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German Films
Quarterly 4 · 2005
DIRECTORS’ PORTRAITS
Byambasuren Davaa & Douglas Wolfsperger
PRODUCER’S PORTRAIT
Clasart Film: Focusing on Quality
PORTRAIT: AG DOK
25 Years of the German Documentary Association
SPECIAL REPORT
Digital Cinema in Germany
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focus on
DIGITAL CINEMA IN GERMANY
portrait
A LESSON IN PERSISTENCE
A portrait of the German Documentary Association
directors’ portraits
A MEDIATOR BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
A portrait of Byambasuren Davaa
FILMS THAT HOVER
A portrait of Douglas Wolfsperger
producer’s portrait
FOCUSING ON QUALITY
A portrait of Clasart Film
actors’ portraits
ENERGY AND HIGH STANDARDS
A portrait of Burghart Klaussner
MANY FACES, MANY TALENTS
A portrait of Katja Riemann
news
in production
4TOECHTER
Rainer Kaufmann
EBAY WORLD
Stefan Tolz, Marcus Vetter
GEFANGENE
Iain Dilthey
ICH BIN DIE ANDERE
Margarethe von Trotta
KNALLHART
Detlev Buck
LUCY
Henner Winckler
DER MANN VON DER BOTSCHAFT
Dito Tsintsadze
REINE FORMSACHE
Ralf Huettner
SIEBEN ZWERGE – DER WALD IST NICHT GENUG
Sven Unterwaldt
SOMMER ’01 AN DER SCHLEI
Stefan Krohmer
THE THREE INVESTIGATORS AND
THE SECRET OF SKELETON ISLAND
Florian Baxmeyer
TKKG
Tomy Wigand
DER UNTERGANG DER PAMIR
Kaspar Heidelbach
DIE WILDEN KERLE III
Joachim Masannek
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24/7 THE PASSION OF LIFE
Roland Reber
BERLIN NIGHTS
Gabriela Tscherniak
BREAKING THE RULES –
ACROSS AMERICAN COUNTERCULTURE
Marco Mueller
BRUDERMORD FRATRICIDE
Yilmaz Arslan
DU HAST GESAGT, DASS DU MICH LIEBST
YOU TOLD ME YOU LOVE ME
Rudolf Thome
DIE GROSSE STILLE INTO GREAT SILENCE
Philip Groening
JUNGLE SPIRIT
Ingo Storm
DIE LETZTEN TAGE THE LAST DAYS
Oliver Frohnauer
MAKING OF ZEPPELIN!
Hans Guenther Pflaum
DIE MEGAKLINIK THE MEGAHOSPITAL
Hans Andreas Guttner
OBABA
Montxo Armendáriz
PELADÃO – ELF FREUNDE UND EINE KOENIGIN
PELADÃO – SOCCER TEAMS AND BEAUTY QUEENS
Joern Schoppe
SOMMER VORM BALKON SUMMER IN BERLIN
Andreas Dresen
WAS LEBST DU? WHATZ UP?
Bettina Braun
WELTVERBESSERUNGSMASSNAHMEN
MEASURES TO BETTER THE WORLD
Joern Hintzer, Jakob Huefner
the 100 most significant german films (part 19)
DAS BOOT THE BOAT
Wolfgang Petersen
JAGDSZENEN AUS NIEDERBAYERN
HUNTING SCENES FROM BAVARIA
Peter Fleischmann
LEBENSLAEUFE
BIOGRAPHIES – THE STORY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOLZOW
Winfried Junge, Barbara Junge
BERLINER BALLADE THE BALLAD OF BERLIN
Robert A. Stemmle
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foreign representatives · imprint
“Durchfahrtsland”(photo courtesy of
Delicatessen/Edition Salzgeber)
DIGITAL CINEMA
IN GERMANY –
THE WAITING GAME
Digital cinema – everyone’s talking about it. Hardly a week seems to
have gone by this year without a panel somewhere between
Flensburg and Mittenwald on the pros and cons of digital vs. traditional 35 mm projection.
September, for example, saw Munich’s Media Business Academy
devote a whole day event to the “cinema of the future”, while the
Oldenburg International Film Festival staged a roundtable on High
Definition and Digital Cinema with director and HD specialist
Christopher Coppola, filmmaker Michael Klier and distributor Torsten
Frehse of Neue Visionen, and AG Kino’s arthouse trade fair in Leipzig
featured a Digital Update to give arthouse cinema-owners an overview of the current state of play in their particular field.
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But it seems to be mainly talking and not so much action here in
Germany when compared with some other parts of Europe.
For example, there are the highly ambitious plans of the UK Film
Council for the creation of a Digital Screen Network which should
reach around 250 screens in 150 theaters and proposes adopting “the
highest standards currently foreseen for digital cinema”, the 270
screen network of Digital Houses in Sweden are almost entirely
located in country areas and are linked with the desire to break free
of traditional distribution, and the announcement of U.S. digital company Avica to create a network of 515 screens across Northern and
Southern Ireland to make Ireland “the world’s first digital nation.”
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Kai Langner (photo courtesy of KODAK)
At the moment, around 40 German cinemas are participating in
the CinemaNet Europe network, another 24 screens
located at such venues as Berlin’s legendary
Zoopalast cinema, Nuremberg’s Cinecitta
multiplex and Munich’s Inselkinos
(formerly Forum der Technik) have had
digital projectors installed by the
Belgian XDC company as part of a
100-screen network across Europe
and have been screening such
Hollywood blockbusters as Star Wars
III, The Island, and Sin City in the digital
format; and the ROWO Digital group
has put E-cinema technology in place at
such cinemas as Munich’s Mathaeser
Filmpalast and the Kinopolis multiplex in
Landshut to present cinema advertising ahead of the
main program.
STANDARDS SET – LETHARGY OVER?
This summer, the Digital Cinemas Initiative (DCI), an umbrella group
formed three years ago by the U.S. studios and exhibitors, announced
an industry standard governing the digital cinema roll-out by presenting a set of unanimous system requirements and specifications to
help manufacturers create uniform digital cinema equipment throughout the United States.
The Germans, however, are not planning to accept the DCI standard
without further analysis: the distributors association VdF and the exhibitors gathered under HDF-Kino e.V. have commissioned the Fraunhofer Institut to establish a so-called “digital testbed” which would be
undertaken probably from the middle of next year. The researchers’
findings would facilitate a level of transparency from which the various
players would then be able to hammer out working models for the
eventual roll-out of digital cinema in Germany.
GERMAN RETICENCE
“In Germany, exhibitors are still rather reticent,” notes Andreas
Kramer of the German cinema-owners association HDF-Kino e.V.
“There is a situation where they say: ’Before we make any investments in any direction, we will first wait and see what happens abroad’. Many are looking to see what the Dutch do and how [the
Belgian multiplex operator] Kinepolis works out.”
Andreas Kramer (photo courtesy of HDF-Kino)
According to the DCI, it is expected that individual print costs would
be cut from $1,200 to about a quarter of that amount for the digital
equipment and transportation charges would be eliminated as studios
adopt satellite and fiber optic delivery systems.
“All of the majors are saying that they would be ready if – and this ’if ’
is important – the business model is there,” says Thierry Perronnet,
Marketing Director for Entertainment Imaging at Kodak. “What we
hear from distributors and exhibitors is more of a waiting mode than
anything else. People talk a lot about digital cinema but nobody is
ready to start because they don’t know how much it is going to cost
– and who is going to pay for it. That is the biggest question.”
“The advantage of digital projection of commercials has been seen
especially in the U.S. [where cinema advertising was hardly developed
before] because you can divide it by regions and by cinema,” says Kai
Langner, Kodak’s new General Manager for Entertainment Imaging in
Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Nordic Countries. “The real
critical thing is the cost of conversion: when you look at Germany, for
example, there are roughly 4,000 screens and today we talk about an
investment of €100,000 per screen, i.e. €4 billion in total. One argument will be that the prices will be dropping, but still you have to
cover the costs rather fast. But it doesn’t make sense for the whole
industry to have two systems side by side, so I think you should have
the conversion completed in a three year period. I think, though, that
it will be a country-by-country change and it won’t be very cost effective at the start.”
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Eva Matlok (photo courtesy of AG Kino)
“They are not only wanting to see how reliable the technology is, but
also how the price structure for the tickets changes. Moreover, this
discussion comes at a point where the readiness to make investments
on this scale is not so big given the current problems in the cinema
sector in Germany,” Kramer says.
Moreover, he believes that the discussion in Germany about digital
cinema “has been undertaken without making any distinction between
D-Cinema and E-Cinema, i.e. everything under 2K such as the areas
of advertising and marketing and alternative content where I would
also include the [CinemaNet Europe network’s] Delicatessen program. A question we have to address is: are we going to stay on the
level of E-Cinema here in Germany and Europe or will we manage to
become partners in the DCI standard? There is also the issue of who
has their finger on the button for sending films into the cinemas; the
programming of films must not be allowed to be taken out of our
hands and, moreover, there still isn’t any convincing business model
yet for Europe.”
“Nachbarinnen”
(photo courtesy of Delicatessen/Edition Salzgeber)
A report on the impact of digital technologies published by London’s
Metropolitan Film School at the end of September noted that for
exhibitors “digitially delivered content gives venues more flexibility,
control and choice. It follows that a film can be shown in irregular
intervals according to audience response or seasonal appropriateness,
since each cinema would have its own copy – there is no conflict between a cinema wanting to holdover a print vs. another cinema wanting to introduce the film.”
At the same time, many of the respondents “did not expect the supply chain to change for exhibitors. They believed that their main
source of films would still be through distributors rather than sourcing
films directly from producers or the filmmakers themselves.”
CHANCES FOR THE ARTHOUSE MARKET
“I don’t know any cinema which would be in the situation to convert
to digital completely on its own,” argues Burkhard Voiges who is a comanager of Berlin’s Hackesche Hoefe Filmtheater and participates in
the CinemaNet Europe initiative. “Those who benefit from this are
the distributors, so we have to find a solution where the cinemas
receive something in return. Otherwise, what is the use of having digital if I still have to pay the same rental. Our demands should be: digital technology must have the same quality as 35 mm, but also be cheaper. Why should it only be the others who can produce and distribute more cheaply through digitization?”
“When I look at the arthouse market, I think it will be necessary to
have our own access to networks,” Voiges suggests. “The majors have
created a global standard and will develop their own networks and
have associated cinemas to show these films. For us, though, it will be
much more expensive and harder to create similar structures, so I
think we should look at establishing smaller networks and not just
think in terms of pan-European ones. For instance, you could have
networks in a region like North Rhine-Westphalia or Berlin where
specific marketing initiatives are then developed. If you had, say, 10
cinemas in Berlin who have a HD DVD player or Blue Ray DVD player that could store high definition content, it would be easy to produce a HD DVD for these cinemas to screen and one could work on
local marketing campaigns. That would be a form of digital cinema in
the arthouse field.”
Moreover, the report’s findings showed that many of those interviewed for the study “expected that novel exhibition venues will turn
to screening films, such as libraries, nightclubs and other film societies
so that the way audiences experience films will evolve.”
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According to Eva Matlok, managing director of the German arthouse
trade association AG Kino, digital cinema could be particularly beneficial for the development of screenings for children: “when programfocus on digital cinema
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Bjœrn Koll (photo courtesy of Edition Salzgeber)
ming for the smaller children, you often find that the films are too long
for them and digital projection would enable one to provide other
content in the appropriate length [i.e. short films or medium length
films] for the age-group.”
