Film tips for December

"Oh, what you often have to hear or read about naughty children" - this is how Wilhelm Busch opened his picture story Max and Moritz in 1865. The interest in naughty children has always been unbroken, as the exhibition "Enfants Terribles" at the Strauhof Literature Museum shows. However, they not only appear in picture books and novels, but also in films. Five prime examples from older and more recent film history can be seen at the Filmpodium during the first weekend in December. These include I see, I see (2013) by directing duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, who will be on site for a Q&A afterwards.

Saturday, 2 December 2023, Filmpodium, 3:00 pm

The RiffRaff and Xenix are set to heat up in December. Because the Porny Days are returning for an eleventh edition. In collaboration with the Cinémathèque suisse, the film festival is presenting a retrospective of films from the Xenia women's cinema programme at Xenix. Among others, two films by the avant-gardist of New Queer Cinema Monika Treut will be shown: Gendernauts (1999), which sheds light on the realities of life for trans and genderqueer people in San Francisco, and its sequel Gendernation (2021), in which the same protagonists appear in front of the camera again 22 years later.

Sunday, 3 December 2023, Xenix, 4:30 pm

Wars can break out overnight and turn people's lives completely upside down. This is also the case for Andriy, Illia, Lera, Liza and Ruslan, whose plans for the future are shattered by the Russian attack in February 2022. They are the protagonists of Alisa Kovalenko's documentary film We will not fade away (2023). Kovalenko paints a portrait of a young generation in the Donbas that refuses to give up despite all the adversity. The 2402forum collective is showing the film free of charge at the Kulturhaus Helferei and offering a space for discussion and questions about the current situation in Ukraine.

Friday, 8 December 2023, Kulturhaus Helferei, 19:00

Vera Chytilova is one of the most prominent representatives of the Czech New Wave - and rightly so. Her magnum opus The Little Daisies (1966) was ahead of its time: it was despised by the authorities and even great film critics like Jean-Luc Godard didn't understand it. The film follows two girls who one day decide to be as depraved as the world they live in. Chytilova's anarcho-feminist masterpiece, which is characterised by its experimental nature and potential for subversion, will be screened at the Filmpodium at the end of the year.

Saturday, 30 December 2023, Filmpodium, 20:00