03/05/2006

It has been a good spring for German cinema, which is especially well represented by two young directors: Angelina Maccarone and Isabel Stever.

Maccarone’s dramaUnveiled [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] won three awards at the 1st Cyprus International Film Festival (March 24-27). The film, produced by MMM FilmproduktionZimmermann and co-written by the director and Judith Kaufmann, describes the arrival of an Iranian lesbian in Germany, who fled her native country for fear of persecution, where she is forced to assume a false masculine identity. Unveiled won the Golden Aphrodite Award for Best Film, as well as the Best Director and Best Actress (Jasmin Tabatabei) prizes. It was previously nominated at Karlovy Vary.

Meanwhile, Stever offers us Gisela (starring Anne Weinknecht), a film about a more ordinary woman yet no less superb, which won over the jury at the 3rd Crossing Europe Festival in Linz and won the director the prize for Best European Film last weekend. International sales of the film, produced by Tag/Traum Filmproduktion, are being handled by Media Luna Entertainment.

The Audience Award went to Kontakt [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a dramatic comedy by Sergej Stanojkovski on the friendship between two social outcasts. The film was co-produced by Germany (Busse & Halberschmid) and Macedonia (Kinokompaniya CT), with Eastwest Filmdistribution handling international sales.

Also of note is the beautiful film by Christopher Buchholz and Sandra Hacker, presented at the 39th WorldFest Independent Film Festival of Houston (April 21-30). Their documentary, Horst Buchholz... My Papa!, won the Platinum Remi award, while their shorts Fotosynthese, Game Over, Projektionen and Dangerous Animal were also honoured.

(Translated from French)