Berlinale winner HEAD-ON (GEGEN DIE WAND) opens 5th Festival of German Cinema in Rome

The Export-Union and its partners will be staging the 5th Festival of German Cinema in Rome from 2 - 6 April, 2004. With 14 feature films, a documentary and a selection of shorts, the event provides an overview of new German film production.

The Festival will be opened by HEAD-ON (GEGEN DIE WAND) by Fatih Akin, this year's winner of the Golden Bear in Berlin. The director and the two lead actors will come to Rome to introduce the film in person. After the screening, the Export-Union will host a reception in the newly opened Museum for Art of the 21st Century MAXXI.

The following films will be shown: THE FLYING CLASSROOM (DAS FLIEGENDE
KLASSENZIMMER) by Tomy Wigand, THE FRIEND (FREMDER FREUND) by Elmar Fischer, HIERANKL by Hans Steinbichler, A LITTLE BIT OF FREEDOM (KLEINE FREIHEIT) by Yüksel Yavuz, LUTHER by Eric Till, JAGGED HARMONIES - BACH VS FREDERICK II (MEIN NAME IST BACH) by Dominique de Rivaz, THIS VERY MOMENT (MILCHWALD) by Christoph Hochhäusler, SCHULTZE GETS THE BLUES by Michael Schorr, THE STRATOSPHERE GIRL by M.X.Oberg, GUN-SHY (SCHUSSANGST) by Dito Tsintsadze, PLAY IT LOUD! (VERSCHWENDE DEINE JUGEND) by Benjamin Quabeck, WOLFSBURG by Christian Petzold and THE MIRACLE OF BERN (DAS WUNDER VON BERN) by Sönke Wortmann. The majority of the films will be presented in person by the directors.

Director Jochen Breitenstein will also be coming to Rome for a discussion about his documentary DER RING DES BUDDHA.

In addition to screening the short film programme NEXT GENERATION 2003, the Export-Union will also be collaborating with AG Kurzfilm on showing the shorts PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB (BITTE NICHT STÖREN) by Paul Schwarz, WOMAN BELOW THE ICE (DIE EISBADERIN) by Alla Churikova and THE ANIMAL LOVER (DER
TIERFREUND) by Jens Junker in the festival cinema. Another screening will be held in Rome's film academy SNC together with a workshop for Italian and German film students.