Press

7th Berlin Revolution Film Festival, 21-22nd October 2023

It has been seven years since we opened our door for true independent films and their enthusiastic and daring authors, who do not hold back to express their most inner thoughts, observations, emotions and desires, reflecting on themselves and on the turbulent and ever changing world around us. It has been an intense and wonderful path we took, traveling through all these shifting realities and perspectives, witnessing their unveiled facets and aspects, meeting so many incredible and diverse personas behind them, their dreams, fears and disturbing visions. And we move on, striding this rocky road, landing once again in Kino Moviemento, Kreuzberg, with the new selection of auteur-driven gems from all sides of the globe.

Our 7^th edition is at the doorstep and for it we prepared a weekend of daring and uncompromising creations, coming from different backgrounds, cultures and regions. On Saturday and Sunday, 21-22. October, the audience will be able to see these films in six screening blocks, starting from 5 pm, with the last blocks ending at 11 pm on each day. The program includes both short and feature films, coming from countries such as Estonia, Greece, Iran, Serbia, Colombia and more. Having such a colorful background, these projects share one thing in common though: in the time of mass production, consumerism and sequels, they remind us of what personal voice means and offer unconventional instead of pleasing, profound instead of entertaining, provocative but not vulgar and invite the audience to accompany them on a journey that would require all their attention and devotion, that definitely won’t remain unrewarded.

With all this in mind, it is not coincidental that our program on Saturday will start with a touching miniature, that envelops such creative tendencies in a nutshell: “Some kind of intimacy” by the director Toby Bull succeeds in giving layers of meaning to simple and overlooked natural motifs and morphs physical into metaphorical, while contemplating about the ways to deal with loss. Our first screening block named Encounters, far and close will also bring “Epitaph” from Estonia, “Transference” from the Untied States, “Sun and shadow” from Greece, “The journey” from France, “Sunrise” from Netherlands and “If…” from Serbia and Germany. With the focus on positioning protagonists in their own inner spaces, they resonate with the tremor of the lost fragments, fading constellations, closeness and distance.

The second screening block No safety net brings sharper and more provocative tone to the screen. With “Twerk for Yemen” by the director Tanja Holm from Sweden, we enter a more slippery terrain, where social collides with personal, where the question of measure has been cleverly put to the test, and the subjects like morality, indifference and the definition of righteousness are exposed for their flexibility and adaptive nature. Raw, aggressive tone, that has been bravely applied here, creates good counterbalance to the subjective visual narrative. With the same energy and uncompromising voice we continue with “Dicks that I like” and “L’incanto” that break taboos, expose violence, confront innocence and guilt, with almost cathartic function. The block ends with Edward Kihn’s “Terrain Vague” a dystopic fantasy with a caustic commentary on gentrification and class inequality in American cities.

The first day of the festival concludes with the film block At the threshold, starting at 9 PM and bringing two fiction films, with rich imagery and meditative tone: “Beyond the night” and “Where the merrows roam”. Past and present, stages and seasons intertwine, as time seemingly stands still on the river bank, on the sea shore, where the memory lingers, and dreams, reminiscences and visions take almost physical form.

In Altitudes, the first screening block on Sunday, 22. October, we will present two experimental documentaries, in which positioning deeply affects experiencing and interpretation of the chosen subject. While “Slow revolution” of the American director Rustin Thomson through its direct and spontaneous approach exposes far-reaching anomalies of the modern world, “The fantastic” by the Finnish director Maija Blåfield reverses the set-up where westerners are peeping in on the everyday life of the closed-off state. Alternating documentary footage and visual effects, the film raises the question of how reality is defined.

The fifth block Dusk touches the subject of the source and its offspring, disturbed balance and ever-growing ignorance and indifference, when almost facing inevitable consequences of the life we chose to live. Four short films gradually deal with the aspects of ecological crisis, pointing to what has become a juxtaposition of mankind and its habitat. “Reserve”, “Half Wet” “Alpinestate” and “Land that rises and descends”, all approach this complex and sensitive subject in their own unique manner.

During the last screening block Night and beyond on Sunday evening, we will present two experimental projects. “Lost images” by the Italian author Cesare Bedogne is a visual poem that deals with the subject of a final departure, memory and loss, visions and blindness, narrated in author’s recognizable visual style and haunting atmosphere. Our 7^th edition ends with “Elpis”, a poetic essay by the Berlin based Iranian director Rouzbeh Rashidi, that radically engages all its narrative aspects in a deep plunge into haunting feeling of exile and alienation, that disturbingly resonates through personal and collective memory.

The audience will have the opportunity to hear more about the selected works from the authors themselves during Q&A sessions after each screening block. The Sunday evening is reserved for a prize ceremony and closing of the festival.

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To see our full program and get more information, check out our website and follow us on Instagram. Or write to us directly, if you have any question. 

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We look forward to see you at the Festival!

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Berlin Revolution Film Festival
Contact:
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