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  • Archive for August, 2008

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    Die Gustloff – Greatest Ship Catastrophe in History

    Thursday, August 21st, 2008

    Die Gustloff (Germany, 2008), a  UFA Filmproduktion aired as a two-part ZDF telefeature, chronicled the greatest ship catastrophe in history. It happened in the winter of 1945. Thousands of refugees from eastern Germany – women, children, old people, wounded soldiers – are fleeing westward in the bitter cold. Their rescue: to get on board the […]

    Volker Hassemer on Dieter Kosslick and Berlinale 2008

    Thursday, August 21st, 2008

    Under Dieter Kosslick Berlin and Berlinale become ever more similar: Dieter Kosslick copied the youth of Berlin, and the Talent Campus was launched. And for Berlin the Talent Campus became one of its grand youth projects. Already, at the very beginning, the Berliners had elevated the Berlinale to a great festival for the public. And […]

    Ziegler Film celebrates 35 Years – 1973-2008

    Thursday, August 21st, 2008

    Back in the early 1970s, when I was asked by my Variety editor if I could pen a couple reviews on German cinema, I looked around to see what was available. Fortunately, I had seen Wolf Gremm’s Ich dachte, ich wäre tot (I Had a Feeling I Was Dead) (Germany, 1973) and Meine Sorgen möcht’ […]

    58th Berlin International Film Festival – Berlinale 2008

    Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

    Will it ever end? During his seven years as Berlinale director, Dieter Kosslick’s festival tenure is annually boosted by success at the box office. Following the close of the 58th Berlin International Film Festival (7-17 February 2008), bonanza statistics were promptly released to the press. The 58th Berlinale recorded an overall audience of 430,000, of […]

    39th Hungarian Film Week – Budapest 2008

    Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

    Budapest celebrated far more than just the internationally popular 39th Hungarian Film Week (29 January to 5 February 2008), attended this year by circa 100 journalists and guests from around the globe, the majority of whom then leapfrogged from Budapest to Berlin to attend the Berlinale. Just a week before the opening of the Hungarian […]

    12th Sofia International Film Festival 2008

    Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

    Ask Stefan Kitanov, director of the 12th Sofia International Film Festival (6 16 March 2008), if he feels that “New Bulgarian Cinema” had now officially come of age, he will cite the premiere screening of Stefan Komandarev’s Svetat e golyam i spasenie debne otvsyakad (The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner). “We […]

    27th Istanbul International Film Festival 2008

    Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

    Ask festival director Azize Tan why she was using every opportunity available to celebrate the current revival of Turkish cinema at the 27th Istanbul International Film Festival (5-20 April 2008), and she would tick off any number of reasons. Last year, for instance, Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, served on the […]

    11th Diagonale Festival of Austrian Films – Graz 2008

    Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

    The 11th Diagonale Festival of Austrian Films in the university city of Graz (1-6 April 2008), the last to be programmed under a team headed by Birgit Flos, celebrated at its outset the recent Oscar by Stefan Ruzowitzky for Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters), an Austrian-German coproduction. Even though this Academy Award winner for Best Foreign […]

    Dieter Köster and Hannelore Conradsen Interview

    Monday, August 18th, 2008

    As a filmmaking team, Berlin-based Dieter Köster and Hannelore Conradsen have conceived, written, directed, and edited over 150 films, documentaries, shorts, animation, video clips, music spots, and assorted other media productions. This KINO interview just skims the surface of their creative oeuvre.

    17th Cottbus Festival of East European Cinema 2007

    Monday, August 18th, 2008

    With a record turnout of 16,000 spectators, the 17th Cottbus Festival of East European Cinema (6-10 November 2007) under its enterprising director Roland Rust confirmed its status as a leading event on the international circuit.

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