Wiesbaden/Frankfurt, 8 April 2026
Competition Films and Film Guests
The countdown is on: the 26th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is set to kick off in less than two weeks, on Tuesday, 21 April. Today, we are delighted to be able to reveal the rest of our Competition program and share eight more German premieres.
The presentation of the final eight films begins with the documentary tragicomedy OUTLIVING SHAKESPEARE (ARM, NED 2025) by the directorial duo of Inna Sahakyan and Ruben Ghazaryan. Where does a cane sometimes double as a billiard cue, where do dramas both large and small occur naturally, and where does a theatre producer in desperate need of performers discover an untapped reservoir? In an Armenian retirement home, where a theatre group is rehearsing the play “Shakespeare’s Sins”, in which the legendary bard is confronted by his own characters. In sensitive, humorous scenes, a touching portrait emerges, against a backdrop of crumbling walls, stray cats and a robot caregiver going about its business.
Our next documentary film comes to us from Czechia: AMIRA‘S CHILDREN (CZE 2025) by Markéta Ekrt Válková, who will be on hand for the premiere screenings. The film tells of war and destruction in Syria and arrival and cultural acclimatization in Europe. Amira’s family also feels compelled to leave their home country. Due to a serious heart defect diagnosed in her youngest son, the family is evacuated to Czechia so that the boy can receive medical treatment. For ten years, filmmaker Markéta Ekrt Válková followed Amira’s new life there in particular, documenting her ambiguous experiences of settling in and still feeling like an outsider, torn between integration and the desire to return home.
Croatian director Hana Jušić is coming to Wiesbaden to present her film GOD WILL NOT HELP (HRV, ITA, ROU, GRC, FRA, SVN 2025). Shortly thereafter, the film will also be shown at the Internationales Frauen Film Fest in Cologne. This existential drama is set around the turn of the 20th century in the mountains of Croatia, where Teresa, a Chilean woman, reaches an isolated herder family to bring them the news of the death of her husband, a brother of the family who emigrated. Teresa only speaks Spanish, the family only speaks Croatian. Her arrival unsettles the rigidly Catholic, patriarchal community.
Director Łukasz Ronduda is showing his most recent film, TELL ME WHAT YOU FEEL (POL 2026), in Wiesbaden. The psychological relationship drama is set in Warsaw. Patryk, an aspiring young illustrator from the countryside, attempts to sell his pictures while trying to get into art school. In the process, he meets Maria, a charismatic artist who runs an art project where people receive money in exchange for their tears.
Lithuanian director Jurgis Matulevičius will be presenting his thriller CHINA SEA (LTU, TWN, POL, CZE 2025) personally in Wiesbaden. Osvald, an internationally celebrated kickboxer, is forced to abandon his career after accidently injuring a woman during a barroom fight. Plagued by feelings of guilt, he goes to work at CHINA SEA, a family restaurant run by his only friend. In court-ordered group-therapy sessions, he encounters enigmatic Skaistė and begins to harbour hope for a fresh start. Alas, while he trains young boxers and dreams of a better life, his past and the violence it contained catch up with him once again.
The coming-of-age adventure THE OTHER SIDE OF SUMMER (CZE, HRV 2025) by Vojtěch Strakatý takes the audience along to a lakeside vacation cottage, where 15-year-old Bětka is spending a languid summer with her best friend Alma. They long to join the party at the beach bar on the opposite shore, but Bětka’s older sister Marie won’t allow it. Everything changes when Alma meets the enigmatic Aneta, who disappears into the water every day for hours. One day Alma follows her – reaching an island, she discovers a pond that exerts a strange attraction on her and leads to a magical parallel world. Strakatý will also be on hand in Wiesbaden and available to answer the audience’s questions.
Dea Gjinovci is presenting her hybrid documentary film THE BEAUTY OF THE DONKEY (CHE, KOS, FRA, USA 2025). After spending over half a century in Switzerland, the filmmaker’s father, Asllan Gjinovci, returns to his native village in Kosovo with his director daughter. In conversations with the villagers, conducted within an improvised, stage-like reconstruction of the house where Asllan grew up, they search for traces of the past and personal identity. During this process, the unexplained disappearance of Asllan’s mother during the Kosovo War also gradually moves into the foreground.
In the poetic documentary film THE KARTLI KINGDOM (GEO, FRA 2025), directed by Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebre, the suicide of a resident sends shockwaves through the Kartli, a former sanatorium which has served as a makeshift home for displaced persons from Abkhazia since 1993. Initially intended as a temporary measure, the shelter has become a precarious long-term arrangement. A crack in the building mirrors the uncertain future, as the residents protest for better living conditions.
