Film

Creative and political, Schlingensief once famously called on all four million unemployed Germans to jump into a lake, thereby raising the water level and drowning former chancellor Helmut Kohl in his nearby vacation home. Schlingensief’s work in film focuses on Germany’s Nazi past and the nature of the media, always with a nice dose of trash, blood, and shock value.

Terror 2000 is a grotesque take on neo-Nazism and xenophobia (Dec 12 & 16, 21:00, also Jan 8, with English subtitles), while Udo Kier – Tod eines Weltstars chronicles the staged death of one of his favorite collaborators, Udo Kier (who plays himself).

Kier also appears in Schlingensief’s version of Der Untergang, 100 Years of Adolf Hitler (Dec 13, 22:00 & Dec 28, 21:45, also Jan 15, with English subtitles).

Also on the list is Menu Total, a film with Helge Schneider, which Wim Wenders left after 10 minutes at the 1986 Berlinale: two reasons why you should want to see it (Dec 25, 21:45, also Jan 6 & 14, with English subtitles).

UPDATE: Hurry before it’s over: the extensive Schlingensief film retro wraps up in January, but not before giving you another look at 100 Jahre Adolf Hitler and his work with opera in Africa (The African Twintowers, Jan 12, 21:45) or the classic and probably very appropriate post-holidays film Das deutsche Kettensägenmassaker (Jan 3, 21:45, German OV), complete with some scenes that were left on the cutting-room floor at the time.

CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF RETROSPECTIVE, Nov 6 - Jan 16 | Babylon Kino, German OV, some with English subtitles; www.babylonberlin.de