In these times, the motto “Future”, under which the 17th Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International takes place from April 16th to 21st, has something almost healing. Because no matter how bleak it may look in terms of global politics right now, there will be a future. Many people in Germany who are taking to the streets in the nationwide demonstrations for democracy have realized that this future can be shaped to some extent. The Lights Film Festival is also involved. The management duo Gregor Maria Schubert and Johanna Süß emphasize that the future will be illuminated and explored in a variety of ways over six days.
On April 16, the festival opens confidently with a cinematographic-political border crossing: In “Shahid,” director Narges Kalhor wants to get rid of her first surname, Shahid, which means “martyr” in Iran. In her experimental documentary, Kalhor, literally haunted by the ghosts of the past, goes to the German authorities or to a psychologist whose report is needed for a name change. “Shahid” is a playful hybrid between production and documentary, between political commentary and reflection on filmmaking itself.
No less daring is the final film of the festival, Matthias Glasner's nine-time German Film Award-nominated film “Die”, a tragicomedy exploding with life in which the director deals with the death of his own parents. A demented father comes into the home, the mother is wasting away, the son, a conductor, looks after an ex's child, and the daughter drinks and starts an affair with a married dentist.
Fine humor and tender melancholy
Glasner's bittersweet family portrait is many things: drama, comedy, rough, intoxicated thigh-thumper, broken kitsch, the main thing is that it always lurches on the fine line set by the motif – a prominently cast trip about life and art and the art of surviving. The director and parts of the cast, including Lars Eidinger, Robert Gwisdek and Lilith Stangenberg, have been announced as guests.
In between, more than 100 films, including numerous world and German premieres, will be shown in ten cinemas. Films of all stripes, such as the Iranian tragicomedy “My Favorite Cake” (“Keyke Mahboobe Man”) are shown in the international feature film series alongside the Oscar-nominated animated film “Robot Dreams”. In the former, Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha tell the story of a 70-year-old lonely Tehran woman and a taxi driver who fall in love. With fine humor and tender melancholy, the film is about women in Iran and about a late meeting between two kindred spirits; criticism of the Iranian regime and the ominous accompany the film.
In Pablo Berger's animated film “Robot Dreams”, the lonely dog Dog brings a robot friend into his house until an unexpected separation puts the friendship to the test. Berger creates a film that is as melancholic as it is entertaining, which tells of loneliness and the longing for affection without any language.
“Europe and its film culture”
As has been the case for years, Lichter is making German film a priority. “In addition to the 18 international feature-length films that are curated according to the annual theme, the film series 'Future German Film' also asks about opportunities and possible developments in local filmmaking,” say Schubert and Süß. The series should not be missed, because in addition to “Die”, you can also see Thomas Arslan’s gangster film “Scorched Earth” and Tilman Singer’s horror film “Cuckoo”. Horror awaits a young American woman who is in the German Alps with her father and stepmother. After his debut “Luz”, Singer once again proves his knack for atmospheric and stylish genre cinema in the international production, which ends with a tongue-in-cheek twist, nostalgic charm included. In any case, German genre cinema is anything but dead, as is often claimed.
With the fourth Congress on the Future of German Film, the festival is continuing the discussions about the conditions and pitfalls of German film funding and the needs of filmmakers. This time, according to the management duo, it is about “Europe and its film culture”. The congress took place for the first time in 2018 on the initiative of the auteur film legend Edgar Reitz; this year, Alexander Kluge, a no less legendary auteur filmmaker, will help shape it.
Reitz will also remain at the festival, which he has been involved with for a long time. His film “Filmstunde_23”, made together with Jörg Adolph, can be seen at a Sunday matinee. In the film there is a class reunion at a Munich girls' high school, 55 years after Reitz and a film team introduced the then students to the medium of film and Super 8 cameras.
The glimpses into the past are not just with Reitz: Since, according to Schubert and Süß, the future can also be traced in the past, they are organizing a large light retrospective for the filmmaker, who died ten years ago, together with his daughter, Martina Baumgartner and film discoverer Karl Baumgartner. The homage will show eight films that Baumgartner brought into the world as the “midwife of film,” as he liked to describe himself, as a producer and in his role as co-founder of the former Frankfurt-based distributor Pandora Film, including works by Jim Jarmusch, Jane Campion and Aki Kaurismäki.
Because demolition plans have been delayed, the 17th Lichter Filmfest can also use the former Massif Central rooms as a festival center, now under the name Massif Arts. Not far from the Eschenheimer Tower, the festival presents the accompanying program, the VRStorytelling section and the Art Award, special performances, talks and the congress. The future can begin.
Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International, April 16th to 21st, https://lichter-filmfest.de/
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