Tallinn Black Nights Celebrate Their 22Nd Year
TALLINN BLACK NIGHTS CELEBRATE THEIR
22ND YEAR OF COLLABORATION, SCREENING Press release 12 GERMAN FILMS IN COOPERATION WITH THE 6th November 2019
GOETHE-INSTITUT
For its 23rd edition, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) together with the Goethe-Institut, presents a selection of 12 films under the heading “New German Film”. Four of them feature in the festival’s already announced competition programmes. One film will celebrate its world premiere in Tallinn and three more will have international premieres.
In the Official Selection, director Christoph Gampl and several lead actors come to Tallinn to present the world premiere of Man From Beirut, a low-fi arthouse action film about a blind contract killer who suddenly develops a conscience when he finds himself unable to kill a young girl.
Also in the main competition is Gypsy Queen, a tale of a Roma single mother living in Germany, who’s trying to make ends meet as she realises her best way out might be returning to the boxing ring where she once showed promising talent. Director Hüseyin Partner: Tabak and lead actress Alina Serban will present their film in both Tallinn and Tartu.
The First Feature Competition also showcases two German films: director-scriptwriter
Elisa Mishto’s (also present in Tallinn) Stay Still, a stylised, poetic take of a sarcastic patient in a mental clinic who befriends a nurse and embarks with her on a rebellious spree of vandalism; and director-screenwriter Hossein Pourseifi – who will attend PÖFF with members of his cast – presents Tomorrow We Are Free, a historic drama set in Iran in 1979, as a young woman from East Germany follows her Iranian-born husband to Tehran in the wake of the Islamic Revolution. Goethe-Institut Estonia Toom-Kuninga 11 The Current Waves section of the festival features four German films. Sophie Kluge will 15048 Tallinn present her film Golden Twenties together with lead actress Henriette Confurius. Jan- Ole Gerster – who in 2012 won the Audience and Red Herring awards at PÖFF with his film Oh Boy (now A Coffee in Berlin) – is now represented with his new film Lara. CONTACT: Further entries are Christian Schwochow’s The German Lesson and Katrin Glebbe’s Johannes Thimm Coordinator cultural Pelican Blood, which has already screened at Venice, Toronto and Sitges. programmes
The festival’s Signatures section features Cherry Blossoms & Demons by award- [email protected] winning Doris Dörrie, a two-time Venice Golden Lion (Naked, Straight Through the +372 5645 4945 Heart) and Berlinale Golden Bear (Cherry Blossoms) nominee.
The programme Screen International Critics’ Choice showcases the Berlinale Silver Bear winner The System Crasher by director Nora Fingscheidt that has been submitted by Germany for the Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category.
A documentary with a twist is the film Space Dogs, an Austrian-German co-production directed by Elsa Kremser & Levin Peter – both attending – that studies the present life
of dogs on the streets of Moscow intertwined with shocking images from history.
Children’s and Youth Film Festival Just Film presents Sarah Winkenstette’s Too Far Away that has won the Teen Screen Award at Molodist IFF and the Best Children’s and Youth Film prize awarded by the Goethe-Institut at Schlingel IFF as well as the previously mentioned System Crasher. Press release 6th November 2019 Tiina Lokk, director of Black Nights Film Festival commented: "From an arthouse action film set on the streets of Berlin, to a political drama set in Iran and an inspiring story of a Roma boxer – the German cinema once again proves to be in spectacular health and offers cinematic diversity that is hard to match! We are excited and most grateful for the support of the Goethe-Institut that has been going on for 22 years, basically helping us to build the festival from scratch!”
Johannes Thimm, coordinator of cultural programmes at the Goethe-Institute, added: “PÖFF and the Goethe-Institut have now cooperated successfully for more than 20 years to bring outstanding German films to Estonian audiences. This year more than 20 guests come to Tallinn and Tartu to present the films they helped to create.”
More information about the sidebar New German Film, including details about the attendance of talents, are available at the Goethe-Institut homepage in German and Estonian.
Tallinn Black Nights film festival runs from the 15th of November until the 1st of Partner: December.
FURTHER INFORMATION www.goethe.de/saksafilm www.fb.com/goetheinstitut.estland #saksafilm
MATERIALS https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mVZDN9tFpyd6neYSlylHQTEusPfOVO_o?usp=sh Goethe-Institut Estonia aring Toom-Kuninga 11 15048 Tallinn
CONTACT: Johannes Thimm Coordinator cultural programmes
[email protected] +372 5645 4945