He became famous as a poet, but is hardly known as a film writer. Yet Günter Kunert (1929-2019) wrote the scenarios for a total of 63 cinema and television films, series and film feuilletons over a period of 48 years. His texts for film and television, including the many works that were not realised, are characterised by an almost boundless joy in storytelling and an enormous wealth of imagery, combined with sharp, intelligent wit. Seemingly effortlessly, Kunert transferred his fantastic…

In 1931, under the title "Lob der Charge" (In Praise of the Charge), the Berlin film critic Rudolf Arnheim praised the special quality, wit and stubbornness of the supporting actors in the cinema of the Weimar Republic who were acclaimed by the audience. He was thinking especially of comedians such as Siegfried Arno, Szöke Szakall and Otto Wallburg, all of whom had to flee Germany after the National Socialist seizure of power because of their Jewish origins. Following on from…

"I want to make films because films as they are currently made bore me," Věra Chytilová (1929-2014) is reported to have said at her interview in 1957 at Prague's FAMU film school. Only a few years later, Chytilová, the only woman to study in Otakar Vávra's class, played a decisive role in the reinvention of Czechoslovak cinema. Just as interesting and exciting as the films she made before she was banned from working for several years in connection with the…

Many documentaries directed by Róża Berger-Fiedler in the GDR occupy a special position. First of all, this refers to the themes, people and events that the filmmaker, who was born in France in 1940 as the daughter of Polish Jews, made the focus of her work. Be it the biography of the former head of the "Jewish Department" of the Dresden Gestapo, who had lived unnoticed for decades in the GDR - the country that had taken up the cause…

In the GDR, from the mid-1970s onwards, a series of films critically examined the social conditions in their country. They tell of interpersonal conflicts and personal problems that can be parabolically related to social grievances in the GDR. The works realised in the West by screenwriters, actors and directors from the GDR in turn reflect experiences of forced emigration, life in a capitalist foreign country and alienation from the homeland. The retrospective, produced in cooperation with the Federal Agency for…

The little witch and her raven Abraxas, the little water sprite and his friend, the carp Cyprinus, the little ghost, the orphan boy Krabat, the robber Hotzenplotz and the magician Petrosilius Zwackelmann. They are all creatures of the imagination, they all have a place deep in our memory. This is true at least for those millions of people who were lucky enough to grow up with Otfried Preußler's children's books, indeed to make friends with them. Because they were read…

What does Berlin sound like? What noises and sounds does the city make, do its inhabitants make? And what can you hear during the day and what at night? Sounds of Berlin is the motto of this year's Long Night of Museums. And so we invite you to four one-hour short film programmes with Berlin films shot between the 1930s and the fall of the Wall, all of which also appeal to our ears. They take us to places near…

The hunger for images was immense. For images that for a short time displaced the reality of ruins, fear of the future and hardship, in which the Soviet soldiers, perceived either as occupiers or liberators, shaped everyday life. In addition, there was a desire for images other than those of the past 12 years of National Socialist rule and film production.

In the last ten years, a generation of female directors has stepped into the limelight in Poland who have made a name for themselves with films of their very own kind. The number of national and international awards they have won - including prizes at the Venice and Berlin film festivals - speak for themselves. Born between 1973 and 1984, Anna Jadowska, Anna Kazejak, Elwira Niewiera, Katarzyna Rosłaniec, Jagoda Szelc, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Małgorzata Szumowska and Anna Zamecka have helped shape…