The private is political. When love, tenderness, sexuality, and care is commonly associated with the non-public sphere of private intimacy in the conservative consensus, the films in this program reveal the arbitrariness of this idea. In them, the ostensibly private develops a subversive power, becomes political, operates publicly, sends signals of empathy into the world. Whether it’s an iconic couple getting into bed with each other for world peace, YouTube influencers breaking up, a hedonistic gay couple stirring up the cultural underground in 1970s Spain, censored images of intimacy from Iranian cinema touching in a new montage, or Kastor and Pollux meeting at a car race in provincial East Germany, lovers of all kinds come together in the cinematic and to us, the soundtracks crackle, the projection lights up, the cinema hall warms up. (Jan Künemund)