The next screening from the Whanganui Film Society is 24 Weeks (24 Wochen), a German production from 2016, directed by Anne Zohra Berrached. 24 Weeks was nominated for the Golden Bear at Berlin International Film Festival in 2016.
In this film, Julia Jentsch stars as a comedian who is six months
pregnant and confronted with a heart-wrenching decision.
This screening is open to the public by donation, courtesy of the Goethe Institut.
REVIEWS
"The second feature from Anne Zohra Berrached addresses one of the most difficult decisions that a woman may have to make in her life. Astrid (Julia Jentsch) must choose whether or not to have a late term abortion when she discovers that her unborn child's health is severely compromised. It's a highly emotive subject and Berrached does not give her characters an easy ride. Through a combination of unflinching, high quality performances and some assiduous button-pushing, Berrached has put together a wrenchingly affecting picture."
— Wendy Ide, Screendaily.
"Berrached's movie, anchored by Julia Jentsch's meticulous and quietly forceful performance, is the rare pregnancy drama to focus even more on a woman's mind than her body, rendering the option to abort not as one consolidated do-or-don't decision but as a web of multiple, overlapping, carefully weighed quandaries. It offers complex portraits of multiple characters in her domestic sphere without hedging on whose story this finally is, and follows a narrative track that feels at once implacable and unpredictable."
— Nick Davis, Film Comment.
WHANGANUI FILM SOCIETY 24 Weeks (24 Wochen) Public Screening: Monday, March 19, 7pm Davis Theatre, Whanganui Regional Museum Anne Zohra Berrached • Germany • 2016 • 102 mins M sex scenes, offensive language, nudity, content that may disturb In German with English subtitles Presented in co-operation with the Goethe Institut. Members free, non-members welcome by donation (notes only please). More info at whanganuifilmsociety.org.nz
