February 20 - March 14

“Indeed, part of the reason the Berlin School films are so compelling – and deserving of greater international recognition – is their specific cinematic nature, which renders these films political, albeit not in the traditional (content-based or ‘agitational’) sense of the term. . . .  If one wanted a shorthand description for the films of the Berlin School one could do worse than consider their tendency to pursue an esthetics of reduction reminiscent of the work of Robert Bresson, Michelangelo Antonioni, Michael Haneke, or the Dardenne Brothers, as well as the second generation directors of the French New Wave such as Maurice Pialat, Jean Eustache and Philippe Garrel.” – Marco Abel, Cineaste

“But if even the origin of the name is a matter of dispute, at least everyone has a pretty good idea of what it signifies: a low-key cinema, devoted to the real as well as to realism, of a rare formal rigour and a stubborn tenderness. Think of Andy Warhol, Jean Eustache, Edgar G. Ulmer and all the other genre masters of small means and major imagination.” – Olaf Möller, Film Comment

“This is filmmaking of the most meticulous and therefore rewardingly intense and rich kind: Every single image, every gesture, every cut and every camera movement counts and every single element adds another layer of often ambiguous meaning to what at first sight seem simple plots and constellations.” – Ekkehard Knorer, Vertigo

Ten years ago, when Tom Tykwer’s sweaty, punk-haired Lola breathlessly ran and ran and ran through the streets of Berlin, her quickening pulse appeared to have energized German cinema, then on the verge of making a splashy comeback. After a fairly dormant period, German cinema was suddenly back on the map; a torrent of Teutonic exports effectively found their way onto North American screens, no doubt fuelled by their recurring wins on Oscar night. Yet, alongside this ongoing surge of commercial historical dramas (The Lives of Others, Downfall, The Counterfeiters) has arisen a fresh, uncompromising, and artistically driven cinema, a sort of counter-cinema. Over the past decade, these films have consistently gained traction, won prizes and praise aplenty at European festivals and re-instilled a