Radical Solidarity and Radical Imagination

Film Festival: Where the Wind Scatters Seeds;
7.−9. February 2025
Filmhaus Köln

Where The Wind Scatters Seeds, memories bloom from barren ground of tears in the soil, whispers of forgotten friends, shadows of distant homes, erased faces on torn photographs. Echoes of yesterday, dreams of tomorrow. 

Over the course of three days, a carefully curated film program, born from interdisciplinary collaboration - takes shape. 
Weaving together the intersection of memory, dislocation, and radical solidarity, the program uses film to confront, as well as imagine beyond colonial violence and the ways it warps our sense of self, community, time and space. Complimenting the film program with alternative media forms such as food, music, an interactive drawing corner & a healing conversation circle, the cinema is transformed into a space for nurturing ancestral forms of belonging. It reflects on the essence of home—its presence, what it carries, and the void left in its absence. The showcased works examine the act of remembering, transforming archives into dynamic spaces for resistance, reclamation, and processes of un-learning.

Curated by:

Schaho Balbas

Vincent E.

Ido Hassan

Julia Jesionek

Lan Mi Lê

Polina Resnianska

Sarah Savalanpour

Shadi Tabibzadeh

Safiya Yon

DAY 3: Radical Kinship: Reimagining Communities Through Solidarity
The films in this program invite us to traverse the labyrinths of colonial violence, resistance, and radical imagination. They explore how communities, beyond oppression and alienation, can forge connections with one another. By examining the shared experiences of groups affected by colonialism across different geographic contexts, the program fosters solidarity between communities suffering from colonial violence and its aftermath.
Starting from the Vietnamese diaspora, the films delve into forced migration and cultural survival, exploring how living archives are constructed through personal histories. These intimate insights challenge dominant narratives shaped by power structures, which are perpetuated by selective forgetting. These works examine the complex process of negotiating identity "in the belly of the beast". This confrontation with identity under colonial legacies is not only an act of survival, but also reclaiming of self in spaces shaped by systemic forces of control.
The second part of the program shifts focus to film as an archive of resilience, one that documents testimonies of colonial violence. These works disrupt established historical narratives and open new pathways to present collective suffering and resistance. The films urge questioning the systemic conditions that distort or erase the testimonies of marginalized subjects, encouraging new ways of listening and understanding. The screen becomes a space for deconstructing past and present traumas, enabling the creation of alternative methods and perspectives of documenting vulnerability.
The concluding section shifts towards radical imaginations from black and Kurdish resistance movements: What could a world beyond colonial legacies look like? These films imagine ways of living, creating, and being together outside the structures of imperial control. Through documentation of revolutionary practice, they break inherited hierarchies and propose alternative visions grounded in justice, reciprocity, and liberation.
In presenting these perspectives, the films invite the audience to view solidarity as a tool for healing and transformation.

Program #2: Radical Solidarity and Radical Imagination

Radical Solidarity

Letter To Obama (D: Mohanad Salahat; 2014; 6'; Arabic, English subtitles)
In a Gaza Strip refugee camp, two boys sent a Facebook message to President Obama, urging him to end the siege and visit the area with his wife to see the hardships. Receiving no reply, they recorded an angry video message to him on behalf of the camp's people.

The tank of my sketchbook (D: Sherko Abbas; 2021; 6'; Kurdish, English subtitles)
The film blends found imagery and animation to depict 1980s Iraq, where reality and propaganda intertwined. It contrasts state-sanctioned cartoons glorifying war with the harsh realities faced by Iraqi families, exposing the lasting trauma of a generation shaped by violence and manipulation.

Buurman Abdi (D: Douwe Dijkstra; 2022; 29’, Dutch/Somali/English, English subtitles)
How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. By means of playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, Abdi and Douwe embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout.

Graffiti (D: Paria Mohammadi/Rasoul Mohammadi; 2024; 5'; Farsi/English, English subtitles)
Two film students living in two different countries - Iran and Germany - are interested in the walls and graffiti of city life. That's why they start filming the graffiti in their cities at the same time. The result is the experimental short film Graffiti.

Paper Puppet Testimony (D: Sherko Abbas; 2019; 8'; Kurdish, English Subtitles)
The 1991 Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein, symbolized by Amna Suraka—The Red Prison—was pivotal. 11-year-old Sherko witnessed a haunting scene that stayed with him. Now, he uncovers the silenced stories of female inmates, aiming to reveal hidden histories and confront denial through memory, trauma, and justice.

Nebsei (D: Gabrielle Tesfaye; 2023; ; Tigrigna, English subtitles) 
Nebsey, meaning ‘my body/soul’ in Tigrigna, is a short animated film revealing the story of women who faced sexual and gender based violence
during the war in Tigray. The film responds to research surrounding the themes of gender-based violence during the ‘Tigray War’, its
psychological effects on society, and hopes of reconciliation, justice and healing.

+ Screening at the Foyer

Voices of Bakur (D: Two Rivers and a Valley; 2019; 32'; Kurdish, English Subtitles)
Voices of Bakur delves into the 2015-2016 Kurdish movement in Northern Kurdistan, where southeastern Turkish towns declared autonomy. Featuring interviews and banned footage, it highlights the fight for democratic autonomy, women’s liberation, and self-defense during a brutal conflict that claimed 1,552 lives.

(Break)

17:50

Radical Imagination

Bread of my life (D: Adel Abidin; 2008; 6'; no dialogue)
 In Egypt, bread is revered as the source of life, almost treated as a sacred object. It comes in various forms, and I once encountered bread so hard that it seemed more suited for drumming than eating. The sound it produced was surprisingly pleasant, resembling that of a musical instrument. In the video, four percussionists, who make a living by playing rhythms for belly dancers in low-key nightclubs (kabarate), experiment with drumming on the bread to create a rhythmic experience.

Cultural Nationalism (D: Skip Norman; 1966; 10’; English, no subtitles)
A quiet scene in the snow, a black child in an anorak runs mumbling towards the camera. The pictures of Skip Norman’s Cultural Nationalism are underpinned with a powerful monologue by the co-founder of the Black Panther Party Bobby Seale.

Curated by Schaho Balbas, Ido Hassan, Lan Mi Lê and Safiya Yon

IMPORTANT NOTES
If you don't have a ticket, come by and we will put you on the waiting list.
If you have a ticket, please come earlier (at least 15min). If you are late, we might give your place to the people on the waiting list.