KINO! German Film Fest 2015 Comes to NYC

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 02 March 2015 23:13

Written by Renzo Adler

For over 35 years, KINO! has been the name in bringing daring German cinema to NYC. From April 9th to 16th, 2015, KINO! will exhibit ten feature-length German films at Cinema Village (22 E 12th St, New York, NY). Organized by German Films, the national information and advisory center for German cinema abroad, KINO! opens with the East Coast premiere of Tour De Force from director Christian Zübert. Emphasizing the theme of overcoming obstacles, three of the directors are first time filmmakers and four of the films were directed by women.

Films being shown include:

• About a Girl by Mark Monheim
  A bittersweet coming-of-age drama about the 15-year old Charleen, whose obsessively bleak observations and her capacity for scorn seem unlimited. Her trainee-ship at the local mortuary make the dead look happy to her. A failed suicide by hairdryer lands her at the psychologist’s office where she finds unexpected romance in the form of the class nerd.
  
  
• Beltracchi – The Art of Forgery by Arne Birkenstock
  This feature-length documentary follows Wolfgang Beltracchi, a self-taught and by now incarcerated painter who committed arguably the greatest art crime of the post-War era. For almost 40 years, he hoodwinked the art world not by forging pre-existing artworks but rather by producing canvases that he and his wife, Helene, passed off as previously unknown works by a set of 20th-century masters.

• Flights of Fancy by Christian Bach
  Young Simon faces adulthood with an overabundance of choices to make: will he become an architect like his father, how can he get the attention of Verena, an attractive hospital assistant? His biggest priority is sheltering his schizophrenic father from harming himself and the family, while trying to cling to a semblance of normalcy. When his father’s condition worsens, Simon learns that he can help his father and himself by providing a loving stability and accepting the ‘new’ normal for what it is.  Simon is played by actor Jonas Nay who also stars in the TV series DEUTSCHLAND 83 which Sundance TV is premiering this Spring.

 

• The King’s Surrender by Phillipp Leinemann
  Violent youth gangs and a police force way out of its depth. When a police operation goes awry and two policemen die, the powder keg threatens to ignite as the SWAT team knows only one goal: revenge - irrespective of the law. Everything starts with young Nassim, an immigrant boy trying too hard to belong. THE KING’S SURRENDER won Best Narrative Feature at the Austin Film Festival in 2014.

 

• The Lies of the Victors by Christoph Hochhäusler
  A riveting political thriller about Fabian Groys, the rising young star of a Berlin-based political news magazine, who discovers a slush fund behind the placement of sick army veterans into industrial waste jobs. The film deftly explores the grey area where investigative journalism meets the murky world of political lobbyists.

 

• The Pasta Detectives by Neele Leana Vollmar
  Based on a wildly popular German children’s book (available in English in the US as The Spaghetti Detectives), The Pasta Detectives revolves around Rico (10), a self-described “lowly gifted child.” When he meets Oskar, who is quick to say he’s “highly gifted”, life jumps into higher gear for Rico. When a serial child kidnapper, Mr. 2000, takes Oskar, Rico turns detective. Rico must now use his heightened skills of observation and unravel the clues that will rescue his friend.

 

• Schmitke by Ŝtepán Altrichter
  Julius Schmitke is a fifty-seven-year-old German wind turbine engineer, who travels to the Czech side of the Ore Mountains to fix one of his old models. Ever a believer in the power of engineering and rationality, he finds himself unable to analyze the forces at work. His colleague disappears, strange things happen, and Schmitke starts to "feel" the spirit of the forest around him.

 

• To Life! by Uwe Janson
  Two German stars face each other in this moving drama, with Hannelore Elsner playing Ruth, a Jewish former cabaret singer and the young, aimless Jonas (Max Riemelt, next season of SENSE8) who drives her to an elder care center. Jonas resembles Viktor, a young man she used to love, and despite many obstacles, they form a deep connection. Ruth gets a new lease on life, while Jonas comes to terms with his own health and mortality.

 

• Who Am I – No System is Safe by Baran bo Odar
  Who Am I – No System is Safe is a timely cyber thriller from director Baran bo Odar featuring rising star Tom Schilling as Benjamin, a socially awkward nobody who leaps to fame and recognition in the world of underground hacking and, with new-found friends, undertakes a spree of pranks and online criminal acts that have violent and, ultimately, deadly consequences. The director is in pre-production for the action thriller Sleepless Nights starring Jamie Foxx and Michelle Monaghan.

 

These films go from dizzying highs to despairing lows, all while showing the ingenuity of German filmmakers. KINO continues to bring German cinema at its most exciting.

To learn more, go to: http://www.kinofestivalnyc.com/

KINO!
April 9 - 16, 2015

Cinema Village
22 E 12th St.
New York, NY 10003