The Silent Revolution

Director: Lars Kraume
Germany│2018│Colour│111' 00" │
In German with English & Chinese subtitles

11/10 (Thu) 7:30pm

Awards:
Best Young Actor, Bavarian Film Awards 2018
Best National Director, Munich Film Festival 2018 

Nominations:
Outstanding Feature Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, German Film Awards 2018

Festival:
Special Gala, Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) 2018

Based on remarkable true events and adapted from Dietrich Garstka’s eponymous book, The Silent Revolution is a captivating Cold War-era drama that enjoyed its World Premiere in the Special Gala of the 2018 Berlinale International Film Festival.

It’s 1956 and during a visit to West Berlin, high school students Theo and Kurt witness dramatic footage of the Budapest uprising. Back at school in Stalinstadt, in the GDR, they spontaneously hold a two minute silence during class in solidarity with the victims of the Hungarian struggle against Soviet oppression. But the gesture causes much bigger ripples than expected. The People's Education Minister condemns the action as a counterrevolutionary act and demands that the ringleader be named, forcing the students to choose between standing together or not.
 

Transit

Director: Christian Petzold
Germany, France │2018│Colour│101' 00" │
In German & French with English & Chinese subtitles

13/10 (Sat) 4pm*
*Cinematographer Hans Fromm will attend post-screening discussion.

Award:
Best Film, Nuremberg Film Festival 2018

Nominations:
Golden Bear – Best Film, Berlinale 2018
Best Film, Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Film 2018
Best Film, Sydney Film Festival 2018
Lea van Leer Award, Jerusalem Film Festival 2018

The German troops are just outside Paris. Georg escapes to Marseille at the last moment. His luggage contains the legacy of a writer named Weidel, who took his own life out of fear of persecution. This legacy comprises a manuscript, some letters and the Mexican Embassy’s assurance of a visa. Assuming the identity of Weidel, Georg tries to obtain one of the few scarce passages on a ship. He befriends Driss, the son of his late comrade Heinz, who died whilst trying to flee. But when Georg meets the mysterious Marie, his plans change…

Berlinale Silver Bear-winning director Petzold (Phoenix) transposes the characters from Anna Seghers’ eponymous novel – written during the renowned author’s wartime exile – to contemporary Marseille, where refugees from the past and present co-exist, and where their stories combine to create one eternal transit space.

Whatever Happens

Director: Niels Laupert
Germany│2017│Colour│100' 00"│
In German with English subtitles

13/10 (Sat) 2pm

Nominations:
Best Director, Best Producer and Best Screenwriter, Munich International Film Festival 2017

A rollercoaster ride through all stages of a modern relationship and begins where other love stories end, with the last night of a separating couple. Dutch shooting star Sylvia Hoeks and Fahri Yardim show outstanding on-screen chemistry and deliver nuanced performances in this authentic and emotionally inspiring depiction of falling in love.

Hannah and Julian were in love and long together; Seven years later, they have decided to go different paths and meet for a last time to empty out their shared apartment, which they hope will be quick and painless. No such luck! The hand-over flops and the two arguing exes are stuck together on New Year’s Eve repainting the entire apartment.

303

14/10 (Sun) 2pm

Nomination:

Generation 14plus - Best Film, Berlinale 2018

Festivals:

Generation 14plus, Berlinale 2018

Transilvania IFF 2018
ESPOO Ciné 2018

When biology student Jule finds out she is pregnant, she sets out for Portugal to find her boyfriend Alex. Traveling in a rusty Mercedes “303” campervan, she picks up hitchhiker Jan at a gas station outside Berlin. While on the road, they have impassioned and deep conversations about capitalism, human nature, love and the meaning of life. Their trip becomes an emotional roller coaster, which finds them desperately trying not to fall in love with each other… Hans Weingartner sends his protagonists on an exciting road trip across Europe, with their palpable chemistry igniting their hot-button conversations. Socio-political depth and a tender love story meld into a captivating, light-handed, profoundly moving boy-meets-girl story.

