Berlin 2009: After Winter Comes Spring – Films Presaging the Fall of the Wall
The Dog’s Night Song by Gábor Bódy
Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 2009 Berlin Film Festival will serve as the launching pad for the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Deutsche Kinemathek series “After Winter Comes Spring – Films Presaging the Fall of the Wall.”
As per the festival’s press release, "in fifteen feature-length blocks, ‘After Winter Comes Spring’ will present films made in both Germanys and Eastern Europe during the last decade of the Cold War – films that convey a sense of the radical changes to come. Some of these works were made in the official studios of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Others were realized more at the fringes, e.g., by underground artists. Curated by Claus Löser, this selection of feature and documentary works, as well as animated, short and experimental films includes big names from film history – e.g., Krzysztof Kieslowski and Jan Švankmajer – and lesser-known filmmakers. Their works formulate the hope of a political or economic opening and, above all, artistic freedom. They pushed boundaries in both form and content, while boldly articulating the need for reform."
Some of those films will be shown in Germany for the first time, among them Piotr Szulkin’s "initially banned fatalistic science-fiction parable about daily life under a dictatorship," Wojna swiatów – nastepne stulecie / The War of the Worlds – Next Century (Poland, 1981/83), and András Jeles’ "surreal portrait of manners from Budapest," A kis Valentinó / Little Valentino (Hungary, 1979).
Also screening will be Krzysztof Kieslowski’s take on the Fifth Commandment, Krótki film o zabijaniu / A Short Film About Killing (right, Poland, 1987); Petar Popzlatev’s Az, Grafinyata / The Countess (Bulgaria 1989), about a marginalized young woman "caught between drugs and the psychiatric ward"; and Helke Misselwitz’s documentary Winter adé / After Winter Comes Spring (East Germany, 1988).
Also, Michael Klier’s Überall ist es besser, wo wir nicht sind / The Grass Is Greener Everywhere Else (West Germany, 1988), the story of an unlucky Polish immigrant in the United States; Rashid Nugmanov’s Igla / The Needle (USSR 1988); and Gábor Bódy’s last film, Kutya éji dala / The Dog’s Night Song (Hungary 1983), described as "a post-modern vivisection of Hungarian society."
Additionally, the series will feature fourteen short, animated and experimental films exploring "diverse artistic and political possibilities under totalitarian rule," including Thomas Heise’s Wozu denn über diese Leute einen Film? / Why Make a Film About People Like Them? (East Germany, 1980), a portrait of petty criminals in East Berlin; Yuri Norstein’s animated Skazka skazok / Tale of Tales (above, USSR, 1979), about "world history and individual experience"; Jan Švankmajer’s animated short Moznosti dialogu / Dimensions of Dialogue (Czechoslovakia, 1982), in which "communication breaks down and violence escalates"; and János Veto’s Trabantománia (Hungary, 1982), which focuses on punk rock.
The series “After Winter Comes Spring – Films Presaging the Fall of the Wall” will take place at the CinemaxX 8 at Potsdamer Platz and the Zeughauskino, Unter den Linden. Audiences will be able to take part in discussions with the directors, and a "special event" is scheduled to accompany the series. New prints are supposedly being made of all the films in the series. Following the Berlinale 2009 screenings, the “After Winter Comes Spring” films will be shown in other venues across Germany.
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Tags: After Winter Comes Spring, Berlin 2009, Berlin Film Festival, Film Festivals, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Political Movies, Tale of Tales, The Dog's Night Song
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