Screening Religion

USA 2017, doc, 81 min, director: Erika Cohn
Languages: Arabic with English subs

As a young lawyer, Kholoud Al-Faqih entered the office of the Chief Justice of Palestine and announced that she wanted to join the bench. He laughed at her. But just a few years later, Kholoud became the first woman to be appointed as a judge in the Shari'a courts of the Middle East. The documentary "The Judge" portrays Judge Kholoud and accompanies her on her way, in her tireless fight for women's rights and her visits to clients, friends and family. In so doing, "The Judge" sheds light on some of the universal conflicts in Palestinian domestic life - child custody, divorce, abuse - while offering an unvarnished look at women's lives and Shari'a.

The film will be followed by a discussion with scholar of Islam Markus Dreßler.

NL 2020, doc, 74 min, director: Paul Sin Nam Rigter
Languages: Dutch, English, Sranantongo, Twi with English subs

The many cultures in Bijlmer, a suburb of Amsterdam, all have their own rituals for saying goodbye to the dead. Funeral director Anita, a white Dutch woman, is sent to find out what the community wishes for a new multicultural funeral home that the Yarden organisation wants to set up there.

But the more the initially confident Anita sees and gets to know, the more she begins to doubt. Does this diverse community really need a facility for all cultures like Yarden is planning? Navigating between two worlds, Anita also has to deal with death in her own environment, which leads her to ask herself new questions. Meanwhile, in the Yarden offices, the ideal of diversity must be reconciled with the business plan.

This largely observational, often light-hearted, documentary follows Anita's uncertain mission over a period of more than five years.

After the film there will be a discussion.

GER, ISR 2008, doc, 89 min, directors: Markus Vetter and Leon Geller
Languages: English, Hebrew and Arabic with English subs

The documentary "The Heart of Jenin" tells the story of the Palestinian Ismael Khatib. He lives with his family in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. 15,000 people live here in a small area under difficult living conditions. Jenin is a political powder keg that threatens to explode at any time; most of the suicide bombers who carry out attacks in Israel come from here.

In 2005, Ismael's 12-year-old son Ahmed is fatally shot in the head by bullets from Israeli soldiers while playing with friends. After the doctors at the hospital can only diagnose Ahmed's brain death, Ismael decides to donate his son's organs to Israeli children and thus to save their lives.

Two years later, he embarks on a journey across Israel to visit these children. A painful and at the same time liberating journey, because through the children Ismael also gets very close to his son again.

We will show the film together with "After the Silence" as part of the science festival "GLOBE21".

GER 2014, Doc., 90 min, Directors: Chris Wright and Stefan Kolbe
Language: German with English subs

What happens when two atheist filmmakers gain access to a preacher's seminary? And this in Wittenberg, the city of Luther, once the stronghold of the German Reformation, today located in one of the most secularised regions of Europe?

For one year, Wright & Kolbe accompany a group of young men and women in the final phase of their parish training.

While at the beginning the main focus is on learning the religious and liturgical "craft", in the course of time both protagonists and filmmakers are confronted with very fundamental human questions. Boundaries become blurred - between belief and unbelief, comfort and despair, truth and madness. An open, intimate dialogue emerges about fundamental needs for love, security and meaning.


After the film there will be a discussion.

AUT 2009, Drama, 96 min, director: Jessica Hausner
Language: French with English subs

Christine, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, is paralysed and sits in a wheelchair. Since the doctors cannot give her any hope of healing, she decides to travel to the Catholic pilgrimage site of Lourdes in France. Even though she does not believe in miracles, she hopes that her afflictions will be alleviated by God's help and that she will be able to break out of her involuntary isolation.

On her journey, she is accompanied to the spas and to the processions by the young and fun-loving Maltese nun Maria. Maria, however, also seeks distraction from nursing and tries to have fun, which intensifies Christine's longing for her old life. In Lourdes, Christine also makes the acquaintance of the pilgrim Mrs Hartl, who prays for Christine's healing and whose prayer is answered: Christine's condition improves visibly, and finally she can even walk again.

The miracle is now being examined by the medical committee in Lourdes - the results of this examination are questionable, as both sudden deteriorations and improvements are possible with Christine's illness. The possibility of a relapse hangs over her from now on.

The film will be followed by a discussion with scholar of religion Bernadett Bigalke.

GER, 2011, doc, 82 min, directors: Stephanie Bürger, Jule Ott and Manal Abdallah
Languages: English, Hebrew and Arabic with English subs

The documentary is an Israeli woman's direct response to "The Heart of Jenin".

On 31 March 2002, Doy Chernobroda and 14 other people died in Haifa when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in an Arab restaurant. Doy Chernobroda was a peace activist and worked all his life for reconciliation between Jews and Arabs. Eight years later, his widow Yaël decides to visit the family of the assassin in the West Bank.

Why does a young man leave the house in the morning like any other day, say he won't be back from work that late and detonate the explosive belt under his shirt a few hours later? The two directors Stephanie Bürger and Jule Ott accompany Yaël on her journey and try to understand what seems unimaginable. How do people live in this conflict? What does one know about the tragedies of the other

We will show the film together with "The Heart of Jenin" as part of the "GLOBE21" science festival. After the film there will be a discussion.