The Homeless at Schauburg Filmpalast: A Return Becomes a Kafkaesque Trial
Date and Time
Location
Price
About this Event
Mood
Venue Type
The Homeless: When Your Own Past Becomes Foreign
A returnee, a village court, and a community that no longer trusts its own witness: Kai Stänicke's award-winning feature film The Homeless takes us on November 3, 2026, into a disturbingly surreal world between absurd comedy, psychological drama, and Kafkaesque parable. The KoKi series New German Film presents the film at Schauburg Filmpalast Gelsenkirchen.
A Return That Questions Everything
After fourteen years of absence, the young teacher Hein returns to a remote North Sea island. However, no one seems to recognize him – neither the residents of the village nor the people who were once close to him. The return home becomes an existential struggle for identity, memory, and truth.
A summoned village court should clarify whether Hein is indeed who he claims to be. During the trial, his memories clash with the statements of the summoned witnesses. Each testimony shifts the ground beneath his feet, every new inconsistency intensifies the atmosphere of distrust.
Kafkan Parable with a Brechtian Perspective
Stänicke's direction employs deliberate estrangement. Only hinted sets, an open temporal setting, and a nameless location detach the narrative from a specific milieu and endow it with universal power. The reduced stage design in a transposed cinematic space makes alienation visible: Home appears not as a safe place but as a fragile construct.
In this dramatic experiment, absurd comedy meets suffocating seriousness. Stänicke focuses on the question of how communities organize, repress, and turn against their pasts and individuals. The acting of Paul Boche as Hein carries the film through a labyrinth of despair, defiance, and growing isolation.
A Film About Memory and Belonging
The Homeless not only questions who Hein truly is. At its core is also the power of shared narrative: Does a memory become true when enough people confirm it? And what happens to a person whose own story is rejected by everyone else?
The feature film debut premiered in the Berlinale program Perspectives and received the TEDDY Jury Award there. The open form, the abstract design, and the consistent focus on identity and belonging give the film a particular closeness to the performing arts. The atmosphere arises less through realistic visual displays than through glances, pauses, mysterious statements, and an increasingly hostile audience response within the village community.
Cinema Date in Gelsenkirchen
The performance begins on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, at 5:45 PM at Schauburg Filmpalast at Horster Straße 6. The film lasts 127 minutes and is rated for ages 12 and up. Admission is €7.50 at regular price, €6.50 at a reduced price, and €4.00 for GE pass holders.
This stage experience in the cinema hall connects social parable, precise dramaturgy, and a quirky visual language. Those who embark on the irritating journey of the returnee experience a film that continues to resonate long after the credits roll. Secure your ticket and experience The Homeless live in the theater atmosphere of the Schauburg Filmpalast.
Official Channels of Kai Stänicke:
- Instagram: no official profile found
- Facebook: no official profile found
- YouTube: no official profile found
- Website: no official profile found
