31.07.2021
STARS ON AND IN FRONT OF THE SCREEN AT THE 27TH JFBB
© Esra Rotthoff
In Berlin and Potsdam there will be plenty of celebrities at the JFBB in August - German and international stars will visit the Jewish Film Festival and ceremoniously present their premieres. They are all united by their interest in Jewish themes and their anticipation of the live festival.
In the black-and-white biopic LIEBER THOMAS by Andreas Kleinert about Thomas Brasch, German film stars Albrecht Schuch (SYSTEMSPRENGER, BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ) and Jella Haase (FACK JU GÖTHE, KOKON) will shine.
August Diehl (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) plots revenge in the action-packed political thriller PLAN A: a Jewish underground group plans to poison the drinking water in several German cities after the end of the war - based on a true story.
Harvey Keitel and Udo Kier can be seen in the already multiple award-winning novel adaptation THE PAINTED BIRD by Czech director Václav Marhoul. Anna Unterberger (GUNDERMANN) will be a personal guest at the presentation of the competition feature film 200 METERS, an international co-production by Palestinian director Ameen Nayfeh, who will also be a guest.
The documentary portrait IRMI, in which Hanna Schygulla, icon from the cinematic work of R.W. Fassbinder, lends her voice to the already deceased German-Jewish protagonist Irmi Selver, will celebrate its European premiere at the JFBB. And her prominent colleague Katharina Thalbach is also a vocal guest at the JFBB: she voices the director's deceased mother in WHO'S AFRAID OF ALICE MILLER?
Grandees like actress Sharon Brauner and singers Nana Mouskouri and Jocelyn B. Smith remind us in Marc Boettcher's BELINA - MUSIC FOR PEACE not only of the life's work of the Polish-Jewish singer Belina (1925-2006), but also of the unifying power of music.
The JFBB section ZEITREISE features the DEFA production DIE SCHAUSPIELERN (1988), with which Corinna Harfouch celebrated her breakthrough on the big screen.
The Israeli-British creative chef and head pastry chef Yotam Ottolenghi, whose highly sought-after cookbooks are now in almost every kitchen, is the focus of the documentary OTTOLENGHI UND DIE VERSUCHUNGEN VON VERSAILLES.
A contemporary witness talk at the Potsdam Film Museum with Oscar winner Volker Schlöndorff and Auschwitz survivor Leon Schwarzbaum, who celebrated his 100th birthday in February, as well as two workshop talks with Israeli filmmaker Yehonatan Indursky (Netflix series SHTISEL, among others), who is showing his new series AUTONOMIES at the JFBB, are also part of the festival programme.