Not-for-profit organization Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) in association with the Wim Wenders Stiftung (Wim Wenders Foundation) and collaboration with Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai announce ‘Wim Wenders – King Of The Road – The India Tour’.
A comprehensive retrospective celebrating the extraordinary career of Wim Wenders, this landmark event marks the 79-year-old acclaimed German filmmaker, photographer, and author’s inaugural visit to India, offering audiences a unique opportunity to experience the breadth and depth of his cinematic artistry.
From February 5th to 23rd, 2025, cinephiles in 5 major Indian cities – Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, and New Delhi – will have the unparalleled pleasure of witnessing 18 of Wenders’ most significant works, spanning feature films, documentaries and short films. This meticulously curated selection will showcase Wenders’ prolific career spanning over half a century, from his early groundbreaking New German Cinema pieces to his recent critically acclaimed works. This event is poised to be more than just a film screening; offering audiences a first-of-its-kind intimate cinematic pilgrimage. The master of world cinema will personally attend screenings in each city, engaging with audiences, participating in Q&A sessions, and fostering meaningful dialogue with film students and industry professionals alike.
Wim Wenders states, “In all my travels around the world over the years, it seems astonishing that somehow, India fell off the map, not just because it is a country with an abundance of landscapes and images to explore, but also because it is a country where cinema is like a religion. I have known of the Film Heritage Foundation’s dedication to preserving, restoring and bringing India’s precious film heritage back to contemporary audiences, so I was very happy when Shivendra invited me to come to India for a retrospective of my films. I am excited to have the opportunity to travel across the country and present my films, and who knows what will emerge from my time on the road in India.”
The retrospective will run from February 5th, 2025 to 23rd, 2025. However, the renowned director, celebrated for his improvisational and often location-driven filmmaking style—a style aptly described as “on the road”—will be extending his stay in India. He will use this opportunity to film new material across the diverse landscapes of Rajasthan and Kerala as part of his debut India tour, continuing his creative process until March 1st, 2025. This demonstrates not only Wenders’ dedication to his art but also a fascinating juxtaposition between a retrospective celebrating established cinematic works and the ongoing creation of new film within the same cultural context.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Filmmaker And Director, Film Heritage Foundation states, “It’s a dream come true for Film Heritage Foundation to have Wim Wenders, one of the greatest masters of world cinema come to India to support the foundation and to be able to mount a retrospective on a scale that attempts to showcase the breadth and depth of a career of over 50 years in almost every form of cinema from shorts to features, documentaries and 3D films. Wim Wenders is not just a filmmaker, but a poet and a thinker of cinema who has influenced generations of filmmakers including myself. He is truly the King of the Road, but he has never been to India – and it is going to be the adventure of a lifetime to travel across the country with him and show his films. He is also a champion of film heritage – recipient of the 2024 International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) Award – having made some of the most remarkable films on filmmakers besides having archived and restored his films, thanks to which audiences in five cities in India will have the extraordinary opportunity to watch these beautiful restorations presented by the master himself.”
Bjorn Ketels, Director, Goethe Institut Mumbai states, “The films of Wim Wenders have played a pivotal role in the cultural work of the Goethe-Institut (The cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany). We are therefore thrilled to join hands with the Film Heritage Foundation and Wim Wenders Foundation in welcoming Wim Wenders to India. He is one of the pioneers of the New German Cinema (Neues Deutsches Kino) and is considered to be one of the most important representatives of contemporary cinema. The programme includes showcasing 18 of his most acclaimed films in 5 cities in India. This is the first time that such a substantial offering of his work and a chance to interact with the legend himself is being presented in India and we hope that film lovers, students and professionals will enjoy the opportunity and find the experience enriching.”
With a long-term vision to celebrate the legacy of doyens of cinema and exhibit restored film classics from over the past decades, Film Heritage Foundation has brought icons such Giuseppe Tornatore and Sir Christopher Nolan to India in the past.
The screenings are free of charge and available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis.
