Garden cinema at the Goethe-Institut Cyprus

More evenings of outdoor cinema are coming to Nicosia with the Sommerkino (summer cinema) at the Goethe-Institut Cyprus. A varied programme of short and feature films in the garden this July starts with the short film programme Short Export on Friday.

The Short Export – Made in Germany 2021 programme once again and for the 16th time presents outstanding German short films around the world. In an unconventional yet authentic manner, they deal with change and challenges, home, arrival and overcoming trauma. They are powerful, loud and calm – and sometimes humorous.

Short Export is a German-French cooperation with this year’s programme consisting of the following short films: INNdependence, Postpartum, The One Who Crossed The Sea, Seahorse, The Chimney Swift and Masel Tov Cocktail.

The open-air screenings continue from July 19 to 23 with a selection of films with or by the renowned German actress, screenwriter and director Maria Schrader. She has shone as a leading actress in award-winning films such as Aimee & Jaguar (1999) and with the films Liebesleben (2007), Vor der Morgenröte (2016) and Unorthodox (2020) showing that she is an outstanding artist also behind the camera. Her latest film, Ich bin dein Mensch, has also been widely praised and nominated and will be screened at the Goethe-Institut Cyprus as part of the Berlinale Selection 2021 at the end of November.

The summer film series begins with Aimee & Jaguar on July 19, based on a true story showing the love between two German women, the Jewish-German Felice Schragenheim (Schrader) and Lily Wust (Juliane Köhler), wife of a Nazi and mother of four children, during the Second World War. Schrader and Köhler were awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actress in 1999.

The second film, Liebesleben (Love Life) on July 20, is Schrader’s directorial debut and the film adaption of the bestselling novel of the same name by Israeli author Zeruya Shalev, which is about the dependent love of a young woman for her father’s friend. Schrader translates the book’s long inner monologues into impressive images, for which the film won awards in the categories of cinematography, production design and music. It was shot in Israel with Israeli actors.

Schwestern (Sisters) on the following evening, is a warm-hearted comedy in which the main character, played by Schrader, tries to establish contact with her younger sister, who has decided to enter a convent. The secular family does not understand this step.

In Vergiss mein Ich (Lose My Self) by Jan Schomburg, screened on July 22, Schrader plays a woman who has lost her biographical memory after contracting encephalitis. The film was nominated for several awards and received one for cinematography at the Festival des Deutschen Films (Festival of German Film) in 2014.

July 23’s Vor der Morgenröte (Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe) is the fifth film of the Institut’s summer cinema and the second film Schrader directed, and filmed in 2016. It focuses on Austrian-Jewish author Stefan Zweig and his wife Lotte, who flee to America to escape the Nazis. With Vor der Morgenröte, Schrader succeeded in making a haunting and subliminally incendiary film on the subject of exile that also reflects part of European cultural history.

Sommerkino

Short export films. July 16. Tribute films to Maria Schrader. July 19-23. Goethe-Institut Cyprus garden, Nicosia. 8.30pm. With subtitles in English. Free admission, reservations are necessary. Tel: 22-674606