Sights and sounds from Germany

Award-winning German films will be shown over the last three weekends this month in the Goethe-Institut Thailand’s German Film Weekends from March 15 to 30 at the Esplanade Cineplex Ratchadapisek in Bangkok.

The opening gala is actually not on a weekend, it’s next Wednesday, with proceedings starting at 5.30pm, when World Film Festival of Bangkok director Kriengsak “Victor” Silakong will share his experiences from this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Afterwards they’ll show “Lessons of a Dream” by Sebastian Gobler. Daniel Brühl stars in the 2011 drama as an English teacher in 19th century Germany who who teaches life lessons to his schoolboys with a new game – football.

Another sport – sculling – is in the picture on March 15 with “Westwind”, in which the bond between sisters on the East German rowing team is tested as they meet two boys while practicing for the 1988 Olympics.

A variety of subjects and styles is on show on March 16 with “Short and Sweet IV”, a compliation of nine live-action and animated short films by young German filmmakers. While the films may differ greatly, they have one thing in common – they were all either nominated for, or won, a much-coveted Academy Award.

The Oscar winners are 1989’s “Balance” by Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein, 1993’s “Black Rider”, about discrimination on a bus, the 1996 animated short “Quest” and 2000’s “Quiero Ser”. 

The award-winning “Barbara” screens on March 22. Set in East Germany in the 1980s, it’s about a young East Berlin doctor (Nina Hoss) who wants to leave East Germany but is assigned to a rural clinic. She bides her time while she waits for a chance to defect. Directed by Christian Petzold, it won the Silver Bear at the Berlin fest in 2012. 

That’s followed on March 23 by “Cracks in the Shell”, in which a drama student has mind games played on her by a professor. He tells her she’s invisible, just before she has a major audition.

“Hotel Lux” on March 29 has a comedian (Michael Herbig) fleeing the Nazis in 1938. With a Russian passport, instead of the American one he preferred, the comic turns up at Moscow’s Hotel Lux where everyone thinks he is Hitler’s personal astrologer.

All the features so far have been recent works from Germany’s film industry, but the closing film on March 30 goes back to 1950. It’s director Josef von Báky’s “Two Times Lotte” (“Das doppelte Lottchen”), the first film adaptation of “Lottie and Lisa”, the story of twin girls separated at birth who are reunited at summer camp. The children’s book by Erich Kästner has been adapted into several films, including Disney’s “The Parent Trap”.

 

 

Free tickets

_ Shows are at 4pm. Tickets are free and can be reserved by calling (02) 287-0942-4 ext 80/82 or by e-mail at [email protected].