16/11/2007

Reclaim Your Brain [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Austrian director Hans Weingartner’s first film since The Edukators (screened in competition at Cannes 2004), which had its international avant-premiere at Toronto this autumn and has since screened at several festivals (including San Sebastian, where it was in competition), was released in Germany yesterday through Kinowelt.

The film, whose subtitle "Dein Fernseher lügt" translates as “your television lies”, was (like The Edukators) co-written by the director and Katharina Held and, like the filmmaker’s previous title, is produced by Weingartner and co-produced by the dynamic Austrian company Coop 99. Once again combining comedy and drama, the director evokes the idealistic vision of an intellectually liberated society, as he tells the story of a television producer played by Moritz Bleibtreu.

This week, Farbfilm is launching Riding Up Front, a film on courage and cowardice, love and luck directed, written and produced by Markus Herling (for the Berlin-based Fado Film), in which several strangers cross paths one Christmas Eve in Berlin.

Zorro is distributing the comedy drama Family Rules! [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the debut feature by Marc Meyer after his experimental work and film shorts attracted attention at various festivals. In this humorous film, produced by Miko Film, a single man who yearns for a family decides to kidnap a woman, three children, a grandfather and a grandmother.

Two German co-productions also hit screens this week: the German/Turkish drama Takva: A Man’s Fear of God [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Özer Kiziltan (distributed by Rif Film) and the documentary The Man Who Shot Chinatown: The Life and Work of John A. Alonzo by Axel Schill, a US/UK co-production distributed by RealFiction.

Other European releases include the Swiss documentary Das Erbe der Bergler by Erich Langjahr (distributed by Langjahr Film), the “hardcore” Belgian comedy drama Ex Drummer [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Koen Mortier (distributed by Legend Films) and the French/Argentine production La León [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Santiago Otheguy (distributed by Salzgeber).

(Translated from French)