HOLOFICTION at the 21st UNDERDOX Film Festival in Munich

October 10, 2026 – 6:00 PM
Filmmuseum München, Munich

HOLOFICTION will be screened at the 21st UNDERDOX – International Film Festival for Document and Experiment in Munich, which takes place from October 8 to 14, 2026. The film is presented on Saturday, October 10, 2026, at 6:00 PM at the Filmmuseum München as part of this year’s festival theme “Remembering” (Erinnern). Director Michal Kosakowski will attend the screening as a guest of the festival.

UNDERDOX was founded in 2006 by film critic and curator Dunja Bialas and Bernd Brehmer, curator and co-operator of Munich’s Werkstattkino. The festival is dedicated to cinematic works in the space between documentary and experimental film, fiction and art, with screenings at the Filmmuseum München, the Werkstattkino and Theatiner Filmkunst.

Festival Theme 2026: Remembering

Within the theme, HOLOFICTION is shown alongside Memory & Archive (a programme presented in collaboration with Archivio Aperto, Bologna), Stanley Schtinter’s LAST MOVIES, Norbert Pfaffenbichler’s ADGIN PRRRX and Laura Coppens’ SEDIMENTE.

Statement by the festival directors
(German original)

„Unser diesjähriges Thema ‚Erinnern’ verstehen wir als eine Einladung zum Sehen, das tief in das Vergangene hinabführt: Sehen wir mit den Filmen die Bilder der Vergangenheit. Erinnern wir uns mit ihnen an die vergangene Zeit, auch im Sinne der Erinnerungskultur. Und an Filme, die wir gesehen haben, als ästhetische Fragestellung. Filme spannen im Moment der Projektion auch einen biografischen Resonanzraum auf: zu unseren eigenen Gedanken und Erinnerungen, die wir in die Filme hineintragen.“
– Dunja Bialas und Bernd Brehmer, Leitung UNDERDOX

(English version published by UNDERDOX)

“We understand this year’s theme, ‘Remembering’, as an invitation to a form of seeing that reaches deep into the past. Through films, we encounter images of what has been. With them, we remember bygone times—also in the sense of a shared culture of remembrance. We recall films we have seen before, making memory itself an aesthetic question. At the moment of projection, films also open up a biographical space of resonance. They connect with the thoughts and memories we ourselves bring into the cinema, allowing personal recollection and collective history to intertwine.”
– Dunja Bialas and Bernd Brehmer, Heads of UNDERDOX

HOLOFICTION in the Theme Programme

(German original)

„Der polnisch-deutsche Medienkünstler Michal Kosakowski untersucht die Ikonografie des Holocausts im Spielfilm durch eine Montage aus Tausenden von fiktionalen Nach-Bildern. Wiederkehrende Muster greifen auf die historischen Aufnahmen bei Kriegsende zurück und entfesseln einen erschütternden Essay über das kollektive Gedächtnis, in das die Bilder des Schreckens eingegangen sind.“
– UNDERDOX

(English version published by UNDERDOX)

“The Polish-German media artist Michał Kosakowski examines the iconography of the Holocaust in narrative cinema through a montage composed of thousands of fictional after-images. Recurring visual patterns draw on the historical footage recorded at the end of the Second World War, unfolding into a haunting essay on collective memory—on the ways in which the images of the Holocaust have become inscribed in our visual consciousness.”
– UNDERDOX

The festival also points to the book accompanying the film: Holofiction, edited by Marcus Stiglegger, with forewords by Dominique Lanzmann and Volker Schlöndorff (Schüren Verlag, July 2026).

About the Film – UNDERDOX Programme Text

(German original)

„Die Ikonografie des Holocausts in einer Montage aus Tausenden von fiktionalen Nach-Bildern. Ein erschütterndes Essay über das kollektive Gedächtnis, in das die dokumentarischen Bilder des Schreckens eingegangen sind.“
– UNDERDOX

„Aus einer filigranen Montage aus zahlreichen kurzen Einstellungen, bekannten und weniger bekannten, thematisch gruppiert und stumm gemacht, weist Michal Kosakowski der Musik die zentrale Rolle als erzählerischer Faden zu – als chronologische Abfolge von Themen, die er im Laufe seiner titanischen Arbeit des Sammelns und Klassifizierens von Hunderten von Filmen und Szenen über acht Jahre hinweg herausgearbeitet hat.“
– Dominique Lanzmann-Petithory

