 min. | German
A refugee from the GDR crosses the Baltic Sea in a folding boat. Years later, he finds a new home in a burgeoning nationalist movement.

© Lisa Brüning

Jonas Riemer was born near Berlin in 1990 and studied animation at the FilmUniversity Babelsberg. His short film Mascarpone was screened at 100 festivals and won 28 awards. In 2019 Jonas Riemer realized the animated documentary The One Who Crossed The Sea with a grant from Nordmedia.

Seepferdchen (Seahorse) | Nele Dehnenkamp | 16 min. | German

© Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Amid the prosaicness of a swimming course, a young Yezidi woman wrestles quietly with her terrifying memories of the Mediterranean Sea.

© Nele Dehnenkamp

Nele Dehnenkamp is studying directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and holds an Master of Arts in social sciences from Humboldt University Berlin. Inspired by her background in sociology, her work focuses on character-driven observations that reveal patterns of social inequality.

© Frédéric Schuld

Der Stornsteinsegler (The Chimney Swift) | Frédéric Schuld | 5 min. | English
19th-century Europe: A child climbs up a chimney while a bird glides down into it to build a nest. An encounter with no way back.

© Frédéric Schuld

Frédéric Schuld is an author, director and animator. He started working as freelance graphic designer and art director for advertising agencies, before he studied film at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. He founded the studio “Fabian&Fred” with Fabian Driehorst in 2011. His award winning short Carlottas face was screened in over 200 festivals. Frédéric's first feature film as animator and co-writer is Lost in Face (director: Valentin Riedl). He was awarded the Gerd Ruge Scholarship in 2018 together with co-writer Corinna C. Poetter for making the animated documentary What happened to the dog?

Masel Tov Cocktail | Arkadij Khaet, Mickey Paatzsch | 30 min. | German & Russian 

© Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Ingredients: 1 Jew, 12 Germans, 50 ml culture of remembrance, 30 ml stereotypes, 2 tsp of patriotism, 1 tsp of Israel, 1 falafel, 5 Stolpersteine, a dash of antisemitism, 100% kosher!

Arkadij Khaet was born during the final moments of the Soviet Union. A few weeks later, his family left the Republic of Moldova and immigrated to Germany. After graduating from highschool he lived in Israel for a while, and then moved to Cologne to start his undergraduate studies in Film and Television. Since 2016 he is studying film directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

After studying directing at the Macromedia Cologne, Mickey Paatzsch has been gathering experience as a freelance filmmaker and directs his own shorts. In 2019 he completed his master's degree in philosophy at the University of Cologne. With his friend from student days, Arkadij Khaet, he also realizes movies in co-direction.

The package can be watched online on September 4, 2021 between 5.00 and 11.00 p.m. IST.

Registration is mandatory. To register, click here.