Great cinema

Darkened room, open curtain, comfortable seats.  Cinema-goers looking attentively at the screen, their faces occasionally recognizable in the changing light conditions of the film and then disappearing again. Loudspeakers boom to the right and left of the rows of spectators. The latter are joined by a constant murmur that originates in the rear right-hand corner of the Kronenkino screening room. That's where Agata sits, who always speaks when people are talking in the movie. But the audience doesn't mind. On the contrary.

Agata translates. This is the third time she has worked as a language mediator at the Neisse Film Festival . Having grown up bilingually and appreciating her home town of Görlitz for its balancing act between Germany and Poland, she wanted to stay here and learn professional interpreting and translating. So it made sense for her to study "Business and Languages" at the Faculty of Management and Cultural Studies.

The Neiße Film Festival offers her the opportunity to put the tools of the trade of a translator and interpreter that she acquired during her studies to use during her time as a student and put them to the test outside the lecture hall.

The organizers of the Neisse Film Festival and all viewers who do not understand the original language of the films or their subtitles are extremely grateful to her. "There are no projects like this in other places," says Agata, referring to the many multilingual projects, festivals and events that have been able to establish themselves around Zittau and Görlitz due to their proximity to the border. Even though she is still undecided about what exactly she wants to do after her studies, she sees the border region as her opportunity and her future. She talks about all this in our new "stay_here video": "Why studying in the Neisse region is so worthwhile".

Camera and editing of the video portrait: Christiane Matthieu