Filmstadt Berlin

In days before and right after my birthday I went to three film premieres. The Hochschule for Film und Fernsehen, with which I am affiliated here, educates for all aspects of film production. It the former East Germany, it was the only route to work in the film industry. Graduates of the Academy often have their premieres at the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg, an old brick brewery complex converted to a location with galleries, bars, restaurants, clubs, cinemas and performance spaces. I saw premieres of “Am Ende kommen Touristen” by Robert Thalheim, and “Fata Morgana” by Simon Groß. At the Freiluftkino (Open Air Cinema) Friedrichshain I saw “Ostpunk – Too Much Future” by Carsten Fiebeler. Thalheim’s film, based loosely on his own experiences, tells of a young German who completes his civil service at the former concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland. There he is charged with taking care of a former resident of the camp who still lives on its premises and makes appearances as an eyewitness in discussions with groups of youth who visit the camp. Its various threads treat German-Polish relations, a young man’s growing into maturity, his confrontation with his nation’s past and with the aging process, as well as a love story. “Fata Morgana” is a dark thriller, set in motion when a young couple vacationing at a beach resort in Africa take a jeep into the desert and decide to leave the paved road – for the sake of adventure. “Ostpunk,” a documentary about punks in the former East Germany, was, as I should have anticipated, well-attended by former members of the same movement and/or friends of those featured in the film. It was the liveliest audience I have ever experienced!