Canadian Premiere
Think you have a stressful job? Try trading places with Heike (Sabine Thalau), the overworked, underpaid manager of a cleaning crew. In addition to supervising harried workers, she does much of the same work they do: mopping, wiping, hauling, and more. She also has to placate angry clients, colleagues, and superiors, all of whom are frequently at her neck. Faced with harassment and threats from above, Heike is forced to make a hard decision regarding a vulnerable worker — one that constitutes a double betrayal and turns a good friend against her…
Director Kilian Armando Friedrich draws on his own time as a cleaner and utilizes a cast of non-professionals with similar experience. These include lead actor Thalau, who demonstrates the hardship of her labours superbly: every exhausted breath, every arduous lift, every plea or order uttered registers its cost on her body and soul. I Understand Your Displeasure is a film of urgent, intense realism, and it imbues its embattled characters with a special dignity.
Supported by
Sabine Thalau, Nada Kosturin, Werner Posselt, Sadibou Diabang, Nigyar Velagic
Germany
2026
In German, Croatian, Bosnian, and Turkish with English subtitles
At The Cinematheque
At Fifth Ave
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Credits & Director
Producer
Ben Ulrich, Simon Bogocz, Felix Mann
Screenwriter
Kilian Armando Friedrich, Tünde Sautier, Daniel Kunz
Cinematography
Louis Dickhaut, Frederik Seeberger
Editor
Leila Fatima Keita, Kilian Armando Friedrich
Production Design
Michelle Kleist, Florian Ufer
Kilian Armando Friedrich
Kilian Armando Friedrich studied performing arts in Hildesheim and Madrid, followed by film directing with a focus on documentary in Munich and Mexico City. His documentary Nomades du nucléaire premiered at the 2023 Berlinale and won the German Short Film Award in the medium-length category. He also works as a media educator on intercultural film projects. I Understand Your Displeasure (2026) is his debut feature film.
Focus on New German Cinema: Extreme Tension
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I Understand Your Displeasure
This intense realist drama stars Sabine Thalau as Heike, the underpaid, stressed-out manager of a cleaning crew. The non-professional actor portrays the hardship of labour so well that every breath, every arduous movement registers its cost on her soul.
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