April 16–June 11, 2026
Film evenings with discussions (Thursdays)
Curated by cinéma copains
April 16, 7 pm // Die Mit-Arbeiterin (The Co-Worker), Karlheinz Mund, DDR, 1972, in the presence of the filmmaker (de)
The film “Die Mit-Arbeiterin (The Co-Worker)” by GDR filmmaker Karlheinz Mund portrays Elisabeth Hauptmann. It depicts her as a politically engaged artist who became an integral part of the theater collective known as Brecht. As research for this film, Karlheinz Mund also interviewed Asja Lācis in 1972 at her apartment in Riga. Except for a few minutes, the rough cut of the footage with Lācis remained unpublished and forgotten. Now the interview with Lācis can be seen in the exhibition.
Karlheinz Mund, born in Eberswalde, studied at the Workers’ and Peasants’ Faculty in Berlin as well as at the Film and Television University in Babelsberg and directed numerous documentary films.
May 7, 7 pm // A Night of Knowing Nothing, Payal Kapadia, documentary film, 2021 (hi/bn/en, en sub)
“A Night of Knowing Nothing” by Payal Kapadia is an award-winning, essayistic documentary that interweaves fictional love letters with the reality of student resistance in India. The story begins when L., a film student, writes letters to her estranged lover during a strike at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). Shot in black and white and often interwoven with archival footage and cell phone videos, the film addresses the rise of discrimination, Hindu nationalism, and social injustices under the Modi government.
Payal Kapadia, born in Mumbai in 1986 and trained at the Film and Television Institute of India, is considered one of the defining voices of contemporary world cinema. Her cinematic style combines poetic narratives with political resistance. In 2024, she became the first Indian director to win the Grand Prix at Cannes for her second film, “All We Imagine as Light.”
May 21, 7 pm // Active Vocabulary, Yulia Lokshina, documentary film, D, 2025 (de/ru, en sub), in the presence of the filmmaker
In her documentary “Active Vocabulary”, director Yulia Lokshina—who was born in Moscow and has lived in Germany since 1998—explores political indoctrination in schools and the courage to resist.
The film follows a Russian teacher who criticized the invasion of Ukraine in class and was subsequently forced to seek asylum in Germany. The film, which examines schools as highly political spaces where language serves both as an instrument of control and a means of emancipation, was awarded the Golden Dove in the German Competition at the 68th DOK Leipzig.
June 4, 8 pm // Māra (2014), portrait of Lācis’ granddaughter, Krista Burane (lv, en sub), in the presence of Māra Ķimele
In her poetic documentary “Māra”, director Krista Burāne paints a multifaceted portrait of the prominent Latvian theater director Māra Ķimele. The film explores the sacrifices and decisions made by a woman in the art world, focusing on Ķimele’s complex relationship with her domineering grandmother, the legendary theater director Anna Lācis (Asja Lācis), as well as with her son.
Burāne interweaves documentary observations from the staging of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” with surreal elements and animations—such as a horse that accompanies her throughout her life. The result is a reflection on the boundary between reality and art, as well as the intergenerational struggle for artistic and personal freedom within the Latvian cultural scene.
Krista Burāne is a prominent Latvian director, screenwriter, and artist known for her interdisciplinary and socially engaged projects. She studied philosophy and visual communication and specializes in documentary films that often blur the lines between fiction and theater. Her most significant works include the documentary “Māra” (2014) and “The Fairytale of Empty Space” (2017). Burāne is deeply committed to participatory art and uses public spaces for her productions to spark social dialogue. She has received the Latvian film award “Lielais Kristaps” multiple times for her work. She is considered one of the most prominent voices in contemporary Latvian cinema.
Māra Ķimele, born in 1943, is one of Latvia’s most influential theater directors and a defining figure of the Baltic avant-garde. As the granddaughter of the famous theater director Anna/AsjaLācis, she grew up in a highly intellectual environment. After studying directing in Moscow, she shaped the “New Riga Theater” (Jaunais Rīgas teātris) and the “Valmiera Theater” for decades. Her style is known for its psychological depth and radical interpretation of classical texts. In addition to her work as a director, she is a highly regarded educator at the Latvian Academy of Culture, where she has trained generations of actors and directors and played a key role in shaping modern Latvian theater aesthetics.
June 11, 7 pm // SLET 1988 (2025) & YUGOSLAVIA. How Ideology Moved our Collective Body (2013), Marta Popivoda (scr, en sub), in the presence of the filmmaker
In “SLET 1988,” Sonja Vukićević (73) moves through the architecture of socialist modernism, her body becoming an archive of Yugoslavia’s final mass performance. Gestures and a diary from 1988 trace the shift from collectivism to individualism.
The essay film “Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body,” based on research and archival material, presents director Marta Popivoda’s personal perspective on the history of socialist Yugoslavia and its dramatic end: “The experience of the state’s dissolution and the ‘wild’ capitalist restoration of the class system in Serbia served as my starting point for using film and video material to trace changes in a social system as it is reshaped through its own public staging.” (Marta Popivoda)
“Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body is an impressive example of thinking through the medium of film, of interweaving theoretical discourses and translating them intocinematic language.” (Clarissa Thieme)