Film screening & Games
City, Country, River: All About Me

Wir sind wieder da!

Thu, 29.02.2024
7:00 PM Goethe-Institut Nicosia

Our “Wir sind wieder da!” series of events starts with the screening of the heartwarming film “All About Me”, directed by award winning Caroline Link. This touching film about the childhood of German comedian, author, TV presenter, director and singer Hape Kerkeling, set in the early 1970s, is based on his memoirs and was directed by award-winning Caroline Link.

t is also the “February film” of the Goethe on Demand curated film programme titled „Stadt, Land, Fluss“ (City, country, river), that is available for free online and will take us through 2024. As each new month means a new film, we are inviting everyone to watch “All About Me” together with us in our event hall over popcorn and play a round or two of the game Stadt, Land, Fluss that the 2024 online film programme has been named after. From the following day, March 1st, you can watch the next film from the comfort of your home. 

About the film: 

Recklinghausen in the Ruhr Valley, in the early 1970s. Hans-Peter is nine years old and a bit on the chubby side. But that doesn't deflate the self-confidence of the happy-go-lucky little boy, for with his jokes and parodies he can make anyone laugh – a talent that serves him well later in life when, as Hape Kerkeling, he becomes one of the most popular and best comedians of Germany. This film by the Oscar-winning director Caroline Link (“Nowhere in Africa”) is based on his memoirs. 

For all its comedy, “All About Me” also offers an exacting look at a society of suppression and at people who, still traumatised by the Second World War, need to laugh as much as they need air to breathe. Something that Hans-Peter comes to understand early. But when it comes to the most important person in his life, he fails: his depressed mother commits suicide when he is nine years old. 

With a flair for detail and a variety of affectionately drawn characters – such as the concerned and caring grandparents, the fun-loving relatives, and other people typical of the Ruhr region – the biopic provides a warm milieu study and a portrait of an epoch in the history of the Federal Republic.