SECTION: Homeland | Domownja | Domizna

31FFC Sektions Button Heimat

Sorbian worlds and themes that shape and embody the region, with films from Upper and Lower Lusatia and elsewhere that tell stories that can sound all too familiar here.

HEIMAT musy serbski byś! A programme full of references to what Lusatia is first and foremost: Sorbian. Including: DIE LANGE NACHT DER KURZEN LAUSITZER/DŁUJKA NOC KROTKICH ŁUŽYAKICH FILMOW/ DOŁHA NÓC KRÓTKICH ŁUŽISKICH FILMOW with brand new short films from Lusatia, a programme with films by Donald Saischowa, who will celebrate his 60th birthday during the FFC. A mid-length double feature on Sorbian utopias and unusual counterparts, and a gripping film about the Alta protest of the Sámi in Norway, which began in the 1970s/80s as an environmental protest and ended as a manifestation of a new self-understanding of the indigenous people. 

Curated by Hella Stoletzki and sponsored by the Załožba za serbski lud / Foundation for the Sorbian People.

A Sorbian Folklore Group - Sprjewjan. Serbska Folklorna Skupina

A Sorbian Folklore Group - Sprjewjan. Serbska Folklorna Skupina

Eine sorbische Folkloregruppe - Sprjewjan. Serbska Folklorna Skupin

Michael Börner
GDR / 1987 / 16 min
Sorbian musical heritage, embedded in the Lusatian countryside, as depicted by this portrait of the folk ensemble Sprjewan, founded in 1979 and in existence to the current day. Who are the founding members and what motivated them to devote their ...
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When traces become visible

When traces become visible

Wenn Spuren sichtbar werden

Toni Bruk, Ladislav Volko
GDR, Czechoslovakia / 1983 / 18 min
“What are the roots of the present?” asks this collaboration between Sorbian and Slovak filmmakers with regard to the origins and diversity of the Sorbian language; an enquiry that takes them back to the Pan-Slavist movement.
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The Man who knew 75 Languages

The Man who knew 75 Languages

Mannen som kunne 75 språk

Anne Magnussen, Paweł Dębski
Norway, Poland, Lithuania / 2016 / 64 min
"To my mind language is the key to the human soul"; these were the words of German publicist and polyglot Georg Sauerwein (1831-1904) who applied his linguistic talents to the protection of minority languages, including Sorbian. This animated ...
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Echoes

Echoes

Resuns

Aline Suter, Céline Carridroit
Switzerland / 2014 / 51 min
Can a language also provide a home? In remote villages located across the canton of Graubünden around 35,000 people speak Romansch. In this poem constructed from imagery, sound, song and nursery rhyme the directors catch the echo of an ...
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Witaj means: I salute you

Witaj means: I salute you

Witaj heißt: Ich grüße dich

Peter Rocha
GDR / 1980 / 45 min
During the era of the German Empire Sorbian teacher and popular poet Fryco Rocha (1863-1942) not only taught Sorbian, which was in fact prohibited at the time, but also composed a number of poems, tales and songs in his mother tongue. The director ...
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Continent of Hope

Continent of Hope

Kontinent Hoffnung

Konrad Herrmann
GDR / 1978 / 31 min
Sorbian artist Heinrich Theodor Wehle (1778-1805) is widely regarded as one of the most eminent landscape painters of his time, and in fact often finds himself compared with the great Caspar David Friedrich. Threading an associative patchwork quilt ...
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Struga - Portrait of a Region

Struga - Portrait of a Region

Struga - Bilder einer Landschaft

Konrad Herrmann
GDR / 1972 / 30 min
A deserted village covered in nothing but ruins. An excavator eats into the land, as trees are felled. A Sorbian prayer in the village church. A folk club rehearses a Sorbian song. Power station workers chuckle to themselves. And then there is the ...
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In Search of the Promised Land. The Stories of Jurij Brězan

In Search of the Promised Land. The Stories of Jurij Brězan

Suche nach Glücksland. Die Geschichten des Jurij Brězan

Konrad Herrmann
GDR / 1989 / 49 min
Sorbian author Jurij Brězan, who passed away in 2006, was driven by his belonging to a people “under threat”, as well as the “eternal questions of mankind”. This biographical essay traces both of these strands by combining interview and ...
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Race Against Time. The Sorbs - Slavs in Germany

Race Against Time. The Sorbs - Slavs in Germany

Leben gegen die Zeit. Die Sorben - Slawen in Deutschland

Konrad Herrmann
Germany / 1993 / 46 min
Shortly after the German reunification, and shortly before the turn of the century, it was considered time for a brutally honest assessment of Sorbian identity and culture. The process of assimilation had proven onerous for this Slavic minority, as ...
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Portrait of a Central Point. A Film Based on the Sketches of Jurij Brě

Portrait of a Central Point. A Film Based on the Sketches of Jurij Brě

Porträt eines Mittelpunktes. Ein Film nach Skizzen von Jurij Brězan

Konrad Herrmann
GDR / 1976 / 23 min
“This is where I first encountered and understood the tales and songs of my people. This is where I've lived for a thousand years, and everything you see here belongs to me.” A journey of exploration to the world of a small people, to both its ...
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Overcoming Hatred. A Black Businessman in Hoyerswerda

Overcoming Hatred. A Black Businessman in Hoyerswerda

Sieg über den Hass. Ein schwarzer Geschäftsmann in Hoyerswerda

Konrad Herrmann
Germany / 1995 / 30 min
Ernesto Rafael Felice left his native Mozambique to study in East Germany, after which he ended up as a contract worker in Hoyerswerda, Bautzen. There he experienced first-hand the xenophobic riots of 1991, after which the majority of his fellow ...
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Land on water

Land on water

Land am Wasser

Tom Lemke
Germany / 2015 / 85 min
A deserted village near Weißenfels, whose inhabitants were relocated in the nineties to make way for the coal mining industry. Three inhabitants refuse to budge however: a metalworker, a farmer, and Norbert. Affectionately shot and full of ...
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Jo to dosć - Is it enough?

Jo to dosć - Is it enough?

Jo to dosć - Reicht das aus?

Stefan Göbel
Germany / 2016 / 4 min
A young Sorbian caught between love for her homeland and a sense of wanderlust. How does one unite tradition and progress when there is such a fine line between cliché and culture? Is it possible to tread new paths and have an open mind to more ...
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