Bangkok Cinema Scene special: German Film Week 2015

Fairy tales, comedies, historical dramas and children's stories are set for German Film Week, which starts on Monday at Paragon Cineplex. Here’s the rundown:

• March 16 – The Golden Goose – In this 2013 live-action made-for-TV adaptation of the tale, a peasant comes into possession of a valuable farm animal and wants to give it to a sad princess, but the road to her castle is paved with envy.
• March 17 – West – An East German chemist enters into sham marriage in order to move to West Berlin, and the circumstances of her arrival make the CIA suspicious.
• March 18 – Jakob the Liar – A Holocaust drama from 1975, this was the first East German film to be entered into the Berlin film fest (then held in West Berlin), and it won a Silver Bear for the performance by Vlastimil Brodsky. It was also the first East German film to get an Oscar nomination.
• March 19 – Measuring the World – The 2012 drama is adapted from a novel about German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and geographer Alexander von Humboldt and their surveys of the world in the 1800s. Detlev Buck (Same Same But Different) directs.
• March 20 – The Man Who Jumped Over Cars – A young man flees Berlin and sets out for southern Germany on foot, and is joined along the way by others looking to change their lives.
• March 21 – Kaddisch for a Friend – A teenage Palestinian refugee with a strong hatred for Jews comes to Berlin to live with relatives, and finds himself in a position where he’s asking an elderly Jewish neighbour for help.
• March 22 – Emil and the Detectives – This is a 1954 adaptation of the famous children’s book by Erich Kästner and illustrator Walter Trier. Based on an earlier screenplay by Billy Wilder, it’s the story of a boy who is robbed of his money, but rather than tell his mother, he enlists dozens of local children to get the loot back.

Shows are at 7 nightly (the opening film is preceded by a reception at 6pm). All films will be shown in German with English subtitles.

Tickets are free and can be booked by calling (02) 108 8231-32, e-mail programm@bangkok.goethe.org or check tinyurl.com/germanfilmweek2015. For more details, visit www.Goethe.de/bangkok.

In addition, there is the ongoing German Film Series, which since January has had screenings once a month at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center and the Thai Film Archive.