FROM CARAVAGGIO TO PRAUNHEIM — QUEER FILM HISTORY AT THE DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK

The Deutsche Kinemathek‘s new location has opened, along with its first exhibition, Inventing Queer Cinema, which tells the stories of, about and behind queer cinema. The exhibition highlights films and the people who have shaped this part of cinema since the 1970s. At the center of queer film history (and queer film stories) are individuals who resist normative expectations. Queer cinema has developed its own independent and resistant visual language, pushing back against norms. What challenges came with this? What concerns, what successes? Drawing on key films from recent decades, and especially on the people who shaped them, the Kinemathek has created a dense exhibition that shows what queer cinema means for society, but also for Berlin, as a place of queer subculture with an international community. A new feature at the new location is the “Treasure Chamber”, where items from the collection of the Salzgeber film distributor are exhibited. Every Thursday, admission to the Kinemathek is free and accompanied by a public program of events.

In the small on-site studio cinema, the film program changes weekly. This weekend (16.05.2026), it features queer history by Rosa von Praunheim: It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971). In June, Paris Was a Woman (1996) follows for all Gertrude Stein fans, later the pastel-gay dreamscape of Pink Narcissus (1971), and then Renaissance camp overload Caravaggio (1986) — to name a few. It’s an exhibition that explores how queer film history and Berlin’s urban history are intertwined. And it’s a good reason to go to the cinema again.

Text: Inga Krumme / Photos: Jonas Walter, Presse Salzgeber, Veruschka von Lehndorff

Deutsche Kinemathek, Mauerstr.79, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
Inventing Queer Cinema until 13.09.2026. Find the full program here.

@deutschekinemathek

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Culture, Medienpartnerschaft

TIRAILLEURS AT HKW — ART, FILMS AND CONVERSATIONS SHINE A LIGHT ON THE AFRICAN SOLDIERS WHO FREED EUROPE

This Friday (08.05.2026) marks the anniversary of the end of Nazi rule in Europe, when Germany formally surrendered to the Allied forces. Historians usually tell a story of how Soviet, American and British forces defeated the Nazis, but this narrative misses a crucial part: the colonial troops from Africa who took part in the liberation. An exhibition called Tirailleurs (“riflemen”) at HKW seeks to correct this blind spot, with artworks, films, archives and new research that makes visible the role African soldiers played in defeating Nazi Germany. Works by more than thirty international artists are on show in the HKW’s halls, which you can explore yourself or on an exhibition tour for expert context and introductions to exhibition themes. Meanwhile, HKW’s Safi Faye Hall is hosting a walk-in cinema, screening films like Indigènes (“Days of Glory”), a 2006 drama about North African soldiers in the French army who are recruited as equals but end up facing discrimination. You can also hear from the artists themselves in a series of talks with the likes of interdisciplinary artist Halida Boughriet (“How to Perform the Archive through Photography”) and Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena (“How to Turn Public Spaces into Anti-War Sites”). The Conversations on Art series opens up these discussions to broader questions, such as how exhibition architecture and the year an artwork was made change how it’s understood. You can drop into these sessions on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays for open conversations with mediators and reflections on the themes of the art on show. Entry to the exhibition is free of charge on Mondays.

Text: Benji Haughton / Credits: Pascale Marthine Tayou, Colorful Stones (2025–2026), series from 16 flags. Courtesy Pascale Marthine Tayou and Galleria Continua. Exterior View Tirailleurs, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), 2026. Photo: Hanna Wiedemann/HKW; Daniel Lind-Ramos, Re-inventario de la desmemoria(2026), Courtesy Daniel Lind-Ramos and The Ranch. Exhibition view Tirailleurs, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), 2026. Photo: Mathias Völzke/HKW; Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Into the Fading Lines (2026). Courtesy Atelier Nadia Kaabi-Linke. Exhibition View Tirailleurs, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), 2026. Photo: Mathias Völzke/HKW

Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin–Tiergarten; map

Tirailleurs runs until 14.06.2026 – find the full program here.

