KINO/23 German Film Festival
Venue: Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre
Date: 2023.10.12 - 2023.11.02
Price: Standard price: HK$85 each / Tickets are now available on POPTICKET.hk.
Welcome to KINO/23, the German Film Festival in Hong Kong and Macau!
This is the 25th edition of the German Film Festival, which was first held in 1998 under the name MAX!
This year we are once again showing a great choice of excellent new films from Germany: New German Cinema is marked by a strong presence of female directors, from the intense sibling drama "Kiss my Wounds" by Hanna Doose to Anita Decker's quirky comedy "Love Things". Among the German Masters, you'll find Fatih Akin's million-viewer success "Rheingold" as well as Christoph Hochhäusler's emotional drama "Till the End of the Night," which premiered at the Berlinale.
And we take a look Behind the Wall: For our wonderful opening film "In a Land That No Longer Exists”, we are pleased to welcome director Aelrun Goette in person for an audience talk.
The Goethe-Institut Hongkong celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, we invite you to re-encounter some of the great names of German cinema in the series Six Decades - Six Iconic Films, including Konrad Wolf, Wim Wenders and Tom Tykwer. Their films capture the spirit of an era and have become classics.
We look forward to welcoming you to this very special cinema experience at KINO/23!
KINO/23 German Film Festival @ Hong Kong Arts Centre
Opening Film
In A Land That No Longer Exists
In einem Land, das es nicht mehr gibt
Germany | 2022 | 101’ | Colour | In German with Chinese and English subtitles
Director: Aeltrun Goette
This is the 25th edition of the German Film Festival, which was first held in 1998 under the name MAX!
This year we are once again showing a great choice of excellent new films from Germany: New German Cinema is marked by a strong presence of female directors, from the intense sibling drama "Kiss my Wounds" by Hanna Doose to Anita Decker's quirky comedy "Love Things". Among the German Masters, you'll find Fatih Akin's million-viewer success "Rheingold" as well as Christoph Hochhäusler's emotional drama "Till the End of the Night," which premiered at the Berlinale.
And we take a look Behind the Wall: For our wonderful opening film "In a Land That No Longer Exists”, we are pleased to welcome director Aelrun Goette in person for an audience talk.
The Goethe-Institut Hongkong celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, we invite you to re-encounter some of the great names of German cinema in the series Six Decades - Six Iconic Films, including Konrad Wolf, Wim Wenders and Tom Tykwer. Their films capture the spirit of an era and have become classics.
We look forward to welcoming you to this very special cinema experience at KINO/23!
KINO/23 German Film Festival @ Hong Kong Arts Centre
Opening Film
In A Land That No Longer Exists
In einem Land, das es nicht mehr gibt
Germany | 2022 | 101’ | Colour | In German with Chinese and English subtitles
Director: Aeltrun Goette
12/10 (Thu) 19:45
* Director will attend the screening
Based on true events and personal experiences, Aelrun Goette’s film centres on the 18-year-old Suzie, who is thrown headfirst into the vibrant fashion scene in communist East Germany when a photo of her ends up on the cover of Sibylle, the Vogue of the East. Her abrupt transition from dreary factory life to the dazzling world of fashion doesn’t come without challenges: nothing is private, nothing is apolitical, and she realises that beauty also has its price.
German Masters
Till the End of the Night
Bis ans Ende der Nacht
Germany | 2023 | 122’ | Colour | In German with English subtitles
Director: Christoph Hochhäusler
13/10 (Fri) 20:00
Robert, an undercover, teams with Leni, who has been released on parole to play along, to gain the trust of a criminal, Victor, at a dance class. Robert and Leni – he gay, she trans – make a great couple and soon have the criminal on the hook. Or is it he who has entrapped them? And are there not more feelings at play in this supposedly fake love affair? Christoph Hochhäusler’s newest film is an ingenious portrait of the emotional intellect that is as witty as it is touching.
