German filmfest hits its stride

The Audi Festival of German Films is in full swing in Sydney and Melbourne. It opens tomorrow (Wed) in Brisbane and on May 7 for the first time in Adelaide. In Perth it finished yesterday.

As usual I'm contributing to the official festival blog throughout the event alongside festival advisor and critic Peter Krausz and (for the first time this year) writer, lecturer and animator Kate Matthews.

This year's program includes a retrospective of films by Fatih Akin (including the excellent documentary on the Istanbul music scene, Crossing the Bridge, which screened in the Sydney Film Festival in 2006) ; a collection of comedies on a culinary theme (including Akin's latest film, Soul Kitchen); and stories set in Berlin including the three-part teleseries, The Wolves of Berlin.

Among many other films the festival also offers the first chance to see Michael Haneke's chilling Cannes Palme d'Or winner, The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band - Eines deutsche Kindergeschichte) ahead of its Australian release.

Extract:
Two strong currents in contemporary German screen production satisfyingly come together in Kaspar Heidelbach’s feature Berlin ’36, which has had the first of its several festival screenings in Sydney. The first trend is a gravitation towards strong female roles, while the second is a continued fascination with often incredible real-life stories from the Nazi era.

"The latter tendency saw early expression in Max Faerberboeck’s 1999 lesbian WW2 story, Aimee & Jaguar (which festival patrons can see as part of this year’s “Berlin Based” program strand), and continues this year with several new titles, including this story set during the lead-up to the 1936 Olympics..."