THE MIRACLE OF BERN (DAS WUNDER VON BERN) – Opening film of the sixth
Festival of German Cinema in London (27 November – 4 December 2003)

The Export-Union of German Cinema and its partners will be opening the sixth
Festival of German Cinema on 27th November 2003 with THE MIRACLE OF BERN
(DAS WUNDER VON BERN) in the presence of director Sönke Wortmann and the
actors Peter Lohmeyer and Louis Klamroth. The rest of the festival programme
will again be presenting an interesting spectrum of new German productions
with ten feature films, five documentaries and a series of shorts. The week
will be rounded off with a retrospective with films by Rainer Werner
Fassbinder.

The following feature films will be shown in the Main Programme: THE FAMILY
JEWELS (EIERDIEBE) by Robert Schwentke, ELEPHANT HEART (ELEFANTENHERZ) by
Züli Aladag, GHETTOKIDS by Christian Wagner, BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY (GROSSE
MÄDCHEN WEINEN NICHT) by Maria von Heland, 1/2 THE RENT (HALBE MIETE) by
Marc Ottiker, KARAMUK by Sülbiye V. Günar, A LITTLE BIT OF FREEDOM (KLEINE
FREIHEIT) by Yüksel Yavuz, GUN-SHY (SCHUSSANGST) by Dito Tsintsadze and OVER
NIGHT (ÜBER NACHT) by Horst Krassa. Young cinema-goers will be invited to a
family screening of THE FLYING CLASSROOM (DAS FLIEGENDE KLASSENZIMMER) by
Tomy Wigand. Most of the directors will be coming to London to present their
films in person to the British audience.

GERMAN DOX will be showing – in collaboration with the Goethe Institut
London - a selection of new German documentaries: THE CHAMPIONS (DIE
CHAMPIONS) by Christoph Hübner, FROM DACHAU WITH LOVE(GRÜSSE AUS DACHAU) by
Bernd Fischer, VOTE FOR HENRYK! (HERR WICHMANN VON DER CDU) by Andreas
Dresen and TALK STRAIGHT - THE WORLD OF RURAL QUEERS (ICH KENN KEINEN –
ALLEIN UNTER HETEROS) by Jochen Hick.

Apart from the Export-Union's NEXT GENERATION 2003 programme of shorts, a
selection of short films will be shown in cooperation with AG Kurzfilm:
!BLINK by Ralf Beckert, DANGLE by Phil Traill, THE DUCK SHITS BACK (HINTEN
SCHEISST DIE ENTE) by Sabine Michel and UZBEK EXPRESS! by Veit Helmer and
students of the Tashkent Film School.

A small retrospective of three films will dedicated to Rainer Werner
Fassbinder: THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (DIE BITTEREN TRÄNEN DER
PETRA VON KANT), CHINESE ROULETTE (CHINESISCHES ROULETTE) and MOTHER KÜSTERS
GOES TO HEAVEN (MUTTER KÜSTERS FAHRT ZUM HIMMEL). In his documentary
FASSBINDER IN HOLLYWOOD Robert Fischer looks at the fascination Hollywood
had on Fassbinder's work. The British audience will have a chance to ask
questions in a roundtable discussion with Juliane Lorenz, the president and
CEO of the Fassbinder Foundation, and the filmmaker Robert Fischer.

The event's partners are: BKM, the German Federal Film Board (FFA),
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFörderung
Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg, Mitteldeutsche
Medienförderung, nordmedia and the Goethe-Institut London.

The festival is sponsored by: AG Kurzfilm, Erdinger Weißbräu, Kodak, multi
logistics, Pritchard Englefield Solicitors, Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Foundation and the legal practice Schwarz Kelwing Wicke Westpfahl.