New German Cinema
Kiss My Wounds
Wann kommst du meine Wunde küssen
Germany | 2022 | 116’ | Colour | In German with English subtitles
Director: Hanna Doose
14/10 (Sat) 20:00
The acting technique of improvisation returns in Hanna Doose’s second feature film, which centres on two former best friends, Laura and Maria, who lost contact when Maria’s great love, Jan, cheated on her with Laura. After years of deliberate noncontact, the two women meet again in the Black Forest to mourn for the death of Kathi, Maria’s sister. Carefully repressed conflicts erupt on Maria’s arrival. Yet when everything seems lost, they try to make amends and give Kathi a dignified send-off.
German Masters
Rheingold
Germany, Italy, France| 2022 | 138’ | Colour | In German, Kurdish, Dutch, Arabic, English and Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Fatih Akin
15/10 (Sun) 19:30
Adapted from the autobiography “Alles oder Nix'' by German rapper and music producer Xatar. Fed with his Kurdish parents via Iraq, Xatar, born Giwar Hajabi, grows up in a social housing estate in Bonn, dreaming of fame and fortune. The teenage Xatar initially slips into petty crime, but soon advances to become an influential major dealer. When a cocaine shipment goes missing, he plans a large-scale gold heist to pay off debt. However, this does not go as planned.
KINO/23 German Film Festival: Six Decades - Six Iconic Films
1960S
The Divided Heaven
Der geteilte Himmel
East Germany | 1964 | 116’ | BD | B&W | In German with English subtitles
Director: Konrad Wolf
Der geteilte Himmel
East Germany | 1964 | 116’ | BD | B&W | In German with English subtitles
Director: Konrad Wolf
26/10 (Thu) 20:00
"Idealists and cynics, staying and leaving, love and duty, we and I. Clashing, through gallows humour and visual poetry. A modern ode to “broken generations” everywhere."
-- Clarence Tsui, film critic
Following a nervous breakdown, Rita Seidel returns to the village of her childhood. She has been told to get some proper rest. She wants to regain her strength and uses this period of convalescence to mull over her past. She had met Manfred Herrfurth, a chemist ten years her senior, and had fallen irresistibly in love with him precisely because his mind was so utterly unlike her own. He was uncommonly intelligent and a keen observer of both people and things. Rita is a natural, open-minded person, full of expectations for the future. Herrfurth, on the other hand, has become cynical as a result of bitter experience.
Rita moves to town to live with her lover, to begin a new life as it were and to become a teacher. Many things are new and thrilling; town life itself as well as her work. But living with Manfred turns out very differently from what she originally dreamt of. He is embittered and after seeing a chemical process which he has developed and whose realisation he has pinned his hopes on rejected, he becomes totally discouraged and leaves for West Berlin. He is convinced that Rita will follow him. But she does not. Being separated from him, taking leave of her great love, triggers a psychological crisis and breakdown. Of course, some wounds will remain, but Rita is a strong woman who will overcome this crisis.
-- Clarence Tsui, film critic
Following a nervous breakdown, Rita Seidel returns to the village of her childhood. She has been told to get some proper rest. She wants to regain her strength and uses this period of convalescence to mull over her past. She had met Manfred Herrfurth, a chemist ten years her senior, and had fallen irresistibly in love with him precisely because his mind was so utterly unlike her own. He was uncommonly intelligent and a keen observer of both people and things. Rita is a natural, open-minded person, full of expectations for the future. Herrfurth, on the other hand, has become cynical as a result of bitter experience.
Rita moves to town to live with her lover, to begin a new life as it were and to become a teacher. Many things are new and thrilling; town life itself as well as her work. But living with Manfred turns out very differently from what she originally dreamt of. He is embittered and after seeing a chemical process which he has developed and whose realisation he has pinned his hopes on rejected, he becomes totally discouraged and leaves for West Berlin. He is convinced that Rita will follow him. But she does not. Being separated from him, taking leave of her great love, triggers a psychological crisis and breakdown. Of course, some wounds will remain, but Rita is a strong woman who will overcome this crisis.
1970S
The American Friend
Der amerikanische Freund
West Germany, France | 1977 | 126’ | DCP | Colour | In German, French and English with English subtitles
Director: Wim Wenders
Der amerikanische Freund
West Germany, France | 1977 | 126’ | DCP | Colour | In German, French and English with English subtitles
Director: Wim Wenders
28/10 (Sat) 15:00
"Wenders took on American film noir for his international breakthrough - and it's the best of both worlds!"
