29/10/2009

Seven of the 11 new releases hitting German screens today are European (not to mention Turkish comedy Kolpaçino, distributed by Kinostar), including three German productions and three co-productions which show the diversity of perspectives supported by local industry. However, they will have a hard time competing with This Is It, the film about what was meant to be Michael Jackson’s comeback concert (released by Sony Pictures).

First on the line-up is Greek master Theo Angelopoulos’ The Dust of Time [+see also:
trailer
film profile], released by NFP. This German/Italian/Russian/Greek co-production, starring Willem Dafoe and Michel Piccoli, was presented out of competition at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

The second instalment in Angelopoulos’ historical panorama centres on a film director named A. who recounts the life of his parents, two Greek migrants, through the history of the 20th century. The film is being sold by German company The Match Factory.

Meanwhile, Publicmotor is launching Thomas Borch Nielsen’s German/Danish animated film for children Sunshine Barry and the Disco Worms [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which garnered success at the Danish box office and acclaim at festivals.

Farbfilm is bringing to screens André F. Nebe’s German/Irish comedy for youngsters, The Race [+see also:
trailer
film profile], in which little 11-year-old Mary, a Formula 1 fan, spends her scarce free time building a high-performance soapbox.

The three entirely German films on this week’s line-up are documentaries. Among them is Home From Home by Korean-born director Sung-Hyung Cho, who attracted attention with her documentary Full Metal Village (winner of the Max Ophüls Award 2007). In Home From Home, Cho looks at a different type of culture shock, through the story of three Korean women who return to their country after living in Germany for over 30 years and getting married there.

The village where they settle with their husbands is a German village in the middle of South Korea: it has everything from Frankfurter sausages to granary bread, but the feeling of exile is all the stronger between these two cultures. Produced by Flying Moon, the film is distributed by Zorro.

Meanwhile, Moviemento is launching Serdal Karaca, Eva Lia Reinegger and Anna de Paoli’s documentary Kreuzkölln, about one of Berlin’s liveliest areas; and Parallax Raumprojektion is releasing Nikolai Vialkowitsch’s medium-length film Das Auge.

The seventh new European release is Micha Lewinsky’s Swiss comedy Will You Marry Us? [+see also:
trailer
film profile], about a civil servant with a boring life, who has to organise the wedding of a former boyfriend with whom she falls back in love (distributed by Schwarz-Weiss).

(Translated from French)