Kino in Oz ©Bedneyimages — Freepik.com

#kinoinoz takes a closer look at German films screening down under. Here you'll find everything from film reviews and interviews to release information.

Calendar

Ai Weiwei having a conversation© Human Flow

Cinema release
Human Flow: The film Ai Weiwei had to make

Making the trip from his Berlin studio to the Sydney Biennale to unveil his latest work, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei once again contemplates a familiar topic: the plight of the millions considered displaced, fleeing horrific circumstances in their homeland, and trying to cross international borders — and waters — in search of a brighter future. [more …]
Production photograph© Watu Wote

Flickerfest
Watu Wote: A timely and resonant true tale

For her graduation project ‘Watu Wote: All of Us’ at the Hamburg Media School, director Katja Benrath ensures what could’ve been a bleak tale instead shines with resilience and the spirit of defiance. [more …]
Actor Ulrich Mühe © The Lives of Others

German films at the Oscars
Shining brightly on the world stage

Every year, the announcement of a fresh batch of Academy Award nominees sparks a fresh round of shock and surprise. Film critic Sarah Ward looks at the coveted Oscars in regard to the German contenders over the years. A deep-dive into screenland. [more …]
The Cloverfield Paradox © Netflix

Netflix
The Cloverfield Paradox: Familiar story, revolutionary release

Space may be infinite, but the tales filmmakers keep setting within its inky expanse all seem to leap from a small pool of scenarios. ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ is a science-fiction film made for the big screen with a mid-tier budget that has quietly been released on Netflix. For Kino in Oz, Sarah Ward analyses what viewers can expect. [more …]
The artist in action © Gerhard Richter - Painting

Exploring the texture of reality
Gerhard Richter at GOMA

To enter ‘Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images’ at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art is to have strips of his paintings dance in front of your eyes. That’s not simply a creative explanation of the response that springs within the viewer, as they peer upon walls adorned with the German artist’s work. Rather, given that 'Strip (927-9)’ greets visitors at the entrance to the exhibition, it’s an accurate description. Taking in the piece in all of its glossy glory, attendees can expect its stripes to appear to pulsate and move. [more …]
In the Fade © In the Fade

2017
The year in German cinema

In the realm of German filmmaking, 2017 began as 2016 ended: with a loving father donning a wig and a set of false teeth, adopting a fake name and trying to spend time with his overworked daughter. Such is the impact of ‘Toni Erdmann’, and not just in its length, that the applauded film threatened to cast a shadow over the rest of the country’s cinematic output for the year. And yet, while Maren Ade’s lovingly, comically insightful effort remains in a field of its own, that wasn’t 2017’s only highlight. [more …]
Volker Schlöndorff © Foto: Mariusz Kubik / Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

Volker Schlöndorff
"Almost everything we believed in did not really survive"

At 78, film director, producer and screenwriter Volker Schlöndorff looks back on his years as an integral member of the group forging the 'New German Cinema', writes Australian film writer Helen Barlow. [more …]
Production photograph © Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved

Cinema release
Downsizing: Dreaming big, getting small

In ‘Downsizing’, clichés, quotes and adages inform a movie with well-meaning intentions but a jumbled execution. As the feature endeavours to shrink humanity down to size, while demonstrating that urges, emotions and actions don’t dwindle with them, its grasp exceeds its reach. [more …]
Actor Moritz Bleibtreu © Bye Bye Germany

Jewish International Film Festival
Bye, Bye Germany: The bittersweet struggle of moving on

“Hitler is dead, but we’re still alive,” David Bermann (Moritz Bleibtreu) tells his new colleagues in 'Bye Bye Germany'. It’s not just a statement of fact shared between a cohort of Jewish survivors, but a partially comedic pep talk. [more …]
Tulip Fever © Tulip Fever

Cinema release
Tulip Fever: Blooming flowers, wilting fortunes

The story of 'Tulip Fever'’s journey to the screen is more interesting than the film itself. That’s a reflection both of the prolonged path the movie took to cinemas, and the far-from-intriguing end result. [more …]
Young Karl Marx playing chess © The Young Karl Marx

August Diehl
AN AFFINITY WITH THE YOUNG KARL MARX

When fair-haired, blue-eyed German actor August Diehl came to play the lead in ‘The Young Karl Marx’ he was determined to embrace the reality of the revolutionary socialist as a young man. For Kino in Oz, film journalist Helen Barlow spoke with August Diehl. [more …]
Billy Wilder © Jewish International Film Festival

Jewish International Film Festival
From Berlin to Hollywood: Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder

“Come to Berlin,” a young Billy Wilder was told. Stepping through the life and impact of the influential writer/director, 'Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder' charts the legacy that sprang from those humble beginnings — the initial opportunities that put him on the road to Hollywood, the leap to the US via Paris, and the resume he’d build as he found his place at the forefront of the film industry for decades. [more …]
The film takes place in 1940. © The Exception

