WOMEN TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT THIS YEAR'S
FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS
Friday 21 - Sunday 30 April
Australian Centre for The Moving Image, Federation Square
Tickets: ACMI Cinema box office / online www.acmi.net.au/tickets or phone 8663 2833
Opening Night tickets $ 40 // Single Session Pass: Full $15 Concession $12 // 6 Session Pass: Full $75 Concession $60
The Goethe-Institut's annual Festival of German Films, which tours nationally in April, this year showcases an eclectic range of films where the trials and tribulations of women are all brought into sharp focus. Stories of pioneers, heroines and regular women have captured the imagination of German filmmakers, and this year's offerings include:
2006 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Sophie Scholl, The Final Days tells the true story of the only female member of peaceful resistance group The White Rose, an organisation dedicated to the downfall of the Third Reich. Screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer will be a festival guest.
Against all Odds tells the true story of Margarethe Steiff who overcame her lifelong battle with physical disabilities and created the Steiff Teddy Bear. The Steiff company is now the world's leading and most well known soft toy company. The much adored German actress Heike Makatsch plays the indomitable Steiff. Heike will be a festival guest and will attend the screenings of her other films Almost Heaven and No Songs of Love.
Other female focused highlights include the beautifully shot The White Masai, based on the true story of a successful Swiss businesswoman who gave up everything to marry and live with an illiterate Masai warrior in Kenya's bush land, and The Fisherman and his Wife - Why Women Never Get Enough by filmmaker Doris Doerrie, a stylish film set in Japan and Germany that explores the complexities of love.
Fresh from the 2006 Berlin Film Festival come three award winning films The Red Cockatoo, a story of unrequited love, Free Will, the tale of a potentially dangerous love affair, and Requiem, centering around Germany's last recorded case of exorcism in the 1970s.
The festival's popular short film program Leaps in Time will this year feature nine shorts, and is delighted to announce that Till Nowak, considered to be one of the leading lights in the world of new media, will be a festival guest and present his multi-award winning film Delivery (www.delivery.framebox.de).
The festival is delighted to announce a special Anzac Day screening of the family film Wild Chicks, based on the well-known German children's book, at 2pm on Tuesday 25 April.
A panel discussion, one of the festival highlights, will take place on Monday 24 April at 8.30pm, with film critics, actors and producers discussing the topic Female Vision - Strong Women, reflecting on this year's astonishing number of films made by female directors or featuring female themes.
The Melbourne Goethe-Institut director Renate Elsaesser attended the 2006 Berlin Film Festival and worked with the film committee to create this year's powerful festival program.
Renate said, "The German film industry is rich in new ideas and productions and the diversity of this year's program clearly shows German filmmakers expanding their horizons to deliver a variety of stories that examine everything from contemporary life issues through to ghosts stories."
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