Manifesto

The Nationalgalerie at Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin presents a solo exhibition of Berlin-based artist Julian Rosefeldt from February 10 to July 10, 2016. Manifesto is an installation consisting of 13 parallel films and a tribute to the moving tradition of artists’ manifestos. Rosefeldt’s work emphasizes the literary beauty and performative energy of artists’ manifestos. He has collaged numerous original historical manifestos into 13 poetic monologues and presents them as a living, highly contemporary call in moving images.

Mein Kampf

In 1910, the young Hitler travels from the deepest Austrian province to Vienna to conquer the whole world as a painter. He rents a room in a men’s home in Leichengasse to await the big day of the entrance examination to the Academy of Fine Arts. He shares the shabby shack, populated by countless workers and vagrants, with two Jews: the windy Bible salesman Schlomo Herzl and the kosher cook Lobkowitz, who claims to be God. sometimes he really performs miracles. The ageless Schlomo wants to write his own book: ‘My Life’ finds little favor here, ‘Mein Kampf’ all the more so. Adolf Hitler is also enthusiastic … The hospitable, philanthropic Schlomo feels responsible for the impetuous Hitler and takes care of him. But for Hitler, whom the ‘Academy of Fine Arts’ rejects for the second time days later, having overestimated his talents beyond measure, a world collapses. And again it is the good Schlomo who rushes to the aid of Hitler, who in his hopelessness is seeking death, at the last second. The behavior of the penniless, increasingly rebellious Hitler, who sinks into the gap between his own delusions of grandeur and his confirmed lack of talent, into hatred and paranoia, becomes increasingly unbearable for Schlomo. Hitler shamelessly takes advantage of Schlomo, who cooks for him, washes for him and even trims his mustache, and on top of that wrests the young Gretchen away from him. Ironically, it is Schlomo, of all people, who recommends that Hitler seek his fortune in politics. He apparently has certain leadership qualities. A short time later, Hitler joined a radical group that was willing to use any means to achieve its ambitious goals. He eventually pushes his way to the top of them.

The film grotesque MY FIGHT, based on Tabori’s fabulous play, which has been performed all over the world, is not a historical reconstruction of Hitler’s Vienna period.

Rather, it is the timeless parable of good serving evil, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.

Muxmäuschenstill

Mr. Mux has a mission: The self-proclaimed do-gooder wants to teach his fellow men ideals and a sense of responsibility again – and blows the whistle against missteps of all kinds: “Big Mux is watching you!” With his immaculately ironed shirt, the clean man pursues fare dodgers and swimming pool pinchers, parking violators and graffiti sprayers. Mux cleans up the streets of Berlin, always accompanied by his faithful sidekick, the ex-long-time unemployed Gerd, who documents the exploits with a video camera. But on his crusade against injustice and indifference, the legal situation soon becomes the western pocket sheriff’s own undoing …

Bye Bye Berlusconi!

If you make a film against one of the richest and most powerful men in Europe, you run the risk of ending up not in the cinema, but in court. Especially when it is the current Prime Minister of Italy.

Spring 2005. A young, dedicated film crew from Genoa is planning a serious political film about the kidnapping of Silvio Berlusconi. The goal of the kidnappers is to finally bring Berlusconi to justice in a fair and independent trial, which he has successfully evaded in real life for years. This film should shake up Italy and lead to the prime minister being voted out of office in April 2006. On the very first day of shooting, however, it becomes clear that the ambitious filming team has overstretched itself with this project. The film is threatened with cancellation, and in order to protect themselves from Berlusconi’s legal attacks and to make their film recognizable as a satire, they use an absurd trick: they move the story from Italy to Duckburg without further ado. Whether that will be enough to prevent a threatened ban on the film, no one knows. It is certain, however, that this film will drive Silvio Berlusconi up the wall.

Der Kuckuck und der Esel

“Der Kuckuck und der Esel” tells the story of an obsessed author with wit, toughness and social relevance. He tells of the destructive influence of television channels on German cinema and of the furious power to rebel against it. The film also tells the story of the idiosyncratic Weitzmann family, who live in the countryside near Berlin. Ten years ago, after the death of his mother, the author Conrad Weitzmann, who until then had had little success, decided to make a film of his parents’ love story. For him, it is the greatest love story of mankind, the filming of which the ancient father should damn …