Films by Marie Zahir

Germany 2022, 94 min
by Birgit Schulz

A smart and unsparing documentary portrait of art adviser Helge Achenbach. It starts with him being sentenced to jail for defrauding his clients for tens of millions. The emerging character is fascinatingly complex and controversial, brokering extremely expensive and giant artworks first to banks and corporations, then to celebrity billionaires. It's no wonder his life's story is closely related to the absurd developments of prices for modern art over the last forty years. [FFCGN 2022]

Germany 2018, 80 min
by Johanna Sunder-Plassmann, Tama Tobias-Macht

outside portrays four homeless men. Starting from the objects they cary around with them the film opens the gates to a world that otherwise remains hidden.outside not only invites to a change of perspective but tries to show four homeless people that have preserved a sense of dignity and pride that is all too often denied to them.Belinale catalogue:Homeless people, tramps, vagabonds and vagrants. Are they all the same idea? Or are they completely different? Sometimes the choice of words can help to change perspectives. The film draußen also adopts a different perspective by following four people living on the streets who own very little. Nothing they possess would ascribe them any apparent social status and yet everything they have is of value. Matze, Elvis, Filzlaus and Sergio are all survivors - and each of them is a real character. In order to hear their stories the two directors decided to adopt a particular strategy and concentrate instead on the items that their protagonists carry about with them. They asked them to open the door to their world by allowing them to take a look inside their plastic bags, pockets and shopping trollies, much as if they were entering someone’s home. The few objects that are to be found within contain a wealth of information and meaning. Charged with emotions and memories, these objects are no less than the fragments of their lives. In their conversations, the full import of these treasures begin to take shape.

Germany, Switzerland 2018, 29 min
by Ian Purnell

THE FEAR OF DYING IN TRANSIT is a hypnotic journey through the landscape of an underground construction site. Shot around the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland, architectural observations blend with safety rituals. Facts dissolve within the realm of phobias and science fiction.