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IN A DAZE WITH PEER GYNT — EIGHT HOURS AT THE VOLKSBÜHNE

Anyone who worries that eight hours of theatre will leave them with a stiff neck or fused to their seat has nothing to fear at the Volksbühne. Peer Gynt is back, and with it the boundlessly layered spectacle by Vegard Vinge, Ida Müller and Trond Reinholdtsen — a production that refuses haste. At the centre is Peer, farmer’s son, liar, author of his own biography. He constantly shifts registers: hero, businessman, dreamer, survivor of his own stories. Everything about him remains in motion. Alongside Vegard Vinge and Ida Müller, performers such as Martin Wuttke, Kathrin Angerer, and around eighty others form part of a system that dissolves boundaries between role and person. Mask work, booming sound, video and projections pull in material from vastly different directions — from Norwegian landscapes to fragments of pop culture and the present day. At its core remains Peer, endlessly reinventing himself, inflating his own image, only to lose himself again and again. His youthful grandiosity spills into the front row. He seems too close to himself (and to us as well). This is precisely where the evening draws its tension: from the constant shifting of what you thought you had just grasped and the time it takes to do so.

Text: Emma Zylla / Photos: Julian Röder

Volksbühne, Linienstr.227, 10178 Berlin–Mitte; map

Peer Gynt 15.05., 17.05., 19.05., 21.05., 23.05.2026. Get your tickets here.

@volksbuehne_berlin

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ASCENT IN NEON LIGHT: BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI ON MUBI

In the neon-lit rush of 1990s Shanghai, an ordinary young man reinvents himself. Ah Bao, the protagonist of Blossoms Shanghai, becomes Mr. Bao, and with him, a dazzling figure of the city’s emerging business elite. His story unfolds over thirty episodes, available to stream on Mubi. Ah Bao starts off-the-radar. His once-wealthy family lost its fortune during the Cultural Revolution, and he ends up working in a factory. There, he meets his first love, who ultimately turns him down. On the morning of December 19, 1990, the Shanghai Stock Exchange opens, and with it a new world of possibilities. Mr. Bao is born. The origins of his wealth remain mysterious, but the young entrepreneur quickly becomes known for his “golden touch” — charismatic, handsome and ambitious. He glides through the glittering world of wealth, moving from his hotel residence to high-end restaurants along Huanghe Road, and on to the next club. On every guest list, his name comes first. He builds alliances: the financial genius and mentor Uncle Ye, the resourceful restaurateur Ling Zi, and Ms. Wang from the foreign trade office form his inner circle as he constructs his business empire. And, as it must, things begin to unravel: Mr. Bao gets entangled.

And somewhere between gangsters and smear campaigns, affairs of every kind, luxury and loss of control, the dream of rapid ascent and the big life begins to collapse. Loosely based on the 2013 novel Blossoms by Jin Yucheng, director Wong Kar Wai — known for Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love — constructs a dense portrait of 1990s Shanghai. Neon advertisements shimmer in the wet asphalt, reflected in taxi windows. Business deals and secret arrangements unfold at restaurant tables across the city, from lobster-drenched installations to back rooms. A flickering portrait of a city, and of a man trying to keep pace with it.

Text: Inga Krumme / Credits: MUBI

Mubi
Blossoms Shanghai

@mubideutschland

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FEAR OF MISSING ART: OUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BERLIN GALLERY WEEKEND

Baby, it’s Gallery Weekend (01.–03.05.2026). The FOMO is real, and we’re not the only ones feeling it. Here’s our selection from the official programme (if you’re here for Sellerie Weekend, scroll down further). Let’s start in Mitte, as tradition demands. At Anton Janizewski, “Dead End” by Jiyoon Chung is not light viewing. The works grapple with fear and control within the current tightening of security politics. Next door at BQ, Philipp Gufler calls for a fragmentary search for traces of the painter Paul Hoecker (1854–1910). “Imitations of Paul” engages with the artist’s biography (whose career came to an abrupt end after his homosexuality was made public) through media such as textiles and ceramics, and through drag-inspired methods of appropriation and transformation. Monty Richthofen at Dittrich & Schlechtriem is simply driving his work across the city as a performance. “Hard 2 4get” brings Richthofen’s scribbly tag works from canvas back into the urban space — a full-circle moment for his approachable spray-painted claims. The tagged transport fleet route can be viewed on the gallery’s website. On Leipziger Straße, we encounter “Brutes des nuits” at Sweetwater: large-format screen prints by artist Hanna Stiegeler. The motif, the bed she shares with her child, is captured in the pixelated resolution of her baby monitor.

