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ES WAR EINMAL IN CAFÉ KOTTI

  • Francesca Cogni
  • May 16th 2026
  • TATWERK | Berlin
Painted illustration of two people in front of the Café Kotti building in Berlin, with the text
© CC-BY-NC-ND-SA

A performative documentary movie about languages, migration, racism and encounters.

About the attempt to translate and to be translated.

Through the story of Demet and Alaa, “Es war einmal in Café Kotti” explores the mutual and continuous intermingling of our selves, and the linguistic and cultural hybridity that we might embody and in which we all live every day.

Are then static concepts such as identity, belonging and nation-state still able to encompass all the rich and generative nuances, complexities and layers of experiences, relations and languages of our contemporary world?


Produced by SgouguFilm with the help of Babylonia and Theater an der Parkaue.

Dates

Saturday, May 16th 2026 

Credits

A live film by Francesca Cogni and Demet Şimşek, Alaa Elsalamony
Dramaturg: Chiara Galesi
Sound design: Wael Jegham

Biography

Filmmaker, popular educator, artist.
Francesca Cogni mostly works on the right to move and the right to stay, on ecologies, political struggles and forms of self-production and self-organization, using a feminist, decolonized and diy approach. Drawing, video and stop-motion animation are the tools to investigate topics and places, and to create relations, collective thinking, care and share. Her practice takes the shape of movies, performances, workshops, graphic novels, prints.