“It is the comic genius of the film that our sympathies are constantly tested, and twisted, in scenes that are by turns hilarious, excruciating, terrifying, and finally, deeply moving.” - Molly Haskell, Film Comment
“The film is resolutely new and unexpected, yet somehow classical, echoing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor, Renoir's Boudu and Dr. Cordelier, and any movie in which someone dons a gorilla suit.” - A.S. Hamrah, n+1
TONI ERDMANN appeared on the heels of Syriza’s 2015 victory in Greece and increasing recognition that the European Union had its own hierarchies of power and exploitation. Ines (Sandra Hüller), a German corporate consultant living in Bucharest, helps oversee an oil conglomerate’s outsourcing project that threatens local workers. Director Maren Ade’s curveball is Ines’s estranged father, Winfried (Peter Simonischek), who tries to reconnect with his daughter via increasingly bizarre antics. Dry German humor at its absurd sublime.
Awards & Nominations
2016 Cannes Film Festival - Winner, FIPRESCI Prize; Nominee, Palme d'Or
2016 New York Film Festival, Official Selection
2016 Toronto International Film Festival, Official Selection
2017 Academy Awards - Nominee, Best Foreign Language Film
2017 Golden Globes - Nominee, Best Foreign Language Film
Contact Zones: Cinema of Globalization, 1989–2024
Fall 2026 Lecture Series
“We might have come to the end of something,” Adam Curtis reflected recently, referring to "globalization," which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But just how well do we know this world that we were, until recently, living in? Brief lectures before screenings and open discussions afterwards will cover background on local histories related to films in the series as well as theories of globalization, neoliberalism, migration, and digital culture. Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism. Lecturer: Professor Daniel R. Quiles. Select titles offered with Sunday encores; encores do not include lecture.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu