Goethe Institut Manila has released information on its official website about the 4th German Film Week.

4th German Film Week will feature new contemporary films as well as commemorate the 30 years of the fall of Berlin Wall. Screenings are scheduled on November 7-12 in Manila and November 27 – December 15 in Baguio, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.

4th German Film Week line-up

Ballon / Ballon

2018 | Thriller, Drama | 2hr 5min

Focus: 30 Years Fall of the Berlin Wall, New German Cinema

Based on actual events, this feature film tells the story of a spectacular escape from the GDR. In summer 1979, after two years of preparations and planning, the Strezlzyk and Wetzel families want to escape from the GDR in a self-built hot-air balloon. The Strelzyk family goes first but has to make an emergency landing before they get to cross the border. The damaged balloon gets carried away by the wind. While the family can make it back home safely, both, the Strelzyks as well as the Wetzels know it won’t be long before the Stasi are onto them. Feverishly, they start building a new, more stable balloon to undertake another attempt to escape.

Awards & nominations: 2019 German Film Awards Best Sound & Best Film Score nominee, 2019 Washington DC Film Fest Best Feature Film Winner

Gundermann

2018 | History, Drama | 2hr 7min

Focus: 30 Years Fall of the Berlin Wall, New German Cinema

With sensibility, affection, and humour, multi award-winning director Andreas Dresen presents this moving and endearing portrait of the beloved East German folk singer and songwriter Gerhard Gundermann. Politically active and passionate, digger driver Gundermann’s music career took off in 1986, capturing the hearts of the people with his clever, often melancholy lyrics imbued with social commentary. A poet, a clown, a loyal husband and an idealist, Gundermann lived a multifaceted life as a rebel – and a spy who was spied on.

Alexander Scheer is truly astonishing to watch as the intractable, brave and contradictory talent, not least because he sings every song himself. This inspiring biopic is both a music film and a love story that courageously encompasses guilt and entanglement, as well as suppression and, above all, defiance.

Awards & nominations: 2019 German Film Awards Oustanding Feature Film / Best Direction / Best Screenplay / Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role winner, 2019 Bavarian Film Awards Best Actor Winner

30 Years Fall of the Berlin Wall

Barbara

2012 | Drama | 1hr 45min

Summer, 1980. Barbara, a doctor, has applied for an exit visa from the GDR (East Germany). Now, as punishment, she has been transferred from Berlin to a small hospital out in the country, far from everything. Jörg, her lover from the West, is already planning her escape. Barbara waits, keeping to herself. The new apartment, the neighbors, summertime, the countryside –none of that means anything to her. Working as a pediatric surgeon under her new boss Andre, she is attentive when it comes to the patients, but quite distanced toward her colleagues. Her future, she feels, will begin later. But Andre confuses her. His confidence in her professional abilities, his caring attitude, his smile. Why does he cover for her when she helps the young runaway Sarah? Does he have an assignment to keep track of her? Is he in love? But as the day of her planned escape quickly approaches, Barbara starts to lose control. Over herself, her plans, over love.

Awards & nominations: 2012 Berlinale Reader Judy of the “Berliner Morgenpost” winner / Silver Berlin Bear Best Director winner / Golden Berlin Bear Best Film nominee, 2012 German Film Awards Outstanding Feature Film winner

Berlin Blues / Herr Lehmann

2003 | Comedy | 1hr 55min

Using elusive measures Herr Lehmann has successfully ignored the demands of parents, landlord, neighbors, and women for years. Now, in the year 1989, he lives pretty much trouble-free in Berlin, when he’s not in the nearest bar. But then, out of the blue, one unexpected annoyance after the other disrupts the routine of his beloved daily grind…

Awards & nominations: 2004 German Film Awards Best Screenplay & Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role winner, 2004 Bavarian Film Awards Best Actor winner

Good Bye, Lenin!

