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Audi Festival of German Films 2010 in Australia Sydney: 21.4. – 2.5., Melbourne: 22.4 – 2.5., Perth: 22.-26.4., Brisbane: 28.4. – 4.5., Adelaide: 7.- 9.5

2010-04-08

The 9th Festival of German Films, which is jointly organised by German Films and Goethe Institut Australia, can count again this year on financial support from the major sponsor AUDI and will be presenting a whole host of recent German film productions to audiences in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and, for the first time, in Adelaide.

"German Currents", new productions from 2009 and 2010, provide the focus for this year’s program: the films POPE JOAN (DIE PAEPSTIN, Soenke Wortmann) and VISION (VISION – AUS DEM LEBEN DER HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, Margarethe von Trotta) present a fictional and a historical figure of the Catholic Church. The productions WHEN WE LEAVE (DIE FREMDE, Feo Aladag) and SHAHADA (Burhan Qurbani) address the values and ideals of young Muslims in the Western world. Intercultural themes and the debates on values run through other films such as Detlev Buck’s SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT or in Hans Christian Schmid’s STORM (STURM) as well as THE DAY WILL COME (ES KOMMT DER TAG) by Susanne Schneider. Also screening are: Urs Odermatt‘s MEIN KAMPF based on the theatre play by George Tabori, Florian Gallenberger‘s JOHN RABE, the OSCARâ nominated film THE WHITE RIBBON (DAS WEISSE BAND, Michael Haneke), the literary adaptation MY WORDS, MY LIES – MY LOVE (LILA LILA, Alain Gsponer), the thriller THE DOOR (DIE TUER, Anno Saul), GRAVITY (SCHWERKRAFT, Maximilian Erlenwein), TENDER PARASITES (ZARTE PARASITEN, Christian Becker and Oliver Schwabe), WHAT YOU DON’T SEE (WAS DU NICHT SIEHST, Wolfgang Fischer) as well as the two CROCODILES films (VORSTADTKROKODILE, Christian Ditter) for the young audience and the urban comedy MEN IN THE CITY (MAENNERHERZEN, Simon Verhoeven). Panel discussions on STORM and THE WHITE RIBBON will be held in Melbourne and Sydney.

The "Berlin Based" sidebar is dedicated to the city and cinema about the German capital. Lined up are the TV mini-series THE WOLVES IN BERLIN (DIE WOELFE, Friedemann Fromm), Kaspar Heidelbach‘s BERLIN `36. Erica Fischer, the author of the literary original, will accompany AIMÉE & JAGUAR (Max Faerberboeck). In addition, the selection of SHORT IN BERLIN 2010 (KURZ IN BERLIN 2010): SCHWARZ ZU BLAU/RABBIT A LA BERLIN (MAUERHASE)/RADFAHRER/WAGAH/BETTY B. & THE THE`S was compiled in cooperation with AG Kurzfilm.

The third section shows the lighter side of German language cinema: the festival has selected a number of films combining culinary elements with tasteful results in "Culinary Comedies". Thus, the festival will be opened in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide with Fatih Akin’s SOUL KITCHEN, in Sydney and Perth with Andreas Dresen’s WHISKY WITH VODKA (WHISKY MIT WODKA). Also in the program: KEBAB CONNECTION (Anno Saul), TANDOORI LOVE (Oliver Paulus), WEDDING FEVER IN CAMPOBELLO (MARIA, IHM SCHMECKT’S NICHT, Neele Leana Vollmar) and DIE STANDESBEAMTIN (Micha Lewinsky).

A small retrospective on Fatih Akin will show CROSSING THE BRIDGE and SHORT SHARP SHOCK (KURZ UND SCHMERZLOS) in addition to SOUL KITCHEN.

Soenke Wortmann will present POPE JOAN (DIE PAEPSTIN), MAYBE MAYBE NOT (DER BEWEGTE MANN) and the children’s film THE TREASURE OF THE WHITE FALCONS (DER SCHATZ DER WEISSEN FALKEN) in person.

The event is sponsored by AUDI Australia, Lufthansa, Schwarzkopf, DB Schenker and supported by AG Kurzfilm.

Further information will be published at www.goethe.de/australia.

For details please contact Nicole Kaufmann, Email: kaufmann@german-films.de.