23/08/2006

The 30th Montreal World Film Festival, which kicks off tomorrow and continues until September 4, will present no less than 21 German (co-)productions, including competition title Warchild.

The film by Christian Wagner, produced by the director with his production company C. Wagner Film in co-production with Slovenian outfit Studio Maj and with backing from Eurimages, tells the story of Senada (Labina Mitevska), a young woman in Sarajevo, who discovers that her daughter, who she thought she had lost ten years before during the war, may still be alive (see Making of).

Warchild, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Bavarian Film Awards, will get its world premiere at a public screening at Montreal.

Also in competition, in the shorts category, are Vuk Jevremovic’s animated film Close Your Eyes and Do Not Breathe and Tradition by Peter Ladkani. Meanwhile, Stefan Westerwelle is competing in the section for international first films, with Locarno-winning title While You Are Here, the director’s graduation film from the Cologne Film School.

The Focus on World Cinema section is host to six German shorts and the following features: Running on Empty by Bülent Akinci (see Making Of), Prisoners by Iain Dilthey (Tag/Traum Filmproduktion), Happy as One by Vanessa Jopp (K5 Film), Kontakt [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sergej Stanojkovski (Busse & Halberschmidt/Film Studio Skopje), Maria to Callas by Petra Katharina Wagner (Moonfilm), Pingpong [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matthias Luthardt
interview: Sebastian Urzendowsky
film profile] by Matthias Luthardt (Junifilm), Princess by Birgit Grosskopf (Colonia Media Filmproduktions), Under the Sun by Switzerland’s Baran Bo Odar (Lüthje & Schneider) and Under the Ice by Älrun Götte (Elkon Media).

The World Documentary Section features Mr. Pilipenko and His Submarine by Jan Hinrik Drevs and René Harder, Time Without Parents by Celia Rothmund and the German/US co-production Absolute Wilson by Katharina Bernstein-Otto.

The Canadian tour of German cinema continues in Toronto next month, as festival organisers have announced a 28-strong selection of German (co-)productions.

(Translated from French)