Following the great success of last year’s Oberhausen International Short Film Festival Tour, Artos House in collaboration with the Goethe Institut are proud to welcome the screening of the programs ‘Award winners 2020’ on the 19th of November, the ‘International Competition’ on the 20th of November and the ‘Made in Germany 3’ on the 21st of November at 20:00, at ARTos House.

In the course of six decades, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen has developed into one of the most highly acclaimed cultural events worldwide – a place where renowned figures like Agnès Varda, Martin Scorsese, Alexander Kluge and Werner Herzog first showed their films. Oberhausen is the world’s oldest short film festival and in the meantime also enjoys an excellent standing in the art scene, where short films and videos play an increasingly important role today.

Screening 19th of November

This selection of winners of the 2020 festival also includes works that have even received several awards. Sohrab Hura’s “Bittersweet” is a reflection on family relationships and domestic spaces, exploring the bond between the filmmaker and his mother and that between his mother and her beloved dog. Hura uses his grainy flash shots to sensitively capture intimate and banal moments in the life of his mother, who suffers from acute paranoid schizophrenia.

In Bjørn Melhus’ elaborately produced science fiction film “SUGAR”, a robot attempts to free the inhabitant of a post-apocalyptic consumer world from the prison of his routines through physical proximity.

The finely staged “Shepherds” by Teboho Edkins shows cattle thieves serving time in a prison in Lesotho. They talk about their lives and why they came here. The closed room becomes a stage for universal dramas of mankind.

In “A Month of Single Frames”, on the other hand, Lynne Sachs processes material that was given to her by filmmaker and performance artist Barbara Hammer shortly before her death. The result is an expressive study of life in all its forms and the difficulty of facing death. The film, which was awarded the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen, is convincing in its ability to find poetry and complexity in simple things.

Award Winners

A Month of Singles Frames  

Lynne Sachs, USA 2019, colour, English, 14‘

Shepherds  

Teboho Edkins, France/South Africa/Germany 2020, colour, Sotho with English subs, 27‘

Bittersweet  

Sohrab Hura, India 2019, colour and b/w, English, 14‘

SUGAR  

Bjørn Melhus, Germany 2019, colour and b/w, English, 20‘30‘‘

Screening 20th of November

This programme brings together some of the most interesting films from the 2020 International Competition.

In 1982 the indigenous Zoque community was forced to relocate due to the eruption of a volcano. “( ( ( ( ( /*\ ) ) ) ) ) )” is the portrait of a village in Chiapas, Mexico, its culture, sounds and architecture. The film documents the modern challenges and world view of a community that is also under political pressure to preserve its land and rights.

Indigenous culture also plays an important role in the feature film “O Jardim Fantástico”. Here, following an old tradition, a teacher administers ayahuasca in her classroom to teach her students other levels of reality.

In “BELLA” by Thelyia Beltraki, the boundaries between feature film and documentary become blurred when, in Greece in the late 1980s, first the country, then the world, and perhaps even her personal environment undergoes serious change before the eyes of the idealistic worker Anthi.

In “Gira Ancora” an adolescent roams his neighbourhood in Palermo. In the tradition of Neorealism, the camera lets us participate in the life of this community and at the same time shows how the rumours about his mother gradually make him an outsider. The protagonist’s world contracts in ever tighter circles.

International Competition

The Fantastic Garden  

Tico Dias/Fábio Baldo, Brazil 2019, colour, Portuguese with English subs, 21‘

( ( ( ( ( /*\ ) ) ) ) )  

Saúl Kak/Charles Fairbanks, Mexico 2019, colour, Spanish with English subs, 18‘30‘‘

BELLA  

Thelyia Petraki, Greece 2020, colour, Greek, English, Russian with English subs, 24‘30‘‘

One More Round  

Elena Petitpierre, Switzerland 2019, colour, Italian with English subs, 22‘

Screening 21st of November

This compilation, the third part of our series with the best German short films of the last ten years, deals with the living conditions of migrants in Germany today.

In 1984 six Turkish citizens died in Duisburg-Wanheimerort in an arson attack. While the police quickly ruled out a racist background, from today’s point of view there is a lot of circumstantial evidence to prove it. “Dunkelfeld” goes in search of clues and reopens the case.

In the animation “Brand”, an East German mayor and his family are met with a wave of hatred when he agrees to take in refugees.

The essay film “ma nouvelle vie européenne” reflects on Europe’s invisible borders from the perspective of Abou, a Malian refugee in Germany, making the camera a medium of self-empowerment.

In “Three Notes”, Jeannette Gaussi artistically processes the few remaining photographs of her Afghan childhood.

The playful “Moruk” shows the introverted Hakan and the fun-loving Murat hanging out in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood. They meet daily, smoke pot, dream, philosophize and argue.

“Tiefenschärfe” finally reads in the markings of the places in Nuremberg where the so-called NSU committed three murders. Here the pen becomes the camera and the camera becomes the actor while the film traces the unsettling impact of these attacks on society.

Made in Germany 3

Dark Figure  

Ole-Kristian Heyer/Patrick Lohse/Marian Mayland, Germany 2020, colour, German, Turkish with English subs, 16‘

Ablaze  

Jan Koester/Alexander Lahl, Germany 2019, colour, German with English subs, 5‘30‘‘

my new european life  

Abou Bakar Sidibé/Moritz Siebert, Germany 2019, colour, French with English subs, 22‘30‘‘

Three Notes  

Jeannette Gaussi, Germany 2006, colour, no dialogue, 4‘

Moruk  

Serdal Karaça, Germany 2009, b/w, German with English subs, 28‘30‘‘

Depth of Field  

Mareike Bernien/Alex Gerbaulet, Germany 2017, colour, German with English subs, 14‘30‘‘

Free Admission

English subtitles