Tag

German film

TRANSIT [GERMANY], THU 30 JANUARY, 8PM

By archive, Season 22 films

This thriller about refugees, riot police and stolen identities in 1940s Germany has a chilling topicality. From Christian Petzold [Barbara], the director renowned as a modern master of suspense and a poet of Germany’s divided self. 

German refugee Georg has fled Paris to escape the impending war. He has assumed the identity of a famous but deceased writer and plans to use the man’s documentation to obtain a transit visa and immigrate to Mexico. But when Georg encounters the dead man’s wife in Marseille, he finds himself dangerously drawn to her.

The latest film from Christian Petzold [Barbara, Phoenix] is adapted from the 1944 novel by Anna Seghers. The result is a thrilling and unique piece of work.

In Christian Petzold’s superbly deft drama, a fugitive steals someone else’s identity with deeply disturbing results.The Guardian ★★★★

An existential thriller about loss, trauma, statelessness and historical amnesia, the brilliant Transit is the latest from the German director Christian Petzold.  – New York Times

An extraordinary film that uses the occasion of Georg’s fraught journey to depict his state of being, the anxious limbo in which he finds himself trapped. – Wall Street Journal

Click here for website.

Germany, 2018 | Language: German | 102 minutes | Cert: 12A

Director: Christian Petzold

Cast: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese

NEVER LOOK AWAY [WERK OHNE AUTOR – GERMANY], THU 10 OCTOBER

By archive, Season 21 films

Event cinema!  We are showing this Oscar-nominated film in two parts on one night, starting at 6pm.  There will be a 20-minute interval during which we’ll serve wine and a nibble. Total running time including the interval is 3 hours and 35 minutes.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others, 2006) returns with an Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated drama about individuals caught up in the sweep of German history. Loosely based on the formative years of the world-renowned painter Gerhard Richter, Never Look Away is an intergenerational tale of love, sorrow, art and politics from Nazism through to the Cold War.

In 1937, at the Nazi Party notorious “degenerate art” exhibition in Dresden, a small boy named Kurt’s passion for art is ignited. Years later, in Communist East Germany, Kurt enters art college where he falls in love with fashion student Ellie, unaware that her father has a devastating secret and is determined to end their relationship.

Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography, 2019

Golden Globe nominee, Best Foreign Language Motion Picture, 2019

Click here for official website.

Click here for The New Yorker magazine interview with the director.

An ambitious, compelling film.The Independent ★★★★★

An undeniably enjoyable, absurdly long potboiler gets by on delicious sweep and epic voluptuousness. – The Irish Times

Germany, 2018 | Language: German | 189 minutes plus 20 minute interval | Cert: CLUB

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Cast: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl

BALLOON [GERMANY], THU 28 NOVEMBER, 8PM

By archive, Season 21 films

Based on true events in East Germany, 1979. Two families resolve to build a homemade hot air balloon to escape the oppressive Cold War regime and carry them to freedom.  A nerve-racking battle against the clock begins.

Electrician Peter and his bricklayer friend Günther can no longer bear the oppressive Cold War regime under which they live and want to provide a better future for their families. The two men and their wives come up with a daring plan:  They resolve to secretly build from scratch a homemade hot-air balloon which will carry them and their families over the border to freedom.

They need favourable weather conditions to ensure that the balloon can transport them safely. But the Stasi has learned of a possible escape attempt and start to close in. The families may not be able to wait any longer to pull off their dangerous plan.  A nerve-racking battle against the clock begins.

Based on true events, Michael Herbig’s thrilling drama recreates this incredible story.

Germany, 2018 | Language: German | 125 minutes | Cert: CLUB

Director: Michael Herbig

Cast: Friedrich Mücke, Karoline Schuch, Alicia von Rittberg, David Kross