Friend Zone. Open-air cinema and talk

Before the screenings, we invite you to thematic spotlights to get you in the mood – with prominent guests!Great trepidation and guesswork accompany the release of every expensive film production: Whether the audience will get involved with the story told, star constellation and film language and flock to the cinema en masse?

Box Office Around The World is a film festival that wants to get to the bottom of this mystery from the audience’s point of view. Unlike Hollywood productions that are designed for the global market, box office hits from other regions of the world often allow surprising insights into what moves people in Ho Chi Minh City, Rio or Bangkok.The Schlüter Courtyard is located in the heart of Berlin – and surrounded by collections from many cultures around the world.Over two weekends in August, the Box Office Around The World festival presents six current cinema productions that are audience successes and box office hits in their countries of origin, but have not yet been seen on the big screen in Germany.Together with representatives of the Berlin communities from Thailand, Argentina, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil and India and the curator Dorothee Wenner, the films were selected and an accompanying programme developed. Before the open-air screenings, a thematic spotlight – with a star-studded line-up – will be directed at each film.


Curator Film Programme

Dorothee Wenner is a freelance filmmaker, curator and writer based in Berlin. 
Since 1990 has been working for Berlin International Filmfestival in various positions, currently as as the delegate for the festival for the Subsahara African region. In 2009, she joined the team of the Dubai International Film Festival as programmer for films from India/Africa/Germany until the festival’s closure. She has been member of the board and jury of the Lagos based African Movie Academy Awards since inception 2005. Her latest work as filmmaker is the webseries Kinshasa Collection. Since 2020 she has been working as a consultant for film/cinema for the Humboldt Forum.

Together with representatives of the communities, she curated the Box Office Around The World festival 2025 for the third time.

Friend Zone. Quang Dung Nguyen, Diep The Vinh / Vietnam 2025 / 120 Min. / Romantic Comedy

Toan is the type of tour guide who has the hearts of the female tourists flying to him. At the end of the long day’s excursion, he can hardly save himself from advances. But he rebuffs the ladies, saying that a woman is waiting for him at home. However, the woman is not his lover, but his best friend An. Pretty, but completely deranged and desperate, he finds An, who has once again fallen for the wrong man and is terribly heartbroken. Toan knows how to distract and comfort her with routine and ingenuity – it’s not the first time, the two have known each other since school. And have been best friends ever since. And An desperately wants it to stay that way. But Toan wants more – could things finally work out between them after An’s last disaster?

This turbulent love story, which is a remake of a successful Thai cinema hit, unfolds against the backdrop of the most beautiful landscapes and sights in Vietnam, fantastically exaggerated insta-staging and glorious tourist excesses. And it could actually be set anywhere, yet the local flair makes the film a worthwhile. After all, Vietnam has different customs between lovers and friendships than elsewhere, especially in the border zone between these forms of human affection.

Programme

8 pm: Talk with Vanessa Vu (Journalist), Dr. phil. Trương, Hồng Quang (Germanist and literary translator) and Dorothee Wenner (moderator) in German

9 pm: Film screening

Participants

Vanessa Vu

- 10 EUR, reduced 5 EUR
- FSK 18
- Ground Floor, Schlüter Courtyard, Entrance: Portal 5
- Vietnamese with English subtitles
- Belongs to: Box Office Around The World 2025