21/09/2006

There are no less than 13 new releases today: four US films (including Brick and Crank), one Australian title and eight European features, among which four German titles.

The Kick by Andres Veiel (Black Box BRD) tells of the violent crime by a group of youths in a small Brandenburg town and how the discovery of the body of the shy Marinus on a farm continues to haunt the tranquil village months after the murder. The documentary was produced by the Berlin outfit Nachtaktiv and is being distributed by Piffl Medien Filmverleih.

Meanwhile, Kinowelt Filmverleih is releasing Der unbekannte Soldat (lit. The Unknown Soldier”), a documentary produced by Munich-based Sentana Film, in which Michael Verhoeven shows the role ordinary soldiers played in Nazi crimes in Russia.

Distributor Ventura brings us the feature Swinger Club, in which Jan Georg Schütte (also producer) takes up a Bergmanesque theme, one also typical of Dogma, by depicting a celebration that goes wrong between a young married couple (Susanne Wolff and Stephan Schad). Warner is releasing the children’s title Oh, wie schön ist Panama (lit. “Oh, How Beautiful Panama Is”), an animated film produced by Papa Löwe Filmproduktion in which Martin Otevrel recounts the adventures of a little tiger and a little bear.

Other new European releases include British helmer Michael Winterbottom’s docudrama The Road to Guantanamo [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (dist. Falcom); UK feature Love is the Devil, a portrait of Francis Bacon made in 1997 by John Maybury (dist. Salzgeber & Co. Medien ); the French/Canadian co-production Heading South [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Cantet
interview: Robin Campillo
interview: Simon Arnal-Szlovak
film profile] (see Focus) by Laurent Cantet and starring Charlotte Rampling (dist. Alamode Film); and the Swiss documentary Gambit by Sabine Gisiger (dist. RealFiction Filmverleih).

(Translated from French)