Wiesbaden/Frankfurt, 27 February 2025
The goEast Homage returns to the festival in 2025 in the scope of the Cinema Archipelago program. Made possible with the generous support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, for years this supporting program has served as a fruitful “playground” for experimentation at goEast, and as a platform for under-represented artforms and artists. This year’s salute to two trailblazers of indigenous film in post-Soviet cinema, Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio, is therefore perfectly at home here. Curator Olaf Möller will present eight films and a workshop talk in Wiesbaden and Frankfurt am Main during the festival period.
In her works, Anastasia Lapsui, born in 1944 on the Yamal Peninsula in the Soviet Union as a member of the Nenets people, often processes her own early life experiences – her childhood in her nomadic family, the traumatic forced attendance of a Soviet boarding school, the looming loss of culture and identity. Through her collaboration with Finnish cameraman and director Markku Lehmuskallio, Lapsui became one of the first filmmakers from the Soviet Union to realize films treating Russian colonial history from the perspective of indigenous populations. Although the culture of the Nenets people stands at the centre of Lapsui’s oeuvre, the directorial duo has conducted extensive research into the lives of nine different indigenous peoples while documenting the process in their films. This retrospective takes viewers along on a journey through Canada, Alaska, Finland, Norway, the former Soviet Union and present-day Russia and Greenland. The pioneering cinema featured within makes space for poetry, fine art, fragments, rituals and impressions. With this Homage, goEast recommits to deepening its exploration of the theme “Decolonizing the (Post-)Soviet Screen” introduced in 2023 and honours two enormously significant filmmakers with their own comprehensive tribute. The poster motif for the 25th edition of goEast is also devoted to the culture of the Nenets, featuring an image recorded by photographer Alegra Ally on Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula in 2016.
Opening: CHEMI BEBIA & CLEANING WOMEN
This year’s festival opens on Wednesday, 23 April, with a special treat for the goEast audience: a spectacular silent-film concert at Wiesbaden’s Caligari FilmBühne, featuring a screening of CHEMI BEBIA (My Grandmother, Soviet Republic of Georgia, 1929, directed by Kote Mikaberidze) with live musical accompaniment. The members of the experimental Finnish band CLEANING WOMEN (namely, robot tidying units CW01, CW03 and CW04) delighted the audience of the renowned film heritage festival IL CINEMA RITROVATO in Bologna this past summer with a splendid performance – now, at goEast, they will be presenting their bracing live score for this Georgian avant-garde treasure at Caligari FilmBühne.
With its mixture of live-action, stop-motion animation and slapstick comedy, Kote Mikaberidze’s film is a critical look at the omnipresent bureaucracy of a yet-young Soviet-Stalinist state apparatus. Contrary to the expectations raised by the title, CHEMI BEBIA has nothing to do with grandmothers, although this would have been a perfect thematic match for this year’s goEast Symposium “OMAS, BABAS, BABUSHKAS – GENDER AND AGEING IN EUROPEAN CINEMA”. In reality, in Tiflis under Stalin’s reign the term “grandmother” was used to refer instead to a “patron” or “protector” within the system – where bureaucrats could not hope to succeed in climbing the career ladder through hustling and perseverance alone. Banned in the Soviet Union for several decades, the Georgian avant-garde film is a satirical takedown that has lost nothing of its bite in the intervening years.
The Finnish band CLEANING WOMEN, known for their unusual sounds and experimental instruments made of recycled household objects, will be bringing a unique mix of cinematic sci-fi vibes and danceable rhythms to Wiesbaden and delivering what promises to be a compelling live performance.
Accreditation
Members of the press can apply now for accreditation for the 25th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film here. During the festival period, accredited industry guests and members of the press receive access to an online media library featuring an extensive selection of festival programming.
Save the Date: goEast Press Conference
The annual press conference will take place at Wiesbaden’s Caligari FilmBühne on Wednesday, 16 April, beginning at 11:00 am.
Advance Ticket Sales
Advance tickets for film screenings as well as individual events will be available starting Thursday, 3 April – both online (see here) and at the advance ticketing box office in Wiesbaden’s central tourist information bureau. During the festival week, tickets can be acquired online, at all festival venues and in the new Festival Centre at Wiesbaden’s Altes Gericht. You can find more detailed information on where and how to purchase advance tickets here.
You can find images related to the festival in our download section.
The full program for the 25th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will be revealed in March.
goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are Hessen Film & Medien, the State Capital Wiesbaden, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany, the Hessen Film and Media Academy (hFMA) and the solidarity initiative of the German Catholics with the people in Central and Eastern Europe Renovabis. Primary media partners include 3sat, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.