Thus, in theselection of the third edition of MECEFF, film aficionados will (re)watch films by great German directors (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders, Edgar Reitz or Werner Herzog), the films made in Germany by the president of the festival, director Radu Gabrea and a series of fres productions, both short and long, which premiered and received accolades in the international film festivals of the world.
At the same time, the 2013 edition brings forth a very special encounter with one of the greatest German film and television producers, Mrs. Regina Ziegler, a 2004 laureate of the „Berlinale Camera” excellence award and a 2012 laureate of the prestigious „Prix Europa Lifetime Achievement Award” for her special contribution to TV, radio and broadcasting production. Regina Ziegler will be present at MECEFF as special guest of this edition.
Director, writer and actor Rainer Werner Fassbinder, one of the most important directors of the New German Cinema, managed, in less than 15 years, to make 40 feature films, two TV series, 3 shorts, 24 plays and 4 radio plays, as well as acting in 36 productions. A famed multitasker, Fassbinder also worked as theatre manager, composer, cameraman, editor and producer. The film screening during MECEFF 2013 is Lili Marleen (1981), an adaptation of the autobiographical novel Der Himmel hat viele Farben by Lale Andersen (the first singer of the world famous song) and one of the few English language films by Fassbinder, but benefiting from a stellar cast: Hanna Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, Mel Ferrer, Udo Kier, etc.
President of the European Film Academy since 1996, a double Academy Award winner, winner of a BAFTA, a Palme d'Or and a FIPRESCI award in Cannes (Paris, Texas, 1984), of a Silver in Berlin (The Million Dollar Hotel, 2000), of a Grand Jury Prize in Cannes (Faraway, So Close!, 1993) and of a Golden Lion in Venice (Der Stand der Dinge, 1982), Wim Wenders is the most valuable and most beloved cinematic German export of the past three decades. The Wim Wenders portrait within MECEFF 2013 is comprised of two impressive productions, Der Himmel über Berlin (Best Director award in Cannes 1987) and Lisbon Story (1994), both fully contributing to his status as a cult director.
Edgar Reitz, whose name is forever linked to the TV trilogy Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany (1984), Heimat: A Chronicle of a Generation (1993) and Heimat 3: A Chronicle of Endings and Beginnings (2004), will be celebrated in MECEFF with the most recent production in the series,
Heimat Fragments: The Women (2006) – in the meantime, the director is in the postproduction phase with a new episode of the epic, Die andere Heimat, this time made for cinema and starring Werner Herzog... And speaking of Herzog, he will also be present in MECEFF with the film which confirmed his status of one of the world's leading directors of the second half of the 20th century, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, a film which premiered in Cannes 1975 where it received the FIPRESCI award and the Grand Jury Prize.
In addition to these feature films, the „Guest country: Germany” section, brings to Mediaș one of the most important short film festivals of the world, Oberhausen, by means of an impressive selection of short films which premiered at the said festival between 1958 and 1964 and which were reunited in a special box set celebrating 50 years since the Oberhausen Proclamation (1962) which marked the beginning of the New German Cinema.
Additional info about the Regina Ziegler selection, as well as about Radu Gabrea's German films will follow.
MECEFF – Mediaş Central European Film Festival is organized by Ecran Cinema Management, Primaria Mediaș, CNC, Regiunea Târnavelor and the Ministry of Culture.
Website: www.meceff.ro Facebook:
