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7:00 PM-9:45 PM
KinoTage Opening Screening: Fatih Akin - Amrum
Film|General Public
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Goethe-Institut London, London
- Price £6, £3 Concessions and for Goethe-Institut language students & library members.
- Part of series: KinoTage - Experience German Cinema
Fatih Akin’s poignant coming-of-age drama about a boy on the North Sea island of Amrum who loses his child's innocence under the impression of the ideological divisions and shifting power relations in the last days of the Second World War.
Please join us for a drink after the screening to celebrate the opening day of KinoTage.
It is spring 1945 on Amrum, a windswept island off the North Frisian coast of Germany. Twelve-year-old Nanning spends his days fishing, hunting seals and working on a neighbour’s farm to feed his pregnant mother and younger siblings, whilst his father, a Nazi officer, is at war. When news of Germany’s defeat and Hitler’s death reaches the island, Nanning’s fanatically devoted mother plunges into deep despair, refusing to eat. To rouse her from her depression, Nanning does everything in his power to source the ingredients for a special dish from other residents on the island. Whilst he applies all his ingenuity and knowledge about his neighbours with fierce determination, he uncovers uncomfortable truths about his family and his surroundings and is forced to realise that the greatest threat does not always come from outside.
Set against the backdrop of the barren island landscape and the endless horizons of the North Sea, Fatih Akin tells a quiet, poignant story about the loss of childhood innocence. Consistently maintaining the perspective of twelve-year-old Nanning, he uses a fable-like, gripping plot to bring to life the uncertainty of a child who, in a time of ideological shifts incomprehensible to him, witnesses the blurring of the boundaries between right and wrong. Fatih Akin directed Amrum from a screenplay by director Hark Bohm, who passed away shortly after the film’s premiere and with whom Akin shared a long-standing friendship and close working relationship. Akin took over the direction after it became clear that Bohm, for health reasons, would be unable to adapt the material – which was based on his own childhood experiences on Amrum – for the screen himself. In order to develop his own approach to the film, Akin reworked the screenplay. His desire, as a German, to counter the current political forces on the far right also played a part in this.
Germany 2025, colour, 93 min, German with English subtitles.
Directed by Fatih Akin. Written by Fatih Akin and Hark Bohm. With Jasper Billerbeck, Diane Kruger, Laura Tonke, Lisa Hagmeister, Kian Köppke, Matthias Schweighöfer, Detlev Buck, Lars Jessen, Jan Georg Schütte, Tjard Nissen, Dirk Böhling, Marek Harloff.
Festivals
Festival de Cannes (Cannes Première, world premiere, May 2025); Hamptons International Film Festival; AFI Fest Los Angeles (Luminaries); Denver Film Festival; International Film Festival of India, Goa; Jerusalem Film Festival; Arras Film Festival; Camerimage; Palm Springs International Film Festival (Country Focus Germany, Jan 2026); International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR, Cinema Regained, Jan/Feb 2026); Seattle International Film Festival; Göteborg Film Festival; Filmfest Hamburg; Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival; Tromsø International Film Festival (Horizons, Jan 2026).
Awards
Bayerischer Filmpreis (Bavarian Film Award) 2026: Best Film; Deutscher Filmpreis (Lola) 2026: multiple nominations, including Best Sound Design (Joern Martens, Tobias Fleig, Corinna Fleig, Richard Borowski).