Blue My Mind

Director: Lisa Brühlmann
Switzerland │2017│Colour│97' 00"│
In Swiss German with English & Chinese subtitles

Awards:
Best Director, The Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis 2018
Best Fiction Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Swiss Film Award 2018
Golden Eye, Critics’ Choice Award, Zurich Film Festival 2017

Nominations:
Best Performance in a Supporting Act, Best Film Editing, Best Film Score, Best Cinematography, Swiss Film Award 2018 
 

Just before the summer vacation 15-year-old Mia and her parents move to the suburbs of Zürich. She has long felt estranged from her parents, and when she asks whether she might be adopted her mother becomes offended – but doesn’t reply. While Mia plunges into a wild teenager existence in an attempt to cope with it all, her body begins to change oddly. First hardly noticeably, but then with a force that threatens to drive her out of her mind. In her despair she attempts to numb herself with sex and drugs, hoping to halt the tidal wave that is overwhelming her. But nature is more powerful. Mia’s transformation progresses inexorably, and she turns into the being which has slumbered within her for years… and is now gaining the upper hand.
 

The Garden

Director: Sonja Maria Kröner
Germany│2017│ Colour│97' 00"│
In German with English & Chinese subtitles

16/10 (Tue) 8pm

Awards:

Best Screenplay, Bavarian Film Awards 2018

Best Production, Best Direction, Munich Film Festival 2017 - Young German Cinema Awards

Nominations:

Best Feature Film Debut, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, German Film Critics Association Awards 2018

Best Screenplay, Miami Film Festival 2018

Aurora Award, Tromsø International Film Festival 2018

1976, the height of summer. A heat wave. Everybody is sweating. The wasps are even more aggressive than usual. In the midst of it all, a German family who are spending the dog days in their communal garden – just as they always do. Yet the passing of their overbearing matriarch Sophie reveals fine cracks in the family’s relationships while subtly changing how they interact. While the adults argue about the sale of the property, the children are free to roam the garden and the neighborhood. Suddenly the news of the disappearance of a little girl disrupts the placid summer idyll…

Styx

17/10 (Wed) 8pm

Awards:
Heiner Carow Prize, Label Prize Europa Cinemas, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Berlin International Film Festival 2018
Audience Award – Best Film, Schwerin Art of Film Festival 2018
Best Creative Performance, Emden International Film Festival 2018
Best Actress, Best Cinematographer, Valletta Film Festival 2018

Nominations:
Panorama Audience Award – Best Film, Berlinale 2018
Golden Firebird Award – Young Cinema, HKIFF 2018
 

Rike - 40, a doctor from Europe - embodies a typical Western model of happiness and success. She is educated, confident, determined and committed. We see Rike’s everyday life, as an emergency doctor, before she fulfils a long-held dream and sails out to sea alone in her sailing boat. Her goal: Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean. But her dream holiday is quickly broken off on the high seas, when, after a storm, she finds herself near a stricken fishing boat. Around a hundred people are about to drown. Rike follows maritime law and radios for help. As her request is going nowhere, she is forced to make a fatal decision.

Away You Go

Director: Philipp Eichholtz
Germany│2018│ Colour│77' 00│
In German with English subtitles

18/10 (Thu) 8pm

Festival:
Opening Film of Perspektive Deutsches Kino, Berlinale 2018 
 

They say it’s easier growing up than being a grown-up. Berliner Charlie is certainly struggling between her own expectations and those of the others around. Her boyfriend Marco wants a baby, but Charlie fears that it would mean her losing sight of herself. Her job as a teacher is often pretty demanding, her beloved grandmother has fallen ill and her relationship isn’t going too well. If only she could reclaim just a little of the old exciting times dancing the night away… Her colleague Gerry buys himself a motor caravan and heads to the Balkans, and Charlie’s best friend is backpacking around Asia. Why is everyone around changing and why is her life is at a standstill? What Charlie needs, is a breath of fresh air.