Germany’s travel diaries

12/04/2005

The seventh Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival (12th-24th April), under its new director Fernando Pena,is definitely putting an emphasis on German cinema with no less than 45 German productions on the programme and a special regional section dedicated to Fassbinder’s country.
Two German films are in competition this year: The Wood for the Trees by Maren Ade, and The Irrational Remains by Thorsten Trimpop. The other sections also made room for German directors : in the ‘Consagrados’ section, for example, three German films will be screened, including Fallen by Fred Keleman ; ‘Cine del futuro’ will present one of the big titles at this year’s Berlinale, Berlin Stories by Miriam Dehne, Irene von Alberti, and Esther Gronenborn, as well as Fucking Different by . Juergen Bruening, and Heimkehrer by Jovan Arsenic. The category ‘Cine de artistas’ includes no less than nine German movies, amongst which we find Love is a Treasure by Eija-Liisa Ahtila and two films co-directed by Christoph Girardet. The festival even has a section entitled ‘Puede ir a foco aleman’ which will play En garde (Ayse Polat) and Marseille (Angela Schanelec). This list only gives a small hint of the German omnipresence in all sections of the Argentinian festival. Five co-productions wil also be shown, such as the successful title at last year’s Cannes Festival, Tropical Malady by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thaïland/Germany/France/Italy).
Furthermore, this year’s regional focus is dedicated to Germany ; it gathers 14 short films and full-length features, including Ghosts by Christian Petzold, Net by Robert Thalheim, and Off Beat by Hendrik Hoelzemann. Besides, a programme called ‘Focus on Andreas Kleinert’ will allow the Argentinian public to discover the director’s psychological approach of cinema as a means of exploring the unconscious through four of his films.
It is also worth mentioning that the festival organises a Talent Campus open to young professionals from all over the world. Another initiative should not be overlooked : a programme entitled ‘Film Sales Support’ and supervised by the European Film Promotion will be open to all sales companies.