Kino International Closure for Renovation: Iconic Berlin Cinema Set to Close for Two Years

Because of Renewal The Kino International will be closed for about two years from Tuesday. According to Yorck Cinemas, 80 percent of the technical systems are to be replaced, “every cable and every radiator in the building will be replaced.” The last day of performance before the renovation planned for the building on Karl-Marx-Allee on Monday evening – the program included the drama “Die” as well as the classics “Dirty Dancing” and ” The Women” (1939).

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The Kino International was once the most important major cinema in the GDR. It is one of the venues of the Berlinale and is famous among film fans and tourists for its amazing architecture. In November, the house, which was built in 1963, turned 60 years old.

The listed building of post-war modernism can look back on the history of the GDR – and its end – with an unusual anecdote or two. Because the audience was watching “Coming Out” on November 9, 1989 – a gay love story and therefore the first film in the GDR with a homosexual theme – the wall came down. A very memorable night for the cinema.

In addition to the productions mostly of the GDR film company Defa, the cinema also showed selected Western films, for example the 1987 dance film “Dirty Dancing”. Film premieres were regularly held in the presence of the state leadership, which even had its own production room for guests. In 1992 the York Cinema Group took over the cinema.