Archive 2009
New International Cinema - Programme
8Director: Jane Campion/Gael Garcia Bernal/Jan Kounen/Mira Nair/Gaspar Noé/Abderrahmane Sissako/Gus Van Sant/Wim Wenders, F 2008, 107 min, DigiBeta, colour/sw, engl., ES (in parts)
Eight directors from all over the world, including Jane Campion, Mira Nair, Gus Van Sant and Wim Wenders, have produced eight original and very differing short films about the eight world development goals of halving world poverty by 2015. The result is a magnificent mixture of moods and pictures – the effects and significance of which are suitably controversial.
8th Wonderland
Director: Nicolas Alberny/Jean Mach, F 2008, 94 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Matthew Géczy, Robert William Bradford, Eloïssa Florez
The citizens of the virtual state, 8TH WONDERLAND, act rather than listen to the words of politicians. Every week a topic is voted on democratically and then put into practice by volunteers. At first, the new state goes unnoticed, but then millions of people change their citizenship and it becomes a feared real and powerful opponent. But how do you fight a state whose citizens are scattered all over the world?
Adam
Director: Max Mayer, USA 2009, 99 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byne, Peter Gallagher
Eccentric, overly honest and hobby astronomer Adam, who lives in a New York apartment, falls in love with his neighbor, Beth. She is also attracted to this loveable and amazingly honest young man but discovers that he lives entirely in his own world and is slightly autistic. Refreshing, thought-provoking romantic film with great actors – won an award at the Sundance film festival.
Ajami
Director: Scandar Copti/Yaron Shani, D/M 2009, 120 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: François Bégaudeau, u.a.
Jaffa’s district of Ajami near Tel Aviv is a melting-pot of cultures and conflicts between Jews, Moslems and Christians. The film tells the stories of five different people who are all tragically connected with one another and whose lives are all inevitably heading for a catastrophe. Won the Golden Palm in Cannes in 2009.
City of Life and Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!)
Director: Chuan Lu, China 2009, 132 min, 35 mm, bw, ES
Actors: Hideo Nakaizumi, Ye Liu, John Paisley
On 9 December 1937 the Japanese army take China’s capital, Nanjing, with extreme brutality. The audience witnesses the pointless massacre mainly through the eyes of Japanese soldier Kadokawa, lending Chuan Lu’s film a conciliatory, humane touch for which he was heavily criticised in his home country.
Das Orangenmädchen (Appelsinpiken)
Director: Eva Dahr, N 2009, 80 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Annie Dahr Nygaard, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Harald Rosenstrøm
It is love at first sight when Jan-Olav meets a girl laden with a bag of oranges in the tram. The orange girl however disappears as quickly as she came. Years later the 16-yearold Georg receives a strange letter from his father which sends him on a wintry journey back into the past and into the magical story of a great love – based on a novel by Jostein Gaarder.
Die Schachspielerin (Joueuse)
Director: Caroline Bottaro, F/D 2009, 100 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline, Jennifer Beals
The hotel maid, Hélène, becomes fascinated with chess when seeing a young American couple playing. She begins to learn chess to perfection, aided by her odd friend, Dr Kröger. However, her passion for the game has dangerous consequences for her marriage, reputation and life...
The film tells the story of the emancipation of a simple woman who attains independence.
This film also takes part in the "Kinema"-competition.
Max Manus
Director: Joachim Rønning/Espen Sandberg, N/DK/D 2008, 118 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Aksel Hennie, Nicolay Cleve Broch, Ken Duken
Max Manus is the true story of the resistance fighter of the same name, who in spite of being one of the most wanted men by the Gestapo in Norway, participated in some of the most daring sabotage attacks during the Second World War.
After having fought as a volunteer in the Finnish-Russian Winter War, Max Manus returns home to a Norway occupied by the Germans, in the spring of 1940. Before long, he and his buddies Gregers Gram and Gunnar Sønsteby start making trouble for the Germans. They build up a resistance network, collect weapons and explosives, and undergo training in England. From their safe apartment in Oslo, they carry out sabotage attacks against important Nazi targets, and they become increasingly more scheming. But the Gestapo investigator Siegfried Fehmer works determinedly and patiently to stop Max, and soon he starts to unravel the network around him.
Morphia (Morfiy)
Director: Aleksej Balabanov, RUS 2008, 110 min, 35 mm, colour, ES
Actors: Leonid Bichevin, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Katarina Radivojevic
A young energetic doctor starts his first job in the country after the Russian Revolution during the winter of 1917. However, the hard work soon takes its toll. This hypnotic, unconventional film, based on Michail Bulgakow’s memoirs, is especially impressive because of its originality and outstanding camera work. Intensive drama with insights into morphium addiction and everyday working life – with some unpleasant scenes for the audience.
New York, I love you
Director: Fatih Akin/Mira Nair/Natalie Portman/u. a., USA/F 2009, 110 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Ethan Hawke, Andy Garcia, Julie Christie, Natalie Portman, John Hurt, Orlando Bloom, and others
The follow-up film to PARIS, JE T’AIME unites a puzzle of 11 individual love-stories by international directors like Fatih Akin or Natalie Portman and is a wonderful declaration of love to life and to the people in New York.
Nokan - Die Kunst des Ausklangs (Okuribito)
Director: Yojiro Takita, J 2008, 131 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki
When the cellist, Daigo, loses his job at the Tokio Symphony, he returns to his country home in disillusionment. In his new job he has to prepare corpses for traditional burial. After initial repulsion, he seems to have found his true vocation. But neither his wife nor other people around him have been told... The result is a gripping melodrama, with comical moments and vivid characters, that takes us to a Japan caught between tradition and the modern.
Pandora's Box (OabdiraÄnin Kutusu)
Director: Yesim Ustaoglu, TR 2008, 112 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Cornelio Wall, Maria Pankratz, Miriam Toews
An old woman vanishes without trace in a mountain village near the Black Sea so her three grown-up children come looking for her to take her back to Istanbul. However, she cannot get used to the alien environment, the children have no time for her and only the rebellious grandson understands her. This moving, sensitive and intense family film won many awards at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Séraphine
Director: Martin Provost, F/B 2008, 125 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent
France, 1912: To German art collector Wilhelm Uhde’s great surprise, his inconspicuous housekeeper, Séraphine, turns out to be a talented artist. Uhde, known as the discoverer of Picasso and Rousseau, starts supporting her. A convincing portrait of the now almost forgotten artist Séraphine Louis.
The Sea Wall (Un barrage contre le Pacifique)
Director: Rithy Panh, F/K/B 2008, 115 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Isabelle Huppert, Gaspard Ulliel, Astrid Berges-Frisbey
Powerfully visual filming of Marguerite Duras's novel set in Indo-China in 1931: Isabelle Huppert as mother of 2 adolescent children who puts all her energy and savings into a seemingly hopeless project. And then there is the affair of her pretty daughter with a rich Chinaman...
Whatever works
Director: Woody Allen, USA 2009, 92 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Ed Begley Jr., Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patrica Clarkson
Boris Yelnikoff, a misanthropic, having just missed the Nobel Prize for quantum physics, is an ordeal for himself and for his environment. He gets on the nerves of his friends by giving the best advice, and just a short time ago he antagonized his wife, demanding a sudden divorce. One day the young runaway Melody knocks on his door, which is the beginning of an unexpectedly well-functioning marriage. The staunchly Christian parents of the bride, however, have to stand a culture shock. The main characters are played by the American TV-stars Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood (THE WRESTLER) in this comedy by Woody Allen, filmed in New York again.