More outdoor cinema nights are coming, this time putting German-language films in the spotlight. For the fourth consecutive year, the Goethe-Institut Cyprus presents its Sommerkino – a series of German film screenings. The programme of the 2023 edition includes awarded films by well-known director and screenwriter Christian Petzold and up-and-coming director and screenwriter Sophie Linnenbaum.

“Join us between July 3-7,” says Goethe, “for the ultimate summer nights in the city in the beautiful Goethe-Institut Garden with relaxing lounge chairs, a big screen and the famous Ledra Palace Hotel as a backdrop, while each film takes us on a different cinematic journey.”

Petzold is an internationally acclaimed and awarded German film director and screenwriter. Among his most well-known films are Barbara and Transit, both of which will be shown at the Sommerkino. He has collaborated with other important artists from Germany, such as Harun Farocki, with whom he worked on the screenplay of the film The State I Am In, his first feature film.

Many of his films have been shown at the Berlinale, with Afire being the most recent example. The second director whose work will be shown at the Sommerkino is Linnenbaum. She may be at the start of her filmmaking career, yet her short films have received numerous awards and have been screened at national and international festivals.

Sommerkino starts on July 3 with The Ordinaries (2022), which tells the story of Paula, who lives in a cinematic world and attends a school for leading actors to make her dream come true. This youth film does not lack humorous and sharp commentaries with many parallels, promising not only laughter but also deep reflection.

Next up is Undine (2020) on the following evening. Christian Petzold gives his own interpretation of the myth of the mysterious water spirit as a modern fairy tale in a disenchanted world. He reimagines this legend and effortlessly tells the story of a life-or-death love.

In Transit (2018), which will be screened on July 5, Petzold has managed to create a haunting modern-day film adaption of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel of the same name, which she wrote in exile. Stories of refugees from the past and present transcend time and create a space of transit. The film series continues on July 6 with Barbara (2012), in which a young doctor in the German Democratic Republic lives in fear of surveillance when she is exiled to a hospital in a small town after applying for an exit visa.

The screenings conclude with The State I Am In (2000), which deals with the challenges of a couple’s underground existence for their daughter, and the twists and turns that the daughter’s falling in love brings to her parents’ lives.

Screenings begin at 8.15pm and will be shown in their original language with English subtitles.

Sommerkino

German-language film screenings. July 3-70. Goethe-Institut Zypern, Nicosia. 8.15pm. In German. Free. Tel:22-674606. www.goethe.de/cyprus/sommerkino2023