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One Classic, Three Contemporary Films and a Piano Arrive from Germany

Mariana Linares / Translated by Morris Thompson

First things first, there’s one of the last German silent films, Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday, 1930), by the brothers Curt and Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer and Fred Zinneman. Theirs became big names in the movies, and to boot there’s a screenplay by Billy Wilder, director of that great favorite in cinematic history Some Like It Hot (1959). The piano sets the music to the Berlin streets where five non-professional actors are just enjoying their typical Sunday. Menschen am Sonntag is one of the first Neo-Realist treatments in European cinema, with the working class as protagonist and the complexity of human relations as sub-text. This classic will be screened just once, on Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m.

Then comes the prize-winner at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival for Best Director in 2009. Andreas Dresen tucked that one away for his Whisky mit Wodka (Whiskey with Vodka). Andreas, originally a sound engineer, directed his first full-length movie in 1992, Stilles Land (Silent Country). Later came Nachtgestalten (Night Shapes, 1999), Halbe Treppe (Grill Point, 2002), Willenbrock (for lead character “Bernd Willenbrock,” 2005), Wolke Neun (Cloud Nine, 2005) and Sommer vorm Balkon (Summer in Berlin, 2008).

Part-comedy and part-drama, Whisky mit Wodka depicts aging in the contemporary world. This isn’t easy for veteran film star “Otto,” who’s unwilling to adapt to the new fashion – brutish and short – in acting. He could so easily be replaced by the actor who doesn’t want to understand the characters or challenge the director and who adapts so quickly to the psychology of the film-within-a-film role as an ephemeral character. Whisky mit Wodka will be shown on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 1:45 p.m. at Cinépolis Centro and on Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 9:30 p.m. at Cinépolis Las Américas.

Then an actress takes the director’s reins as Feo Aladag presents Die Fremde (When We Leave, 2010). Her main character is Umay, a 25-year-old in Istanbul with a son and abusive husband. Survival is no longer enough for her, and – in the teeth of tradition – she wants to change her reality, herself, her family and even her principles. Sibel Kekilli is Umay, for which she won Best Actress at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival; Aladag got the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature. Die Fremde (The Stranger) will be screened Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 12:15 p.m. and Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 4:30 p.m. at Cinépolis Las Américas.

Finally comes a work by one of the most solid German filmmakers of recent years, Fatih Akin. Of Turkish descent, Akin at age 31 won the Golden Bear of the Berlin Film Festival in 2004 for Gegen die Wand (Head-On). In Morelia, he offers his most recent film, Soul Kitchen (2009), which the 2009 Venice Festival awarded a Special Jury Prize for its “sensitive way of telling a story.” Protagonist  “Zinos Kazantsakis” is a chef who for the sake of love leaves his little restaurant in the care of  his brother. And finds himself without restaurant, brother or love. 

There’s no excuse for missing Akin’s cinematic delight at the International Film Festival of Morelia. The first showing is Saturday, Oct. 16, at Cinépolis Centro at 1:15 p.m., followed by screenings Thursday, Oct. 21, at 12:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 23, at 2:15 p.m. at Cinépolis Las Américas. And the film will be shown in Pátzcuaro on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m. at Teatro Emperador.

This solid Germany-to-Morelia shipment arrives thanks to the Goethe Institute in Mexico.