British Film Festival 2017
The Exception: Painting history in shades of grey

52 years ago, the Austrian hills were alive for Christopher Plummer. Now, a Dutch village is as well. Gone is the sound of music on the cusp of war, replaced by the possibility of doing what’s right after the combat has begun. [more …]
Fassbinder retrospective. Image courtesy: Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation via GOMA

QAGOMA
Retrospective: Watching Fassbinder, watching Germany

For cinephiles, it’s impossible to spend time in Germany without thinking about Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Now, a retrospective dedicated to Fassbinder graces cinema screens in Brisbane. [more …]
Berlin-based filmmaker Viktor Jakovleski. © Anastasia Coyto

Interview with director Viktor Jakovleski
Brimstone & Glory: The power and the passion

For his first film, Berlin-based filmmaker Viktor Jakovleski embarked upon an adventure many others might have shied away from. After hearing about Mexico’s annual National Pyrotechnic Festival by chance, he was determined to experience it. ‘Brimstone & Glory’ is the result. [more …]
A scene from the movie 'HE SHE I'. © Antenna Documentary Film Festival

Antenna Documentary Film Festival
HE SHE I: He said, she said

For her debut film ‘HE SHE I’, Carlotta Kittel chats with her parents and records the outcome. Shot with her mother, Angela, and father, Christian, conversing directly to the camera, it’s a straightforward concept with a straightforward filmmaking approach. [more …]
The Cakemaker: A textured recipe © Jewish International Film Fesival

Jewish International Film Festival
The Cakemaker: A textured recipe

Making his feature debut with ‘The Cakemaker’, writer/director Ofir Raul Graizer focuses on the aftermath — not of a chance meeting that sparks a married man’s secret gay romance, but of his two lovers coping with his passing. [more …]
Bunch of Kunst © Sydney Underground Film Festival

Sydney Underground Film Festival
They’re the voice: Bunch of Kunst

When ‘Sleaford Mods’ made their first trip to Germany, another first occurred: their maiden television interview. Purveyors of rapid-fire discontent spat from the heart of working-class Britain with a toe-tapping beat, the Nottingham duo chatted to Berlin-based journalist Christine Franz, which then led to drinks, and then to the drunken idea for a documentary. [more …]
Dries (2017) © ACMI

ACMI’s Fashion on Film program
A genre of many threads: Fashion on film

Just as fashion, as a term, is synonymous with passing trends and crazes — aka something superficially alluring, but ultimately fleeting — factual explorations of fashion more frequently focus on the shiny surface of the industry. [more …]
The Square © The Square

Australian Cinema Release
The Square: All the world is art

“All the world’s a stage,” claims William Shakespeare’s famous line from ‘As You Like It’. All the world is art, Ruben Östlund ostensibly offers back in ‘The Square’. The Swedish writer/director’s fifth feature steps inside a Stockholm art gallery to explore just what contemporary creativity means today — that is, what emboldens it and what holds it back. [more …]
The Dreamed Path © The Dreamed Path

Film review
The Dreamed Path: Life’s mundanities flicker like memories

It’s telling that ‘The Dreamed Path’s German title, ‘Der traumhafte Weg’, actually translates as “the dreamlike path”; though writer/director Angela Schanelec explores events grounded in reality, her film morphs from one image to the next as though projected onto the screen from her flickering mind. [more …]
Manifesto (2015) © Manifesto

Brisbane International Film Festival 2017
Manifesto: From the singular to the multitudes

From surrealism and minimalism to creationism and futurism Manifesto compiles a mass of 20th century art moments into a single ambitious and arresting effort, offering not only a collage of creative thinking, but manifestations and contextualisations as well. [more …]
Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog © Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog

MIFF 2017
Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog: Absurdities of ideological aggrandising

Proclaiming adherence to an ideology is easy. Putting those thoughts and words into action is another matter. A filmmaker faces the comedic reality of both in ‘Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog’, off-screen as well as on. [more …]
Western © Western

MIFF 2017
Western: Earning its genre and title

Contemporary cinema may be deep into a phase of emphasising western-like aspects in everything from horror to action movies, and fashioning revisionist takes as well; however, at the heart of this fascination sits the timelessness of the genre’s core elements. [more …]
Revolution of Sound - Tangerine Dream (2017) © Revolution of Sound: Tangerine Dream

MIFF 2017
Revolution of Sound: making music, making history

"This is rotten religious music!” Salvador Dali reportedly once yelled while Tangerine Dream played. It was the ‘60s, the surrealist painter was famous for his celebrity-filled garden parties, and the German synth-rockers had been invite to perform. [more …]
The Song Keepers © The Song Keepers via MIFF

MIFF 2017
The Song Keepers: Joyous ode to cross-cultural collaboration

While the idea of Australia’s remote indigenous populace crooning centuries-old German tunes may come as a surprise — in fact, the practice nearly died out decades ago — Naina Sen’s documentary ‘The Song Keepers’ wonders don’t stop there. [more …]
Salt and Fire © Salt and Fire

