Black Death plagues UK, Germany gets Mammoth

Germany:

Hannah Schweier’s feature debut Cindy Liebt Mich Nicht was first shown in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino sidebar of the Berlinale last February. Reverse Angle Pictures is releasing the film after premieres in Mannheim and at Berlin’s Kulturbrauerei cinema on Thursday (June 10)

Robert Glinski’s Polish-German co-production Piggies (Swinki) premiered at last year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival where the teenage lead Filip Garbacz deservedly won the prize for Best Actor for his performance as Tomek. Salzgeber is releasing the film in 10 cinemas nationally after its German premiere at the goEast festival in April.

Lukas Moodysson’s Mammoth was selected for the Official Competition of the 2009 Berlinale and is now coming into German courtesy of distributor MFA+ FilmDistribution. The drama starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams opens in cinemas in 17 German towns.

UK:

UK-Germany co-production Black Death gets its UK release through Revolver Entertainment. Christopher Smith’s period horror is set during the first outbreak of the bubonic plague in England, and stars Sean Bean, David Warner, Tim McInnerny and Andy Nyman. It goes out in key cities from Friday June 11.

US independent Greenberg also opens from June 11, getting a nationwide release through Universal Pictures International. Noah Baumbach directs the comedy which stars Ben Stiller as a New Yorker who reevaluates his life while house-sitting for his brother in Los Angeles.

Artificial Eye gives Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari’s Women Without Men a limited West End release, also from Friday. Set during Iran’s 1953 CIA-backed coup d’état, the film follows four women who meet in a orchard.

Spain: 

An influx of British cast led period films hit Spanish theatres this weekend, including Oliver Parker’s period drama Dorian Gray, starring Ben Barnes and Colin Firth, and Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station with Dame Helen Mirren.

Dorian Gray is Parker and producer Barnaby Thompson’s third collaboration on an Oscar Wilde title and arrives in Spanish cinemas on 238 prints through Aurum having already taken $5m in the UK. The film sees Barnes play the title role as a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and a life of unalloyed pleasure, guided by Henry Wotton (Firth). Period dramas notoriously struggle in Spain, but Barnes’ promotional appearance in Madrid earlier this week might boost takings.

Sony Pictures Releasing International will be handling distribution duties in Spain for The Last Station, which has so far failed to make much of a dent at the worldwide box office, despite gaining two Oscar nominations and featuring an impressive cast, including James McAvoy, Mirren, Christopher Plummer and Paul Giamatti. The historical drama focuses on the life of Russian author Leo Tolstoy who struggles to balance fame with a material less world.

DeaPlaneta brings Richard Eyre’s The Other Man, starring Liam Neeson, to Spanish screens. Based on a book by Bernhard Schlink (The Reader), the film sees Neeson play a successful web designer who finds out his wife is cheating on him and so obsessively tracks down and questions the lover. Also stars Antonio Banderas and Laura Linney. Some poor reviews meant the film dived in the US and has so far failed to light up the international box office either.

Finally, Walt Disney Motion Pictures International will release local comedy Campamento Flipy from director Rafa Parbus. The film is about a 12 year old boy who overnight suddenly looks like a man and tries to woo a girl.