For the seventh year running the German-Maltese Circle, in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, is bringing to audiences a festival of German films from Wednesday to next Sunday as part of the Spazju Kreattiv season at St James Cavalier, Valletta. Paula Fleri-Soler speaks to Sirka Facklam from the GMC, who has been in charge of the festival and its curator since the first one, about this year’s offering.
There is no doubt that the festival has been going strong since its inception, and a glimpse at this year’s line-up – which includes contemporary products as well as some classics – points towards another successful venture.
“When I research and pre-select potential movies for the festival, there is often the conflict of cinematic standard and critical acclaim versus popularity and commercial success,” says Facklam, when discussing the selection of films.
“Many films which are screened at international festivals and win awards find only a limited audience in German cinemas, while films that are ignored by the critics and festivals draw the crowds. Of course, we always endeavour to bring high quality and mind-challenging films to our festival, but after all it is a festival for the audience and not for cinema critics.”
Facklam is quick to point out that this does not mean that the audience will not be treated to films worth viewing, films which surprise, entertain and are thought-provoking. On the contrary. As she talks through the line-up for the programme, it is clear that the selection is first-rate and varied, and Facklam emphasises that “it is the diversity of the films in terms of subject and cinematography, which makes a festival programme”.
The festival opens with Beloved Sisters, a historical love drama which mixes fact and fiction and is set in Thuringia during the time of the greatest classical German writers and poets – Schiller and Goethe. Directed by Dominik Graf, the film was the German submission for the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film in 2015.
Phoenix by Christian Petzold is reminiscent of classic film noir. Set shortly after World War II it tackles the painful question of identity. Another film revolves around the theme of identity is the thriller Who am I?, set against the backdrop of today’s digital world.
The idea of ‘identity’ seems to be a common theme in the festival, and Facklam agrees, noting also that those “who try not to lose their identity during the turbulent years of parenthood should watch Parents, a family film which gives this genre a whole new meaning!”
The idea of ‘identity’ seems to be a common theme
Windstorm, a more ‘traditional’ family film is being screened within the Żigużajg festival. It is the coming-of-age story of the unique friendship between a fierce stallion and a rebellious teenage girl, which should be a big hit especially with the young female audience. Jack, on the other hand, introduces us to a young boy in Berlin, who has to take responsibility from a very young age in a lost childhood filled with pain and loneliness.
Unlike previous years, the festival will not be showcasing the work of a particular German director as part of the Classic Film Night but a series of films to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Facklam says that with this decision the German-Maltese Circle wanted to connect the festival to historical milestones in Germany. “We have chosen films which concentrate exactly on this turning point in Germany history”.
She elaborates further, saying that this part of the festival will not feature war films per se, but films depicting life during the last days of war and the first weeks and months immediately after.
Of note is the very first film shot and produced in post-war Germany – Murderers are Among Us by Wolfgang Staudte. Produced in 1946 in the ruins of Berlin, it projects a chilling and authentic atmosphere of this period and the post-war traumas people were enduring. Facklam says that “production of the film did not get the go-ahead from the Western Allies and was produced in the Soviet sector by DEFA studios.”.
The other two films featuring in this section were produced in the 1960s by filmmakers who Facklam describes as two of the most iconic and skilled directors of the German Democratic Republic. Facklam says that Konrad Wolf’s film I Was Nineteen differs from similar films about the end of the war, because it steers away from the usual typology of the Germans in 1945, which in East German ideology were ‘a priori’ divided into either being in the resistance or being supporters of the fascist regime. This film digs deeper into their individual biographies and motivations.
On a lighter note, in Frank Beyer’s road movie Carbide and Sorrel we meet the witty and pragmatic Kalle, who needs to hitchhike to Dresden with seven barrels of carbide to get the cigarette company, where he was once working, up and running again.
All films are in German with English subtitles. Tickets at €3 (except for the family film Windstorm, which cost €2) can be booked from www.kreattivita.org. Entrance to the Classic Film Night at Messina Palace, Valletta, is free.