Films by Roman Vehlken

2023, 22 min
by Jana Rothe

Clown*esses are more than jesters; they hold a mirror up to society. They move between the worlds and like to break rules, albeit with a wink. At the same time, clown*esses are contradiction experts by nature, because they know on the one hand that life is far too short to be sad, and on the other hand use their art not only to entertain us but to make oppression and violence visible and attackable.The artists portrayed in this film, for example, look closely at patriarchal structures and learned social behaviours. When Özge in her unerring performances questions and satirises the images of women still prevalent in Turkey, this critique is rooted in her own experience – and that is precisely what makes it so funny. Lokke from Germany, on the other hand, emphasises the transformative aspect of clowning that allows them to try out different identities and characters, to refuse being pinned down and to ridicule stereotypes. Jana Rothe’s cogent short portrait presents these and other clownesque attitudes towards the world. It makes you wonder how in the world we ended up sacrificing fun and subversion to rationality in our daily lives. [66 DOK Leipzig, Luc-Carolin Ziemann]With: Gozde Ayşe Atalay, Lokke Schlegel und Clémence Caillouel, Aziza Bouizedkane, Marina Mavrogeni, Angeliki Patsatzi

Germany 2023, 17 min
by Dorothea Carl (doro carl)

The surf tosses sand on the beach, the wind blows it inland. Nothing remains as it is, or where it was. Everything is in motion: the 200-million-year-old sand, the dunes, the sea, and the countless creatures that make their home amongst its grains. Yet human interventions such as dikes, coastal protection measures, and sand filling have made the dynamic line between water and land inelastic and stiff.With: Prof. Dr. Karsten Reise, Dr Annkatrin Weber, Sabine Gettner, Björn Mehrtens, Monika Povel, Patras Scheffler

Germany 2019, 154 min
by Bernd Schoch

A sprawling mycelium. The starry sky over the Romanian Carpathians. The first two images introduce the dimensions that are at the core of Olanda: Details and fine structures on the one hand, constellations and the bigger picture on the other. The focus is on a seasonal asset of the area - the mushroom. Amongst people it is the foragers who are nearest to them and the focus of the film is on them: on walks through the forest, in the tent camp, during car rides and conversations. From here it follows the rhizome-like ramifications that continue to branch out in the form of money: to local and international merchants, to an impromptu shoe market in a clearing, to gambling among colleagues. The film tells of these trading cycles by assuming a mushroom-like structure without ever losing its centre of thought. Beyond an analysis of economic structures, however, it is also the sensual document of a rhythm of everyday life in the forest, as experienced by foragers as the first link in the recycling chain. In the cinema, it can be experienced as an audiovisual mushroom-trip into the magical world of the Carpathian forests.

Germany 2018, 67 min
by Luise Donschen

A person enters the frame dressed up as a bird. In a dressing room, John Malkovich sheds the costume of Casanova. A young woman‘s skirt is just as orange as the beak of a zebra finch singing in a cage. White lilies stand at the foot of a statue of the Virgin Mary, red roses in front of the window of an SM studio. There the quiet game of submission in exchange for money, in a museum an embrace, a poem whispered in the ear. Children playing in a forest in autumn. A forest in summer, framed by light. An orgasm and a dance.Casanova Gene is a film about desire.

Germany 2018, 95 min
by Claudia Lehmann

The German Electron Synchrotron in Hamburg, DESY for short, is home to some of the largest particle accelerators in the world and, as an international research centre, is already a world of its own. This is where elementary particles clash. This is also where filmmaker Claudia Lehmann lets her former doctoral supervisor, physics professor Gerhard Mack, clash with other scientists as well as with a shaman, his partner or filmmaker Hark Bohm. They all confront him with questions about our very existence – and world views collide. With the theory of complex systems, Gerhard has always tried to understand life in an interdisciplinary way, and so he is now trying to find a language that goes beyond the boundaries of mathematics and physics. Language is also the subject of the music composer Konrad Hempel and his ensemble create on the scene. He uses the sounds of the accelerators as well as those of the coffee cups to create the soundtrack to this world in which everyone tries to find the meaning of life.

Germany 2014, 82 min
by Dorothea Carl (doro carl)

Fourteen people share their stories of fleeing from their native countries. By foot, on boats or with the help of escape agents, they were chased away by war, toxic gas, torture, fear and hunger. Some are still kids, strong only through the courage of despair, led by their hopes and wishes. Their personal stories of and experiences with their arrival in Hamburg, in the county of Pinneberg, in container camps, sleepless nights and the struggle with paperwork intertwine with a “banning space”, which subjects them to registration, restrictions and controls which are often a means to send them back either soon or sometimes even after decades. In the film, the individual struggles are narrated in interviews whereas the 'banning space' is visualized by the use of cinematic techniques. with: Abdulla Mehmud, Heide Sanati, Moshen Rezai

Germany 2010, 100 min
by Dieter Schumann

The film accompanies the Wadan employees throughout their 18-month struggle for the preservation of their shipyard. A film about the value of work in a globalized world. Wismar, 45,000 inhabitants. The income of every third family depends on the Wadan shipyard, the only major company in the region. In August 2008 a Russian investor takes over the old, traditional business and its future seems secured. But then the financial and economic crisis hits the Hanseatic City at its very centre: more than 5,000 jobs are at stake. A race against time ensues. We accompany a group of welders through turbulent months and bear witness to the fact that losing one‘s jobs means so much more than losing one‘s income. We show the workers, the owners and the liquidators struggling to preserve the shipyard, we experience their ups and downs between powerlessness, anger, sadness and hope. The Wadan shipyard goes down and is reopened under a new ownership and a new name. Some of our protagonists return to their company, but under much worse conditions. The film examines what is left after this crisis.