Film

Direction: Burhan Qurbani

with Kenda Hmeidan, Verena Altenberger, Hiam Abbass, Mona Zarreh Hoshyari Khah
Germany 2025, 142', German and Arabic with english subtitles

Tickets:

  • DF: German version
  • OV: Original version without subtitles
  • OMU: Original version with German subtitles
  • OMEU: Original version with English subtitles
To the overall program

No Beast. So Fierce.

444958

OT: Kein Tier. So Wild.

The new film by Berlin based filmmaker Burhan Qurbani (Berlin Alexanderplatz) retells Shakespeare’s tragedy Richard III: two noble houses, the Arab families of York and Lancaster, bring the war that has been raging for years on the streets of Berlin into the courtroom. Rashida, the youngest daughter of the House of York, is a lawyer who ends the long-running gang conflict with a bloody attack on the heads of the Lancaster clan. Peace at last! But as a woman, Rashida is just a pawn in this world of men. As soon as the fighting ceases, she is condemned to obedience. A sister, yes. A daughter, of course. But she will never be queen. Rashida, however, does not intend to obey; she intends to rule. To claim the crown, she must scheme, seduce enemies and kill lovers. But then, at the height of her power, the violence of a very different war catches up with her as she is catapulted back into her damaged psyche by memories of a childhood scarred by bombs. A garden of loneliness and destruction – the mirror of a wounded soul. Rashida is the ruler of a kingdom made of dirt and dust.