With nationalism on the rise globally, the Without Borders Film Festival held in a lake town near Berlin has chosen the motto "We" in 2019. Films shine a light on outsiders and people seeking their place in society.
Image: rbb/Maurice Weiss/Ostkreuz/zero one 24
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Without Borders Film Festival features hidden gems
Bauhaus founders, an untameable child, a Macedonian woman grapples with her conservative ideals, and a tale of robot friends: The Without Borders Film Festival in Bad Saarow again offers a diverse and compelling program.
Image: Imago/United Archives
Spotlight on the Bauhaus era
This year, two episodes of the TV series "Die neue Zeit" ("New Times") will open the festival in Bad Saarow. In keeping with the Bauhaus centennial, the German TV production highlights the problems faced by the progressive Bauhaus school amid rising conservatism. The series focuses on founder Walter Gropius and Dörte Helm, a talented and rebellious art student.
Image: ZDF/Zero One Film/Julia Terjung
Not to be tamed
A feather in the cap for the Bad Saarow film event is Nora Fingscheidt's film debut, "System Crasher," which won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival this year and was chosen as the German entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2020 Oscars. It tells the story of a young family that struggles to a deal with a unpredictable and highly aggressive member — the daughter Benni.
Image: Yunus Roy Imer/Port au Prince Pictures
"God exists, her name is Petrunya"
In a Macedonian village, a priest tosses a cross into a stream every year. Whoever pulls it out is supposed to win happiness and prosperity. Petrunya is the lucky recipient this year, however men are only allowed to take part in the ritual. Undeterred, the unemployed woman wants to keep the cross, leading to an outcry in the conservative town.
Image: sistersandbrothermitevski
My friend, the robot?
Robots with human traits are among us, at least according to Isa Willinger's award-winning documentary "Hi, AI." But can they sustain emotional ties, a feeling of intimacy? The film offers an intelligent and ironic look at the man-machine relationship.
Image: Rise and Shine Cinema
Shattered ideals
In "Sealed lips," director Bernd Böhlich tells the story of a woman who struggled to reconcile socialist ideals and East German Communist party politics. A stalwart communist wrongly imprisoned in the Soviet Union for espionage, she later tries to start a new life in East Germany. By 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall, she has become completely embittered.
Image: Neue Visionen Filmverleih
Rebellion against the ruling system
Margarethe von Trota's 1981 feature film "Marianne and Juliane" is about two sisters committed to social change in the 1970s. One is a journalist, the other a terrorist. The social drama is based on the biographies of the sisters Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin and won numerous awards, including the Golden Lion in Venice.
Image: Imago/United Archives
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Now in it's seventh year, the festival wants to celebrate the "we" in films that overcome obstacles and borders, say festival organizers Susanne Suermondt and Tanya Berndsen.
In the award-winning British documentary, Voices of the Sea, Mariella, a Cuban woman, asks if "we" even exists as more and more of her friends and neighbors take to boats to flee to the US in search of the American dream. Scheme Birds, a film about Scottish teenager, Gemma, who stands up to hopelessness and violence, also questions societal unity when some people do well for themselves and others live on the fringes.
"Voices of the Sea": Longing for a better life in a tiny Cuban fishing village Image: Labor of Love Films Ltd.
As befits this year's Bauhaus centennial, the festival kicks off with two episodes of the German TV series New Times, which explores the question how much "we" there was in the early days of Walter Gropuis' new school when different design concepts constantly collided.
A series of documentaries titled 24h Europe – The Next Generation showcases 60 young protagonists from 26 European countries who speak about their everyday lives and their dreams for the future. They are examples of what makes nations diverse and what unites them.
Documentaries, feature and short films with a focus on the major issues of our times — human rights, human dignity and humanity — have been on the program at the Without Borders Film Festival since 2013 in Bad Saarow, 60 kilometers from Berlin. This year's festival runs from August 29 to September 1. Deutsche Welle is a media partner.
