FATIH AKIN in Competition at Venice

THE CUT by Fatih Akin will have its world premiere in the Venezia 71 Competition at the Venice International Film Festival. The competition for the Golden Lion also features the debut film by the German-Turkish film-maker Kaan Müjdeci SIVAS (TR/DE, Müjdeci GmbH) as well as two other German co-productions. Director Philip Gröning is a member of the jury. The German film FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER by Rüdiger Suchsland (Looks Filmproduktionen) will screen in Venice Classics.
 
Apart from THE CUT and SIVAS, the Competition also includes 3 HEARTS by Benoît Jacquot (FR/DE/BE, Pandora Filmproduktion) and A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE by Roy Andersson (SE/DE/FR/NOR, Essential Filmproduktion) so that four of the 20 competition films have been made with German participation.
 
Other German co-productions in Venice: THE PRESIDENT by Mohsen Makhmalbaf (GB/DE/GE/FR, Brümmer&Herzog Filmproduktion) will be screening as the opening film in the Orizzonti, and LINE OF CREDIT by Salome Alexi (GE/DE/FR) is also featured in this section. Lars von Trier’s NYMPHOMANIAC II (LONG VERSION) DIRECTOR’S CUT (DK/DE/BE/FR, Zentropa International Köln) can be seen ‘out of competition’, the short THE ADVENTURE OF A SOLDIER by Nino Manfredi from 1962 (IT/DE) is showing in the Venice Classics. EL CINCO DE TALLERES by Adrían Biniez (AR/UY/DE/FR/NL, Pandora Filmproduktion) can be seen at the independent Venice Days which announced its program on Tuesday.
 
Mariette Rissenbeek, managing director of German Films: “As was also the case last year, there is a very strong presence for German cinema at the Lido, which makes us very happy. Congratulations to all of the film-makers and their teams!“
 
THE CUT sees Fatih Akin concluding his trilogy “Love, Death and the Devil“ after HEAD ON and THE EDGE OF HEAVEN. In his new film, which is both epic, drama, adventure film and Western, the director turns his attention to the “Devil“ and speaks about the evil in man. Although the world of 100 years ago is being depicted, the subject matter is highly topical, since THE CUT is about war and expulsion as well as the power of love and the hope that makes people achieve the unimaginable. The leads in the drama are Tahar Rahim, Simon Abkarian, Makram J. Khoury and Hindi Zahra, the German actor Moritz Bleibtreu is also in the cast.
 
FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER has its world premiere in the Venice Classics sidebar. The documentary by the director and film journalist Rüdiger Suchsland looks at German cinema during the most important epoch of the Weimar Republic, complemented by references to the political and social events. The focus is on the work of the film-maker Fritz Lang and Siegfried Kracauer, author of “From Caligari to Hitler“, the most well known German film book to date. Rüdiger Suchsland considers Kracauer’s theses of how cinema sensed and anticipated the era of totalitarianism, in dialogue with Kracauer’s own work, with numerous, often unknown film excerpts as well as by interviewing such people as Volker Schlöndorff, Fatih Akin, Elisabeth Bronfen or Thomas Elsaesser.
 
The Venice International Film Festival is being held for the 71st time this year from 27 August to 6 September. Founded in 1932, it is regarded as the world’s oldest still existing film festival and is one of the most important festivals internationally.
 
The independent section of the International Film Critics’ Week announced its program earlier last week. THE COUNCIL OF BIRDS by Timm Kröger (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg) and the German co-production FLAPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE by Nguyen Hoang Diep (VN/FR/NO/DE, Filmallee) were invited.