As usual, there will be no German Monday Film Show in the mid-semester break (20 – 27 September).
The next screening on 29 September is a fitting contribution with regard to the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent re-unification of the two Germanies (East=GDR and West=FRG)
WESTWIND
2011, 89 min., dir Robert Thalheim, starring Friederike Becht, Luise Heyer, German with English subtitles
DATE: 29 SEPTEMBER 2014
TIME: 17h00
VENUE: Howard College, MTB North Wing 1st Floor, German Programme, Media Room F251
Story:
Summer 1988 – a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Twin sisters Doreen and Isabelle understand each other perfectly – both in their private lives and as up-and-coming rowers hoping for a future in the East German (GDR) national team. This summer the two travel abroad for the first time – to Hungary, and a “Young Pioneer” training camp on the banks of Lake Balaton. Here they discover two West German boys, Arne and Nico, who have travelled east in their VW Beatle on vacation. Despite a curfew, the two young women manage to sneak out of the camp to meet their new acquaintances, and a forbidden summer romance soon develops between Doreen and Arne. As Isabelle concentrates on her training, Doreen finds herself increasingly drawn by the seductive ‘Westwind’. For the first time the sisters don´t share everything and need to take the most momentous decision of their lives.
Robert Thalheim was born in Berlin in 1974. After his schooling in the USA and Germany, he worked as an assistant director for the Berlin Ensemble theater and studied at the Free University Berlin and the "Konrad Wolf" University of Film & Television. He is the publisher of the cultural periodical Plotzki and has written a book about Andrzej Wajda. Also a theater writer and director, his films include: UM VIER UHR PLÖTZLICH GING DIE WELT UNTER (documentary, 1996), ZEIT IST LEBEN (short, 2000), GRANICA (short, 2002), THREE PERCENT (short, 2002), ICH (short, 2003), NETTO (2004), AND ALONG COME TOURISTS (AM ENDE KOMMEN TOURISTEN, 2007), and WESTWIND (2011).
Looking forward to seeing you there! There will be send out a reminder shortly before the screening (hopefully ;-)
Kind regards – Mit freundlichen Grüße
Dr Marion Pape
German Studies
University of KwaZulu-Natal
School of Arts
Durban, 4041
Email: papem@ukzn.ac.za
Tel: 0027-31-260 1086 / 2380
Fax: 0027-31-260 1242
