Archive 2005
NEW GERMAN CINEMA
Refreshingly many-sided in their content and form this year are the ten films in this series. A few old friends are here again with new films: Stanislaw Mucha with "Reality Shock" and Douglas Wolfsberger with his latest film "War'n Sie schon mal in mich verliebt?", for example.
With "Eine andere Liga" the Film Festival presents the second film of Buket Alakus, who won the audience prize "Heinrich" in 2001. They will be showing first full-length films: Nele Leana Vollmar with "Urlaub vom Leben" and the former HBK student Julia Ostertag with "Gender X". All three films are supported by the Lower Saxony film promotion association Nordmedia.
With Till Franzen's "Die blaue Grenze" and Sören Senn's "KussKuss" the Film Festival is presenting two further newcomers with their prize-winning first films. An Austrian-German co-production is "Crash Test Dummies" with its young Rumanian protagonists Ana and Nicolae.
While Hirschbiegel addresses himself in reduced and concentrated form to a very German topic in his film "Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Jude", Dresen made the gripping comedy "Sommer vorm Balkon" according to Wolfgang Kohlhaase's book.
The programme "New German Cinema" will be supported by Gaertner Datensysteme.
Urlaub vom Leben
Director: Neele Leana Vollmar, D 2004/2005, 83 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
We, November 9 8:00 pm Universum 1 Guest: Neele Leana Vollmar
Th, November 10 2:45 pm CinemaxX 2 Guest: Neele Leana Vollmar
Rolf Köster has been working for sixteen years as a bank teller. He spends the whole day behind a sheet of glass and does not really know his family. One morning Rolf gets a week's holiday. He does not want to tell his wife or his children about it. He will leave the house as usual in the morning and return at the usual time. Holiday away from life. Time for himself.
Reality Shock
Director: Stanislaw Mucha, D/PL 2005, 79 min, 35 mm, documentary, GS
Th, November 10 8:00 pm Universum 1
Su, November 13 5:45 pm CinemaxX 4 Guest: Stanislaw Mucha
Centring on Poland's entry into the European Unon, the third film of Stanislaw Mucha's East European trilogy takes us into a kind of bermuda Triangle on the border to the Ukraine and White Russia. An absurd documentary comedy with bizarre protagonists. The arrival of Europe seems as strange as the UFO which once came down here, purportedly bringing bad luck with it...
Gender X
Director: Julia Ostertag, D 2004, 72 min, Mini DV/Digi Beta, ES
Fr, November 11 10:15 pm CinemaxX 4 Guest: Julia Ostertag
Su, November 13 00:30 am (Night from Sa to Su) CinemaxX 4 Guest: Julia Ostertag
What does sex mean? What does identity mean? Julia Ostertag interviewed people who refuse to let themselves be forced into traditional "male" or "female" roles. This documentary renders homage to sexual freedom and self-determination and portrays colourfully, loudly and many-sidedly the lives of people with unusual ideas about how to live outside the social norms.
Crash Test Dummies
Director: Jörg Kalt, A/D 2005, 93 min, Beta SP, colour, GS
We, November 9 10:30 pm CinemaxX 1
Fr, November 11 5:30 pm CinemaxX 4
With the prospect of making a fast buck by transporting a stolen car, Ana and Nicolae, a young Romanian couple, travel by bus from Bucharest to Vienna. But right after they arrive, they are faced with the news that the car is not ready yet. After a quarrel, they part ways - and cross paths with locals. At some point, Ana and Nicolae meet again under different circumstances.
Die Blaue Grenze
Director: Till Franzen, D 2004, 107 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
We, November 9 3:00 pm CinemaxX 1
Fr, November 11 12:45 pm CinemaxX 2 Guest: Till Franzen
Sa, November 12 5:15 pm Universum 1 Guest: Till Franzen
Momme meets the young Danish girl Lene in his grandfather's garden and falls in love with her. But the sea separates the lovers. The borderland between Germany and Denmark offers the scenery in Till Franzen's film debut for a weird love film with Danish and North German humour and a touch of the supernatural.
Sommer vorm Balkon
Director: Andreas Dresen, D 2005, 100 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
Fr, November 11 8:00 pm Universum 1 Guests: Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Andreas Schmidt
Su, November 13 3:00 pm Universum 1
Nike and Katrin spend the mild nights on Nike's balcony, drinking and making fun of everything. Here they give air to their troubles, most of all about the fact that they always find the wrong men. And the next one - a real jock of a trucker - is already waiting. The script by Wolfgang Kohlhaase is full of laconic dialogues and fitting observations of daily life.
War'n Sie schon mal in mich verliebt?
Director: Douglas Wolfsperger, D 2005, 89 min, 35 mm, colour, documentary, GS
We, November 9 7:45 pm Universum 2 Guest: Douglas Wolfsperger
Th, November 10 3:00 pm CinemaxX 1 Guest: Douglas Wolfsperger
A tongue-in-cheek portrait of Max Hansen, a great star in the Weimar Republic and one of the founders of the legendary "Kabarett der Komiker", directed by "Bellaria"-director Wolfsperger with the subtle images of Igor Luther ("The tin drum"). Wonderful contemporary witnesses such as Brigitte Mira and numerous archive shots make this film a nostalgic event.
KussKuss
Director: Sören Senn, D/CH 2005, 95 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
Sa, November 12 2:45 pm CinemaxX 2 Guests: Sören Senn, Carina Wiese, Maik Plewnia
Su, November 13 8:15 pm CinemaxX 1 Guests: Sören Senn, Carina Wiese, Maik Plewnia
Katja, an assistant doctor aged about thirty, lives with Hendrik, an academic, in a happy partnership. When Katja brings a refugee from Algeria home one day, the relationships within their happy little world begin to change rapidly...
"KussKuss" tells with humour and an observant eye of the clash of cultures. Awarded with the Babelsberger Media Prize for best film in 2005.
Eine andere Liga
Director: Buket Alakus, D 2004, 110 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
Fr, November 11 3:00 pm Universum 1
Su, November 13 8:00 pm Universum 1
Twenty-year-old Hayat loves football. Then the doctors diagnose breast cancer. The operation is a success but afterwards nothing is the same as before. When Hayat secretly starts playing again and meets the coach Toni, she feels attracted to him but is afraid of being rebuffed. A humorous story of the passion for life and the courage you need to love.
Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Jude
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel, D 2005, 89 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
Fr, November 11 12:30 pm CinemaxX 3
Sa, November 12 8:00 pm Universum 1
A one-person play based on the book by the Swiss author Charles Lewinsky. Journalist Emanuel Goldfarb, a Jew born in Germany, is invited to speak to school children about his identity as a "Jewish citizen". To his own surprise, Goldfarb' s letter of refusal to the teacher who invited him turns into a reckoning with the German-Jewish relationship - and with his own personal past.