It’s been a Fatih Akin blitz this week, having watched his new comedy and two older films – a music documentary and his dramatic feature debut.  I’ve also revisited The White Ribbon, the must-see film of the festival (though it has a cinematic release just after).  All up, there’s six films reviewed.

• Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akin, Germany, 2009)
• Das Weiße Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke, Austria, 2009)
• Aimée & Jaguar (Max Färberböck, Germany, 1999)
• Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (Fatih Akin, Germany/Turkey, 2005)
• Kurz und schmerzlos (Short Sharp Shock, Fatih Akin, Germany, 1998)
• Die Päpstin (Pope Joan, Sönke Wortmann, Germany/UK/Italy/Spain, 2009)

Soul Kitchen
While Fatih Akin’s latest film, a comedy, is being described as very different to his earlier works, it has much in common with his first film, Short Sharp Shock in terms of place, characters and themes. In both films we see signs for Altona, a suburb of Hamburg that appears to crime-ridden and rundown. The restaurant in Soul Kitchen‘s title looks much like wharf warehouses we see in the earlier film. Adam Bousdoukos plays a petty crim in the earlier film, and the lead in Soul Kitchen, while Moritz Bleibtreu takes on a role similar to Bousdoukos’ in the earlier film. And crime and trying to get ahead (honestly for some, by any means for others) are themes in common to both.

Bousdoukos’ role in Short Sharp Shock provided welcome comic relief to a fairly dark story – in this film the comedy takes front row and he play a fairly boofhead sort of role that, despite the somewhat slapstick element, works quite well because of the authenticity of both his role and that of Bleibtreu, who plays his brother recently released from prison on day-release. Bleibtreu’s performance is particularly effective, given that he has no Greek background yet channels the characteristics perfectly. I was a bit surprised at how well he resembled both in appearance and behaviour some of my Greek in-laws. Continue reading →

The Festival of German Films 2010 is now open in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, with Brisbane and Adelaide to come. It’s the 9th year of the festival and this year there are 33 films to be screened.  I spoke briefly to festival director, Klaus Krischok from the Goethe Institute, about his criteria for selecting films for the festival. This year for the first time, there are different streams. ‘Culinary Comedies’ is headlined by Fatih Akin’s Soul Kitchen, a light departure from his usually more serious fare (such as The Edge of Heaven and Head On).  Akin fans also have the chance to see earlier films: Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul, a music documentary from 2005, and Short Sharp Shock, an inter-cultural drama from 1998.

Another stream is ‘Berlin Based’, films focusing on Berlin. I’ve seen the first episode of The Wolves of Berlin, reviewed below, and hope to see the remaining two episodes during the festival. In answer to my question about his criteria for the ‘German Currents’ films, Klaus said that history and politics are strong themes that he feels that make German cinema distinctive. His three top recommendations for the festival are: When We Leave, Soul Kitchen and My Words, My Lies – My Love. Continue reading →

I’d firstly like to thank Nicholas for inviting me on board Club Troppo.  This is not my first appearance here – some of you may recall Alison Croggon from Theatre Notes, who posted here my article on Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver in 2007 (which seems to have evaporated from Club Troppo but can be found on my Melbourne Film Blog) and my posts appeared from time to time in The Yartz section of Club Troppo’s Missing Link.

Before I posted anything, I thought I would put some context to my writing by giving a little personal background.  I’m not a film critic per se, though I am a member of the Australian Film Critics Association, a professional member of the AFI and a member of the management committee of Melbourne Cinémathèque. I have been self-employed most of my working life (in transport) and re-invented myself at the turn of the millennium by going back to university and becoming qualified in IT (I work as a technical business analyst, with a particular focus on Microsoft Excel and VBA development).

I stumbled across cinema in a chance way in the early 1990s.  At that time, I just went to ‘the movies’ like most people and it seemed like a good way to spend a few bucks and a couple of hours.  After not too long a time, I realised that Hollywood pretty much makes just a half dozen or so different movies that repeat themselves over and over again.  Different faces, same stories.  And sometimes same faces, same stories.  In other words, I got bored with the stuff of the multiplexes and discovered arthouse cinema.  This opened up another world that included foreign language films, independent cinema and Australian cinema. Continue reading →