Wim Wenders’ career demonstrates a remarkable versatility, spanning fictional features and documentaries, photography, and authorship. His films are characterized by a distinctive style blending poetic realism with introspective characters navigating existential themes against the backdrop of evocative landscapes. Wenders’ early work, including Alice in the Cities (1974) and Kings of the Road (1976), established his place within the New German Cinema movement. His international breakthrough came with Paris, Texas (1984), followed by the visually stunning and philosophically profound Wings of Desire (1987). His documentaries, such as Buena Vista Social Club (1999) and Pina (2011), showcase his ability to capture both artistic lives and cultural phenomena. His most recent film, Perfect Days (2023), garnered an Oscar nomination. Recurring themes in Wenders’ work include identity, memory, the search for meaning, and a fascination with the American West. His melancholic moods and exploration of alienation are complemented by his artistic innovations. The breadth of his achievements has led to numerous awards, including prizes from Cannes, Venice, and Berlin film festivals, a BAFTA award, and multiple Academy Award and Grammy nominations.
THE ITINERARY
1. Mumbai – February 5 to 9, 2025 @ Regal Cinema & PVR Inox Metro
2. Pune – February 21 to 23, 2025 @ National Film Archive of India (NFAI)
3. Thiruvananthapuram – February 10 to 11, 2025 @ Sree and Nila Cinemas, Kairali Complex Kairali Complex
4. Kolkata – February 16 to 19, 2025 @ Nandan & Basusree
5. New Delhi – February 20 to 22, 2025 @ PVR Plaza, Connaught Place & Stein Auditorium, Habitat Centre
FILM SCREENINGS
1. The Goalie’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick (1971) – Wim Wenders’ debut film – an existential crime noir inspired by the visual idiom of Hitchcock’s films. It won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1972 Venice Film Festival.
2. Alice In The Cities (1973) – The first of Wenders’ Road Trilogy in which he discovered the genre of the road movie.
3. Kings Of The Road (1975) – The third film in Wenders’ Road Trilogy, Kings of the Road is about a friendship between two men: a film projector repairman who travels along the backroads of provincial West Germany near the border to the East in his truck, and a psychologist who is fleeing from his own past. It won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.
4. The American Friend (1977) – Wim Wenders’ adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel Ripley’s Game is now considered a cult film. The cast of Wenders’s film includes not only the directors Dennis Hopper and Gérard Blain—many of the supporting roles of gangsters are also played by fellow directors, such as Hollywood legends Sam Fuller and Nicholas Ray. It won the German Critics Prize as well as gold in two categories of the German Film Prize.
5. Lightning Over Water (1980) – A film about the last months in the life of American director Nicholas Ray, who is probably best known for his cult film “Rebel Without a Cause”. Wenders and Ray got to know each other on the set of “The American Friend” and became friends. “Lightning Over Water” was made in just a few weeks at a time when Wenders was free from his studio film Hammett.
6. Reverse Angle (1982) – “REVERSE ANGLE was my first diary film. It is about “new wave music” (among others Jim Jarmusch’s Del Byzanteens), about straying in New York, about the editing process of HAMMETT in the presence of Francis Ford Coppola, about a novel by Emanuel Bove and about Edward Hopper. And somehow the whole thing was a reflection about filmmaking in Europe and America.”
7. Room 666 (1982) – “Room 666 at the Hotel Martinez. There was a single camera in the room and the question was on the table. My colleagues only had to turn on the tape recorder and the camera when they were ready to give their solitary answers. Godard, Fassbinder, Spielberg, Antonioni, Herzog and other filmmakers gave response to the question: ‘Is cinema a language about to get lost, an art about to die?’
8. The State Of Things (1982) – is a highly personal film about filmmaking in Europe and America. It is about a film crew stranded at the most western tip of Europe. After shooting their last feet of film, there is nothing left to do but wait. The director finally sets out for Los Angeles to search for the missing producer. Wenders’ parable on filmmaking has also been interpreted as his way of addressing the difficulties that he faced during the production of Hammett, his first film in the US. It won the Golden Lion at the 1982 Venice Film Festival.
