Dear Readers,
It’s now half-time in this year’s film calendar. After a good start at the Berlinale, there were also some key invitations and wonderful premieres for German productions at the festivals during the late spring. The German production THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG by Mohammad Rasoulof, in particular, attracted considerable attention at the Festival de Cannes. It wasn’t clear for some time in the run-up to the festival whether the Iranian director would be able to present his film in person on the Croisette. So, the reception given to him was even greater when Rasoulof was actually able to travel to Cannes after escaping from Iran. The drama made a a great impression and was awarded several prizes by the festival juries, including the Special Prize in the Competition and the FIPRESCI Prize.
There was also an award for XOFTEX by Noaz Deshe in Karlovy Vary. The docu-fiction, which screened in the Crystal Globe Competition at the festival in June, received a Special Mention from the jury. There may not have been any prizes in Shanghai for ANOTHER GERMAN TANK STORY by Jannis Alexander Kiefer, but the black comedy, which also screened there in the Main Competition, was a hit with the audience.
Now we can look forward to the summer festivals with a sense of anticipation since several German films have been invited to screen in their programmes: a total of eleven German productions and co-productions will be shown in the competition sections at Locarno this year, including DEATH WILL COME by Christoph Hochhäusler in the Concorso Internaionale, DER FLECK by Willy Hans in the Concorso Cineasti Del Presenti, and four German majority-produced short films in the Pardi di Domani – Concorso Internazionale. The aforementioned drama THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG by Mohammad Rasoulof will also be screened in a re-edited version on the Piazza Grande.
The official line-up for Toronto won’t be announced until mid-August, but it’s already been confirmed that SAD JOKES by Fabian Stumm will be screened in the Discovery sidebar. A number of German productions and co-productions will also be screened in Venice this year, including Andres Veiel’s eagerly anticipated documentary RIEFENSTAHL about the controversial director Leni Riefenstahl, which has been programmed in the Out of Competition section. Sandra Maischberger, who produced the film with her company Vincent Productions, talks about the making of the film in a portrait featured in this issue of GFQ. Another German film screening in Venice is THE WITNESS by Nader Saeivar, which has been invited to the Orrizonti - Extra Competition.
Half-time also means that the first half of our anniversary year is now over. We have received some wonderful feedback from various quarters about the 70 years of German Films, we had an inspiring dialogue at our receptions and was able to look back on the past seven decades at events presenting the retrospective of major German films. This issue of GFQ sees German filmmakers and friends of German Films remembering important milestones.
We are also now looking forward to spending the second half of this year marking our anniversary and, above all, celebrating German cinema.
Simone Baumann, Managing Director