On May 13, we are presenting a selection of films at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen that originally premiered as part of the 2017 Forum Expanded program and now form part of our distribution range, as well as two more works of Karø Goldt, as we have her complete works now in distribution.

Orson Welles, Edgar Allen Poe, and other literary and cinematic ghosts seem to lead the spectator of A TALL TALE (Maya Schweizer, Germany/Irland 2017) onwards, passing through a landscape of ruins and films and ruins of films that evoke phantoms and fairies. SPOT ON – SPOT OFF: UGANDA (Germany/Austria 2009) by Karø Goldt: The world in the living room. One sees the projected freeze frame of a comfortable leather fauteauil next to a side table and newspapers, whilst a female voice talks about the political affairs of the Central African Republic. The video I DEEPLY REGRET (Karø Goldt, Germany 2009) is about a failed chance of revenge and satisfaction. It shows the attempt to liberate oneself from the victim's role by a fantasy of self-empowerment. THE SHORTEST DAY (Austria 2016) by Karø Goldt deals with melancholia and sadness, but also with overcoming these feelings. STUDIES ON THE ECOLOGY OF DRAMA (Finland 2017) by Eija-Liisa Ahtila uses the methods of presentation as a path to the company of other living beings. Its protagonists are: a human actor, a bush, a juniper tree, a common swift, a horse, a brimstone butterfly, and a group of human acrobats. Eva C. Heldmanns film IM GEHÄUS/ IN HIS ROOM (Germany 2017) shows the portrait of a man in his workroom: Dennis and I live together. I explored his room with my camera. Papers, books, and tools cover the floor: a lawless world of a thinker and a handyman. I don't really trust his working methods – little gets done – but they draw me in.

ALFILM is presenting artistically demanding cinema from the Arab world between 31st March and 7th April, with feature and documentary films that depict new perspectives on societal challenges but also pose questions with regard to identity and personal fulfillment. There will also be a retrospective of the works and artistic influences of the Egyptian director and artist Shadi Abdel Salam (1930–1986).

Without a doubt, Manoel de Oliveira (1908–2015) is the most significant Portuguese director. He gained worldwide acclaim with his oeuvre. Until his death at the age of 106, he was the oldest filmmaker still making films. In 2014, he made a trailer for the "Viennale" festival. His work is wide-ranging and difficult to categorize. It is rooted in the worlds of literature and the theater, both ancient and modern. His films acquire another dimension through his treatment and a particular unique style. The viewer is distanced, suddenly new perspectives emerge, and the difference between reality and fiction comes into view. By exaggerating melodramatic elements, framing, or parallel plots, the narrative in Oliveira's films sometimes enters the surreal or becomes a parable, acquiring another level of reality. With all their complexity, Oliveira's films also often have a subtle satirical dimension, interwoven with a fine sense of irony and ambiguity. The director meditates on the ephemeral nature of love and relationships, he asks existential questions, and then he carries out expeditions through countries, continents and eras of history. His films break through the realism of narration, with actors looking into the camera or reciting texts instead of "acting". Thus Oliveira resembles Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. On the other hand, in his composition of images he is related to Carl Theodor Dreyer and Robert Bresson. With his films often featuring in Arsenal's program and that of the International Forum, Oliveira was a frequent guest of ours. In 1980, our screening of a 16mm print of his film AMOR DE PERDIÇÃO (Ill-Fated Love) as the first film of the Forum had the effect of a thunderbolt. With its unusual length and strictly stylized narrative style, it left an unforgettable impression on viewers and even brought some of the most hardened critics to tears. The French critic Louis Marcorelles wrote that Oliveira had "an inimitable way of observing the world and the way people live, a heartbeat, momentum to the peaks." This could be applied to Oliveira's entire oeuvre.

We accompanied this oeuvre all the way and are therefore particularly pleased to present a comprehensive retrospective of Oliveira's works, a series of rarely screened masterpieces. The program will bring to light the depths and variety of the works and the unique signature of a great director.

We are very glad to welcome the head of the Cinemateca Portuguesa, José Manuel Costa, to Arsenal for the opening weekend. (ug)

We have had a new Living Archive grant holder since February: The Off-Nollywood filmmaker and critic and co-founder of the Lagos Film Society Didi Cheeka. As the initiator of the "Reclaiming History, Unveiling Memory" project, Cheeka now has the task of working through the recently discovered film archive of Nigeria’s Colonial Film Unit. Arsenal is supporting this activity and currently restoring Adamu Halilu's film "Shaihu Umar" (1976). Meanwhile, Didi Cheeka is also researching Arsenal's archive. One of his first discoveries was the film REMPARTS D'ARGILE (Ramparts of Clay, Jean-Louis Bertuccelli, France/Algeria 1970), which in 1971 was announced as follows in the catalogue for the first Berlinale Forum: "With (…) long takes, the film begins like a documentary about a remote settlement on the edge of the desert. Pictures of a marriage, of the men's difficult work under a scorching sun and of lessons at a primitive school slip in. Confusingly though, a 19-year-old woman appears in the foreground. She was adopted by a family, never went to school and is now trying to catch up with her schooling, from what the children report from class. She is on the margins of the community, more tolerated than integrated. Her hour comes when the men one day refuse to carry out the difficult work of breaking rocks for the pittance that one of the city officials hands out."

We are showing the film in a public screening on April 7.

A life in the shadows of society, defined by uncertainty, rebellion and rejection, rootlessness, loneliness and emptiness – these are some of the particular characteristics of the filmic sketches of existence in no man's lands, parallel societies and half-worlds that we are presenting in April's Magical History Tour. Our tour d'horizon, which runs the gamut of eras and genres, unfolds a widespread map of different universes, each with their own aesthetic and dramaturgical topography. The film's common denominator is a coordinate system for social co-existence or human relationships that has come out of sync, leaving the viewer with an impression of a sometimes razor-thin line between the center and the periphery.

No less than five films from this year's Forum and Forum Expanded programme have received awards at the 41st Hong Kong International Film Festival: MY HAPPY FAMILY (CHEMI BEDNIERI OJAKHI) by Nana & Simon received the main award of the international competition, the Firebird Award. NEWTON by Amit V Masurkar was given the Jury Award. The Firebird Award of the documentary comeptition was given to Tala Hadid's HOUSE IN THE FIELDS (TIGMI N IGREN) while INMATES (QIU) by Ma Li received the Jury Award.

The Jury Award of the short film competition went toTEN MORNINGS TEN EVENINGS AND ONE HORIZON by Nishikawa Tomonari.