Berlin

The Siren von Sepideh Farsi © Grandfilm

Berlinale Spotlight: Panorama

With its specially curated programmes, the Berlinale has been present around the world for many years. The Berlinale Spotlight format extends the festival period.

Shortly before the start of the 74th Berlinale, the next Berlinale Spotlight will take place on Tuesday, 13 February 2024, at the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin. La Sirène by Sepideh Farsi, which opened the Panorama section of the 2023 Berlinale, will be screened. It will be followed by a talk with the Iranian director.

1980 in the oil metropolis of Abadan, the largest port city in Iran. Omid, 14, is playing football with his friends when a missile hits a nearby refinery. Within a very short time, this attack by the Iraqi army plunges the city into chaos. At home, Omid catches a glimpse of his older brother getting into a transporter that is taking fighters to the front. His mother has already packed a few things and is ready to flee with the family, but Omid refuses. He and his grandfather stay behind. Too young to take up arms himself, he becomes a provider for a group of others remaining there who are now united in need. He is determined not to give up the search for his brother – and to find an escape route out of the encircled city.

With a meticulous eye for detail in her storytelling and a minimalistic style of animation, director Sepideh Farsi depicts the outbreak of the bloody Iran-Iraq war through one boy’s struggle for survival in a besieged city. Along the way, her protagonist encounters various people who find themselves at a turning point in their lives due to the war and who have to plan their future anew.

The event will be held in German. The film will be shown in Farsi with German subtitles.

Programme of the Berlinale Spotlight on Feburary 13 at 7 pm

Welcome:
Gundula Bavendamm, Director of the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin
Michael Stütz, Section Head of Panorama

Screening: La Sirène (The Siren)
by Sepideh Farsi (France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium)
Followed by a talk with Sepideh Farsi

The Berlinale Spotlight: Panorama is a cooperation between the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation and the European Film Market (EFM) of the Berlin International Film Festival.

Admission is free of charge.

Event location Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation
Stresemannstraße 90
10963 Berlin