31 Jan. 2013, 6 p.m.
14 Feb. 2012, 6 p.m.
07 March 2012, 6 p.m.

Kunstquartier Bethanien
Mediathek mime centrum berlin
Mariannenplatz 2
10997 Berlin-Kreuzberg

 

In early 2013, the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute hosted a second series of film screenings: Once a month, a film by Michael Roes was presented at the media library of mime centrum berlin.

Each screening was followed by a discussion with Michael Roes. Moderated by Christel Weiler.

Free admission.

 

Program

31 January 2013, 6 p.m.
TIMIMOUN. An Algerian Oresteia

Laid and Nadir, two young Algerian men, are on their way to Timimoun, an Oasis in the middle of the Sahara. Laid receives a letter from his sister Assia in which she asks him to come home and free her from the tyranny of her stepfather.

Laid works as a photographer in the coastal city of Bejaia. Here, at the Mediterranean Sea, is where his journey into the hostile desert begins: he and his friend Nadir, a car mechanic, leave the ‘European’ north of the country to travel deeper and deeper into the traditional tribal areas.

Their adventurous journey is not only a trip back into Laid’s traumatic past; it is also a journey into the brutal conflicts of present-day Algeria.

With Laid Berkati, Nadir Yousfi, Nacer Chennouf and others.
Digital video, 102 minutes, colour.
Germany 2005. 

 

14 February 2013, 6 p.m.
ELEVATION

This film is a poem. A visual and acoustic poem. Two fugitives, maybe Ned and Dan, maybe Estragon and Vladimir, are drifting through the New World, more concretely: through Budapest. They are looking for the promised land. They want to belong. To have a part in freedom. To be recognised, socially and sexually.

The film tells no story. The viewer remains at a distance. The inner and outer drama is not his. Roes constructs his filmic poem in harsh black-and-white images, building up the rhythm of aimless violence, malevolence, and the song of the quest for dignity and respect.

Encounters with what is foreign are
a constant in Michael Roes’ work, in his novels, stage plays, radio dramas, and films. His is an ethnological gaze. Whether in the novel Rub’ al-Khali – Leeres Viertel (1996) or in his movie Timimoun (2005), Roes addresses the chasm between what is our own and what is foreign, as well as the yearning to bridge it.

With Nadir Yousfi and Laid Berkati.
115 minutes, English with English subtitles.
Hungary/Germany 2006.

 

7 March 2013, 6 p.m.
BREAKDANCE IN CHINA

Filmed and produced by Michael Roes, Breakdance in China is a rare document about the life of youngsters in the Chinese city of Nanjing. It tells of their dreams and desires, shows their enthusiasm for various forms of street culture, for breakdance, graffiti and heavy metal, but also for traditional Kunju (Kun opera). In a perceptive and sensitive manner, the film conveys an impression of both the strength of subversive practices and the mechanisms of familial and social repression.

Digital Video, 90 minutes, colour,
16:9, stereo. Chinese, English,
German with English subtitles.
China 2007 und 2012/2013.

You can download the program of this second series of cinematic works by Michael Roes here.