Ambassador Scharioth hosted a private pre-screening reception and a public post-screening vin d’honneur in honor of the East Coast premiere of The Baader Meinhof Complex with special guest Stefan Aust, author of the book on which the film is based, in attendance at the AFI Silver Theatre on Friday, November 21, 2008.

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Ambassador Scharioth discusses the film with guests at the post-screening reception.

(© Bruce Guthrie)

The Baader Meinhof Complex, by director Uli Edel and producer and screenwriter Bernd Eichinger, chronicles the development of the Red Army Faction (RAF), the notorious terrorist group that emerged from the Baader-Meinhof gang in the 1970s. The RAF was responsible for killing more than 30 people and and for carrying out shootings, bombings, kidnappings, and a plane highjacking.

Prior to its release in German theaters, the film had already been selected as Germany’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Academy Awards. According to the report by the Deutsche Welle, in its decision to submit the film for Oscar consideration the jury stated: "The great acting performances and the extraordinary film adaptation of the story offers a look at the early 1970s era in the Federal Republic of Germany without glorifying the perpetrators."

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Stefan Aust responds to a question from the audience.

(© Bruce Guthrie)

Stefan Aust, author of the eponymous account on which the film is based, has served as editor-in-chief of the political weekly magazine Der Spiegel, editor of the related television news magazine Spiegel TV and worked on the Norddeutscher Rundfunk’s broadcast magazine Panorama. Following the film screening, Stefan Aust answered questions posed by the audience about the film, his research on the RAF, and his book. During the post-screening reception, many people took advantage of the opportunity to continue the discussion of the film and the historical period it portrays with Ambassador Scharioth and Stefan Aust.

Earlier that day, Stefan Aust took part in a discussion with students of Georgetown University’s BMW Center for German and European Studies with professor and director Jeffrey  J. Anderson as well as a second discussion with Daniel Benjamin, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, which took place at the Goethe-Institut Washington under the title Terrorism – The Challenges Today from a German Perspective.

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A still from the film "The Baader Meinhof Complex"

(© Courtesy of Constantin Films)

The AFI EU Film Showcase took place November 6-25, 2008, and featured a total of 34 films from 24 different EU countries, including 11 official Oscar selections for 2009. The Baader Meinhof Complex broke the festival’s record for best-attended show after it sold-out at both of its screenings—the centerpiece screening on Friday, November 21, and the encore screening on Sunday, November 23.

In addition to the screenings of The Baader Meinhof Complex, the festival screened a second German film: Trip to Asia: The Quest for Harmony (2008). This documentary, by director Thomas Grube, features the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic on their tour of East Asia in 2005.

The 21st European Union Film Showcase is presented by the American Film Institute in collaboration with the Cultural Counselors of the European Union Member States’ Embassies and the Delegation of the European Commission in Washington, DC. This year’s festival is also sponsored, in part, by the German Information Center.