Tues 5 May—Sun 7 Jun 2026
Goethe-Institut, 50 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2PH
Club Des Femmes are excited to co-present the films of Elfi Mikesch with the Goethe-Institut and in collaboration with ICA.
CDF’s Selina Robertson will be introducing the opening night screening of Mikesch’s debut feature, I Often Think of Hawaii, Tues 5 May, 7pm at Goethe-Institut. Book now! And CDF’s Helen de Witt will be introducing Macumba on Tues 19 May, 7pm at Goethe-Institut. Book now!
Photographer, camera woman, film director and much more – Elfi Mikesch has assumed many different roles throughout her now more than 60-year-long career and gifted us with a truly unique oeuvre that has strongly influenced feminist and queer cinema. As one of Germany’s most distinguished cinematographers, she has worked with Rosa von Praunheim, Monika Treut, Friederike Pezold, Heinz Emigholz, Cynthia Beatt and Teresa Villaverde. Of her wonderful work with Werner Schroeter, three works – The Rose King, Deux and Malina – could be seen only recently as part of the ICA’s Werner Schroeter retrospective.
Alongside these collaborations, she has created an astounding body of her own films, often directing, filming and editing them herself. This has given her the freedom to move fluidly between experimental, documentary and fictional forms. Her approach is playful and intimate, her imagery poetic and often stunningly beautiful. Her recurring themes include memory, desire and the subtle undercurrents of life. In her documentary work she meets people with curiosity, tenderness and a collaborative spirit, resulting in highly original encounters that challenge conventional views of those living at the margins.
Elfi Mikesch is 85 and has just received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the German Film Critics Association at the Berlinale. She remains full of energy and ideas for new projects. In this series, we will look back on her extraordinary work while also looking forward to more to come.
The programme includes Mikesch’s experimental documentaries I Often Think of Hawaii (1978) and What Shall We Do Without Death (1980), the queer, feminist cult classic Seduction: The Cruel Woman (1985) co-directed with Monika Treut (with a very young Udo Kier), the avant-garde feature Macumba (1981), featuring Werner Schroeter’s star Magdalena Montezuma, the autobiographically inspired feature Marocain (1989) and the more recent narrative feature Fever (2014), which revisits the themes of Marocain. Throughout the programme we will also be showing the shorts Execution – Study of Mary, The Blue Distance and The the Hyaena’s Breakfast.
We will also have the opportunity for an online conversation with Elfi Mikesch on 13 May 2026.
With thanks to Diana Kluge at the Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin, Frieder Schlaich and Viviana Kammel at Filmgalerie 451 in Berlin, Salzgeber also in Berlin as well as Elizabeth Dexter and Daniel Turner at the ICA.