ritesinstitute israelestine

DER PASSAGIER – WELCOME TO GERMANY (THE PASSENGER – WELCOME TO GERMANY)

The American director Cornfield arrives in Berlin. He wants to make a movie about a Nazi propaganda film made in 1942 with the forced participation of Jewish prisoners in a concentration camp. Gradually we have a sense that, for Cornfield, this is not only a film about the past.
Guests: Marion Brasch, Katharina Thalbach, Joachim von Vietinghoff; presented by Knut Elstermann

THE HOLOCAUST TOURIST

Wed., 18.11.2009, 20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Rerun: Tue., 01.12.2009, 17:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Jes Benstock, GB 2005, 10 min, short documentary
Jes Benstock documents the tourist boom after SCHINDLER’S LIST (Steven Spielberg, USA 1993). In spite of an ironic undertone he manages to clarify the special challenge presented by authentic places for subsequent generations and the difficulties associated with an appropriate collective remembrance.

MORITURI – sorry no english

Einführung: Hans-Joachim Hahn, Literaturwissenschaftler

JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (DAS URTEIL VON NÜRNBERG) – sorry no english

Fr., 20.11.2009, 20:00 Uhr, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Stanley Kramer USA 1961, 186 min, Spielfilm
Mit: Spencer Tracy, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, Werner Klemperer, William Shatner
Der US-Richter Dan Haywood übernimmt 1948 den Vorsitz in einem der Nürnberger Nachfolgeprozesse, in dem sich führende Nazi-Juristen verantworten müssen. Während der US-Ankläger die Höchststrafe erreichen will, sieht der deutsche Verteidiger in diesem Prozess das gesamte deutsche Volk vor Gericht. Im Laufe des achtmonatigen Verfahrens versucht Haywood zu verstehen, warum die Deutschen Hitler folgten und erkennt, dass die Frage nach Schuld und Verantwortung eines gesamten Volkes nur schwer zu ergründen ist.

THE MAN IN THE GLASS BOOTH (DER MANN IM GLASKASTEN)

Sat., 21.11.2009, 17:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Arthur Hiller, USA 1975, 117 min, feature film
With: Maximilian Schell, Lawrence Pressman, Lois Nettleton
New York, 1964: the eccentric Jewish industrialist Arthur Goldman lives a luxurious life as a recluse in his penthouse. Full of life, yet still denying life with every word, Goldman launches into muddled but also fascinating monologues on Judaism, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, all of which reveal just how traumatic his experiences as a Holocaust survivor must have been. When one day Israeli agents of Mossad arrest Goldman, he is not in the least surprised.
Introduction: Asal Dardan, film curator

THE PAWNBROKER (DER PFANDLEIHER)

Sat., 21.11.2009, 20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino

Director: Sidney Lumet, USA 1964, 116 min, feature film
With: Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters
Sol Nazerman owns a pawn shop in Spanish Harlem, indifferent to the misery of the people walking into his shop. He lives isolated and cynically distant to his surroundings. Not only does Nazerman shut out the present, he also tries to resist any memories of the past and his experiences as a European Jew during the war. Soon he must recognise that even he cannot avoid pain.
Introduction: Asal Dardan, film curator

MAMA L’CHAIM! (MUTTI, AUF DAS LEBEN!)

So., 22.11.2009, 16:00 Uhr, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Wiederholungen: Mo., 23.11.2009; 17:00 Uhr; Sa., 28.11.2009, 17:00 Uhr, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Elkan Spiller, USA 2008, 5 min, OmeU, Kurzdokumentarfilm
Seit drei Jahren lebt der 62-jährige Chaim bei seiner Mutter, einer Überleben des Holocaust. Die mittlerweile 95-jährige hat Grausames erlebt – Erlebnisse, die in ihren täglichen Erinnerungen immer wieder zurückkehren. Ohne anzuklagen zeigt der Film, wie der Holocaust auch das Leben der Nachkommen beeinflusst.