Next door at Klemm’s, Colombian artist Juan Pablo Echeverri is shown. Across grids, portraits and selfies, the works continue to challenge fixed ideas of taste even after the artist’s death. Stereotypes are pushed so far that it’s often hard to tell where humour ends and seriousness begins — a productive kind of discomfort for the weekend ahead. At Carlier | Gebauer, conceptual artist Nida Sinnokrot presents “Rubber-Coated Rocks”, placing them in the space as relics suspended between violence and play. Alongside them, “Water Witness” unites ceramic vessels and irrigation valves arranged upright — speaking of storage, flow, and everything in between. We keep moving with a small detour to Ebensperger, where Göksu Kunak performs “Remains”. Bodybuilders, karate and grappling fighters, a pole dancer, acrobats, and growlers fill the space with bodies, fragments of text and drawings. The schedule is available here. Onward to Schöneberg: at Galerie Judin in the former petrol station, things turn melancholic in two tones. Adam Lupton paints in red and blue — domestic scenes, often self-portraits seen from above, plenty of brick (it fits). There’s an immediate sense of familiarity in his work: snapshots of an endless, unproductive self-check-in. At Isabella Bortolozzi, we encounter Adam Gordon, a painter and bodybuilder. Need I say more? The first images remain deliberately open, but intrigue is guaranteed. From Schöneberg, head straight toward Fasanenstraße or take a detour to Moabit, to Alexander Levy, where Anne Duk Hee Jordan transforms the gallery into a kind of multisensory spaceship of color and reflective surfaces (at least if the teasers are to be believed). Finally, Fasanenstraße, inevitable as ever. Galerie Buchholz presents Yuji Agematsu’s “Zips”, miniature sculptures made from rubbish collected on walks. Encased in cellophane cigarette wrappers, 366 of these zips are shown in the first part of the exhibition, followed by a second chapter in June 2026. Last stop: Société with Wynnie Mynerva, whose show revolves around love and the absence of it. Mynerva expands beyond conventional ideas of romantic love, building her paintings and videos around the desire to connect with others. It’s the same every year: too much to see and one gallery (at least) we regret having missed out on. Between intimacy and intervention, prosecco and cigarettes, small talk and the next taxi — see you this weekend.

Text: Inga Krumme / Credits: Yuji Agematsu, Zip: 01-01-2024–12-31-2024, 2024 (Detail), Photo: Reggie Shiobara, Courtesy of Yuji Agematsu and Galerie Buchholz; Monty Richthofen, HARD 2 4GET, 2026, Foto: Lukas Städler, Courtesy Dittrich & Schlechtriem; Adam Lupton, Atlas, 2025. Oil on canvas, Courtesy: the artist and Galerie Judin; Jiyoon Chung, Hyperreal, 1.0, 2026, Courtesy of the artist and Anton Janizewski, Copyright Brian Kure; Nida Sinnokrot, exhibition view at Expand Extract Repent Repeat, carlier | gebauer, Berlin, 2018, Courtesy of the artist and carlier | gebauer, Berlin/Madrid, Photo: Trevor Good; Nida Sinnokrot, Rubber-coated rocks, All-Stars (7), 2022, Courtesy of the artist and carlier | gebauer, Berlin/Madrid, Photo: Trevor Good; Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Fiona, 2023, installation view, I will always weather with you, The Bass, Miami Beach, Photo: Zaire Aranguren, courtesy of the artist and alexander levy; Hanna Stiegeler, Study for Brutes des nuits, 2026, Courtesy of the artist and Sweetwater

Gallery Weekend Berlin
01.–03.05.2026. Find the full program here.

@galleryweekendberlin

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FROM CARAVAGGIO TO PRAUNHEIM — QUEER FILM HISTORY AT THE DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK

TIRAILLEURS AT HKW — ART, FILMS AND CONVERSATIONS SHINE A LIGHT ON THE AFRICAN SOLDIERS WHO FREED EUROPE

IN A DAZE WITH PEER GYNT — EIGHT HOURS AT THE VOLKSBÜHNE

ASCENT IN NEON LIGHT: BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI ON MUBI

FEAR OF MISSING ART: OUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BERLIN GALLERY WEEKEND