Exground is the epitome of independent film in Wiesbaden.
In its 35th edition, the festival will offer a screen for 16 world, seven international, four European and 30 German premieres until November 20th.
This time, Portugal made it into the spotlight as the "focus country" in Exgrounds, whose cinema, according to the festival management, is characterized, among other things, by experimental storytelling and fluid genre boundaries.
Ten Portuguese feature films and documentaries as well as 14 short films deal with social inequality, emigration, unemployment and queerness, always considering the country's dictatorial past, its ambivalent present and desirable visions of the future.
Ambivalent present packaged in film
“Fogo-Fátuo”, which premiered in Cannes this year and presented the Exground under the German title “Irrlicht” as the opening film last Friday in the well-filled hall of the Caligari Filmbühne, may be considered a prime example of this.
In his work, which is just 67 minutes long, director João Pedro Rodrigues takes the defenseless viewer all too deep into his “musical fantasy”, as he puts it using the overlay.
That fiction includes a crew of fit firefighters.
Sometimes they loll lasciviously on their sliding pole, sometimes they reproduce paintings of world art with the help of their naked bodies, sometimes they lose themselves in unbridled dance.
But as explicit as the film is, the topics it brings to the table are relevant.
The forest dieback, Portugal's colonial history, classism - major problems, negotiated in intimate scenes.
A queer educational porn, so to speak, it could hardly be more contemporary.
Alma Viva is more innocent, more subtle and less argumentative, also part of the “Focus Portugal”.
Here the camera follows young Salomé as her grandmother dies while she is visiting her family in a traditional Portuguese mountain village.
The adults have nothing to do but tear themselves to pieces over the death of the old lady.
Salomé, on the other hand, threatens to break down because of her feelings - or is she possessed by a demon?
Well, "the living close the eyes of the dead, but the dead open those of the living," notes this Portuguese entry for the 2023 Oscars.
The world as a guest in Wiesbaden
In addition to those from the focus country, Exground brings together cinematic voices from all over the world, including 46 German productions in the “Made in Germany” section.
"ICH ICH ICH" for example: In her feature film debut, Zora Rux shows a world that is so alienated that it seems to belong to everyone else rather than to the "I" of the protagonist.
After fleeing to be alone in the country, she, Marie, finds herself surrounded, lectured, and plagued by “thinking people”: including her mother, her friends, and plenty of baby carriages.
Somewhere between this family constellation and a brutalist sculpture, Marie still finds herself in the end.
Family is also the keyword of the documentary “Love Fear”.
Here, director Sandra Prechtel accompanies the Berlin singer Kim Seligsohn as she digs into the depths of her eccentric mother's memories.
“Love Fear” is not touching despite, but because of its simplicity, which allows an unobstructed view of the traumata of the Shoah that have been passed on through generations.
Films that want more than just to please
Meanwhile, in Exground's "American Independents" section, cinema deals extensively with itself: by delving into the mind of David Lynch, or in "Bonnie" portraying a casting agent who, to a certain extent, breathed the acting breath into American cinema .
In the old fashioned way, Exground will also be presenting films from the “European Cinema” and “World Cinema” sections, a series of short films with works from Iran, and the “youth days”, which will try to introduce young people to the medium of film beyond the blockbuster from November 13th to 17th .
Incidentally, the “opportunity to see films that want more than just 'to please'”, as State Secretary Ayse Asar puts it, is not an exclusive matter for the people of Wiesbaden.
Selected films can also be seen beyond the city limits – in the Rex arthouse cinema in Darmstadt and in the “Pupille” at the University of Frankfurt.
Maps are available through exground.com.
Following the actual festival, there will also be a streaming offer for the films from November 21st to 24th.
■ Exground Filmfest, until November 20, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Darmstadt. Program on the web at exground.com.