News Releases

Great success for the 8th Festival of German Films in Russia

2009-12-14

Held in Moscow, (3.-6.12.09) St. Petersburg (5.-11.12.09) and Novosibirsk (6.-13.12.09), the event, which was organised by German Films in collaboration with the Goethe Institut, was a complete success in all three cities. Although the festival had to be reduced by one day, the attendance of 5,000 was almost as many people as for the event last year.

At the opening film WHISKY WITH VODKA (WHISKY MIT WODKA), the 550-seater cinema in „Kino 35mm“ was packed to bursting when the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Walter Juergen Schmid, formally opened the festival in Moscow on 3 December. The lead actor Henry Huebchen and producer Christoph Mueller presented their film to an enthusiastic audience and gave numerous interviews. The director Ina Weisse and lead actor Josef Bierbichler were given a similarly warm reception by the Russian audience at a sold-out screening for the closing film of the Moscow festival THE ARCHITECT (DER ARCHITEKT) as was Lancelot von Naso with his first feature film CEASEFIRE (WAFFENSTILLSTAND).

Ines Christine Geißer represented the short film program NEXT GENERATION as the director of the short film ROSE-COLOURED (ROSAROT).

The cinema was also packed to the very last seat for the screenings of MY WORDS, MY LIES - MY LOVE by Alain Gsponer, HILDE by Kai Wessel, the omnibus film GERMANY 09 (DEUTSCHLAND 09) and the documentary IN BERLIN by Michael Ballhaus and Ciro Cappellari.

The interest in German films is currently big in Russia: both WHISKY WITH VODKA (WHISKY MIT WODKA, Kino bez graniz) as well the children's film JASPER: JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE WORLD (JASPER UND DAS LIMONADENKOMPLOTT, Super Music), which was also shown at the festival, have already been sold to Russian distributors. Negotiations are also underway for MY WORDS, MY LIES - MY LOVE and JOHN RABE by Florian Gallenberger.

The festival's partners were the German Embassy in Moscow and the Russian Ministry of Culture. Air Berlin, VW and the Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus supported the event as sponsors.

More detailed information can be found at: www.goethe.de/filmfest2009. For further requests, please contact Stephanie Wimmer, Em