At the same time, Matlok is not convinced that cinemas with digital
projection would then consequently open up to alternative content
such as live events and concerts being beamed in, while Voiges believes that there is “an opposite development where other public spaces which aren’t cinemas will show films in the future. I think this trend
is more likely than the idea that we will be showing other things like
football matches in the cinemas. People had always thought football
would be ideal for this, but it just doesn’t function in the cinema.
People want to drink their beer, stand around, shout out, and have a
smoke during the match. You can do that in the pub, but not in a cinema.”
Interestingly, Voiges had an illuminating experience with the digital
projection of Wagner’s Der Ring der Nibelungen in the 1976 production by Patrice Chereau and Pierre Boulez over four Sundays in
August which was organized by CinemaNet Europe in cooperation
with Universal, Deutsche Grammophon and Premiere’s Classica pay
TV channel. “Surprisingly, it went very well,” Voiges reports. “The
attendances were very good and they were all theater-goers, it was
definitely not a cinema audience. That’s the nice thing, really – that
you have other people in your cinema. The cinema-owners I spoke
with said that they didn’t find the picture quality that good, but the
audience didn’t criticize it. The technical quality is judged more critically by us exhibitors than by our customers.”
In fact, the differences between 35 mm and digital projection are not
something that can be used as a marketing tag to attract the average
member of the public to the cinema. “We had a small survey among
those cinemas who participated in CinemaNet Europe’s Delicatessen
and asked how the audience had reacted to the fact that the films
were now being shown digitally,” Matlok recalls. “The unanimous response was that the audience wasn’t at all interested in this. They
were only interested in the film’s storyline. True, they want the sound
and picture to be OK, but digital in itself is no additional incentive to
come to the cinema.”
CINEMANET EUROPE –
IMPROVING MARKET ACCESS
“There’s nothing more boring than the technology,” adds Bjoern Koll
of Salzgeber & Co. Medien, who has masterminded the German participation in the CinemaNet Europe network (previously known as
European DocuZone). “What is more interesting is the content and
what you can do with it. It wasn’t our aim to set the digital roll-out on
its way,” he stresses. “We see digital cinema as a way of improving the
marketing chances of smaller films.”
CinemaNet Europe, which went live with its opening weekend over
12 – 14 November 2004 across European countries and included the
world premiere of Werner Herzog’s documentary The White
Diamond, was based on the success of an earlier digital cinema project in the Netherlands. Cinema Delicatessen started distributing
documentaries digitally in 2002, offering audiences a broader selection of films and reducing distribution costs. In its first year, attendances from the 10 cinemas surpassed expectations by 50% and
attracted interest from other European countries which then led to
the creation of CinemaNet Europe in 2003 with the support of the
European Union’s MEDIA Plus Program.
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Distributing 12 European documentaries as well as locally produced
films through its network of more than 180 cinemas in Austria,
France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain,
Slovakia and Belgium this year, CinemaNet Europe has its films subtitled on a central server, distributed on hard disk (but soon by satellite) and shown using 1.4K DLP digital projectors.
“We have around 50 cinemas with equipment now installed and a
compatibility with ROWO’s screens in 10-12 cinemas and want to
reach the same situation with the EVS XDC member screens,” Koll
explains. “This autumn, we will have some more cinemas joining the
network in Germany as well as Goethe-Institutes in Prague, London
and Lisbon. Step by step, we are getting to the point where we want
to be.”
Koll argues that he doesn’t draw any line of definition between E-cinema and D-cinema. “It is a question of price – we tested projectors and
presented our 1.4 K projector to cinema-owners in ’blind screenings’
compared with 2K projectors and there was an unanimous vote for
these [1.4 K] projectors. We are delivering an image where you can’t
distinguish a difference if it comes from a good master of a 35 mm
print. So, our required standard has been reached.”
According to CinemaNet Europe, since a typical screen in their network holds up to 250 seats, “a mid-range 1.35K gives the audience
the same viewing experience as a mainstream multiplex cinema with
600-800 seats using a 2K projector.”
OFFERING DELICATESSEN ALTERNATIVE
TO MAINSTREAM
This spring saw the staging of the first season of the network’s
Delicatessen program of European documentaries and a local selection. Then, every Wednesday from 7 September to 30 November, a
new Delicatessen lineup has been presented digitally on screens in
such cinemas as Berlin’s Hackesche Hoefe Filmtheater and Filmkunst
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66, Frankfurt’s Filmforum Hoechst, Cinema Muenster, Munich’s
Monopol, Leipzig’s Passage Kinos and Hamburg’s Zeise Kinos. The
films selected this time around included Christopher Buchholz and
Sandra Hacker’s documentary Horst Buchholz … Mein Papa, which
had its premiere at the Berlinale in February, Roger Kappers’ Alan
Lomax – The Songhunter which showed at the Edinburgh Film Festival
in August, Volker Koepp’s latest documentary Pommerland and
Aleksandr Manic’s Shutka – Stadt der Roma.
filmmakers are thinking of shooting on this format and we are now
working with a lot of low-budget or no-budget productions where
digital distribution is the only one they can afford.”
At the same time, CinemaNet works two-track offering 35 mm and
digital distribution for certain titles such as Nachbarinnen or the documentary Horst Buchholz … Mein Papa. (Indeed, until digital roll-out
really kicks in and the provision is universal, there will have to be the
delivery in both formats for some time to come.)
“Horst Buchholz … Mein Papa” (photo courtesy of
Delicatessen/Edition Salzgeber)
Similarly, film festivals in Germany such as the Berlinale and Filmfest
Muenchen have seen that digital projection enables them to show
films where there is no 35 mm print available and they would consequently have to pass on showing the film. Koll is particularly pleased
about the opening up of the Ophuels Festival program to digital projection instigated by the new festival director Birgit Johnson. “We will
be there in 2006 encoding the data on the spot at the festival and that
will give young producers a real hands-on feel for digital cinema!”
Koll admits that the CinemaNet Europe initiative has not been welcomed with open arms by all parts of the industry. The German distributors association VdF, for example, was critical in a position paper
at the beginning of the year about the “missing separation between
content and transport and the consequently privileged position enjoyed by Salzgeber for access to the digital screens compared to other
distributors. While praising the Berlin-based company’s “outstanding
pioneer work” in this new field of digital distribution, the VdF nevertheless suggested that there should be a greater transparency in the
network’s offer of services to theatrical distributors.
In particular, a group of Berlin distributors such as Neue Visionen and
Piffl Medien have kept their distance from the network, but Koll notes
that they use the cinemas’ digital projectors to show DVDs of their
films. “A more positive development is the work we are now doing
for the future for Tobis and MFA in encoding films for digital distribution, and we have handled films for distributors like Real Fiction
(Alexandra Sell’s Durchfahrtsland) and Freunde der deutschen
Kinemathek (Li Yinfan and Yan Yu’s documentary on the three-gorge
dam Yan Mo – Vor der Flut) and a number of producers with films they
are distributing themselves [such as Sebastian Heinzel’s 89 Millimeter
and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady],” Koll reports.
ATTRACTION TO FILMMAKERS AND FESTIVALS
Werner Herzog’s “The White Diamond“ (photo courtesy of Delicatessen/Edition Salzgeber)
Martin Blaney
The possibilities of digital projection are also encouraging some
filmmakers to consider the option of shooting digitally as well. “Each
day, we have people coming to our offices to inform themselves
about the possibilities of a HD shoot,” Koll says. “More and more
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AG DOK’s Board of Directors
P O RT R A I T
A LESSON IN
PERSISTENCE
A portrait of the German Documentary Association
As the German Documentary Association (AG DOK) celebrates its 25th anniversary this autumn, persistence is the word that
inevitably comes to mind as one looks back at the association’s activities.
An “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm” [Workgroup Documentary Film] was founded at the Duisburg Film Week in September
1980 by 84 assembled documentary filmmakers after more than a
year of preparations and issued the “Duisburg Declaration” calling for
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the inclusion of the documentary genre in the German Film Law’s
“project funding” category and for increased air-time for documentaries on television.
“Some of the basic demands formulated by AG DOK in the early
years could still be taken on 1:1,” notes Thomas Frickel who has
been the association’s chairman since 1987. “When we came away
from the image of documentary only equaling culture, AG DOK developed into a professional association and the membership numbers
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With 757 members, the German Documentary Association
(AG DOK) is the largest professional association of producers working independently of television in Germany. The association is open
to representatives of all film genres but regards itself primarily as the
film and media policy lobby force for documentaries.
AG DOK engages itself to maintain and even increase the presence
of the documentary genre in television schedules and cinema programs and questions the tendency of broadcasters to take more
rights from independent producers for, at times, less money. The
association participates in all debates on the future of film policy in
Germany and commissions legal assessments to support its arguments in the discussions. AG DOK’s members benefit from a legal
advice service and can have their contracts counter-checked by an
experienced media lawyer.
In addition, the establishment of the initiative “German
Documentaries” has created a platform for the international distribution of German documentaries as well as the presentation of
members’ works at foreign festivals and professional get-togethers
with colleagues from other countries.
Contact:
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm
Schweizer Strasse 6 · 60594 Frankfurt am Main/Germany
phone +49-69-62 37 00 · fax +49-61 42-96 64 24
email: [email protected] · www.agdok.de
AG DOK also represents the interests of documentary filmmakers in
the administrative board of VG Bild-Kunst, the German Federal Film
Board (FFA), and in the shareholders assembly of German Films.
exploded. In essence, our work has been about developing working
models and strategies to help the smaller independents obtain better
structural conditions. One of the first important measures was to
draw up model contracts and checklists for producers.”
“As a single independent you are on your own against potential financers like television, whereas the AG DOK provides support for a
stronger negotiating position. The exchange of information amongst
members has also led to people becoming more aware of the key
issues,” he continues.
“The fact that AG DOK represents practically everyone who is anyone in the German documentary world is another reason why the TV
channels talk to us,” adds board member Herbert Schwering of
Cologne-based ICON Film. “AG DOK is in a way unique because it
represents the interests of both producers and authors. Of course
this is natural as, in the documentary sphere, it is often the case that
the producer is also the author. On the producers’ side, we have
addressed the question of how long license periods should be and
raised the issue of repeat fees from the TV stations. We have also had
to make it clear to the broadcasters that it is no less time-consuming
to develop a script for a documentary than it is for a feature film.”
“Over the past 25 years, we have constantly asked ’What will happen
to the small production companies?’ – especially when one sees more
and more program commissions going to large production companies,” Frickel says. “As a documentary filmmaker, you have a lot of
idealism, and often work without covering your costs and in a state of
self-exploitation. If this wasn’t the case, the big firms would of course also do more documentaries.”
While some initiatives fell by the wayside over the last quarter of a
century due to a lack of financing, AG DOK has regularly scored successes in the film political arena thanks to a sturdy persistency in its
lobbying efforts.
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For example, in 1998, 18 years after its founding, the AG DOK finally received a seat and vote in the German Federal Film Board’s administrative board and also saw the “reference funding” minimum
threshold for documentaries reduced to 25,000 admissions, while it
took some nine years before the documentary filmmakers’ association became a shareholder in German Films at the end of August
2004.
Similarly, the drip-drip approach of the constant dialogue with the
broadcasters in Germany led to provisional agreements by ARD and
ZDF this year to considerably relax the regulations on sureties for
small producers and to place freelance writers and directors on equal
footing with in-house staff regarding repeat fees.
Over the years, AG DOK has often aired robust criticism about negative developments in the German film funding landscape when it has
seen the interests of its members jeopardized, such as highlighting the
influence of television or calling for dedicated nomination categories
for the documentary at the German Film Awards.
