Current Films

“I had no idea what to expect. Maybe my father was a member of the Tal­iban, living in a mud hut, deep in the desert, sur­round­ed by goats.” When he … read more

The title of this film seems to have an ironic under­tone, because the sun is no longer shin­ing on Chiatu­ra, a town in west­ern Geor­gia, where 50% of the world’s … read more

In the evening, people flock to the small square with a foun­tain in the middle in La Merced, the red-light dis­trict of Mexico City. They are women between 50 and … read more

Swathed from head to toe in black, a woman is break­ing stones out of a rock wall using a crow­bar and her bare hands. For sev­er­al min­utes we watch her … read more

The pro­tag­o­nist of this warm and moving film by Marco De Ste­fa­nis is Doctor Sami, who works in the only zoo on the West­bank. The undaunt­ed vet­eri­nar­i­an dreams of bring­ing in two giraffes to replace one that died during the Israeli fire. The doctor’s plans, how­ev­er, encounter unex­pect­ed dif­fi­cul­ties because the zoo in Qalqilya is too small and import­ing ani­mals from anoth­er zoo would be pos­si­ble only after join­ing the pres­ti­gious Euro­pean Asso­ci­a­tion of Zoos and Aquar­ia. While the find­ings of the for­eign guests are not very encour­ag­ing, Dr. Sami will move heaven and earth to make his dreams come true.
De Ste­fa­nis oblique­ly implies much of Palestine’s real­i­ty, where, nat­u­ral­ly, even a zoo bears a polit­i­cal dimen­sion. Only Dr. Sami’s fruit­ful co-oper­a­tion with his col­leagues from Jerusalem engen­ders hope that not all has been lost. (Watch Docs, Warsaw)

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Marco de Ste­fa­nis geb. 1971 in Rom, lebt seit 2001 in den Nieder­lan­den, wo er am Binger Film Insti­tu­ut studierte. Seit 2008 arbeit­et er u.a. für Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al, Unicef und Green­peace. Seine Filme wurden auf inter­na­tionalen Fes­ti­vals gezeigt und aus­geze­ich­net. Filme u.a. DAMNED CHILDREN! (2010, short doc), TULIP TIME (2007, doc), LIEVE MONSTER (2006, short doc), BLEACHERS OF WAR (2004, doc).

WOMEN IN SINK tells the story of a little hair salon in the heart of the Chris­t­ian Arab com­mu­ni­ty in Haifa, where direc­tor Iris Zaki goes to work as a … read more