Award-winning films featuring performances by some of Germany’s best actors are the protagonists of the ninth German Film Festival being held in Valletta next week.

Organised by the German-Maltese Circle in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, the festival will open on November 21 with the drama In the Fade (2017) by director Fatih Akin and starring Diane Kruger.

In the AislesIn the Aisles

The film, which was inspired by the recent terrorist attacks in Germany by the neo-Nazi cell NSU, will be introduced by the director of photography, Rainer Klausmann.

Mr Klausmann has worked on numerous Werner Herzog films and has been cooperating with Mr Akin for the past decade now, realising popular movies such as Head On, The Edge of Heaven and Goodbye, Berlin.

In the Fade won the best foreign language category at this year’s Golden Globes.

Another highlight of the festival will be the screening of 3 Days in Quiberon (2018) by Emily Atef (November 22 and November 24). This chamber piece − about German-French film star Romy Schneider who grants her last interview to two German journalists in a small village on the Brittany coast in 1981 − had its world premiere as part of the main competition of this year’s Berlinale and was awarded the best film at the German Film Awards 2018.

Actress Marie Bäumer, who portrays the famous personality, won the best actress award for her performance.

Well-known German film-maker Valeska Grisebach won bronze at the German Film Awards 2018 with Western (November 24), a movie which uses this traditional genre to reflect on the tough mission of a group of German construction workers sent on a project at a remote site in Bulgaria.

WesternWestern

The festival is also screening director Thomas Stuber’s 2018 tender love story In the Aisles (November 23), starring well-known actress Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann) and emerging star Franz Rogowski, who won the best actor category at the German Film Awards 2018 for his role. 

Once more, the festival will be giving space to an outstanding debut film by a young German director.

Back for Good (2017) by Mia Spengler (November 23) tells the bitter-sweet story of reality TV-starlet Angie and her struggle to cling on to her fading career after rehab forces her to move back in with her dominant mother and ill sister. 

Traditionally, the Saturday afternoon show (November 24) is dedicated to a film for all the family.

The Legend of Timm Thaler or The Boy Who Sold His Laughter (2017) is an adaptation of a German young adult classic novel by award-winning director Andreas Dresen.

The story tells how the devil tricks a little boy off his laughter in exchange for assured wins in all his bets and is an entertaining, yet thought-provoking picture, for all generations.

The German Film Festival runs from November 21 to 24 at the Embassy Complex, Valletta. Films will be screened in German with English subtitles. For tickets, visit www.embassycomplex. com.mt or call the box office on 2122 2225. For more information, visit www.germanmaltesecircle.org/ninth_film_festival/.

Back for GoodBack for Good

The Legend of Timm Thaler or The Boy Who Sold His LaughterThe Legend of Timm Thaler or The Boy Who Sold His Laughter

3 Days in Quiberon3 Days in Quiberon

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