In our Monthly Film Series, we will show a variety of GERMAN or GERMAN language films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. On the 2nd Wednesday of each month, audiences will now have a chance to see these films on a regular basis at the CLINTON STREET THEATER. (Children movies will be playing on Sunday afternoons – please check our website.) All films are with English subtitles.
WED. Nov. 14, 2018 – 7:00 PM
Director: Nick Baker-Monteys
Cast: Juergen Prochnow, Petra Schmidt-Schaller, Tambet Tuisk, Suzanne von Borsody
A former German World War II officer journeys to the Ukraine with his granddaughter to find the only woman he ever loved – just as a new war breaks out in the former Soviet Union in Spring 2014.
The gripping and touching drama about love, forgiveness and the long shadows of the past sends its protagonists Jürgen Prochnow (“The Boat”, “The English Patient”, “The Da Vinci Code”) as the old man and Petra Schmidt-Schaller (“Stereo”, “My life in Orange”), one of the most talented German actresses as his granddaughter, on an exciting road trip through a land in turmoil. Helmed by prize-winning director Nick Baker Monteys (“The Man Who Jumped Cars”).
When Eduard’s wife dies, his daughter wants to put him in a home. Instead he gets on the train and embarks on an odyssey that doesn’t end until he gets to Russia. Eduard is looking for the woman he fell in love with while serving alongside the Cossacks, many of whom fought with the Wehrmacht against the Red Army. Eduard has never talked about his wartime experiences, but they’ve thrown a long shadow over the family. He has a terrible relationship with his daughter. And his granddaughter, Adele, can’t stand the cantankerous old man. But when Adele’s mother tells her to go to the station in Berlin and get Eduard off the train, she reluctantly agrees: he’s over 90, belongs in a home and there’s a war about to break out in eastern Ukraine. Eduard isn’t going to be stopped however, so Adele is forced to jump on the train to Kiev and join him on his search. The journey forces Eduard to confront his true feelings. And his past. And Adele slowly begins to realize that Eduard’s war, which she always thought had nothing to do with her, is the key to who she is.
Nick Baker-Monteys was born in Berlin in 1964. He gained a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Stirling in Scotland and worked as a journalist for different London newspapers before moving to Berlin in 1990 shortly after the Wall came down. Since then he has worked in Germany as a writer, director and script consultant on films for cinema and television and is a guest lecturer and tutor at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) in Berlin. His films include: PERFECT MOMENT (short, 2006), THE MAN WHO JUMPED CARS (2010), and THE FINAL JOURNEY (2017).
