Here's a visual teaser to our personal selection from the over two dozen German films and co-productions at this year's TIFF, with a respectable number of films coming from the Berlinale, Locarno and other international festivals as well as exciting premieres.Christian Petzold and lead actor Ronald Zehrfeld on Barbara (in German) and trailer for Barbara (also only in German). See also my Berlinale review of Barbara from February.
Interestingly, another drama by a (West) German director on life in the GDR in the early 1980s with Stasi references has also been invited to Toronto: Shores of Hope by Student Academy Award winner Toke C. Hebbeln, starring Alexander Fehling, August Diehl --both recently featured at GOETHE FILMS @ TIFF Bell Lightbox in our "Shooting Stars" series-- and Ronald Zehrfeld (see Barbara above, as well as our Dominik Graf special In the Face of Crime this spring, in which he was the lead). German Trailer.
For more on the Australian-German Special Presentation of the World War II drama Lore, see my blog entry on German language films.
Okay, I know she is from Toronto --but after a decade or so on the Berlin scene, we can claim a part of the queen of punk, right? The title of Peaches' (Berlin-based) debut is self-explanatory and programmatic: Peaches does herself.
Look behind the scenes of the live "musical" her debut film is based on. Plus Peaches In the making of her performance show at HAU Theatre Berlin.
And here's the reverse case: Tom Tykwer can work in Hollywood -- he remains a Berlin director. You will by now have heard about his literary sci-fi adaptation Cloud Atlas. Released so far are the (3) Directors' Commentary and trailer (and trailer reviews online, if you are really interested).
Over on the arthouse front, under no circumstances will I miss German photography legend Thomas Demand taking his restaging approach to the moving image with Pacific Sun
The film installation is based on dizzying CCTV footage of the Pacific Sun Cruise Liner in heavy seas.
Also at the top of my TIFF schedule, fresh from Locarno, a doc that I am as terrified of watching as I know I must:
Camp 14 - Total Control Zone (trailer)
In German, director Marc Wiese describes the the creation, shoot and background of Camp 14 , with animator Alireza Darvish explaining his role in the film.
Unfortunately no trailer for Margarethe von Trotta’s world premiere of “Hannah Arendt” yet -- but I can tell you that you will be able to see von Trotta live at a Goethe Directors Talk!
by Jutta Brendemühl, Goethe-Institut Toronto