2003 | Comedy, Drama, Romantic | 2hr 1min

October 1989 was a bad time to fall into a coma if you lived in East Germany -and this is precisely what happens to Alex’s proudly socialist mother. Alex has a big problem on his hands when she suddenly awakens eight months later. Her heart is so weak that any shock might kill her. And what could be more shocking than the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of capitalism in her beloved East Germany? To save his mother, Alex transforms the family apartment into an island of the past, a kind of socialist-era museum where his mother is lovingly duped into believing that nothing has changed. What begins as a little white lie turns into a major scam as Alex’s sister and selected neighbors are recruited to maintain the elaborate ruse – and keep her believing that Lenin really did win after all!

Awards & nominations: 2004 Golden Globes Awards Best Foreign Language Film nominee, 2004 Berlinale Blue Angel Wolfgang Becker winner, 2003 European Film Awards Best European Film winner, 2003 German Film Awards Audience Award / German Film of the Year / Outstanding Feature Film winner

The Lives of Others / Das Leben der anderen

2006 | Thriller, Drama | 2h 17min

East Berlin, November 1984. Five years before its downfall, the former East-German government ensured its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance. Party-loyalist Captain Gerd Wiesler hopes to boost his career when given the job of collecting evidence against the playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend, the celebrated theater actress Christa-Maria Sieland.

After all, the “operation” is backed by the highest political circles. What he didn’t anticipate, however, was that submerging oneself into the world of the target also changes the surveillance agent. The immersion in The Lives of Others – in love, literature, free thinking and speech – makes Wiesler acutely aware of the meagerness of his own existence and opens to him a completely new way of life which he has ever more trouble resisting. But the system, once started, cannot be stopped. A dangerous game has begun…

A story from the heart of the East-German regime, The Lives of Others is an intensely gripping thriller and moving love story featuring some of Germany′s most internationally celebrated actors.

Awards & nominations: 2007 Academy Awards (Oscars) Best Foreign Language Film of the Year winner, 2007 Golden Globes Awards Best Foreign Language Film nominee, 2008 BAFTA Awards Best Film Not in the English Language winner, 2006 German Film Awards Outstanding Feature Film & Best Direction winner

New German Cinema

25 km/h

2018 | Comedy, Adventure | 1hr 56min

Lars Eidinger and Bjarne Mädel play two completely disparate brothers who decide at their father’s funeral to follow a crazy whim and, at long last, fulfil their long-held dream of travelling through Germany on their mopeds. While they make some strange new acquaintances and experience all kinds of crazy situations during their marathon journey, the brothers gradually come to realize that, in the end, blood is thicker than water.

Awards & nominations: 2019 German Film Awards Outstanding Feature Film nominee, 2018 Ernst Lubitsch Award winner

100 Things / 100 Dinge

2018 | Comedy | 1hr 55min

Toni loves his espresso machine. Paul adores his smartphone. Toni can’t do anything without his hair growth pills. Paul can’t function without Amazon. All hilarious hell breaks loose when a drunken argument at a party leads to an unthinkable wager between the two men: they vow to rid themselves of all possessions for 100 days. Only allowing themselves to retrieve one item out of storage per day, Paul and Toni are forced to confront what is really important in their lives, and what they can do without.

Awards & nominations: 2019 Romy Gala (Austria) Best Screenplay winner, Best Film nominee & Favorite Actor nominee

A Regular Woman / Nur eine Frau

2019 | Drama | 1hr 30min

The film traces the fate of the German Turk Hatun Aynur Sürücü, her struggle for a free, self-determined life against the resistance of the family. Her brothers don’t accept her lifestyle and insult and threaten her more and more. Finally, the young woman files charges against her eldest brother and moves with her child to a friend as she doesn’t feel safe at home anymore. Simultaneously, the family tries to find a wife for the future murderer, Hatun’s eldest brother. In just a few weeks they manage to educate the young Turk Melek (Evin) to become a strict Muslim. She becomes part of the plan to take over and look after Hatun’s little boy after her death. Then the murder happens.

Awards & nominations: 2019 German Film Awards Best Cinematography nominee, 2019 Tribecca Film Festival Best International Narrative Feature nominee

All About Me / Der Junge muss an die frische Luft

2018 | Biography, Comedy, Drama | 1hr 40min

Film adaptation of the autobiography of German entertainer Hape Kerkeling.

