Films by Ulla Kösterke

Germany 2019, 91 min
by Ines Johnson-Spain

Imagine that your parents are white but your skin colour is dark and they tell you that 's pure coincidence. This is what happened to a girl in East Berlin in the 1960s. Years before, a group of African men came to study in a village nearby. Here the East German woman Sigrid falls in love with Lucien from Togo and gets pregnant. But she is already married to Armin. The child is filmmaker Ines Johnson-Spain. Meeting her stepfather Armin and others from her childhood years, she tracks the astonishing strategies of denial her parents and the surroundings had developed. In an intimate portrayal but also critical exploration she brings together painful and confusing childhood memories with matter-of-fact accounts that testify a culture of rejection and tight-lipped denial. Yet, the movingly warm encounters with her Togolese family develop Becoming Black also into a reflection on themes such as identity, social norms and family ties, seen from a very personal perspective.

2018, 91 min
by Bettina Borgfeld

Two billionaire brothers buy themselves into the island of Sark, where only 600 inhabitants live - till then in harmony with nature and with a strong sense of community.  A battle begins that unfolds a conflict in an idyllic setting. The brothers remain phantoms in the film as they never enter the battlefield themselves.

2017, 91 min
by Judith Keil, Antje Kruska

Der Film begleitet den Imam bei seiner täglichen Arbeit, in der er für Familienprobleme Rat geben soll und zugleich Stellung beziehen zu politischen Fragen der Öffentlichkeit. Dabei führt er ein offenes Haus, indem er immer wieder zu Diskussionen einlädt. Während er in seiner muslimischen Gemeinde oft gegen eine zu strenge Auslegung der Religion ankämpft, steht er in der deutschen Öffentlichkeit unter Verdacht, zu konservativ, wenn nicht sogar radikal zu sein."Dabei entwickelt der Film eine stimmige Dynamik und umgeht mit beschwingter Leichtigkeit die Gefahr, zum Problemstück zu werden." (FilmDienst)

Germany 2016, 87 min
by Susan Gluth

Urmila’s dream is to end child slavery in Nepal. The human rights activist was sold by her parentswhen she was 6 years old. 12 years later she became free. The film portraits her quest for justice andher personal fight against the inner demons of her own past. First she must break through the controlof those around her to begin to make her own life choices."In Nepal, Kamalari is a custom of selling girls, who are forced to slave labor and do not have access to education. One of them was Urmila, who, having regained her freedom after 12 years, decided to devote herself to saving other children. The film allows you to get to know Urmila very closely. The director, with a great sense of intuition and consistency, introduces us into the world of Urmila’s inner struggles, helps us to understand her extraordinary determination, but also the loneliness of a person who has been deprived of childhood." (The Prize of the Mayor of Zakopane/Poland for the film which best pictures human, cultural and artistic aspects of mountain population)"We have chosen Urmila – My Memory is My Power as this year’s Main Competition First Prize because of its brilliantly executed and clearly structured documentary journey through the eyes of one young woman’s personal, brave and tireless fight for justice.For what is a very poignant, very real and distressing subject matter about an extremely remarkable young woman and her tireless efforts to save young female children from the fate that she suffered herself in Nepal society, the documentary is executed clearly in its facts through rhythmic editing and pacing but what makes it unique is not just for being beautifully shot, but also for the original, and at times almost lyrical way that it avoids being drawn into sentimentality and judgement so therefore consistently remaining impartial to the problems thereby letting the audience draw their own interpretations and conclusions from what they see and hear“ (First Prize at KIMFF / Kathmandu / Nepal)

2015, 79 min
by Eva C. Heldmann

The film interviews five people who cannot pay their electricity bills. They live below the poverty line without light and heat, in or near large cities. Berlin based artist Laurence Grave acts a composite rôle, representing aspects of the other people. She sees, hears and touches in her forsaken apartment, and feels limited and excluded. At the same time she is extra-sensitive to the passage of light, day and night, through her windows. A long indoor twilight persists between the bright sunlight and the night car lights that both shine onto her walls making 'cinema'. The sounds that creep into the apartment are just alien to her. The interviewed people read their responses for the camera. (This technique relaxes the original interview and also gives the people some interpretative distance from themselves.) They speak of how they lost work, then electricity, then hope, and finally found clever solutions to their precarious situations.In the end the actress rises from her dark world to dizzy heights, flashing with her own electricity, remaking the rules of the game. "Elektra" triumphs! A film about light and darkness, noise and silence, belonging and being excluded, reality and show/chaos.

