Thefestival has been showing German films in London with increasing success over the past 10 years. This November again saw many aficionados of German cinema coming to the Curzon Soho arthouse cinema.
Apart from the opening film 8 MILES HIGH (DAS WILDE LEBEN) there were sell-out performances for another six films.
Director Achim Bornhak, lead actress Natalia Avelon and producer Dietmar Guentsche were able to see that the wild life of Uschi Obermaier and her friends still have a great appeal in London. The film received lots of applause from an enthusiastic audience and was celebrated at a reception given by the German Ambassador.
There was also an enthusiastic response for AND ALONG COME TOURISTS (AM ENDE KOMMEN TOURISTEN) by Robert Thalheim, Ralf Westhoff's SHOPPEN MUNICH (SHOPPEN), MY FUEHRER - THE TRULY TRUEST TRUTH ABOUT ADOLF HITLER (MEIN FUEHRER – DIE WIRKLICH WAHRSTE WAHRHEIT UEBER ADOLF HITLER) by Dani Levy, the closing film FOUR MINUTES (VIER MINUTEN) by Chris Kraus, Jan Bonny's COUNTERPARTS (GEGENUEBER), Angelina Maccarone's VIVERE, Zueli Aladag's RAGE (WUT) and PAULA'S SECRET (PAULAS GEHEIMNIS) by Gernot Kraeae, which was shown as part of a family matinee
The documentaries also went down very well with the audiences: FULL METAL VILLAGE by Sung-Hyung Cho, LOSERS AND WINNERS by Ulrike Franke and Michael Loeken, Pamela Meyer-Arndt's JUST AN ORDINARY LIFE (OSTFOTOGRAFINNEN) and Bettina Bluemner's POOL OF PRINCESSES (PRINZESSINNENBAD).
The festival's audience award went to SHOPPEN MUNICH, closely followed by FULL METAL VILLAGE.
A jubilee retrospective presented highlights from the last 10 years: GRILL POINT (HALBE TREPPE) by Andreas Dresen, NO PLACE TO GO (DIE UNBERUEHRBARE) by Oskar Roehler, Fatih Akin's SHORT SHARP SHOCK (KURZ UND SCHMERZLOS), SUN ALLEY (SONNENALLEE) by Leander Haussmann and NACH DEM FALL by Frauke Sandig and Eric Black.
The German short film was naturally also represented in London: apart from BENDE SIRA – ICH BIN DRAN by Ismet Erguen, LOVESICK by Spela Cadez and Milen Vitanov's MY HAPPY END, German Films screened its short film programme entitled NEXT GENERATION 2007.
The Goethe Institut in London honoured the recently deceased actor Ulrich Muehe with a special program and showed, among others, FUNNY GAMES by Michael Haneke.
Guests in London were : Achim Bornhak, Natalia Avelon, Dietmar Guentsche, Britta Knoeller, Pamela Meyer-Arndt, Ralf Westhoff, Ismet Erguen, Falk Peplinski, Dani Levy and the photographer Gundula Schulze-Eldowey, to whom a small exhibition was dedicated in the cinema foyer.
A few of the films from the program will be shown in the Irish Film Institute in Dublin under the banner of „GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL ON TOUR" until 7 December, 2007.
The event's partners were: AG Dok, AG Kurzfilm, Pritchard Englefield Solicitors, ICA, Peccadillo Pictures, Tartan Films, German Embassy/London and Goethe Institut/London.
06.12.2007 | Editor's blog
Cat. : Achim Bornhak Adolf Hitler AG Dok AG Andreas Dresen Angelina Maccarone Bettina Bluemner Britta Knoeller Chris Kraus Cinema of Germany Dani Levy Dani Levy Das Wilde Leben Dietmar Dietmar Guentsche Dublin Entertainment Entertainment Eric Black Europe Fatih Akin Films Frauke Sandig German Embassy Goethe Institut Goethe-Institut Jan Bonny London Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler Michael Haneke Michael Loeken Munich Natalia Avelon Natalia Avelon Oskar Roehler Pamela Pamela Meyer-Arndt Ralf Westhoff Robert Thalheim Short Sharp Shock Sung-Hyung Cho Tartan Films Ulrich Muehe Ulrike Franke Uschi Obermaier