Now that the Berlinale has announced it's 69th opening film --Lone Scherfig's English-language Danish drama THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS--, it's time to put some chips on which German films might be featured at the Berlinale Palast cinema in February. Here's my tip sheet:
At Berlinale 2019?
Fatih Akin with THE GOLDEN GLOVE
A serial killer strikes fear in the hearts of the residents of Hamburg (Akin's beloved hometown) during the early 1970s. Screenplay and direction by Fatih Akin based on the real-crime novel by Heinz Strunk. Not Cannes fare like IN THE FADE, so hopefully locked for the Berlinale.
Starring Marc Hosemann (4 BLOCKS), Jonas Dassler (NEVER LOOK AWAY), Philipp Baltus (CHICO), and others.
Next!
FIRESTARTER, the sci-fi thriller based on the
Stephen King novel,
Akin’s much-anticipated Hollywood debut. A young girl tries to understand how she mysteriously gained the power to set things on fire with her mind.
At Berlinale?
Christian Schwochow (WEST; PAULA; BAD BANKS at Berlinale 2018) with
THE GERMAN LESSON
Co-written again with his mother Heide Schwochow (WEST), but
like Akin's new film another book adaptation, this one based on the classic 1968 novel by Siegfried Lenz. Siggi Jepsen, incarcerated as a juvenile delinquent, is one day assigned to write a routine German lesson on the “The Joys of Duty.” Overfamiliar with these “joys,” Siggi sets down his life since 1943, a decade earlier, when as a boy he watched his father, constable of the northernmost police station in Germany, doggedly carry out orders from Berlin to stop a well-known Expressionist, their neighbor, from painting and to seize all his “degenerate” work. Soon Siggi is stealing the paintings to keep them safe from his father. Against the great brooding northern landscape. Siggi recounts the clash of father and son, of duty and personal loyalty, in wartime Germany. “I was trying to find out,” Lenz says, “where the joys of duty could lead a people.”
Starring: Louis Hofmann (DARK; RED SPARROW), Maria Dragus (THE WHITE RIBBON), Johanna Wokalek (POPE JOAN) –all previous Berlinale Shooting Stars—plus veterans Ulrich Noethen (DOWNFALL) and Tobias Moretti (BAD BANKS).
Next?
JE SUIS KARL was/is announced for 2019; the screenplay was up for a German Screenplay Award. But will Schwochow’s international TV engagements from BAD BANKS and THE CROWN to the new CHILDREN OF MARS let him pursue Karl next year?
At Berlinale?
Sebastian Schipper's ROAD, the actor (RUN LOLA RUN)-cum-director's follow-up to one-shot smash hit VICTORIA. The German-French production ROADS, written by Oliver Ziegenbalg (of 2018 hit comedy drama 25 KM/H), was filmed in Morocco, Spain and France with Fionn Whitehead (DUNKIRK), Ben Chaplin, and Moritz Bleibtreu (THE EXPERIMENT), and is already announced for theatrical release just after the Berlinale, on February 21.
18-year-old William from Congo is trying to cross the border into Europe to find his brother. In Morocco, he meets the British teen Gyllen, who has stolen his father's luxury RV to escape a family holiday. They become perfect allies: Driven by a lust for adventure and a great longing, the unusual pair make their way through Europe. As the two young men's friendship grows ever closer, they are faced with decisions that will reach far beyond their own lives.
Certainly a theme the Berlinale likes to shine a light on, but perhaps not art-house-y enough?
Next?
UNDENIABLE
Long-announced biographic drama based on the memoir "Denial" by Jessica Stern, one of the world’s leading experts on post-traumatic stress disorder, who was raped along with her sister as a teenager, and her efforts to solve the crime.
Screenplay written by Abi Morgan with Schipper, produced by Darren Aronofsky.
At Berlinale?
Daniel Brühl in the US drama MY ZOE, written and directed by Julie Delpy, also starring Gemma Arterton and Richard Armitage. A divorced mother looks to protect her daughter after an unexpected tragedy. Delpy was in competition at the Berlinale 2013 with BEFORE MIDNIGHT, this drama might be my safest bet for February 2019.
Next:
Brühl is in pre-production for
KINGSMAN: THE GREAT GAME, a spin-off of the Kingsman movie series which will look at the spy organization at the turn of the 20th century.
And he is working on the TV series THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS, a sequel to his popular show THE ALIENIST alongside Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning.
A largely testosterone-driven list (no new Ades or Grisebachs in sight), but perhaps veteran director Doris Dörrie will slide in with CHERRY BLOSSOMS - DEMONS, starring Birgit Minichmayr, Elmar Wepper, and Hannelore Elsner, the follow-up to her much lauded CHERRY BLOSSOMS. We should find out before Christmas whether these films made Dieter Kosslick's final Berlinale list before he hands over the reins to co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek (video interview to come here in January!) in 2020.
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
image: Akin shooting THE GOLDEN GLOVE, courtesy of German Films
