The 5th KinoFest – German-language Film Festival was concluded with great success at the magnificent Castro Clauss venue in Patras. For five days, this historic venue was transformed into an open-air summer cinema, where more than 1500 spectators had the opportunity to enjoy free screenings of German-language short and feature films, accompanied by fine wine.
This year, for the first time, the Festival acquired a competition section in which 8 films from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg participated. The demanding task of evaluating the eight films was undertaken by the jury consisting of Anna Routsi (lawyer, columnist, documentary researcher), Prodromos Tsinikoris (actor, director) and Alexia Bezikis (actress).
*The Jury’s Best Film Award was unanimously awarded to the German film When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before by Sonia Heiss.
The film stars the young son of the director of an innovative German psychiatric clinic who, together with his brothers and his mother, interacts daily with the young inmates who come in and out of their home, in a fragile condition of absolute acceptance. The film follows three different periods in the life of the child, who also faces psychological problems. A moving, collective coming-of-age story of an entire family.
The jury awarded the film “for the unexpectedly moving coming-of-age journey of the central character that made us reflect on our own childhood and teenage years and finally accept that life is a series of meetings and farewells. For the director’s penetrating and tender look at a family living with people in a therapeutic context, effectively reversing the roles in a cinematic setting and music that very convincingly represents the 70s and 80s in West Germany. And finally, for the way he approached the motley community of patients, masterfully playing with the concept of ‘normality’ and the roles we take on in the abuser-victim-savior triangle.”
*The audience award was won by a large majority for the delightful comedy Bonjour Switzerland by Peter Luizi, which swept the impressions of the Festival audience with its subversive humor.
A crazy referendum puts Switzerland in a state of emergency. Henceforth there should be only one national language: French. But the German-speaking and Italian-speaking Swiss revolt, and a German-speaking policeman is called upon to enforce the law – even though he has no such inclination…
A film that satirizes in an entertaining and apt way the fantastic attempt to impose a dominant language in multilingual and multicultural Switzerland.
This year’s Festival screened German-language feature and short films from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg with the valuable support of the Federal Republic of Germany in Greece, the Embassy of Switzerland in Greece, the Austrian Embassy in Athens and the Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Athens.
As part of the tribute to 100 years since the death of Franz Kafka, the 5th KinoFest hosted the poster exhibition KOMPLETT KAFKA – A biography in comics in collaboration with the artist Nicolas Mahler and the Literaturhaus Stuttgart, through which the episodic life of Kafka is presented with sketches.
Young viewers also had their own special place at the Festival, with the screening of the children’s film Lucy Wanted followed by the Painting Workshop “The Color Gang”, offering children a unique creative experience.
Antonis Korkontzilas
The 5th KinoFest has concluded and renewed its rendezvous with viewers for next year with the Netflix-produced German film None Later than the Western Front, one of the most awarded non-English language films in the history of the Oscars. The film was shown for the first time on the big screen in Greece as part of the tribute to the 70 years of German Films.
THE KINOFEST
KinoFest started as an idea to transform for a few days into a cinema center a magical space, the Castro Clauss space: the oldest winery in Greece. To give an alternative use, that of cinema, to a place which is inextricably linked to a traditional cultural activity: that of the art of wine.
However, as a sign of respect to the roots of this landmark, it was decided that the Festival will be German-speaking in honor (and in the language) of its Bavarian founder, Gustavus Clauss who 163 years ago founded Achaia Clauss.
KinoFest – German-language Film Festival was founded by ABCinema in collaboration with the Goethe-Zentrum Patras with the aim of highlighting the best German-language films and promoting German-language audiovisual creation in Greece.
ABCinema Social Cooperative Enterprise of Collective and Social Benefit based in Patras has as its founding purpose the dissemination of cinematographic art in the Region of Western Greece. From 2019 until today, more than 6,500 viewers in Patras and throughout Greece have enjoyed images from Castro Clauss and the German-language films shown at the Festival. All events and screenings of the KinoFest German-language Film Festival are free for the public, contributing to extroversion of the institution and in promoting Patras and Western Greece as tourist destinations and promoting the principles of cultural diplomacy.
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