Transnational Filmmaking in Germany (3)

Contact: Till Kadritzke, till.kadritzke@fu-berlin.de

Organised and curated by Till Kadritzke and Carlos Kong (Princeton University/EXC 2020 Doctoral Fellow, April–September 2025), project Moving Images, Transforming Germanness: Race, Migration and Transnational Filmmaking in Germany, 1968–1989, Research Area 4: „Literary Currencies“, supported by Constellations (Anna Luhn). In cooperation with Sinema Transtopia.

The film series adopts the ‚Temporal Communities‘ approach to analyse works of literature as the outcome of specific practices entangled in global networks and reframes the history of German film by looking at a wide array of transnational filmmaking practices in Germany since the 1960s.

In following different trajectories of transnational filmmaking in Germany and assembling films created within transnational networks, the series seeks to shed light on the important work performed by archival initiatives, cultural projects and a growing number of individual curators, exhibitors, researchers and artists over the last years. They all have restored, studied and made available films that have been unseen or underappreciated in Germany, often because they fell through existing national categories.

The series consists of four evenings that each highlight a different dimension of or route to transnational filmmaking in Germany, such as filmmakers in exile, Turkish productions in Germany or international students at film schools. Each evening will combine the screening of one or two films with an introductory presentation or a talk following the screenings.

Part 3 | Filmmakers in German Exile

Anton P. Cechov – Ein Leben (1981, Sohrab Shahid Saless, 95 min)

Introduction by Behrang Samsami (author and journalist)

Iran-born filmmaker Sohrab Shahid Saless was one of the most prolific directors who lived and worked in exile in Germany. Settling in West Germany in the early 1970s, he made 13 feature films before leaving the country again in the 1990s. The television production Anton P. Čechov – Ein Leben is an homage to and an interrogation of Anton Chekhov, one of Saless‘ main artistic inspirations. He puts original sources such as letters and photographs in dialogue with Chekhov’s literary works and paints a picture of the novelist and his historical context. The film is an extraordinary example of transnationalism in filmmaking, shot not only in Germany but also in the Soviet Union and Italy.