The leading force of the German New Wave, the world’s leading feminist filmmaker, collaborator with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff, political firebrand: all good reasons for the Barbican, in collaboration with STUDIOCANAL and the Independent Cinema Office, to mount a season highlighting the work of director Margarethe von Trotta.
The Personal is Political: Margarethe von Trotta will take place from the 2-6 October, with screenings of four of von Trotta’s films along with introductions and talks by the filmmaker herself. The weekend will be followed by a nationwide tour in November and December.
Margarethe von Trotta will appear at the Barbican ScreenTalk on 2 October, following a screening of her 1986 Palme d’Or-nominated film Rosa Luxemburg. Across the weekend there will be further screenings of The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, The Second Awakening of Christa Klages and The German Sisters, all in newly-restored prints.
Often overlooked in favour of peers such as Fassbinder and Werner Herzog (wonder why that is…), von Trotta made key contributions in the development of the formal and stylistic elements of the German New Wave, as well as its political consciousness. Rosa Luxemburg is a biopic about (obviously) the socialist revolutionary, while much of her other work centres the experiences of women, female friendships and camaraderie.
A strident feminist, her debut feature as solo director, The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, follows a mother who robs a bank to help maintain her children’s playgroup; The German Sisters is a fictionalised account of Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin, the latter of whom was a member of The Red Army Faction; and The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum follows a housekeeper whose life is ruined by the press and police after an affair with a political radical.
The season will run at the Barbican from 2 to 6 October 2018, before touring the UK. For more information, see the ICO’s website.
