CinePop presents European and International Cinema parallel to SEE THE SOUND!
We show young, bright, special films that you haven't seen regularly in the cinema or at the Cologne film festivals!
CinePop 2023
Five young feature films that stand out for their aesthetic exploration and push the boundaries of genre made up the 2023 SEE THE SOUND programme: a hyper-colourful sci-fi fairy tale, a French Alpine drama with horror elements, a Spanish reflection on love and film in the style of Frances Ha, a smart country music comedy that keeps taking unexpected turns, and a French-Finnish love drama about the toxic power games of a female rapper, with music by Franco-pop mastermind Jean-Benoît Dunckel (Air).
AFTER BLUE (DIRTY PARADISE)
FRA 2021 / Feature 129' / CinePop
Directed by: Bertrand Mandico
Hyper-coloured sci-fi fairy tale. In a distant future, a planet inhabited only by women: lonely teenage girl Roxy brings death to her community when she releases an assassin. As punishment, Roxy and her mother must embark on a dangerous journey through supernatural landscapes to kill the woman. The journey plunges them into feverishly sexual dark fantasies....
COUNTRY GOLD
USA 2022 / Feature 84' / CinePop
Directed by: Mickey Reece
Smart comedy in b/w that takes unexpected turns every now and then. In 1994, Country star Troyal Brux is invited to Nashville by his idol George Jones. The night before George is cryogenically frozen - stories, steaks, drugs, guns, women and awkward massages. Conversations between rising and falling stars are always interesting, the film is at its best when they both take each other for a ride.
HEARTBEAST
FRA/FIN/DEU 2022 / Feature 102' / CinePop
Directed by: Aino Suni
Elina, a 17-year old aspiring rapper, leaves her home country of Finland and move to the South of France with her mother and her new partner. She is immediately drawn to her new stepsister Sofia, 18, a charismatic ballet dancer who leads a double life full of boys and drugs. Soon, Elina and Sofia's friendship turns into a power game with toxic consequences.
RAMONA
ESP 2022 / Feature 80' / CinePop
Directed by: Andrea Bagney
Ramona is a girl who dreams of becoming a great actress, and with that purpose, she moves to Madrid with her boyfriend. One day before an important audition, she meets an older man, Bruno, with whom she makes a special connection. The audition doesn't go as expected. Ramona must decide whether to take advantage of the door that has opened for her in acting, even if that means an emotional turmoil.
THE STRANGE CASE OF JACKY CAILLOU
FRA 2022 / Feature 92' / CinePop
Directed by: Lucas Delangle
Drama with horror elements. Jacky Caillou has to find out if he has inherited the gift of a healer from his grandmother. When sheep die, the pressure on Jacky grows. But he is unsure whether he has healing powers. That's when Elsa comes to Jacky's village in the French Alps to seek help. A hairy patch grows on her back.... And a wolf is seen in the village.
CinePop 2022
The seven feature films in the CinePop section of the SEE THE SOUND Program were young, explosive cinema that impressed above all visually. These included the smart, feminist witch-film parody "The Love Witch," and "Neptune Frost," an Afrofuturist, queer sci-fi musical.
POSER
POSER
US 2021 / Feature 87' / CinePop
Directed by: Noah Dixon
Outsider Lennon wants to become part of the local underground music scene. When she starts a podcast to interview key figures in the scene, she discovers her own musical ambitions. An obsessive friendship develops with the charismatic singer Bobby, which seems to throw Lennon off balance.
YOUTH TOPIA
YOUTH TOPIA
CH/DE 2021 / Feature 85' / CinePop
Directed by: Dennis Stormer
The residents of Valpolvra are assigned their perfect jobs by an algorithm. The AI decides even more: those who are responsible are allowed to grow up, while those who engage in unproductive activities must remain youthful. Wanja is part of a clique of perpetual adolescents who defy this societal dictate. Can their resistance be sustained?
NEPTUNE FROST
NEPTUNE FROST
RW/US/FR 2021 / Feature 105' / CinePop
Directed by: Anisia Uzeyman / Saul Williams
A hacker collective living in an e-waste camp plans to overthrow an authoritarian regime that exploits the land and its people. Intersex Neptune and Matalusa, a coltan miner who has escaped, find each other there through cosmic fate and trigger glitches in the great divine circuit. A visually stunning Afrofuturistic, queer sci-fi musical.
THE LOVE WITCH
THE LOVE WITCH
US 2016 / Feature 120' / CinePop
Directed by: Anne Biller
Elaine is single and looking for the man of her dreams. Instead of dating apps, love potions are the young witch's preferred method. Soon, her villa is overrun with submissive men with short shelf lives. When she finally meets her dream man, she is overwhelmed by her desire for love and resorts to drastic measures. A feminist witch film presented as a clever Technicolor horror parody.
