This year, the European Union Film Festival (EUFF) has the pleasure to present a selection of 18 European films which have never been screened in Hong Kong before. They were chosen carefully with the Consulates-General of the European Union to showcase their countries’ passion and talent in film making. As always, we have selected a wide variety of genres, which include comedy, thrillers and drama.
The festival opens with the screening of The Forgotten, the story of a language teacher who cannot leave her city occupied by separatists in eastern Ukraine. We hope to demonstrate our staunch support and solidarity to Ukraine and its people as we stand up jointly and firmly for peace and freedom.
This year's German film DEAR THOMAS (Lieber Thomas) is a powerful biopic from Andreas Kleinert about one of Germany’s most important writers, shot in black and white, featuring a tour-de-force performance from Albrecht Schuch.
Germany | 2021 | 150 mins | DCP | B&W
In German with Chinese and English subtitles
Director Andreas Kleinert
Cast Albrecht Schuch, Jella Haase, Ioana Iacob
East Germany is still a young country, but Thomas Brasch is already an outsider. His father wants to help build the new German state, but Thomas, the eldest son, would rather be a writer. He’s obsessive, a dreamer and a rebel. His very first play is banned, and soon afterward he’s expelled from film school. When Soviet tanks roll through Prague in 1968, Thomas and other students demonstrate on the streets of Berlin. His father reports him to the Stasi, which lands him in prison. Released on parole, he works hard, loves, and suffers, and writes about love, revolt, and death. With no prospect of being heard in East Germany, Thomas and the woman he loves depart the homeland that wasn’t theirs. In the West, he is acclaimed and his books become bestsellers, but he refuses to be appropriated and is far from letting up.
