NAZA on CINEGEEK.DE 

A harrowing documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who previously garnered attention with No Other Land. Naza is a film difficult to describe and even more difficult to watch. Based on revelations by The Guardian, corroborated by 24 Israeli intelligence officers, Naza is not told from a Palestinian perspective, yet it features Palestinian voices, recorded on their mobile phones. After October 7th, the intelligence apparatus of surveillance was running at full speed, and we witness how revenge turned into genocide. Many reject films shot from the perspective of the oppressor (see Claude Lanzmann). Although Naza features exclusively Israeli voices, it doesn't fit into this category, as it is an investigation into state violence. A journalistic piece in real time. We hear from those involved not years later, but while they are still carrying out the orders that led to genocide. We learn just how intensive the surveillance was. We learn that someone who inflicts such massive harm on the population of Gaza is indifferent to its destruction. Many deny their guilt, claiming they are merely following orders. Few confront their actions. Naza will anger and disappoint many. Israel has already questioned the authenticity of the images, and Palestinians will criticize the fact that only the oppressor is given a voice. NAZA refers to the unit of measurement used to count Palestinians killed as collateral damage. The film attempts to refute genocide deniers who (as was the case during the Nuremberg Trials) rely on subjective arguments. In an ideal world, a film that has to prove the existence of genocide wouldn't even be necessary. Why don't we simply believe those who have lived through hell in Gaza?

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*Sound Of Falling* spans a century and several generations of a family from the Altmark region. The film is set entirely on this family’s farm. We first see the farm around 1910. This might sound like a linear narrative, but that is precisely what director Mascha Schilinski avoids with her extensive material. She does not tell the story chronologically. Instead, she interweaves the generations and links them once again through the setting – the farm. Almost like an Impressionist painting. The timeline unravels, the past overlaps with the present. Almost like a ghost story featuring a haunted house and a ghost – that is the story. In every generation, there is a curious young girl surrounded by death on all sides. And every generation struggles with unspoken, forbidden longings. Our task is to find out who these people are and what era we are in. It always comes down to the ‘life lived in vain’ – an expression that crops up time and again. Floors creak, flies buzz, a deafening silence. What is it? The feelings we never admit to? Time in all its relentlessness? Time does its work, people are forgotten, and yet... something remains. Something around us.

FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Taxidermia + surrealistische Komödien 

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It's easy to forget; Peter Sellers, a British comedian who started his career in the 50s, had a furious start in Hollywood thanks to his in-house director Blake Edwards, but also lots of stupid comedies. The Party, 1968, is definitely not an off-the-shelf Peter Sellers comedy. In Blake Edwards The Party, Sellers develops a character and simply plays it through. For better or for worse. Whereby; in The Party there are almost exclusively terrible moments. Sellers embodies Hrundi V. Bakshi, an Indian actor who politely, even delicately sabotages an entire evening. Supported by an incredibly drunk butler. Scene: The villa of a Hollywood producer with many, many guests and an elephant. The party there begins inconspicuously with cocktail music in the background. You nod at each other discreetly - representing your own status. Like at a Neuköllner Hipster Party. The music is discreet, everyone wears strange clothes. Behind them, however, madness slowly escalates. At first, the events remain painfully close to life. Could that happen to us? The film says: It's possible!

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The French found the term "Nouvelle Vague Allemande", the Germans say "Berliner Schule". But school is the wrong term for a loose group of directors who shoot mainly in Berlin and whose films are minimalist and oriented to everyday life. More and more often, however, one hears that these films of the Berlin School seem to be unworldly and hostile to the spectators. In 2001 the impossible happened, Christian Petzold's Arthaus Action film Die innere Sicherheit was awarded the German Film Prize. Petzold's fame was colored by Angela Schanelec (My Slow Life) and Thomas Arslan (The Beautiful Day). This was not the German mainstream with its bestselling films, but the revival of great role models such as Robert Bresson, Eric Rohmer or Kiarostami. When Christoph Hochhäusler's Milchwald ran at the Berlinale, he was given the label "Berlin School". Filmmakers grouped around the film magazine Revolver, Christoph Hochhäusler, Benjamin Heisenberg, Valeska Griesebach, Ulrich Köhler and Jessica Hausner, were now Berlin School. Formulating one's own subjectivity means alienating figures or places. The almost frozen-looking inner worlds of Milchwald, the apathetically observing sleeper of Heisenberg, the passengers of Petzold in ghosts. Just a moment ago friends or parents, disappeared in the next moment just like ghosts...

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Als ich Ghosts zum ersten Mal sah, bemerkte ich, wie aus dem Tiergarten so etwas wie ein Geisterwald wurde, da verstand ich, was das Label "Berliner Schule" eigentlich bedeutet. Zu aller erst umfasst es, nie mehr zu zeigen als das Allernötigste. In Ghosts erzählt Christian Petzold die Geschichte von zwei jungen Mädchen im Tiergarten und einem Paar, das seine verlorene Tochter sucht. Die Geschichte verknappt Petzold so konzentriert, dass es fast unheimlich wirkt. Je einfacher einer der vielen Möglichkeiten des Films dargestellt wird, desto mehr Alternativen dieser Möglichkeit zeigen sich auf. Da kreuzen sich die Wege zweier Mädchen. Und ein Paar tritt auf. Dann verschwindet ein Mädchen und alles löst sich wieder auf. Wie so oft, orientiert sich Petzold an Vorbildern. Hier am Märchen vom "Totenhemdchen" der Gebrüder-Grimm. Die Untoten erscheinen am helllichten Tag. Sie sind aber nicht gefährlich, sondern einfach nur auf der Suche nach einem Ort, zum Bleiben, Obwohl die Bilder von Christian Petzold den Eindruck machen, der Tiergarten wäre der kälteste Ort der Welt, spüren wir die Verzweiflung der Mädchen. Die Glut der Leidenschaft. 

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Das alte Problem; die Handlung dieses Almodovar Films zusammen zu fassen oder auch nur zu skizzieren, ist kaum möglich. Zumindest nicht, wenn man NICHT vorhat, einen Roman zu verfassen. In der Gegenwart wird eine Geschichte aus der Vergangenheit erzählt, teilweise als Film im Film und irgendwann gehen beide Kategorien ineinander über. Etwa so als wenn die Erinnerungen einer Person kurioser Weise die Erinnerungen einer anderen Person enthalten. Der ganze Film funktioniert wie ein geniales Spielzeug. Wie ein Zaubertrick, den man nicht analysieren sollte, weil er sonst keine Wirkung mehr zeigt. Auftritt eines jungen Filmregisseurs namens Enrique (Fele Martinez). Er bekommt Besuch von Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal), der wiederum eine Geschichte geschrieben hat. Die soll Enrique lesen. Normalerweise würde er das auch tun, aber Ignacio ist DER Ignacio: Enriques erste Jugendliebe in der Schule. Das war damals als Ignacio von einem Priester in der Schule missbraucht wurde. Tatsächlich liess er den Missbrauch zu, um Enrique aus einigen Schwierigkeiten zu befreien. Diese Handlung (und das ist weniger als eine Skizze), erlaubt es Almodovar, transgressives Sexualverhalten während der Zeit, die Almodovar ganz bestimmt am stärksten geprägt hat, zu zeigen: Der Zeit der faschistischen Franco Diktatur.