GOMA RETROSPECTIVE
Salt and Fire: Imbued with burning desire

In ‘Salt and Fire’, two passionate figures come face to face: scientist Laura Sommerfeld (Veronica Ferres), who is sent to South America by the United Nations to investigate an ecological catastrophe; and corporate executive Matt Reilly (Michael Shannon), whose company is responsible for the situation. [more …]
Beuys: Art as a Weapon © Beuys: Art as a Weapon

MIFF 2017
Beuys: A portrait of an artist making a statement

Staring at the lens, unblinking eyes gleaming beneath his ever-present felt pork pie hat, Joseph Beuys asks the question that every artist has contemplated: “the anonymous viewer is back there, yeah?” [more …]
A Conspiracy of Faith © A Conspiracy of Faith

Scandinavian Film Festival 2017
A Conspiracy of Faith: Cold cases break boundaries

In this Danish-German-Swedish-Norwegian effort — a European co-production like its predecessors ‘The Keeper of Lost Causes’ and ‘The Absent One’, with the series’ multi-country origins also evidence of its lack of care for traditional bounds — the concept of belief is thrust into the spotlight. [more …]
The Untamed © The Untamed

MIFF 2017
The Untamed: Bleak reality made otherworldly flesh

This Mexican, Danish/French/German/Norwegian co-production’s two titles inspire images of wild lands, unrestrained entities refusing to hew to the world’s rules, and of feelings urges roaming free. [more …]
Manifesto © Manifesto via the Melbourne International Film Festival

Melbourne International Film Festival 2017
Bringing Germany to Australia

When the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) takes over the city’s cinemas in August, movie magic isn’t the only thing it’ll be offering. For cinephiles eager for an international experience without leaving the comfort of their chairs, however, it also provides a window into the world around them. [more …]
In the Fade © In the Fade via Sydney Film Festival

Film review
In the Fade: History’s influence cuts both ways

It has taken Diane Kruger nearly two decades to star in a German-language film; however ‘In the Fade’ was worth the wait. Gracing the screen in writer/director Fatih Akin’s exploration of terror, grief and vengeance, she turns in one of the finest performances of her career. [more …]
Risk © Praxis Films 2016

Film Review
Pain and gain: Risk

Assange is a well-known name in much of the world for a plethora of reasons, and while Laura Poitras’ latest documentary isn’t the first attempt to delve into his exploits, it is the most personal. [more …]
The Young Karl Marx © The Young Karl Marx via Sydney Film Festival

Sydney Film Festival 2017
A feast of German cinema

For the past 64 years, Sydney Film Festival has celebrated the latest and greatest in international cinema. The city’s major movie-focused showcase, it brings together an enormous program highlighting the breadth and depth of film as an art form. [more …]
Happy End © Happy End via Sydney Film Festival

Sydney Film Festival 2017
Happy End: Where Happiness is relative

Perhaps the greatest trick Michael Haneke continually pulls is his most obvious one. 28 years and twelve features into his filmmaking career, the Munich-born Austrian director has perfected the art of bleak portraiture. [more …]
Axolotl Overkill © Sydney Film Festival

MIFF 2017
Axolotl Overkill: Not that kind of movie

Tales of youthful excess often start at a low point, wade through raucousness and revelations, and arrive at their conclusion with a protagonist ready to face their encroaching maturity. ‘Axolotl Overkill’ is not that kind of movie. [more …]
Austerlitz © Imperativ Film

Sydney Film Festival 2017
Austerlitz: Humanity in the face of horror

How does humanity cope in the face of unspeakable tragedy? A question pondered by Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa in his documentary 'Austerlitz' which is screening at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival. [more …]
Werner Herzog filming Into the Inferno 2016 on Yasur Volcano, Tanna Island, Vanuatu. © Photograph: Professor Clive Oppenheimer / Image courtesy: Netflix

GOMA Retrospective
Experiencing the wrath and reveries of Werner Herzog

Herzog’s voice, both uttered aloud and infused in the fabric of his films, will echo throughout Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art between June 2 and August 19. For nearly three months, their Australian Cinematheque plays host to a feast of his cinematic efforts. [more …]
Café Waldluft © Café Waldluft

Café Waldluft
There’s no place like home

Perched high on a hillside in the Bavarian Alps, in the shadow of Germany’s third highest peak, 'Café Waldluft' looms large over Berchtesgaden. In the documentary that shares the hotel’s name, first-time feature writer/director Matthias Koßmehl ponders the changes from picturesque vacation destination to welcoming safe haven for asylum seekers. [more …]
Teresa Parker as Clare in 'Berlin Syndrome'. © eOne Films

Cate Shortland
An Australian filmmaker’s visions of Germany

Cate Shortland’s resume may only boast three features to date; however her most recent two efforts share a location that’s far from typical for Australian filmmakers: Germany. [more …]