Berlin and Beyond Film Festival
Jan. 8-14, Castro Theatre

UNLESS YOU'RE ENTRANCED by the idea of flying 10 hours nonstop from San Francisco to Frankfurt every few weeks for your German cinema fix, local kino-philes have a small window of opportunity to see what's going on with the greater Saxon film scene. Luckily, that porthole opens like clockwork every January in the form of the Berlin and Beyond Film Festival, the Bay Area's weeklong dip into a Germanic state of the celluloid nation showcasing the good, the bad, and the weltschmerz of the region's modern flicker output. There are a few concessions to familiar names and recognizable faces, with popular Euro-heartthrobs Benno Fürmann and Moritz Bleibtreu putting in screen time, and Neu Kino directors Wim Wenders and Margarethe von Trotta each donating rickety new works to the fray. But like most festivals, Berlin and Beyond's grab-bag lineup should yield something for just about anyone: viewers in the mood for crowd-pleasing culture clashes (Solino), a bubble-gum-and-barrettes coming-of-age story (Twinni), a tense, downward-spiral melodrama (the painful and punchy Angst), or proof that the phrase "German comedy" isn't an oxymoron (When the Right One Comes Along) can rest assured they'll be taken care of. The requisite out-of-left-field, don't-miss crown this year belongs squarely to Free Radicals, by Austrian filmmaker-Coop 99 cofounder Barbara Albert, a dense take on the repercussions of fate and faith through several colliding story lines (à la the recent Carnage). The film is steeped in a stew of sex and schadenfreude similar to that found in Dog Days director Ulrich Seidl's work (honestly, what the fuck is in Austria's water supply?!?). Throw in a screening of the F.W. Murnau 1924 kammerspiel classic The Last Laugh, and it's a sure bet that those seeking a peek into the region's cinematic past, present, and future will walk away from this year's fest smiling and sated. See First Runs for this week's schedule; go to www.goethe.de/sanfrancisco for more information. (David Fear) .