9. Paris, Texas (1984) – Wim Wenders’ iconic Cannes winner from 1984, exquisitely photographed by Dutch master Robby Müller, is a powerful statement on self-discovery, loss, redemption and the unbreakable bonds of love. Outstanding performances by Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski, a masterful screenplay by Sam Shepard and Ry Cooder’s haunting soundtrack have contributed to PARIS, TEXAS’ cult film status and its spell, even 40 years later. It won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival 1984 and the BAFTA Award for Best Director in 1985.
10. Tokyo-Ga (1985) – The documentary is the director’s homage to the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu as Wim Wenders travels to Japan in search of the Tokyo seen in Ozu’s films. It won the Outstanding Film Of The Year at the 1985 London Film Festival.
11. Wings Of Desire (1987) – The film has achieved cult status all around the world and marked Wenders’ “homecoming” as it was his first German film after eight years in America. The main characters are guardian angels – benevolent, invisible beings in trench coats – who listen to the thoughts of mortals and attempt to comfort them. It won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival 1987.
12. Until The End Of The World – Director’s Cut (1994) – is “the ultimate road movie,” a journey around the globe, a modern- day odyssey – and it certainly bears similarities to Homer’s saga. The film was shot in 1990 and takes place in what was then the near future, around the turn of the millennium. What most interests Wenders here is how humanity learns to deal with images – or becomes their victim. The character Eugene notes: “In the beginning was the word. What would happen if only the image remained in the end!?”
13. The End Of Violence (1997) – Wim Wenders’ webbed exploration of an image saturated Los Angeles is a thought provoking analysis of human brutality. On entering this strangely meandering thriller, the viewer steps into a shady, multifaceted world, where the image does not act as evidence but instead leads one astray. The End of Violence is a cerebral and sobering examination of the all consuming, dehumanising reign of images.
14. Buena Vista Social Club (1999) – The music documentary became a cinematic sensation and an international success and was nominated for an Oscar. With a small film crew, Wim Wenders accompanied his old friend Ry Cooder, who had previously written the music for PARIS, TEXAS and THE END OF VIOLENCE, on a trip to Havana. Wenders immersed himself in the world of Cuban music. Over the course of several months, he observed and accompanied the musicians – first at home in Havana and then, weeks later, in April 1998, on their trip to Amsterdam for the first public performance of the band (who had never played together outside a studio) and then, still later, in July 1998, to their triumphal concert in New York’s Carnegie Hall.
15. The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) – Based on an idea by rockstar Bono of U2 fame, the film is a story about friendship and deception – and about the immeasurable power of unconditional love. A group of freaks, outsiders and drifters live in a run-down hotel in downtown Los Angeles, in an area full of drug addicts and homeless people. Bono provided the concept for the film as well as the soundtrack. It won the Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival 2000.
16. Don’t Come Knocking (2005) – Hollywood star Howard Spence has seen better days. After another night of debauchery, he flees the set of his latest Western, riding away into the open prairie like one of the heroes he so often portrayed. He takes the bus to see (for the first time in 30 years) his elderly mother in Nevada and proceeds to look up a former lover in Montana and the grown-up son he’s never met.
17. Pina (3D) (2011) – Oscar-nominated PINA is a feature-length dance film in 3D with the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, featuring the unique and inspiring art of the great German choreographer, who died in the summer of 2009. Wim Wenders takes the audience on a sensual, visually stunning journey of discovery into a new dimension: straight onto the stage with the legendary ensemble and follows the dancers out of the theatre into the city and the surrounding areas of Wuppertal – the place, which for 35 years was the home and center for Pina Bausch’s creativity.
18. Anselm (3D) (2023) – In Anselm, Wim Wenders creates a portrait of Anselm Kiefer, one of the most innovative and important painters and sculptors of our time. Shot in 3D and 6K-resolution, the film presents a cinematic experience of the artist’s work which explores human existence and the cyclical nature of history, inspired by literature, poetry, philosophy, science, mythology and religion. For over two years, Wenders traced Kiefer’s path from his native Germany to his current home in France, connecting the stages of his life to the essential places of his career that spans more than five decades.