German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

After the fast-paced thriller opening film The Fifth Estate two hours earlier -- too fast-paced to take a closer look at the complex issue of privacy & transparency, despite an intense Cumberbatch and a solid Bruehl-- #TIFF13 started on a high note for German film aficionados. "Family's always a hassle," teenaged Ben says at the beginning of Caroline Link's North American premiere, and he will be proven right.

The colorful life in the narrow streets, the picturesque oases, and the monumental Atlas Mountains are more than just a mesmerizing backdrop for an intense piece of cinema, they are signposts on the protagonists’ emotional maps. With many other filmmakers, a German-African love story set in "exotic" and bustling North Africa could easily have turned to kitsch. Here, Morocco is a catalyst and a challenge to the protagonists. Caroline Link smartly lets the viewer find their place in the tense relationships between the three main characters. The location was so crucial to her that Link herself noted that "the same story in a different setting probably wouldn’t have interested me as much."
Continue reading "#TIFF13 Day 1: Exit Marrakech" »

GOETHE FILM TALK: Caroline Link
FRIDAY, September 6, 5-6pm
Goethe-Institut Toronto, 100 University Ave., 2nd floor
Oscar-winning director Link in conversation with filmmaker Ruba Nadda
Presented by the Goethe-Institut
Link is back at TIFF, after her 2002 gala of Nowhere in Africa and A Year Ago in Winter 2008, with a special presentation and world premiere of her latest film Exit Marrakech, starring the great Ulrich Tukur and celebrated newcomer Samuel Schneider (see photo) as estranged father and son. An exchange with acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Ruba Nadda (“Cairo Time”, “Inescapable”).
“I love being a director the most when I get to tweak a scene, when I have two good actors to work with in one room.” (Link in Die Zeit)
Read our full announcement.

GOETHE FILM TALK: African Metropolis
FRIDAY, September 6, 12:30-1:30pm
Goethe-Institut Toronto, 100 University Ave., 2nd floor
Three shorts from three African cities at TIFF 2013
Presented by the Goethe-Institut
Filmmakers Vincent Moloi (Johannesburg) and Jim Chuchu (Nairobi) in conversation with their producer Steven Markovitz, moderated by Lien Heidenreich-Seleme, head of programming at the Goethe-Institut South Africa, the project’s initiator. They will be discussing their outstanding project “African Metropolis”, which explores the face of a modern and cosmopolitan Africa, challenging long-standing clichés about the continent.
“The African Metropolis Short Film Project has given young filmmakers the license to shape an aesthetic and imagine stories and characters set in a culture of urbanity. The plurality and diversity of voices is a joy to discover." (Rasha Salti, international programmer at TIFF)
Read our full announcement.

GOETHE FILM TALK: World Film Locations - Berlin, Tokyo, Toronto
FRIDAY, September 13, 5-6pm
Goethe-Institut Toronto, 100 University Ave., 2nd floor
Film critic Geoff Pevere (“Toronto on Film”) in conversation with Susan Ingram and Chris MaGee, authors of the “World Film Location” series
Presented by the Goethe-Institut. Supported by CCGES, the Japan Foundation and Intellect Books
What makes a world city a world film location? We bring together authors, scholars and critics to discuss and cinematically map the outstanding film locations Berlin, Toronto and Tokyo and show you their favourite film clips.
"The city continues to play a central role in a multitude of films, helping us to frame our understanding of place and of the world around us. Whether as elaborate directorial love letters or as time specific cultural settings, the city acts as a vital character in helping to tell a story." (Intellectbooks.co.uk)
Read our full announcement.

ALL GOETHE FILM TALKS at the Goethe-Institut Toronto // Limited seating! First come first served // PWYC – please support our film programs // Doors open 20 minutes before start time

Thank you to our friends and partners at German Films and TIFF for their support!

Program & Media Contact:
Jutta Brendemühl, Program Curator
Goethe-Institut Toronto
100 University Ave, North Tower, Toronto, ON M5J 1V6, Canada
Tel. +1 416 5935257-205
jutta.brendemuehl@toronto.goethe.org

A project we are extremely happy to see on this year's TIFF radar is called "African Metropolis", a pan-African short film project developed by the Goethe-Institut South Africa. 4 of its protagonists are going to be in Toronto for 3 screenings over the festival's first 3 days as part of TIFF's short program “TO REPEL GHOSTS: URBAN TALES FROM THE AFRICAN CONTINENT”: Directors Vincent Moloi (South Africa) and Jim Chuchu (Kenya) alongside their executive producer Steven Markovitz and the head of the Goethe-Institut South Africa's program department, Lien Heidenreich-Seleme. You can meet and engage with them at our GOETHE FILM TALK on 6 SEPTEMBER 12.30-1.30pm.

I for one am intrigued to get multiple perspectives on and from Africa this year, be it Caroline Link's "Exit Marrakech" or the Kenyan-German co-pro "Something Necessary" out of Tom Tykwer's much lauded Africa project One Fine Day Films. (compare my previous notes on German cinema's love affair with Africa, from "Sleeping Sickness" to "The White Masai", from "The River Used to be a Man" to "Colour of the Ocean").

Continue reading "African Metropolis at #TIFF13" »