International Debut Feature Film Competition

International Debut Feature Film Competition

»I FIND HARD TO BEAR THE IDEA THAT THE FACT THAT I AM A WOMAN COULD STOP ME BEING OR DOING WHAT I CHOOSE.«
RACHEL LANG, DIRECTOR OF BADEN BADEN

How does this generation find its place in the world?
The number of first films made by women directors is increasing every year. This time round, the competition films so nominated come from countries as varied as Bulgaria, Belgium, Germany, Ecuador, Great Britain, Israel, Hungary and the USA. That increase is gratifying, yes, but not only in terms of gender equality. We also discover the much calledfor diversity in this section of debut films. Equally, it is striking that a critical look at the challenging circumstances of our time for women in the transition from adolescence to adulthood runs like a thread through many of the latest films made by women.

Songs My Brothers Taught Me follows the destinies of two hopeful Lakota teenagers growing up on one of the Native American reservations notorious for an unemployment rate over 80%. Sand Storm tells the story of a young Bedouin woman who lives with her family in the Israeli Negev desert as she attempts to escape patriarchal social structures. In the Hungarian entry The Wednesday Child, a rebellious young mother tries to get her life under control and regain custody of her 4-yearold son by using a microcredit to open up a small laundry. Or, in the summer film Baden Baden, we accompany a young Belgian woman who, charmingly disorganised, checks out why we are here and where our path in life should lead us.

»Women are the perfect members of a neoliberal society« according to cultural theorist Angela McRobbie. She argues that women have so internalised all demands made on them – from economic independence to perfect motherhood – that their power of self-control is stricter than any outside control. Well, the women directors of the films in the competition seem to be aware of this immense pressure and thus their films deal in impressive formal variety with the question of how this generation of women can find its rightful place in our world.

_Stefanie Görtz