A QUEER HYBRID SCI-FI -DOCUMENTARY

Dir / Written by: Miri Ian Gossing & Lina Sieckmann • 121 min • English

English with german subtitles

MODERATION AND TALK IN GERMAN

And now we are bringing this cinematic journey to Turistarama Köln on 20.12. at 17:30

Sirens Call follows Una, a hybrid being who identifies as a mermaid and struggles to survive in a world that no longer fits the human body. Drying out from the inside, Una leaves their isolated life behind and travels across the United States in search of breath, belonging, and others like them. Their journey moves from neon desert cities to swampy small towns and roadside attractions where merfolk appear as commodified spectacles behind glass.

Along the way, Una confronts a society shaped by alienation, performance, and ecological collapse. A turning point comes when Una meets Moth, a non binary teenager, during a quiet night in a Walmart parking lot. Together they head to Portland, where a real community of queer merfolk organizes, swims, celebrates, and creates new forms of kinship. For a brief moment Una finds connection, yet the question of identity and survival continues to surface.

Sirens Call premiered at the Berlinale 2025 in the Forum section and was also selected for IDFA Amsterdam in the Best of Fests program. The film merges documentary encounters, fictional world building, and poetic voiceover into a fluid and visually hypnotic exploration of transformation and care.

After the screening, Bernadette Kolonko and Konstantin Butz  will be doing a Q & A with Miri and Lina Sieckmann  about working with subcultures, hybrid filmmaking and queer dramaturgies.

Bernadette Kolonko is a filmmaker and researcher whose work centers queer-feminist perspectives in contemporary cinema; she teaches and mentors at ZHdK, HSLU, and CISA, and publishes widely on feminist gazes and storytelling.

Konstantin Butz is a cultural studies scholar and assistant professor at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, specializing in popular culture and subcultures.