Brückenschlag

Brückenschlag

15th of February 2026 – 8pm Hackesche Höfe Kino

Films:
LOYNES
JUSTA

Debate Format: BRÜCKENSCHLAG

In this format, the filmmakers of the evening meet guests who are not involved in the film industry or film criticism and view their films from a wide range of perspectives. 

Guests include: Edna Bonhomme, Dorian Jespers, Teresa Villaverde

LOYNES

D: Dorian Jespers, C: Elaine Collins, Vincenç Altaió, Johan Opstaele, Sheila Breen Rickerby, Margaret O’Kell, DOP: Arnaud Alberola, BEL/FRA/MKD/GBR 2025, 25 Min.

Courtroom scenes and dream sequences alike have long been part of cinema’s DNA. In folding them into one another, Dorian Jespers transforms and expands them. In the interconnected scenes of LOYNES, he ventures into an unpredictable world—one that is light-footed and energetic, driven by a search for unusual perspectives on life and death; on the laws of the body and nature. At a time when democracies are being undermined and past policies are haunting the present, Jespers chooses a timeless courtroom as the setting for his Kafkaesque farce.

Dorian Jespers (b. 1993, Brussels) is a filmmaker trained at INSAS (Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacles), KASK (The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent), and Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains. His short film Sun Dog, inspired by a surreal journey in the Russian Arctic, won over twenty awards worldwide — including the main prize at the Rotterdam Film Festival — and was named Short Film of the Year 2020 by the Short Film Conference. It qualified for the Ensors, the European Film Awards, and the Oscars, and was screened at MoMA, ICA London, Garage Moscow, among others.

JUSTA

R: Teresa Villaverde, C: Betty Faria, Madalena Cunha, Filomena Cautela, Ricardo Vidal, Alexandre Batista, K: Acácio de Almeida, PT/FR 2025, 108 Min., portugiesische OmeU – Deutschlandpremiere

The devastating fires in Portugal in 2017 left deep wounds, scarring people and nature alike. Ten-year-old Justa and her father Mariano, disfigured by the flames; elderly, blind Elsa, who hides her burnt hands in gloves; young Simão with his soccer ball; and Justa’s psychologist—each of them moves in the long shadow of grief and loss, walking among charred trees and plastic flower graves. In Teresa Villaverde’s mysterious film, the connections between these characters gradually begin to emerge, like traces of soot on scorched bark. A cinematic elegy about the wounds we leave behind, and the scars we carry on and within us, with which we must try to somehow live.

Teresa Villaverde is a Portuguese screenwriter, director, and producer, born in Lisbon in 1966. She began her artistic career in theatre as co-writer and co-director of a stage production with the Theatre Group of the School of Fine Arts in Lisbon. She later transitioned into cinema, working in various production roles before directing her first feature films. Her work has premiered at major international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. Over the course of her career, her films have received numerous awards and have been the subject of sustained international circulation. As a filmmaker and educator, Teresa Villaverde is frequently invited to give masterclasses and teach in Portugal and internationally. Her filmography has been presented in major retrospectives, including those held at the Centre Pompidou and Fundação de Serralves in 2019, as well as at cinematheques and festivals in Italy, Spain, Croatia, Switzerland, South Korea, and Portugal. Among her more recent works are BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO (2014), a collective feature film; COLO (2017), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival; and OÙ EN ÊTES‑VOUS, TERESA VILLAVERDE? (2019), produced for the Centre Pompidou’s ongoing series; and JULA (2025), her latest feature film.

[Tickets]