Roller-Skating Hitler, Merfolk, Sex in Public: Offbeat Films at Berlin

The 75th edition of the Berlin Film Festival promises a mix of star vehicles and fresh independent movies from around the world in its competition program and beyond.

Sprinkled throughout the Berlinale’s various strands, film buffs can also find some particularly offbeat, edgy-seeming offerings.

Below is a selection of some of the more unusual-sounding films screening in Berlin and which section of the festival they screen in, covering such topics as roller-skating dictators, merfolk culture, a submissive cleaner, and sex in public.

Sirens Call, Miri Ian Gossing and Lina Sieckmann
Forum

Dive into the merfolk culture via this mix of documentary and sci-fi road movie!

In their feature-length debut, the German writers-directors follow performance artist and siren “Una” as she goes against the mainstream. “I’m part human, I recognize that, but I’m not full,” she says about herself.

“Una leads a nomadic existence in the post-modern reality of a drying-out planet and the film glides along with her – through performance and genre elements, through fiction and documentary,” a synopsis explains. “Una’s search for herself and kindred spirits leads her to American diners, shimmering hotel rooms and on a road trip with the young Moth. Trump’s USA looms forth from the car radio.”

Paul, Denis Côté
Panorama Dokumente

Paul struggles with depression and social anxiety in the Canadian master of experimental cinema’s documentary. “He leads a solitary and routine-bound existence spent mostly at home,” explains a synopsis. “But, as a big fan of Alice in Wonderland, he is always thinking up new ways to make his world brighter and more ornate. Seeking safety and security, he embarks on an unusual job: doing housework for dominant women. As the submissive Cleaning Simp Paul, he succeeds in breaking out of his angst-ridden routine.”

Obsessed with his Instagram profile, he retreats into a virtual therapeutic fantasy that he calls “Cleaning to Save My Life.”

No kinky puns needed! Côté’s doc provides a portrait of a man battling to find inner peace one Insta reel at a time by pleasing dominatrices.

The Trio Hall, Su Hui-Yu
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Buckle up for a satire inspired by 1970s Taiwanese TV culture! A synopsis on the Berlin festival website promises audiences nothing less than the unexpected revue in a “revue show of dictators in cahoots with the entertainment industry.”

Specifically, “Stalin dances with Chiang Kai-shek, Mao with a roller-skating Hitler in ’80s attire.” Not to mention that Winston Churchill will be seen sporting a bathing costume.

“This contest of dictators is flashy, flamboyant, Hegelian-dialectical and global – a provocative pop re-enactment of Cold War worlds,” the filmmakers promise. “A satire that screams a loud no to chauvinism and colonialism.” What else can we say!?

Ancestral Visions of the Future, Lemohang Mosese
Berlinale Special

And now for something completely different. The Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker Mosese was born in Lesotho. His 2019 feature This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection won the Visionary Filmmaking Jury Award at Sundance and became Lesotho’s first-ever submission for the best international feature film Oscar

This very personal film, “a poetic allegory of the filmmaker’s childhood, an ode to cinema and an inner nod to his mother,” combines fragmented narratives and mythic imagery to craft something unexpected in what is described as documentary form.

The Berlinale touts the film as “a haunting reflection on dislocation and belonging,” as well as “an elegy for a city and a people caught between the weight of memory and the inevitability of loss.”

Queer as Punk, Yihwen Chen
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Ready for a special form of protest in the spirit of punk? Being LGBTQ+ is criminalized in Malaysia. Still, trans man Faris and his friends Yon, and Yoyo travel the country, playing gigs and protesting on the streets as punk band Shh…Diam!, Malay for “Shut up!”

No, it’s not a Kneecap-type biopic Malaysia-style. Instead, “Yihwen Chen chronicles the journey of this chosen family as they grow, spreading courage with wit, humor, and irresistible charm,” according to a synopsis that also highlights “candid conversations during Malaysia’s shifting political landscape.”

So the movie promises a mix of sounds, friendship and energy while delving into such themes as self-expression, bodily transformation, parental expectations, and political participation.
“Democracy, stifled by state-endorsed monopolies on religion, desire, and identity, creates a suffocating environment,” the synopsis concludes. “Amidst the challenges of ‘pink migration’, where many seek spaces to simply exist, collective care and camaraderie become essential lifelines.”

Night Stage, Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher
Panorama

Yes, erotic movies are back thanks to the likes of Babygirl and Queer. But will sex in public seduce audiences?

Night Stage is more than flirting with the idea. The Brazilian movie is about an actor and a politician who start a secret affair – only to discover their fetish for having sex in public places. For Matias and Rafael the risk is that this will prove to be a fatal attraction though.

“The closer they get to their dream of fame, the more they feel the urge to put themselves at risk,” reveals a synopsis, warning about “a dangerous game of success, pleasure, and death.”

What’s Next?, Cao Yiwen
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Kitschy landscapes with psychedelic dancing vegetables, anyone? Or do you prefer dark dystopias filled with male demons?

That apparently is what’s next! And so are evil, gender issues, the environment, and capitalism as among the issues that this film touches on. Plus, the movie is likely to stimulate further debate around the role of AI.

“Made by one woman with the help of an AI image generator,” it “dreams up a world before and after the arrival of evil,” the Berlinale website shares cryptically, after all. “With no dialogue and a meditative soundtrack, it embraces the kitsch and utter strangeness of images hallucinated by machines.”

Get ready for a debut feature that confronts you with, according to Berlin, a “montage of clichés.”