Toni Erdmann, drama/comedy (2016)

Thursday 21 March, 19:00

Winfried Conradi works as a teacher, but also sees himself as a clown who confuses people again and again with his often crude jokes. He has long since separated from his wife, and his daughter Ines is a stranger to him; they only see each other occasionally and call each other for birthdays, nothing more. But then Winfried decides to visit Ines in Bucharest, where she works for a consulting firm. Involuntarily, the daughter takes her father in, but after spending a weekend together full of misunderstandings and unpleasant scenes, they say a dry goodbye. And when Ines goes out in the evening to have some fun, she and her friends are unexpectedly approached by a man wearing a wig and an artificial jaw: it's Winfried, who is now impersonating Toni Erdmann.

Director Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann is a masterpiece not just of German cinema, but of international cinema as well. The film is much more than the sum of its parts.

This time, Ade is talking about personalities who are often unbearable, and uses her gift for accurately depicting personal relationships and family circumstances to its full potential: She stays very close to her ambivalent characters for two and a half hours, and together with her brilliant actors Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek, she turns "Toni Erdmann" into a tense yet extremely entertaining, intense and perceptive film.

Languages: German and English with Russian subtitles

Ostwind, adventure film for young people (2013)

Friday 22 March, 5pm

Mika is furious. She's been left behind, and with her friend, she accidentally sets fire to her teacher's car. Mica's parents announce a change of plans: instead of summer camp, she will now spend the whole summer cramming - and as luck would have it, not anywhere, but at her austere grandmother's stables. Although Mica has no idea about horses, she's thinking about other things there than sitting at her books, guarded by groom Sam. In the darkest stable stall, she finds a wild and fearful stallion named Austwind (East Wind). Neither Michelle, the best horsewoman of the yard, nor Micky's grandmother can tame the dangerous horse. Feeling a mysterious attraction for the restless animal, she sneaks into the stable despite all warnings. Thus begins an unusual friendship, in which Mika discovers a real passion and a special gift: she understands the language of horses! Will she succeed - against all odds - in taming East wind?

Language: German with Russian subtitles 

Der Bauer bleibst du, a documentary (2013)

Friday, March 22, 7 p.m.

For over four hundred years, the Inzing farm in Tyrol has been home to the Wanner family, who have lived there largely self-sufficiently. However, with no descendants, Heinz is the last of his family to farm.  To ensure his continued existence, 82-year-old Heinz looks around the village in search of a successor. His choice falls on twenty-year-old Johannes, who has just graduated from agricultural school. From now on, Johannes accompanies the old man in his daily work. Even if Heinz could now arrange his perfect old age: he remains a farmer, because life without work does not exist for him. Director Benedikt Kübi paints a fascinating portrait of a "stuck in time" farmer and craftsman who believes in tradition and does not allow himself to be influenced by the spirit of the times.

Language: German with Russian subtitles

Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten, a comedy for young people (2014)

Saturday, 23 March, 5pm

Ten-year-old Riko considers himself a gifted child. He lives with his mother in Diffenbachstraße in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, where he usually plays alone because Riko has not yet had a real friend. This situation changes when one day he meets a boy who also has his own view of the world. Although Oscar, who is two years younger than Rico, is a prodigy, he lives in constant fear of his surroundings and therefore always wears a protective helmet on his head for safety. These two very different people soon become close friends, contrary to expectation, which is good because Rico's mother has to travel to visit her seriously ill brother and leave her son alone. With a friend like Oscar, it's not so scary, so Rico isn't sad and instead looks forward to meeting his new best friend.  But Oscar doesn't show up because the notorious kidnapper "Mr 2000" has struck again and kidnapped the boy. Rico must muster all his courage to uncover the child kidnapper's plot and rescue his friend.

Language: German with Russian subtitles

Bruder Jakob, documentary (2016)

Saturday, 23 March, 19:00

"Brother Jacob" tells the story of a young man in search of a religion that will give meaning to his life. On this journey, Jacob is accompanied by his brother Eli, the director of this film. Jacob, at 23, converts to Islam and becomes increasingly radical, coming into conflict with friends and family who are uncomprehending and even resentful of his new-found faith and the zeal with which he defends it.

Eli Roland Sachs' observations and conversations reveal how Jacob and his religious views have changed over time. In doing so, the film succeeds not only in capturing a deeply personal dialogue with his brother, but also in reflecting with utmost clarity the debates in society about freedom of expression and religion, about the foreign and the native, about the thin line between the coveted spiritual support in religion and its dangerous ideological absorption of the individual.

Languages: German and Arabic with Russian subtitles

Magical Mystery oder die Rückkehr des Karl Schmidt,  Comedy (2017)

Sunday, 24 March, 17:00

The plot of The Magical Mystery unfolds in Germany in the 1990s, a few years after German reunification: unlike many other Germans, Karl Schmidt could not cope with this turn of events. After the fall of the wall, the junkie artist suffered a nervous breakdown and ended up in a psychiatric hospital. When Karl finally left the asylum, Germany had changed. He feels it best when he meets some of his old friends in Hamburg. After all, they have now risen up - they have become musicians and want to go with their techno label as celebrity stars on a magical rave tour of Germany. As they need a non-drinking driver to do this, they lure Karl out of his supervised self-help community and take him along on a crazy car trip in which they want to merge the hippies of the 60s with the ravers of the 90s.

Language: German with Russian subtitles

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht, documentary  (2017)

Sunday, 24 March, 19:00

"When I think of Germany at night, I lose sleep" is how Heinrich Heine's "Night Thoughts" begins.  And in the same way, Romuald Karmakar called his film about the techno scene in Germany, because insomnia is the hallmark of prodigal and prowling nights and club culture. Inviting established DJs and musicians such as Sonia Muner, Ricardo Villalobos, Roman Wing, Move D and Ata Macias to make the film, the filmmaker showed before the camera some very special characters who have a deeper approach to music than just throwing out another dance hit.

Heidelberg-born David Mufang, known in the scene as Move D, spontaneously develops an entire cosmology of music from his childhood memories.

Geneva resident Sonja Muner uses her own club experience to explain the power and strength of electronic dance music to bridge countries and generations, and how Calvinism has hindered the development of music in her homeland.

Ata Macias, who lives in Frankfurt, recalls how his music was shaped by Kraftwerk and the records of one black Gls next door, and how club music in Germany and the US mutually influenced each other.

The main characters in the film have all been doing their own thing since the '90s and talk about themselves, their subculture and the development of electronic music in Germany with an appropriately broad outlook.

Languages: German and French with Russian subtitles