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QPIX STUDENTS ARE TROPFEST FINALISTS
Graduates of QPIX’s 2011 Diploma of Production course have won their way into the finals of TROPFEST, the world’s largest short film festival, with their student production PHOTOBOOTH. Set in the Afghanistan conflict, PHOTOBOOTH is one of a sequence of...
'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu' Out February 10
(Nationwide)
Over The Fence Comedy Film Deadline
(Nationwide)
Rottofest 2012: Call For Entries Now Open!
(Nationwide)
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Geoffrey Rush Joins Tropfest
The acclaimed actor and newly-crowned Australian of the Year, Geoffrey Rush, will be a key player in 2012’s Tropfest activities.
Naomi Watts To Play Princess Diana
The Aussie actress is set to play the people’s princess in an upcoming film that chronicles the final two years of Diana’s life.
Sullivan Stapleton Signs On To ‘300’ Prequel
The Aussie actor has beat out the competition to land a role in the upcoming blockbuster.
James Cameron Loses Long Time Australian Collaborators
Producer Andrew Wight and cinematographer Mike deGruy lose their lives in a helicopter crash.
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Audi Festival of German Films: Kung Fu Romance
A romantic comedy with just the right mix of eccentricity and heart
Kebab Connection is Anno Saul's second film showing at this year's Audi Festival, and it is 360 degrees removed from the time-travelling thriller The Door. It is a breezy and sometimes bizarre comedy with a heart.
It's the story of Ibo, a Turkish wannabe filmmaker in Berlin who dreams of making Germany's first ever kung fu film. He's stuck directing commercials for his uncle's neighbourhood kebab shop when his girlfriend delivers the whopping news that she's pregnant, leading his traditionalist father to throw him out of the house.
Turkish-German director Fatih Akin co-wrote the screenplay, and if you didn't know any better, you'd swear it's one of his films. Once again, we are taken to a cultural melting pot in Berlin, with the focus on the Turkish community in the city, their customs and the clash between the younger generation and their more traditional parents.
Of course, it's all played for laughs; the film is silly and good-natured, and filled with a lot of bizarre, cultural-based humour. Ibo's obsession with kung fu and the wholly inappropriate violent martial arts commercials he films for his uncle's restaurant allow Saul to cram in references to Shaw Brothers films, and Ibo even ends up receiving sage advice from the ghost of Bruce Lee (or rather, a random guy trying - and failing - to mimic the late martial arts actor).
There's more: Matrix-inspired wire-fu fight sequences, toilet humour and bodily function jokes, endless shots of massive kebab doners, excerpts from Romeo and Juliet, drug-induced trippy sequences, a trio of mobsters straight out of a Scorsese movie, and even a random reference to Battleship Potemkin. Yet, at the heart of all the silliness is a well-meaning story about a dreamer trying to come to grips with fatherhood and impending adult responsibility. Actor Dennis Moschitto makes Ibo a likeable and relatable guy, even though he behaves in the worst way possible more than once.
Kebab Connection is a romantic comedy, but packed with so many goofy moments and references to other films, that it remains entertaining. The ending might be a foregone conclusion - Ibo gets his girl back and gains the respect of his father - but the path to getting there isn't, and no other romcom out there can claim to end with a karate brawl during a wedding ceremony where even the bride starts beating up thugs.
The Audi Festival of German Films is held at Melbourne's Kino Cinemas and Palace Cinema Como, from 22 April to 02 May, with additional dates in Adelaide (07-09 May), Brisbane (28 April - 04 May), Perth (22-26 April) and Sydney (21 April - 02 May).