Berlinale Spotlight – Forum: Chronos – Flow of Time

At once a place of origin, a place of longing and a scene of crime: a melting pot of diverse cultures and identities, for over half a century a point of reference and a focal point in the work of the great chronicler, as well as a theatre of recurring cruelty and destruction. The return to his own body of work, alongside new and old companions, becomes both a retrospective and a re-engagement with the past.

Just as with the branches of a delta, connections emerge with German history and the pan-European context, bridging the past and the present.

And for a long moment, time seems to stand still, eerily so, in this river; for, at the very latest since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022, the echo of the experience of violence inscribed in this region can no longer be ignored.

What begins with poems about the Memel region develops into an epoch-defining contemplation of humanity in time and space.

Volker Koepp

Born in 1944 in Stettin, he grew up in Berlin. After training as a machinist, Volker Koepp studied at the Technical University of Dresden, followed by the German Film Academy in Babelsberg. From 1970 to 1991, he worked as a director at the DEFA Studio for Documentary Film. Since then, he has been active as a freelance director, writer and producer, as well as in teaching. Volker Koepp has been a guest at the Berlinale Forum on several occasions. In addition to various awards for his film work, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class, in 2014 and became an honorary member of the German Film Academy in 2021.

PROGRAMME

Welcome

Dr Roland Borchers, Director, Documentation Centre for Flight, Expulsion and Reconciliation (Berlin)

Film screening

• Chronos – The Flow of Time
• By: Volker Koepp, director, screenplay
• Country: Germany 2026
• Language: German, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Russian, Romanian (with German subtitles)
• Running time: 200 minutes

Film discussion

• Volker Koepp, director
• Moderator: Barbara Wurm, Head of the Berlinale Forum (Berlin)

FURTHER INFORMATION

Doors open: 5.30 pm

Language: German

FREE ADMISSION

REGISTRATION REQUIRED

The Berlinale Spotlight: Panorama Documents, Forum & Generation is a collaboration between the Documentation Centre for Flight, Expulsion and Reconciliation and the European Film Market (EFM) of the Berlin International Film Festival.