Discussion about Michael Schorr’s tragicomedy

KINO! Film Salon is a monthly online club to discuss films from Germany.
 
How it works: Each month we choose a German film or series currently available to stream on U.S. platforms, watch it independently, and come together for a hosted conversation with other fans of German film.
 
In our November session, we will talk about Michael Schorr’s tragicomedy Schultze Gets the Blues, a folksy, eccentric delight.  Register Horst Krause plays Schultze, an earnest mineworker of simple pleasures who suddenly finds his uneventful life flipped upside down. So, with his trusty accordion by his side, he embarks on an oddball road trip from rural Germany to small-town Texas for a Polka festival. With warmth and gentle humor, Schorr concocts a surprisingly universal tale of art, community, and the ineffable desire to belong. There’s more than a touch of Aki Kaurismäki to the way this lovely film evolves into something that’s as much a celebration of life as it is an ode to the very American desire to follow one’s dreams, however modest they might seem.

Schultze Gets the Blues won the Special Director’s Award at the Venice Film Festival, Best Directorial Debut at the Stockholm International Film Festival, several awards at the Gijón Film Festival, and a German Film Award for Best Production Design.

Hosted by Jim Kolmar

Jim programs for SXSW and Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival, and was a founding committee member of Festival Internacional de Cine Tulum (FICTU). He has participated in numerous international festival juries, panels, and committees.
 
KINO! Film Salon is a production of Telescope Film, in partnership with the German Film Office.

Schultze Gets the Blues
Dir. Michael Schorr
Germany, 2003
114 minutes
With Horst Krause, Harald Warmbrunn, Karl-Fred Müller, Wilhelmine Horschig