FOLLOWING ITS successful launch last year, the German Film Week will once again offer a diverse selection of films with the goal of promoting German language and culture. This year’s lineup of films presents the breadth of contemporary German cinema.

The film festival will be held from Sept. 28 to Oct. 5 at the SM Mall of Asia and SM North EDSA.

Organized by the Goethe-Institut Philippinen, this year’s slate of films were carefully selected among the latest releases in Germany, some of which have already been receiving numerous awards in international film festivals. “Whether mainstream, romantic comedies, or micro-budget indies, we made sure our festival attendees will be entertained and pleased,” said Dr. Ulrich Nowak, the director of the Goethe-Institut in a release.

This year’s festival will also feature Captive, a work by acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza, which has been screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. The director will be attending one of its screenings at the German Film week during which audiences will get a chance to meet him.

The German Film Week’s opening night will be at the SM Mall of Asia Cinema 1 on Sept. 27 and will have as its guest German filmmaker Markus Goller, director of My Brother Simple (Simpel, 2017) which opens this year’s film festival. Mr. Goller will hold a Q&A after his film’s screening.

The festival will be brought to Clark, Cebu, and Davao in October.

Tickets to the 2017 German Film Week screenings are priced at P100 for all German films and P200 for Mendoza’s Captive. The opening screening on Sept. 27 is free and open to all on a first-come-first-served basis. Tickets may be purchased at the cinema counters of participating SM malls.

For more information, visit Goethe.de/Manila.

The films to be shown are:

• Simpel (My Brother Simple), 2017, by director Markus Goller about a boy who tries to keep his mentally handicapped brother from being sent to a home.

• Mein Blind Date Mit Dem Leben (My Blind Date with Life), 2017, by Lone Scherfig is a campy film about a visually impaired young man who becomes an employee at a luxury hotel in Munich.

• Kundschafter des Friedens (Old Agent Men), 2017, by Robert Thalheim. Set 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a once legendary spy is called back on duty to rescue the kidnapped president of the peaceful republic of Katchekistan and calls on his old team to help.

• Willkommen Bei Den Hartmanns (Welcome to Germany), 2016, Simon Verhoeven, is a refugee-themed comedy with an optimistic theme.

• Die Welt Der Wunderlichs (The World of the Wunderlichs), 2016, Dami Levy. A woman whose husband has a gambling addiction is set to answer a casting call abroad in a bid to pay a debt coming due, but then the entire family wants to tag along.

• Happy Burnout, 2017, André Erkau. A middle-aged unemployed man agrees to be sent to a sanatorium to receive therapy in exchange for financial support from the government.

• Toni Erdmann, 2016, Maren Arde. A reluctant woman must spend time with her estranged father when he comes for a surprise visit.

• SMS für Dich (You’ve Got a Message), 2016, Karoline Herfurth. Based on a popular novel of the same title, it follows a young woman coping with the death of her boyfriend by sending messages to his mobile phone which, without her knowledge, had fallen under the hands of a sports journalist.

• Die Blumen Von Gestern (The Bloom of Yesterday), 2016, Chris Kraus. A romantic comedy about a Holocaust researcher and scholar – who happens to be the grandson of a notorious Nazi war criminal – is assigned to work with an assistant who is the granddaughter of a Holocaust victim.

• Marija, 2016, Michael Koch. A Ukraninan cleaning woman loses her job and falls under financial pressure which forces her to resort to the worst alternatives to reach her goals.

• Rückkehr Nach Montauk (Return to Montauk), 2017, Volker Schlöndorff. An author on a promotional book tour in New York, meets up once again with the woman he met 17 years ago, but could never forget.

• Nebel im August (Fog in August), 2016, Kai Wessel. During the Nazi regime, a boy decides to sabotage a hospital’s euthanasia program to save his friends. Based on a true story.

• Captive, 2012, Brillante Mendoza. A film about the 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapping of tourists from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan.

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