Comedy, thrillers and social criticism to be screened during German film week in Malaga

A bunker. Unmarked banknotes. A village in east Saxony where friendship is mistaken for violence. A taxi cab car that crosses paths with another and creates a relationship without words. Brief scenes that, together, paint a social picture of Germany that will be presented in Malaga during the German cinema week, which will be held at Cine Albéniz between 25 and 29 November, with complementary screenings in Mijas and Torrox. The programme features nine films that cut across the social current affairs and historical memory of the country.

Editor of our sister newspaper SUR Deutsche Ausgabe in German Uwe Scheele said that organisers have kept their promise to maintain the German cinema week every year since 2020. During the presentation of this year's programme, he said that the films that will be screened this November "build cultural bridges between the German community on the Costa del Sol and the Malaga audience". The consul in Malaga, Franko Stritt, said: "For us, Semana del Cine Alemán is the most important and biggest cultural event we have here."

The nine selected films take a pluralistic look at present-day Germany and its past. The programme starts on 25 November with Zwei zu Eins (Two to One) - a comedy based on a real unsolved case. A family from East Germany discovers a bunker full of unmarked banknotes and embarks on a race against time to turn them into useful money before reunification.

Three other stories about East Germany will be screened this year. Mit der Faust in die Welt schlagen (Punching the World), which will be screened on Friday, 28 November, looks at the childhood of two brothers trapped in a village with no future on the horizon. One of them ends up joining a neo-Nazi group. "The film shows radicalisation from an uncomfortable, almost domestic point of view," Scheele said. Also on Friday, at 7pm, a thriller about two brothers, debts, prison, slaughterhouses and trafficking - Frisch (Fresh) - will be shown.

Rote Sterne überm Feld (Red Stars Upon the Field), scheduled for Thursday, 27 November, tells the story of Tine (portrayed by actress Hannah Ehrlichmann) who hangs red flags on the Reichstag and flees to Bad Kleinen. "The director succeeds in uniting memory, thriller and politics in her first film," Scheele said.

Ungeduld des Herzens (Impatience of the Heart) can be seen in both Albéniz in Malaga and in Mijas on Wednesday, 26 November. It is a contemporary adaptation of Stefan Zweig's novel, which tells the story of the unequal relationship between a young soldier and a paraplegic woman to whom he promises an impossible life. Compassion, manipulation, guilt: a classic triangle in the work of the Austrian writer.

The evening session on Wednesday will screen Sonne und Beton (Sun and Concrete), a crude coming-of-age portrait of life in a Berlin neighbourhood, with debts, drug dealers, suffocated schools and rap music as the narrative thread. The film follows four teenagers who try to pay off 500 euros by stealing computers from their school.

Gondola, a comedy without dialogue that shows how two cable car drivers fall in love through looks and gestures, will be shown at 6.45pm on Thursday, 27 November. The film's delicacy contrasts with Vena, the drama on Saturday, 29, which shows Jenny, a young pregnant addict, in her attempt to rebuild her life before entering prison. The closing film at 9pm on Saturday is In Liebe, Eure Hilde (From Hilde With Love), by veteran Andreas Dresen. The film reconstructs the true story of Hilde Coppi, a member of the anti-Nazi resistance who gave birth in prison before being executed. "I wanted to show the resistance fighters as real people, with plans for the future, with fear, with joy," Dresen said in an interview quoted by Scheele.

The festival is organised by SUR Deutsche Ausgabe, the Goethe-Institut, the German consulate in Malaga, the local councils of Malaga, Mijas and Torrox and various collaborating organisations. Tickets will soon be available on the official website. "We want the venues to be full again," Scheele said.