Under the Cloak of Night: Total Recall
Film programme with Katrin Winkler, Adnan Softic, Isabelle Tollenaere, Daniel Asadi Faezi & Mila Zhluktenko, Soufiane Adel
Event
11 July (POSTPONED to 17 July) and 18 July, 2025, 21:00 - 23:00 Free admission
Image: Still from Ardent Other – Alice Brygo, 2023
“Under the Cloak of Night” is a phrase that describes something that happens under the cover of darkness, in the shadows or in secret, i.e. during the night. When the moon lights up the sky after sunset, “monsters and creatures” come to life under the bed. Hidden layers begin to peel back, nature crawls out of its hiding places because it cannot be held back. Dreams become visible, memories from the past emerge and the ruins of history begin to speak. On a night like this, a projection can make all this visible – a glimpse of a trapped cycle of the past – and offer a view from the perspective of the future.
On July 11 and 18, two different short film programs will be shown in the Klosterruine under the joint title UNDER THE CLOAK OF NIGHT. TOTAL RECALL on July 11 (POSTPONED to 17 July) and RADICAL FICTION on July 18. These compilations, which include video art, essay films, documentaries and feature films, take the monastery ruins, the questions and the diverse references of the installation as their starting point. From there, they expand the site, reimagine it and enter into an associative or direct dialog from different artistic angles and across personal, local and historical perspectives.
The film program is curated by Azin Feizabadi.
UNDER THE CLOAK OF NIGHT: TOTAL RECALL
Do, 17.07.2025 / 21:00
Performing Monuments
15min, 2018, Germany
By Katrin Winkler
An examination of the consequences of colonialism, genocide and apartheid in Namibia, Performing Monuments draws attention to the commemoration of the Herero and Nama genocide by the German colonial power from 1904 to 1908. Katrin Winkler asks how historical events and their consequences are kept in public consciousness with visual strategies and demonstrative actions, and what determines the visibility or invisibility of individual urgencies.
Image: Still from Performing Monuments – Katrin Winkler, 2018
Bigger than life
30min, 2018, Germany, Italy, North Macedonia
By Adnan Softic
Bigger than life is a music film in four acts. The focus is on the fabrication of national history through architecture and urban planning. »Skopje 2014« is the name of the monumental construction plan of the Macedonian government, which wants to stage its capital as the cradle of ancient high civilization and as the origin of Europe. Would that be something new? Will we buy that (hi)story?
Image: Still from Bigger than Life – Adnan Softic, 2018
The Fruit Tree
15min, 2022, Belgium
By Isabelle Tollenaere
A young woman, Sharleece, wanders through a house that is available to rent in the sleepy desert town where she lives, California City. Looking out of the window evokes unexpected memories of her childhood home in Los Angeles.
Image: Still from The Fruit Tree – Isabella Tollenaere, 2022
in retrospect
15min, 2025, Germany
By Daniel Asadi Faezi & Mila Zhluktenko
1970. An entire small town is being built for the Summer Olympics in Munich. It includes a subway station, a stadium, a swimming pool, a residential area and the largest shopping mall in Europe at the time – the Olympia shopping mall. Many migrant workers, so-called “guest workers”, are employed on the construction site. 2016. Nine people are murdered in a right-wing terrorist attack at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich. All the victims have a migrant background. 1982. Sohrab Shahid Saless, an Iranian director, shoots a film in West Germany as a response to the rapid increase in racism. The characters in the film walk past houses, walls and facades smeared with far-right slogans. The colours flicker shrilly and fade again. In retrospect is an attempt to look back and search for connections that link a space and its history.
Image: Still from in retrospect – Daniel Asadi Faezi & Mila Zhluktenko, 2025
La lumière tombe
9:30min, 2018, France
By Soufiane Adel
Somewhere in the Parisian suburbs, in a near future. The working class no longer exists. Venus is getting closer to the earth. A man and his son set the world to rights.
Image: Still from La lumière tombe – Soufiane Adel, 2018
Biography
