Goethe-Institut and Swiss Consulate Bring German-Language Films to Rio de Janeiro

By Jack Arnhold, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Starting this Wednesday, April 10th, the Escola de Cinema Darcy Ribeiro (Darcy Ribeiro Cinema School) will be hosting the Mostra de Cinema Contemporâneo em Língua Alemã (Exhibition of German-language Contemporary Cinema) in partnership with the Swiss Consulate General of Rio de Janeiro and the Goethe-Institut Rio de Janeiro. Five German and Swiss films have been selected for this exhibition, which runs until Friday, April 12th.

Admission is free, and the films will be shown in the original German with Portuguese subtitles. The selection was curated by writer and director Francis Ivanovich. The first film to be shown is Happy, by Carolin Genreith, on Wednesday. Released in 2017, it follows the director as she travels to Thailand to meet her father, who has married a woman around the same age as her.

Next is Jacob Schmidt’s 2017 documentary Zwischen den Stühlen (To Be a Teacher), which follows three teachers, Anna, Katja, and Ralf, as they go from learning the theoretical aspects of teaching to applying these methods in the classrooms, and the conflicts and challenges that this brings.

Thursday is the screening of Level Up Your Life, by Oliver Paulus and Stefan Hillebrand. The 2018 feature film follows Evelyn Möller as she takes drastic measures to deal with her boss from hell, Dr. George Peck.

Nicolas Wackerbath’s 2017 film Casting will be shown on the same day. The movie tells the story of a director who is dogged by indecision as she attempts to film a remake of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s classic The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, but struggles to cast the right man for the role of Karin Trimm.

A special screening of the 2018 documentary by Gabriel Schmitt and Ana Winckelmann, In Brasilien auf Hunsrückisch Leben (Living in Brazil, Speaking Hunsrückisch) is scheduled for Friday. Filmed in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Espírito Santo, it shows how Hunsrückisch (a German dialect spoken by up to 3 million Brazilians) continues to live on in homes, local governments, the press, commerce, and beyond. One of the film’s directors, Gabriel Schmitt, will be attending the post-screening discussion of the documentary.

What: Mostra de Cinema Contemporâneo em Língua Alemã
When: Wednesday, April 10th, to Friday, April 12th.
Where: Escola de Cinema Darcy Ribeiro – Sala Ruy Guerra, R. da Alfândega, 05 – Centro
Entrance: FREE; tickets become available one hour before each session and the space is limited to 100 places.