Opening Program on Tuesday, 21 April
Following a festive opening ceremony on Tuesday, 21 April at 6:30 p.m., goEast will be showing a program of short films featuring the following works: THE EXHIBITION (GBR, HUN, NOR 2026) from the goShorts section; BERLIN NOT FOR SALE (BRD 1967) from the Symposium program; and ERASERHEAD IN A KNITTED SHOPPING BAG (BGR 2025) from the Kaleidoscope program. These three short films explore very different perspectives from diverse protagonists: a queer photographer with Roma roots returning to his native Hungary after a ten-year absence; a Yugoslav writer and filmmaker discovering the post-war urban space of West Berlin; and a young cinephile in 1990s Bulgaria willing to go to great lengths to see a film on VHS. The short film program is presented by ARTE.
goShorts, Anarcho Shorts, Romani Cinema
The films of this year’s short film competition, assembled under the new section title “goShorts”, are part of the festival’s 2026 focus on “Revolution” and deal with myriad forms of revolutionary action. Under the title REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE, six selected short films open up a space for questions about power and empowerment – of collectives and individuals as well as thoughts and ideas. FRAGMENTS ON RESISTANCE (GEO, SRB 2025) by Levan Tskhovrebadze and Ani Kiladze follows unrest in Novi Sad and Georgia that impacts the lives of Serbian film journalist Pavla and Georgian short-film maker Levan. Marta Popivoda’s SLET 1988 (DEU, FRA, SRB 2025) asks two central questions: How revolutionary is the collective, and how ideological is the individual? In KISMET (SVN, HRV 2024) by Žiga Virc, 11-year-old Milena rebels against the fate that has been laid out for her, while her big sister sees her own wedding as a liberation. THE CARE PACKAGE (BLR, DNK 2025) by Vera Shysh (a pseudonym to protect the filmmaker’s identity) is devoted to the more than 1,000 political prisoners in Belarusian jails, who have little or no rights to visitation or phone calls. HOW TO LISTEN TO FOUNTAINS (SVK 2025) by Eva Sajanova asks what we can learn from Bratislava’s endangered fountains if we listen to them. THE EXHIBITION (GBR, HUN, NOR 2026) by Béla Váradi and Dáša Raimanová, a participant in the most recent edition of the East-West Talent Lab, tells the story of the queer Romani photographer Béla Váradi, who returns to his native rural Hungary following a 25-year absence. In spite of considerable self-doubt and external obstacles, he manages to organise an exhibition of his work – a brave intervention in a country where Béla’s identity is subject to state repression. The program is curated by Sophie Brakemeier.
Quick, wild, witty, thought-provoking: welcome back to the ANARCHO SHORTS, curated by this year’s goEast interns. Love is redefined on an intergalactic cruise for singles in COSMONAUTS (SVN, ITA 2026). In Bulgaria, a girl struggles to obtain a VHS cassette in ERASERHEAD IN A KNITTED SHOPPING BAG (BGR 2025). Four activists on a mission to liberate some hens end up facing moral dilemmas in FREE THE CHICKENS (SVK, CZE 2024). Flight and memories in the context of the war in Ukraine shape animated perspectives in I DIED IN IRPIN (CZE, SVK, UKR 2024) and MY GRANDMOTHER IS A SKYDIVER (UKR, DEU 2025). A gigantic vegetable wreaks havoc in THE BEETROOT (CZE 2025) and a beekeeper provides insight into the life cycle of his beloved insect friends in THE BRIEF LIFE OF A BEE (POL 2024). The Anarcho Shorts are also presented with the support of ARTE and will also be screened at the DFF cinema in the scope of Wiesbaden’s Night of Museums.
The next program highlight goes perfectly with today’s observation of International Romani Day: under the title ROMANI CINEMA: AGAINST THE ODDS, goEast is presenting eight short films which place Romani perspectives centre-stage in the scope of two short film programs. Using documentary, fictional and animated forms, they treat diverse experiences in Central and Eastern Europe – including school segregation, deportation and state violence, foster families and intergenerational trauma. At the same time, they share moments of self-assertion, joy and resilience. The section opens our eyes to stories and existential realities that have been overlooked or silenced for far too long. The program is curated by Lisa Smith. In addition, goEast is organising a workshop with the title “Respectful Romani Representation: Building the Framework” in co-operation with the Critical Film and Image Hub and the Romani Filmmakers Network.
DIVIDED LIVES (CZE 2025) by Alica Sigmund Heráková tells the story of Tereza, a Romani mother who is fighting to have her children moved from a segregated school to an inclusive one. In THE SPECTACLE (HUN, FRA 2025) by Bálint Kenyeres, a young boy with an unusual gift becomes the focus of media attention – but at what cost? Kenyeres delivers a brilliant poetic narrative about disillusionment. In GOODBYE, CASTLE! (ROU 2022) by Alina Șerban, Ana looks back on her childhood in institutional homes and foster care and faces her memories of family, loss and belonging. FIFTEEN MINUTES (DEU 2024) by Sejad Ademaj shows how Jasmina’s world begins to fall apart when the police arrive with plans to deport her family within a quarter of an hour. In the animated short film I SANG AGAIN (DEU 2022) by Hamze Bytyçi, Emilie Elina Machálková regains her voice, decades after the murder of her family in the Holocaust. The director of GYPSY GADJI (POL 2024), Dáša Raimanová, tells the story of Roksana, a passionate advocate for the right of Roma children to be able to attend school who identifies equally as Romani and Polish. The animated fairy tale SONGS OF THE GALLOWS (CZE, FIN 2003) by Katariina Lillqvist recalls an era when Finnish law permitted the hanging of Roma people, while paying tribute to classic Czech animation. Finally, in WESLEY SWIMS (DEU 2024) by Adrian Oeser, 14-year-old Wesley traces the path of his grandfather, an Auschwitz survivor.
You can find images related to the festival in our download section.
The full program for the 26th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is now available on our website.
goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are HessenFilm und Medien GmbH, the State Capital Wiesbaden, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany, the solidarity initiative of the German Catholics with the people of Central and Eastern Europe Renovabis and the Polish Institute Düsseldorf.
Primary media partners include 3sat, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
