They explore caves, enter digital ecosystems and illuminate the hideouts of elusive artefacts. In doing so, they gesture towards the normalisation of sociopolitical dysfunctionalities as well as possible attempts at resistance.
In ROOM 404 by Elysa Wendi and Shing Lee, the artist duo finds itself trapped in a Hong Kong hotel by a never-ending typhoon. Isolated from the outside world and affected by the social movement in the city, they start questioning the role of filmmakers in challenging times. Janaina Wagner’s film QUEBRANTE explores the caves, ruins and phantasmagorias of the Trans-Amazonian Highway in Brazil. Portraying its stones and ghosts, the film dives deep into the history and present of this infrastructural project, which was started under the military dictatorship. In HERE WE ARE by Chanasorn Chaikitiporn, a housekeeper’s memory of moving to Bangkok is triggered by a film her daughter sends her. The film weaves together found footage and archival artefacts into a personal history of Thailand during the Cold War. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige take us to the National Museum in Beirut in SARCOPHAGUS OF DRUNKEN LOVES. Plagued by frequent power cuts, the museum’s visitors sometimes find themselves in darkness and use their phones to light the traces of past civilizations as their world crumbles around them. Despite everything, they still want to see.
For his film THE PERFECT SQUARE, Gernot Wieland worked for twelve years with an animal trainer who taught birds to fly in circles or squares. The film examines how aesthetic norms influence Western views of the world and why these norms end in failure. O SEEKER by Gavati Wad unfolds in post-pandemic India. This poetic 16mm film examines science, politics, spirituality and superstition as it pieces together a puzzle of unresolved questions through conversations about grief, loss and absurd events, both real and imagined. Gala Hernández López imagines a possible future in FOR HERE AM I SITTING IN A TIN CAN FAR ABOVE THE WORLD: a woman dreams of a prospective economic crisis affecting the cryptocurrency market. Thousands have been cryogenised, waiting for better times. Are they merely suspended or already falling into the void?
Forum Expanded is curated by Ala Younis and Ulrich Ziemons (section heads), as well as Karina Griffith and Shai Heredia.
The full line-up of titles will be announced in January 2024.
The as of yet confirmed films of the 19th Forum Expanded on the Berlinale website
