18 German productions and co-productions at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

2023-06-15

Filmmakers and cineastes are invited to travel to Karlovy Vary this year for the most renowned international film festival in Central and Eastern Europe from 30 June to 8 July, 2023. Nine German films and nine co-productions will be screened at the 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in the Bohemian spa town. German cinema will now have such a varied presence rarely seen at KVIFF in the past.

Director Behrooz Karamizade will be taking part in the Crystal Globe Competition with the feature EMPTY NETS (Basis Berlin Filmproduktion). The viewer follows Amir, a young Iranian who becomes entangled in criminal machinations of illegal caviar poaching when he signs on with a rural fishery on the coast of the Caspian Sea to raise the bride money for his great love Narges. The moving story about young people's longing and search for a freer future in contemporary Iran is Behrooz Karamizade's debut feature. Another one in this section is the documentary DANCING ON THE EDGE OF A VOLCANO (Reynard Films). Cyril Aris works in a kind of film within a film to process the events of 4 August, 2020 in the port of Beirut when an explosion left much of the Lebanese capital in ruins. The focus is on a Lebanese film team who must decide whether to continue filming their current project despite all odds.

Writer-director Anna Roller's DEAD GIRLS DANCING (kalekone Film) was already a hit at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. She will be taking part in Karlovy Vary’s Horizons sidebar with her road movie about a group of girlfriends and a mysterious backpacker. This section will also be showing ENDLESS BORDERS (PakFilm) by Abbas Amini. The thriller centres on a teacher who lives on the Iranian-Afghan border. He befriends a family of illegal immigrants who have fled the Taliban's reign of terror.

Nader Saeivar's NO END(ArtHood Films), which deals with returnees and the Iranian secret police, will be screened in thesectionAnother Birth. which is focusing at KVIFF this year on Iranian Cinema here and now.

Sophia Mocorrea won the Short Film Jury Award at the 2023 Sundance Festival for KIDNAPPING OF THE BRIDE (Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf). Her drama about different role models and intercultural prejudices can be seen in Karlovy Vary in Future Frames: Generation Next of European Cinema.

The Midnight Screenings will feature Harvey Rabbit’s CAPTAIN FAGGOTRON SAVES THE UNIVERSE (Transmenace Productions) which was made with German participation. The film follows a young priest who is intent on denying his homosexuality - but isn’t doing a very good job of it.

Also Barbara Wurm, a well-known film expert, sits on the jury. She will take over as director of the Berlinale Forum from August this year.

All German productions and co-productions by section:

Crystal Globe Competition

DANCING ON THE EDGE OF A VOLCANO by Cyril Aris (DE/LB, Reynard Films)

EMPTY NETS by Behrooz Karamizade (DE/IR, BASIS BERLIN Filmproduktion)

BLAGA’S LESSONS by Stephan Komandarev (BG/DE, 42film)

Horizons

AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Makbul Mubarak (ID/FR/SG/PL/PH/DE/QA, NiKo Film)

SORCERY by Christopher Murray (CL/MX/DE, Match Factory Productions)

DEAD GIRLS DANCING by Anna Roller (kalekone Film)

THE ECHO by Tatiana Huezo (MX/DE, Match Factory Productions)

IRON BUTTERFLIES by Roman Liubyi (UA/DE, Trimafilm)