German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

One of our long-standing film partnerships in Canada is with Toronto's Planet in Focus Film Festival, with whom we share an interest in pressing environmental issues. Their new programmer Marc Glassman this year has chosen a German film, co-presented with the Goethe-Institut, that received rave reviews at the Berlin Film Festival. Here is Marc's personal take on Sebastian Mez's Metamorphosen (trailer) and why you should see it at Planet in Focus on November 22.

"Sebastian Mez’s rigorous and gorgeously shot film Metamorphosen premiered at this year’s Berlinale and will have its Toronto debut this month at the Planet in Focus Environmental film festival, which takes place from Nov. 21-24.

Mez’ film is a tragic, intensely evocative piece about contamination, environmental destruction and the appalling consequences of tyranny. Its title evokes the controversial composition by Richard Strauss, a memoriam to the devastation of Munich—including its Opera House—during the final stages of the Second World War. The film’s other cultural antecedent is Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, in which a simple man is transformed into a bug.

Continue reading "Metamorphosen: Beauty in Bleakness" »