We are screening God Will Not Help, our winner of this year’s International Feature Film Competition.

Hana Jušić, an exceptionally talented new director from Croatia (Quit Staring at My Plate, 2016; The Last Socialist Artefact, 2021), uses this extraordinary historical drama to take a stand against the growing nationalist-religious movement in the region.

GOD WILL NOT HELP
Director: Hana Jušić
HR/RO/IT/GR/FR/SI 2025
Feature film 137′

The film will be shown in the original language with English subtitles.

4th November | 7 pm | Fimforum NRW, Bischofsgartenstraße 1, 50667 Köln

Free admission.

Guest: Leading actress Manuela Martelli (actress, director)

Host: Dr Maxa Zoller (Artistic Director, IFFF Dortmund+Köln)

»With outstanding direction and a cinematic language characterised by great precision and clarity, the film masterfully blends the genres of historical drama, suspense and psychological thriller – all through an uncompromising female perspective.«
From the jury’s statement for Best International Feature Film at IFFF 2026 (Bettina Brokemper, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Annouchka de Andrade)

Following the screening, we will be talking to Manuela Martelli about her outstanding performance and her shift behind the camera.

At the age of 18, Manuela Martelli played the lead role in the Chilean feature film B-Happy by Gonzalo Justiniano and was awarded the prize for Best Actress at the 2004 Havana Latin American Film Festival. Martelli has appeared in more than fifteen co-productions in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Italy, Germany and the USA. The film God Will Not Help earned her the award for Best Acting Performance at the Locarno Film Festival. In 2026, her directorial debut, The Meltdown, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Martelli lives in Berlin.

For the »ifs Begegnung« Gender & Diversity program, ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln and Internationales Frauen Film Fest Dortmund+Köln have collaborated to raise awareness of the work of female directors in the cultural sector and at film schools by combining their synergies. In order to stimulate discussion on the subject of gender and diversity, selected feature and documentary films as well as experimental works are regularly screened, and their makers introduced in a subsequent discussion.

A cooperation with ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln and IFFF Dortmund+Köln as part of the Filmforum NRW e.V.