Munich: Country film festivals broaden the cinematic horizon – Munich
bimovie
Around the world: there is no country focus in the women’s film series Bimovie, but it’s still international – with films from Sweden, Iran and Georgia. It kicks off on Thursday, November 3 with the exact coming-of-age movie Sweetheart, in which a 17-year-old girl falls in love with a lifeguard while on summer vacation. Eva Vitija’s documentary is also about loving women “Loving Highsmith”, which ran regularly in cinemas six months ago, but can now be seen again: The focus is on the writer Patricia Highsmith, who is known to have loved women, but what had to happen secretly in post-war New York. Despite this, she had an active love life, which she also documented extensively in her diaries, which she dubbed “Cahiers”, which were found in her Swiss home after her death in 1995.
Outlook on current events Iran Nahid Persson’s documentary “Be My Voice” is shockingly topical: it accompanies an Iranian journalist who has been living in exile for years and is fighting for women’s right to decide for themselves whether they want to wear a headscarf or not. The heroine of the Swedish film “Flickan i frack” is also combative: Katja goes out in her brother’s tails, triggering a scandal. Karin Swanström’s 1926 silent film will be screened in Munich with live music by Michaela Dietl.
Bimovie 28 – A women’s film series, Thursday, November 3rd to Wednesday, November 9th, New MaximLandshuter Allee 33, www.bimovie.de
Romanian Film Festival
If Romanian workers cut up pork sides in German slaughterhouses, who works in Romanian factories? In Cristian Mungius’ feature film “RMN”, a butcher created in Germany meets three migrants from Sri Lanka who work in a large bakery in his home village in Transylvania. The film unleashes a Babylonian jumble of languages, one hears Romanian, Hungarian, German, French, English and Sinhalese. Mungiu is probably the best-known representative of new Romanian cinema, he is Regular at Canneswon the Palme d’Or (for the abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”), “RMN” was also shown there in the spring of this year.
Now the drama opens the Romanian Film Festival in the Munich Film Museum. A total of eleven feature, documentary and short films are on the program; they should show how diverse the film country is Romania is. In this country, people are more familiar with the festival hits by directors such as Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, Radu Jude or, of course, Cristian Mungiu. The film museum also shows works such as Iosif Demian’s “Rondul de noapte” (“Night Patrol”), a film experiment full of erotic role-playing games and disguises. Or the story of “Luca”, who is a taxi driver but actually dreams of a career as an actor and gets caught up in a mafia story. And who then drives the taxi in the end?
Romanian Film Festival, Thu 10 to Sat 19 Nov, movie museumSt.-Jakobs-Platz 1
Greek Film Week
In his home country he had more viewers than the Minions or the Marvel blockbusters, now the Greek historical drama “Smyrna” by Grigoris Karantinakis opens the Munich Greek Film Week. The country film festival is taking place for the 36th time, the films will be shown in the original Greek version with English subtitles. “Smyrna” is about the massacre in the city of the same name, which today izmir called; The film unfolds the story of a family over a century, combining past and present. Greek cinema is multifaceted, as can be seen in the film week programme, which includes twelve feature films and documentaries as well as several short films. Comedies, dramas or thrillers are shown, even a modern western (“Pack of Sheep”) is included.
In the social drama “Daniel ’16” based on real events, a delinquent teenager (Nikolas Kisker) from Germany follows Greece deported, he is to serve his youth sentence in a deserted village. “Broadway” by Christos Massalas, on the other hand, is not so easy to classify: the film is both a thriller and a musical, a group of dancers and pickpockets roam the streets of Athens and steal from the distracted audience. Luckily, that kind of thing doesn’t work quite as well in the cinema.
Greek Film Week, Fri 18 to Sun 27 Nov, opening at Rio Movie Palace, Rosenheimerstr. 46; all other films in Gasteig HP8, Hans-Preißinger-Str. 8th, www.greekfilmweek.com
Latin American Film Days
The Latin American Film Days (Lafita) will open with a musical and cinematic self-location: three short and medium-length films will be screened, including the latest work by Lucrecia Martell. The famous filmmaker shot “Terminal Norte” during the Corona lockdown in her Argentine hometown, she accompanied the singer Julieta Laso at a meeting with other musicians.
The Lafita team can look back on a long history, their festival has been around since 1986 and shows feature, documentary, animated and short films. This time you are in workshop cinemaGasteig HP8 and the Louise Cultural Center on the program are festival successes such as “Los tiburones” from Uruguay, “Três tigres tristes” from Brazil or the Chilean drama “1976”. At the end, the Mexican feature film “Robe of gems” will be shown, in which three women with drug gangs clashed. The film by Natalia López Gallardo was screened at the Berlinale in February and won the jury prize there.
Latin American Film Days, Tue., Nov. 29 to Sun., Dec. 4, various locations in Munich, www.lafita.de
Cinema Asylum
“Kino Asyl” is also taking place again, in different places like that Bellevue the Monacothe HFF, the Gasteig HP8 or the NS Documentation Center. The festival has been around since 2015, and the eighth edition will take place on Sunday, December 4th chamber plays opened. Films from all over the world will be shown again. It’s not the big names of world cinema that are on the program here; If you want to see the festival hits from Cannes, Venice or Berlin, you won’t find them here.
But there is a lot to discover, because “Kino Asyl” sees itself as a place for artistic impressions and the personal stories of young adults with refugee experience. The program consisting of films, discussions, exhibitions or concerts is also curated by these people. The festival organizers rely on direct exchange, the audience should get direct insights into other countries and cultures. And so that everyone can take part in “Kino Asyl”, admission to all events is free. Donations are requested.
Kino Asyl, Sun., Dec. 4, to Fri., Dec. 9, various locations in Munich, www.kinoasyl.de