Schwentke, Wenders, Akin, Zabeil, Grisebach, Odar, Tabak - the Toronto International Film Festival (7 - 17 September 2017) includes a number of world and North American premieres for German filmmakers and an astounding four titles in the prestigious Special Presentations. (Here's the full German Films brochure.)
55 STEPS by Bille August (DE/BE), with Germany's Elsani Film as delegate producer, will be screened as a world premiere in the exclusive red carpet Gala Presentations.
The Special Presentations section is reserved for outstanding films by prominent directors. THE CAPTAIN by Robert Schwentke (D/FR/PL) was invited from Germany and will have its world premiere in Toronto. The filmmaker has already enjoyed blockbuster status in the USA with such films as R.E.D. with Bruce Willis. Another world premiere -as previously announced- will be Wim Wenders' latest feature film SUBMERGENCE (DE/FR/ES) headlined by international stars Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy.
Wenders has been invited to the Masters section at TIFF for the third year in a row following EVERY THING WILL BE FINE in 2015 and THE BEAUTIFUL DAYS OF ARANJUEZ in 2016. This year will also see him serving as a jury member for the Platform competitive section.
IN THE FADE by Fatih Akin (DE/FR) and THREE PEAKS by Jan Zabeil (DE/IT) will be continuing their respective successful festival careers after the launch in the Cannes competition and on Locarno's Piazza Grande.
Valeska Grisebach's WESTERN (DE/BG/AT) will also be coming from Cannes' main program to screen in the section of Contemporary World Cinema at the most important festival for the North American market.
TIFF is showing top-class international TV in Primetime for the third year running, with a production from Germany being invited for the very first time: Baran bo Odar was in Toronto with his last feature film WHO AM I - NO SYSTEM IS SAFE and is returning with DARK, the first German Netflix series.
The young German-Turkish filmmaker Hüseyin Tabak received numerous international awards for his previous two feature films. His documentary THE LEGEND OF THE UGLY KING (DE/AT) deals with the Kurdish filmmaker Yilmaz Güney and will have its world premiere -as already announced- in
TIFF Docs.
There will also be a strong presence from the stars of the FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS campaign: Alexander Fehling can be seen in both THREE PEAKS and THE CAPTAIN, Louis Hofmann plays the lead in DARK.
The newly enlarged Discovery program includes four German titles:
¾ (
Three Quarters, Germany-Bulgaria), Ilian Metev, NAP
The Garden (Sommerhäuser, Germany) Sonja Maria Kröner, IP
The Lady From Holland (Netherlands-Germany), Marleen Jonkman, WP
Gutland (Luxembourg-Germany-Belgium), Govinda Van Maele, WP
Oblivion Verses (Los Versos Del Olvido, France-Germany-Netherlands-Chile) Alireza Khatami, NAP
More about the German world premieres:
THE CAPTAIN: The end of World War II is in sight and the social structure of Germany lies in tatters. As the Wehrmacht's morale begins to deteriorate and regiments begin to disintegrate, the number of deserters climbs so dramatically that any soldier found separated from his company may be shot as a traitor. One band of officers hunts down a 19-year-old private - deadly horseplay more than any kind of organized pursuit. The private, Willi Herold, bolts through the woods. Desperate, running out of time. By sheer luck, Herold escapes from his hunters and goes to ground - pursued by the local farmers he steals from to survive and by his fellow soldiers who want him dead - through the bleak and barren moors of the Ems river estuary. Soaked through, worn out, half starved, and nearly frozen to death, Herold makes a pivotal find: the uniform of some highly decorated Luftwaffe captain.
SUBMERGENCE is a love story that takes us into the extremely different worlds of our two protagonists, Danielle Flinders (Alicia Vikander) and James More (James McAvoy). They meet by chance in a remote hotel in Normandy where they both prepare for a dangerous mission. They fall in love almost against their will, but soon recognize in each other the love of their lives. When they have to separate, we find out that James works for the British Secret Service. He's involved in a mission in Somalia to track down a source for suicide bombers infiltrating Europe. Danielle 'Danny' Flinders is a bio-mathematician working on a deep sea diving project to support her theory about the origin of life on our planet. Soon, they are worlds apart. James is taken hostage by Jihadist fighters and has no way of contacting Danny, and she has to go down to the bottom of the ocean in her submersible, not even knowing if James is still alive...
DARK, the first German production from Netflix, is set in a German town in present day where the disappearance of two young children exposes the double lives and fractured relationships among four families. In ten, hour-long episodes, the story takes on a supernatural twist that ties back to the same town in 1986.
They called him The Ugly King! A myth, a hero, a film legend. Who was Yilmaz Güney? A highly
talented director? A revolutioner? A murderer? A genius or a lunatic? Young director Hüseyin
Tabak is looking for answers in THE LEGEND OF THE UGLY KING by doing research for a script about the Kurdish flmmaker from Turkey. Güney was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. Mainly for political reasons but also for murdering a judge. He started making movies from jail. His most famous flm YOL won the Palm d'Or in 1982. Tabak visits different countries where he meets with Güney's family, his actors, prestigious flmmakers as Michael Haneke or Costa Gavras, former inmates and people on the streets for whom Güney is still a hero. But the deeper Hüseyin digs, the more the legendary ugly king appears human and vulnerable.
If you want to
win tickets to German films, join the Goethe-Institut's Arts & Culture Newsletter by emailing
office@toronto.goethe.org with the subject line "German Films @ TIFF" by Tuesday, September 5, 2017, 12 noon EST. Only the winners will be notified.
source: German Films
promo image: ThreePeaks courtesy echofilm
