20. UNDER|DOX 09-15 OKT 2025

Bad Painter

Albert Oehlen DE, USA 2025 | 80 min | With Udo Kier, Charlotte Taschen, Grace Zabriskie, Kim Gordon | engl. OV | German Premiere

The painter Albert Oehlen, with Udo Kier’s piercing gaze, stands in front of a white canvas. He applies a thick brushstroke. “A fleck is already a painting,” he triumphs.

Guest: Felix von Boehm (producer)

By Our Selves

Andrew Kötting GB 2015 | 83 min | With Toby Jones, Iain Sinclair | engl. OV
German Premiere

Toby Jones, Andrew Kötting (as Straw Bear), and their companions bring the walks and thoughts of Northamptonshire poet John Clare back to life.

Guest: Andrew Kötting

little boy

James Benning USA 2025 | 74 min | engl. OV

From dinosaurs to atomic bombs: James Benning explores the history of (American) civilization. The reference to the present day is frighteningly visionary. Accompanied by songs by Ricky Nelson, Pete Seeger, and Catpower. “A look into the past to warn of the future, from the perspective of a little boy.” – James Benning

Sehnsucht in Sangerhausen (Phantoms of July)

Julian Radlmaier DE 2025 | 90 min | With Clara Schwinning, Maral Keshavarz, Henriette Confurius, Paula Schindler | German OV

Ursula and Neda, an East German waitress with a broken heart and an Iranian YouTuber with a broken arm, feel trapped in their precarious lives. Chance brings them together on a ghost hunt in the mountains. A romantic adventure film about longing for a different life in a small town in Saxony-Anhalt.

Eighty Plus

Želimir Žilnik RS/SI 2025 | 118 min | Mit Milan Kovačević, Milivoj
Kiždobranski | Serb., Ger. OV Engl. ST | Fipresci Award, GoEast

Restitution of the family home expropriated during the Second World War to Stevan, the hunchback. A journey to the old Serbian homeland, into the future and into the past, where much remains open, but despite his advanced age, nothing is too late – a very special kind of coming-of-age film, balanced between the documentary it is and the fiction the film also is.

Guest: Želimir Žilnik

2551.03 – The End

Norbert Pfaffenbichler AT 2025 | 80 min | With Manuela Deac, Stefan Erber, Ben Schidla | silent, engl. ST

A man wearing a monkey mask searches for a child in the literal and political underground, while the totalitarian security forces are after him. A revival of gore and dystopia about social unease that celebrates silent film.

Swandown

Andrew Kötting GB 2012 | 90 min | B: Andrew Kötting & Iain Sinclair
engl. OV | German Premiere

Psychogeography of a journey. Kötting & Sinclair sail along waterways from Hastings beach in southeast England to the London borough of Hackney – in a pedal boat shaped like a mighty swan.

Guest: Andrew Kötting

In the Manner of Smoke

Armand Yervant Tufenkian USA, GB 2025 | 90 min | engl. OV
German Premiere

A fire watcher in California and a landscape painter in London engage in a multifaceted correspondence. The film is about observation, about the quiet calm of brushstrokes, about viewing blurred panoramas from a vantage point that no longer has anything soothing about it.

The Landscape and The Fury

Nicole Vögele CH 2024 | 138 min | bosn., pers., kurd. OV engl. ST
Doc Alliance Award

Cinematography of flight: in the Bosnian-Croatian border region, the paths of migrant families, mine clearers and locals cross. A film rooted in the earth, a kaleidoscope of landscapes, interwoven with the madness of the past and present.

Guest: Nicole Vögele

London Orbital

Chris Petit & Iain Sinclair GB 2002 | 76 min | engl. OV | German Premiere

The experience of driving on Europe’s second-longest ring motorway leads to a trance-like state. Like a moon in orbit, you drive along, caught up in the centrifugal force of H.G. Wells and J.G. Ballard, caught up in the labyrinth of Jorge Luis Borges, breathlessly encountering Bram Stoker’s undead in the blurriness of the BetaCam material.

Guest: Chris Petit

Cobre (Copper)

Nicolás Pereda MX, CA 2025 | 79 min | Mit Lázaro G. Rodríguez, Teresita Sánchez | span. OV engl. ST | Special Mention, FID Marseille

The sky hangs heavy over the copper mine. Lázaro waits in vain for an oxygen tank, passing the day. Then he discovers a dead body by the side of the road. Lies, rumours and jokes follow. Between truth and lies: life.

Dry Leaf

Alexandre Koberidze DE, GE 2025 | 186 min | georg. OV engl. ST | Special Mention, Locarno

Photographer Lisa is missing. The last thing anyone knows about her is that she was photographing rural football stadiums in villages across Georgia. One of the most radical and fascinating experiments in form this year, and an ode to uncertainty, the transience of nature and the strength of family ties. Filmed using the low-tech capabilities of a Sony Ericsson phone.

Guest: Alexandre Koberidze

Kunst der Farbe – Mondongo III

Mariano Llinás AR 2024 | 90 min | span. OV engl. ST | German Premiere

Finally, liberation from the potlatch exchange of dedication and homage. Llinás hires an actress. Now the competition begins: who can produce the better adaptation of Johannes Itten’s “The Art of Colour”? The former friends compete with each other, just as fiction attempts to end the documentary film. An experimental film in many senses, a playful work that surrenders to mystery.

D is for Distance

Chris Petit & Emma Matthews FI 2025 | 88 min | With Louis Petit | engl. OV | German Premiere

Louis Petit suffers from epilepsy, a complex condition that has been less researched than the universe itself. That’s why he prefers to drive along country roads or pick up his guitar to give his life its own soundtrack. A crossover between coming-of-age and road movie.

Guest: Chris Petit

UNDERDOX
short film reel

Admission: 10 € | ca. 120 min
The ultimate short film night is experimental, surprisingly entertaining and, above all, perfectly crafted. Selected “dok & exp” by Katharina Bayer, Friedl vom Gröller, Zazie Ray-Trapid, Camilo Restrepo, Viktoria Schmid, Helena Wittmann and others.

Zu Gast: Neil Young a.oth.
Presented by Benedikt Guntentaler & Timur Özkan (Young Curators)

What Does that Nature Say to You

Hong Sang-soo KR 2025 | 108 min | With Ha Seong-guk, Kwon Hae-hyo, Cho Yun-hee | kor. OmeU

Drifter poet Donghwa meets his girlfriend Junhee’s family. After exchanging pleasantries, things start to get serious. Taking off his glasses and seeing the world through a soft focus lens doesn’t help anymore.

Dracula

Radu Jude RO, AT, LX 2025 | 170 min | Adonis Tanța | German Premiere

Filmed in Transylvania, the home of Dracula. A vampire hunt. Zombies, of course. Also a science fiction story about the return of Vlad the Impaler. Above all: an AI-generated, kitschy story glitch. And certainly this too: “An opera of the obscene, a single stroke of genius and undoubtedly the film that our time deserves.” – Benedikt Guntentaler

Guest: Neil Young