Coventry-Dresden Friendship Festival: Never Look Away
Coventry-Dresden Friendship Festival: Never Look Away
Friday 19th November, 2021
FREE event but please book. Access Information: The event will take place on the first floor of the Litten Tree Building which is accessible by one flight of stairs from the ground floor. There is no lift to either floor and is, therefore, not disabled accessible.
Never Look Away is a 2018 German coming-of-age film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose first film was Oscar-winning Stasi-drama, The Lives of Others.
The film was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival where it received a 13-minute standing ovation. It was also nominated for two Academy Awards at the 91st Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography categories, only the second time that a German-language film by a German director was nominated for an Oscar in multiple categories.
Young artist Kurt Barnert - a character loosely based on German artist Gerhard Richter - has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but he continues to be tormented by the experiences he made in his childhood and youth in the Nazi years and during the GDR-regime. After falling in love with student Ellie he begins to create paintings that mirror not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation.
The screening is part of CineCov made possible with support from the BFI using funds from the National Lottery. The screening has been facilitated by John Gore at Stoke Screen, Coventry.
