The 18th annual Berlin & Beyond Film Festival is back in its old January time-slot at the Castro Theatre (January 15-19) and the Goethe-Institute San Francisco (January 20-21). Beginning in 1996, this eclectic brew of movies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland has given Bay Area filmgoers a rich menu of German-language cinema, featuring early work by rising young international stars like Daniel Bruhl, now appearing in Ron Howard's critically praised racecar drama "Rush" and the WikiLeaks-based thriller "The Fifth Estate."
For festival veterans used to opening-night parties in the Castro's upstairs mezzanine, this year's opening bash on Jan. 15 moves over to the SoMa winery Tank18 (1345 Howard Street), running from 9:30 p.m. to Midnight.
Free Fall Marc and Kay meet innocently enough. Each is a police academy trainee, each is addicted to daily cross-country jogs, and, as they soon discover to both their joy and sorrow, each will come to complement each other in ways they could never have anticipated, ways that will put their lives at risk in the close-knit, old-fashioned macho world of today's urban German cops.
Director Stephan Lacant's debut feature (with co-writer Karsten Dahlem) is a smartly observed pressure-cooker. First we are tossed into the competitive 20-something roughhouse of a police-officer training class, where each cadet has something to prove to their training instructors, to their fellow cadets, and, most seriously, to themselves. The filmmakers argue that the slippery slope of acting out with your training buddy goes beyond questions of sexual identity.
Marc, in another powerful queer-boy turn from rising German star Hanno Koffler ("Summer Storm"), is at first taken aback when his running buddy Kay ("Before the Fall" 's Max Riemelt) takes their frequent smoke breaks as an excuse for sneaking a kiss. Soon the boys are indulging in daily snogs. Things take a critical turn when, to Marc's surprise, Kay turns up in his police unit, and now the affair gets a lot more serious and a lot messier.
Marc finds himself torn between a need to look after his pregnant wife -- under the watchful eyes of both sets of parents -- and his desire to indulge feelings with Kay that are taking over his life. Predictably, it's Marc who blinks first, drawing back from his male partner when the obligations to his job, the birthing classes and Kay grow too much to juggle. The quarrel is terrifically staged as the lovers pass each over at high speed on a two-lane road.
"Marc, what's up? I've gotten nothing from you for days, not even a text!"
"Kay, I'm busy. I've got a kid and a wife. Am I supposed to abandon them?"
"Why don't you admit you're gay?"
"I'm not gay. The thing with you was a one-off. I don't want to see you again!"
For Marc, the break with Kay turns into the film's governing metaphor, a loss of all power over everything he once thought secure in his life -- family, home, professional respect, all at risk. This one is fueled by explicit passion, tough language and no easy solutions. (Goethe-Institut, 1/20, 8:30 p.m.)
Two Lives Ingmar Bergman veteran Liv Ullmann -- now appearing in a fascinating new bio-doc, "Liv and Ingmar" -- here co-stars in a disturbing, multilayered drama about the roles and identities of so-called "war children" in contemporary Norway and Germany.
Director Georg Maas' time-refracted story commences in 1990 at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Katrine is a German woman from the Eastern Sector who, for the past 20 years, has been raising a family in Norway. Katrine's new life is suddenly up-ended when she is asked to testify in connection with a lawsuit filed on behalf of children who were the offspring of Norwegian women and German soldiers stationed in Norway during the brutal WWII Nazi occupation.
Early critics have noted thematic similarities between "Two Lives" and the brilliant examination of the East German State Security apparatus "The Lives of Others." "Two Lives" is Germany's 2014 entry in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar competition. Director/co-writer Maas will appear at the Castro Theatre screening, on January 15 at 7 p.m.
Miles & War One of the festival's most shockingly intimate programs features brave men flirting with death on several continents. Documentary-maker Anne Thoma devoted three years to shadowing three men: Dennis, Martin and David, two Brits and an American, each devoted to the insanely frustrating job of preventing or damping down violent strife in Third World countries. They get rival clans, usually guys with issues and guns, to talk to each other, to hammer out small agreements that will allow food aid and normal life to resume in free-fire zones from Darfur to Tripoli. Thoma learns more about these taciturn, patient men than about the quarrels they referee.
Dennis confides that he can't afford to be squeamish about dining with mass murderers, recalling a vital piece of paper he once had signed by the men responsible for the Cambodian auto-genocide.
Martin is seen conferring on-camera with British Prime Minister David Cameron's staff at 10 Downing Street. Later, he will duck the cameras for a late-night confab with dangerous men that is just too touchy to be filmed.
David explains why the work of the Geneva-based Center for Humanitarian Dialogue is precious enough for him to be willing to risk his life. Later, he will sit in a grand funk complaining that he hasn't had a change of underwear or a decent meal in days. Director Anne Thoma appears at the Castro Theatre screening, on January 18 at 4:30 p.m.
Sound of Heimat - Germany Sings This Saturday morning (January 18, 11:15 a.m.) Castro Theatre sing-along is best appreciated under the influence of strong drink -- let's say a tankard or three of good Bavarian ale. Otherwise I retreat to the opinion I held as child, when my father forced me to endure several seasons of "The Lawrence Welk Show," "a-one-and-a-two." P.S. The mere sight of accordions, in the absence of strong drink, makes me nervous.
Info: www.BerlinBeyond.com