The story begins in the Ruhr Valley of 1972: Hans-Peter is nine years old and a bit chubby, but full of self-confidence. The latter is not least due to his ability to make other people laugh, a talent that he trains on every occasion – be it in the grocer’s shop of his grandmother Änne, with the customers as an audience, or at the various meetings with his party-prone relatives. But the idyllic family life takes a turn for the darker when Hape’s mother loses her sense of smell and taste as the result of a chronic sinus infection and starts struggling with depression. The father is helpless and doesn’t know how to deal with his wife’s mental illness. But for Hape, the sadness of his mother is an even greater incentive to act out his comedic side.

Awards & nominations: 2019 Bavarian Film Awards Best Direction (Regiepreis) winner, 2019 German Film Awards Highest Grossing Film of the Year Winner / Film award in Bronze, Outstanding Feature Film winner / Film award in Gold, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role winner, 2019 Romy Gala (Austria) Best Cinematography & Best Director winner

Cold Feet / Kalte Füße

2018 | Austria | Comedy | 1hr 37min

Through a curious mix-up, the petty criminal Denis suddenly finds himself in the position of a caretaker for the stroke patient Raimund. All he really wanted to do was break into Raimund’s house in order to finally pay off his debts to some disagreeable crooks. Instead, he now sits captive in the rich businessman’s house, who, since his seizure has been confined to a wheelchair. When Raimund’s granddaughter Charlotte shows up to check on him, it’s finally too much for Denis. But escape is not an option as a mighty snowstorm is raging in the region. And so he must continue to play the role of the caretaker – very much to Raimund’s dismay, who is doing everything he can to fend off the intruder. In contrast to Charlotte, Raimund has long since seen through Denis’ facade. A game of cat-andmouse begins, in which the handicapped senior and the clever young man put their resources to terrific use…

The Keeper / Trautmann

2018 | Germany, UK, Ireland | Biography, Drama | 2hr

While visiting a PoW camp near Manchester at the end of WWII, Margaret and her father, the manager of the local football team, notice a young German soldier Bert Trautmann. Margaret’s father is so taken by Bert’s prowess as a goal-keeper that he gets him out of the camp to play for his team. While Margaret’s and Bert’s love slowly blossoms despite local hostility, Bert’s heroics in goal are noticed by Man City. Rather than going back to Germany, Bert marries Margaret and signs for Man City. His signing causes outrage to thousands of fans, many of them Jewish. But Bert and Margaret receive support from an unexpected direction: Rabbi Alexander Altmann, who fled the Nazis. Thus Bert’s path to acceptance begins. At the 1956 FA Cup Final he achieves ultimate reconciliation when he secures victory by playing on despite breaking his neck. Yet fate twists the knife for both Margaret and Bert and their loyalty to each other will be put to the test once more.

Awards & nominations: 2019 German Film Awards Best Costume Design & Best Film Score nominee, 2019 Bavarian Film Awards Best Production winner, 2019 Beijing International Film Festival Best Supporting Actor winner & Best Film nominee

Admission

Tickets for all Manila screenings of the 4th German Film Week are P100 each and can be purchased over the cinema counters, SM Cinema website or SM Cinema app. Students may purchase tickets at a discounted price of P50 each.

4th German Film Week Screening Schedule

Manila

Liceo de Cagayan University, Cagayan de Oro

November 27-29, 2019

For non-Liceo students/outsiders, please send an e-mail to mllamberte@liceo.edu.ph.

University of San Carlos, Cebu

November 27 & 29, 2019

Admission to all activities is free and open to the general public (Campus entry will be facilitated, non-USC students and other walk-ins need to register entry at Campus Portal with valid ID). For more information, please send an e-mail to imacastro@usc.edu.ph.

Ili Likha Artists Village, Baguio

December 9-15, 2019

Visit Goethe Institut Philippinen official event page, Facebook, and Instagram for more information about the 4th German Film Week.

Past editions: 2nd German Film Week, 1st German Film Week