AG DOK has also played a role in improving the lot of the documentary filmmaker on a European level as well. AG DOK played an
active role in the development of such initiatives as “Documentary”
and “EuroAim” by serving on the board of directors as well as being
involved in the launching of the European Documentary Institute
(EDI) and the European Documentary Network (EDN), and the
association began forging contacts with documentary colleagues in
the Eastern half of Germany long before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Moreover, the AG DOK and others’ protests at the absence of a
documentary prize category at the first European Film Awards in Berlin
in 1988 led to this category being introduced a year later for the ceremony in Paris.
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In a move to facilitate access to the international market for its members, AG DOK decided to attend the “Sunny Side of the Doc”
market in Marseille for the first time in 1996.
“Documentaries have a different status now,” Frickel explains. “There
was a renaissance in the 1990s with an internationalization of the
genre and an understanding that there is a TV market for documentaries. It took a while for German documentary filmmakers to realize
this: some only work for their own market, while others think internationally. But there are strokes of luck where a film is about one’s
own country and also has universal appeal.”
A year after the premiere of German Documentaries in Marseille,
though, the German Economics Ministry turned down the association’s application to finance the subtitling of films scheduled to screen
at the 1997 Berlinale and a stand at the Sunny Side of the Docs.
However, thanks to the chairman’s persistency, the Ministry did a
turnabout in 1998 and started providing financing for the subtitling of
films, the German Documentaries catalogue and a market presence in
Cannes.
Meanwhile, back home in Germany, the Berlinale could not provide
the association stand space at the 1998 European Film Market (EFM).
As a reaction to the market’s decision, AG DOK members strolled
around the EFM with a sales tray to distribute the German
Documentaries catalogue and flyers explaining the background to the
protest.
A year, later, the Berlinale still did not grant any stand space, but the
AG DOK now took out legal action to win the right to have a presence on the market and has since become a regular participant at the
EFM.
Apart from the catalogue, the German Documentaries initiative has
also staged a number of showcases around the world, such as in St.
Petersburg (“Message to Man” festival), Perm/Siberia, Cairo/Egypt
and Canton/China and became a partner for German Films from last
year after the AG DOK took a 7% shareholding in the newly structured export promotion agency.
Looking to the future, Frickel suggests that AG DOK will build on the
strengths of the past 25 years with the focus on developing the
exchange of information between the members, continuing the legal
advice service, and retaining a strong lobbying position.
In addition, the beginning of 2006 should see the launch of the project “OnlineFilm.org” which, according to AG DOK deputy chairman
C. Cay Wesnigk will create “a legal, multi-lingual distribution platform for the inexpensive distribution and marketing of German and
European documentary films via the Internet in Europe and in the
whole world.” (The project had initially been launched in 2000, but
proved to be ahead of its time on a technological level and was unable to raise the necessary private capital after the Neuer Markt
bubble burst).
Working with other partners throughout Europe, the project aims to
make as many documentaries as possible available for downloading.
“Together with our foreign partners (initially in Greece, Latvia and
Lithuania, later in other European countries), we want to create
regionalized sub-portals which, although they all have access to a central database with ’metadata’ (descriptive data and subtitles), will also
be able to each develop their own profile and individually address
their customers in their respective national language,” Wesnigk
explains.
Instead of making use of so-called digital rights management systems,
OnlineFilm.org will now focus on transparency in its operations. “We
will be open with the customers about the price structure and the
distribution of the takings,” Wesnigk says. “The customer will thus be
shown clearly that, apart from the structure which makes it possible
for him to find and download the films, he is only paying the authors
and producers whose work he is enjoying. Because of the transparency of the procedure, we are definitely expecting that our prices
will be accepted and also paid by the users. We call this principle
’Digital Rights Fair Trade’ (DRFT). We will be communicating this
principle at all levels for it distinguishes us from all of the other providers and forms the basis of the OnlineFilm.org system.”
Martin Blaney
“Agreements and cooperations had existed with the Export-Union in
the past, particularly in the area of logistics as far as the transporting
of prints and materials and the displaying of information material.
They had supported our cause at festivals when we couldn’t be there
ourselves in person,” Frickel recalls.
But the beginnings of a closer collaboration between AG DOK and
the promotion agency had been made with the documentary filmmakers’ stand on the German Boulevard at Berlin’s European Film
Market. “Now it’s taken for granted that we are part of the German
cinema family,” he says.
AG DOK advises German Films on the selection of documentaries
for its Festivals of German Films – for example, Pepe Danquart’s
Hoellentour was shown at this year’s film week in Madrid and then
repeated along with Thomas Grube and Enrique Sanchez Lansch’s
Rhythm Is It! at another German Films showcase in Buenos Aires – and
also continues to be present at festivals and markets where German
Films has not participated so far.
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
portrait ag dok
11
D I R E C TO R ’ S P O RT R A I T
Byambasuren Davaa (photo courtesy of X Verleih)
Byambasuren Davaa was born in the Mongolian capital
Ulan Bator in 1971. From 1989 to 1994, she worked for
Mongolian State Television as a presenter and assistant director; parallel to this, in 1993, she began a two-year course in
Law at the university of her home town. She then began to
study at the College of Cinematic Art in Ulan Bator in 1998.
Two years later, she moved to Germany to continue her studies
in the Department of Documentary Film at the Academy of
Television and Film (HFF/M) in Munich. Only her second film at
the HFF/M, The Story of the Weeping Camel (Die
Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel, 2003), which she
realized together with her fellow student Luigi Falorni, became
one of the most successful cinema documentaries of recent
years: this film about an ancient ritual among Mongolian
nomads was sold in around 80 countries and enthusiastically
greeted by millions of cinema viewers all over the world. It has
also won numerous international prizes – including Audience
Awards at the festivals in Karlovy Vary, Indianapolis and Buenos
Aires. In addition, it was nominated for an OSCAR in the category Best Documentary Film. Newsweek praised the director
for her outstanding awareness of natural beauty, the
Washington Post saw the film in the “proud tradition” of ethnographic masterpieces, and Screen International maintained that it
possessed “all the qualities to melt the hardest heart and become a cult item.” Davaa’s graduation film at the HFF/M, The
Cave of the Yellow Dog (Die Hoehle des gelben
Hundes, 2005) could thus be sold in numerous countries in
advance of its premiere. This semi-fictional feature about a
young nomad girl, her dog and a Mongolian legend had its world
premiere at the Munich Film Festival this summer – where it not
only won the Audience Award, but also the coveted German Film
Promotion Award.
PR Agent: ana radica ! Presse Organisation
Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse 27 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-23 66 12-0 · fax +49-89-23 66 12 20
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MEDIATOR BETWEEN
TWO WORLDS
A
A portrait of Byambasuren Davaa
A unique success story: within five years, Byambasuren Davaa
has made it from her home amidst the steppes of Central Asia, via
Germany, to Hollywood and two OSCAR nominations – meaning that
as a film student, she has already achieved something that others work
for all their lives. But in fact, as the petite, energetic director emphasizes in our conversation, it is not her nature to plan things: “I don’t
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
need security – not as a person, nor as a filmmaker. For I know it
doesn’t exist, anyway. I always react to a situation and try to remain
open to anything.”
It was probably this openness that gave the director, born in Mongolia,
the courage to transfer from the film academy of her home town Ulan
director’s portrait
12
Bator to the Munich Academy of Television and Film (HFF/M) in the
year 2000, although she couldn’t speak a word of German. In the
meantime, she speaks the language – perfectly – and remembers: “At
that time, I arrived at the main station in Munich, spent a night in the
waiting room, and began looking for an apartment the next day. That
is my mentality: I just go somewhere and see what happens.”
that she has happily accepted the advantages and opportunities of
western life: “After five years in Munich, I feel like part of both
worlds.” She can therefore imagine making her next film in Germany:
“People fascinate me. All over the world. Every person has his story.
I certainly wouldn’t want to exclude the possibility of finding the
material for my next film in Munich.”
She made her second film at the HFF/M, The Story of the
Weeping Camel, together with fellow student Luigi Falorni. This
poetic documentary describes an ancient ritual carried out by the
nomadic herders of Southern Mongolia when one of their new-born
camels is rejected by its mother: enchanting musical sounds are
performed to make the mother camel weep – and so induce her to
suckle her offspring again. After a difficult research trip covering
thousands of kilometers, the two filmmakers finally found a suitable
family of nomads in the Gobi Desert. And at the end of seven
strenuous weeks of shooting, during the musical ceremony, the
mother camel actually did weep.
The “developing filmmaker”, as she describes herself, takes her hat off
to her German colleagues: films like Grill Point, The Edukators and
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days impressed her considerably, but she also
admires documentaries such as Rhythm Is It! and Addicted to Acting.
“I think the things that are happening in the documentary field are
very interesting,” she remarks, “and of course I am glad that documentary films are becoming so popular again. Ten years ago, my films
would probably have had no chance – at that time, it was mainly a
matter of always pulling out the stops when it came to technical and
special effects. I think people want to come back down to earth
today: they are very interested in reality – but TV only offers them socalled reality shows such as Big Brother and Super Nanny.
The struggle and strain were worth it, and The Story of the
Weeping Camel became a hit with audiences worldwide. In
Germany alone, more than 300,000 were delighted by the unusual
combination of authentic documentary shots and moving feature-film
plot. The film sold in more than 80 countries and has received numerous international awards. The crowing triumph: a nomination for the
OSCAR for Best Documentary. It is by no means coquettish, but
honest amazement and modesty which Davaa voices when she reviews this overwhelming response to her film: “Wherever I presented
the film, whether in the USA or France, in Japan or Norway – every
time, I was utterly astonished at how positively the audiences reacted
to it!”
It is possible that Davaa will repeat this success with her new film,
The Cave of the Yellow Dog, her graduation film from the
HFF/M, which had its much-acclaimed world premiere at this year’s
festival in Munich and has been submitted for the OSCAR for Best
Foreign Language Film. Again, Davaa takes her viewers to Mongolia –
this time not into the Gobi Desert, but the steppes of the North
West. From a documentary viewpoint, it tells the fictive story of a girl
from a tribe of herdsmen and a stray dog – and at the same time, it
grants us a fascinating insight into the life of the nomads, which is
characterized by their great respect for nature. Davaa attempted to
treat the family of herdsmen with the same kind of respect: “German
film teams always want to have everything thoroughly organized – but
the people in Mongolia live in an entirely different fashion,” she relates. “That is why I made an effort to adapt myself and the crew to the
nomads and to integrate us into the way of life there: for two months,
we actually lived together with the family and all took the necessary
time to get to know each other. We didn’t begin the shooting until we
had developed that trust.”
Byambasuren Davaa presents a successful alternative to this
artificial TV-reality with her own films. However, her film language –
located somewhere between feature film and documentary – evades
any form of categorization. “Basically, I suppose, I don’t think in
genres,” the 34-year-old director sums up, “and I don’t want to
explain everything dutifully in my films, either. This fixation on the
mediation of knowledge seems like a typical Western European
characteristic to me. Of course, I also satisfy people’s thirst for knowledge in a certain sense – but subtly and with no claim to the absolute.
My films are intended to be felt: an experience for all the senses rather than just for the mind!”