About Fatih Akin
Fatih Akin, born in Hamburg in 1973, is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker. His breakthrough came in 2004 with Head-On, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. At that point, he had already completed film school, directed two short films, a documentary about his parents’ migration from Turkey to Hamburg, and three feature films. His next major international success came with The Edge of Heaven (2007), which won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, followed by the European Film Award. With his next film Soul Kitchen (2009), Akin won the Special Jury Prize in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
In 2004, he founded the production company corazón international, through which he produced not only his own films but also nationally and internationally acclaimed titles such as Chiko, Takva: A Man's Fear of God, and Min Dît – The Children of Diyarbakır. In 2012, he launched a new company, bombero international, dedicated exclusively to his own projects. The company’s first production was The Cut, which premiered in competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival in 2014. In 2016, Akin directed In the Fade, starring Diane Kruger and Denis Moschitto, which premiered in 2017 and went on to win numerous awards—including the Palm D’Or for the Best Actress (Diane Kruger) in Cannes and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. His film The Golden Glove celebrated its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 2019 and his next film, Rheingold (2022), drew over one million viewers. Amrum celebrated its World Premiere in Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.
About Hark Bohm
Hark Bohm was born in Hamburg in 1939 and died there in October 2025. After completing his first state examination in law, he moved to Munich in 1967. In 1970, Bohm co-founded the Filmverlag der Autoren. In 1979, he returned to Hamburg, where he was crucial in convincing the then Mayor of Hamburg to launch the Filmfest Hamburg and to establish a film funding initiative for the city. In 1989, he co-founded the Institute for Theatre, Music Theatre, and Film at the University of Hamburg in 1989. Until 2005, Hark Bohm led the institute’s postgraduate film program.
From 1972 on, Bohm wrote and directed numerous award-winning feature films, including the youth classic Nordsee ist Mordsee and Yasemin, which won the German Film Award in Gold in 1988. From 2012 to 2015, he co-wrote the eight-part series Hitler for UFA, together with Niki Stein. In 2015, he co-wrote the feature film Tschick alongside Fatih Akin and Lars Hubrich. In 2016, he supported Fatih Akin as a co-writer on the screenplay for In the Fade. As a supporting actor, Bohm was cast by many of his colleagues, including Reinhard Hauff, Margarethe von Trotta, and Werner Herzog. Rainer Werner Fassbinder frequently placed him in front of the camera, in films such as The Marriage of Maria Braun, Lili Marleen, Lola, and Berlin Alexanderplatz. He was the brother of the actor Marquard Bohm (1941-2006), whom he cast in several of his films and who acted in the films by other well-known directors, including R.W. Fassbinder and Roland Klick.
Please join us for a drink after the screening to celebrate the opening day of KinoTage.
It is spring 1945 on Amrum, a windswept island off the North Frisian coast of Germany. Twelve-year-old Nanning spends his days fishing, hunting seals and working on a neighbour’s farm to feed his pregnant mother and younger siblings, whilst his father, a Nazi officer, is at war. When news of Germany’s defeat and Hitler’s death reaches the island, Nanning’s fanatically devoted mother plunges into deep despair, refusing to eat. To rouse her from her depression, Nanning does everything in his power to source the ingredients for a special dish from other residents on the island. Whilst he applies all his ingenuity and knowledge about his neighbours with fierce determination, he uncovers uncomfortable truths about his family and his surroundings and is forced to realise that the greatest threat does not always come from outside.
Set against the backdrop of the barren island landscape and the endless horizons of the North Sea, Fatih Akin tells a quiet, poignant story about the loss of childhood innocence. Consistently maintaining the perspective of twelve-year-old Nanning, he uses a fable-like, gripping plot to bring to life the uncertainty of a child who, in a time of ideological shifts incomprehensible to him, witnesses the blurring of the boundaries between right and wrong. Fatih Akin directed Amrum from a screenplay by director Hark Bohm, who passed away shortly after the film’s premiere and with whom Akin shared a long-standing friendship and close working relationship. Akin took over the direction after it became clear that Bohm, for health reasons, would be unable to adapt the material – which was based on his own childhood experiences on Amrum – for the screen himself. In order to develop his own approach to the film, Akin reworked the screenplay. His desire, as a German, to counter the current political forces on the far right also played a part in this.
Germany 2025, colour, 93 min, German with English subtitles.
