Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not, Gerardo de Leon, 1961), kino-sine

Excerpt:

For the occasion of the launching of Tilman Baumgartel's book Kino-Sine: Philippine-German Cinema Relations, basically a collection of articles that outlines the development of the Philippine independent filmmaking movement of the '70, '80s, '90s, and its strong links with the Goethe Institute Manila (Germany and the Philippines has this fascinating cultural--I don't know how to call it, affinity, fondness, affection--for each other)...for this occasion, I say, the Goethe Institute is kind enough to screen Gerardo de Leon's flawed but nevertheless fascinating masterpiece Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not, 1961) on Wednesday, February 20, 1.30 pm, at the Cine Adarne, UP Film Center, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.

The main reason Noli was chosen for the mini-festival, of course, was because the novel--Filipino hero and martyr Jose Rizal's first major work--was printed in Berlin, and the last surviving print of de Leon's film adaptation was helpfully if wobbily (it was in extremely poor condition) restored by the Goethe Institute.