The «Portrait of a Cardinal» from the Oskar Reinhart Collection is the bust portrait of a high-ranking church official. The circumstances behind this commissioned work shed light on power imbalances. Our programme examines power at various levels – political, sociocultural, and private. Addressing oppression and inequality, the films also offer an impressive testimony of creative and aesthetic resistance.
Dreams about Putin
Vlad Fishez/Nastia Korkia / Belgium/Portugal/Hungary 2023 / 30' / colour / Russian / Ani/Doc
After the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, many people started to dream about Putin. And they shared these dreams in the media. Over 1000 dreams about Putin are documented. This film is an attempt to reflect on the theme of repression through a combination of found footage and 3D game animation made in Unreal Engine in order to portray the authentic dreams of those affected by the war and explore the theme of the collective unconscious in society.
I Have Sinned a Rapturous Sin
Maryam Tafakory / Iran/United Kingdom 2018 / 8'51" / DCP / colour / English/Farsi / Exp
What cures women of sexual promiscuity? Eating lettuce, of course. Fragments of Forough Farokhzad’s poem «Sin» are read out against religious clergy advising women on how to control their lust.
Freedom & Independence
Bjørn Melhus / Germany 2014 / 15'1" / colour / English / Exp/Fic
This experimental short questions the current global ideological paradigm shifts towards new forms of religious capitalism by confronting ideas and quotes of the self-proclaimed objectivist philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand with evangelical content of US-American mainstream movies. This contemporary fairy tale, in which Melhus performs all the characters himself, was partly shot in a Berlin morgue and new urban environments in Istanbul.
An Ecstatic Experience
Ja 'Tovie M Gary / USA 2016 / 6'11" / colour/black & white / English / Ani/Exp
A cinematic meditation on transcendence as a means of resistance.
45th Parallel
Lawrence Abu Hamdan / United Kingdom 2022 / 15' / DCP / colour / English / Doc
A monologue is performed in a building that inhabits the thickness of a borderline. A reflection on how free movement, free knowledge, and free space are under threat.
Starfuckers
Antonio Marziale / USA 2022 / 14' / colour / English / Fic
An intimate evening between a film director and a companion is disrupted when a familiar face arrives.