13th Film Festival Women´s Worlds
International Day "NO to violence against women"
November 20-27, 2013, in Tuebingen, Germany

Cinematic Highlights

The upcoming program offers cinematically sophisticated films, including The Artist and the Model. Oscar-winner Fernando Trueba will accompany this meditation on beauty, ageing and death, in Tuebingen and Rottenburg. Also in black-and-white aesthetic is the silent film Blancanieves, winner of 33 awards, which relocates Grimm’s fairy tale into a bullfighting arena in 1920s Seville. Pablo Berger’s Snow White takes the épée into her own hand and defies her stepmother. In contrast, Short Term 12, shot by the Hawaiian Destin Cretton, recent winner of four awards in Locarno, is set in today’s America. It’s the thrilling story of a young social worker, who is confronted with her own personal trauma through her work with troubled youths.

Good Morning Karachi makes its German premiere, with the presence of director Sabiha Sumar, award-winner of the Golden Leopard in Locarno. Who could imagine a better film to open Women’s Worlds than the first feature film ever shot in Saudi Arabia, on top of that by a woman? In Wadjda, the title character wants to fulfill her dream of owning a bicycle – in spite of all obstacles.

Forced Prostitution and Prostitution out of Poverty

Made in Ash takes the viewer to a small Czech border town. Dorotka from Slovakia came here to work in a textile factory. When she loses her job, it is German men with money who make sure she gets by. In Ware Frau, Lukas Roegler follows the path of young women from Nigeria to Germany, where they have to prostitute themselves under inhuman conditions. On the Day Focus on Forced Prostitution and Prostitution out of Poverty, a round table conversation with social worker Sabine Constabel, representatives of the Criminal Investigation Department, and director Lukas Roegler will present different perspectives on a topic widely discussed in Germany.

Men’s perspectives

Where do men stand today in relation to women? What images shape them, what are their perspectives? Those of clumsy Seduction Artists, who only dare to get in contact with women with the help of pick-up tricks? Or those of porn-addicts like Don Jon, for whom intimacy with the Hollywood-devotee woman of his dreams becomes problematic, because of the unrealistic expectations created by media-based images of men and women? Time and again, those of perpetrators, who – like in 90 Minutes – initiate brutal catastrophes? Or those of dedicated fighters for women's dignity, some of whom we will meet in the round table conversation on forced prostitution?

Regional Focus: Africa

In Tall as the Baobab Tree young Coumba is trying ingeniously to prevent the forced marriage of her 11-year-old sister. She wishes that her sister can keep on going to school, and not be given away for money. Born This Way shows the lives of lesbians and gays in Cameroon, where same-gender sex is punishable by up to five years in prison. The rapper Sister Fa fights against the practice of Female Genital Cutting in her home country, Senegal. With catching enthusiasm, she inspires in the film Sarabah, which she will personally present in Tuebingen.

Fascinating documentaries

Our program also offers excursions to radically non-patriarchal worlds – the matriarchal culture of the Mosuo in China – and radically anti-patriarchal worlds: in the fight of the sextremism-movement FEMEN or of rebels in patriarchal-Islamic cultures in Salma and Invoking Justice. And, in Dancing in Jaffa, a charming dancer brings Jewish and Arabic boys and girls closer together through ballroom dancing.

Fascinating discoveries await the audience; touching life stories of people who show alternative ways of living, and fight with courage and humor against experienced injustice. As always, a hallmark of Women’s Worlds are the various Q&As following the film screenings. Together with filmmakers, activists or experts the spectators will get the opportunity to process, question and exchange with others about what’s been seen.

We wish you fascinating, profound and enriching moments with Women’s Worlds, and would like to thank all those who have supported us.

Irene Jung, Festival Director

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