German Film Festival

09 – 13 Sept 2009
German Film Festival Hanoi 2009
Goethe

German cinema is back!

The Goethe-Institut Vietnam once again this year offers the opportunity to encounter current German cinema and thus to get a glimpse on the big screen of contemporary Germany. To this end we are pleased to present a selection of German films from this year’s film festival in Berlin. Our films deal in 2009 with love and death, German post-war history, with guilt and the search for self.

Films in Original German with English subtitles and simultaneous translation into Vietnamese via headphones.

Free tickets available at Goethe-Institut Hanoi
Tel     3 734 22 51/52/53
Email [email protected]

Storm/ Sturm

Hans-Christian Schmid

Germany 2009, 110 Minutes

Cast: Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane

Everything seems to indicate that a former commander in the Yugoslavian People’s Army, on trial before the International Court of Justice in The Hague charged with the deportation and murder of Bosnian Muslim civilians, will be justly punished. But then the principal witness enmeshes herself in contradictions and the case of the chief prosecutor Hannah Maynard falls apart. When shortly thereafter this witness is found dead in her hotel room, a long struggle in search of justice begins for Maynard. But the further she presses forward, the more she is forced to the realization that her opponents are not only in the dock, but also from her own side. Hans-Christian Schmid’s Sturm was one of the favorites in competition at the 2009 Berlinale.

Everyone Else/ Alle Anderen

Maren Ade

Germany 2009, 119 Minutes

Cast: Birgit Minichmayr, Lars Eidinger

Gitti and Chris are in Sardinia on their first vacation together. They have their rituals, they fight, they make love, but slowly disillusion creeps in. When they meet another couple, they begin to question themselves, the others and their entire relationship; the conflicting longings each has brought to the partnership take center stage. In Maren Ade’s Berlinale winner, she dissects the complex and unique structure that is created when two people enter into a love relationship, and in so doing plumbs the depths of emotional disorientation of an entire generation.

Birgit Minichmayr was awarded a Bear at the 2009 Berlinale for her portrayal of Gitti.

A Year Ago in Winter/ Im Winter ein Jahr

Caroline Link

Germany 2008, 128 Minutes

Cast: Karoline Herfurth, Josef Bierbichler, Corinna Harfouch

It’s a year ago in winter that the son of Eliane und Thomas Richter committed suicide. Why? Nobody knows, but the experience has left deep scars in the family. The mother refuses to accept that the death was suicide, the father seeks refuge in his work and an affair and the sister Lilli has lost her way and can find no goals in her life. When the mother commissions the painter Holland to do a painting in which the deceased Alex is seen with his sister, Lilli is unimpressed. But slowly her encounters with the much older painter, who has also suffered great personal loss, enable her to find a way in her life. Im Winter ein Jahr is the first film by Caroline Link after her Oscar-winning “Nirgendwo in Afrika” 2003.

Krabat

Marco Kreuzpaintner

Germany 2008, 120 Minutes

Cast: David Kross, Daniel Brühl, Robert Stadlober

Germany in the 17th century. A voice in a dream lures the orphan boy Krabat to a mysterious mill. The master takes him on as apprentice, and he proceeds to learn not only the miller’s trade, but also the power of black magic. But the price is high: every year one apprentice is sacrificed to the Grim Reaper so that the master can continue living. When Krabat falls in love he is risking his life, because the one thing the master fears is love.

Kreuzpaintner’s film of Otfried Preußler’s famous story about seduction, love, hate and death was shown at the Berlinale 2008 and was awarded the Bavarian Film Prize in the category “Films for Children and Youth”.

Jerichow

Christian Petzold

Germany 2008, 93 Minutes

Cast: Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss. Hilmi Sözer

Jerichow, a village of 2000 souls in eastern Germany, is poor and dismal. Thomas returns here a failure after being dishonorably discharged from the army. No job, no family, his mother recently deceased. When he meets the Turkish businessman Ali, his life seems to take a turn for the better as he becomes Ali’s driver and right-hand man. But tragedy becomes inevitable as Thomas is increasingly attracted to Ali’s wife Laura who, bound to Ali by a mountain of debt, is herself looking for a way out of her depressing situation. Jerichow is the story of a love triangle in which each participant, pressured by their inner compulsions and following their deepest longings, finds no escape.

The Baader Meinhof Complex/ Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

Uli Edel

Germany 2008, 150 Minutes

Cast: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Bruno Ganz

Germany in the 70’s. The younger generation struggles against US policies in Vietnam, the Near East and the Third World, policies supported by German politics and industry. A small group sees the underground and terrorism as the only alternative. They call themselves the RAF – the Red Army Faction – and declare war on Germany. The Baader Meinhof Complex addresses the greatest post-war German drama and its main characters in documentary-like style and shows how the violence escalated and the still-young German republic was shaken to its foundations.

The Baader Meinhof Complex was nominated in 2009 for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film.