22/01/2013 - The festival dedicated to young German-language cinema is this year hosting Michael Ballhaus and Oskar Roehler as its guests of honour

The 34^th edition of the Max Ophüls Festival (January 21-27, 2013) opened last night in Sarrebruck with a ceremony spotlighting director of photography Michael Ballhaus, recipient of the Honorary Award of the year. Ballhaus, who was fortunate enough to participate in the filming of Lola Montez beside Ophüls when he was just 18, went on to work with directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Martin Scorsese in both Germany and the United States. He has been nominated three times for the Oscars and has created a scholarship in his name in his discipline. After the gala, the audience at the young German-language cinema festival discovered Robin Hood by Martin Schreier, in which the famous tale of Robin Hood is transposed to Germany in the near future.

The feature film competition is comprised of 16 titles, including Nordstrand by Florian Eichinger (article) and Nemez by Stanislav Güntner, which tells the story of a young man trying to escape from his connections with the Mafia. Competitions are also reserved for medium and short films, while, as in every other year, the Spektrum section explores the most recent events in German-language cinema. In particular, the harrowing documentary Vergiss mein nicht [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Don’t forget me”) in which David Sieveking has decided to follow his own family, especially his mother who has Alzheimer’s disease, can be found among the 15 movies selected for this section.

A special evening will be devoted to the producer Bernd Eichinger, who passed away in 2011. It will be the opportunity to screen the documentary Der Bernd. Another tribute will be paid to actor and director Vadim Glowna, who passed away last year.

Oskar Roehler will be a special guest at the event as the emblem of young German cinema and the subject of a retrospective comprising five of his movies. Another section sponsored by the magazine Spex will focus on Rainer Kirberg's "cinéma d'auteur".   

(Translated from French)