3rd Annual German Gem -- The Best of New German Cinema
The 3rd and final edition of German Gems is a two-day showcase of new German-language films that are hard to find on any US movie screen except at the fabulous Castro Theatre. Four narrative features and a documentary, all in German with English subtitles (with a Happy Hour squeezed in) are part of a jam-packed Kinotag.
Saturday, January 14, 2012 - Castro Theatre, San Francisco
Sunday, January 15, 2012 - Arena Theatre, Point Arena
The complete festival lineup:
UNDER CONTROL (Unter Kontrolle), directed by Volker Sattel with Stefan Stefanescu
Germany 2011, 98 min, 35mm
Gloriously shot on 35mm and Cinemascope®, UNDER CONTROL unfolds a breathtaking yet disturbing, often science fiction-like panoramic view of nuclear power plants in Germany. Volker Sattel got permission to enter control rooms, reactors and storage facilities for atomic waste where experts discuss risk management and security measures. The camera focuses on the power plant like an archeological dig that tells the history of civilization. Reflecting on a technology that was once a synonym for progress the film traces a hidden tragedy. At the end, the power plants are deserted, and the spirit of the atom has escaped and left its mark. Variety calls UNDER CONTROL “…a monumental film on life and death of nuke plants.”
Followed by a discussion with speakers from the Sierra Club and others TBA.
NO WAY HOME (Vergiß dein Ende), directed by Andreas Kannengießer
Germany 2011, 93 min, 35mm
For several years Hannelore has been taking care of her husband Klaus who suffers from dementia and she has reached the end of the rope. One day, on the spur of the moment, she jumps on the train and follows her neighbor Günther, leaving her husband behind. Irritated about the stalker, Günther tries to shake Hannelore off but with no success. Together they end up on a small island and a story of two isolated, desperate people unfolds. NO WAY HOME is a film about two lost souls who, by helping each other, find a new beginning. With memorable performances by veteran actors like Renate Krößner, known from the 1980 DEFA classic SOLO SUNNY.
Preceded by FLAMINGO PRIDE, directed by Tomer Eshed
Animation, 6 min, 35mm
ABOVE US ONLY SKY (Über uns das All), directed by Jan Schomburg
Germany 2011, 88 min, 35mm
IN PERSON: Director Jan Schomburg
Martha’s well-balanced life comes to a sudden halt when Paul, the man she loves and has been living with for several years, disappears without a trace. When the police come to her door asking her to identify him, she loses her grip on everything that has existed. Is Paul indeed the man the police found? Or was he a phantom? Probing deep into the mind and heart of a woman who is desperately trying to hold on to a broken life, Jan Schomburg’s intense feature debut has been described as a suspenseful thriller and a powerful story about coming to terms with loss. ABOVE US ONLY SKY features an extraordinary performance by Sandra Hüller and was a genuine highlight of the 2011 Berlinale.
WESTWIND, directed by Robert Thalheim
Germany/Hungary 2011, 89 min, 35mm
It is 1988, a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall and inseparable 17-year-old twins Doreen and Isabel from East Germany spend a summer at Lake Balaton in Hungary. The twins are decorated oarswomen sent by their country to Soviet satellite states like Hungary to bring home trophies. Hungary’s borders are porous and West Germans can visit Lake Balaton. When Doreen falls for Arne, a West German tourist from Hamburg, the twin’s well-structured summer begins to crumble. Risking a promising career as a rower and the twin’s close relationship, Doreen will destroy everything that the twins have lived for if she follows her heart across the borders to West Germany. Based on true events, Robert Thalheim’s third feature (NETTO 2004, AND ALONG COME TOURISTS 2006) paints a beautiful, engaging picture of first love on the backdrop of harsh political realities.
TABOO – THE SOUL IS A STRANGER ON EARTH (Tabu – Es ist die Seele ein Fremdes auf Erden),
Directed by Christoph Stark
Germany/Austria/Luxembourg 2011, 94 min, DCP
Vienna at the turn of the century. Splendor. Glamour. Facades. Pretense. Behind it is insecurity, melancholy, suicides, rumors, and sex, with Freud the analyst, Karl Kraus the satirist, and Schnitzler, Klimt and Schiele, the documentarians of sexuality. This is the background to the story of two solitary children who go from clinging to each other for companionship to becoming soulmates, then lovers; and no one can tear them apart. They are Georg and Margarete Trakl, the great expressionist poet and his sister Grete, his muse, his love. Based less on historical facts than on Trakl’s poems that show his deep connection with his sister, the film portrays “… the wild, consuming passion and longing which is so magnificently reflected in the dark and powerful imagery of Georg Trakl’s poetry,” says director Christoph Stark. Shot on location in Vienna and Luxembourg by award-winning DP Bogumi Godfrejow (REQUIEM & STURM) the film is a radical portrait of a forbidden love, so engaging and absorbing that we long for its fulfillment.
For more information, visit www.germangems.com , or call (415) 695-0864, or purchase advance tickets through www.brownpapertickets.com.
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