The association Co-ordination of European Film Festivals, of which the Brunswick Film Festival is a cofounder, is not to be seen merely as lobby in Brussels for small or middle-sized film festivals; rather it is a focal point for the collecting and integrating of common projects.

Besides the successful project "Europe in Shorts", which has been with us right from the start and which selects a number of short films each year on a specific topic, the series "15x15", which began three years ago and which was a great success in Brunswick in 2000, also counts among the highlights. Even while we were planning the series "15x15", we were considering a similar project for European documentary films. Our experiences with the larger programme led us to divide this programme up into three parts, each dedicated to films from five countries. Thus, each member country in the European Union is represented with a short film and a full-length one. One film is to be historical and the other of recent make. After the first part of the programme went on tour in 2001, the Brunswick Film Festival will present the second part this year, showing films from Finland, Greece, France, Sweden and Germany. This time we refrained from asking directors for their suggestions but instead we simply sought good films, interesting stories and outstanding artistic aspects. This is cinema as it is all too seldom experienced and which without special effects can be just as exciting, entertaining and amusing as any film shown on the big screen.




Fuck Off! Images of Finland (Perkele! Kuovia Suomesta)
Director: Jörn Donner, FIN 1971, 104 min, 35 mm, b/w, ES
Sa, November 1 17:15 Universum 2
Su, November 2 15:00 Universum 2



"Fuck off! Images of Finnnland" is a care free, many-sided, shameless portrait of Finland thirty years ago. Made in a time when impoverished farmers were moving to the cities and poor Finns hired themselves out as guest workers in rich Sweden, the film was considered too free for the board of censors. It could only be shown in its full length twenty years later. "This film is the craziest thing we have ever made yet. But I don't regret a minute of it for I believe that no one will ever see a rounder picture of the Finns. And if the film is crazy it's the Finnish people's fault", says Jörn Donner.


Additionally we will show the short film:
Synti (Todsünden)
Director: Susanna Helke/Virpi Suutari, FIN 1996, 36 min, 35 mm, colour, ES

Living pictures, inspired by the notion of the seven deadly sins. The criminals confess at the scene of the crime: either at home, in the garden or at work.

This film, which was made by two female film makers, shows the first appearance and the development of a women's language in Finnish documentary films.




Mourning Rock (Agelastos Petra)
Director: Philippos Koutsaftis, GR 2000, 87 min, 35 mm, colour, ES
Th, October 30 13:00 CinemaxX 1
Fr, October 31 17:15 CinemaxX 3



Eleusis is a small industrial town twenty km from Athens. It is also a mythical place, linked since ancient times with the fertility goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The Eleusian Mysteries took place here for 2000 years, a cycle of initiation, hope and blessing in the face of death. It was an eternal cycle of becoming and transience.

Koutsaftis filmed here for ten years, documenting the catastrophic consequences of industrialization on nature and the ancient sanctuary.


Additionally we will show the short film:
Makedonikos Gamos
Director: Takis Kanellopoulos, GR 1960, 24 min, 35 mm, b/w, ES

A traditional wedding in the west of Mace donia. This short film was made in the village of Velvendo.




Coute que coute
Director: Claire Simon, F 1995, 100 Min, 35 mm, colour, ES
We, October 29 17:15 Universum 2
Fr, October 31 14:45 Universum 2



Near the city of Nice, France Jihad has set up a small instant-meal firm. His customers are the supermarkets in the vicinity. But the pressure is great and Jihad gradually has to let his employees go until only the secretary, the delivery-man and the cooks are left. Together they struggle for the survival of the small company.




Additionally we will show the short film:
A Valparaiso
Director: Joris Ivens, F 1963, 37 Min, 35 mm, colour and b/w, ES

The harbour is down there. It was once the richest harbour. Everyone's goal. The goal after a leg of a journey. It was very famous...

Val Paraiso: The Gate to Paradise. The paradise of a sunny stage of a journey after a nightmarish Atlantic crossing. It was the city of the sailors who gave it that name.




Das Stahltier
Director: Willy Zielke, D 1935, 74 min, 35 mm, b/w, GV
Tu, October 30 15:15 CinemaxX 1
Su, November 2 17:45 CinemaxX 1



This is the steam locomotive film of all times! Zielke's Stahltier is probably the most dynamic expressionistic train trip in film history. Using the device of a frame story in which a trainee tells the history of the railway to railway employees, Zielke goes all out with what he call "the unchained camera". Planned as official propaganda for the 100th anniversary of the German Railroad, the film was not accepted by the German Railway Company, which commissioned it in the first place.

Instead of a piece of propaganda Zielke produced a work of art, which, while in many ways reflecting the spirit of the times, appeared to be a piece of "degenerate" art to the Prussian railway officials.

Forbidden in Nazi Germany and saved only by sheer chance, the film is an example of an artistic avant garde, which, with the exception of Leni Riefenstahl, was put on the side track in Germany after 1933.


Additionally we will show the short film:
Lehrfilm über die Rekonstruktion von Stasiakten
Director: Anke Limprecht, D 2000, 12 min, 35 mm, colour, GV

This film follows a group of workers from the Gauck-Behörde (A task force dealing with East German secret files) who try to reconstruct the files out of the pieces left over from the shredder.




A decent life
Director: Stefan Jarl, S 1979, 102 min, 35 mm, colour, ES
We, October 29 20:00 Universum 2
Sa, November 1 14:45 Universum 2



"A decent life" is the second part of a film trilogy which Jarl began with the 1967 film "Dom kallar oss Mods" ("They call us Mods"). At the time he accompanied Kenta and Stoffe, two teenagers who lived their lives amidst broken homes, reform schools, petty crime and alcohol. Jarl takes up the thread again ten years later. The top drug then is heroin. Stoffe is addicted and lives with a prostitute. Kenta is married and has a son. Kenta drinks too much occasionally and tries to get Stoffe to kick the habit. In vain. The third and final part of the trilogy was made in 1993 under the title "Det sociala arvet" ("The social legacy").


Additionally we will show the short film:
Mormor, Hitler & Jag
Director: Carl Johan de Geer, S 2001, 17 min, 35 mm, colour, ES

As a child, film maker Carl Johan de Geer lived with his grandmother, who was a convinced Nazi. Even after WW II the old lady stayed true to her beliefs. Many years after her death her grandson began to wonder why she had believed in Hitler and National Socialism.




Back to the archive