Hundefreund (DogFriend) 2021
Maissa Lihedheb / 19 mins / German / Rating 15
Synopsis
Malik, a Black queer man in his mid-twenties, invites a date to his flat. What is supposed to be a casual hook-up takes an unexpected turn. DogFriend is a meditation on the complexities of race and politics in Germany.
Content Notes: This film includes sensitive themes and is geo-blocked to the UK region only.
About the Director
Maissa Lihedheb (she/they) was born in Germany as the daughter of Tunisian immigrants. She is a film director, writer, and the founder of BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Film Society in Berlin. She aims to humanise the complex lives of people that are often stereotyped in films and wants to see more stories of immigrants, women of colour, and other underrepresented minorities on the big screen.
A fundamental reason why Maissa has always wanted to write and pursue film is that they have never seen themselves authentically represented by the medium. Her experience as a young, working-class brown woman in Germany on television and film has been one of erasure and misidentification.
"My existence has been gaslighted, and I endeavour to change this so that future audiences do not see themselves mirrored merely as the existential falsehoods and stereotypes that we currently see." - Maissa Lihedheb