Winter 2016
Cultural Memory Workshop Series
Please join us for our fifth session in the Cultural Memory Workshop series:
Diasporas and Local Memories
Rebecca Margolis (University of Ottawa, Modern Languages): “Yiddish as a key to Jewish cultural memory in Canada”
May Morpaw (PhD candidate in Spanish, University of Ottawa): “Inscribing Croatian Cultural Memory in Chile's Imaginary”
Paul Birt (University of Ottawa, Modern Languages):“A Celtic Tango: Hybridity and History in the Welsh-Argentine Diaspora”
Thursday, March 17, 2016, 6-8 p.m. GSD 307 (above Café Nostalgica)
All are welcome
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German Film Series
Thursdays, at 19:30 in Lamoureux Hall 390
All films with English subtitles
January 14: M - A City Looks for a Murderer (M-EineStadtsuchteinenMörder)(Germany, 1931, dir. Fritz Lang. With Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke and GustafGründgens).(111min).
Written by the expressionist filmmaker Fritz Lang and his wifeThea von Harbou,the story of the movie M. is set in Berlin where children became the prey of a psychopath who strikes terror whistling around the city.
January 21: Münchhausen(Germany, 1943, dir. Josef von Báky. With Hans Albers, Wilhelm Bendow and Ilse Werner).(119min).
Based on the life of Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, a baron known for his unbelievable stories, the movie Münchhausen was written by a banned author in Nazi Germany, but still was ordered by the Nazi Propaganda Minister, JosephGoebbels, to celebrate the UFA film company's 25thanniversary.
January 28: The Murderers Are Among Us (Die Mördersindunteruns)(East Germany, 1946, dir. Wolfgang Staudte. With Hildegard Knef, Ernst Wilhelm Borchert and Erna Sellmer).(91min).
When the photographer and Nazi concentration camp survivor, Susanne Wallner returns home after Germany's defeat, she finds in her apartment the former military surgeon Dr. Hans Mertens. Throughout the film, they will have to live with one another as they become roommates. Showing that national reconciliation is possible,The Murderers Are Among Us, was the first film to be released after the end of the World War II.
February 4: Sky Without Stars (Himmelohne Sterne)(West Germany, 1946, dir. Helmut Käutner. With Erik Schumann, Eva Kotthaus and Horst Buchholz).(108min).
In divided Germany, a mother and a son are separated. In order to be reunited with her son, Anna Kaminski gets smuggled into West Germany where she meets Carl Altmann, a border guard. Sadly, his love for her and his good intentions will end tragically as he tries to help Anna to get her son back.
February 11: Trace of Stones (Spur der Steine)(East Germany, 1966, re-release 1989), dir. Frank Beyer. With Manfred Krug, Krystyna Stypułkowska and Eberhard Esche).(139min).
Trace of Stonesis set on a construction site where the Party's influence is questioned by the construction foreman, Hannes Balla. As a party meeting similar to the 11th Plenum goes on, a love triangle happens between Balla, the beautiful technician, Kati Klee, and the secretary sent by the Party, Werner Horrath.
February 25: The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (Die verloreneEhre der Katharina Blum(West Germany, 1975, dir. Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schloendorff. With Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf and Dieter Laser).(106min).
Based on the homonymous novel written by literature Nobel prize laureate Heinrich Böll,The Lost Honour of Katharina Blumis a fair reflection of the social atmosphere in West Germany during the 1960s and '70s. After spending the night with a man she has just met, Katharina Blum is arrested in her apartment in Cologne for her implication with him, a suspected terrorist.
March 3: The Marriage of Maria Braun' (Die Ehe der Maria Braun)(West Germany, 1979, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder. With Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch and Ivan Desny).(115min).
Set in a changing Germany, Maria and Hermann, just married, are separated as Hermann needs to go back to the front. After the end of World War II and having no news about her husband, Maria gets involved with Bill, an African-American soldier whom she meets in a bar. Things change rapidly as her supposedly dead husband returns.
March 10: Wings of Desire (Der Himmelüber Berlin)(West Germany, 1987, dir. Wim Wenders. With Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander and Peter Falk).(127min).
Set in divided Berlin, the movieWings of Desirerevolves around the angel Damiel as he wanders around the streets of the divided city. Attracted by the life of humans and by the circus trapeze artist Marion, Damiel starts to wish to become more than just an observer.
March 17: Good Bye, Lenin!(Germany, 2003, dir. Wolfgang Becker.With Daniel Brühl, KatrinSaß and Alexander Beyer).(121min).
While Alex's mother is in a coma after having suffered a heart attack, Germany undergoes important changes as the Berlin Wall falls and West and East Germany are reunited. When the mother wakes up, her doctor warns Alex and his sister that any shock could be fatal in her fragile condition. The siblings decide to maintain the illusion that they still live in the GDR their mother truly believed in.
March 24: Nowhere in Africa(Nirgendwo in Afrika)(Germany, 2001, dir. Caroline Link. With Juliane Köhler, MerabNinidze and SidedeOnyulo).(141min).
Adapted from the autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig, the story ofNowhere in Africabegins in Germany in 1938 as the persecution of the Jews increases dramatically. The Redlich family decides to flee the country and emigrate in Kenya so as to avoid the Nazi death camps. Adjusting to their new home, each of them find their way to cope with their changing identity.
March 31: Soul Kitchen(Germany, 2009, dir. Fatih Akın. With Moritz Bleibtreu, Adam Bousdoukos and BirolÜnel).(99min).
Set in Hambourg, the comedySoul Kitchenrevolves around Zino, a German of Greek descent and his restaurant, Soul Kitchen. As his business is struggling financially, Zino hires new employees, such as a cook of haute cuisine, to increase his customers' loyalty. Unfortunately for him, he ends up disturbing the peace of his regulars.
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