Playtime: ca. 120 Min. from 16 years
Venue: Kinopolis Cinema 2 Time: 8:00 PM Date: Friday, 03/21
Venue: Kinopolis Cinema 2 Time: 6:00 PM Date: Saturday, 03/22

G-S-A Competition 4

Anonymous high-rise apartment blocks, bustling schoolyards and sterile waiting rooms – these are the confined spaces of our everyday lives, the harsh topography of our cities and countries, in which joy and fear, longing and hope unfold – often unnoticed in the moment itself. But the films in the GSA competition look closely and dare to take a close-up view of these microcosms. They find the bigger picture in the smaller frame, the universal in the personal.

Life is a schoolyard: a symbol of our society. This is where opposites meet, social dynamics are played out, boundaries are explored. Friendships develop, conflicts flare up, grown men suddenly find themselves engaged in childish power struggles. The other one always started it. But it’s no longer about envy of the other’s lunch or unfair swaps for trading cards – it’s about the bigger picture. (1:10)

The high-rise block looms like an insurmountable wall – gargantuan, but life is hidden behind every window, behind every door. A woman desperately tries to escape her grey existence, but it’s as if the concrete won’t let her go. Her suicide attempts fail time and time again. Then she discovers like-minded people: a group of fatalists who challenge fate. „I want to play!“ she shouts, liberated – RULETISTA begins, a game with high stakes.

Like a splash of colour, the two non-terrestrial beings sit in the waiting room of an abortion clinic in the middle of Germany. Wrapped up warmly in hand-knitted full-body outfits, they are nevertheless unprepared for the coldness of German bureaucracy. The sterile and narrow-minded expressions and procedures of the operation reach an unexpected level of brutality and absurdity, which strikes with full force in this vulnerable moment. (SHUT UP AND SUFFER)

46 films show us a modern cinematic landscape in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Movies that show the diversity of human stories in all their contradictions – quiet and loud, bizarre and genuine, familiar and yet surprisingly new.

G-S-A Competition 4

I was busy dreaming about Boys

Powerless. Alma is sexually harassed by a friend in a club. At first, she wants to forget all about it quickly and dismisses it as a drunken mistake. But the experience sends her into a downward spiral that she can't seem to get out of - until she has to.

TO THE MOVIE

Reigen

A group of young adults with no future are stuck in a time loop of anxiety and desire.

TO THE MOVIE

Monica

Two friends find themselves in boredom and senselessness. So they decide to take action and start a surreal journey that will change their lives forever.

TO THE MOVIE

Skin On Skin

Two men displaced in the hell of the German meat industry. Something lies between them. Something makes them dream again.

TO THE MOVIE

Thai basil

Austria, 1990s: Karin, a 20-year-old sinology student, visits her father. The family evening ends in passive-aggressive clashes, with feelings of alienation and tension.

TO THE MOVIE

Love and Substances

With the help of a mind-expanding substance, a married couple try to rekindle their lost passion and discover the true value of their bond in an unexpected way.

TO THE MOVIE

Abyssness

If you do business with the abyss that opens up in front of you, you do “abyssness”. But how long can this go on and at what price?

TO THE MOVIE