In the organizer's words:

The Duisburg Film Week is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and is marking the occasion with film programs and collaborations throughout the year ahead of the 50th edition of the festival, which will take place in Duisburg from 2 to 8 November 2026.

Around the symposium "WORK IN PROGRESS. Representations of Work in Documentary Film" of the documentary film initiative dfi, documentary films from the program archive of the Duisburg Film Week will be shown at the Filmhaus Köln. The programme complements the dfi symposium with encounters with initially "foreign" worlds of work, subtle rhythms of globalized work and the reflection of work on the image.

The film program:

MÖGEN DIE EICHEN NACH UNS WACHSEN (Dietrich Schubert, DE 1986 / 30′)

A portrait of the Anatolian writer Fakir Baykurt, who lived and worked in Duisburg from 1979. His story of the same name deals with the thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams of a former Anatolian shepherd who lived with his family in Duisburg for 22 years, loses his job as a steel worker at Mannesmann and is forced to return to Turkey.

WILHELM DER SCHÄFER (Josie Rücker, DE 2004 / 26′)

The sad story of Wilhelm and his flock of sheep. After reunification, the East German shepherds are generously asked to become independent. Suddenly the official announcement that the sheep were economically unprofitable. Where the beauty of nature reigns, living environments collapse.

Followed by a discussion with the directors.