MONEYBOYS
MONEYBOYS
AU/FR/TW 2021 / Feature 118' / CinePop
Directed by: C.B. Yi
Fei works as an illegal sex worker in Shenzhen. With his earnings, he leads an independent life in the city and supports his family back in the countryside. When he visits his relatives one day, Fei realizes that while they accept his money, they don't accept his way of life. When he falls in love with a friend from his hometown, he is forced to confront an old debt.
SONGS FOR A FOX
SONGS FOR A FOX
LT / EE / LV 2021 / Feature 125' / CinePop
Directed by: Kristijonas Vildžiūnas
Grieving musician Dainius retreats to a studio in the middle of a swamp. There, he attempts to contact his deceased girlfriend through lucid dreams. He is aided by a boy he rescued from local moonshiners. A surreal meditation on grief, love, and moving on – interspersed with dream sequences reminiscent of old Soviet fairy tale films.
THE SWIMMER
THE SWIMMER
IL 2021 / Feature 83' / CinePop
Directed by: Adam Kalderon
Erez is battling with other young swimmers for Israel's Olympic ticket. His crush on his rival Evo doesn't make things any easier in a homophobic environment. The choice between the grueling grind of professional sports and self-determination becomes inevitable.
CinePop 2021
Six feature films oscillating between genre parody, music film, and social reflection made up the CinePop programme 2021: a brilliant sci-fi comedy about social media and Martian emergency operations, a British-Pakistani music drama about identity and career on tour, an unflinching portrait of Berlin's club scene as a lost pre-Corona world, a gripping drama about a punk drummer losing his hearing, a Turkish music-world drama about a toxic love affair and drug addiction — and finally, a sensual Brazilian portrait of a vaqueiro caught between the daily rodeo grind and the dream of another life.
MARS
CZE 2018 / Feature 87' / CinePop
Directed by: Benjamin Tuček
Flying to Mars has long gone out of fashion. The Martian science station is maintained in emergency mode by an obsolete robot that has been left there to fend for itself. Instead of spare parts, Czech tourists arrive on the planet to celebrate a wedding. But if you can't handle your personal problems, you shouldn't travel into space. A terrific satire on a world controlled by social media and rich sponsors.
MOGUL MOWGLI
GBR 2020 / Feature 90' / CinePop
Directed by: Bassam Tariq
Before the start of his first international tour, British-Pakistani rapper Zed flies back to England to visit his family, whom he hasn't seen for two years. While trying to rebuild a relationship with his parents, he is surprisingly knocked out by an autoimmune disease. His breakthrough becomes a distant memory and Zed is sent into a physical and emotional crisis.
EX
DEU/GRC 2020 / Feature 85' / CinePop
Directed by: George Markakis
While the dance floor is mythologised as a place of connection, every person of the nightlife knows that the real action happens in the toilet cubicle, which doubles as the club's engine room and confessional. EX portrays the realities of these sacred spaces with a shocking intimacy, following Diana and a gaggle of partygoers through a night of extraordinary excess - a tribute to a lost pre-Corona world.
SOUND OF METAL
USA 2019 / Feature 130' / CinePop
Directed by: Darius Marder
During an adrenaline-fuelled tour, punk metal drummer Ruben loses his hearing. When a doctor tells him that his condition will rapidly deteriorate, the end of his music career looms. His band colleague and partner Lou puts him up in a house for deaf people to help him adjust to the new situation. But Ruben fights tooth and nail to reclaim his old life.
WHEN I'M DONE DYING
TUR 2020 / Feature 97' / CinePop
Directed by: Nisan Dag
Fehmi, an aspiring rapper from a rough neighbourhood of Istanbul, is discovered by a producer and knows that this could be his big break. When he meets DJ Devin, they fall in love and find the inspiration they both lacked. But their relationship soon turns toxic as Fehmi finds it increasingly difficult to control his addiction to the cheap drug Bonzai.
NEON BULL
BRA/URY/NLD 2018 / Feature 101' / CinePop
Directed by: Gabriel Mascaro
Iremar works at the rodeos in north-eastern Brazil. It is dusty, exhausting work, but he is a born 'vaqueiro', feeding, grooming and caring for the bulls. But his home country is changing and he dreams of a different life while rocking on the back of the truck he lives in. He finds an initial outlet for his creativity by tailoring horse masks and provocative costumes for the group's driver, Galega. In these costumes, she performs seductive dances in the neon lights after each rodeo, mirroring Iremar's longing for Eros and a clean-artificial world of art....