Programmers' Picks: Martin Schwartz on SIFF 2026

Franz

I love that Holland tries out a bushel of techniques and doesn’t pretend to understand her endlessly enigmatic subject. Which would be a kafkaesque task in itself. As a museum guide points out in the film, the ratio of words Kafka wrote to words written about him is currently 1:10 million. 

Trial of Hein

I’m pretty sure this is the only SIFF lineup ever with two feature films set and shot on remote German islands in the North Sea. Stunning debut pic straight from the Berlinale, this is a sizzling dramatic investigation of an isolated, xenophobic fishing community and what happens when a stranger shows up in their midst, claiming to be one of their own. The dramatic bones—a formal trial to determine whether the newcomer is telling the truth—are straight out of Aeschylus or Ibsen, and the queer undertow is a kicker.

Amrum

Not only the latest from Fatih Akin, also the last film of Hark Bohm, who co-wrote, and who was a major light of the New German Cinema movement. Also set on a remote North Sea island (see Hein), this one features German-on-German hate in the waning days of WWII and a truly chilling performance from Laure Tonke as the narrator’s Nazi mom: think Hüller in The Zone of Interest.

Silent Friend

Endlessly photogenic Tony Leung returns as a scientist quarantined with a possessive groundskeeper during the darkest days of 2020. The film is kind of a love triangle between them and an extremely old tree, guarded over by that tree’s extraordinary history. Can we speak with plants? I finished this delightful pic thinking, of course we can.