Marco Schmidt (freelance journalist for print and television)
spoke to Byambasuren Davaa
Davaa does not gloss over or romanticize anything in her film; she
never falls prey to the temptation of ethno-kitsch, but portrays a
society in a process of change: “I wanted to capture the traditional
nomadic culture as long as it still exists,” she says. “I realize that there
is no way of halting modernization. And I wouldn’t want to condemn
that development wholesale, either. What I would like is for the old
and the new to learn from one another, and for people to go on living
their lives on an equal footing. But each viewer ought to draw his own
conclusions from my film.” She herself learned not only traditional,
but also modern values during her childhood – and she freely admits
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director’s portrait
13
D I R E C TO R ’ S P O RT R A I T
Douglas Wolfsperger was born in Zurich, although a German citizen, in 1958. He grew up in
Friedrichshafen and on Lake Constance and made his
first Super 8 films as a schoolboy. After graduation,
he gained practical directing experience at the
broadcaster SWR in Baden-Baden. In 1982, he
moved to Munich and collaborated on productions
by the local Academy of Television & Film. His first
feature film was made in 1985; since the early 90s, he
has directed numerous documentaries and portraits
for SWF and WDR. A father of three daughters,
Wolfsperger now lives in Berlin and by Lake
Constance. His films include: the features Lebe
kreuz und sterbe quer (1985), Kies (1986),
Probefahrt ins Paradies (1992), and Heirate
mir! (1999), as well as the award-winning documentaries Bellaria – As Long As We Live
(Bellaria – so lange wir leben, 2001), Riders
of the Sacred Blood (Die Blutritter, 2002),
and most recently Did You Ever Fall in Love
with Me? (War’n Sie schon mal in mich
verliebt?, 2004) which premiered this year at
Locarno.
Douglas Wolfsperger (photo © Joachim Gern)
Contact:
Douglas Wolfsperger Filmproduktion
Kurfuerstendamm 214 · 10719 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-88 72 53 49 · fax +49-30-88 72 53 51
email: [email protected]
www.Douglas-Wolfsperger.de
FILMS THAT HOVER
A portrait of Douglas Wolfsperger
There are many examples of famous directors who began their
careers making documentary films. But for a director to have been
well-known for slightly scurrilous, ironic and always cutting feature
films, and in the meantime to be acclaimed at international festivals for
his documentary work, this is not something one encounters every
day.
Douglas Wolfsperger never sought to please the biggest possible
audience; the humor of his satires (Lebe kreuz und sterbe
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
quer, Probefahrt ins Paradies) was too black for that. But the
comedy Heirate mir! – featuring the popular German media-autodidact Verona Feldbusch – was still one of the most successful TV
movies to be broadcast on ProSieben. Nevertheless, it became more
and more difficult for Wolfsperger to finance his films. The director,
who has lived by Lake Constance for many years and also sets a lot of
his stories in the area, views this as one of the basic problems in
German cinema: “Everyone asks you if a TV station is involved. You
may even only receive film support if a TV station is co-producing the
director’s portrait
14
film.” In this sense, his stories suffer a considerable disadvantage from
the start: “They have to be suitable for prime time; that means that
certain material and ways of narrating are absolutely impossible.”
It seemed like a stroke of fate, therefore, when Wolfsperger was
“carried” – as he himself puts it – to documentary film at the beginning of the nineties. Quite by the way, he naturally profits from
today’s “docu-boom”, for which he has a logical explanation: “People
prefer to watch a good documentary rather than a bad feature film.”
His love for the genre began with TV documentary work on the subject of cleaning ladies, cemetery gardeners and garbage disposal workers. At that time, Wolfsperger had already cultivated a working
method which he finally developed to perfection in Bellaria – As
Long As We Live – his most popular documentary film for the
cinema to date. The starting point is unusual in itself: the film focuses
on old people who meet regularly in a Vienna cinema to watch black
& white German classics from the pre-Second World War years.
cial success as yet (as in Lola rennt and Good Bye, Lenin!). He supposes
that “the whole business is too uncertain”. Even in Germany, domestic productions are only successful in exceptional cases; why
should they function abroad? On the other hand, examples like
Bellaria show that an enthusiastic international audience can certainly
be found, even for productions with a small niche on the market.
Tilmann P. Gangloff (freelance media journalist for “Die Welt”,
“Frankfurter Rundschau”, “Film + TV Kameramann”,
“Blickpunkt:Film”, and “Cut”) spoke with Douglas Wolfsperger
But that was just the beginning for Wolfsperger. “I am very curious
about people and their stories, particularly about the ’man on the
street’ and milieus that are unfamiliar to me. I want to play with
expectations and break through clichés,” he says, describing his
motives for making films. That is why Bellaria is soon only concerned
with the actual reason for its making on a secondary level. The same
thing can be said of Riders of the Sacred Blood: the Heilig Blut
(“Holy Blood”) ritual in Weingarten in Swabia – an annual horseback
procession – is already bizarre enough in itself. But as in Bellaria, it
soon becomes apparent that the biographies of the participants are
even more interesting.
On occasion, these people are like characters from the œuvre of
Federico Fellini, but Wolfsperger always treats them with respect: the
films are funny, certainly, but we do not amuse ourselves at the cost
of the protagonists. Moderate direction makes sure that the films
continue to “hover”, in Wolfsperger’s own words: here, documentation is almost akin to a feature film. He imagines something along similar lines for his feature films in the future: he would like the stories to
be so authentic that they almost appear documentary. That is why he
avoids labels for his hybrid projects. He doesn’t like the term “documentary film” anyway: “It sounds so didactic.”
In Locarno, Wolfsperger recently presented his latest film, Did You
Ever Fall in Love with Me?, a portrait of the Jewish cabaret
artist Max Hansen, who had to flee from Germany because of his disrespectful jokes about Adolf Hitler. The people in the film include
Brigitta Mira, who actually knew Hansen personally; it was the Berlin
actress’ final appearance in front of the camera before her recent
death. The film – in which three of Hansen’s four children also
remember their father – not only pays homage to the cabaret artist,
but also to the range of great entertainment during those years.
It is true that Wolfsperger’s films are still waiting to be discovered
abroad, but Bellaria’s successful tour has made it quite clear that their
themes are more than capable of overcoming cultural borders. The
depiction of a folk custom in Riders of the Sacred Blood, or so
Wolfsperger thinks, also shows “a part of Germany that has not been
known in this way before.”
For some years now, German films have been regaining their good
international reputation. Wolfsperger has no desire to analyze the
reasons why artistic reputation has been so rarely joined by commer-
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director’s portrait
15
P R O D U C E R ’ S P O RT R A I T
Producer Markus Zimmer (photo courtesy of Concorde Filmverleih)
Clasart Film & Fernsehproduktion GmbH was founded in
1977 as a subsidiary of Herbert Kloiber’s Tele-Muenchen-Group
and initially specialized in the production of classical music programs,
feature films and international TV movies and mini-series before
expanding into German-language feature films under Markus
Zimmer in the past five years. Clasart’s feature film credits are:
Flashback – A Murderous Vacation (Flashback –
Moerderische Ferien, dir: Michael Karen, 2000), The
Cosmonaut’s Letter (Der Brief des Kosmonauten, dir:
Vladimir Torbica, 2001), 12 Past Midnight (Null Uhr 12, dir:
Bernd Michael Lade, 2001), Abgefahren (dir: Jakob Schaeuffelen,
2004), Rock Crystal (Bergkristall, dir: Joseph Vilsmaier, 2004),
Ich bin die Andere (dir: Margarethe von Trotta, 2005),
Die Wolke (dir: Gregor Schnitzler, 2006) and Der Stern von
Afrika (dir: Joseph Vilsmaier, 2006) as well as the co-productions
Solo Album (Soloalbum, dir: Gregor Schnitzler, 2002) and
Pura Vida Ibiza (dir: Gernot Roll, 2004). Zimmer was also coproducer through the mother company Tele-Muenchen of
Margarethe von Trotta’s Venice prize-winner Rosenstrasse
(2003). Clasart Film also produces TV movies and mini-series, including adaptations of novels by Rosamunde Pilcher (September,
The Shell Seekers) and Maeve Binchy (Tara Road).
Contact:
Clasart Film & Fernsehproduktion GmbH
Kaufingerstrasse 24 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-2 11 87 60 · fax +49-89-21 18 76 29
email: [email protected] · www.tmg.de
FOCUSING
ON QUALITY
A portrait of Clasart Film
As Clasart Film approaches its 30th anniversary in two years, the
Munich-based production outfit has increasingly become an important
player in the German feature film landscape.
Back in 1997, when Dr. Herbert Kloiber founded Clasart after acquiring Tele-Muenchen with his partner Fritz Buttenstedt, the focus of the
production output was initially on classical music programs; a
recording of a concert by Vladimir Horowitz at New York’s Avery
Fischer Hall won five Emmy Awards in 1978.
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
In subsequent years, however, the company’s production portfolio
was extended to include TV movies, mini-series and feature films with
such credits as John Goldschmidt’s Machenka, Karoly Makk’s
Ungarisches Requiem, Jack Gold’s Der Fall Lucona and Liv
Ullmann’s Kristian Lavrans Tochter.
From 1998, all of Tele-Muenchen’s production and co-production
activities were gathered under the Clasart label, and a more intensified involvement in German feature films came in 2001 with the
producer’s portrait
16
appointment of Markus Zimmer in addition to his existing
responsibilities as head of Tele-Muenchen’s distribution arm
Concorde Filmverleih.
Zimmer, a graduate of the Production & Media Economy department
from Munich’s Academy of Television & Film, has specialized on developing feature film projects at Clasart, while Rikolt von Gagern and
Juergen Biefang have acted as service producers through their companies Gate Filmproduktion and Smallfish Films, respectively, for the
TV mini-series based on novels by Rosamunde Pilcher and Maeve
Binchy.
"We don’t have any preference now as far as genres are concerned,"
says Zimmer after the company tried its hand at making films for the
teenage market with the horror film Flashback and the comedies
Abgefahren and Pura Vida Ibiza. “When we made
Flashback, there was a wave of teen horror films in the cinemas,
but, unfortunately, when our film was released there had been several cases of teenagers going on murderous rampages, which was unfortunate timing. Moreover, the high point of the teenage comedies is
also over. I think you have to work really independent of trends or
work upstream of the next trends.”
“Consequently, we decided to concentrate in the future on developing relationships with those directors where we have had good
experiences,” he explains. A case in point is Margarethe von Trotta
whose 2003 Rosenstrasse had been produced by Zimmer as an
international co-production with Studio Hamburg and the
Netherlands’ Get Reel Productions. The film clocked up 640,000
admissions in Germany, the best result ever for von Trotta at the
German box office, and laid the foundation for a new collaboration
which culminated in the shooting of Ich bin die Andere, starring
Katja Riemann, August Diehl, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Barbara Auer,
this summer.
The same goes for Gregor Schnitzler whose Solo Album was coproduced by Clasart and sold over 400,000 tickets on its German
release three years ago. Principal photography began at the end of
August on their next collaboration, Die Wolke, which has been
adapted from Gudrun Pausewang’s 1987 best-selling novel of the
same name by director Marco Kreuzpaintner.
As Zimmer explains, Clasart is run as an extremely lean operation
without a large apparatus developing projects in-house: “we are reliant on the contacts to directors and external producers to gain access
to interesting projects. Since we are also getting involved in co-productions as well as in-house production, producers can come to us
[with a project] and either we make a license deal for the German
rights or we come onboard as a co-producer. We try to reach between 4-5 other German productions a year to complement to our
own productions.”
In the case of Margarethe von Trotta’s latest film, this project was the
result of in-house development by Zimmer from the point when he
met Peter Maerthesheimer at a Fassbinder event five years ago and
was told about the author-screenwriter’s new novel Ich bin die
Andere.
However, Zimmer points out that the responsibilities of also being in
charge of the theatrical distribution arm – with 12-15 releases a year
– and film acquisitions at Concorde means that he can only handle
around two projects a year when he is donning his producer’s hat.
Nevertheless, he agrees that there are advantages for his work as a
producer in also being a distributor since he has a better understanding of what the market is looking for than those colleagues who
are only producers. Moreover, the fact that the mother company
Tele-Muenchen’s interests also extend to the television channels RTL
2 and Tele 5 is a further plus. At the same time, Zimmer stresses that
Clasart [and Concorde] “are not restricted to one particular station.
