KinoFest is the Goethe-Institut's annual festival in Southeast Asia and New Zealand for contemporary German cinema. This year's curated programme will take place from 2nd to 10th of November at the Vic Devonport in Auckland.
Curated by film expert Lisabona Rahman, the 2024 Kinofest program aims to highlight cinema's role in bridging cultural gaps, creating a shared space for empathy and pleasure, and reflecting the evolving tapestry of German society and beyond.
Curatorial Statement: Global Ties, Personal Journeys
It is 2024, almost a quarter into the 21st century. Germany is a country with a society growing increasingly diverse and complex, striving to embrace this reality by adjusting itself to represent multiple voices, particularly through its younger population.
The Kinofest 2024 program takes youth as a focal point to experience society, both through fictional and documentary characters. Through their eyes, we are invited to learn about the journey of self-discovery, navigating changes in countries and cultures, as young people shape their identities and become more independent. The world continues to develop different ties that bind it together, yet each journey is personal, situated within starkly contrasting realities that grow stronger each day. Cinema proposes ways to connect and to take notice of voices from different positions, and this is precisely the space we want to offer through this festival.
The German film industry has a long history of harboring diverse talents since the late 19th century, rich with experiments in genre, style, and languages. The available filmmaking infrastructure, from film studios to subsidy systems, film schools, and festivals, has made it possible for a broad range of talents to bring their ideas to life and realize them as cinematic visions. Filmmakers of diverse heritage and lived experiences find their personal expression in cinema, introducing new ways to reinvent existing storytelling traditions. They don’t just tell stories differently; they also tell different stories. To do so, they explore various possibilities: what if we could creatively fabulate the past using computer graphic tools or moving paintings?
These cinematic experiments offer the audience adventures into the vast space of imagination. Kinofest features films that are records of real stories, dealing with collective loss and pain, as well as growing up, discovering one’s purpose in life, and forming a family or community. This form of cinema allows us to reflect on the challenges of German society today, dealing with the traces of traumatic past and the history of violent reactions to migrant communities. The program also features crafted stories of disfavored romances, mystery, moral dilemmas, and growing friendships. Alongside the documentaries, they provide a comprehensive glimpse of recent releases that have successfully toured cinemas or festivals in Germany and abroad. All films show a strong connectivity on a global level, with each personal journey offering a unique experience to learn from the challenges of migration, disability, or gender issues.
By featuring these diverse narratives, Kinofest 2024 aims to highlight the role of cinema to bridge cultural gaps, illustrate national contexts, and create a shared space for empathy and pleasure, reflecting the ever-evolving tapestry of German society and beyond.
Five personalities are trapped in an overnight taxi ride from Munich to Hamburg. Unintended conversations peel layer after layer of life stories, unfolding a tapestry of diversity in today’s German society.
A suspenseful tale in the Swiss mountains, during an international physicists' congress. Bizarre clouds and mountain secrets frame a scientific struggle and mysterious romance, all in contemporary black-and-white cinema.
Curious Tobi and the Treasure Hunt to the Flying Rivers
Tobi gets a mysterious treasure chest. To solve the chest's riddle, Tobi needs to find his childhood best friend Marina which takes him on an epic adventure across Vietnam, Mongolia, and the Amazon rainforest.
Carla, a young teacher, faces the school's strict policy against thieves. However, is this policy truly fair? Carla is caught in a dilemma: stand up for justice or bow to her community’s pressure.
Anna is a security officer, living with her daughter Iris in a luxurious high-rise on the edge of the forest. Living here, shielded from the threatening environment, is the goal of many people. However, when the caretaker's dog disappears, fear creeps into the building beneath the threshold.
On a beautiful summer day, siblings Kyona and Adriel's lives change when their village is raided. Their family's journey for peace is depicted in oil-painted glass, switching between the fantastic and the real world.
Agnes won a prestigious cooking competition and started her internship. She paves a career from one luxury restaurant to another in Europe, where only 6% of women remain in the profession. Agnes intends to challenge this inequality.
Little Lore witnessed her mother being deported to a concentration camp. Since then, she became silent about many things and chose to copy and archive news. Kim, Lore's child, tries to initiate conversations and trace the family's painful history.
A documentary film protagonist in a city disappears. A young child with piercing gaze that goes right through everyone. Tension mounts as fear and threats span over generations, masterminded by a spy organization.
Mona, a Kurdish-Syrian transfer student in multicultural Berlin, uses her football skills to ease into her new high school and make friendship. She misses her aunt, a freedom fighter for a land that her family had to leave behind.
East Germany's extinction left young people jobless. Love fueled life, while anger and frustration turned to aggression and racism. The film stretches 'ostalgia' genre, blending it with sharp social criticism.
What’s in a name? The burden of life, says director Narges Kalhor. Wrestling with her personal history and experiences as a refugee migrant, she retells her story in a vibrant, witty yet poignant cinematic language.