„Fiktion ist eine Übertretung, ich bin zutiefst davon überzeugt, dass es ein Darstellungsverbot gibt.”
– Claude Lanzmann über die Shoah

(English)

“The iconography of the Holocaust in a montage of thousands of fictional after-images. A harrowing essay on collective memory, into which the documentary images of horror have been absorbed.”
– UNDERDOX (English version published by the festival)

“Through a delicate montage of numerous short shots, well-known and lesser-known, grouped by theme and rendered silent, Michal Kosakowski gives the music the central role as the narrative thread – as a chronological sequence of themes that he worked out over eight years in the course of his titanic labour of collecting and classifying hundreds of films and scenes.”
– Dominique Lanzmann-Petithory (English translation)

“Fiction is a transgression; I am deeply convinced that there is a prohibition on representation.”
– Claude Lanzmann on the Shoah (English translation)

Synopsis

(as published on the English UNDERDOX website)

“Drawing from an extensive archive of over 3,000 narrative works, ‘Holofiction’ critically examines how Holocaust imagery has been codified and reproduced in cinema across decades. The film exposes recurring visual motifs and narrative patterns that have become iconic in the portrayal of the Holocaust. Inspired by Claude Lanzmann’s scepticism toward visual representations of historical trauma, the film questions the possibility and implications of depicting such an atrocity in fictional cinema. Through its essayistic approach, ‘Holofiction’ invites audiences to reflect on the ethics and responsibility of cinematic storytelling, urging a deeper understanding of how these representations shape collective memory and historical perception.”
– Kosakowski Films

About the Director – UNDERDOX Festival Biography

(German original)

„Geb. 1975 in Stettin, Polen. Er lebt und arbeitet als Regisseur, Medienkünstler und Produzent in Berlin. Von 1997 bis 2000 besuchte er die Künstlerwerkstätte Fabrica in Treviso, wo er gemeinsam mit Oliviero Toscani an verschiedenen Film- und Kulturprojekten arbeitete. 2003 gründete er die auf Experimental-, Musik- und Kunstfilme spezialisierte Filmproduktion Nosugar Added.“
Filme (Auswahl): Just like the movies 2006 | Zero Killed 2012 | German Angst 2015 | Holofiction 2025

(English version published by UNDERDOX)

“Born in 1975 in Szczecin, Poland. He lives and works in Berlin as a director, media artist and producer. From 1997 to 2000, he attended the Fabrica artists’ workshop in Treviso, where he worked alongside Oliviero Toscani on various film and cultural projects. In 2003, he founded Nosugar Added, a film production company specialising in experimental, music and art films.”
Films (selection): Just like the movies 2006 | Zero Killed 2012 | German Angst 2015 | Holofiction 2025

Event Details

Date: Saturday, October 10, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM
Venue: Filmmuseum München
St.-Jakobs-Platz 1
80331 Munich, Germany

Programme: Theme: Remembering – screening in the presence of director Michal Kosakowski

Festival: 21st UNDERDOX – International Film Festival for Document and Experiment
October 8–14, 2026, Munich (Filmmuseum München, Werkstattkino, Theatiner Filmkunst)

Tickets / reservations:
underdox-festival.de – Tickets

Organiser: UNDERDOX (Dunja Bialas, Bernd Brehmer)
Supported by: Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München (Film Department)
In close collaboration with: Filmstadt München e.V.
Funded by: Bayerische Staatskanzlei and FilmFernsehFonds Bayern

Film Information

HOLOFICTION
Essayistic Documentary / Experimental
Germany / Austria 2025
102 min, no dialogue

Written, edited and directed by: Michal Kosakowski
Music: Paolo Marzocchi
Sound: Andrea Veneri, Omar Venti, Alessio Mastrorillo
Produced by: Uli Aigner & Michal Kosakowski

Production: KOSAKOWSKI FILMS, Berlin
Co-production: ATELIER ULI AIGNER, Gaming, Austria
German distribution: Drop-Out Cinema eG
World sales: Kosakowski Films