BERLIN - In the heart of Berlin, at Potsdamer Platz, the Film Festival was going crazy until a few days ago and the city also reveals its suburban cinemas, full of stories and curiosities.
The many arthouse cinemas, each with its own programme, open to shows, musical events and cultural and socio-political meetings.
They are spaces open to community and dialogue, a point of reference for cinema lovers and meeting places for those who live in the suburbs.
Since 2010, the 'Berlinale Goes Kiez' event, linked to the Berlinale film festival, has brought attention to places far from the centre, paying homage to the precious work carried out by arthouse cinemas and also opening the doors of the JVA-Plötzensee penitentiary.
The list of neighborhood cinemas is very long, but some deserve to be discovered as places of passion for films and communities.
The City Kino Wedding, with its sumptuous Sixties architecture, has become a point of reference thanks to the numerous festivals and special events it hosts.
It is located in the Wedding district of the Mitte district.
After a series of vicissitudes Kino Zukunft has found a new home in Friedrichshain, a trendy neighborhood of the capital, between Treptower Park and Ostkreuz, less than five minutes walk from the old headquarters.
The 64-seat cinema screens three films a day, while the piano lounge hosts the 'Wednesday Jazz' musical event and the bar boasts homemade beer and a large outdoor patio.
On the outskirts of Berlin, in Kleinmachnow, Neue Kammerspiele is a historic institution that hosts European arthouse films and passionate children's film programming.
The wide range of cultural programs is varied and interesting, including concerts, theater shows and music courses for adults and children.
The history of Kino Toni, in Weißensee, dates back to 1920;
since then it has been renovated several times, often changing management.
As the last cinema in East Berlin, it was taken over by the district agency in 1979 and put up for sale by the Treuhand fund as part of reunification.
In 1992 it was purchased by director Michael Verhoeven, who added a second screening room.
Today it is owned by the Berlin film distributor Neue Visionen.
Located since 1955 in Kotti, in the heart of the populous Kreuzberg district, Babylon is one of the city's most loved arthouse cinemas.
When the wall was built in 1961, Babylon Kreuzberg attracted attention because Western films were on the program.
In the 1970s, when the neighborhood became the main center of Turkish immigration, the hall began to host films and programs in Turkish and to become a place of alternative and multi-ethnic culture.
After a complete renovation in the 1980s, it became famous for its spiral-shaped starry ceiling in the large cinema hall and for showing only original films.
The Cosima cinema theater was opened in 1935 as Friedenau's ninth cinema, built in the common style of the time within a residential building.
In July last year the cinema reopened in new splendor and now shows classic films and Berlin rarities.
Sinema Transtopia is the latest cinema with a curated and constantly evolving program of films and socio-political debates.
After two years at the Haus der Statistik, where it was launched as a cinematic experiment, in January 2023 it found its home in the Wedding district, next to the more historic ones but with a strong experimental and multicultural connotation.
For more information: berlinale.de and visitberlin.de
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