The Red Envelope. Open-Air-Kino und Gespräch. Box Office Around The World 2025

In the organizer's words:

On two weekends in August, the Schlüterhof becomes a meeting place for film enthusiasts from all over the world - with summery drinks and snacks. The open-air festival presents six current cinema productions that are box office hits in their countries of origin but have not yet been shown on the big screen in Germany. Before the screenings, the Humboldt Forum invites you to get in the mood with thematic spotlights - with prominent guests!

The release of every major film production is accompanied by great anxiety and guesswork: will the audience buy into the story told, the star constellation and the film language and flock to the cinema en masse?

Box Office Around The World is a film festival that aims to unravel this mystery from the audience's perspective. Unlike Hollywood productions, which are designed for the global market, "box office hits" from other regions of the world often provide surprising insights into what moves people in Lagos, Buenos Aires or Bangkok. The Schlüterhof is located in the heart of Berlin - and surrounded by collections from many cultures around the world.

Over two weekends in August, the Box Office Around the World festival presents six current cinema productions that are audience successes and box office hits in their countries of origin, but have not yet been shown on the big screen in Germany.

Representatives of the Berlin communities from Thailand, Argentina, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil and India have selected the films together with curator Dorothee Wenner and developed an accompanying program: Before the open-air screenings, the team - with a star-studded line-up - will shine a thematic spotlight on each film.

Curator of the film program

Dorothee Wenner is a freelance filmmaker, curator and author based in Berlin.

Since 1990 she has worked in various positions for the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, currently as the festival's delegate for the Sub-Saharan Africa region. She has been a member of the board and jury of the African Movie Academy Awards in Lagos since its inception in 2005. Her latest work as a filmmaker is the web series Kinshasa Collection. Since 2020 she has been working as a consultant for film/cinema at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin and initiated the Cinema Spaces Network.

Dorothee Wenner curated the Box Office Around The World 2025 festival for the third time with representatives from the communities.

The Red Envelope. Chayanop Boonprakob / Thailand 2025 / 127 min. / Comedy

Nightmares plague Titi's grandmother after the death of her beloved grandson. She seeks the advice of a shaman who attributes the restlessness to Titi's prevented marriage to his lover Din. The shaman sees the fact that Titi was gay as unproblematic, but a new, living husband must be found quickly for the dead man. This is done with the help of a red envelope into which Grandma has to put a strand of the corpse's hair and fingernails. Whoever finds this envelope has been chosen by fate to marry Titi's ghost. It is the unlucky, heterosexual police informant Menn who is pushed into the affair by Granny and higher powers - and thus sets off a fast-paced LGBTQ+ comedy. Was Titi's death not an accident after all, but murder? The story of Menn and Titi's rapprochement shakes up gender stereotypes with a strong sense of Thai humor, leaving room for corrupt police hijinks, traffic jams that are cleared up by ghosts, grandiose dance interludes, heartwarming dog scenes and much more.

The film is a remake of the Taiwanese blockbuster Marry My Dead Body (2022), skillfully and confidently translated to Bangkok with allusions to current scandals. The casting of the popular and outrageously good-looking duo Billkin (Putthipong Assaratanakul) and PP Krit (Krit Amnuaydechkorn) also contributed to the success at Thailand's box office - no expense was spared to make the film work.

Program

- 8 pm: Discussion with Popo Fan (film curator and maker, LGBTIQ+ activist), Mangkorn "Nick" Wongnongtoey (social worker, Berlin) and Dorothee Wenner (moderator) in German

- 9 pm: Film screening

Participants

As a filmmaker, Popo Fan has had a remarkable impact on Chinese society since 2009 with his queer documentaries. In 2017, he moved from Beijing to Berlin, where he shifted his focus to writing and directing fictional films. His works deal with intersectional themes such as migration and gender, often drawing on genre elements such as comedy and thriller.

After several short films in Germany, Popo is currently developing his first feature-length film. In 2017 he was selected for Berlinale Talents, in 2019 he was a jury member of the Teddy Award at the Berlinale. In 2023 he received the PorYes Feminist Porn Award in Berlin.

Popo is involved in queer political work in China. He has been a trainer at the Queer University Video Camp there for many years and was involved in the organization of the Beijing Queer Film Festival for almost two decades.

He also writes regular columns for various Chinese media platforms and occasionally performs as a stand-up comedian. He loves cooking and singing - sometimes he accidentally combines the two in his "Kitchen Karaoke" videos, which can be found on Instagram.

- 10 EUR, reduced 5 EUR

- FSK 18

- Schlüterhof: Entrance: Portal 5

- Languages: Thai with English subtitles

- Belongs to: Box Office Around The World 2025