We have sold our films to everyone and have good business contacts
to everybody. You look to see where you get the best deal.”
While some of Clasart’s TV projects have been shot in the English
language, Zimmer is keen to keep his feature film output at Clasart to
German language productions only. “We prefer to have a national
identity for our projects as we are making them first and foremost for
the German cinema audience. Our thinking is that if a film is authentic for the German market with German talents, then it can also be
interesting for other countries. I think people abroad want to see
German stories from Germany and, as far as big international genre
productions are concerned, the budgets are just too low in Germany.
That’s not the direction we are going to specialize on.”
Markus Zimmer spoke with Martin Blaney
“I can really see the potential for international distribution for this
film,” Zimmer suggests. “An accident at a nuclear power plant in
Germany is the departure point for the story in Die Wolke and we
will release the film in good time ahead of the 20th anniversary of
Chernobyl to draw attention once again to the dangers of nuclear
power. I could imagine other countries would then pick the film up for
release next year.”
And a reunion is in the cards next year with Bavarian filmmaker
Joseph Vilsmaier for the ambitious project Der Stern von Afrika,
a remake of Alfred Weidenmann’s 1950s film about the legendary
fighter bomber Hans Joachim Marseille. Clasart had teamed up with
Vilsmaier two years ago to produce a new screen version of Adalbert
Stifter’s Rock Crystal. “We were very pleased with the performance of this historical family film [in the cinemas],” he notes. “It will
now be re-released theatrically this Christmas and is sure to become
a regular feature in the TV schedules in the future. We are now in discussions with a media fund to come onboard Joseph’s new project.”
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producer’s portrait
17
A C TO R ’ S P O RT R A I T
Burghart Klaussner was born in 1949 in Berlin. In 1969, he
initially began courses in German and Theater Studies at the Free
University Berlin, but transferred to the “Max Reinhardt School” in
the same year, where he trained as an actor. As early as 1970,
Klaussner received his first engagement at the Schaubuehne am
Hallischen Tor, which came to an end in 1972. Since then, Klaussner
has appeared on the stage of many theaters including the Hamburg
Schauspielhaus, the Schiller Theater and Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin,
and in Frankfurt, Bochum and Zurich. After his cinema debut
Ziemlich weit weg (dir: Dietrich Schubert), he acted in some of
the most important German cinema films of the last two decades,
including Der Beginn aller Schrecken ist Liebe (dir: Helke
Sander), Kinderspiele (dir: Wolfgang Becker), 23 (dir: HansChristian Schmid) and Good Bye, Lenin! (dir: Wolfgang Becker).
Most recently, he has completed shooting for Requiem, the new
film by Hans-Christian Schmid and for Dito Tsintsadze’s Der Mann
von der Botschaft (aka Saschka). Klaussner lives in Berlin; he is
married with two sons.
Burghart Klaussner (photo © Alex Trebus)
Agent:
Above the Line GmbH
Goethestrasse 17 · 80336 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-59 90 84 23 · fax +49-89-5 50 38 55
email: [email protected] · www.abovetheline.de
ENERGY AND
HIGH STANDARDS
A portrait of Burghart Klaussner
At first glance, he looks quite harmless. A quiet guy, you might think,
rather inconspicuous, someone who wouldn’t harm a fly. A run of the
mill kind of guy. You wouldn’t expect much of him. But if you look
more closely, uncertainty sets in. There is something about
Burghart Klaussner that soon throws those first impressions
into question: something seething, a force beneath the surface. And
suddenly, you believe that he is capable of anything.
“I wait and see. I am curious” is Klaussner’s assessment of his own
attitude towards roles and directors. In fact, he has been around for a
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4 · 2005
long time. But people only really became aware of Klaussner about
eighteen months ago, when he acted in Hans Weingartner’s The
Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei), participating in
the competition at Cannes in 2004. Klaussner had a major part – that
of Hardenberg, a rich banker who is abducted to an isolated
mountain hut by three young people with a rather confused political
outlook. Soon, it turns out that he himself was active in the 1968
movement, and the claustrophobic scenario evolves into a mountain
commune, whose members avidly discuss conformism and the
meaning of life. There comes a point when Hardenberg/Klaussner
actor’s portrait
18
almost develops into a kind of replacement father for the polit-kids.
And he has played many fathers. It began as long as thirteen years ago,
in Wolfgang Becker’s Kinderspiele, one of his first cinema roles –
”a very important film for me.“ Klaussner had already made his bigscreen debut in 1980, in Dietrich Schubert’s Ziemlich weit weg.
This was followed by Helke Sander’s Der Beginn aller
Schrecken ist Liebe in 1984 – precisely at the time when, after
Fassbinder’s death, the New German Film for which the actor
Klaussner would have been so suited was coming to an early demise.
”There has always been something anti-cyclic about me,” he replies
laconically, when asked whether he regrets having arrived on the
scene too late for this great age of post-war German cinema – yet he
admits that his cinema career sometimes appears to have developed
with a “time-lag”.
Since Kinderspiele, Klaussner has continued to embody a wide
range of fathers: in Hans-Christian Schmid’s 23 and Crazy, and in
Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye, Lenin!. “It’s actually a superfluous
cliché,” he says, “but that kind of restriction to certain roles is part of
the industrialization of cinema.” Such “mainstream thinking” by a few,
he adds, “is a catastrophic attitude.” And yet “there is an infinite
number of conceivable ways to tell a story in the cinema.” The actor
speaks willingly and at length about the “saturation of German ideas”,
about the fact that “energy and high standards” are frequently lacking,
even among many filmmakers. A great deal is “too flat, too speculative – not serious enough.” And Klaussner is serious about his profession, as one very soon realizes.
Today, he alternates between the stage and the camera a lot – and by
contrast to many of his colleagues, this doesn’t cause him any problems. On the contrary: “As I see it, there isn’t such a big difference.
In the theater, of course, the superior analysis of the material is a plus.
But for my working method, at least, it makes no difference.”
From which directors has he learned the most? “From many. I appreciate the precision of Wolfgang Becker’s work; and I admire Dito
Tsintsadze for his surrealism, Hans Weingartner for his journalistic
quality, and Hans-Christian Schmid for his seriousness and courage to
seek alternative approaches.”
Klaussner has just finished the shooting for two new films: Requiem
by Hans-Christian Schmid – where, of course, he plays a father. In the
new film by Dito Tsintsadze that just wrapped shooting in Georgia, his
role is that of a German diplomat who takes care of a refugee child
and thus becomes a kind of replacement father, once again.
In the next months, however, we will find him on the stage again, in
Botho Strauss’ play Die Zeit und das Zimmer. Burghart Klaussner’s
greatest wish for the future is to play the part of “a confidence trickster. I regard that as a very interesting character, a key to the present
age. Certainly fitting in the Federal Republic of Germany.”
Ruediger Suchsland, German correspondent for Cannes’
Semaine de la Critique and film critic for the “Frankfurter Rundschau”
and “Filmdienst” among others, spoke with Burghart Klaussner
Like so many others, the now 56-year-old actor began performing on
the stage. Born in Berlin – his father ran a pub in Charlottenburg – and
growing up later in Munich, he returned to the capital in 1969. After
a year studying German, he was accepted at the Max Reinhardt
School, and soon after that he was already acting under George
Tabori and Hans Lietzau.
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actor’s portrait
19
A C T R E S S ’ P O RT R A I T
Katja Riemann (photo: German Films)
Katja Riemann was born in Kirchweyhe near Bremen. She studied
Dance in Hamburg, and Acting at the College of Music and Drama in
Hanover and at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. On the stage
of the renowned Munich Kammerspiele, she performed in productions by Dieter Dorn, Alexander Lang and Volker Schloendorff. After
her first leading role – for which she was awarded the Adolf Grimme
Prize – in the TV event Sommer in Lesmona by Peter Beauvais
(1986), the sensational success of the short, 60-minute HFF/M graduation film Making Up (Abgeschminkt, 1993) by Katja von
Garnier not only triggered Riemann’s film career, but also the German
cinema boom of the 1990s. This was followed by leading roles in audience successes such as Soenke Wortmann’s Maybe, Maybe Not
(Der bewegte Mann, 1994), Talk of the Town (Stadtgespraech, 1995) by Rainer Kaufmann (German Film Award for the
Best Leading Actress) and the music film bandits (1997), also in
cooperation with Katja von Garnier, for which she again (together
with her achievement in The Pharmacist/Die Apothekerin
by Rainer Kaufmann) received the German Film Award in Gold for the
Best Actress. After a period during which she also worked abroad,
including roles alongside Gérard Dépardieau in the multi-part international TV film Balzac (1999) by José Dayan and in the GermanCanadian production Desire (2000) by Colleen Murphy, she could
be seen in various TV films and was in Hermine Huntgeburth’s successful children’s feature Bibi Blocksberg (2002). In addition to
film, Riemann has recently become more involved in music; today she
is the lead singer of an eight-man band that has already recorded
several CDs and been on concert tours. “Triumph for German
Cinema” was the headline marking Riemann’s greatest international
success to date: at the Venice film festival in 2003, she received the
Coppa Volpi as Best Actress in Margarethe von Trotta’s film Rosenstrasse, a drama about civil courage during the Nazi period shown
at cinemas in more than 20 countries. Riemann won another German
Film Award for the Best Supporting Actress in Oskar Roehler’s
Agnes and his brothers (Agnes und seine Brueder,
2004).
Agent:
Erna Baumbauer Management
Keplerstrasse 2 · 81679 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-47 85 77 · fax +49-89-4 70 21 98
MANY FACES,
MANY TALENTS
A portrait of Katja Riemann
Measured by the audiences that have viewed her cinema films and the
national and international awards she has received, Katja Riemann
is probably the most successful German actress since the beginning of
the nineties. And like many of the most famous German actresses
before her – from Romy Schneider to Nastassja Kinski – she has been
through some remarkable changes in image. For a long time, she was
identified primarily with German comedy successes such as Maybe,
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
Maybe Not or Talk of the Town, but now every new film role
for Riemann seems to be a surprise to both press and public; whether
in the context of great historical-political cinema, melodramatic satire
or humorous children’s films, her versatility and credibility are always
remarkable, enabling her to embody a huge range of female characters.
actress’ portrait
20
Katja sees these changes in perception, but her attitude towards the
film material has remained the same: “With respect to the films that I
have acted in, I never look at the genre first, but at the role I am to
play and the complexity of the characters. Sometimes, I also embodied completely different characters in the so-called comedy roles;
take Talk of the Town and The Pharmacist, for example, although superficially it was all considered comedy.”
And indeed, Katja’s artistic career has never followed a straight line:
even today – as a famous film and theater actress, the author of children’s books, and the leader of a band singing her own songs – she still
recalls the doubts she felt about the acting profession at the beginning
of her career. In 1989, after three years at the Munich Kammerspiele,
she even considered leaving the profession altogether in her early
twenties. She explains her philosophy: “I need team work and an
exchange, I am not a soloist. The most exciting thing is being able to
work together with people, to feel your way forward, to develop a
role – a psychogram – or to build up tension by means of dialogue
with others. Acting is interaction between a person and the role, and
between oneself and one’s fellow actors.”
Trotta, Ich bin die Andere, in which she plays a multiple personality. “A huge challenge as far as the role is concerned, but it also
means marvellous cooperation with colleagues such as Armin
Mueller-Stahl and August Diehl.”
