18 October 2019
Berlinale Selection 2019

A new film series by the Goethe-Institut Cyprus

With the "Berlinale Selection 2019" taking place from 5 to 30 November 2019, the Goethe-Institut Cyprus is launching a new film series presenting a selection of the best German language films from the most prestigious German film festival – the Berlinale. The film series gives the opportunity to audiences in Cyprus to get to know the best works in German contemporary cinema, with a focus on current winners of this German film award.

The programme includes new works of well-known filmmakers such as Caroline Link (Oscar winner) and Andreas Dresen, as well as exciting film debuts by David Nawrath and Nora Fingscheidt, who won a Silver Bear with her debut film System crasher.

In line with the festival motto of 2019 "the private is political", the Goethe-Institut Cyprus is showing five films, which show in a suspenseful, dramatic or tragicomical way how people come to terms with their personal destiny and how much political and private influence one another. Questions, that are not limited to the German everyday life.

All about me (Der Junge muss an die frische Luft) tells the childhood story of famous German comedian Hape Kerkeling, who, despite his gift of humour, fails to help his mother in her depression. Young actor Julius Weckauf, who received the Young Actors Award for his performance, brilliantly portrays him. Caroline Link received the Bavarian Film Prize for Best Directing.

"System crasher is the marvel of this Berlinale!" writes die WELT. With great casting, Helena Zengel, lends Benni's expressive fury a delicate face. System crasher was screened at numerous festivals, following Berlinale, where it received multiple awards. Among them are the 23rd Sofia International Film Festival, where it received the Award for Best Director, the Molodist – 47th International Film Festival Kiev, where it received the Award of the Ecumenical Jury as well as the 30th International Film Festival Emden-Norderney, where it received two further awards. At the Berlinale this film was screened in the Competition Section and received the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Award.

UPCOMING writes about actress Maren Eggert's performance in I was at home, but…: "Maren Eggert in the role of Astrid explores the entire emotional spectrum of motherhood and existence, frustration, defensiveness, love". VARIETY writes about the director Angela Schandelec: "Elegant and elliptical… Those who are open to it, will be highly rewarded with what defines Schanelec’s signature virtues: vignettes of piercing human truth and cool, cockeyed humor; gorgeous first-chill-of-autumn atmospherics; and a seductively restful pace at which to puzzle it all out." At the Berlinale this film was screened in the Competition Section and received the Silver Bear for Best Director.

The theatre star Rainer Bock, who among others played in The white ribbon by Michael Haneke and Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino and who appeared in the British TV series SS-GB, plays the leading role in Nawrath's dense film debut Atlas (The Mover). DIE WELT AM SONNTAG writes: "Bock is someone who can make the invisible visible. Bock is someone who - through a sharp glance, a turning of the head, menacing furrows – transforms in minutes a minimum of text into living people, playing out the physical states of their psyches".

The series concludes with the award-winning film Gundermann, which received six German film awards in 2019: Best Feature Film, Best Direction, Best Leading Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. The singer Gerhard Gundermann is brilliantly set in centre stage by Alexander Scheer. "Gundermann is one of the richest, most differentiated, greatest films about the GDR. And perhaps the best that Dresen ever made, because his philanthropy here cannot end up in the parking lot of reconciliation. There remains something open in Gundermann" writes SPIEGEL online.

With these exciting, comical and moving films, the Goethe-Institut Cyprus is launching the Berlinale Selection film series, which in this year will take place in November at the ARTos Foundation and the Naci Talat Foundation in Nicosia and at Technopolis 20 in Paphos.

Berlinale Selection 2019 is taking place within the framework of the Weeks of the German language.