-- Edmund Lee, film editor of South China Morning Post
Jonathan is a craftsman living with his family in the city of Hamburg where he has a small workshop for his painting. One day a Frenchman appears on the scene, making him an incredible offer - in exchange for 250 000 German Marks he is to travel to Paris where he is to assassinate a member of the Mafia. Could Jonathan′s recent acquaintance, the enigmatic Tom Ripley lie behind all this? Jonathan is anyhow involved in the painting of fake pictures. Wanting the money in order to finance the treatment of his severe illness, he takes on the job. But things are not to be settled with just one murder alone. Soon he has to kill another man. Jonathan tries to free himself from the gangsters clutches with Tom Ripley′s help, a man who is somehow mysteriously involved in the whole affair.
-- Edmund Lee, film editor of South China Morning Post
Jonathan is a craftsman living with his family in the city of Hamburg where he has a small workshop for his painting. One day a Frenchman appears on the scene, making him an incredible offer - in exchange for 250 000 German Marks he is to travel to Paris where he is to assassinate a member of the Mafia. Could Jonathan′s recent acquaintance, the enigmatic Tom Ripley lie behind all this? Jonathan is anyhow involved in the painting of fake pictures. Wanting the money in order to finance the treatment of his severe illness, he takes on the job. But things are not to be settled with just one murder alone. Soon he has to kill another man. Jonathan tries to free himself from the gangsters clutches with Tom Ripley′s help, a man who is somehow mysteriously involved in the whole affair.
1980S
Solo Sunny
East Germany | 1980 | 104’ | BD | Colour | In German with English subtitles
Director: Konrad Wolf, Wolfgang Kohlhaase
28/10 (Sat) 19:30
"A compellingly intimate DEFA woman's film from the late '70s by two creative personalities (Wolf and Kohlhaase) central to GDR cinema, SOLO SUNNY (starring Renate Krößner -- superb) is distinguished by its earnest directness, crowd-pleasing humor, and low-key realism based on scrupulous research, making for fascinating comparison with the camp decadence, sophisticated irony, and self-conscious cinephilia of Fassbinder's lavishly stylized melodramas on the other side of the wall, while opening a window onto the private yearnings of nonconformist East German youth at the time against their oppressive environs, from dreary provincial towns to Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg, with its distinctive inner courtyards (a prominent visual feature of the film) and unconventional bohemian milieu."
-- Dr. Derek Lam, Film Scholar, University of Hong Kong
Ingrid Sommer tries to launch a singing career with a stage name, Sunny, and travels around with the band Tornados to play small gigs around the province. While her headstrong way often puts her at odds with the rest of the world, and her romantic pursuits have not made things easier, she has also become more self-assertive, vigorous and alive. Based on the true story of a Crimean Tatar orphan, an outcast in the GDR, the tale of Sunny as a loner accentuates the sense of displacement of individuals in the GDR.
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1990S
Run Lola Run
Lola rennt
Germany | 1998 | 79’ | BD | Colour | In German with English subtitles
Director: Tom Tykwer
31/10 (Tue) 20:00
"It changed our previous impression of German movies, completely refreshing. Watching it again 25 years later, it is still exciting to watch. In addition to Lola, Berlin's urban landscape is actually the protagonist of the movie."
-- Teresa Kwong, film producer
A young man urgently needs 100.000 Marks otherwise he will be killed by a gangster. His girl-friend Lola rushes around madly trying to collect the money and save her beloved. This love story is told by the young Berlin director Tom Tykwer in three versions, each with a different ending. RUN LOLA RUN is first and foremost a film that plays with the means available to the cinema, but also documents a style of life and was one of the most successful German Films to be produced in 1998.
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2000S
Cherry Blossoms - Hanami
Kirschblüten – Hanami
Germany | 2008 | 127’ | HD | Colour | In German, English and Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Doris Dörrie
1/11 (Wed) 20:00
"One world, many cultures, endless beauty."
