German films in Rotterdam

by German Films

23/01/2008 - The 37th Rotterdam International Film Festival (January 23-February 3) has unveiled its complete program. German productions are once again well represented in the festival’s line-up of this year.

The section entitled Cinema of the World: Time and Tide will be presenting the documentaries Alone In Four Walls by Alexandra Westmeier and Dust by Hartmut Bitomsky, as well as the feature film The Heart Is a Dark Forest by Nicolette Krebitz. The section’s co-productions are: Happy Desert by Paulo Caldas, It's Hard To Be Nice by Srdjan Vuletic, Recycle by Mahmoud al Massad, Revue by Sergei Loznitsa and Where Is That Home Now? by Anna Hoffmann.

Seven Days Sunday by Niels Laupert as well as the co-productions The Other [trailer] by Ariel Rotter, Milky Way by Benedek Fliegauf and Who Is Afraid of Kathy Acker by Barbara Casper can be seen in Cinema of the Future: Sturm und Drang.

The Chilean/French/German short film Cierro, la Tierra y la lluvia by José Luis Torres Leiva has been invited to the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition.

Two Mothers: The Search Began in Riga by Rosa von Praunheim and Afternoon by Angela Schanelec will be screened in Maestros: Kings and Aces along with the co-productions The Man From London [trailer] by Bela Tarr and You, The Living [trailer, film focus] by Roy Andersson. Verlorene by Peter Lorre can be seen as part of the Cinema Regained retrospective.

The new structure for the short film section Short: As Long As It Takes, which was introduced in 2006, will be retained. The short film screenings are concentrated in one cinema and over five days at the beginning of the festival (January 24-28). The selected films from Germany are Die unsichtbare hand by Dirk Luetter, Thorsten Fleisch’s Energie!, Robert Seidel’s Futures and Half Hours by Nicolas Wackerbarth.

Co-productions in the section are: Hamdi and Maria by Timor Britva, Haunt 1-3 by Niklas Goldbach, Las Vegas, New York, Blackpool by Sascha Pohle, Lovely Andrea by Hito Steyerl, Polska Roadmovie by Bartosz Grudziecki. Other titles include Rauschen und Brausen by Daniel Burkhardt, Teaching Alphabet by Volker Schreiner and Weiss by Florian Grolig.

De Dentro and From End to End by Peter-Conrad Beyer and the omnibus project Lauther Anfaenge – Leisen Enden by Sector 16 will be presented under the motto Starting from Scratch. The short Leonie Saint by Jana Debus-Cologne will run in Exploding Cinema: Free Radicals.

Dutch Treats will be showing the co-production Nightwatching [trailer] by Peter Greenaway. The multi-award-winning film The Lives of Others [trailer, film focus] by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, which also received the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film, will be screening as part of the Robeco Filmdag.