German attack
German films are rolling through Europe. Features as well as student films. The large package that was sent to this year’s Fresh Film Fest from German schools proves that our neighbour’s young film hopes definitely won’t fly out of the window.
Das Fest (dir. Doroteya Droumeva)
German films are rolling through Europe. Features as well as student films. The large package that was sent to this year’s Fresh Film Fest from German schools proves that our neighbour’s young film hopes definitely won’t fly out of the window. From the collection of short-footage films, three German movies got through the pre-selection rounds, which puts German on the top spot in the main competition as far as the number of participating films is concerned. Personally, I would recommend to the spectators’ attention the motion picture called Doroteyi Droumevy by the Berlin DFFB Das Fest. This motion picture included in the program of the prestigious show in Clermont-Ferrand features an extraordinarily dark study of a “normal family’s” life. But this family is not quite normal. There is something proliferating like a malignant disease whose consequences will be carried by all family members for the rest of their lives. It’s a film which targets all old scars and can really poke into them.
Wüste/Außen/Tag (dir. Mia Grau)
Another German representative in the main competition is a film called Wüste/Außen/Tag directed by Mia Grau. By the way, there are a lot of young female directors in the program of this year’s Fresh Film Fest. A black and white film, cinemascope, a film about the film’s making. Right the first few shots reassure the spectators that they are watching A FILM and not some sweaty TV exercise. According to her own words, the director and screenwriter of the film was mostly interested in the collision between the two leading characters and their performers in the shooted film. The delicately shooted oscillation between intimacy and aloofness, a kind of self-isolation, when they are quite unsuccessfully trying to find a way to each other shows great talent.
Destination Finale (Dir. Philips Widman)
The third German representative in the competition is a documentary montage Destination Finale by Philips Widman, which is sure to interest the Czech documentarist Lucie Králová who in her own documentary Ztracená dovolená (Lost Vacation) derived from the contents of a suitcase found somewhere in Sweden (756 photographs of nameless tourists from Asia). Widman came across an 8 mm amateur film made in 1964 and found in Saigon 40 years later. Sole watching of the main protagonist may for a well-travelled spectator be a grand and amusing experience as well as an excellent illustration of what can be done in the cutting room from otherwise possibly dull material.
The showing of student films from a German school Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg is also included in the program. Showing of three short films and two minute-long advertisements will provide an hour-long presentation of this progressive school.
