Film - 2021
 Arthouse Cinema

New Arthouse Cinema © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Since 2012 Goethe-Institut has been screening a broad selection of German and Indonesian feature films and documentaries in the framework of its Arthouse Cinema program.

Because the pandemic situation will presumably prevent this year’s films from being shown in closed spaces in front of large audiences, Arthouse Cinema 2021 will take place in a new format: Films can be viewed on the video-on-demand platform provided by Goethe-Institut.

This year’s program offers 10 feature films selected by Anggraeni Dwi Widhiasih, our guest curator for Arthouse Cinema 2020-2021.

We hope you enjoy reading and watching!

ANGGRAENI DWI WIDHIASIH (Guest Curator)’s statement on ARTHOUSE CINEMA 2021

I have selected 10 films for the program Arthouse Cinema. They are all from filmmakers of the New German Film generation spanning the 1960s to the reunification of Germany in 1989. This time period is closely linked to the events of the Second World War and the years that followed. Germans themselves hardly speak about many things that happened in the past. Even if these things seem to belong to the past, they still influence the fabric of German society today and need to be discussed.

to the Curatorial Text ... 

Goethe-On-Demand

Leben BRD (1990) © Harun Farocki Leben BRD (1990) © Harun Farocki

View Arthouse Cinema 2021

Goethe-Institut is presenting a new version of Arthouse Cinema 2021 on a new platform where you can stream films online anytime: Goethe-On-Demand.

Film reviews

Arthouse Cinema

Ten young writers who have different backgrounds and come from different Indonesian cities - journalists, scientists, bloggers and others active in the film scene - were invited to critically view one film each in the Arthouse Cinema 2021 program and write a review of it.

Faced with Meta-image Cinema © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Harun Farocki
 Faced with Meta-image Cinema

Farocki combines character dialogue, camera shots, fictional narrative style, and multi-layered settings to deconstruct the essence of what makes a film work: images.

By: Manshur Zikri
Margarethe von Trotta: Women in Cinema © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Margarethe von Trotta
 Margarethe von Trotta: Women in Cinema

“Feminism is not an invention of the West.” So stated the late Nawal El Saadawi during an interview with Channel 4 News. She added that the struggle of women of different origins, traditions and religions takes place all over the world.

By: Umi Lestari
Der starke Ferdinand (Strongman Ferdinand): After Dark Comes the Terror © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Alexander Kluge
 Der starke Ferdinand (Strongman Ferdinand): After Dark Comes the Terror

His films seek not only to reveal the past but also to position the present in the historical dimension. Consequently, Kluge doesn’t talk openly about the Nazi regime, the events of the Holocaust, or the effects of the Cold War in the film. He does, however, refer to these events by addressing how they still affect the lives of his characters today.

By: Permata Adinda 
Surrendering to Truth: leaving the realistic and representational © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Werner Herzog
 Surrendering to Truth: leaving the realistic and representational

For Herzog, images based on everyday reality and are simply shown in this way—or let’s say innocent images—present only superficial truths.

By: Bunga Siagian 
Designed Landscapes: “Dealing with Mother Nature, It’s Driving Me Crazy!” © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Werner Herzog
 Designed Landscapes: “Dealing with Mother Nature, It’s Driving Me Crazy!”

The landscape is structured by the performativity of its subjects to space and the performativity of space to its subjects. The space is influenced and the space takes influence.

By: ​Taufiqurrahman Kifu
Abschied von Gestern (<i>Yesterday Girl</i>): Expressing yesterday in the present © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Alexander Kluge
 Abschied von Gestern (Yesterday Girl): Expressing yesterday in the present

The concept of the “past” already carries a moral burden on German post-war society, from its defeat in the First World War to the genocide committed by the National Socialists in various regions of Europe.

By: ​Dini Adanurani
How to Live in the FRG: Fear and Alienation © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Harun Farocki
 How to Live in the FRG: Fear and Alienation

Man lives from assumptions, from (product) demonstrations and from the written instructions of user manuals, which in the meantime have evolved into a life manual, and this means: mechanization.

By: Dhanurendra Pandji
Angst essen Seele auf (Fear Eats the Soul): Political Space © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
 Angst essen Seele auf (Fear Eats the Soul): Political Space

For Fassbinder, the encounter of two characters from different backgrounds is both a simple and astonishing way to start a film—the viewer quickly understands the essence of what the film is about.

By: Afrian Purnama 
Katzelmacher: Fassbinder’s aesthetic choices and political views © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
 Katzelmacher: Fassbinder’s aesthetic choices and political views

Released in 1969, Katzelmacher is Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s second feature film. His first film entitled Liebe ist kälter als der Tod (Love is Colder than Death) was released the same year, both black & white. Katzelmacher opens with a series of scenes featuring the film’s main characters. They live in anxiety but also with a certain distrust of each other.

By: ​Ayu Diah Cempaka
Der Amerikanische Freund (The American Friend): the indigenization of novels and liberation from dominance © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Arthouse Cinema - Wim Wenders
 Der Amerikanische Freund (The American Friend): the indigenization of novels and liberation from dominance

Wim Wenders, a director of the New German Film generation, adapted Highsmith’s thriller Ripley's Game for the screen as Der Amerikanische Freund (The American Friend). It was produced from 1976 to 1977 in an era when America greatly dominated Europe in many areas, including the film world.

By: Adi Osman 
“Lotte” (2016) by Julius Schultheiß Photo (detail): © Finderlohnfilm

The Berlin School
 Berlin School: The Space of the City and the Chronopolitics of Film

Space is never neutral. Power always needs space to realize its authority in the process of domination.

By: Aryo Danusiri
“Dealer” (1999) by Thomas Arslan Photo (detail): © Peripher Filmverleih

The Berlin School
 Cinema full of Surprises and Dangers

In the middle of the nineties the filmmakers of the “Berliner Schule” (The Berlin School) created radically new images of German society. Their films still have so much to say about their country.
 

Film Directors

New German Film stands for the movement and for the spirit of a generation of young directors who rethought and reshaped storytelling. From the 1960s and into the 1980s it explicitly opposed the artistic and socio-political direction that German film had taken. Arthouse Cinema 2021 is screening ten works of six directors representing New German Film.

more about the directors ...

Contact

Dinyah Latuconsina
Programme Coordinator
Dinyah.Latuconsina@goethe.de

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