Polish Films in Berlin - September Update
The days are getting shorter and colder again - late summer has officially arrived. But there is no need to get sad about it, because with summer ending, cinema season is starting!
Dear all,
This year’s September does not disappoint: Get ready for a cinematic journey as we roll out the red carpet for Polish cinema during FilmPolska Film Festival 2023 in Berlin. It's my favorite time of the year, and I've got some must-sees lined up for you. Plus, don't miss a trip down memory lane with East German Cinema at ACUD Kino or the diverse 60 Movies Screening Series at Arsenal Cinema with my favorite Ukrainian films. Let's make September a blockbuster month!
Recommended film screenings you’ll find in this issue:
Syndrom Hamleta (07. + 08.09.23)
Piosenki o Miłości (07. + 08. + 09.09.23)
Chleb i sól (11. + 12. + 13. + 30.09.23)
Das Kaninchen bin ich (13.09.23)
Volcano (14.09.23)
Butterfly Vision (30.09.23)
🎥 FilmPolska Filmfestival 2023
September is the month of Polish cinema in Berlin - so it’s my favorite of the year! Thanks to FilmPolska, a Polish film festival in Berlin, we have the chance to see recent Polish films in various cinemas.
My personal highlights, that I look forward to the most:
Syndrom Hamleta (07.09., 08.09.)
Hamlet Syndrom was one of the most impressing films I ever saw. A group of young Ukrainians is accompanied by cameras while staging and rehearsing a play about their personal perspective on and experience with Maidan Revolution and the war in Eastern Ukraine. Both had and have huge influence on each person in the play and influence each layer of their identity. And in the end it all adds up to a central questions: What does it mean to be or not to be in today’s Ukraine?
📍Weißensee, Friedrichshain
💵 7€ / 9€
🗣️ Ukrainian with German subtitles
Piosenki o Miłości (07.09., 08.09., 09.09.)
Piosenki o Miłości is a somewhat lighter film: an emotional and also slightly tragic love story of two young people who want to help each other and who also hurt each other incredibly in the process. One thing brings them together: Their passion for music.
📍Kreuzberg, Wilmersdorf
💵 8€ / 9 €
🗣️ Polish with German subtitles
Chleb i Sól (11.09., 12.09., 13.09., 30.09.)
Chleb i Sól is about a music academy student who returns to his small hometown for the summer. During his absence, a kebab shop has opened in the town, which has become the new meeting place for young people. There he experiences how his little brother and his brother's friends behave in an increasingly racist manner towards the operators. Ultimately, the film ends in a culmination of violence. A film that captures the everyday life in a small town, the partly hopeless future of the youth as well as the tension in the Polish countryside marked by xenophobia and homophobia.
📍Kreuzberg, Wilmersdorf, Prenzlauer Berg
💵 8€ / 9€
🗣️ Polish with German subtitles
ℹ️ Apart from these films, you can see many others, not only recent ones but also those films, that were published in the last five years. So if you missed your chance to see films such as Fucking Bornholm, Dzikie Róże, Córki dancingu or Oscar-shortlisted film EO, then September is your lucky month!
🎥 East German Cinema in ACUD Kino
Das Kaninchen bin ich (13.09., 19:00)
The 19-year-old woman Maria from East Berlin falls in love with a married judge and begins an affair with him. At the time, she has no idea that he is the judge who sentenced her brother to prison in a non-transparent court case. Can this complicated constellation work out? Das Kaninchen bin ich (The Rabbit is Me) was not allowed to be premiered because the film doubts socialist ideals, such as the chance for social advancement and the GDR's legal system. The banning of the film left its mark; all films banned in the GDR were called "rabbit films".
📍Mitte
💵 7/8€
🗣️ German
ℹ️ If you are interested in the film heritage of GDR, check out the website of DEFA foundation. The foundation preserves the film heritage produced by DEFA, the state-owned film production company of the GDR. They offer an overview of possibilities to see DEFA films on TV or in cinemas.
🎥 60 Movies Screening Series in Arsenal Kino
“60 and more films that Arsenal audiences should have seen” - a new film history program at Arsenal, with the number 60 in its title representing the 60th anniversary of the institution. The program's focus is not solely on quantity but on offering diverse and alternative perspectives in film history. Curated by a group of individuals and institutions, highlighting different aspects of film history, the program will feature films categorized under keywords such as Turning Times, Think:Film, Decentering / City, Trauma – Memory, and Work.
Volcano (14.09., 17:30)
Roman Bondarchuk, a renowned Ukrainian documentarian, makes his fiction debut with "Volcano," set in a remote South-Ukrainian region. The film follows Lukas, an OSCE mission interpreter who becomes lost in the steppe, leading him to an eccentric local named Vova and his family. Bondarchuk blends elements of his documentary work, capturing the region's absurdity and realism while exploring themes of isolation and inner quest.
📍Mitte
💵 9€
🗣️ Ukrainian with English subtitles
Butterfly Vision (30.09., 17:00)
What awaits a female soldier after being captured by the enemy for two months? Lilia, a Ukrainian soldier, is welcomed like a hero when returning home after russian captivity. But the positive responses quickly change into anger, aggression and suspicion. At the same time, Lilia has to deal with the consequences of captivity: not only does she have to cope with the traumatic events. Also, her fear proves itself to be true: she is pregnant after being raped by a prison guard. Butterfly Vision is multilayer piece of art, uncovering the troubling fate of a woman in war, a female soldier who, after all that happened, seems to be the only one in her life not loosing control.
📍Mitte
💵 9€
🗣️ Ukrainian with English subtitles
Which event or film screening do you look forward to the most? Let us know in the comments - and see you soon?
Lots of love,
From Julia’s Desk
Great movies there! Chleb i sól is my personal fav
Thanks! <3