The festival will take place from August 31 to September 3, 2023 in Bad Saarow, Brandenburg. Play and talk venues are the Kulturscheune of Gut Eibenhof and the Cinema Bad Saarow (from 1.9.2023).
FILM WITHOUT FRONTIERS would like to trace the ZUVERSICHT this year - in more than 20 films, discussion rounds, in conversations with filmmakers, philosophers and experts.
The audience festival, which is now a permanent fixture in the Brandenburg festival circuit, offers a selected film program amid the tranquility of nature on the shores of Scharmützelsee, with plenty of room for conversation. Each film will be accompanied by a discussion with filmmakers or experts. Special events such as "The Philosophical Hour with Ardiadne von Schirach" and the talk between Gero von Boehm and the journalist and architecture critic Niklas Maak on the question "How do we want to live?" round off the program.
Tickets and info
Tickets are available directly via filmohnegrenzen.de or Eventbrite.
For detailed information about the films, the supporting program, the talks and the guests as well as the dates, please visit the FILM WITHOUT FRONTIERS page here: www.filmohnegrenzen.de
Info for press representatives
Please feel free to contact us if you would like to be accredited for the festival or if you would like to conduct interviews with the festival management (Susanne Suermondt, Tanya Berndsen, Yvonne Borrmann)
For all questions about FILM WITHOUT FRONTIERS 2023, please contact us at info@media-office-presse.com
Selection from the program
A large number of the films that will be shown are theatrical previews.
FILM WITHOUT FRONTIERS will open on August 31 with the documentary IRMI (directed by Veronica Selver and Susan Fanshel), a portrait of Irmi Selver, a German-Jewish émigré from Chemnitz. American director Veronica Selver will be a guest.
After a poetry slam on the theme ZUVERSICHT with Fee Brembeck, guests can expect three short films on the festival theme: To Stay (Tatiana Burgos, Gabriela Kliemann Dias, Farid Wahid Nade), Mrs. Schneider and Her Trees (Nataliya Kulykova, Mykyta Pavlov, Sheldon Ridley) and Apocalypse Later (Kyrylo Alferiev, Florian Rudolph, Yueqi Wu). The films were made as part of a project of the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf to prepare students for people with a history of flight and migrants under the direction of filmmaker Jean Boué.
The first day of the festival ends with episode 2 of the Disney+ series "Farm Rebellion". Afterwards, farmer and protagonist Benedikt Bösel and Ludolf von Maltzan, organic farmer and owner of the Brodowin eco-village, will discuss a topic that concerns us all: What does the future of agriculture look like, and how can it support climate protection?
On September 1, the two films NENEH SUPERSTAR (director: Ramzi Ben Sliman) and SCHOOLS OF THIS WORLD (director: Émilie Thérond) selected by the student jury of the Europaschule Storkow will be shown in the school cinema.
The cooperation with the German-French initiative *Sustainability Animation Residency (SAR), which aims to raise awareness of sustainability with its animated films, will continue. The short film WILD SUMMON (directed by Karnie Arieli), narrated by Marianne Faithfull, shown at the Cannes Film Festival, the film FLOREANA (directed by Louis Morton), presented at over 80 festivals, and BRUIT ROSE (directed by Lysse Lefort, Martin Wiklund, Arthur Lemaître) will be screened. SAR co-founder Joana Schliemann, grant recipient Gabrielle Lissot, and renowned American animated film producer and SAR advisory board member Eleanor Coleman will be in attendance.
Following the films, a panel of experts will discuss the question "Against the backdrop of rapid species extinction, is a confident view of the future still possible?" The panel is being held in cooperation with the HEINZ SIELMANN STIFTUNG.
On Friday, the recipient of the WOLFGANG KOHLHAASE STIPENDIUM 2023 will also be announced. The scholarship is awarded in cooperation with Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Antonius Verein zur Jugend- und Kulturförderung as well as Lupa Film GmbH and FILM WITHOUT FRONTIERS.