Im Rahmen der Sonderveranstaltung zur gegenwärtigen Erinnerungskultur in Israel, mit freundlicher Unterstützung der DIG Berlin und Potsdam

als Vorfilm zu MOADON BEIT HAKVAROT (THE CEMETERY CLUB)

MOADON BEIT HAKVAROT (THE CEMETERY CLUB)

So., 22.11.2009, 16:00 Uhr, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Wiederholung: Di., 24.11.2009, 17:00 Uhr, Neue Kant Kinos
Regie: Tali Shemesh, IL 2006, 90 min, OmU, Dokumentarfilm
Jeden Samstag trifft sich eine Gruppe älterer Menschen auf dem israelischen Nationalfriedhof Mount Herzl, um es sich unter einer Kiefer bequem zu machen und miteinander zu essen, zu diskutieren und zu streiten. Fünf Jahre lang hat die Filmemacherin Tali Shemesh die “Mount Herzl Academy” begleitet und ein ergreifendes Porträt der Generation der Überlebenden gezeichnet.

Im Rahmen der Sonderveranstaltung zur gegenwärtigen Erinnerungskultur in Israel, mit freundlicher Unterstützung der DIG Berlin und Potsdam

Im Anschluss Podiumsdiskussion (englisch/deutsch) mit:

Lihi Nagler, Filmwissenschaftlerin

Martin Schellenberg, Historiker

Moderation: Daniel Dagan, Journalist

HA-BEHIRAH V’HAORAL (CHOICE AND DESTINY)

Mon., 23.11.2009, 17:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Tsipi Reibenbach, IL 1993, 118 min, documentary
From 1988 to 1993, Israeli documentary filmmaker Tsipi Reibenbach recorded the day-to-day lives of her parents in order to get closer to the memories and experiences of her talkative father Yitzhak and her quiet mother Fruma. What emerges is a moving portrait of two people dealing with remembrance and oblivion in very different ways.

EIN TAG: Bericht aus einem deutschen Konzentrationslager 1939 (ONE DAY: A Report from a German Concentration Camp 1939)

Tue., 24.11.2009, 17:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Egon Monk, BRD 1965, 90 min, feature film
With: Josef Fröhlich, Harmut Reck, Hans Stadtmüller, Eberhard Fechner
In this much too rarely-seen film, Egon Monk tries to show everyday life in a concentration camp before the outbreak of the war. Using a documentary style, he presents varying groups of prisoners and their daily routines and shows how human dignity and unity are almost impossible in such a complex and monstrous system.

STERNE (STARS)

Tue., 24.11.2009, 20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Rerun: Fri., 27.11.2009, 17:00, Neue Kant Kinos

Director: Konrad Wolf, GDR/BG 1959, 92 min, feature film
With: Sascha Kruscharska, Jürgen Frohriep
In a Bulgarian town occupied by Germans the officer Walter meets the Jewess Ruth, part of a group intended for deportation to Auschwitz. The meeting impacts powerfully on him, revealing to him how uncritically and indifferently he has gone through life until now.
Introduction: Claus Löser, curator and film critic

Das Himmler Projekt (The Himmler Project)

Wed., 25.11.2009, 20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino

Director: Romuald Karmaker D 2001, 182 min, documentary
With: Manfred Zapatka
The actor Manfred Zapatka performs the notorious speech given by Gestapo leader Heinrich Himmler on October 4th, 1943 to leading Nazi officers in Posen. Without comment or interpretation, he forces us to follow Himmler’s rhetoric word by word for more than three hours. Throughout this experimental film, Zapatka takes sole command of the stage without any additional historical material, costumes or props. The method of the film serves to underline the brutality and inhumanity of the National Socialist system.
Guest: Romulad Karmakar (t.b.c.)
Introduction: Alexandra Tacke, literary scholar

UN SPÉCIALISTE, PORTRAIT D’UN CRIMINEL MODERNE (EIN SPEZIALIST)

Do., 26.11.2009, 20:00 Uhr, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Wiederholung: So., 29.11.2009, 17:00 Uhr Kant Kino
Regie: Eyal Sivan, IL/F/D/BL 1999, 123 min, Dokumentarfilm
Inspiriert von Hannah Arendts Eichmann in Jerusalem entstand dieser Dokumentarfilm aus etwa 350 Stunden Filmmaterial, das während des Aufsehen erregenden Prozesses gegen den Nazi-Verbrecher Adolf Eichmann 1961/62 in Jerusalem aufgezeichnet wurde. Durch Schnitt-, Bild- und Tonbearbeitung folgen der israelische Regisseur Eyal Sivan und sein Co-Autor Rony Brauman Arendts These der Banalität des Bösen. Der Film wurde 1999 auf der Berlinale präsentiert und gewann 2001 den Adolf-Grimme-Preis.
Einführung: Sonja Schultz, Filmkritikerin und Bildwissenschaftlerin

PARAGRAPH 175

Fri., 27.11.2009, 20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Directors: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, USA 1999, 81 min, documentary

Paragraph 175 is one of the few documentary films highlighting the persecution of homosexuals by the Third Reich and reveals the lasting consequences, as told by the surviving victims in their very personal stories. After years of silence the interviewed men and women in this film find an outlet for their grief.

