On Wednesday, October 4, the fifteenth edition of the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR) will start. The program involves an extensive list with almost 100 films about architecture and the city, with prominent figures like Rem Koolhaas, Inez Weski, and Martin Koolhoven joining as guests. The festival includes film premiers, classic screenings, masterclasses, excursions, and short programs. Combining the film and built environment worlds, the event will be taking place from 4 to 8 October 2023.
AFFR 2023 opening night takes place at the Theatre Zuidplein, with the international premiere of Kati Juurus' "A Plan for Paradise." Based in Nepal, the film exposes the deep-rooted disparities between Western design ideas and the country’s reality. The next four days occur at the festival's home base, LantarenVenster, where AFFR presents a varied program of films about architecture, the city, and the landscape. These include films that feature portraits of architects and their works and those that examine contemporary issues like how we handle water, the workplace culture in the architecture industry, and the globalized waste industry. This year's focus is centered around the Indian nation and focuses on the critical 1970s and the developments that occurred during that decade. In fact, the central theme of AFFR 2023 is “Contested Space.”
The AFFR schedule also includes animated movies, a music video about architecture, and investigative, in-depth documentaries. There are varied opportunities for lectures, visits, and debates with notable guests from the design industry. The AFFR guide includes insider suggestions for different experts from varied backgrounds. These include “Point of Origin” (Frans Parthesius, 2023), followed by a Q&A with Rem Koolhaas and the client; "Stalker" (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979), with an introduction by architect Floris Alkemade; “All that Breathes” (Shaunak Sen, 2022), focused on scarcity in Delhi and India at large.
AFFR is the largest international film festival devoted to urban planning, architecture, and landscape. The festival’s films consider public space and its users, construction, the housing crisis, and gentrification, with documentaries about the nitrogen emissions crisis, deforestation, and the future of agriculture. Moreover, the festival explores the power of film as a form of storytelling with and about the built environment. Another example of a film centered around the urban fabric is Djibril Diop Mambéty’s “Touki Bouki.” The showcase follows a young couple in Dakar, eager to escape the Senegalese capital for the allure of Paris. A new architectural film chronicling the homeland of Singapore was recently released, reflecting on the country’s urban planning, architecture, and parks. “A Wes Anderson-ish Singapore” is a 20-minute documentary set in the year 2023, exploring the rejuvenating air of Singapore.
