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campaign image Shell Shock (still from Waltz with Bashir)
still from Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, IL 2008)

Films, talks & events

Shell Shock

The power of storytelling

21 March — 21 May 2019

still from Combat Shock (Buddy Giovinazzo, US 1986)
still from Combat Shock (Buddy Giovinazzo, US 1986)

The thematic film programme Shell Shock offers space for all film genres: from documentary to comedy, from cult film to costume drama. The stories of filmmakers and their characters bring you as close as possible to the experiences of people after a period of war and violence.

The tormented Vietnam War veteran Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, the soldiers suffering from PTSS in the documentary Crazy and the ex-tank commander of the animated film Waltz with Bashir share one thing: the urge to tell what happened to them in order to come to grips with it. Eye’s Shell Shock provides a forum for the cinematic representation of violent conflicts and traumatic memories.

still from Die Mörder sind unter uns (Wolfgang Staudte, DDR 1946)
still from Die Mörder sind unter uns (Wolfgang Staudte, DDR 1946)

Watch the programme trailer:

campaign image Shell Shock (still from Waltz with Bashir)
still from Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, IL 2008)
still from The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, US 1962)
still from The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, US 1962)

Shell Shock opens the screening rooms to the personal imagination of the fear, anger and confusion that follows. The subjective experience takes centre stage, not the finding of truth.

Processing of the past

Fiction, in all its forms, often turns out to be the key to processing the past: from psychothriller (Jacob's Ladder, Adrian Lyne) and historical drama (Mrs Dalloway, Marleen Gorris) to the suspense in the artful animation La casa lobo (Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal Leon).

still from La casa lobo (Cristóbal León & Joaquin Cociña, DE/CL 2018)
still from La casa lobo (Cristóbal León & Joaquin Cociña, DE/CL 2018)
still from Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, FR/JP 1958)
still from Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, FR/JP 1958)

Specials

Shell Shock not only includes films but also socially engaged specials featuring talks, Q&As and performances. The programme focuses on such themes as memories and narrativity (Hannah Arendt), psychiatry (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome) and the tales of Syrian refugees (storytelling). With a special edition of Cinema Stadsleven by Tracy Metz.

still from The Atomic Soldiers (Morgan Knibbe, US/NL 2018)
still from The Atomic Soldiers (Morgan Knibbe, US/NL 2018)

Watch the programme registration:

still from the Shell Shock trailer (still from Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne, US 1990))
still from the Shell Shock trailer (still from Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne, US 1990))
poster Shell Shock: The power of storytelling

Films, talks & more

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