The Italian 'refugee island' of Lampedusa is in the firm grip of winter's tristesse. As a fire destroys the worn down ferry that connects the island to Italy, the mayor and the local fishermen struggle for a new ship. The tiny community at the edge of Europe is engaged in a desperate struggle for solidarity with those who many consider the cause of the ongoing crisis: the African boat people.
Jakob Brossmann (filmography)
Rückruf (2010)
Tagwerk (2011)
Park Chan-wook
Thursday, 29. 01. 2026 / 15:40 / Main Hall
A highly entertaining and very timely satire filled with dark humour, vivid characters, and dizzying twists, following a family man who devises his own peculiar way of dealing with unemployment. Prepared over twenty years by Korean master Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden), the film is among the leading contenders for an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film.
Igor Bezinović
Thursday, 29. 01. 2026 / 17:00 / Small Hall
On 12 September 1919, a troop of some three hundred soldiers under the leadership of the flamboyant war-loving Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio swooped into the Northern-Adriatic port town of Fiume, now Rijeka, wanting to annex the city to Italy. Over the course of the next 16 months, during what is regarded as one of the most bizarre militant sieges of all time his official photography team captured over 10,000 images. A century later, Igor Bezinović orchestrates a direct-action history lesson focused on the siege and its modern-day implications.
Kaouther Ben Hania
Thursday, 29. 01. 2026 / 18:30 / Main Hall
A harrowing reconstruction of the attempted rescue of a Palestinian girl, intertwining real emergency call recordings with dramatised scenes in a call centre. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize in Venice and nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Non-English Language Film.