Cold Dog at the film forum: Darkly humorous family story moves Duisburg


Date and Time
Location
Price
About this Event
Mood
Venue Type
A darkly humorous evening about family, guilt, and the great void
With Cold Dog, a biting tragicomedy comes to the film forum Duisburg, offering a look into a family where grief, repression, and old issues of guilt painfully rub against each other. Pauline Roenneberg narrates with a fine sensitivity for gaps, subtle shifts, and those moments where a smile suddenly turns.
A death that throws everything out of rhythm
The starting point has dramatic weight: Grandpa has died on his 100th birthday, and it was a self-chosen death. What was planned as a family celebration transforms into a piece about the breaking of facades. When the brass band plays and the celebrant no longer waves from the balcony, a dry, bitter humor hangs over the scene, instantly turning comedy into discomfort.
When inheritance becomes a question of conscience
The search for the will is just the first crack in the structure. Then photo albums, suspicions, and long-repressed truths emerge. The production does not rely on loud effects, but on precise observation, family-dinner dramaturgy, and a play with glances, pauses, and creeping escalation. This is precisely where the quality of this stage experience on the screen lies: the private becomes political, and laughter gets caught in the throat.
Direction between documentary gaze and black comedy
Pauline Roenneberg, coming from documentary filmmaking, lends the material an almost participatory accuracy. The result feels observed rather than asserted, close rather than staged. Corinna Harfouch and Lea Drinda lead this family story with a mix of control and permeability that adds a special tension to the theatrical atmosphere of the evening. The film is based in its basic configuration on a true event, which further heightens the emotional stakes.
Why this evening resonates
Cold Dog is not a pleasing family film but a cleverly constructed piece about memory, repression, and the dark sides of narrating one's origins. Those who engage with this tragicomic reflection will experience an evening full of friction, pace, and underlying threat. At the film forum Duisburg, this meets an audience that appreciates intense characters, precise direction, and sensitive dramaturgy. It’s worth experiencing live because this evening asks more than it answers.
Conclusion: Cold Dog promises a pointed, bitterly comic family portrait with a strong ensemble, clear directorial vision, and lasting intensity. Those who love clever contemporary cinema with black humor should not miss this date.
Official channels of film forum Duisburg:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/filmforum_duisburg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/filmforum.Duisburg/
- YouTube: No official profile found
- Website: https://filmforum.de/









