German Film Festival 2019

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Posted 2019-05-08 by Mistress of Culture Vultures ⇒ follow

Thu 23 May 2019 - Sun 09 Jun 2019

Get ready Melbourne for the German Film Festival coming to you 23 May – 9 June 2019 at Palace Cinemas, marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, featuring 29 Australian premieres including 25km/h by Markus Goller.

Watch the trailer

Two brothers, Christian (Lars Eidinger) and Georg (Bjarne Mädel), reunite after at their father's funeral in their hometown village. Christian is a corporate flyer and womaniser, whom has been working overseas for 20 years and Georg is a humble cabinet maker, who cared for their ailing father in their family home, and too shy to pursue the love of his life.

Unwillingly Christian and Georg try to find common ground as brothers, after discovering a bucket list they had compiled in their teenage years, posted under their family ping-pong table.

Inspired by the vigour of their youth, find their vintage mopeds in the garage and ride them through the Black Forest and across Germany to fulfil the bucket list.

Along the way there are fights, festivals and flirting, secrets revealed and lost love found. This is a feel-good comedy which looks at the wild ride of grief and loss, rites of passage, and the challenge of mending broken and lost relationships. There are lots of laughs, tap dancing, tears and tenderness, a lot of eating and drinking and brash encounters with the law.

The film is beautifully made – and how can it not be – it is shot with the European backdrop of the Black Forest, through Brandenburg and Berlin to the Baltic Sea. This film will not only put a load of laughs in your belly but warm the cockles of your heart.

So, what else will the German Film Festival bring in 2019?

Opening night screens Balloon (Ballon) directed by Michael "Bully" Herbig at The Astor Theatre in Windsor on Thursday 23 May with an after party. At the height of the Cold War, a family seeks to escape by secretly creating a hot air balloon. This is a historical thriller which was officially selected for the Zurich Film Festival and the Kolkata International Film Festival in 2018, and nominated for Best Film Score, and Sound at the 2019 German Film Awards. A must see, especially for all hot balloonists.

Mack the Knife – Brecht's Threepenny Film (Mackie Messer- Brechts Dreigroschenfilm) features as a special event and closing night features The Threepenny Opera (1931) directed by George Wilhelm Pabst.

The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Canberra present the Australian premiere of the Tear Down the Walls program featuring films Adam & Evelyn , Gundermann and Sealed Lips . Also of note is the Beyond Berlin: Austrian and Swiss Cinema program.

Films worth noting include The Captain (Der Haputmann) directed by Robert Schwentke, Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus (Vom Bauen der Zukunft – 100 Jahre Bauhaus) a documentary directed by Niels Bolbrinker showing Sunday 26 May at Kino Cinemas with an introductory talk from Dr Malte Wagenfeld, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design at RMIT University.