German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

A year ago I dug deep here in two parts into TV’s obsession with fictionalized history and left you with German reunification. Time for a check-in with upcoming productions from the Nibelungs to today. The Germans, famous for "coming to terms with the past", have recently taken their Vergangenheitsbewältigung to a whole new level (or just medium), doggedly working their way through the centuries in new high-quality TV productions:

Let’s start with mythical beginnings with the greatest (anti-)hero of German legend: “Hagen von Tronje” will be directed by David Wnendt ("Look Who's Back") and likely hit TV screens in 2021. Continue reading "A TIMELINE OF TV'S OBSESSION WITH HISTORY (3)" »

Part of an ongoing series of mini profiles on the blog German Film @ Canada on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and fans, from rookies to veterans.

Name & role: Helene Hegemann, author (Axolotl Roadkill, Jage Zwei Tiger, Bungalow), script writer (TORPEDO), filmmaker (AXOLOTL OVERKILL), actor (DEUTSCHLAND 09). On her way to the Berlinale Gala opening...

This is my 9th Berlinale.

You spent the summer 2017 in residence in Toronto, courtesy of TIFF and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. What traces has that left in your life & work (other than your dream of living off-the-grid in the Canadian wilderness)?
Continue reading "Berlinale People: Helene Hegemann, author" »

While his mother is in rehab and his father is on a 'business trip' with his assistant, 14-year-old outsider Maik is spending the summer holidays bored and alone at his parents' villa, when rebellious teenager Tschick appears. Tschick, a Russian immigrant and an outcast, steals a car and decides to set off on a journey away from Berlin, with Maik tagging along for the ride. So begins a wild adventure where the two experience the trip of a lifetime and share a summer that they will never forget.

"As soon as I discovered the novel, I was hooked," is how Fatih Akin (Soul Kitchen, Head-On) describes Wolfgang Herrndorf's bestseller Why We Took the Car, which has excited over 2 million readers and won multiple awards. The "best summer ever" will have its Canadian premiere at EUFFTO 2017, as GOODBYE BERLIN, a witty, poetic film featuring newcomer Anand Batbileg as the novel's hero Tschick, Tristan Gobel (WEST) as Maik. The adaptation of the bestseller was filmed on location in Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt and is Fatih Akin’s first film adaption of a book.

Where did you first come across the book by Berlin author Wolfgang Herrndorf, Why We Took the Car?

Fatih Akin: I was at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2011 presenting the book Im Clinch: The Story of my Films. Continue reading "Never say never. A conversation with Fatih Akin..." »

East Germany. Summer, late 70’s. After her boyfriend Wassilij’s apparent death, Nelly Senff decides to escape from behind the Berlin Wall with her young son Aleksej, leaving her traumatic memories behind. Pretending to marry a West German, she crosses the border to start a new life in the West. But soon her past starts to haunt her as the Allied Secret Service begin to question Wassilij’s mysterious disappearance. Is he still alive? Was he a spy? Nelly is forced to choose between discovering the truth about her former lover and her hopes for a better tomorrow.

This is the story told by our European Union Film Festival selection 2014, Christian Schwochow's award-winnning "West". Schwochow based his latest film on his own experience of escaping the GDR as a child as well as the much lauded 2003 novel "Lagerfeuer" --camp fire-- by Julia Franck. When asked what fascinated him about the book, the filmmaker replied: "This very special place: We knew that those West German emergency camps that housed GDR refugees existed, nut not what it meant to live there for so long. To me that was totally new and exciting. Hardly anyone knows that the secret services were in those camps, interrogating people. And that people had to more or less strip naked before being let in."

See "West" on 21 November, 6pm, at the Royal Cinema, one night only & free at EUFF. Meanwhile, get a taste of the tense atmosphere in the story with this excerpt from the book, describing the moment where Nelly, Aleksej, and her West German boyfriend Gerd are driving across a bridge and get stopped by East German police: Continue reading "REVIEW: Literary echoes in "West"" »