25/09/2009

German-speaking audiences will this week have the chance to see a fine selection of European auteur films, starting with Austrian master Michael Haneke’s superb Austrian/German/Italian/French co-production, The White Ribbon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile], winner of this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or. The film is being launched in Austria by Filmladen (German viewers will have to wait until October 15 for its X Verleih release).

Hitting screens in both Germany and Austria is Vision [+see also:
trailer
film profile], written and directed by Margarethe von Trotta after years of research on the fascinating Hildegard von Bingen. This 12th-century visionary Benedictine nun wrote works on a constantly changing world, which are closer to modern physics than the rigid ideas of the Middle Ages, as well as some principles of alternative medicine and almost 80 symphonies.

The film is produced by Markus Zimmer (collaborating for the third time with Von Trotta) for Munich-based Clasart. The heroine is played by Barbara Sukowa, who is also a regular collaborator of the director – she played the lead role in Von Trotta’s cinematic portrait of another great woman, Rosa Luxemburg (1986).

The cast also includes Heino Ferch (The Baader Meinhof Complex [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Alexander Held (Sophie Scholl: The Final Days [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and former Shooting Star Hannah Herzsprung (Four Minutes [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). The film is released by Filmladen in Austria, and Concorde in Germany.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. is launching, in both countries, Thilo Graf Rothkirch and Piet De Ryckerle’s German animated film for children Laura’s Star and the Mysterious Dragon Nian [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Also of note is Stadtkino Filmverleih’s domestic release of Peter Jaitz’s Rimini, a very Austrian blend of detective film, a search for identity, schoolboy jokes and YouTube.

The Austrian line-up also includes Stefan Komandarev’s Bulgarian/Hungarian/Slovenian/German co-production The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (distributed by Polyfilm), based on the eponymous autobiographical novel by German/Bulgarian writer Ilija Trojanow.

In Germany, Majestic is releasing Sherry Hormann’s moving Venice title Desert Flower [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (co-produced by the UK, Austria and Germany, see review); Kool is launching Gustave de Kervern and Benoît Delépine’s French drama Louise-Michel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benoît Delépine and Gustav…
interview: Benoît Jaubert
film profile]; and Spanner Films is hoping for success with Franny Armstrong’s UK documentary The Age of Stupid.

German audiences will also be able to discover two local titles: Mehmet Coban’s thriller Sari Saten (Sonfilm), in which an encounter triggers off a series of not-entirely-coincidental events; and Marcus Mittermeier and Jan Henrik Stahlberg’s comedy Short Cut to Hollywood [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Senator), presented in the Panorama section at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

(Translated from French)