Germany 2012, 86 min
by Calle Overweg

Three couples in crisis each seek advice at therapy sessions and argue over infidelities, abortion and separate bedrooms. Accusations, fears and traumas all come up, with separation very much on the cards. These case studies reveal areas of conflict, structures and relationship patterns all of a universal nature. A film that portrays the efforts needed to preserve love and relationships as a work in progress. A set-up whereby therapy sessions are held in the sober atmosphere of a studio. The problems being negotiated are standard ones. The clients are played by actors, the therapists work in the field in real life and are not playing a role. These sessions are supplemented by scenes staged with minimal decor from the everyday lives of the various couples in line with the epic theatre tradition as well as workshop discussions in which the therapists relate their practices to the film team. Documentary elements and improvised acting are combined in distinctive fashion, creating a variation on the documentary which works with abstraction and fiction and is unconcerned with authenticity. Resembling nothing so much as a public experiment, this artificial set-up yields touching moments full of emotion. with: Hermann Leopold Altenburg Dorothea Abak Safaei-Rad Heiko Axel Hartwig Amelie Anja Haverland Siegfried Gerhold Selle Eva Franziska Kleinert Therapeuten Heidemarie Zunken-Kreplien, Joachim Maier, Marion Braun

Germany 2011, 79 min
by Branwen Okpako

Branwen Okpako’s „The Education of Auma Obama“ is a captivating and intimate portrait of the U.S. president’s older half-sister, who embodies a post-colonial, feminist identity.An academic overachiever, she studied linguistics and contemporary dance in Heidelberg, Germany, before enrolling in film school in Berlin, where she met Nigerian-born director Okpako in the nineties. After living in the United Kingdom for a short period, Auma Obama eventually moved back to Kenya to mentor a young generation of community activists, social workers and other ambitious young men and women who lacked her privileged education and training, but were nonetheless determined to make a positive contribution to their society.Okpako has always been interested in questions of identity, affiliation and belonging. Although she frames her film as a biographical portrait of Obama, she goes much further, providing a layered historical context and discussions of post- colonial African identity from a feminist perspective. Okpako collects testimonies almost exclusively from women, echoing the African tradition of women as chroniclers of oral history. When coupled with these accounts, Okpako’s use of archival footage — filmed during colonization for an entirely different purpose — offers a new reading of history and the present. Obama is also the daughter of a charismatic man who fought for the liberation of his country and participated in the shaping of the first years of independence. She witnessed his hopefulness and rise as well as his disillusionment and demise, coming into adulthood as her country - and continent - fell prey to despotism, corruption and poverty.The Education of Auma Obama is also a film about a generation of politically and socially engaged Africans whose aspirations are informed by their parents’ experiences, and whose ambition to forge a better future for their communities starts from the ground up. Rasha Salti, September 2011 [Programmer's Note – REAL TO REAL / TIFF]With: Auma Obama, Kezia Obama, Marsat Osumba Onyango, Mama Sarah Obama, Elke Brenstein, Gloria Hagberg, Paula Schramm, Lois Wambui Thuo, Njeri Karago, Prof. Wierlacher, Jai Gonzales, Alfons L. Ims, Wanjiru Kinyanjui a.o.

Germany 2011, 90 min
by Carmen Losmann

A film about non-territorial office space, multi-mobile knowledge workers, Blackberries and Miles&More. A road movie discovering the working world of tomorrow. This documentary will take you on a journey through the post-industrial knowledge and services workshops, our supposed future working place. In this new world work will be handled more liberally. Time clocks cease to exist. Attention is not compulsory any more. The resource 'human' comes into focus. The film closely follows the high-tech work force - people who are highly mobile and passionate to make their work their purpose in life. Further episodes resume this topic and lead into the world of modern office architecture and into the world of Human Resource Management. 'An account based in reality - cold as ice' - DOK Leipzig ‘Carmen Losmann has succeeded in making a film that’s both thematically and artistically striking. We’re confronted with the uncomfortable question of how we are going to deal with such a world and how we want to continue living in it' - DOK Leipzig World Sales: TASKOVSKI FILMS LTD. 7 Granard Business Centre, Bunns Lane London, UK, NW7 2DQ tel.: 00387 65 652 046 info@taskovskifilms.com

Germany 2008
by Cosima Lange

CHAMAME MUSIC, PEOPLE, POETRY introduces a popular Argentinean style of world music and four artists whose lives revolve around it. You will meet Gicela Mendez Ribeiro, a rising young singer; Alberto Bofill, self-declared ambassador of the Chamame tradition; bandleader Monchito Merlo, who represents a widely popular style; as well as the international award-winning accordionist Chango Spasiuk. While they couldn't be more different, Chamama to each one is much more than just music. It represents their way of life, and they gladly invite the audience to share their passion, sorrows and joys.

Germany 2004, 108 min
by Andres Veiel

Four acting students are the focus of Andres Veiel’s long-term observational documentary. We meet Stephanie, Karina, Constanza and Prodromos while they are preparing for their acting school auditions. The selection procedure takes months; it is a trying, nerve-racking time spent vacillating between hope and anxiety. All four make it into the school, but their initial euphoria about commencing their studies – including group exercises, role play and obligatory fencing lessons – is soon followed by deflation in the face of merciless criticism of even the slightest shortcoming by their tutors. In this way, their passion for their chosen vocation is constantly put the test.The four students couldn’t be more different: Karina appears to have very few problems; Stephanie, however, has to endure several auditions. Constanze immerses herself in her roles, whilst Prodromos always seems to be at odds with himself, his roles and his dreams. Andres Veiel: “We observe the struggles of the protagonists; how they try not to get stressed out or lose sight of themselves by worrying about the discrepancy between their expectations and their abilities. We accompany them on their search for identity and an image, but we also follow their progress towards maturity as actors and as individuals. Then, at the end of their studies, comes the real test: trying to gain a foothold in the profession. All of a sudden, they find themselves faced with a new set of questions. What is the nature of success? How high is the price for achievement? And what has become of their original dreams and aims, seven years on?”