International Feature Film Competition for Women Directors

International Feature Film Competition for Women Directors

We are all Petrunya

»AREN’T YOU INTERESTED IN OUR HISTORY?« –
»NO. I’M INTERESTED IN THE INTEGRATION OF COMMUNISM IN DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES.«
(PETRUNIYA IN: GOD EXISTS. HER NAME IS PETRUNYA)

When Dortmund | Cologne IWFF launched the International Feature Film Competition in 2005 aimed at women directors who had gained recognition for their style, narrative form and stance, our key concern was to draw attention to and recognise their achievements. Because for decades, the number of female film-makers represented at international festivals – especially in the prestigious sections – was shockingly low. Thanks to numerous initiatives by colleagues all over the world and the tailwind of #metoo, we find ourselves in a different situation today. In many countries, statistics are now being collected on the participation of women in film and media production and the brutality of these facts is leading to an erosion of the status quo. According to the principle of ›name it and shame it‹, festival line-ups that marginalise women directors and fill board positions unequally trigger image-damaging shitstorms that no one wants to face today. Within just a few years, new opportunities have arisen. And the positive results of these developments are now reflected in the productions: The number of feature films that fulfilled the formal conditions for the Dortmund | Cologne IWFF competition in the last two years has risen significantly. More important than the quantity, however, is the diversity of the forms, themes and personalities that are testimony to women film-makers’ confidence in their approach to genres and narrative styles. This year’s selection ranges from strongly documentary-style narratives, as in Sembra mio figlio or Wajib, and the brutally grotesque (God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya), to science fiction (Ever After) and experimental dance film (The Beast in the Jungle). The films cover such issues as family structures, escape and identity, like the Brazilian entry Los Silencios, but also present a biting critique of religion and patriarchal society, such as Sundance prize-winner The Miseducation of Cameron Post.

It is a delight to see how much clout these films, even the quieter ones, possess. We have waited for a protagonist like the one in Teona Struga Mitevska’s God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya for a long time. The unemployed historian, played by Zorica Nusheva, could represent a radical change in casting politics with her large physique, handsome face and stoic perseverance. In Marie Kreutzer’s The Ground Beneath My Feet, Pia Hierzegger gives her character, the psychologically unstable Conny, a delightfully antineoliberal drive, allowing her to disrupt the organised life of her high-flying management consultant sister. Carolina Hellsgård also demonstrates astonishing boldness when she turns Weimar and Jena into the last places of human civilisation in her sci-fi zombie film Ever After, and thus makes an interesting comment on reunification.

What is now important is that we secure and build upon the opportunities that have opened up for women in the film industry. Will our festival films make it into cinemas and television programmes? How gender-sensitive are distributors, cinemas and film critics? Content and forms have to be developed. Which and whose stories will be told and how? Can women film-makers interpret themes beyond the white, heteronormative middle-class mainstream? These are the responsibilities of feminist film policy in the coming years.
_Stefanie Görtz