Co-presented with Chicago International Film Festival's Summer Screenings Series
Dir. Sarah Blaßkiewitz
Germany, 2021
109 min.
German with English subtitles
Register here
Naomi, Ivie's half-sister, whom Ivie didn't even know existed, suddenly appears at her apartment door and tells Ivie of the upcoming funeral of their father in Senegal. For Ivie, who grew up with her white mother in Leipzig and is now looking for a job after having just finished her teacher training, this is an all-the-more intense confrontation with her own "African" background. During their extensive conversations, Naomi above all sharpens Ivie's view of her own identity as an Afro-German, and of all the everyday racism and discrimination that Ivie experiences. Sarah Blaßkiewitz's debut film is an affecting coming-of-age story about a young woman growing into her identity.
Tickets are free, but advanced registration is encouraged.
After the screening, a discussion about the film will be led by
Xan Holt.
Xan Holt is a Postdoctoral Weinberg Fellow in the Department of German at Northwestern University. He is currently working on a book entitled Transit and Trespass: Crossing Borders in Central European Literature that analyzes border-crossing narratives in German and Polish literature from the end of the Second World War to today. Alongside research on literature of the borderlands, migration, and displacement, he is also interested in film, television, and new media and has co-edited a special issue of The Germanic Review on streaming television in Germany.
Check out the full schedule for Chicago International Film Festival's Summer Screenings series, which features one international film every Wednesday evening between May 24 and September 20, 2023.
Back
