Bernd - Operation Germanenkind

• DE 2025
• 93 min
• Director: Cornelius Schwalm
• Rating: 16 and older

Screenings:

• Thu, September 10, 2026 – Sun, September 13, 2026 at 8:45 p.m.
• Mon., September 14, 2026, at 9:00 p.m.
• Tue., September 15, 2026 – Wed., September 16, 2026 at 8:45 p.m.

Cast:Verena Unbehaun, Matthias Rheinheimer, Silvina Buchbauer

“Cornelius Schwalm portrays the escalation as a bitterly dark comedy: Between rehearsals, group discussions, and ritualized declarations of ‘We’re tolerant, after all,’ boundaries begin to shift. Raw in form, uncompromising, and in the spirit of Christoph Schlingensief, the film exposes the mechanisms of a society that fails because of its own moral standards…”                     

Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International 2026

Bernd works as an actor with a disability in a left-wing Berlin artists’ collective. With their new play, they travel to Peenemünde, a town best known for rocket development at the Army Research Center that was once stationed there. Bernd, who is increasingly fascinated by the Third Reich, displays his right-wing tendencies: loud, sexist, racist, disrespectful—an affront to every moral certainty held by the group. With each of his provocations, their tolerance crumbles further. Attitude turns to hatred; humanism turns to violence. In the end, those who consider themselves superior beat him senseless like barbarians—and democrats turn into eccentric, angry citizens.
A dystopia about morality, power, and the fragile fabric of democracy.