During the autumn, she will be in front of the cameras again – in
Romania – for the American production Blood and Chocolate;
this is a poetic werewolf story set before a “Romeo and Juliet” background, and will be the third film made with her friend Katja von
Garnier as director. Transformation into a werewolf should present
no difficulties for an actress with as many faces and talents as Katja
Riemann …
Felix Moeller (documentary filmmaker)
spoke with Katja Riemann
Since then, the orientation on teamwork has been augmented by
Katja’s music. All the members of a band are dependent on one another, as Katja knows – at the latest since she had to learn to play the
drums for her role as a member of a women’s combo (together with
Jasmin Tabatabai and Nicolette Krebitz) in bandits. The desire for
music of her own developed between 1998 and 2001, when she was
also attempting to put some distance between herself and German
comedy by working abroad a lot. Her experiences with international
productions like the large-scale biopic Balzac, the Italian-French
production Nobel (Fabio Carpi, 2001), or the romantic thriller
Desire (which brought her a nomination for the Canadian Genie
Award as Best Leading Actress) have also altered her view of the
German film business, which she sometimes believes revolves around
itself too much.
Katja sees the importance of an international echo for German films,
but knows that this is not yet a matter of course: “When films that I
have acted in are praised abroad, I still regard it as a particular honor.
The exchange with directors and actors at international festivals
means a lot to me, and my experiences with Rosenstrasse and
Agnes and his brothers – in Venice, Toronto, Eastern Europe,
etc. – were gigantic in that respect.” When there is an additional political-moral intention – that is, “to use the film to tell the unique story
of women’s protest against the Nazis in Berlin’s Rosenstrasse during
1943”, as the politically and socially committed actress adds – “those
are the moments when this profession gives you the most sublime
feeling imaginable.”
Katja also cites another aspect regarding this orientation on other
countries: “After three English films, fortunately it is no problem for
me to act in English as well. Perhaps my music helps there, because I
sing mainly in English and write English song texts.”
As far as Katja’s immediate plans for the future are concerned, she
sees a continuing mix of film, music and the theater. After a certain
delay, the prize in Venice has led to many interesting offers from
abroad; she has been approached by American and French producers.
In the near future, it will be possible to see her on the stage in
Potsdam, playing the role of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. In addition, Katja
has just finished shooting a new film directed by Margarethe von
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actress’ portrait
21
4/2005
Scene from “Sophie Scholl” (photo © Juergen Olczyk)
NEWS
“SOPHIE SCHOLL” REPRESENTS GERMANY IN RACE FOR THE OSCAR
The independent expert jury, which was appointed by German Films
to select the German entry to compete for the OSCAR for the Best
Foreign Language Film, has – under the chairmanship of Antonio
Exacoustos – chosen Sophie Scholl – The Final Days by Marc
Rothemund.
The jury on its decision: “Sophie Scholl is a film of great emotional concentration, carried by outstanding acting achievements. Its significance
lies in the timeless subject matter of selfless resistance and opposition
against all forms of suppression.“
The production by Neue Goldkind Filmproduktion/Munich (producers: Christoph Mueller, Sven Burgemeister) and Broth Film/Munich
(producers: Marc Rothemund, Fred Breinersdorfer) in co-production
with BR/Munich, SWR/Baden-Baden and ARTE/Strasbourg had its
world premiere in the “Official Competition” of the 2005 Berlin
International Film Festival and went on to receive the Silver Bear for
Best Direction. Julia Jentsch was awarded the Silver Bear for Best
Leading Actress. The film also received three German Film Awards.
Sophie Scholl has been shown worldwide at over 20 film festivals and
has won numerous prizes. Audiences and the international press have
responded extremely positively to the film.
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4 · 2005
Sophie Scholl opened in Germany on 24 February 2005 and has since
then posted some 1.2 million admissions (Distributor: X Verleih).
Bavaria Film International has already sold the film to some 30 territories, including important countries like Italy, Spain, France, Great
Britain, Israel and Japan. In the U.S., Zeitgeist will be bringing the film
to American screens in February 2006. Zeitgeist also successfully marketed Caroline Link’s OSCAR-winner Nowhere in Africa in the U.S.
Sophie Scholl was funded by the German Federal Film Board (FFA),
BKM, and FilmFernsehFonds Bayern.
On 31 January 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences (AMPAS) will nominate from the international entries those
five films which will participate in the final selection to compete for the
OSCAR for the Best Foreign Language Film. The official OSCAR awards
ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on 5 March 2006.
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BAVARIA, INDIA AND CHINA
In the first half of 2005, some 11.8 million cinemagoers chose a
German production, a 25% increase in comparison to 2004. The
results: in the German Top 10 from January to June 2005, there were
five “admissions millionaires”; in 2004 there was only one. Thus far, 62
German productions have been released in local cinemas, almost as
much as the U.S. output of 69 releases. But not only on the home
market, the wave of new German films are finding fans abroad. Even
the U.S. has taken a liking to German topics: films like Sophie Scholl –
The Final Days and Go for Zucker have already been sold to American
distributors. The rising box office abroad is developing into a solid
economic dimension for German producers. A structural film crisis in
Germany is therefore not being forecasted for the future. The current
economic weaknesses being experienced by film theater operators
from slacking admissions is being somewhat balanced out with almost
€10 million in “emergency support” from the FFA.
Katja Jochum
Preparation for the first Bavarian Film Week in Peking:
Journalist Zhang Yufei interviews director
Benjamin Heisenberg (“Sleeper”)
With film and location presentations at festivals in Shanghai, Goa and
Pusan as well as an independent film week in Bangalore in 2003, FFF
Bayern established intensive and long-lasting contacts with the Asian
film scene. This October, India paid a return visit to Bavaria: Munich
hosted its first “Indian Film Week”, initiated by the Bavarian State
Chancellery, the Indian Consulate and FFF Bayern. As part of the
500th anniversary of Indian-Bavarian trade relations, the film week
showcased Ketan Mehta’s historical epic The Rising – Ballad of Mangal
Pandey, and other current Indian films. Partners were the Bavarian
broadcaster RTL II and ARRI.
U.S. films in the last years – is waning. In 2005, German film fans showed more interest in the quality of the actors and story content. Given
this, the continuing success of German productions cannot be
emphasized enough.
In November, FFF is presenting twelve German feature films and
documentaries in cinemas throughout the Chinese capital of Peking.
The event is a premiere in the history of German-Chinese relations.
“Boosting Friendship” is the motto of this film week organized in cooperation with the Goethe-Institute Peking and the Beijing Film
Academy. Partners are ARRI, BMW, the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation,
gotoBavaria and the China University of Communication. The film
week will be opened by Johannes Brunner’s film Oktoberfest – an ideal
opening as several “Oktoberfests” will also being taking place in Peking
at this time.
GERMAN FILMS CONTINUE TO IMPRESS
German film fans are following the European trend: in the first half of
2005, admissions in Germany were at 60.3 million as compared to
72.3 million in the first half of 2004 – a 16.6% loss. And despite the
increase in ticket prices, “only” €352.5 million in turnover was
recorded – some €67 million (16%) less than the previous year. Just
as in Great Britain, France and Italy, there are reasons to believe that
the problems have been imported from Hollywood.
American blockbusters are of course necessary for impressive figures
– but they came over in smaller numbers this year. The comparison of
the Top 10s in both years makes it clear: in 2004; nine of the ten
strongest films pulled in admissions of over 2 million; this year only
three were able to do such.
The findings of a German Federal Film Board (FFA) study on
admissions points out the drastic differences at the box office. The
general enthusiasm for special effects – which of course has boosted
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KATJA JOCHUM JOINS
FFA MANAGEMENT BOARD
As of 1 July 2005, Katja Jochum has joined the German Federal
Film Board’s executive board as deputy CEO. The administrative
committee had already appointed her to the management team in
June of this year. The Saarland native previously lead the business
dealings of Senator Entertainment’s television arm. Jochum follows as
successor to Kirsten Niehuus, who has been appointed managing
director of the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. Jochum’s main
areas of responsibility will be in funding and support.
After studying Business Administration at the European Business
School, with semesters abroad in Paris and London, she began her
career as the assistant to the CEO of Bertelsmann’s Electronic Media
wing. Germany’s largest media group soon began to entrust her with
further responsibilities, including those as head of German
Acquisitions and Sales at CLT-UFA International in Luxembourg and as
deputy director for content at the Bertelsmann Broadband Group in
Cologne. “Together with the film industry,” the new vice CEO says
she would like to “strengthen, both nationally and internationally, the
economic success of German films on the basis of quality and artistic
diversity.”
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Jean-Claude Schlumberger, Peter Sehr
(photo: German Films)
Visitors of the exhibit were enthusiastic about the fragile and at times
somewhat bizarre puppet figures and the accompanying film excerpts, which provided insight into an important chapter of German
film history. Further interest to present the exhibit, which has been
sponsored by the Cultural Foundation of Saxony and the DEFA
Foundation, has come from Cracow, Riga and Tallinn.
GOVERNMENT STRENGTHENS COMPETITIVENESS OF THE GERMAN FILM INDUSTRY
On 21 July 2005, Peter Sehr was welcomed into the prestigious
circle of the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. During a ceremony at the
French Consulate General in Munich, Sehr was recognized for his long
dedication to the cooperative efforts between the German and
French film industries. Together with his partner Marie-Noelle, he
founded the Munich-based production company P’Artisan
Filmproduktion in 1988. The writer, director, producer and operator
of the legendary ARRI Cinema in Munich is also an instructor at the
Film Academy Baden-Wuerrtemberg, where he founded the FrenchGerman Masterclass in cooperation with the La Fémis film school in
Paris within the framework of the Académie franco-allemande du
cinéma.
Christina Weiss (photo © Ossenbrink)
PETER SEHR NAMED “CHEVALIER DES
ARTS ET LETTRES“
On the initiative of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a task
force of representatives from the federal government and the film
industry have developed a concept for a €90 million venture capital
fund. For the financing of German films and German-international coproductions, conditionally repayable loans of up to 20% of a film’s
budget may be granted by the German Federal Film Board if the film’s
exploitation concept is deemed to be positive. Another funding prerequisite is that at least five times the amount loaned be spent in
Germany. Return payments on the loan will then revolve into further
funding budgets in order to help build up a sustainable financing instrument. Further concept details, in particular the specifications regarding
repatriation of profits, are currently being discussed with Germany’s
regional film funders.
DEFA PUPPETS ON TOUR
The puppet figures from the DEFA Studios for Animated Film were
displayed in an exhibit from 8 September – 12 October 2005 at the
Goethe-Insitut in Rotterdam on the occasion of the 50th anniversary
of the founding of the former state studios in Dresden. With 240
employees and a total production of 1,500 films in 35 years, the DEFA
Studios for Animated Film were worldwide one of the largest of their
kind.
“Die kluge Bauerntochter” (1984, photo © Hylas-Film)
The exhibited puppets from eleven DEFA films demonstrated the stylistic spectrum and the artistic ability of the studio’s puppet designers.
Christina Weiss, State Minster for Culture and the Media, was
instrumental in the development and implementation of the concept
and stresses that “a future-oriented instrument has been developed
here that will not only strengthen the competitiveness of film producers, but will also help to increase employment at German studios.
The federal government has already planned in the necessary budgetary funds into its financial plan for the year 2006.” Considering the
vast consensus between the governing coalition and the CDU/CSU
party in film political matters, Weiss is convinced that the concept’s
implementation will be based on a wide majority of support, particularly in light of the planned elimination of German media funds.
