The Berlinale has announced that its 2027 retrospective will be dedicated “to cinematic visions of the future and of rebellion”, with the theme taking its cue from the 100th anniversary of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
The silent sci-fi thriller world premiered at the UFA-Palast am Zoo cinema in Berlin on January 10, 2027 and then released in the U.S. in the March of that year.
Unfolding under the title of “Rage Against the Machine”, the Berlinale retrospective will explore the central theme from a range of points of view including urbanism, artificial intelligence, feminism, and capitalism.
Films already earmarked for the lineup include U.S. blockbusters such as Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop (1987), underground films such as Muscha’s cyberpunk William S. Burroughs–inspired Decoder (1984)) and anime works such as Rintarō’s cult classic Metoroporisu (2001).
Germany’s cinematic legacy in the space will also be celebrated with the inclusion of The Last Days of Gomorrah (1974) by Helma Sanders-Brahms.
The lineup also features Ngozi Onwurah’s Welcome II the Terrordome (1995), the first feature length British film directed by a Black woman, which the Retrospective is screening in a new restoration.
The retrospective is being put together once again in partnership with the Deutsche Kinemathek, and under the guidance for a second year running of its artistic director Heleen Gerritsen.
“Is there anything new to say about Lang’s Metropolis, 100 years old and one of the most studied films of the silent era?,” said Berlinale head Tricia Tuttle.
“Well, yes. Heleen and her team have taken a revitalising approach to examining the incredible prescience of Metropolis and its continuing echoes in modern cinema and culture, through a lens that feels both urgent and contemporary – punk, feminist, youthful, provocative and rousing.”
Gerritsen added: “One hundred years after Metropolis, the focus is on directors who created their own worlds and visions of the future. The aesthetic spectrum is broad, ranging from big-budget mainstream movies to underground films. The Last Days of Gomorrah, for instance, was shot in shopping malls, and boasts a punk look. I am particularly excited by how the genre allows minorities a chance to develop alternate visions of the future that are critical of existing systems.”