This year’s German Film Festival program reflects a vibrant cinematic culture which, among a constant wave of Hollywood films, can often go underappreciated in Australia. Via an incredible variety of historical dramas, documentaries and kid’s comedies, it gives the whole of Germany a chance to take the spotlight for a month.
“We’re not a festival for German speakers, we’re a festival for everyone,” says Bettina Kinski, national operations manager and curator of the German Film Festival. “We invite everyone to come to our screenings to immerse into German culture, to learn about our history, our presence, our humour. Film is always a great chance to really get to know something about a country.”
With the 2023 program, Kinski and the curatorial team are trying hard to expose cinemagoers to brand new experiences, not just crossover hits like Run Lola Run and Goodbye, Lenin! “These are titles that every Australian probably knows,” Kinski says. “Our priority is really to screen Australian-premiere films that haven’t been screened here before or that aren’t on streaming platforms.”
The program is split loosely into major categories, with an overarching focus on female filmmakers. “I think the film industry is quite male-dominated,” says Kinski. “We have a really big amount of films where we have female directors and not a lot of other language-specific film festivals can pride themselves on that.” Some notable examples include In A Land That No Longer Exists, which is based on director Aelrun Goette’s experience in East Germany, and Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey into the Desert, a biopic recounting the life of the Austrian poet and author.
There’s also a large selection of contemporary films straight from Germany’s top festival. “The so-called Berlinale is, with Cannes, the most important film festival in Europe,” Kinski says. “It has this very important film market attached to the festival and so we’re super happy to have five films in our program that come fresh from this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.” Berlinale highlights include thrilling drama The Teacher’s Lounge, from director İlker Çatak, in which an idealistic teacher (played by Leonie Benesch) investigates a series of thefts at school, and the German-Austrian-Swiss co-production Sisi & I, a black comedy that fictionalises Empress Elisabeth of Austria’s stay on the island of Corfu.
With its musical retrospective, the festival interrogates the lasting influence of German music in the latter part of the 20th century. B Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin follows British musician Mark Reeder through the formative years of punk and new wave artists Die Toten Hosen, Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld in West Berlin. From there, the program draws lines to contemporary ideas of German popular music. “When you think about German music, what music do you think about?” asks Kinski. “I think about techno. For example, B Movie starts with new wave music artists and punk but it all eventually leads up to electronic music and what mainly German music would stand for.” If you want to see the development on screen, Fck 2020 – Two and a Half Years With Scooter follows the techno giants Scooter through 30 months of stadium shows and candid personal moments.
Palace Cinemas works closely with German cultural association the Goethe-Institut who have curated a selection of kids’ films. Here, education is firmly the focus with three of the five films screening during school hours while two – School of Magical Animals and The Robber Hotzenplotz – are screening on weekends. “We really invite families and schools to come to these screenings,” says Kinski. “It’s just a beautiful way to learn the language and to immerse in the culture.”
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