The woods outside of Winden are full of secrets. The houses inside of the town, the nuclear power plant sitting on its borders and the labyrinthine caves beneath it, too. In Netflix’s first German-language original series ‘Dark’, mystery blankets the air as thick as the persistent fog; however this is a place haunted by more than everyday intrigue.

With ‘Parallel Planes’ and ‘The Cleaners’, Nicole Wegner, Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck typify a growing trend — of German documentarians finding their subjects abroad. Film critic Sarah Ward takes a closer look at the two documentaries screening at the 2018 Revelation Perth International Film Festival.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s iconic film ‘The Marriage of Maria Braun’ is a feature of desire and futility, of resourcefulness and inevitability, and of honestly assessing a plethora of contradictions on a human and societal level. It screens as part of the Rainer Werner Fassbinder retrospective at the QAGOMA in Brisbane.

The largest retrospective on German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder ever held in Australia runs at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane until July 4, 2018. For ‘Kino in Oz’, film critic Sarah Ward talked with Australian Cinémathèque associate curator Rosie Hays about this rare chance to delve into the auteur’s works, influence and importance.

‘In the Aisles’ isn’t an account of a sweeping romance. Rather, with writer-director Thomas Stuber adapting Clemens Meyer’s short story of the same name with the author, the film settles into the ebbs and flows of a space that offers its own forms of solace, and of a relationship that does the same.

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but a thousand photographs still can’t tell a person’s entire story. For Romy Schneider, a lifetime of film roles and paparazzi shots certainly couldn’t capture the Austrian-born star’s complexity, or convey the complicated woman behind the public facade. But '3 Days in Quiberon' convincingly takes the viewer beyond the surface of Schneider’s stardom and her final attempt to control it.

Turning loneliness into lyrical inner monologues, 'Wings of Desire' might be the most poetic film ever made. Each instance of hurt, longing and unhappiness becomes a tender cry in a city brimming with sorrow; indeed, the Berliner voices would echo like a chorus were they to ever release their thoughts both aloud and in tandem.

As part of the ‘Kino for Kids’ program six German-language features are making their Australian premieres at the 2018 German Film Festival. Eager cinephiles-in-waiting can explore a range of films. For ‘Kino in Oz’ Sarah Ward picks her three to look out for.

When a class of high schoolers choose to make a statement by not making a statement in writer/director Lars Kraume's ‘The Silent Revolution’, their aghast elders prove verbose in response.

Good things come in small packages at the 2018 Sydney Film Festival, at least where German cinema is involved. While the festival’s full lineup features 326 films from 65 countries across a  twelve-day period from June 6 to 17, it’s a case of quality over quantity when it comes to 'Deutsch' filmmaking. Indeed, amidst SFF’s eight German features and documentaries resides some of the country’s top talents.

Nostalgia is modern-day cinema’s hottest commodity; if a movie isn’t capitalising upon it courtesy of filmmaking’s recurrent fondness for sequels, remakes, reboots and the like, then it’s selling it in various guises. Somewhat surprisingly, 'Road to Montauk' falls into both categories — one in a standard fashion, the other not so.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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?”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.