17.10.-03.11.2024
German Film Festival x KinoFest 2024

Shahid is equal parts political drama and desperate comedy. Featuring historical heroes, contemporary criminals, and a woman saddled with both, the film asks questions of personal and political ideologies—and answers none too seriously.

In the year of 1962, the greatest luminaries in their field meet in at a physics congress located in the Swiss Alps to discuss a world-shaking theory. But soon, mysterious and inexplicable things begin to happen.

At the dawn of World War II, a young motorcycle courier in the Austrian army encounters a wounded fox cub and takes it with him to occupied France. The soldier and the fox develop an unlikely bond. Based on the true story of Franz Streitberger, director Adrian Goiginger's great-grandfather.

Joseph and Sonya are best friends raising a son together. Joseph is a director with an idea for a film in the aftermath of a previous relationship, and Sonya suffers from depression. At times hilarious, absurd, mundane, and heartwrenching, Sad Jokes searches for life’s punchline.

In 1943, the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house right next to the concentration and extermination camp he helped create. But how does one tolerate or begin to envision an idyllic life amidst the unspeakable?

To date, tens of thousands of human bones from former colonies remain stored in German museums. It is still unclear how they can be identified and returned. The Empty Grave follows two families on their arduous search for their ancestors.

Dying revolves around the estranged and dysfunctional Lunies family—orchestra conductor Tom, ailing parents Lissy and Gerd, and alcoholic little sister, Ellen. Each family member encounters death in some way, and each is confronted by their profound tragi-comedic circumstances.

Don Lope de Aguirre, a ruthless Spanish ruler, sets out to try and find the mythical Peruvian city of gold, El Dorado. However, the epic quest soon takes a toll on his mental health. Aguirre is a wild vision of madness and folly, set against the beautiful but unforgiving Amazon.
 

A comprehensive portrait of iconic director Werner Herzog. Revealing extraordinary anecdotes about his prolific and decades-long career, as well as his distinctive filmmaking process. The documentary features interviews, archival footage, and never-before-seen excerpts.
 

Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald is an opera-loving fortune hunter who dreams of bringing opera to a remote trading post in the Peruvian jungle. With the help of Madam Molly, his crew, and an indigenous tribe, he ventures into the wilderness to tap into the riches of unexploited rubber territory.
 

Sent to Transylvania to negotiate for a house purchased by Count Dracula, Jonathan Harker turns a deaf ear to his wife Lucy’s forewarning and leaves his idyllic town. Soon, he finds himself trapped, while the Count descends from the mountains towards Lucy, with death and plague in tow

My Best Fiend explores the love-hate relationship between director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski. Utterly puzzling to outsiders, the film delves into the spaces between trust and strife, and the powerhouse duo’s plans to murder one another.
 

Curated by Maike Mia Höhne, Artistic Director, Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg

From this year’s Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, one of the oldest and renowned short film festivals in Europe, comes a selection of four of the best German short films nationwide and the film school scene. Each year, the festival presents over 400 films showcasing the art of the short form, and brings together cinema, performative works, and discourse.

 

Curated by Alejo Franzetti

Detach, release! To clean up: to liberate—to make space for new things to arise, to make these new things possible. In Liberation, Alejo Franzetti selects films that get rid of oppressive elements and prejudices—in social structures, narrative structures, and our perceptions, to present four films that confront authoritarian conspiracies with beauty and fugacity.
 

Curated by Leong Puiyee, Objectifs

What are some of the images that pop into our heads when we think about cleaning up? Do the actions of scrubbing away dirt, the labour of cleaners cleaning the streets, and people washing dishes come to mind? The cultural practice of keeping and maintaining cleanliness is so imbued in our lives and surroundings that most of the time, we do not think twice about cleaning up. But life is hardly ever tidy and clean.

How do we clean up the trauma, stereotypes, memories, and expectations around and within us? From struggling to belong, to reminiscing about a cherished loved one, these seven short  films ponder what it means to cleanse one’s self.