The German Film Fest Madrid returns for its 25th edition with a strong focus on female auteurs. With five films, out of a total of six, directed by women, the festival offers an overview of new trends in German cinema, covering various genres ranging from thriller to documentary, coming of age, historical revision, generational comedy, and socio-political drama. From 14-18 June, the Embajadores Cinemas in Madrid will host this film event, an initiative by German Films in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Madrid, Amigos del Goethe España, and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Madrid.

One of the standout movies at this edition is Vamos a la playa [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Bettina Blümner
scheda film] (2022), the second fiction film by Bettina Blümner, which follows a group of young people who discover an alternative perspective to their egocentric and capricious worldview in Cuba. Blümner delves into the confrontation between idealism, nostalgia and the new reality faced by today's youth.

Another common theme in recent German cinema is the representation of social issues related to migration, primarily focusing on the population of Turkish origin. Director Ayşe Polat, of Kurdish descent, subverts this trend in her third feature, In the Blind Spot [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Ayşe Polat
scheda film], setting the narrative in a region of Turkish Kurdistan where repression and fear are just two consequences of Ottoman intransigence.

On the other hand, the documentary Uncanny Me by Katharina Pethke tackles the process of creating a digital entity by a designer who clones a friend's image. The film raises questions about the distinction between what is thought and what is artificially generated, as well as what is real and what is not.

In contrast to these propositions, Birgit Möller's second film, Franky Five Star [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Birgit Möller
scheda film], is an imaginative coming-of-age story that captures the different personalities converging during adolescence.

The only male director present in the selection is Alex Schaad, whose debut film, Skin Deep [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Alex Schaad
scheda film], relies on the doppelgänger myth. The movie follows a couple who arrive on a mysterious island and decide to participate in a game offered by a retirement club, exchanging their bodies with those of other residents.

The festival's opening film is Sisi & I [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Frauke Finsterwalder
scheda film], directed by Frauke Finsterwalder, who offers an alternative and modern revision of Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria, based on the historical writings of Countess Irma Sztaray, her former lady-in-waiting. The film features a performance by Sandra Hüller, the lead actress in two award-winning films at the recent Cannes Film Festival - the Palme d'Or winner Anatomy of a Fall [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Justine Triet
scheda film] and the Grand Jury Prize winner The Zone of Interest [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film].

In collaboration with