Andreas Dresen German Film Festival

Wednesday, March 26-Saturday, March 29 @ Ciné

originally published March 19, 2008

In its effort to bring Athens rich and varied cinematic options, Ciné next weekend partners with the University of Georgia’s Germanic and Slavic Studies department. The school is hosting a conference called “The Meaning of Culture,” and this festival, centering around the films of Andreas Dresen, is part of a program that also includes lectures, readings and discussions on the future of German culture.

The 44-year-old director, Dresen, spent his early years shooting films for television, and made his feature debut with 1998’s Night Shapes. Over the years, Dresen has worked in a number of media, helming more films and even staging a Swiss production of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. Though few of this films have made their way to American screens, Dresen has gained a reputation - thanks to numerous awards and festival selections for films like The Policewoman and Grill Point - as a naturalistic director with an at-times-bleak outlook to complement his films’ realism.

The festival takes place on both of Ciné’s screens over the four-day period. In addition to Dresen’s films, the festival is also featuring several East and West German movies from the 1970s from directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Günter Reisch and Heiner Carow, chosen by Dresen as influential on his own work.

Dresen will be in Athens to introduce and discuss the films - a full schedule is available at www.athenscine.com. Admission to a single movie costs $6, while a pass to the entire run of films is $18; advance tickets are available now at Ciné’s box office. For more details on the film festival and the entire “Meaning of Culture” conference, visit the university’s Germanic and Slavic Studies department site at www.gsstudies.uga.edu.

Chris Hassiotis