January 2003 - Nr. 1
Young Talent Screened at Ophuls Film Festival
TWIG - German cinema has taken a serious turn, judging by the new movies being screened this week at the Max Ophuls Film Festival. Despite the phenomenal success of last year’s German comedy Der Schuh des Manitu (Manitu’s Shoe) the 17 films competing for the festival’s top prize are focused mainly on such melancholy themes as post adolescent angst, the longing for home and the fear of war. "There won’t be much to laugh about at this year’s Ophuls Festival," organizers announced recently. "Many films are about young people’s identity issues, with questions like, What am I doing with my life? Where am I going?"
A record total of 158 productions will be screened at this year’s festival, a leading forum for emerging filmmakers from German-speaking countries. Two new series of experimental and war films have been added to the program, and organizers hope to attract more young people to the scene by inviting a teen jury to help judge entries. Held in memory of film director and Saarbrücken native Max Ophuls (1902-1957), the festival opened Monday (January 13) with a screening of the German-Austrian coproduction Gebürtig (Native), about a Jewish emigrant who returns to Vienna long after World War II. Included in the main competition are 11 German, four Austrian and two Swiss productions.
Among the German films celebrating their world premiere in Saarbrücken are Wir (Us), directed by Martin Gypkins, about a circle of friends in contemporary Berlin; Gelbe Tage (Yellow Days), by Ravin Asaf, depicting life and war in a Kurdish village; and Michael Pfeifenberger’s 011 Beograd, about young people living in the Serbian capital. On Saturday, the festival will award the Max Ophuls Prize, which carries an honorarium of 36,000 euros.
