HEIRATE MICH (Marry Me)
by Uli Gaulke and Jeanette Eggert, Germany 2003,
colour, 105 minutes, 35mm
German, Spanish with English subtitles
D o c u m e n t a r y :
Somewhere in Havana on New Year's Eve 2000, Gladis from Cuba and Erik from Germany get engagaged. The two had met in the Cuban provinces on a sultry summer night. To the great delight of her family, Gladis listens to Erik's eloquent declaration of love and agrees to accept his attractive offer to go to Germany with him and her 7-year-old son Omarito to start a new life. The directors about their film, which provides an unusual insight in the difficulties of a binational marriage in Germany: "We accompanied the three of them for a part of their lives together, a time filled with much pain, disappoint-ment and sadness, but also hope, happiness and newfound independence".
JIN NIAN XIA TIAN (Fish and Elephant)
by Li Yu, China 2001, colour, 96 minutes, 16mm
F e a t u r e :
'Fish and Elephant' is the first feature ever made in China about the emotional and sexual relationship between two women. The story takes place in modern-day China and revolves around the lives of Xiao Qun and Xiao Ling, both of whom long for a satisfying relationship. Xiao Qun works as an elephant keeper at the local zoo, while Xiao Ling runs a small clothing shop. The two meet and fall in love. Xiao Qun's mother arrives and moves in with her daughter, thus affecting the new lovers' life together. Xiao Qun's mother is eager to get her daughter married and can't understand why she doesn't have any boyfriends. The Austrian daily "Der Standard" about the film: "The director adresses
the issue in near-documentary style. The women's cautious, growing acquaintance is portrayed through calm camera work, the film increasingly focussing on the parallel between the secret relationship on the one hand and the desparate attempts by Xiao Qun's mother to marry her daughter off on the other. It is a calm film, and the closed nature of it's images can also be seen as formal snapshots of a society in which so much is not seen simply because it must not be seen."
EIGENTLICH WOLLTE ICH FÖRSTER WERDEN – BERND AUS GOLZOW
(Actually I wanted to become a forester- Bernd from
Golzow) by Barbara and Winfried Junge, Germany
1961-2003, colour & b/w, 142 minutes, 35mm
D o c u m e n t a r y :
The chronicle of the 'Children of Golzow' is the story of people born in communist East Germany who have been citizens of a united Germany since 1990. It is the longest longterm chronicle in the history of filmmaking - and provides not at least by the enormous amount of material a unique way of
looking at ordinary persons' life on screen. The children all begann school in Golzow, a small village close to the German-Polish border. That very August 1961 happened to coincide will the building of the Berlin Wall. This is the eighth long-term portrait of one of the children. Bernhard Oestereich - Bernd - is the son of one of the leaders of the Golzow farm cooperative. He didn't stay in the coun-tryside, but also rejected a chance to finish school and go to university. He was supposed to become a soldier. Married with two children, Bernd went into the industrial sector, and still works as a foreman at the refinery of Schwedt, which used to be a petrochemical combine in the communist era. Much has changed since Bernd started to work there, at the gigantic refinery and in his private life. Only his three-shift work schedule remained the same.
ALL THE REAL GIRLS
by David Gordon Green, USA 2003, colour, 91 minu-tes,
35mm
English with German subtitles
F e a t u r e :
ALL THE REAL GIRLS is set in a small North Carolina mill town where 22-year-old Paul has spent his entire life. He lives with his mom, works for his uncle and has a small group of lifelong friends who are rowdy, funny and loyal. Paul's girlfriends, however, are neither lifelong nor loyal: his charm has led to a string of broken hearts for which he feels little, if any remorse. The director about his film: "I wanted to make a movie that captured the genuine feeling of being young and in love. There have been so many movies made about that, but I find most of them full of clichés. For me the appeal was in making a believable and effective movie about young people and their realtionships."
ONE NIGHT THE MOON
by Rachel Perkins, Australia 2001, colour, 55 minutes,
35mm
English with German subtitles
F e a t u r e /m u s i c a l :
One night, in the Australian Outback in the early 1930s, a young girl steps out of her bedroom window - entranced by the beautiful, beaming moon. When her parents go to check on her, she's nowhere to be found. The mother and the father, recent settlers in the rugged landscape, spend the night
looking for her, but no avail. By early morning, the father turns to the local police for help. The sergeant suggests that they take along Albert when they set out to find her. But Albert - their very best tracker- is an aboriginal. The family resits - insisting, "No black fella is to set foot on my land."
Director Rachel Perkins on her film: "Integrating the musical and the visual aspects became an exciting new process for everybody involved. It is an interesting project because the musical has been dead for such a long time. But considering a contemporary comparison to the musical is the music clip, we approached it by pushing the boundaries of what you would normally do in a drama, with the style, the design and also the camera."
MILCHWALD (This Very Moment)
by Christoph Hochhäusler, Germany 2003, colour,
87 minutes, 35mm
German with English subtitles
F e a t u r e :
Thirty-something Silvia Mattis picks up her step-children Lea (8years old) and Konstantin (7years old) on the way home from school and goes shopping with them across the border in Poland. But when a fierce argument breaks out, she stops in the middle of nowhere, throws the children out of the car, and drives away furiously. When she returns a little while later, there is no sign of the children... The film was praised at it's opening for it's modern, reduced style of storytelling and thereby presenting a contemporary version of Grimms' brothers fairytale "Hänsel und Gretel". |
