German films used to feel so much more foreign. You know, hypnotized actors improvising a historical drama about a glass blower (Herzog’s Heart of Glass) or something. These were the products of a European psyche reeling with postwar angst and struggling to establish a new identity. Evidently the cultural divide has closed up a little over the years. The films screening as part of the Goethe-Institut’s “Best of Film Neu” summer film series could easily be the Stateside indie hits of the summer. There’s young and rebellious hotties showing willful disregard for authority (The Edukators; Monday, July 7, at 6:30 p.m.), old ladies re-establishing their sexuality (Late Bloomers), whimsical romcoms (Summer in Berlin), and a movie about second-generation immigrants struggling to retain their native culture while making a decent Kung Fu movie (Kebab Connection). See them now or see them in three years after they’re remade in English and starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The series runs to Monday, Aug. 25, at the Goethe-Institut Washington’s GoetheForum, 812 7th St. NW. $6. (202) 289-1200.