Curtain ready to go up for German Film Week with screenings in Malaga, Mijas and Torrox

The 4th annual German Film Week, being held at the Albéniz Cinema in Malaga from 21 to 25 November, will include the screening of nine German films in their original versions, by well-known directors and debut films, romantic and musical dramas, black comedies, science fiction and thrillers. Three of them were screened at this year's Berlinale festival in February.

The year's event, sponsored by Malaga City Council, Malaga's provincial authority, Turismo Costa del Sol Tourism, German School of Malaga, Block House, Mijas town hall and Torrox town among others, will also include special screenings in Torrox (November 22) and Mijas (November 23).

As is now customary, the screenings organised by SUR deutsche Ausgabe (SUR in English’s sister newspaper in German), in collaboration with the German Consulate in Malaga and the Goethe-Institut Madrid, will provide an insight into the most recent German films in original version with Spanish subtitles.

Zoom

The opening film on 21 November at 7pm is by one of Germany's most renowned directors: Afire by Christian Petzold tells the story of four young people searching for their way in the world. A smouldering danger hangs over the carefree summer in a country house near the Baltic Sea: the forest fires are getting closer and closer. The film, which received the Grand Jury Prize in Berlin, was described by critics as one of Petzold's most entertaining and light-hearted works.

"Something's not right" is the opening line of the film. A hint at what is to follow, a visually stunning story about a man with a conflicting personality who want to write a book and doesn't seem to react to anything around him; a fascinating woman (outstanding: Paula Beer) who turns his head; his publisher (Matthias Brandt) who will tear his manuscript apart; two lovers in the apocalypse. The screening will be followed by a questions-and-answers session with the film's producer, Anton Kaiser.

Petzold is regarded as one of the most outstanding international representatives of art-house films. This year, the German Film Week is therefore focussing on Petzold and showing Undine, the first film in his trilogy about elemental beings. The film will be shown as the closing film on Saturday 25 th . Here, too, the director works with an outstanding Paula Beer (Silver Bear at the 2020 Berlinale) and the equally unique Franz Rogowski. Undine is a city guide in Berlin. When the man she loves leaves her, she is trapped by the curse of an ancient myth. Undine must kill the man who betrayed her... and return to the water. As a clever storyteller, Petzold manages to skilfully interweave modern realism and German romanticism. It is a fabulous, melancholy love story that never seems to distance itself from reality. A metaphysical balancing act that Petzold manages to skilfully interweave modern realism and German romanticism. It is a fabulous, melancholy love story that never seems to distance itself from reality. A metaphysical balancing act that makes film so enthralling.

Till the End of the Night by Christoph Hochhäusler follows in the great tradition of film noir. The film was celebrated at this year' Berlinale, with Thea Ehre receiving the Silver Bear for her role as trans woman Leni. The film is being shown as a Spanish premiere in Malaga. Undercover investigator Robert is supposed to gain the trust of a drug dealer through a fictitious relationship with trans woman Leni. The two used to be a couple and their feelings are not just a game. Director Hochhäusler stages his locations in Frankfurt, as if they were a new version of Chicago's seedier neighbourhoods. Although the film is set in the present day, much of it breathes retro chic, underlined by the leitmotif of Heidi Brühl's hit song. Unexpected twists and turns lend the film pace and suspense.

While Hochhäusler's film focuses on a trans woman, Alex Schaad's Skin Deep is about the possibility of slipping into a different body. Sensitive Tristan and depressive Leyla are not happy with each other.

They embark on a body swap experiment with a married couple in crisis. Not science fiction, but a melodramatic mind game.

Sisi & I is a different kind of Sisi film. It celebrated its acclaimed premiere at the last Berlinale and tells the life of Empress Sisi from the perspective of her lady-in-waiting Irma. Irma is immediately fascinated by the impressive but also self-destructive Sisi. She falls further and further under her spell and falls madly in love with the empress. The film moves between black comedy and historical drama and paints a completely new picture of Sisi, who surrounds herself with a kind of women's commune on Corfu.

Talking about the Weather by Annika Pinske will not only be shown at the cinema in Malaga, but also in special screenings in Torrox and Mijas. Clara has made it. Away from the East German provinces, she leads an independent life as a lecturer in Berlin and is doing her doctorate in philosophy. Between her professional ambitions, an affair with one of her students and the demanding friendship with her doctoral mother, she has little time for her family. When Clara travels back home with her fifteen-year-old daughter for her mother's 60th birthday, she is confronted with her ideal of a free, self-determined life.

The film deals with the most important themes of contemporary West Germany: conflicts between East and West, town and country, the working class and the academic elite. Director Pinske succeeds in creating a very personal description of the social fault lines in today';s Germany, also based on her own experience in the Uckermark.

Sophie Linnenbaum's The Ordinaries was celebrated as the most original German film of 2022. Paula lives with her mother in a form of society whose population is divided into three classes: there are main characters, secondary characters and outtakes, characters borrowed from the world of film.

The social order is based on oppression. Paula was a minor character, but has painstakingly worked her way up. Now she is on the verge of becoming the main character. An experimental film that is not short on social criticism, amusing ideas and references to film history. The film is also planned as a matinee event for the German School Málaga.

Orphea in Love by Axel Ranisch is a fairytale-like, colourful and soulful operatic pastiche with hints of street dance, a declaration of love to music and a new version of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. In overcoming their grey everyday reality through music, opera and dance, call centre agent Nele and petty criminal Kolya find themselves soul mates. They soon have to pass tests from a Greek-mythological dimension.

Oskar Roehler, one of the most successful German directors, has worked his way up to an even greater man, the legendary German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The result is not a conventional artist biopic, but an "enfant terrible", as the film is entitled.

Roehler traces the stages in the life of the film icon, from the brilliant director to the desperate seeker of love to the relentless harasser. Oliver Masucci not only plays the famous filmmaker, he becomes one with Fassbinder - and received the 2021 German Film Award for it.

The 4th Week of German Film in Málaga is sponsored by the provincial authority of Malaga, German School of Málaga, the city of Malaga, the towns of Mijas and Torrox, Turismo Costa del Sol, and the Block House steakhouse chain. The international law firm Frühbeck Abogados, based in Marbella, architecture firm Bühler & Partners in Málaga, Hotel & Spa La Residencia Puerto in Tarifa, photovoltaic system manufacturer Smart PV, Amigos Goethe-Institut España association, Cine Albéniz and the film promotion institute German Films have been secured as partners.