Co-presented with Telescope Film

KINO!Film Salon is a monthly online club to discuss films from Germany.

How it works: Each month, we choose a German film currently available to stream on U.S. platforms, watch it independently, and come together for a hosted conversation with other fans of German cinema.

At our April session, we’ll dive into the absurd comedy of Bernhard Wenger’s shape-shifting satire Peacock. Wenger will join us to introduce and discuss the film.

At MyCompanion, Matthias (Albrecht Schuch, All Quiet on the Western Front) can become anyone his clients need, for a fee: a cultured boyfriend to impress their friends, a devoted son to raise their prestige with colleagues, or a partner to practice arguing with. But when his girlfriend Sophia (Julia Franz Richter, Welcome Home Baby) struggles to find the real him among his many personas, Matthias faces a true existential crisis. 

“Inspired by Japan’s ‘rent-a-friend’ industry, Peacock is an engaging, provocative film that proves to be soulful, emotionally intelligent, and very much for these times,” writes KINO! Film Salon host Jim Kolmar. “Fans of Yorgos Lanthimos and Luis Buñuel will find plenty to admire.”

Peacock world premiered at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival and was selected as Austria’s official entry for Best International Feature at the 2026 Academy Awards. Schuch was awarded Best Leading Actor at the 2025 Austrian Film Awards for his performance.
Hosted by Jim Kolmar

Jim programs for SXSW and Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival and was a founding committee member of Festival Internacional de Cine Tulum (FICTU). He has participated in numerous international festival juries, panels, and committees.

KINO!Film Salon is a production of Telescope Film, in partnership with the German Film Office.

Pfau – Bin ich echt?
Dir. Bernhard Wenger
Austria/Germany, 2024
102 min.
With Albrecht Schuch, Julia Franz Richter, Anton Noori, Theresa Frostad Eggesbø, Salka Weber, Maria Hofstätter