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Germany

AND ALONG COME TOURISTS
(AM ENDE KOMMEN TOURISTEN)
2007, Robert Thalheim, Germany, 85 min.
With Alexander Fehling, Barbara Wysocka

“Brisk and nuanced. The script balances one gigantic question--does the public remembrance of atrocity somehow sanitize and diminish it?--with an uncommonly involving young-man-at-the-crossroads story.”--Adam Nayman, Eye Weekly

Weighty questions are broached with a light and humane touch in this quietly effective story about a young man who fulfills his one-year national service at the Auschwitz historical site. There he encounters still-simmering resentment among the locals, a crusty Holocaust survivor, and the possibility of romance. In German with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Bavaria Film International. (MR)

After the screening, there will be a panel discussion, co-presented by Goethe-Institut Chicago and Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP), in which volunteers working with victims of the Nazis will discuss their relationship to Germany's troubled past and their experiences here in the United States.

Sunday, March 30, 5:15 pm

THE EDGE OF HEAVEN
(AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE)
2007, Fatih Akin, Germany, 122 min.
With Hanna Schygulla, Tuncel Kurtiz

“Utterly assured, profoundly moving... The point at which a good director crosses the career bridge to become a substantial international talent is vividly clear in THE EDGE OF HEAVEN.”--Derek Elley, Variety

Germany’s Oscar submission and winner for Best Screenplay at Cannes, THE EDGE OF HEAVEN has been hailed as the best film yet by the talented Turkish-German director Akin, whose IN JULY, SOLINO, and CROSSING THE BRIDGE have been previous EU Film Festival hits. Akin explores the tensions and affinities between East and West in parallel plotlines that shuttle back and forth between Istanbul and Hamburg, involving an old man, his live-in prostitute, her activist daughter, her lesbian lover, and her disapproving mother (Fassbinder veteran Schygulla). In German, Turkish, and English with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Strand Releasing. 35mm. (MR)

Friday, March 21, 6:00 pm
Saturday, March 22, 8:45 pm

HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE
(WIE MAN SEIN LEBEN KOCHT)
2007, Doris Dörrie, Germany, 93 min.

“A jaunty mix of chanting, baking, and spiritual uplift.”--Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
“An unexpectedly charming and enlightening film.”--Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
“Mischievous and charming.”--Eddie Cockrell, Variety

Director Dörrie (MEN...) brings her buoyant sensibility to this documentary portrait of Edward Espe Brown, Zen priest, enlightened chef, and best-selling author of the Tassajara Bread Book. With an infectious giggle and an occasionally unpriestlike temper, Brown demonstrates not only that we are what we cook, but that our food is cooking us. In English and German with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Roadside Attractions. 35mm. (MR)

Saturday, March 8, 5:00 pm
Wednesday, March 12, 6:00 pm

SUMMER ‘04
(SOMMER ‘04)
2006, Stefan Krohmer, Germany, 97 min.
With Martina Gedeck, Svea Lohde

“Stefan Krohmer’s second feature exudes the fleeting quality of a summer breeze, exploring with unpretentious candor--and very little skin--how a young girl’s sexual agency rebukes an older generation’s notions of right and wrong.”--Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
“Marvelous... A surprise ending amounts to one of the most heart-rendingly brilliant coups in directing, writing, and acting I have ever experienced on the screen.”--Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

LOLITA meets KNIFE IN THE WATER, with a twist of Eric Rohmer, in this provocative mixture of comedy of manners and psychological thriller. A liberal couple’s Baltic vacation is both invigorated and vexed by their son’s precocious 12-year-old girlfriend, and the tensions tauten when both mother and girlfriend become involved with a mysterious older man. In German with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of Cinema Guild. 35mm. (MR)

Sunday, March 16, 5:15 pm
Monday, March 17, 6:00 pm

TO THE LIMIT
(AM LIMIT)
2007, Pepe Danquart, Germany, 95 min.

Extreme sports don’t come any more extreme than speed rock-climbing, in which climbers compress a normal three-day ascent into less than three hours. Intensive practice and split-second timing are required, and one false step can bring fatal disaster. Director Danquart’s cameras come scarily close as two brothers, Thomas and Alexander Huber, take aim at the sport’s ultimate test, the sheer El Capitan peak in Yosemite National Park, but the film’s real focus is on simmering sibling rivalry and the existential rush of “pushing into your fears.” In German with English subtitles. Preview courtesy of First Run Features. 35mm. (MR)

Friday, March 14, 6:00 pm

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