German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

Is it possible to have love, a dream job and a perfect family? In PARENTS --the Goethe-Institut's German film choice for the European Union Film Festival Toronto on November 21-- director Robert Thalheim (AND ALONG CAME TOURISTS; WESTWIND), who is known for the authenticity of his storytelling, portrays the tumultuous everyday life of a modern big-city family. The film treats current global issues like parental leave, the so-called "work-life balance" and what the media hypes as “the modern man” -- realistically and with subtle humour. In addition to the brilliant child actors Emilia Pieske (Emma) and Paraschiva Dragus (Käthe), PARENTS is impressively cast with Christiane Paul and Charly Hübner in the main roles.

Robert Thalheim on the tension between his two protagonists, Konrad and Christine:

Why does the father, Konrad, find it so difficult to separate from his children?
It is very hard for Konrad, who is the go-to parent for the kids, to dissociate from the children and to express his own needs. Actually, it’s long been a problem with female connotations, although it is quite naturally a consequence of being close to the children. Continue reading "PARENTS @ EUFF: The Perfect Family" »

For your fall literary season & upcoming watching pleasure, there’s a slew of ever popular “books on film” to look forward to:

EMPIRE is the working title for Jan-Ole Gerster's anticipated follow-up to multi-award-winning Berlin slacker film OH BOY, which we premiered in Toronto at the European Union Film Festival 2013. Here, August Engelhardt is the radical vegetarian and nudist who left Germany in 1902 to set up a utopian colony on a South Sea island. His malnourished body was found on a beach in 1919. Gerster will start filming this adaption of Christian Kracht’s smash hit adventure novel "A Small Empire” with his OH BOY lead Tom Schilling next year.

Just out is THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, by Stephan Rick, with a promising cast: Moritz Bleibtreu, Jürgen Prochnow (currently in Atom Egoyan's REMEMBER) and Nora von Waldstätten (CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA) star in this thriller based on Martin Suter’s novel of the same name, with a high finance attorney taking a hallucinogenic trip from which there is no return. Continue reading "New Books on Film" »

Annually, nearly 50 million tons of electronic waste are discarded in the developed world. Despite global legislation that this waste must stay in its country of origin, 75% disappears from legal recycling routes, with much of it being dumped in the Third World, where it destroys landscapes and endangers lives. A new documentary, "The E-Waste Tragedy", takes the viewer on a journey of investigation to Europe, China, Africa and the United States, revealing a toxic global trade fueled by greed and corruption. Filmmaker Cosima Dannoritzer tells us about the reactions she has encountered as she has been showing her documentary around the world:

"As a German documentary filmmaker, from a country with a cool climate, I always wonder why it never occurs to me to propose a film about, let's say, the most beautiful beaches in the world or the best Caribbean cocktails.

Instead, writing and directing ‘The E-Waste Tragedy', I found myself touring the world's worst dump sites for electronic waste, including Agbogbloshie in Ghana, where e-waste from Europe and the US is burnt by children and where the smoke is so toxic that the whole film crew had to see a dermatologist after the shoot. Continue reading "The E-Waste Tragedy: a toxic business on a..." »

On the occasion of his 70th birthday, GOETHE FILMS travels to the places that feature large in the oeuvre of Wim Wenders, including Japan in TOKYO-GA and NOTEBOOK ON CITIES AND CLOTHES screening October 6. Toronto-based Japanese film expert Chris MaGee on Wenders' love of Ozu:

Tokyo can be an overwhelming city. It’s one of the world’s most densely populated, 13 million people crammed into just over 2000 kilometres; and beneath its skyscrapers two major tectonic plates grind against each other shaking the city. Visiting Tokyo is exhilarating and dizzying.

In the spring of 1983 Wim Wenders made his first trip to Tokyo to chronicle something essential. Something true, but how could he get past the colour and novelty of the city to do that? He did what many foreigners do. He had a local show him around. Wenders' roadmap for his film "Tokyo-Ga" is the work of the legendary director Yasujiro Ozu.
Continue reading "Wim Wenders & Yasujiro Ozu" »