Directed by Fatih Akin. Written by Fatih Akin and Hark Bohm. With Jasper Billerbeck, Diane Kruger, Laura Tonke, Lisa Hagmeister, Kian Köppke, Matthias Schweighöfer, Detlev Buck, Lars Jessen, Jan Georg Schütte, Tjard Nissen, Dirk Böhling, Marek Harloff.
Festivals
Festival de Cannes (Cannes Première, world premiere, May 2025); Hamptons International Film Festival; AFI Fest Los Angeles (Luminaries); Denver Film Festival; International Film Festival of India, Goa; Jerusalem Film Festival; Arras Film Festival; Camerimage; Palm Springs International Film Festival (Country Focus Germany, Jan 2026); International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR, Cinema Regained, Jan/Feb 2026); Seattle International Film Festival; Göteborg Film Festival; Filmfest Hamburg; Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival; Tromsø International Film Festival (Horizons, Jan 2026).
Awards
Bayerischer Filmpreis (Bavarian Film Award) 2026: Best Film; Deutscher Filmpreis (Lola) 2026: multiple nominations, including Best Sound Design (Joern Martens, Tobias Fleig, Corinna Fleig, Richard Borowski).
About Fatih Akin
Fatih Akin, born in Hamburg in 1973, is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker. His breakthrough came in 2004 with Head-On, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. At that point, he had already completed film school, directed two short films, a documentary about his parents’ migration from Turkey to Hamburg, and three feature films. His next major international success came with The Edge of Heaven (2007), which won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, followed by the European Film Award. With his next film Soul Kitchen (2009), Akin won the Special Jury Prize in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
In 2004, he founded the production company corazón international, through which he produced not only his own films but also nationally and internationally acclaimed titles such as Chiko, Takva: A Man's Fear of God, and Min Dît – The Children of Diyarbakır. In 2012, he launched a new company, bombero international, dedicated exclusively to his own projects. The company’s first production was The Cut, which premiered in competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival in 2014. In 2016, Akin directed In the Fade, starring Diane Kruger and Denis Moschitto, which premiered in 2017 and went on to win numerous awards—including the Palm D’Or for the Best Actress (Diane Kruger) in Cannes and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. His film The Golden Glove celebrated its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 2019 and his next film, Rheingold (2022), drew over one million viewers. Amrum celebrated its World Premiere in Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.
About Hark Bohm
Hark Bohm was born in Hamburg in 1939 and died there in October 2025. After completing his first state examination in law, he moved to Munich in 1967. In 1970, Bohm co-founded the Filmverlag der Autoren. In 1979, he returned to Hamburg, where he was crucial in convincing the then Mayor of Hamburg to launch the Filmfest Hamburg and to establish a film funding initiative for the city. In 1989, he co-founded the Institute for Theatre, Music Theatre, and Film at the University of Hamburg in 1989. Until 2005, Hark Bohm led the institute’s postgraduate film program.
From 1972 on, Bohm wrote and directed numerous award-winning feature films, including the youth classic Nordsee ist Mordsee and Yasemin, which won the German Film Award in Gold in 1988. From 2012 to 2015, he co-wrote the eight-part series Hitler for UFA, together with Niki Stein. In 2015, he co-wrote the feature film Tschick alongside Fatih Akin and Lars Hubrich. In 2016, he supported Fatih Akin as a co-writer on the screenplay for In the Fade. As a supporting actor, Bohm was cast by many of his colleagues, including Reinhard Hauff, Margarethe von Trotta, and Werner Herzog. Rainer Werner Fassbinder frequently placed him in front of the camera, in films such as The Marriage of Maria Braun, Lili Marleen, Lola, and Berlin Alexanderplatz. He was the brother of the actor Marquard Bohm (1941-2006), whom he cast in several of his films and who acted in the films by other well-known directors, including R.W. Fassbinder and Roland Klick.
Location
Goethe-Institut London
50 Princes Gate
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2PH
United Kingdom
50 Princes Gate
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2PH
United Kingdom