-- Ruby Yang, film director, producer, editor; winner of Academy Awards, 2006
A story of selfless love that is also a poetic journey into the meaning of life itself. Trudi is the only one who knows that her husband is terminally ill with cancer. When his doctor suggests that the couple undertake one last trip together, Trudi persuades her husband to accompany her to visit her children and grandchildren in Berlin. However, the members of their family are far too wrapped up in their own lives to be able to take care of the couple. After a theatre trip to see a Butoh dance performance, Trudi and Rudi decide to go and stay at a hotel on the Baltic coast. And then, out of the blue, Trudi dies. Rudi is completely at a loss. He has no idea what to do with his life, until he decides to go to Japan to visit their youngest son, Karl.
-- Ruby Yang, film director, producer, editor; winner of Academy Awards, 2006
A story of selfless love that is also a poetic journey into the meaning of life itself. Trudi is the only one who knows that her husband is terminally ill with cancer. When his doctor suggests that the couple undertake one last trip together, Trudi persuades her husband to accompany her to visit her children and grandchildren in Berlin. However, the members of their family are far too wrapped up in their own lives to be able to take care of the couple. After a theatre trip to see a Butoh dance performance, Trudi and Rudi decide to go and stay at a hotel on the Baltic coast. And then, out of the blue, Trudi dies. Rudi is completely at a loss. He has no idea what to do with his life, until he decides to go to Japan to visit their youngest son, Karl.
2010S
My Name Is Victoria
Victoria
Germany | 2014 | 140’ | DCP | Colour | In German, English, Spanish and Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Sebastian Schipper
My Name Is Victoria
Victoria
Germany | 2014 | 140’ | DCP | Colour | In German, English, Spanish and Turkish with English subtitles
Director: Sebastian Schipper
2/11 (Thu) 20:00
"A gripping and immersive cinematic experience that captivates viewers with its seamless one-shot real-time technique, taking them on a thrilling journey through the streets of Berlin."
-- Didi Wu, Director of Broadway Cinematheque
KINO/23: Six Decades - Six Iconic Films Ticket Package $360
- Include one ticket each for all of the six films, "The Divided Heaven", "The American Friend", "Solo Sunny", "Run Lola Run", "Cherry Blossoms – Hanami" and "My Name Is Victoria" of the Six Decades - Six Iconic Films.
- Include one ticket each for all of the six films, "The Divided Heaven", "The American Friend", "Solo Sunny", "Run Lola Run", "Cherry Blossoms – Hanami" and "My Name Is Victoria" of the Six Decades - Six Iconic Films.
Standard price: HK$85 each
Concession tickets price: HK$68 each, specially offer to:
• 20% discount for tickets for full-time students, senior citizens aged 60 or above, and people with disabilities and the minder and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients. Concessionary ticket holders must produce evidence of their identity or age upon admission.
• 20% discount to Goethe-Institut Hongkong’s students. Ticket holders must present a valid discount letter upon admission.
• 20% discount to HKAC members. Ticket holders must present a valid membership card upon admission.
• 20% discount for each purchase of 4 or more standard tickets.
• Only one discount offer could be applied to each ticket purchase.
Concession tickets price: HK$68 each, specially offer to:
• 20% discount for tickets for full-time students, senior citizens aged 60 or above, and people with disabilities and the minder and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients. Concessionary ticket holders must produce evidence of their identity or age upon admission.
• 20% discount to Goethe-Institut Hongkong’s students. Ticket holders must present a valid discount letter upon admission.
• 20% discount to HKAC members. Ticket holders must present a valid membership card upon admission.
• 20% discount for each purchase of 4 or more standard tickets.
• Only one discount offer could be applied to each ticket purchase.
For admission, audience must present the QR code (either in electric or printed version) shown on the popticket.hk e-ticket at the venue.
Ticketing enquiry: ask@popticket.hk (Office hour: Mon-Fri 10am-7pm)
Ticketing enquiry: ask@popticket.hk (Office hour: Mon-Fri 10am-7pm)
Programmes are subject to change without prior notice.
Presenter: Goethe-Institut Hongkong
In collaboration with: Hong Kong Arts Centre
In collaboration with: Hong Kong Arts Centre
What's On
Artists Support
2023.02.10 - 2023.12.31
