Films by Michael Kalb

Germany 2024, 82 min
by Narges Kalhor

SHAHID is a political drama and a desperate comedy at the same time. It is about historical heroes, today's criminals and how modern women deal with them. A story by and about migrants in Germany and from afar. SHAHID is a personal film that questions all kinds of radical ideologies – and doesn't always take itself too seriously.

Germany 2024, 77 min
by Daria Kuschev

Germany's only Russian Orthodox women's monastery is located in a small town near Munich. Under the lead of Abbess Maria, 13 sisters of international origin live there, following a strict hierarchical order. As servants of God, the nuns increasingly disappear from the normal world, almost as if they had already 'died'. Symbolically, they always wear black clothes.Nevertheless, the sisters also have to attend to worldly matters, such as everyday work in and around the building, receiving pilgrims and, last but not least, securing the future of their convent.

Germany 2022, 71 min
by Marina Hufnagel

Edda is overcome with solastalgia, the pain of the destruction of our planet. In her refuge on the North Frisian island of Pellworm, she meets Sophie, a young farmer who is suing the federal government for her right to the future.

Germany 2019, 30 min
by Denize Galiao

When Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Denize Galiao starts feeling that sorrow of loss again, her father sighs and says, “Forget about saudade and carry on.” An old Brazilian legend says that the African gods created the feeling of saudade to remind people where they come from and where they are. And that’s just what she’s suffering from. Twenty years ago Galiao emigrated to Germany, where her dream of becoming a filmmaker came true. But the papayas there never taste as good as in Brazil.Galiao’s parents live in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, and thanks to Skype her birth country is never far away. Now that her parents need more support, the sense of dislocation is really making its presence felt. “You are physically present, while your mind is somewhere else.” This short film explores and defines the feeling in various ways, both positive and negative. Saudade is a richly layered film about emigration and identity, and about how culture forms your worldview. Will returning to Brazil liberate Galiao from this feeling? (IDFA)