SHORT FILM GOES MOBILE
Mobile network providers and mobile phone producers in Germany
are showing increasing interest in short films. “MobileTV”, “Portable
Media Center” and “Video-MMS” are just a few of the new technologies which, together with the UMTS system, offer new possibilities
for short films. For example, at the beginning of September the
German Short Film Association (AG Kurzfilm) and
Interfilm Berlin presented short films at the World of Consumer
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24
Electronics (IFA) in Berlin. In cooperation with T-Systems International, two digital AV programs were presented, one of which
screened the AG Kurzfilm’s program of selected shorts. Interfilm was
also present as a “content deliverer” at the IFA. Also in the business is
the Hamburg-based company Bitfilm, which has clients from various
firms in the field of mobile technology. And since 2003, they have
organized a competition for “micromovies” for mobile phones. But
the fact that impressive films can indeed be shot on mobile phones
was also proven recently at the short film festivals in Berlin and
Oberhausen. Interfilm Berlin and Siemens Mobile handed out the
Micro Movie Award last year, making it the first international competition for mobile phone short films. In Oberhausen, five filmmakers
were challenged to create films (two to three minutes in length) with
the Nokia models N90 and 6680. The results were a bit shaky and,
due to the low resolution, somewhat blurry, but nonetheless validated
a new trend. Being able to have a high-quality, handy and inconspicuous recording device on hand at all times allows for new directions in artistic work. Even if it is still uncertain what this new technology will mean for the sales branch and if these new impulses will have
a lasting impact on film art, one thing is for sure: short films will continue to live up to their reputation in the field of experimental artwork.
REALITY IN THE CINEMA
KINO!2005: NEW GERMAN FILMS
IN NEW YORK
After its re-opening last autumn, New York’s Museum of Modern Art
will once again host the traditional KINO!2005: NEW GERMAN
FILMS this year from 2 - 10 November 2005. MoMA senior film
curator Laurence Kardish has invited Go For Zucker! An Unorthodox
Comedy (Alles auf Zucker!) by Dani Levy to open the program. The
film will then be released in U.S. cinemas.
Manfred Wilhelms’ documentary Der Flaneur von Berlin – A Tale of Two
Cities, (Der Flaneur von Berlin – Eine Erzaehlung von zwei Staedten), with
Henry Ries, will have its world premiere at the event. Other films in
the program include: Willenbrock by Andreas Dresen, Ghosts
(Gespenster) by Christian Petzold as well as Zeppelin! by Gordian
Maugg, Hitler Cantata (Hitlerkantate) by Jutta Brueckner, and Franz
Mueller’s graduation film from the Academy of Media Arts in
Cologne, Science Fiction.
Next Generation 2005 – German Films’ own short film program – will
be presented twice in the presence of the directors Izabela Plucinska
(Jam Session) und Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt (The Final/Endspiel). And a highlight for the closing: Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (Sophie Scholl – Die
letzten Tage) by Marc Rothemund, which is representing Germany this
year in the race for the OSCAR in the category Best Foreign Language
Film.
At the end of August, a jury of seven, under the chairmanship of the
journalist himself – Gerd Ruge – awarded the fourth scholarship. Jana
Matthes’ and Andrea Schramm’s project Blutrache received €50,000,
Christiane Buechner received €40,000 for her project Perestroika, and
Ruth Olshan’s exposé Being kosher received €17,840. A further
€12,000 were divided between two incentive scholarships for Fatima
Abdollahyan and Nicole Armbruster. The winners, who were chosen
from some 50 candidates, now have 18 months to develop a high-quality documentary film project.
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Hildegard Knef, 1964 (photo © Ulrich Mack)
Gerd Ruge (front center) with this year’s scholarship winners and
NRW State Secretary for Media Thomas Kemper (back 2nd from
right) and NRW-CEO Michael Schmid-Ospach (back right)
At the end of August, the Filmstiftung NRW granted scholarships to young documentary filmmakers for the fourth time. The
“Gerd Ruge Project Scholarship” is endowed with some €100,000 to
support the projects of young filmmakers. The grant is meant to help
in the realization of outstanding exposés, which in the documentary
segment often run into difficult hurdles. And the filmmaker Konstantin
Faigle can prove that this initiative is not just a bunch of hot air. His
wonderfully laconic documentary Die grosse Depression (“The Great
Depression”), which takes a close look at this very German state of
mind, won the Gerd Ruge Scholarship in 2003 and was released in
German cinemas this September.
HILDEGARD KNEF EXHIBIT IN
FILMMUSEUM BERLIN
She was the first German post-war actress, the “Sinner”, the acclaimed Broadway star, the maligned emigrant, and the celebrated
repatriate. In a special exhibit, running from 24 November 2005 until
17 April 2006, the Filmmuseum Berlin is hosting “Hildegard
Knef. An Artist from Germany”. As an actress, singer, writer and painter, Hildegard Knef refused to be pinned down to one specific artistic
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10 YEARS OF SUPPORT FROM
MFG BADEN-WUERTTEMBERG
The MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg can now look back on 10 successful years of film support in southwestern Germany. Founded in
1995, the MFG has helped to fund some 1,000 projects: from script
support, project development, production and post-production, to
distribution and sales, film theater support, and development of the
local media industry’s infrastructure. Of the €90 million in funded
projects since 1995, some 300 were feature films which have received
over 2,200 prizes and festival invitations, among them awards from
the renowned “A” festivals in Berlin, Venice, Cannes and Locarno,
including the Silver Leopard 2005 for Yilmaz Arslan’s Fratricide.
Yilmaz Arslan’s Silver Leopard winner “Fratricide”
(photo courtesy of MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg Masterclass in L.A. with
Corina Danckwerts (photo © Tomy Lechner)
form. Previously unpublished photographs, show dresses, fashion
designs from Pierre Balmain, letters from Henry Miller, Carl
Zuckmayer and Marlene Dietrich and other pieces from Knef ’s estate
document the decisive stations of a career so closely connected to
German cultural history.
FILM ACADEMY BADEN-WUERTTEMBERG
IN LOS ANGELES
During the annual Masterclass “The Hollywood Perspective", twelve
students of the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg had the opportunity to meet with leading industry professionals in Hollywood to get
hands-on insight into the American film system. Corina Danckwerts,
U.S. representative of German Films/West Coast, invited the students to her office, which has become the meeting place and information center for the continuously growing German film community
in Hollywood as well as for U.S. film professionals seeking advice and
guidance for their German-oriented endeavors. She shared her experiences and explained the work of German Films in the U.S. in presenting and marketing German productions.
Following the Masterclass, which was supported by the State
Foundation of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a selection of the students’
short films were presented in an industry screening at Paramount
Pictures.
FINANCING SECURED IN HAMBURG
With its new “Special Program Avale for the Film Industry”, further
financial support is being offered to film producers by Hamburg’s
Agency for Economics & Labor and the Securities Association.
Considering the banks’ stiff criteria for credit, relief in production risks
is more necessary than ever, particularly for smaller production companies. This new program offers up to 80% deficit guarantees with a
maximum of €1 million per company. This model is intended to help
secure the intermediate financing and cushion risks for commissioned
productions. Hamburg senator Gunnar Uldall comments: “Commissioned production agreements shouldn’t be doomed to failure due
to temporary liquidity problems.” Only secured financing can guarantee the completion of a film.
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MFG’s shareholders are the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg and the
broadcaster SWR. In 1999, ZDF and ARTE also came on board in an
additional cooperation agreement.
GERMAN DOCUMENTARIES WITH
RECORD PARTICIPATION IN MARSEILLE
Over 30 German documentary producers and filmmakers, more than
ever before, participated at the “Sunny Side of the Docs” in Marseille
in June. In cooperation with German Films, the AG DOK organized
a market stand at the unique non-fiction screening event. A video library offered buyers further documentaries from all genres.
Some 2,000 filmmakers, producers and sales agents came together for
negotiations and sales talks with the 250 attending commissioning editors. In addition to broadcaster acquisitions, the Sunny Side event also
served as an important contact source for producers and filmmakers
to exchange ideas and make plans for co-productions.
During the numerous presentations given by the television broadcasters, producers were able to gain insight into the broadcasters’
profiles and programs as well as the short-term and mid-term need
for documentary material.
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A Meeting for German
and French Producers,
Distributors,
.
Exhibitors
.
.
COLOGNE – 18.-19.11.05
COPRODUCTION CASE STUDIES
ROUND TABLES ABOUT PRODUCTION FACILITIES,
BROADCASTERS’ FEATURE FILMS POLICIES,
MARKETING AND PRESS AT THE CROSSROAD
OF DISTRIBUTION AND EXHIBITION
French contact: [email protected]
German contact: [email protected]
.
.
4toechter
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Family Drama Production Company Claussen+Woebke Film/Munich, in co-production with ZDF/Mainz, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from
MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) Producers Jakob Claussen, Uli Putz,
Thomas Woebke Commissioning Editors Daniel Blum, Georg
Steinert Director Rainer Kaufmann Screenplay Gabi Blauert
Director of Photography Klaus Eichhammer Editor Ueli
Christen Music by Anette Focks Production Design Knut
Loewe Principal Cast Dagmar Manzel, Tanja Schleiff, Stefanie
Stappenbeck, Lisa Maria Potthoff, Amelie Kiefer, Barbara Nuesse
Casting An Dorthe Braker Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby
Shooting Language German Shooting in Stuttgart and surroundings, August – September 2005 German Distributor
Prokino Filmverleih/Munich
Contact
Claussen+Woebke Filmproduktion GmbH · Uli Putz
Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse 27 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-2 31 10 10 · fax +49-89-26 33 85
email: [email protected] · www.cwfilm.com
duction outfit Claussen+Woebke Filmproduktion, to get his
opinion. He was likewise convinced of the book’s potential for the
cinema, and they set about acquiring the film rights from Alfvén. “We
then looked for a screenwriter in Germany to adapt the novel and
decided on Gabi Blauert,” recalls Putz. “Compared to the screenplay, the novel is much more complex. We left some characters out
and we don’t have the different time periods.”
Thanks to Blauert’s well-crafted screenplay the production didn’t have
any problems in putting an impressive ensemble of actresses together
for the roles of the mother and four daughters. The mother Ottilia
was a crucial part to cast, but Dagmar Manzel (Willenbrock,
Nachbarinnen) immediately accepted the offer, while the role of Hillevi
was taken by Tanja Schleiff who has recently been part of the
ensemble at the Schauspielhaus Duesseldorf and can be seen in Doris
Doerrie’s Der Fischer und seine Frau and Dominik Graf ’s Der rote
Kakadu. Stefanie Stappenbeck (Barfuss, Im Licht der Nacht) was
cast as Katharina, Lisa Maria Potthoff (Die Bluthochzeit, Am Tag
als Bobby Ewing starb) as Lisa, and 18-year-old Amelie Kiefer, who
has worked in commercials and television from an early age, has her
first feature film role as Paula.
4toechter
marks
the
third
collaboration
between
Claussen+Woebke Filmproduktion with director Rainer
Kaufmann – the previous two films were Einer meiner aeltesten
Freunde (1993) and Die Apothekerin (1997) – and is Kaufmann’s first
feature film since Kalt ist der Abendhauch (1999). That is not to say that
he has been idle in the intervening years: in 2002, Kaufmann directed
the comedy Der Job seines Lebens for ARD and Die Braut wusste von
nichts for ZDF and followed this a year later with the mini-series Die
Kirschenkoenigin and the TV movie Marias letzte Reise last year.
According to Putz, 4toechter is an attempt to cater to an audience
interested in adult women’s stories. “There is a market for them,” she
argues. “Many women would go to the cinema more often if there
was intelligent entertainment for them to see there.“
MB
DoP Holger Schueppel on the shoot of
“eBay World” (photo © Filmquadrat 2005)
Dagmar Manzel, Tanja Schleiff
(photo © Claussen+Woebke/Fabian Roesler)
IN PRODUCTION
What would happen if it suddenly turned out that the people you
thought were your parents aren’t the real ones after all?
