City, Country, River

Goethe on Demand: Filmseries “City, Country, River” (Key Visual) © UFA Fiction 2018 / Schuldenberg Films, Smina Bluth / Basthorster Filmmanufaktur

The film series City, Country, River takes us through the diversity of German cities, villages and landscapes with a selection of twelve feature and documentary films. The films focus on regions and places away from the well-known big cities, inviting viewers to take a multi-layered look at the realities of life in Germany.

Over a period of twelve months, the City, Country, River film series will take us through various locales and regions in Germany. In films and series, the portrayal of everyday German realities is usually characterised by large cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne. The big city backdrop has established itself as a popular setting for a wide variety of stories and genres. However, it alone cannot capture life in Germany in its geographical breadth. In fact, only just under ten per cent of the total German population live in these metropolises. A significant proportion of life takes place in the numerous small to medium-sized towns and in rural areas.

The City, Country, River film series provides an alternative to the cinematic dominance of well-known big cities and embarks on a twelve-month journey through various underrepresented parts of Germany. It thus offers an opportunity to explore multifaceted portrayals of everyday life and challenges as well as identity and relationship issues of the people living there. The selected films not only provide insights into the complexity of German filmmaking, but also invite viewers to reflect on the diverse realities of life in the nation. The film series kicks off in January with the film Talking about the Weather by Annika Pinske, in which the capital city is left for provincial Mecklenburg. The cinematic journey takes us through tranquil villages and forests, along rivers and into vibrant small towns. Against often unfamiliar backdrops, stories of places and their inhabitants unfold that deal with things like non-conformity, the negotiation of role models and family conflicts. Universal themes, such as the relationship between town and country or questions of coexistence, are explored in specific local contexts.

The Films

November
Longing

Director: Valeska Grisebach
Year: 2006
Genre: Drama
Length: 85 min.

A village in Brandenburg serves as backdrop for a love story of epic proportions. Markus, a happily married master locksmith and member of the volunteer fire department, falls in love with a waitress while on an outing with his fellows and tumbles into a an emotional struggle.

Part of the annual series "City, Country, River"

December
Kiss my Wounds

Director: Hanna Doose
Year: 2022
Genre: Drama
Length: 116 min.

Laura and Jan have turned their backs on their turbulent lives in Berlin and moved to a farm in the Black Forest. After three years of silence, a conflict-ridden reunion of four former close friends takes place against a wintry backdrop.

Photo (detail): © Markus Zucker
October
Alaska

Director: Max Gleschinski
Year: 2022
Genre: Drama
Length: 124 min.

Kerstin paddles across the Mecklenburg Lake District in a red canoe. It slowly becomes clear what she is running away from, as the past catches up with her on the seemingly endless waters. Alaska is an atmospheric film about searching and finding, fleeing and drifting away.

Photo (detail): © Jacob Waak / Wood Water Films
September
Lene and the Spirits of the Forest

Director: Dieter Schumann
Year: 2020
Genre: Documentary
Length: 99 min.

Lene's initial lack of enthusiasm for the summer holiday in the Bavarian Forest soon turns into a huge lust for adventure because of what is found there: mythical figures, luminescent mushrooms, and tree houses – and along the way, big questions like humanity's responsibilities as part of nature.

Photo (detail): © Basthorster Filmmanufaktur
August
Full Metal Village

Director: Sung-Hyung Cho
Year: 2006
Genre: Documentary
Length: 90 min.

As cows graze under an open sky, raging heavy metal music from world-famous bands erupts. This is the world’s biggest heavy metal festival, where northern German farmers from the Holstein village Wacken rub shoulders with international hard-rock fans.

Part of the annual series "City, Country, River"

Photo (detail): © imago images / Mary Evans
July
Vacation

Director: Thomas Arslan
Year: 2007
Genre: Drama
Length: 91 min.

Summer, sunshine, holiday time, a remote country house in the northern German region of Uckermarck, and a family unit which is slowly crumbling apart. Vacation by Thomas Arslan is the portrait of four generations of a family, conceived as a construct of different love stories.

Part of the annual series "City, Country, River"

Photo (detail): © Peripher
June
No One's with the Calves

Director: Sabrina Sarabi
Year: 2021
Genre: Drama
Length: 116 min.

It's another hot and unfulfilled summer that Christin is spending in her home village in Mecklenburg. Her days of boredom and loneliness are interrupted when Klaus, a wind power engineer from Hamburg, appears.

Photo (detail): © Filmwelt Weydemann
May
Neubau

Director: Johannes Maria Schmit
Year: 2020
Genre: Drama
Length: 81 min.

Markus lives in the Uckermark. He is a trans man temping at an ostrich farm, jogging, thinking about sex. He lovingly cares for his grandmothers. Nevertheless, Markus is lonely. Neubau takes a look at loneliness outside the cities, and the loneliness in the east of the republic.

Photo (detail): © Schuldenberg Films – Smina Bluth
April
Walchensee Forever

Director: Janna Ji Wonders
Year: 2020
Genre: Documentary
Length: 110 min.

En excursion café on Bavaria’s Lake Walchen becomes the starting point for this female-centred family epic spanning four generations of women. It is a cinematic journey into a century of self-realisation and sense of duty, and the search for one's roots and destiny.

Part of the annual series "City, Country, River"

© Flare Film
March
Memory of a Landscape – For Manuela

Director: Kurt Tetzlaff
Year: 1983
Genre: Documentary
Length: 84 min.

The destruction of two Saxon villages for open-cast lignite mining is portrayed over a period of three years. This GDR documentary film proves to be bitterly topical.

Part of the annual series "City, Country, River"

© DEFA Stiftung Eberh
February
All about Me

Director: Caroline Link
Year: 2018
Genre: Biopic, comedy, drama
Length: 100 min.

Young Hans-Peter realises early that he has the gift of making the people around him laugh. Based on the memoirs of comedian Hape Kerkeling, the film tells the story of his childhood in the Ruhr Valley shaped by coal dust and the carnival season.

Part of the annual series "City, Country, River"

© UFA Fiction 2018
January
Talking about the Weather

Director: Annika Pinske
Year: 2022
Genre: Drama
Length: 89 min.

For her mother's birthday, Clara, a PhD student in philosophy, travels from Berlin to the Mecklenburg province. A social study about home and its influence, post-reunification traumas and milieus from which one can emancipate oneself but never completely overcome.

Part of the annual series "City, Country, River"

© DFFB New Matter Films pennybooth production