In cooperation with the Greek Cultural Foundation, we present the Berlin premiere of 45 m² (Greece 2010) in the presence of filmmaker Stratos Tzitzis. "One who gives up has already lost." Christina is a fighter. She won't accept her situation: As a saleswoman in a posh district of Athens, she only earns the minimum wage and therefore still lives with her mother. Despite lacking money, she rents her own small apartment in a part of town inhabited by migrants to find out what she really wants from life. She gives up her old habits, can no longer relate to her friends and unpacks the cardboard boxes of the former tenant. In them, she finds the support she needs. Along the coordinates of rich or poor, Greek or migrant, venal or full of integrity, 45 m² gives an account of both individual liberation and the current situation in Greece during the financial crisis. (March 3)

This month, our film history series will examine the many and varied links between cinema and theater. From the very start, the relationship between cinema and theater vacillated between delimitation – and thus the reinforcement of an own aesthetic – and inspiration and approximation. Early cinema stood in (also economic) competition with the traditional medium of theater. Although theater was the first aesthetic point of reference for cinema, it soon detached itself from it so as to come upon a unique cinematic form and picture language. Even if cinema has long emancipated itself from theater, it repeatedly makes reference to it – be it by taking up theatrical motifs, in regard to the working method, or by falling back on tried and tested forms. Until today, theater has not lost its fascination for film. This film series seeks to expand the concept of theater and include all forms of theatricality, staging and role play. Many of the films address the variegated connections between life and theater, play and reality, and the ways in which these borders can be crossed.

This month’s film series of the DEFA-Stiftung is dedicated to the actress Jutta Hoffmann and the scriptwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase, both celebrating milestone birthdays in March. DER NACKTE MANN AUF DEM SPORTPLATZ (The Naked Man in the Stadium, GDR 1973, Konrad Wolf, as guest: scriptwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase in conversation with Ralf Schenk) tells the story of the sculptor Kemmel who is not convincing with his headstrong works. Only when confronted with Kemmel's work do his fellow citizens develop an understanding of the artist and his creativity. A film about art and the eye of the beholder. Afterwards, we will see Jutta Hoffmann in the banned film KARLA (GDR 1965, Herrmann Zschoche). Karla is an ambitious teacher who wants to help her pupils think independently. Yet with her ideals, Karla comes up against invisible barriers. (March 7)

In March we continue the jour fixe of our film education program for schoolchildren and teachers, "What is Cinema?", and invite - as usual on the first Friday of the month at 10 a.m. - Berlin pupils in 10th grade or higher to a studio conversation with the filmmaker Maria Mohr. In a dialog with Stefanie Schlüter and based on film excerpts, she will give insights into her work, which is mainly dedicated to autobiographical filmmaking, under the title "Tracks of Life". Her motto is: "My family, my material". Registration by phone (030-269 55 131) is required. (March 4) As a reminder: The programs of the last jours fixe - How does Color Get Into Film? Techniques and Effects of Color in Film: From Early Hand-Colored Films to Color Film, Berlin Schools in Cinema, and Autobiographical Film - can be repeated upon request in the morning at Arsenal. Further information at www.filmvermittlung.de or by phone.

P. Adams Sitney is currently a guest of the American Academy in Berlin. The expert on European and American avant-garde cinema published his legendary book, Visionary Film, in 1974. He was co-founder of the Anthology Film Archives and a member of the selection committee of the Essential Cinema Collection founded in 1970. He will discuss with Ulrich Gregor, film historian and co-founder of Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek (today's Arsenal). Both will present short films and talk about the founding years of two seminal film institutions in New York and Berlin, both dedicated to independent cinema. (March 14)

BRUDER SCHWESTER(GER 2010), the full-length film debut of Maria Mohr, is dedicated in a documentary-experimental way to two pairs of brother and sister: the filmmaker herself and her recently deceased brother Matthias – and her aunt, the nun Sister Ingrid, and the Spanish monk Rafael, who also died young. Following the tracks of this mystic, the film accompanies the nun on her tours as an expert on Rafael through Spanish convents and landscapes, all the way to his canonization in Rome. But the journey also leads to the filmmaker's memories of her brother. Including both factual and spiritual, family-related and philosophical levels, Maria Mohr seeks to come closer to definitions and forms of faith, love and freedom in an unusual way. We will screen BRUDER SCHWESTER in the presence of Maria Mohr as a preview two weeks before its cinema release. (March 9)

Although the plebiscite in 1921 had resulted in the majority of the population wanting Upper Silesia to remain a part of Germany, the industrialized eastern part was granted to Poland. To call this fate to the minds of a wider public, the authorities initiated the production of the revisionist culture and propaganda film LAND UNTERM KREUZ (Ulrich Kayser, GER 1927). It gives an account of the historical development of Upper Silesia as well as the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles and the plebiscite for the German population in the form of a drama about the loss of one's homeland and expulsion. After LAND UNTERM KREUZ had initially been banned, it premiered on the "Plebiscite Memorial Day" in 1927 in the Upper Silesian town of Gleiwitz, leading to massive ill feelings in the German-Polish relations. (Brigitte Braun)

IL GATTOPARDO (The Leopard, Luchino Visconti, F/I 1963, March 23, introduction: Meike Albath) In 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered Sicily and threatened the power of the aristocracy. The time of the Risorgimento, the foundation of the Italian nation-state, is tied to the decline of the nobility and the rise of the bourgeoisie. Don Fabrizio, the Prince of Salina, is aware that the development cannot be stopped, acknowledging it with light melancholy and weariness. His nephew Tancredi seizes the opportunity and marries the daughter of a nouveau riche mayor. His motto is that everything must change if everything is to remain the same. Visconti stages the epic film adaptation of the eponymous novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa as a grandiose festival of the senses, culminating in a 40-minute ballroom scene.

In the framework of the film series accompanying the children's exhibition "In the Jungle" (4th floor of the Filmhaus), the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen presents the Janosch classic OH, WIE SCHÖN IST PANAMA(Martin Otevrel, GER 2006) as the last film of the jungle series. (March 27)

Following the Magical History Tour, we will take up the theme of theater and film in our children's classic program as well and show Ernst Lubitsch's TO BE OR NOT TO BE(USA 1942). A film of appearances and exits, of varied costumes and masquerades, of role playing and the exchange of roles. The "world" penetrates the theater, just as outside of the theater many smaller and larger stages emerge. (March 6, 13 & 20, age 12 and older)