Now in its 29th year, the AFI European Union Film Showcase continues its tradition of bringing the best in European cinema to Washington, DC-area audiences. This year's selection of 47 films includes international film festival award winners, European box-office hits and debut works by promising new talents, plus nine U.S. premieres and 14 countries' official Oscar® submissions for Best Foreign Language Film. This year’s Showcase includes three new German feature films.
Original Bliss (Gleißendes Glück)
Friday, December 2, 5 pm
Sunday, December 4, 1:15 pm
Germany, 2016, color, 101 min., German with English subtitles, Director/Screenplay: Sven Taddicken; Screenplay: Stefanie Veith, Hendrik Hölzemann, from the book by A. L. Kennedy; Producer: Alexander Bickenbach, Manuel Bickenbach
In this smart, nuanced adaption of Scottish author A.L. Kennedy's eponymous short story collection, Martina Gedeck (
The Lives of Others) shines as Helene, a suburban housewife coping with insomnia, loss of faith and an overbearing, abusive husband. Helene sees a ray of hope in the theories of self-help guru Eduard Glück (Ulrich Tukur,
The White Ribbon), and when the two meet, they embark on an unconventional romance which will either free or destroy them both.
Toni Erdmann (c) NFP marketing & distribution GmbH
2016 Oscar® Selection, Germany
Toni Erdmann
Saturday, December 3, 4 pm
Germany/Austria, 2016, 162 min. In German and Romanian with English subtitles, Director/Screenplay/Producer: Maren Ade; Producer: Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski, Michel Merkt
Maren Ade's (
Everyone Else) outrageous oddball dramedy has wowed audiences the world over since its Cannes debut. Winfried (Peter Simonischek) is a newly retired teacher and free spirit who decides to pay a surprise visit to his daughter Ines (Sandra Hüller, in a gutsy performance) in Romania. The workaholic Ines does not welcome Winfried's sudden intrusion into her busy life. Undeterred, the fun-loving father crashes his daughter's work event in a flashy suit, false teeth and a wig, having adopted the alter-ego of
Toni Erdmann, life coach. Ines, surprisingly, plays along. Escalating hijinks ensue, with Ines rediscovering her sense of play in life and work.
Wild
Friday, December 9, 9:20 pm
Germany, 2016, color, 97 min. In German with English subtitles, Director/Screenplay: Nicolette Krebitz; Producer: Bettina Brokemper
Newcomer Lilith Stangenberg gives a fiercely committed performance as an introverted young woman named Ania who takes a wolf into her apartment. Ania grows more in tune with her own animal nature as the ways of the wolf rub off on her, in filmmaker Nicolette Krebitz's provocative parable of human behavior and societal stricture. "Krebitz's film questions the behavioral standards we take as given with quiet daring and disquieting sangfroid." – Guy Lodge,
Variety.
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