It doesn't matter whether it's at the petrol pump, at the doctor's nutritional advice or at the environmental conference of the most powerful industrialized countries, they are everywhere: weather witches, forest witches, mountain witches, swamp witches, fog witches, wind witches, crispy witches and herbal witches of many genders.

The persecution in the Middle Ages was not able to eradicate them - were they perhaps the first climate warriors back then?

Or the opposite?

Is Angela Merkel such a bitter enmity as she says?

Dietmar Dath

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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Maria Wiesner

Editor in the “Society & Style” department.

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Where such pressing questions arise, perhaps a children's film can provide the simple, clear, and robust answers that we adults usually don't want to see and prefer to wrap up in complicated pretexts and excuses like a hedgehog in barbed wire.

Such a children's film, full of answers and other surprises, is the film adaptation of Ottfried Preußler's famous children's book "The Little Witch" with Karoline Herfurth, one of the funniest actresses that German cinema has ever seen.

We, that is Dietmar Dath and Maria Wiesner from the FAZ editorial team, want to watch and discuss this film with you as part of the FAZ Film Night series for subscribers - against the background of others, also allegedly anything but child-friendly, movies and books,

which we've reviewed and explored for the evening, quickly realizing that there was more to the witch subject than the Inquisition could have known at the time.

It is true that we live in times when magic is no longer practiced, but the double problem of what one knows (magical for witches, science for us) and what one can do (magic for witches, technology for us) has never existed greater in human history – and it stands to reason that a talking raven like the little witch has might be more sensible than a talking car that beeps senselessly when you want to park.

How you can take part in the FAZ film evening

The FAZ film evening format, which we developed in cooperation with the streaming service Pantaflix, is regularly offered to an audience with an FAZ subscription.

If you don't already have a subscription, you can subscribe here.

Each evening begins with a brief introduction to the film selected by the editors.

With the start of the film evening on June 28, 2022 at 7 p.m., the selected film will be available to subscribers free of charge (previously it can only be borrowed for a fee, but this limit will be automatically lifted for FAZ subscribers at the start of the event.) After the short introduction Some browsers may need to refresh this page for the film in order to start the stream.

Questions or requests to speak for the subsequent discussion can be shared after registering on FAZ.NET using the comment function.

After each screening, Dietmar Dath and Maria Wiesner from the editorial department have a discussion with the audience and with each other.

This is intended to create a space for the exchange of ideas that goes beyond the usual critical register (e.g. a review) in search of connections and judgments that do justice to the richness of the feature film format.