Introduction: Andrea Winter, Journalist and Wolfgang Theis, curator and board member of “Schwules Museum Berlin”

BENT

Fr., 27.11.2009, 22:00 Uhr, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Regie: Sean Mathias, GB 1997, 102 min , Spielfilm
Mit: Clive Owen, Lothaire Bluteau, Ian McKellen, Mick Jagger
Die gleichnamige Verfilmung des Theaterstücks BENT erzählt das Schicksal des homosexuellen Max, der nach Dachau verschleppt wird, und dort zum ersten Mal wahre Liebe empfindet, als er den Mithäftling Horst kennenlernt. Von ihm lernt er, die Stigmatisierung durch den Rosa Winkel nicht zu akzeptieren, sondern offen und stolz mit seiner Homosexualität umzugehen.

Einführung: Andrea Winter, Journalistin und Wolfgang Theis, Kurator und Vorstandsmitglied des Schwulen Museums

KADDISCH NACH EINEM LEBENDEN (KADDISH AFTER A LIVING MEMORY)

Sat., 28.11.2009, 17:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Karl Fruchtmann, BRD 1969, 65 min, feature film
With: Günter Mack, Zalman Lebiush, Rudolf Wessely
A banal picture of a fish snapping for air releases a flood of memories of the concentration camp for Peri, a regular clerk. Again and again his thoughts return to Johannes Bach, an almost unknown fellow prisoner constantly exposed to torture and humiliation because of his unbending nature. Peri reproaches himself for not having helped Bach in his hour of need and starts searching for him.
Introduction: Sara Fruchtmann, filmmaker

NUIT ET BROUILLARD (NIGHT AND FOG)

Sat., 28.11.2009, 20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Alain Resnais, F 1955, 32 min, documentary
In his montage film Alain Resnais combines historical images such as the enormous piles of glasses, shoes or suitcases held in storage with newly shot colour images from Auschwitz. The untouched serenity of the green-covered concentration camp area, once a scene of awful crimes committed by the Nazi regime, illustrates the silence during the so-called economic miracle years of the 1950s. Even today this classic is noted as one of the most impressive films ever made about the Nazi camp system.

PASAŻERKA (THE PASSENGER)

Sat., 28.11.2009, 20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Andrzej Munk PL 1961-63, 62 min, feature film
With: Aleksandra Śląska, Anna Ciepielewska
On an ocean voyage with her husband, Lisa spots a passenger she believes she recognizes from the past. For the first time she confesses to her husband that she was once a supervisor in a concentration camp and Martha was a prisoner whom she always tried to protect. However, later Lisa revisits events once more and outlines another version of the story.
Introduction: Dorota M. Paciarelli

UN VIVANT QUI PASSE (A VISITOR FROM THE LIVING)

Sun., 29.11.2009, 17:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino

Director: Claude Lanzmann, F 1997, 65 min, documentary
While making his epochal Holocaust film, Shoah, which took more than 10 years, Claude Lanzmann filmed this interview with Maurice Rossel, a Swiss representative of the Red Cross who, having visited Auschwitz and Theresienstadt in 1943 and 1944, gave a favourable report about these visits. Even decades later he cannot admit that his positive judgment was false and misled and justifies his behaviour.

Kindly supported by  Culturefrance

MENSCHEN & STRASSEN – LAGERSTRASSE AUSCHWITZ

Sun., 29.11.2009, 17:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Ebbo Demant, BRD 1979, 60 min, documentary
The documentary film series MENSCHEN UND STRASSEN made by the German TV station SWR depicts a variety of streets, roads, boulevards and alleys from many continents. In this episode, author and director Ebbo Demant focuses on the road leading to Auschwitz. This remarkable and historic piece of German television brings new awareness to the painful loss of so many human lives. This is achieved by looking at the murder of individuals rather than the masses – and giving them names, biographies and identities.

