Hot Docs

Kübra and Salema, having known nothing but drugs and violence since childhood, have spent their adult years in and out of Lichtenberg Prison in Berlin. Kübra, a beautiful and spirited 22-year-old German of Kurdish descent has committed a series of crimes that, at times, are difficult to imagine. Salema, an intelligent and sharp Ethiopian woman of 41 has come from a country of war and violence that marked her adolescent years with tragedy. With a drug and alcohol addiction she cannot overcome, Salema continuously reoffends and is sent back to prison. Through the sensitivity and non-judgmental direction of filmmaker Diana Näcke, both women reveal their pasts and raise the question, How effective is incarceration? It’s a question even prison warden Matthias Bluemel struggles with, as he’s part of a system that fails to help these women overcome their misery. Heather Haynes

Screening with Five Fragments of the Extinct Empathy.