Drama rules and imagination takes wing | Spotlight on Germany Unit releases its second film list

Spotlight on Germany is a traditional unit in the Global Village Unit at Shanghai International Film Festival. For the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival, the selection of films takes suggestions from many professional filmmakers of Germany. From German perspectives, these films are rated as high-quality works made in Germany.

Today, the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival released the second list of films to be screened this year for the Spotlight on Germany unit. Imagination is the keyword of this list. Burg Schreckenstein is a coming of age movie told from a kid’s unique perspective; Das letzte Abteil is an ultimate portrayal of man’s fear of confinement and natural disasters; Offline: Are You Ready for the Next Level? crosses the border between reality and game world; Dolores has a leading character who controls reality through scale models; Therapie deconstructs the relationship between criminals and victims’ family; Haus Ohne Dach mirrors reality in the film.

Screening List
 

Haus Ohne Dach (House without Roof)

Burg Schreckenstein (Castle Schreckenstein)

Das letzte Abteil (The Last Compartment)

Offline - Das Leben ist kein Bonuslevel (Offline: Are You Ready for the Next Level?)

Dolores

Therapie

Haus Ohne Dach (House without Roof)

Director: Soleen Yusef

Writer: Soleen Yusef

Stars: Mina Sadic, Sasun Sayan, Murat Seven  

Genre: drama

The story is about the journey of the siblings Liya, Jan and Alan, who were born in the Kurdish area of Iraq and grown up in Germany. The three of them want to fulfill their mother\'s last wish to bury her in her home village beside her husband who got killed in the war under the Saddam Hussein regime. On their nerve-wracking Kurdish-odyssey they are not only faced with their Kurdish extended family that does not accept the last wish of their mother but faced with the fact that they have distanced from each other because everybody runs his own life. Whenever they are holding talks, they are mostly based on reproaches. An awful conflict is heading for disaster.

Just like the famous Turkish-German director Fatih Akin in his early works, Soleen Yusef tells a story closely related to his own life. As a daughter of a refugee from the Kurdish area of Iraq, she puts her personal feelings into the characters. The story of the three siblings seems to be taken right from real life instead of a script. 

Burg Schreckenstein (Castle Schreckenstein)

Director: Ralf Huettner

Writers: Oliver Hassencamp, Simon Hauschild

Stars: Maurizio Magno, Jana Pallaske, Henning Baum, Sophie Rois

Genre: comedy, family, adventure

To improve his academic performance, the eleven-year-old Stephan is sent to Castle Schreckenstein, an all-boys boarding school, where he learns about life within a community and soon finds himself being part of a funny \'pranks-competition\' the boys are currently fighting against the neighboring girls of Castle Rosenfels. But to everyone’s surprise, after all the funny competitions, the two schools are going to merge…

Oliver Hassencamp’s stories have been inspiring the growth of different generations. Most of his stories happen in strictly run boarding schools, but students there are creative enough to let their imagination run wild. The director Ralf Huettner recreates that free spirit in the movie perfectly.

Das letzte Abteil (The Last Compartment)

Director: Andreas Schaap

Writer: Andreas Schaap

Stars: Anna Fischer, Nic Romm, Tim Sander

Genre: drama 

The story is set in 1986. After their train is hit by an avalanche in the Alps, 30-year-old Greta and five strangers find themselves trapped in the last car of the train, buried underneath the snow. On the radio they learn that a rescue operation is under way, but for some reason the last compartment seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. 

Few young German directors would try to make genre films, but Andrea Schaap managed to make this imaginative work with limited budget. His ultimate portrayal of human’s fear of confinement and natural disasters is really impressive. 

Offline - Das Leben ist kein Bonuslevel (Offline: Are You Ready for the Next Level?)

Director: Florian Schnell

Writers: Jan Cronauer, Florian Schnell

Stars: Mala Emde, Moritz Jahn, Florence Kasumba

Genre: drama

Jan is one of the best players in fantasy online game "Battle for Utgard". He is brave warrior Fenris (Level 69) in the game. He\'s busy practicing for the upcoming online tournament called Ragnarök, when he\'s suddenly ejected from the game, frantically realizing he\'s been hacked by another player, dark sorcerer Loki. Hence, he starts his biggest adventure, in real life. 

Realism and animation are infused in this movie not to demonize online games but to give an interesting example for the balance between virtual and real lives.

Dolores

Director: Michael Rösel

Writers: Anne Baltus, Sebastin Feld

Stars: Hede Beck, Vilmar Bieri, Antonio Di Mauro

Genre: drama

Therapie

Director: Felix Charin

Writer: Felix Charin

Stars: Taneshia Abt, Dominic Raacke, Isabel Thierauch

Genre: drama

Alia Kolaj regains freedom after spending 4 years in prison. According to the laws, she should receive therapy from the famous psychiatrist Dr. Steinach as she starts to get back on her feet. But during the therapy, Dr. Steinach is getting more and more extreme, and the reason is that he is closely related to the victim in Alia’s case. Maybe the therapy is his revenge…