German Movies Abound

By Sarah Steffen
Jakarta Post
October 13, 2016

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/13/german-movies-abound.html

Brutal punishments: Wolfgang (Louis Hofmann) (left) and his friend Anton (Langston Uibel) try to get away from their own personal hell in Freistatt (Sanctuary). (Courtesy of Zum goldenen Lamm/Boris Laewen)

H ow well do you really know someone, even after decades? Faced with the choice to take the easy route or to follow your conscience, do you do what is expected of you or will you do what is right?

That is what Jakob (Sebastian Blomberg), a German priest, is grappling with in Verfehlung (The Culpable) after his best friend and fellow priest Dominik (Kai Schumann) is arrested for sexually abusing a young boy in his parish. Jakob, at first in utter disbelief, starts to dig deeper and what he discovers leaves him horrified.

The character study of the alleged perpetrator, his friends and how the Catholic Church is dealing with sexual abuse amid its priests is well worth watching.

“We chose The Culpable because we believe it’s a strong story — in terms of the characters and the conflict,” said Goethe-Institut Jakarta cultural program head Anna Maria Strau?, who curates the 2016 German Cinema festival with her colleague Dinyah Latuconsina.

This year, the 2016 German Cinema will present 17 contemporary movies in six Indonesian cities to connect local audiences with new and inspiring films.

The festival, organized by Goethe-Institut Jakarta, enters its fifth year and is expected to once again draw large crowds. In previous years, up to 15,000 visitors attended the event.

During a press briefing, the organizer screened three movies. One of which was The Culpable.

“We really like how it concentrates on conflict between the friends [who] have different roles in the Church and that the film stays so focused [on] its characters and their struggle — their struggle with the institution, their struggle with each other and especially their struggle with themselves,” Strau? added.

What makes the movie all the more interesting to watch is that filmmaker Gerd Schneider was on track to become a priest and therefore knows the system inside out, she added.

The movie has received good reviews from audiences and critics, including The Hollywood Reporter, which lauds The Culpable for offering a fresh perspective on church sexual abuse cases.

The movie won the audience choice award at the 2016 Santa Barbara International Film Festival in the US, and it also received two nominations in the best film category at various international film festivals.

Another film shown at the festival is Sanctuary (Freistatt), which focuses on child abuse at a Christian organization where young boys were systematically broken through hard labor and cruel punishments.

“This is actually the second movie taking a somewhat critical stance towards Christian or Catholic institutions,” Strau? added.

Directed by Marc Brummund, the movie was one of eight films shortlisted by Germany for this year’s Academy Awards for best foreign language film but unfortunately it lost out to another German movie Labyrinth of Lies.

The festival will also screen Victoria, a story about a young woman who meets four guys during a wild evening exploring Berlin nightlife.

Unfortunately, the story is dull, and it fails to hold viewers’ attention for 140 minutes. The single-shot approach is about the only thing that is interesting — the logistical prowess and the actors’ skills to pull this off in a single take as well as the camera work. The director, Sebastian Schipper, is also known as a good actor who has starred in award-winning movies, including romantic drama The English Patient ( 1996 ) and mind-twisting Run Lola Run ( 1998 ) before his directorial debut in 1999.

“It was a surprise hit in Germany,” Strau? said of Victoria.

Victoria, Sanctuary, The Culpable and 14 other films will be screened in six cities across Indonesia — Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar and Makassar for the festival. It will kick off on Oct. 14 and close on Oct. 23. Another movie to look for is Fukushima, mon amour (Gru?e aus Fukushima or Greetings from Fukushima) from well-known director Doris Dorrie.