HARD:LINE Film Festival Announces Their German Feature Film Line-Up [Watch]

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HARD:LINE Film Festival Smother

German horror films? Sure, there are the classics, but contemporary German horror deserves its time in the spotlight. The HARD:LINE Film Festival team works tirelessly to support German genre flicks. In 2022 the fans were able to find three German feature films and one short film within the line-up. It seemed the spirit of optimism has been woken. But it is sleeping again…

The newborn section “German highlights” includes two features and one short as official selections of the festival. These are films that need to be seen. Check out the section’s lineup below.

SMOTHER (International Premiere)

Austria 2023 | 90 Minutes

Director: Achmed Abdel-Salam

Cast: Cornelia Ivancan, Lola Scherer, Wolfgang Hübsch

When her father dies, Michaela takes up residence with Hanna in the empty family home. It’s the ideal place to get away from it all and work on her relationship with her daughter. After a car accident, Michaela stops drinking. Once again, she’s sober. And the rural seclusion is now supposed to help. But here in the middle of nowhere, the past is waiting for Michaela. At first, they are only shadows, but soon they reach for her and her daughter.

It must inevitably be taken as an ominous portent that the word “smother” contains the word “mother”. Overprotective motherly love can certainly have a suffocating effect. Yes, the genre knows these patterns. Abdel-Salam, too, knows where to place his directorial debut and cleverly plays with familiar images to use them in his film. Thus, classic ghost motifs meet innovative currents of genre art and combine to create—for us —the most exciting German-language horror film of 2023.

PELICAN BLOOD

Germany 2019 | 121 Minutes

Director: Katrin Gebbe

Cast: Nina Hoss, Katerina Lipovska, Adelia-Constance Ocleppo

Wiebke has everything under control: her horses, the police officers who train at the equestrian farm, and herself. Even the family situation is planned out and she enjoys her perfect life with her adopted daughter Nikolina. When news finally comes that a sister can be adopted for Nikolina, she jumps at the chance. But something is wrong with little Raya. Due to the girl’s behavior, everything gradually slips away from Wiebke. The resulting gap, however, is already occupied…

No, this is not a System Crasher. No, it’s not a Hereditary either. And yet the comparisons are not wrong. Katrin Gebbe deconstructs the self-created ideal world with a fabulous narrative form and an outstanding Nina Hoss to indulge in uncontrollable darkness. No wonder genre festivals worldwide celebrated this mind-bogglingly intense horror drama. PELIKANBLUT hit both A-list festivals and (international) genre circles. In 2020, Gebbe’s film was awarded the Méliès D’Or for Best European Fantastic Film.

PHANTASMAGORIA (German Premiere)

Germany 2022 | 15 Minutes

Director: Alejandro Mathé

Cast: Luzia Oppermann, Doris Plenert, Felix Mayr

Mourning overshadows the house since grandfather died. Stories of guilt and atonement fill the conversations until three heavy knocks on the door like thunder shatter the silence. A soldier stands outside asking for work, shelter, and something to eat. As good believers, Christa and her grandmother let the stranger into the house. But something isn’t right. With him, dark thoughts enter the house. Impure thoughts bore into Christa’s head like maggots into the flesh of sin.

Fifteen Minutes of genre art, slow-paced but effective. This short film skillfully plays with cultural stereotypes and the Ibiza-born young director takes a deep dark bath in German mythology, where evil wanders in the dark forests to knock on everybody’s doors.

Learn more about HARD:LINE Film Festival and buy tickets here.

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