As a cinema preview, Aki Kaurismäki's gentle tragicomedy FALLING LEAVES, which won the 'Jury Prize' at this year's Cannes Film Festival, will be screened on the evening of September 1.
Also a theatrical preview is the Sundance Film Festival's 'Grand Jury Prize'-winner DIE UNENDLICHE ERINNERUNG (directed by Maite Alberdi). It is the tender portrait of a love affair between Chilean journalist and author Augusto, who suffers from Alzheimer's, and his wife Paula Urrutia, who captures life with Augusto on video after the onset of the disease.
Also JOYLAND (directed by Saim Sadiq), screening Sept. 2, is a theatrical preview. The Pakistani film, which was nominated for this year's Oscar, is about queer people in a Muslim country and won the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Queer Film and Film with Feminist Themes.
LEAR NETWORKS, the visually stunning debut film by director Behrooz Karamizade, tells a poetic love story while painting a haunting portrait of the young generation in Iran, to be seen as a cinema preview on September 3. Another theatrical preview - THE LOST KING (directed by Stephen Frears) - also screens on Festival Sunday. Sally Hawkins plays Philippa Langley, who in 2012 unbelievably found the missing remains of King Richard III, changing the course of history.
Another film in the program is the "youth-in-Mahrzahn-longtime-documentary" KALLE KOSMONAUT (directed by Günther Kurth and Tine Kugler). Kalle will be a guest in person.
Volker Schlöndorff presents the award-winning film A HOUSE MADE OF SPLINTERS (director: Simon Lereng Wilmont). The touching documentary is about an orphanage in Ukraine.
Also to be screened will be MUSIC FOR BLACK PIGEONS, a cinematic exploration of famous jazz musicians by Danish directing legend Jørgen Leth and his young colleague Andreas Koefoed. Following the film, renowned musician Pete Drungle (piano) will join Nanaco Tarui (violin) for a small concert at the Kulturscheune. The duo moves in a wide spectrum of sound, ranging from avant-garde and free jazz to neo-baroque and beyond.
Actors Caroline Peters and Burghart Klaußner will personally present their film DIE UNSCHÄRFERELATION DER LIEBE together with director Lars Kraume.
In cooperation with WOMEN FOR WOMEN INTERNATIONAL, THE NEIGHBORHOOD STORYTELLER (director: Alejandra Alcal), which tells the moving story of Asmaa, who fled from Syria to Jordan, will be shown as a German premiere.
At Cinema Bad Saarow, 20,000 SPECIES OF BEES will be screened. Lead actress Sofía Otero, who plays an eight-year-old child in search of her own gender identity, was hailed as best newcomer at the Berlinale.
The touching award-winning documentary OVERCOME FROM LIFE follows children who suffer from the so-called "resignation syndrome," a trauma-related disorder. Lars Kraume's film DER VERMESSENE MENSCH about the genocide of the Hereros in Namibia will be screened as well as Jeanine Meerapfel, grand dame of German film, who will personally present us her cinematic essay EINE FRAU. THE HOMES WE CARRY paints the portrait of a family torn by the turmoil of world history between Germany, Mozambique and South Africa, and Igor Levit gives us ZUVERSICHT in Regina Schilling's wonderful film IGOR LEVIT - NO FEAR.
Main sponsors of the 11th International FILM WITHOUT FRONTIERS Festival are Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Daimler Truck, Antonius Jugend- und Kulturförderung e.V., Hotel Esplanade Resort & Spa. The main sponsors of the youth program are the Bündnis für Demokratie Storkow and the Amt Scharmützelsee as part of the federal program "Demokratie Leben" and the district Oder-Spree. Media partners are Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb), Deutsche Welle and the Yorck Cinema Group. The Deutsche Postcode Lottery is a new partner. Information on all other supporters and sponsors of FILM WITHOUT BORDERS can be found at filmohnegrenzen.de