Contemporary German Cinema

Contemporary German Cinema examines the success of recent film production in its wider industrial, cultural and political context, blending broad overviews of recent trends with detailed key case studies. It explores the German film funding system, then looks at the impact of this system on filmmakers' aesthetic choices, be it the role of realism in contemporary cinema, or the rediscovery of the Heimatfilm as a popular film genre. This is complemented by discussion of the dominant issues these films explore, from the legacies of Germany's Nazi past and post-war division, to the nation's increasingly multicultural make up, as well as the nation's shifting relationship with the United States as both a 'real' and 'imagined' space.

Paul Cooke looks at many of the most successful films of the last two decades, including Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run, Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin , Hans Weingartner's The Edukators, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarchks The Lives of Others and Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall.