2019 German Film Festival Perth

The 2019 German Film Festival showcases the best new German cinema across all genres with a curated selection of 31 films. Presented by Palace in collaboration with German Films, the programme will screen exclusively at Palace Cinemas from May 28 to 12 June.

Opening the festival nationally is Balloon (Ballon) by Michael ‘Bully’ Herbig. A spectacular and thrilling true story of two ordinary families who escape from East to West Germany in a homemade hot air balloon. Starring Karoline Schuch, David Kross, Friedrich Mücke and Alicia von Rittberg the story of the 1979 flight from the GDR is perfectly timed for the 30th anniversary of the fall of the wall.

The Centrepiece selection, The Captain (Der Hauptmann) by Hollywood director Robert Schwentke (Red 2010, The Time Traveler's Wife 2009), offers a superb cast including Max Hubacher, Frederick Lau, Alexander Fehling, Milan Peschel and Samuel Finzi. A black and white anti-war film, based on true story of deserter Willi Herold, sees darkly evocative and brutally stark German cinema at its best.

A special presentation screening of Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus (Vom Bauen der Zukunft - 100 Jahre Bauhaus) will celebrate the anniversary of a design legend. Co-presented by the Goethe-Institut the documentary portrays the fascinating history of Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus, one of our century's most influential architectural schools that still shapes our society today.

Mid-way through the festival will see a special event screening of Mack the Knife - Brecht's Threepenny Film (Mackie Messer - Brechts Dreigroschenfilm). In true Brechtian style, director Joachim A. Lang and his outstanding cast enthusiastically bring to life true events that followed the huge success of Bertolt Brecht’s 'Threepenny Opera'. And to close the 2019 Festival - a restoration of the celebrated and controversial classic 1931 film The 3 Penny Opera (Die 3 Groschen-Oper), which follows underworld anti-hero Macheath and his rivalry with Jonathan Peachum, the “beggar king” of London.

In Kino for Kids, presented by the Goethe-Institut, three films have been specially curated for children, German language students and families alike, including Jim Button and Luke the Locomotive Driver (Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer) based on the children’s novel by Michael Ende; Invisible Sue, which enters the fantasy realm and Little Miss Dolittle (Liliane Susewind) in which ten-year-old Liliane can talk to animals.

This year, the German Embassy co-presents three films as a commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall – these include: Adam & Evelyn, an offbeat love story based on the popular novel by Ingo Schultz about a tailor and a waitress set against the backdrop of a disintegrating 1989 East Germany; by multi award-winning director Andreas Dresen comes GUNDERMANN, a moving and endearing portrait of the beloved East German folk singer and writer Gerhard “Gundi” Gundermann; and Sealed Lips (Und der Zukunft zugewandt), starring Alexandra Maria Lara, as an ex-prisoner of a Russian Soviet labour camp who is forced to remain silent about her experiences in order to retain her freedom.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit the official website.

#Germanfilmfest

Tickets on sale now.