Goethe on Demand: Echo-Verse
12 films applauding to the echo
toronto.goethe-on-demand.de is presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto
Throughout 2023, the Goethe-Institut presents virtual screenings of recent German cinema, freely available Canada-wide.
Arranged in six ‘pairing menus,’ the year-long program Echo-Verse suggests two same same but different films –fiction and non-fiction, short and long forms– connected by common ideas explored from different angles: on intergenerational trauma (in the first menu titled Then & Now); on a future between utopia and extinction (in the cluster Heavy Weather); on family dynamics (Mother Courage); on fate & self-determination (Good Luck); on queer life designs (Love is Love); on machine dreams (Hi Tech). Discover more reflections and reverberations to explore between the menus, from personal and political rebellion to surrender.
THE PROGRAMS
THEN & NOW: (MENU AVAILABLE 15 JANUARY-15 FEBRUARY)
Co-presented with Hot Docs, POV, TJFF & Miles Nadal JCC
Tacheles – The Heart of the Matter is a documentary that follows Yaar, a young Jewish Berliner, and portrays how trauma makes its way into the next generation.
by Jana Matthes, Andrea Schramm, Germany 2020
The German Lesson is the latest adaptation of Siegfried Lenz’ classic novel, following the young German man Siggi after World War II as he tries to free himself from his Nazi father’s influence.
by Christian Schwochow, Germany 2019, starring Ulrich Noethen (Hannah Arendt)
January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
GOOD LUCK: (MENU AVAILABLE 1-30 APRIL 2023)
Ever had a déja vu? Met a person you think you already know? Relativity plays with time, fate and a bank heist and walks a fine line between dream and reality.
by Mariko Minoguchi, Germany 2019, starring Saskia Rosendahl (Never Look Away)
In Coup, a 22-year-old bank employee robs his bank of millions through a security flaw and flees to Australia. Only his personal situation does not work out as imagined.
by Sven O. Hill, Germany 2021, starring Daniel Michel (Sens8)
MOTHER COURAGE: (MENU AVAILABLE 1-31 MAY 2023)
Co-presented with Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival
In The Strange Little Cat, we attend a family reunion that turns strange, at least for the mother.
by Ramon Zürcher, Germany 2013, starring Jenny Schily (Babylon Berlin)
In Torpedo, 15-year-old Mia is catapulted into Berlin’s left-wing cultural scene after the death of her mother, trying to find her place in an adult world.
by Helene Hegemann, Germany 2008, starring Lars Eidinger (White Noise)
LOVE IS LOVE: (MENU AVAILABLE 1-30 JUNE 2023)
Enfant Terrible takes a tour through Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s colourful life.
by Oskar Roehler, Germany 2020, starring Oliver Masucci (Dark)
Two Mothers lets us in on Katja and Isabella’s relationship as they try to have a child.
by Anne Zohra Berrached, Germany 2013, starring Karina Plachetka, Sabine Wolf (24 Weeks)
HI TECH: (MENU AVAILABLE 1-30 SEPTEMBER 2023)
Hi, A.I. examines how humans interact with robots as receptionists, servers, sex objects or dream partners.
by Isabella Willinger, Germany 2019, starring David Chalmers
Hyperland is a near-future sci-fi imagining, where everyone's good reputation is measurable—and manipulable.
by Mario Sixtus, Germany 2021, starring Lorna Ishema (Precious Ivie)
HEAVY WEATHER: (MENU AVAILABLE 1-30 NOV 2023)
2038 Here Is How is a fictional documentary as a message from the future. The audiovisual message in a bottle, recorded in the year 2038, instructs us that in a quarter of a century we will have mastered the planet’s great crises. A close call and not easy—but we did it.
by Christopher Roth, Germany 2021
In the sci-fi drama Ökozid, posterity holds court over our climate policy. Two women lawyers represent 31 countries in the global South that are doomed without the support of the world community.
by Andres Veiel, Germany 2020, starring Ulrich Tukur (The Lives of Others)
Program with subtitles available Canada-wide for free. Viewer discretion is advised.
