ELLBOGEN (2024)

Dir. Aslı Özarslan (Germany/Turkey/France) • 86 min
German with English subtitles
Single Tickets, $7; All-Access Pass, $40

Seventeen-year-old Hazal from Berlin has one prominent wish: a chance in life. She is stuck looking for a job and encounters prejudice wherever she goes. On her 18th birthday, all she really wants to do is party. But after a dramatic incident, Hazal has to flee to Istanbul, an unfamiliar city where she must find her way on her own. Adapting an award-winning novel for her fiction debut, German director Aslı Özarslan tells a startling story of an outsider’s fight for recognition and equality.

ABOUT THE EUNIC FILM FESTIVAL
The EUNIC Film Festival presents “Europe in Motion: Journeys Through Time, Borders, and Identities” at FACETS from November 7-9, 2025, bringing a rich selection of European films to Chicago.

This year’s lineup highlights powerful stories of personal and national transformation, with films delving into topics like resilience in the face of war and displacement, the complexities of migration and identity, intergenerational bonds and human connection, women’s voices challenging tradition, and the fight for justice and truth.

Audiences will journey from post-war Naples to the streets of Berlin and Istanbul, cross the rugged landscapes of the Swiss Alps, and revisit pivotal moments like the Prague Spring of 1968. These diverse stories explore how individuals and nations confront their pasts, redefine themselves, and chart new paths forward, reminding us that cinema can illuminate both the intimate struggles of the heart and the sweeping tides of history.

Presented by EUNIC Chicago, the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Chicago, the Consulate General of Hungary in Chicago, the Consulate General of the Republic of Lithuania in Chicago, the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago, Goethe-Institut Chicago, Instituto Cervantes of Chicago, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, and Villa Albertine.