GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL 2008
Presented by the Goethe Institut, the Audi Festival of German Films is delighting lovers of fine international cinema in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Check cinema guides for screening dates and details, or visit Palace Cinemas or the Goethe Institute
Introduction
In 2007, I was given the opportunity as the Australian representative of the Goethe Institute to participate in a film seminar program in Munich and Berlin. There were 14 filmmakers, film critics and film journalists from around the world who participated from countries as diverse as Indonesia, Russia, Sweden, Poland, Kenya, Iran, with German being our common language. We were given the opportunity to visit the Munich Film Festival, where I was able to preview a number of new German films, and interview prominent German filmmakers and others in the film industry for my Melbourne film radio program, such as Margaretha von Trotta, Volker Schlondorff, Mark Rothemunde, Max Wiedemann, Andreas Strohl (head of the Munich FF), as well representatives from Studio Babelsberg, etc when we visited Berlin. This indicated to me that the German Film Industry is progressing very strongly, with a great deal of support, financially and creatively, to ensure that German films are being produced and in turn receive local, and international, distribution. My impression was that the industry is once again making an excellent array of films from a new generation of talented and exciting filmmakers.
Thus it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the Festival of German Films 2008, featuring a collection of some of the best contemporary films Germany is currently producing. The German Film Industry is experiencing a significant increase in production, recognition and distribution around the world, and we are fortunate in Australia to see some of the best of the current crop of films. There are many talented up and coming, as well as experienced, filmmakers now in Germany, ensuring that the German Film Industry is in very safe hands. This year’s program is an exciting one for many reasons, including films with international and local acclaim (including an Oscar nominated film again this year, after the success of Das Leben der Anderen/The Lives of Others at the Oscars and elsewhere last year), some special guests from the film industry including noted actor Jurgen Vogel with a retrospective of some of his films as well as some of his new films, a panel discussion, and Q & A discussions with festival guests.
This year’s festival films range across many themes and topics. Personal dramas played out amidst social, political and historical forces are explored in the wartime drama The Counterfeiters concerning a group of Jewish Concentration Camp prisoners instructed to forge British and American currency; the aftermath of the Holocaust and the impact it has on a contemporary Polish town located near Auschwitz are explored in And Along Came Tourists; while the impact of the Stasi (East German surveillance Police) on a woman’s family is presented in the compelling TV drama Border of Despair. A woman’s psychological issues dealing with her life are presented in Die Anruferin, while the psychology of cultural differences and reconciliation in the German and Turkish communities are portrayed in Fatih Akin’s marvellous The Edge of Heaven. Conflicting witness testimony and police corruption are all explored in Duel In the Night, one of a number of films featuring festival guest Jurgen Vogel; while the lives of a group of disparate Germans seeking relationships in the new global landscape is presented in Nothing but Ghosts.
On the other hand, we have a darkly satiric film that defies easy labelling with the drama Head Under Water; the satire continues in the broad swipe that Free Rainer takes in questioning both the television ratings system and the audience that is attracted to certain programs. A German high school teacher and his class investigate whether fascism can ever appear again in the country with an experiment that threatens to go off the rails in The Wave. Veteran director Doris Dorrie is represented by her latest journey into lost love and finding meaning in life with Hanami-Cherry Blossoms largely set in Japan; yet the lighter side of long-term relationships is shown in the exquisitely located Runaway Horse.
If you prefer more knock-about comedy and farce then you won’t be disappointed. Special Escort deals with a group of unemployed and unhappy men who decide to find a new spark in their life by becoming a female escort agency; while Til Schweiger in his latest film (which he also directed), is an offensive journalist forced to work with children for community service in the amusing Rabbits Without Ears. Schweiger also stars (with Vogel) in the politically incorrect comedy Where is Fred? as he plays “disabled” in order to win the affection of his girl-friend and her grasping son.
Children are not ignored in this festival, with two appealing films: the boisterous comedy Hands Off Mississippi concerning a young girl’s discovery of strange events involving a horse next to her grandmother’s farm; and a 13 year old girl discovers being a teenager requires learning from some unusual experiences in the amusing Max Minsky and I.
I commend this year’s festival to you as I can assure you there are many films in the program this year that will leave you thinking about, and discussing, the issues and themes raised, as well as having fun, and experiencing some of the best films of contemporary German Cinema. Viel Vergnugen!
Peter Krausz
(Peter Krausz is Chair of the Australian Film Critics Association, and Festival Advisor)