The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : German cine fest under way

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Sunday, Aug 10, 2008
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German cine fest under way

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: A host of German films are being screened at the Lavanya Theatre on St. John’s Road as part of the German Film Week, an initiative by Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore, till August 14.

The week-long festival, which was inaugurated on Friday by playwright Girish Karnad, brought together Stefan Graf, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany; Jaimala, President, Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce; B.N. Subbarao, Director, Suchitra Film Academy, and Sanjeev Sinha, Managing Director, Siemens Information Systems Limited. The inauguration was followed by the screening of Requiem by Hans-Christian Schmidt, a 92-minute film about an epileptic girl, Michaela, set in the 1970s. Requiem will be shown again on Sunday at 3 p.m. The festival will show movies throughout the day — beginning from 10 a.m. to 9.00 p.m.

What is special about this festival is that it will also have a set of children’s films screened through the course of the week. Movies like Kroko by Sylke Enders and Sergeant Pepper by Sandra Nettelbeck are among those to be screened. At the inauguration, Mr. Subbarao said that it was for the first time that the Suchitra Film Academy was involved in hosting a German film festival.

It was doubly special as the German Consulate had opened in Bangalore. “We look forward to a lot of cultural activity with the opening of the Consulate,” he said.

Mr. Karnad added that German films played an enormous role through the 1970s when his generation was grappling with issues similar to those portrayed in the movies. The emphasis of the festival has also been on bringing more recent German films to people, said Institute Director Evelin Hust. Films such as Cherry Blossoms – Hanami by Doris Dorrie and Nothing but Ghosts by Martin Gypkens, are some of the recently released films.

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