Film
Films Across Borders: 24 Weeks (24 Wochen)

Films Across Borders: Stories of Women

Thu, 10/25/2018
6:30 PM Goethe-Institut Washington

Germany, 2016, 102 min., Director: Anne Zohra Berrached

24 Weeks (Film|Neu 2016) tells the story of cabaret performer Astrid (Julia Jentsch), who six months pregnant, learns that her unborn child will be severely disabled. She and her husband Marcus (Bjarne Maedel) have a choice, but little time… A person with a strong nature and a witty answer to everything, Astrid now feels lost, on her own, impossible to continue her comedy routine. Ultimately only she who is bearing the child can make this weighty decision. What will she do? Who decides whether the child will have a life worth living?

Anne Zohra Berrached was born in Erfurt, East Germany, in 1982. After she got her degree in social education with a focus on psychology in Frankfurt, she worked as a drama teacher in London for two years. She spent several months in Madrid, Spain and Yaoundé, Cameroon before she became a director’s assistant at the Hansatheater and Ballhaus Ost in Berlin. In 2009, she began to study directing at the Film Academy, Baden-Württemberg.

Her second year movie Saint & Whore was invited to over 80 film festivals around the globe. In her third year, she completed her first feature film Two Mothers. It premiered at the 63rd International Film Festival in Berlin in 2013. The feature was released in five countries on DVD, and has earned the First Steps No Fear Award and the “Dialogues in Perspective” of the section Perspective German Cinema at the Berlin Film Festival. 24 Weeks is her second feature film.
 
Films Across Borders: Stories of Women, a multi-cultural film series, showcases an eclectic selection of cinematic works by and about women. Now more than ever, the importance of gender-balanced perspectives and parity in representation is clear. Stories of Women gives voice to vital and diverse female viewpoints through dramatic features, documentaries and shorts.

Screenings, panels and audience Q&As will explore key issues around the female gaze, women in film, and the ways in which women, fighting for equality on screen and behind the camera, raise awareness about key social issues, inspire action and pave the way for stories of other underrepresented populations to be brought to the fore.

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