Tuesday, 4 February2020 – 7.30 pm
Opening Event / Stephansaal, Ständehausstraße 4
[The Bolshevik atrocities of August 21, 1919 or the terrible days of Kiev]
Germany 1919, 12 min.
One of the very rare documents of the atrocities committed by the Soviet political police, the so-called Cheka, during the beginning of the civil war in Russia, Ukraine and other provinces of the former Tsarist Russia.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Germany 1919/20, 78 min.
Director: Robert Wiene
The world is upside down! In a psychiatric institution, an inmate believes he recognises the head physician as the eerie Dr. Caligari who one day appeared in his home town as a fairground showman and barker. The flashback tells the story how Dr. Caligari’s medium committed crimes that also claimed the inmate’s bride. Traumatized, he arrives at the institution, where he meets the chief physician. Delusion or reality?
Contemporary critics were enthusiastic about this film, which founded film expressionism with its painted decorations, and tells a story in the style of E.T.A. Hoffmann, and which is strongly reminiscent of his novella “The Sandman”.
Accompaniment of the whole program: Stephen Horne (piano); Frank Bockius (percussion)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (picture taken from the digital copy