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He was considered the “Dostoyevsky of documentary filmmaking”, his films were celebrated as a “triumph of the documentary over fiction”. Michael Mrakitsch worked as a filmmaker for several German TV stations from the1960s to the 1990s. His two dozen films are among the most exciting, demanding and challenging works created during these three decades of film and television history. This retrospective may be the first screening of the films outside the medium of television, to whose conditions of production they are inseparably linked. Mrakitsch died on March 12th, 2010.

Shalom or We Have Nothing to Lose

D: Michael Mrakitsch, GER 1983, 130 min.

Mrakitsch visited a group of settlers in the West Bank, and a Palestinian refugee camp shortly before the invasion of Lebanon and the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

See also:

Djibouti or the guns aren’t loaded, only by night and

Djibouti, Wiederbegegnung mit einer Erfindung 1973/1991

Wednesday, June 2, 10 pm More...

Inside, that’s like outside, just different (GER 1977, 97 min)

Sunday, June 6th 2010, 2.30 pm More...

Mrakitsch returned to the subject matter of all three films and their locations some 20 years later, revisiting his own films and their present realities. These will be available for viewing throughout the Forum.

A conversation between Florian Schneider and Rick Prelinger, founder of the Prelinger Archives, will take place on Sunday, June 6th, 4.30 pm. More...