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Download the Aug. 30 press release

Press Release - Aug. 30, 2012
17th Berlin & Beyond Announces Recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award in Acting: Mario Adorf
Download the Aug. 30 press release (PDF, 112 KB)

Press Release - Aug. 28, 2012
Christian Petzold’s "Barbara" is the Opening Night Film of the 17th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival.
Download the Aug. 28 press release (PDF, 109 KB)

Press Release - Aug. 27, 2012
Marten Persiel's "This Ain't California" is the Closing Night Film of the 17th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival.
Download the Aug. 27 press release (PDF, 87 KB)

17th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival announces first five films
Thursday, June 21, 2012

San Francisco - The 17th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival will run September 27th-30th, 2012 and October 3rd and 4th at San Francisco’s largest single-screen, the historic Castro Theatre, with special programs at the Goethe-Institut San Francisco on October 1st and 2nd. Berlin & Beyond has been America’s premier festival of new cinema from Germany, Austria and Switzerland since 1996. The festival serves as a gateway for the American public to experience the diversity, history and progress of the German-speaking countries in Europe, while celebrating the universal spirit and vision of filmmakers from this global region.

Below is the first crop of films selected for this year's line-up. The full program will be unveiled to the public in mid-August at the festival's annual press conference (exact date to be announced).

4 Days in May / 4 Tage im Mai - "Four days before the end of the Second World War in Germany, a Soviet Captain and his patrol have occupied an orphanage by the sea; a German army unit is camped on the beach; a secret love affair blooms against all odds. Everyone is weary of fighting; except for the 13-year-old orphan Peter who wants to prove he's a hero and tries with all his cunning and power to instigate trouble between the opposing troops." California Premiere. (Germany, Russia, Ukraine - 97min - 2011) Director: Achim von Borries. Cast: Pavel Wenzel, Aleksei Guskov, Ivan Shvedoff, Andrey Merzlikin, Sergey Legostaev

Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 - "Audre Lorde, the highly-influential, award-winning African-American lesbian poet came to live in West Berlin in the 1980s. During her stay as a visiting professor, she was the mentor and catalyst who ignited the Afro-German movement. Lorde also had a decisive impact on white women, challenging them to acknowledge the significance of their white privilege and learning to deal with difference in constructive ways." (Germany - 84min - 2011) Director: Dagmar Schultz. Documentary Film.

Baikonur - "Whatever falls from heaven, you may keep. When astronaut Julie Mahé crash-lands with her small space capsule onto the Kazakh steppes, local radio operator Iskander (nicknamed 'Gagarin') finds her unconscious. Hopelessly lovestruck, he convinces the amnesiac Julie that they are engaged to be married. But even the most romantic lie cannot remain undiscovered forever." Northern California Premiere. (Kazakhstan, Germany, Russia - 94min - 2011) Director: Veit Helmer. Cast: Alexander Asochakov, Marie De Villepin, Sitora Farmonova

Summer Window / Fenster zum Sommer - "Juliane's happiness seems perfect. She is head over heels in love and has just begun a new life with August. One morning, however, she wakes up to find that she has been mysteriously thrown back into her past - to the time before she met her new love. Is what seems at first glance as a cruel setback actually a second chance...?" US West Coast Premiere. (Germany, Finland - 96min - 2011) Director: Hendrik Handloegten. Cast: Nina Hoss, Mark Waschke, Fritzi Haberlandt, Lars Eidinger

This Ain't California - "A celebration of the lust for life, a contemporary documentary trip into the world of roller boarding in the German Democratic Republic. A coming-of-age tale of three teenagers and their passionate love for a sport on the crumbling tarmac of the streets in the German Democratic Republic, which was considered very ill-fitting. The punk fairy tale is a story of the subversive powers of fun in that part of Germany, which had lost touch with its citizens. The film follows its three heroes from their childhood in the seventies through their teenage rebellion in the eighties, ending in the last summer of their life in the German Democratic Republic in 1989, when their life changed forever, and follows them to 2011." California Premiere. (Germany - 90min - 2012) Director: Marten Persiel. Documentary Film.

Showtimes and guest artists to be announced.

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Media Contact:
Sophoan Sorn, Festival Director
Phone: +1 415 263-8760 office
festival@sanfrancisco.goethe.org