Festival of German Films 2012

Overview

This year marks the 11th annual Festival of German Films, and 2012's program promises to be one of the biggest so far, with 37 films screening at the Chauvel and Palace Norton Street. Presented by the Goethe-Institut, this year's festival aims to highlight the breadth and diversity of contemporary German filmmaking. With a long cinematic history spanning as far back as the Weimar silent film era to Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders in the 1970s and '80s and films like Goodbye Lenin! and The Lives of Others in more recent years, Germany has some of the richest and most diverse films in the world, and this festival makes sure Sydney can get a taste.

It kicks off with the Australian premiere of Hotel Lux, a satire set in the 1930s dealing with Stalinist Russia and the rise of Nazism. Director Leander Haussmann will put in an appearance for the opening night, hosting a question and answer session alongside a showcase of his other films, including Sonnenallee and Robert Zimmermann Is Tangled Up In Love. Other directors you'll be able to catch in conversation are Alice Gruia and Hendrik Handloegten.

This year's festival highlights include Combat Girls, a confronting film about a woman who's involvement with a neo-Nazi gang exposes the lives of those trapped in racial hatred, and Hell, which presents a dark vision of a post-apocalyptic world. Taboo, which tells the story of poet Georg Trakl and his tortured and somewhat dysfunctional relationship with his sister, and Sennentuntschi, Switzerland's first horror film, are also touted as some of the best films on the program.

The festival runs for two weeks in Sydney before moving on to the rest of the country.

Image from Hotel Lux.