08/10/2010

This week’s major release is the first German 3D animated film, Animals United [+see also:
trailer
film profile], produced and distributed by Constantin in Germany and Austria.

This light-entertainment film with environmental overtones (adapted from Erich Kästner’s 1949 novel, previously brought to the big screen in 1969) is directed and produced by Reinhard Klooss and Holger Tappe.

The Savannah animals are in a terrible situation: they’ve run out of water! The reason is that the humans are keeping it for themselves, in particular the owner of a hotel where, ironically, a conference on the environment is being held. No matter: the animals decide to organise their own conference!

In Germany, Universum is not outdone as it launches Jo Baier’s The End Is My Beginning [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], adapted from the same-named autobiographical work by Tiziano Terzani, played here by Bruno Ganz, with Italian actor Elio Germano as his son Folco. The film was produced by Munich-based Collina Filmproduktion.

For its part, Peripher is hoping for success with Thomas Arslan’s auteur thriller In the Shadows [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Arslan
film profile], which was presented at the latest Berlinale. Produced by Schramm Film Koerner & Weber, the film centres on a recently-released prisoner who doesn’t hesitate in going back to his criminal activities.

Meanwhile, KSM is focusing on the life of boxer Max Schmeling, with the release of Uwe Boll’s eponymous biographical film, co-produced by the director’s company Boll Kino Beteiligungsproduktion and Herold Productions. It stars Henry Maske and Heino Ferch.

Two documentaries are in the line-up: Gregor Theus’s depression-themed Shadows (distributed by Mindjazz); and Werner Kubny and Per Schnell’s Was Bleibt Sind Wir, looking at what has become of the Ruhr blue-collar workers (distributed by RealFiction).

The selection is completed by Bruce La Bruce’s co-production L.A. Zombie [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (distributed by Gmfilms); and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s French/Belgian drama Oscar and the Lady in Pink [+see also:
trailer
interview: Amir “Oscar” and Eric-Emman…
film profile], in which the final wishes are granted to a child cancer sufferer who has only a few days left to live (distributed by Kinowelt).

In Austria, besides the joys of 3D, the rest of the line-up is interesting too: Oscar... won’t be released until next week, but in the meantime audiences will get the chance to discover Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Dany Boon, André Dussolier and Yolande Moreau (distributed by EMW/Kinowelt); andSabine Derflinger’s intriguing local production Day and Night, about the erotic world two students enter when they decide to become call girls (distributed by Thimfilm).

(Translated from French)