Kino/26: German Film Festival Celebrates Queer Cinema

Description

Opening the Kino/26 programme is Amrun, the latest critical hit from Fatih Akin, an arthouse darling best known for hits like kooky restaurant comedy Soul Kitchen and Golden Globe-winning neo-noir In the Fade. Winner of Best Film at the Bavarian Film Awards, Amrun is a notably personal turn about a boy growing up on a North Sea island in the final days of the Second World War. 

Documentary maker Viv Li will be in town to lead a Q&A following a screening of Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest, which humorously contrasts the filmmaker’s queer life in Berlin with traditional family life in China. Post-screening talks also follow screenings of Volker Schlöndorff’s novel adaptation Visitation, and Where To? — the latter charts the random encounters of a Palestinian taxi driver and a young Israeli in Berlin, with director Assaf Machnes conducting a virtual Q&A after the screening.

Organisers The Goethe Institute partnered with the Hong Kong Lesbian Gay Film Festival (HKLGFF) for the retrospective programme Filmmaking on the Queer Frontier, which presents four films each by pioneers Monika Treut and Rosa von Praunheim  — with Treut visiting the festival to lead talks at screenings of Virgin Machine, Ghosted, Gendernauts and Genderation.

Finally, a special screening of cult favourite Good Bye, Lenin! pays homage to director Wolfgang Becker who passed away in 2024.