By Jim Gilles
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 10/22/21 – German Currents is an annual film festival in Los Angeles that is celebrating its 15th edition this year beginning Friday, October 22 at the Los Feliz Theatre in Los Angeles. German Currents is sponsored by the Goethe Institute in conjunction with the American Cinematheque. The opening film is Detlev Buck’s amusing and visually dazzling period period Confessions of Felix Krull, based on the unfinished 1954 novel by German author Thomas Mann. As I understand, the opening night film at the Los Feliz theatre is unfortunately already sold out.
Next, Sarah Winkenstette’s multi-award-winning children’s feature Too Far Away will celebrate its Los Angeles premiere at a special family matinee screening at the Goethe-Institut, located near MacArthur Park in downtown L.A
The festival will close its in-person program with the West Coast premiere of acclaimed filmmaker Dominik Graf’s Fabian – Going to the Dogs which recently received 3 German Film Awards. The in-person screening of Fabian – Going to the Dogs will screen at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica on Sunday, October 24 at 5:00 pm. The film stars Tom Schilling and Saskia Rosedahl in Erich Kästner’s classic novel from the Weimar period of German literature. Pessimistic Jakob Fabian (Schilling) ekes out a meager living as a copywriter by day. At night, he drifts through the underbelly of Berlin with his wealthy friend Labude (Albrecht Schuch). After meeting the aspiring actress Cornelia (Rosendahl), Fabian quickly falls in love. But, unfortunately, his happiness is short-lived. Losing his job just as Cornelia’s career takes off with the help of her all-too attentive employer, Fabian plunges back into depression. But in the twilight of the Weimar era, it’s not just Fabian’s world that is falling apart.
There will be 7 additional films in this year’s German Currents series and these are all available online through October 31. The festival’s virtual cinema presentations of Actor-Director Moritz Bleibtreu’s directorial debut feature Cortex (La Premiere), the multi-award-winning documentary The Case You from Alison Kuhn (US PREMIERE), which is worth seeing. During a 2015 casting call, 300-400 young actresses, including some minors, were groped, beaten or abused by both men and women, all while a camera was rolling. These traumatizing experiences resurfaced years later when the footage of the auditions was released as a documentary without their permission. Much recommended is the slow-burning drama No One’s With the Calves (US PREMIERE) from Sabrina Sarabi (starring Fabian‘s Saskia Rosendahl).
It will also include Johannes Naber’s riveting darkly comedic political thriller Curveball (LA PREMIERE), Erik Schmitt’s artfully crafted cinematic fairytale Cleo (US PREMIERE), and Leonie Krippendorff’s multi-award-winning debut coming-of-age feature Cocoon. In addition, the US Premiere of Next Generation Short Tiger 2021, a selection of Short Tiger Award-winning short films, and filmmaker discussions will complete the festival’s program.
For tickets, go to: https://watch.eventive.org/germancurrents2021 For $25.00, you can see most of the films virtually.
