ALICE IN THE CITIES / ALICE IN DEN STÄDTEN / АЛІСА У МІСТАХ

Leonid Nefedovich
Sep 25
3 min read

1974 / 113' / feature / West Germany

The German journalist Phillip Winter wants to write a story about America, but is unable to accomplish anything but a series of Polaroids before disappointedly beginning his journey back home. At the same time, he reluctantly agrees to take little Alice (Yella Rottländer) with him, because her mother (Lisa Kreuzer) – whom he meets in New York on the day before his departure, has urgent business to take care of there.

In Amsterdam, the mother then fails to appear as they had agreed, and so Winter and Alice set out to try to find Alice’s grandmother in the Ruhr region. During their search together, their initial mutual dislike gradually transforms into a heart-felt affection.

Screenings schedule:

September 27, 2025 at 3:15 p.m. at the Zhovten Cinema, Anshlah Hall

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DIRECTOR - WIM WENDERS

Biography

Wim Wenders (born 1945) came to international prominence as one of the pioneers of the World Cinema during the 1970s and is considered to be one of the most important figures in contemporary German film. In addition to his many prize-winning feature films, his work as a scriptwriter, director, producer, photographer, and screenwriter also encompasses an abundance of innovative documentary films, internationally presented photo exhibitions also well as numerous monographs, film books and prose collections. He lives and works in Berlin, together with his wife, Donata Wenders.

Wim Wenders studied medicine and philosophy before moving to Paris in 1966 to study painting. Though ostensibly pursuing an apprenticeship in the studio of the graphic designer and engraver Johnny Friedlaender, he spent his afternoons and evenings in the Cinémathèque Francaise. This “crash course in the history of film” would become the most important stage in his education, as Wenders soon began to think of film as an “extension of painting by other means”.

His career as a filmmaker began in 1967 when Wenders enrolled at the newly founded University of Television and Film Munich (HFF Munich). Parallel to his studies at the HFF, he also worked as a film critic from 1967 to 1970. At this point in time, he had already directed various short films. Upon graduating from the academy in 1971, he founded, together with fifteen other directors and authors, the Filmverlag der Autoren, a film distribution company for German auteur films, which organized the production, rights administration and distribution of their own independent films.

After completing his debut feature out of film school The Goalie’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick (1971) Wenders turned to shooting his road movie trilogy, Alice in the Cities (1973), The Wrong Move (1974) and Kings of the Road (1975), in which the protagonists try to come to terms with their rootlessness in post-war Germany among other things. His international breakthrough came with The American Friend (1977). Since then Wenders has continued to work both in Europe and the USA as well as in Latin America and Asia and has been honored with countless awards at festivals around the world, including: the Golden Palm at the Cannes Festival and the BAFTA Film Award for Paris, Texas (1984); the Director’s Prize in Cannes for Wings of Desire (1987); the Golden Lion at the international Film Festival in Venice for The State Of Things (1982); and the Silver Bear for The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) at the Berlin International Film Festival. His documentary films Buena Vista Social Club (1999), Pina (2011), and The Salt of the Earth (2014) have all been nominated for an Oscar.