The works of some of the most iconic film-makers will be featured at this year’s German Film Festival. Paula Fleri-Soler previews this fourth edition.
German cinema has undergone many incarnations over the past decades: from the masterpieces of directors of the 1920s – Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch – through its role as a propaganda machine of the war years; its resurgence in the 1960s with the likes of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the international popularity of modern-day directors Wolfgang Petersen or Tom Tykwer.
This year’s festival will honour Helmut Käutner, one of Germany’s finest film-makers
German cinema has reflected the nation’s turbulent political and social climate over the past century and has evolved into an integral part of European cinema.
For the fourth year running, the German-Maltese Circle, in collaboration with Goethe Institute, is organising a festival of German film, celebrating the genre with screenings of a number of films at St James Cavalier.
The festival will open with Barbara, directed by Christian Petzold, a tightly-knit and atmospheric film about a young doctor waiting for an exit visa in the 1980s.
Barbara won the Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival and has been nominated for European Film, European Actress for star Nina Hoss and the People’s Choice Award at this year’s European Film Awards, which will be handed out in Malta on December 1.
Stopped on Track, directed by Andreas Dresen, is a moving drama about a young husband and father facing death after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. The film captivated critics at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and won four 2012 German Film Awards.
The unbearable tension between actors and directors is explored to dramatic and psychological effect in Christian Schwochow’s thrilling drama Cracks in the Shell, while on a lighter note, Almanya – Welcome to Germany takes a close look at the struggles of the large Turkish community in Germany.
Once more, the German Film Festival offers a family film in the shape of Winter’s Daughter, a delightful road film about the friendship between a young girl and an old woman as they embark on a trip from Berlin to Poland.
Sirka Vella Facklam from the German-Maltese Cirlce has been tirelessly organising the festival from its inception. Do the audiences of the past reflect this year’s choice of films?
“Audiences have been quite varied,” she replies. “The choice of films is not so much based on audience experience, yet three years ago people remarked that – although of very high standard – they were too dull, dealing with death or sickness, offering a rather depressing evening’s entertainment. Therefore Stopped on Track – although of great critical acclaim – will be screened just once during this year. It seems people prefer lighter subjects.”
This year’s festival will honour Helmut Käutner (1908-1980), one of Germany’s finest film-makers.
“He was very productive and many of his films, like Great Freedom No 7, The Devil’s General and The Captain of Koepenick, are well-known in Germany. He also worked with popular and iconic actors like Hans Albers and Hans Ruehmann. Yet, the name Käutner is known only to a few.”
Vella Facklam is happy to sing Käutner’s praises. “It is also quite remarkable that Käutner was one of the few during the Third Reich who did not bow to Nazi ideology and managed to direct films of great artistic and aesthetic value,” she adds.
Many of his films were produced under extraordinary circumstances between 1943 and1945, when Germany was already lying in ruins and air raids were the rule of the day. Vella Facklam muses that “for Käutner not to be overwhelmed by all the horror and pain the war brought and be able to concentrate on such beautiful films, expresses a very deep belief in humanity”.
Three of Käutner’s masterpieces – Under the Bridges, Romance in a Minor Key and Great Freedom No 7 – will be screened on Saturday at Messina Palace in Valletta.
The German Film Festival is being held between Wednesday and next Sunday at St James. Bookings can be made at St James for all shows, except for the Helmut Käutner Classic Film Night (complimentary). All films are in German with subtitles in English.
www.germanmaltesecircle.org
www.sjcav.org