19. Feb

SHIN ULTRAMAN

D: Shinji Higuchi, C: Takumi Saitoh, Masami Nagasawa, Daiki Arioka, Akari Hayami, Tetsushi Tanaka, DOP: Osamu Ichikawa, Keizô Suzuki, JP 2022, 113 min., Japanese Original with English subtitles – German premiere

Big, Bigger, Ultraman! Since the Fifties the universe of Japanese kaiju films has been constantly growing – always centered on giant monsters and godlike beings in conflict with the human race, designed to fascinate and draw crowds into cinemas, to increase the profits of the studios that can afford high budget special effects. Alongside creatures like Godzilla and Mothra, the humanesque Ultraman has been battling his way through film history since the original series launched in 1967. Shinji Higuchi breathes new life into a time-worn franchise in this thoughtful remake, focussed around a handful of well-crafted battles, while the imaginative and ever-surprising cinematography shows how formulaic American blockbusters have become in comparison. A spectacle of colors, gestures, and thoughts – with a strong sense of politics floating in the air.

[Tickets]

SERRÃO

D: Marcelo Lin, C: Ice Band, Dj Vitin do Pc, Dona Lena, Érica Lucas, DOP: Rodrigo Meireles, BR 2021, 18 min., Portuguese Original with English subtitles – European premiere 

An aging rapper comes back home after a long time. A glass eye implanted in his body turns him into a very special kind of cinematic superhero. But it also encapsulates a formal gesture: eerie greenish light, ubiquitous electronic music and artificial digital textures are like a prosthesis grafted in this deeply organic film, rooted in the streets of the metropolis and breathing along with the freshness of the actors. Marcelo Lin’s work is distinctly a product of Brazil’s contemporary cinema scene, which includes the filmographies of Adirley Queirós, Affonso Uchôa, Lincoln Péricles and André Novais Oliveira. But it forges a radical turn in relation to the work of his contemporaries: the film embraces, like none of its peers, a decisive and original filtering of the most simple forms of Hollywood cinema. If the industry was ever fair, this would be the shape of popular cinema to come.

[Tickets]

Debate GENTLE GIANTS

Men, men, men, their bodies and images of them, are in the spotlight of a debate on political bodies, popular culture, realism and heroism – inspired by films that show what it means to be larger than life.

Guests: Kristina Aschenbrennerova, Daniel Cremer, Savina Petkova

[All guests]

[Tickets]