GRÜSSE AUS DACHAU (FROM DACHAU WITH LOVE)

Tue., 01.12.2009, 17:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Rerun: Fri., 04.12.2009, 17:00, Neue Kant Kinos
Director: Bernd Fischer, D 2003, 90 min, documentary
In this documentary, Bernd Fischer – who grew up in Dachau – presents his native town and its inhabitants by interviewing locals, tourists, witnesses of the past, survivors and their descendants. He shows both the tragic and comic aspects of what we commonly refer to as “coming to terms with the past”.
Guest: Bernd Fischer
Introduction: Maja Figge (Berlin)

DAS FALSCHE WORT. WIEDERGUTMACHUNG AN ZIGEUNERN (SINTE) IN DEUTSCHLAND?

Mi., 02.12.2009, 20:00 Uhr
Regie: Katrin Seybold, BRD 1984-1987, 83 min, Dokumentarfilm
Katrin Seybold und Co-Autorin Melanie Spitta dokumentieren in DAS FALSCHE WORT die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Sinte durch die Nationalsozialisten, aber auch das Schweigen und Verleugnen dieser Verbrechen nach 1945. In ihrem Film bieten sie Überlebenden zum ersten Mal die Möglichkeit, über das ihnen auch nach Ende des Krieges zugefügte Unrecht – etwa im Rahmen der Wiedergutmachungsprozesse – zu sprechen und führen so die Kontinuität der Diskriminierung auf erschreckend klare Weise vor Augen.

Gast: Katrin Seybold, Filmemacherin

Einführung: Julia Roth, Literaturwissenschaftlerin

UNZERE KINDER (OUR CHILDREN)

Thu., 03.12.2009, 21:30, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Natan Gross, PL 1948, 80 min, feature film
In this post-war Polish documentary film, the last to be made in Yiddish, the duo Dzigan and Shumacher play themselves – travelling comedians who arrive at an orphanage near Lodz. They try to encourage a group of children who have survived the Holocaust. Their stories of survival are filled with sadness and horror. Yet they show the adults that even if they cannot forget, song, dance and storytelling have a healing quality.
Introduction: Prof. Dr. Atina Grossmann, Historian and Academic Director of Leo Baeck Summer University

DEUTSCHLAND ERWACHE

Fr., 04.12.2009, 21:30 Uhr, Hackesche Höfe Kino
US-Signal Corps, D/USA 1945, 23 min, Dokumentarfilm
Unter den Re-Educations-Filmen, die die Allierten 1945 produzierten, nimmt dieser einen besonderen Platz ein: Er wurde speziell für die Kriegsgefangenen produziert, also nicht vornehmlich zur Aufklärung der deutschen Bevölkerung eingesetzt. Sein Ton ist schonungsloser, seine Mahnungen weisen in die Zukunft: „Wir möchten, dass ihr euch für alle Zeiten daran erinnert“.

AUFSCHUB (RESPITE)

Fri., 04.12.2009, 21:30, Hackesche Höfe Kino

Director: Harun Farocki, KOR 2007, 40 min, documentary
The purpose of this extraordinary footage from Westerbork concentration camp taken in 1944, which Harun Farocki shows in his experimental film, is never explained. Farocki neither shortens nor adds to the sequences of the original material. Using intertitles alone he explains, reflects and speculates, thereby putting some interesting and important questions about the iconography of the Holocaust.

MRS. MEITLEMEIHR

Sat., 05.12.2009, 20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino
Director: Graham Rose, GB 2002, 30 min, short film
With: Udo Kier, John Levitt
What if Hitler never died in his bunker at the end of the war? What if he were actually smuggled to England? In his bizarre comedy, Graham Rose shows Hitler eagerly awaiting a message from Argentina in a decrepit flat in London.

SPALOVAČ MRTVOL (THE CREMATOR)

Sat., 05.12.2009, 20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino

Director: Juraj Herz, CZK 1968, 95 min, feature film
With: Rudolf Hrušinský, Vlasta Chramostová, Ilja Prachař
During the German occupation in Prague, Mr. Kopfrkingl runs a crematory with care and attention. When he discovers that he has German ancestors, he sees a promising career ahead of him. Only his Jewish wife and two children stand in his way. With this debut Juraj Herz created a masterpiece of the Czech avant-garde of the Prague spring.
Introduction: Dr. Hanno Loewy, literary and media scholar