“We want to show films that touch people because they feel affected or are affected by the content,” says Robert Stracke from the Kino in der Neustadt initiative, outlining the goal of his cinematic team, which currently consists of six volunteers. But there were also around 20, says Stracke. In the Zion Community theater hall, the cinema initiative shows around ten films a year, most of them with a socio-political focus. “We are always open to requests and suggestions, which we are happy to examine. But of course there are also suggestions from our own ranks,” emphasizes the studied social worker. Then it is important to check licenses and GEMA fees.
Politically relevant films
On Sunday, April 7th, from 4 p.m., the film “War and Justice” will be shown before the official cinema release, which will shed light on the possibilities but also limitations of the International Criminal Court in its 25-year history. Robert Stracke and Anne-Kathrin Strunk from the cinema initiative say that the cinema offer has met with a very good response in the district, which does not have its own cinema. For example, it was very crowded at the film screening of “Everything will change,” which is set in 2054. The retired teacher reports that there was then a cross-generational solidarity between Fridays for Future and the Bremen Peace Forum on the subject of the military, war and climate.
They started their special film program in 2013 in the city center, in the City 46 cinema. But there was usually a lot of specialist audience there, remembers Stracke. “But we wanted to offer a neighborhood cinema and we succeeded,” he adds. Pastor Thomas Lieberum also speaks of a win-win situation for the district and the Zion community, who is very pleased about the voluntary initiative, which is well networked with cooperation throughout Bremen. “In the summer there is also an open-air cinema in the garden,” he says. The latest offer: Coffee and cake are served with the film on Sunday afternoons.
Discussion desired
But films are also sometimes shown in the Kunz, the Buntentor cultural center on Sedanstrasse, and in the high school on Leibnizplatz. Like the recent award-winning film “Rabiye Kurnaz versus George W. Bush”. The aim of the Neustadt cinema initiative is to offer an audience discussion at every film screening, says Robert Stracke. “We don’t want one-way sound,” he adds. Since none of them have any legal expertise, an expert person will be invited. The experienced speaker and former criminal defense lawyer Bernhard Docke acted as a key witness for the cinema initiative for the first time in the Dresen film. The high school students were able to ask him about his political background.
Key witness for Kurnaz film
Key witness because the feature film “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush” reopened Docke’s own spectacular case, which made many headlines at the time. Docke looked back: “US President George W. Bush pulled the plug on the constitutional state after the monstrous attacks of September 11, 2001.” Together with Murat Kurnaz’s mother Rabiye, Docke risked suing the most powerful man in the world, George W. Bush. Docke’s goal: a fair, constitutional trial for Murat Kurnaz. But that would take a long time. Ultimately, Kurnaz was innocently imprisoned in the US prison camp Guantanamo for five years. “At the time, Murat was imprisoned in an artificially created, lawless space at Guantánamo,” remembers Docke. Probably the most perfidious thing for the lawyer, as he says. Although German officials questioned Kurnaz at Guantánamo in 2002 and came to the conclusion that the man who had been vilified by the media as the supposed “Bremen Taliban” was innocent, German politicians, including the then Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, grasped at every straw. in order not to have to let him re-enter Germany. What drives Bernhard Docke in all his trials: the fight for justice, as he emphasizes. “That’s what the film we’re showing on April 7th, ‘War and justice’, is about,” emphasizes Anne-Kathrin Strunk.
A blunt sword
That’s why Docke once again acts as a key witness at the film screening “War and Justice”, helping to classify complex and complicated legal issues and other background information. The core message of the film: “Wars of aggression are the greatest crime” (Ben Ferencz, former chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials). According to Docke, war crimes do not expire. The film discusses why the International Criminal Court often has to remain a blunt sword – because none of the superpowers such as the USA, Russia, China or India recognize it. For example, the USA insists that a US citizen who is guilty of crimes against humanity should be judged exclusively by the US judiciary, says the defense lawyer. Crimes against humanity committed in civil wars and ethnic conflicts, for example in the Democratic Republic of Congo, could previously have been punished. Docke was present as a criminal defense attorney in the first trial based on the so-called universal legal principle. This means: A criminal can be tried and sentenced outside of his or her country of origin in any other country in the world. In Koblenz, a torturer of the Assad regime, identified by Docke’s client, a Syrian refugee, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Court.
Info
“War and justice” will be shown on Sunday, April 7th, from 4 p.m. in the Zionsgemeinde theater hall, Kornstraße 31. Admission is free; donations are requested.
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2024-04-04 03:05:57
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