In the spirit of its opening conference, Berlin Critics’ Week 2017 closes with a political film ostensibly about a myriad of other things. Fittingly also, an accompanying flicker film follows this inner logic of antithesis which by imposing structures seeks to subvert them. Screened as world premieres will be the longest and the shortest films of the program: a 202-minute-lasting exploration of love in the digital imaginarium (produced in Germany) and a look to analogue film — from Hungary with love (and reverence). Completing this amorous trilogy is an oddball homage to Japanese “Roman Porno” movies of the 70s.

All screenings at Berlin Critics’ Week are accompanied by debates on timely questions of film culture, politics and aesthetics.

Berlin-based director Alexandre Koberidze (“Colophon”, “Der Fall”) will present the world premiere of “Let the Summer Never Come Again”. Shot on location in Georgia, the film uses its length of three hours and twenty-two minutes to demonstrate what images could, can and even ought to do. Brutal reductions of resolution herald the thrills of a pictorial dimension within the digital.

“Aroused by Gymnopedies” by Isao Yukisada (“Go”, “Crying Out Love in the Center of the World”), in which the director pays homage to Japanese “Roman Porno” films of the 70s, has an unambiguous reference point as a low budget film for the old Nikkatsu Studio, yet the film couldn’t be more contemporary. The young girls offering themselves to the superannuated film director have a perfect picture in mind, while he is totally into a tune by Erik Satie.

Screened on the same evening is an experimental film by Hungarian director Bori Máté, whose loosely assembled material in “The Headless Appearance” can be seen as another homage — to color and recollection.

The closing night of the 3rd Berlin Critics’ Week is given over to “Planetarium” by French director Rebecca Zlotowski („Belle Épine”, „Grand Central”). Her film explores film history through a politically complex and formally elaborate perspective: a Jewish film producer seeking to reinvigorate the French film industry of the late 30s finds inspiration in the presence of young spiritualists (Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp). Portman is introduced as a professional medium and re-discovers herself in the spotlights of film sets. All the while on the outside, Europe precipitates into a catastrophe.

Austrian director Siegfried A. Fruhauf will complete this final night with a liberating attack on our retinas. For five minutes, “Fuddy Duddy” scorches the eye with structures that ambivalently offer both uncertainty and hold.

Following the opening conference “Lost in Politics” on the night of February 8, at silent green Kulturquartier, the third Berlin Critics’ Week will take place from February 9 through 16, 2017 at Hackesche Höfe Kino Berlin. The event offers seven nights of film screenings and debates.

The Berlin Critics’ Week is organized by the German Film Critics Association (Verband der deutschen Filmkritik e.V.).