Domestic films dominate line-up
German distributors are this week making the most of audiences’ keen interest in local films, demonstrated by recent statistics. Nine European productions (including four German productions and two co-productions) hit screens yesterday, alongside just two US films and a Turkish title.
Among the domestic releases, Concorde have launched Joseph Vilsmaier’s comedy Die Geschichte vom Brandner Kaspar, which is based on a popular Bavarian tale. The story was first adapted for the big screen 60 years ago by Josef von Baky.
The film’s hero – an old 19th-century mountain dweller (played by Franz Xaver Kroetz) – encounters Death, in the form of actor and comedian Michael "Bully" Herbig, challenges him to game of cards and wins a few extra years of life by cheating. But this could cost him dearly.
Die Geschichte vom Brandner Kaspar was produced for Concorde by Vilsmaier and Markus Zimmer (who is currently producing Margarethe von Trotta’s forthcoming film, whose shoot was announced this week by Cineuropa).
Ventura have released The Stranger In Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Emily Atef (Molly's Way), starring Johann von Bülow and Susanne Wolff. The latter plays a young mother who, much to her despair, can’t manage to form the relationship she hoped for with her baby and even fears she may become a danger to her child. The title was produced by NiKo Film and dffb.
Stardust have launched Jobst Oetzmann’s film for youngsters: Coxless Pair. Produced by Hamburg-based Lichtblick, the film centres on the friendship between two high-school students and rowing partners who are so similar they could be twins. Their bond is threatened when one of the boys discovers feelings for the other’s sister.
Meanwhile, Universum are targeting even younger viewers with animated film Das Mondbär - Das große Abenteuer by Mike Maurus, Thomas Bodenstein and Hubert Weiland.
There are two German co-productions on the line-up. These are Pierre-Paul Renders' German/Belgian/Luxembourg film about the naivety of an average consumer: Mr. Average (distributed by Alpha Medienkontor); and Marian Ehret’s documentary The Auschwitz-Dialogues, co-produced with Poland (distributed by Rif Film).
Finally, German audiences will have the chance to discover Flemish comedy Moscow, Belgium [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], by Christophe van Rompaey (see interview), which screened in Critics’ Week at the latest Cannes Film Festival (distributed by Senator); and the drama Edward II, which was made in 1991 by the late Derek Jarman. The latter film is a modern adaptation of the eponymous play by Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe and is a radical attack on homophobia (distributed by Salzgeber).
(Translated from French)
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