For the 10th annual German Currents festival, ten of the best films of the past year were selected from Germany and German-speaking neighbors Switzerland and Austria. All of these films make their Los Angeles premieres at the Egyptian Theatre, and several programs include discussions with the filmmakers in person.
Our series begins on October 20th with Wolfgang Becker’s ME AND KAMINSKI, a tragicomic road trip teaming a once-famous painter with an opportunistic journalist. The festival will screen HEIDI as a free student matinee; the new adaptation of Johanna Spyri’s classic novel was a German and Bavarian Film Award winner for Best Children’s Film. With a title recalling Alain Resnais’ classic love story, FUKUSHIMA, MON AMOUR pairs a German woman eager to bring joy to the elderly survivors of the 2011 nuclear disaster with one of those survivors – Fukushima’s last geisha. Intense drama 24 WEEKS raises questions every parent hopes they never need to answer when an unborn child is diagnosed with severe birth defects.
TOMCAT poses a dilemma that’s much more common – how do you react when an outburst makes you lose trust in your partner? Gerd Schneider’s THE CULPABLE also examines a crisis of confidence when a priest’s colleague is accused of sexual abuse. Peter Kurth stars as a former East German boxer looking for redemption in the gritty drama A HEAVY HEART. Annekatrin Hendel’s new documentary FASSBINDER profiles the enfant terrible of the New German Cinema. Unorthodox relationships take center stage in the closing double feature of our series. In Nicolette Krebitz’s aptly titled WILD, an introverted office drone bonds with a wolf, while the title character of ALOYS gets to know a mysterious woman strictly over the telephone.
All films in German with English subtitles unless noted. Series compiled by Fareed Majari, Daniel Chaffey and Gwen Deglise, with the assistance of Cinematheque programming interns. Program notes by Francesca Krampe, Daniel Chaffey and John Hagelston.
Location: Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Dates: October 20th – October 23rd
For tickets and more information, click here
The 10th annual German Currents Film Festival is produced and presented by the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and the American Cinematheque, with the support of German Films, Deutsche Welle (DW) and the Friends of Goethe, and in cooperation with the German Consulate General, the Austrian Consulate General and the Consulate General of Switzerland.