This is the question with which the 30-year-old Hillevi is confronted
when she learns by chance that she was adopted. Driven by the desire to find out who she really is, she sets off on the quest to find her
birth mother and leaves the idyllic rural security where she had grown
up. She soon manages to find out where her mother and her three
sisters are living. Without giving her identity away, Hillevi observes
Ottilia, her mother, and her sisters Katharina, Lisa and Paula, but the
search for her roots increasingly becomes an encounter with herself
and a journey of discoveries and decisions where she finally acknowledges that she must face the future by herself …
The inspiration for 4toechter came from the Swedish bestseller
authoress Inger Alfvén’s novel En Moder Har Fyra Dottrar which producer Uli Putz had been given as a birthday present. She was so
taken by the family drama that she gave the book to Jakob
Claussen, one of the other two partners in the Munich-based progerman films quarterly
4 · 2005
eBay World
Type of Project Documentary Cinema Genre Society,
Economics Production Company Filmquadrat/Cologne With
in production
28
Contact
Filmquadrat GmbH · Stefan Tolz
Goltsteinstrasse 28/30 · 50968 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-80 04 71 32 · fax +49-2 21-80 04 71 25
email: [email protected]
www.filmquadrat.de
What’s the most basic human transaction? No! Not that! The other
one! That’s right! Except for barter and a recent misguided attempt by
the then Soviet Union to subvert the laws of economics (not to say
human nature), the correct answer is buying and selling.
Now take a look at eBay, a company that in just a few short years has
become more than a global powerhouse, and, along with Google, for
example, one of the defining presences of the Internet, a household
name around the world that has become part of our everyday vocabulary.
eBay World tells five stories from five different countries, looking
at the people behind the phenomenon, reducing the giant company to
the max, to the individuals whose activities form part of the whole.
From the unemployed in the German back end beyond of Borna
hoping to become rich, to the hand-workers in the developing world
looking for a way out of poverty, from the super rich so-called
power-sellers to the very center of eBay itself, the film, says producer-director Stefan Tolz, “sets out to examine the company’s
claim of turning local flea markets into global businesses and whether
its self-proclaimed philosophy of economic democratization is philanthropy or just a smokescreen!”
Fighting talk, indeed! But as Supersize Me has just proven, documentaries have the power and pull to punch well above their weight, while
nothing can beat a true story well told for dramatic impact. Co-director Marcus Vetter, who has a background in Economics and
Media Communication, is a three-time Adolf Grimme Award winner:
most recently for the escape-from-East-Germany documentary Der
Tunnel (1999), and Wo das Geld waechst – Die EM.TV-Story (2000)
about one of the most spectacular speculative bubbles in German
business history.
As Tolz says, “Marcus comes from a business-investigation background. eBay is just the theme for him. He came to us with the idea,
wanting to take a worldwide perspective. We were enthusiastic from
the start!” Tolz himself studied film in Munich and Tbilisi (“The mecca
for poetical and comical films, for depth and tragicomedy with a
smirk,” he says) and has been making documentaries for Germany’s
major broadcasters for the last fifteen years. His latest feature documentary, On the Edge of Time, was also released theatrically. Ever
open to the possibilities of ancillary revenue, Filmquadrat is also
planning a DVD release. Among the strategies being considered is
selling the film … Guess where?
SK
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
Scene from “Gefangene”
(photo © Paul Kalkbrenner)
backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA)
Producer Stefan Tolz Directors Stefan Tolz, Marcus Vetter
Screenplay Stefan Tolz, Marcus Vetter Directors of Photography Holger Schueppel, Thomas Riedelsheimer, Dieter Stuermer
and others Format DVC Pro 50, HDV, color, 16:9, blow-up to 35
mm, 1:1.85, Dolby Stereo Shooting Languages English, German,
Spanish, Chinese Shooting in Germany, United States, Mexico,
China, UK, June - November 2005 German Distributor Piffl
Medien/Berlin
Gefangene
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama
Production Company Tag/Traum Filmproduktion/Cologne, in
co-production with Fischerfilm/Vienna, ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, RTR
Fernsehproduktionsfonds Producer Gerd Haag Director Iain
Dilthey Screenplay Ulrike Maria Hund Director of Photography Hans Fromm Music by Marius Lange Production
Design Nicola Schudy Principal Cast Jule Boewe, Andreas
Schmidt, Eva Loebau Casting Tag/Traum Filmproduktion/
Cologne, Fischer Film/Vienna Format Super 16 mm, color, blow-up
to 35 mm, Dolby SR Shooting Language German Shooting in
Cologne and surroundings and Linz, September 2005
Contact
Tag/Traum Filmproduktion GmbH · Anahita Nazemi
Weyerstrasse 88 · 50676 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-6 50 25 90 15 · fax +49-2 21-23 38 94
email: [email protected] · www.tagtraum.de
“It has been quite difficult to get the next project off the ground,”
admits producer Gerd Haag of Cologne-based Tag/Traum
Filmproduktion who also co-produced Iain Dilthey’s graduation film Das Verlangen, winner of the Golden Leopard at the 2002
Locarno International Film Festival.
“We thought it would be easier, that we would have a tail wind from
the Leopard,” Haag continues, noting that Dilthey had spent the last
three years also working on the adaptation of Veronique Olmi’s novel
Meeresrand and writing the original screenplay Anita with Silke Parzich.
However, Dilthey’s first feature to go before the camera since graduating from the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg in Ludwigsburg
is based on a screenplay he did not write himself. Penned by Ulrike
Maria Hund, who had previously worked with Tag/Traum on the
script for Tamara Staudt’s Swetlana, Gefangene has been structured as a co-production with Austria’s Fischer Film (co-producer of
Angelina Maccarone’s Fremde Haut) and ZDF’s Das kleine Fernsehspiel unit for a budget of €900,000.
The chamber piece-like story centers on a young woman named Irene
(played by Jule Boewe) who lives opposite a prison and can look
directly into the cells. One of the inmates Vasile (Andreas
Schmidt) catches her eye and she begins to flirt with him. She lives
in production
29
out her longings and erotic desires knowing at the same time that she
is in safety. But this game turns serious when the prisoner breaks out
of prison and seeks refuge in the woman’s flat. An ambivalent
relationship marked by fear, hatred and the longing for mutual respect
and love develops between these two totally different people. As
time goes by, Irene increasingly loses control over her feelings. When
the police track the fugitive down to her flat, she is prepared to give
up the life she has led until then and run away with him. And it seems
that a new life will begin for them both …
“The love story develops very slowly with a typical ’Iain Dilthey-female character’,” Haag explains. “This slow and precise narrative
form will be somewhat more dramatic than in his previous films, but
Gefangene is basically all about the tension between the two main
characters.”
As Haag observes, an important stage began before the actual shooting when Dilthey spent time with the three actors on the fine-tuning
of the screenplay and rehearsing their parts. Andreas Schmidt is
known to cinema audiences especially from the films of Eoin Moore
like Conemara, Pigs Will Fly or Im Schwitzkasten since he is a regular
collaborator with the Irish-born filmmaker and most recently he
appeared in Andreas Dresen’s Sommer vorm Balkon. Jule Boewe
came to greater prominence in Florian Schwarz’s Katze im Sack which
was shown in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section at this year’s
Berlinale. And Eva Loebau (who appears as a friend of Irene’s) was
in Dilthey’s Ich werde Dich auf Haenden tragen and was the female
lead in Maren Ade’s prize-winning Der Wald vor lauter Baeumen.
Scene from “Ich bin die Andere”
(photo courtesy of Clasart Filmproduktion)
MB
Ich bin die Andere
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama, Literature,
Love Story, Psycho-Thriller Production Company Clasart
Filmproduktion/Munich With backing from FilmFernsehFonds
Bayern, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), HessenInvest Producer
Markus Zimmer Director Margarethe von Trotta Screenplay
Peter Maerthesheimer, Pea Froehlich Director of Photography
Axel Block Editor Corinna Dietz Music by Chris Heyne
Production Design Uwe Max Szielasko Principal Cast Katja
Riemann, August Diehl, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Barbara Auer, Karin Dor
Casting Sabine Schroth Special Effects CA Scanline/Geiselgasteig Format Super 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby Stereo Shooting
Language German Shooting in Munich, Frankfurt am Main,
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
Asmannshausen, Casablanca, June-July 2005 German Distributor Concorde Filmverleih/Munich
World Sales
StudioCanal · Muriel Sauzay
5, Boulevard de la Republique
92514 Boulogne-Billancourt/France
phone +33-1-71 75 85 00 · fax +33-1-71 75 89 73
email: [email protected]
www.studiocanal.com
Five years ago, Clasart Film’s Markus Zimmer met the late
Peter Maerthesheimer – who tragically died from a heart attack at a
session of the Deutsche Filmakademie in June 2004 – at an event dedicated to Rainer Werner Fassbinder where he heard about
Maerthesheimer’s new novel Ich bin die Andere which centers on a
young woman suffering from schizophrenia.
After reading the novel, Zimmer was enthusiastic about having the
novel adapted for the cinema, but another company had already
optioned the film rights. However, when the rights subsequently
became available again, Clasart wasted no time in acquiring them and
then applied for script funding from the German Federal Film Board
(FFA) for Maerthesheimer to work on a screenplay with his regular
partner Pea Froehlich. They had collaborated in the 1980s on the
Fassbinder films Lola and Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss.
With the screenplay on the way, Margarethe von Trotta was
approached to direct this “schizophrenic melodrama” after the
successful collaboration with Tele Muenchen on Rosenstrasse. “It is
quite a different kind of project from what Margarethe has done in
recent years and this was a conscious decision by both of us after
Rosenstrasse,” Zimmer explains. “We wanted to try something completely different. We didn’t want to do a historical women’s story
such as one would have expected from her after films like Rosa
Luxemburg, Marianne and Juliane or Rosenstrasse. We decided to take
this story which is very unusual and controversial and I think it will be
quite a surprise for everybody.”
In a multi-layered story which touches on such issues as child abuse,
self-mutilation and the splitting of the consciousness, Ich bin die
Andere follows the melodramatic course of events after the young
engineer Robert Fabry (played by August Diehl) spends the night
in a hotel with the mysterious Carlotta (Katja Riemann). The next
day, he meets her again – as the lawyer Dr. Carolin Winter. A confusion of identities and passions takes its course to the point where
Robert puts his own life on the line …
Once Riemann heard about the project, it was soon clear that she
would play the part of Carlotta/Carolin – she had played the lead in
von Trotta’s Rosenstrasse and was awarded a Coppa Volpi as Best
Actress at the 2003 Venice Film Festival – and internationally renowned veteran actor Armin Mueller-Stahl was a “clear choice”,
especially since he had worked with Maerthesheimer and Froehlich in
Lola and Veronika Voss. In addition, the film will be the first time that
the 1950s/1960s star Karin Dor – who also worked with
Hitchcock (Topaz) and starred in the James Bond film You Only Live
Twice – appears before the camera again after some 30 years’ absence
from the cinema screens.
Diehl, though, only came to be considered for the role of the young
engineer Robert because the production had to be put back by a year
in production
30
as the financing was not complete for shooting in summer 2004. But
the delay was fortuitous since Diehl showed in Volker Schloendorff ’s
Der neunte Tag that he has now come to the point in his career where
he can take on more mature roles. “I see Ich bin die Andere as
being another step towards more adult roles for him,“ says Zimmer.
Director Detlev Buck on set (photo ©
BojeBuck/David Gruschka)
MB
where nothing comes for free, Michael now becomes Hamal’s drugs
courier.
All goes well until Errol reappears and throws Michael’s backpack
from a railway bridge. It lands on a passing commuter train which
means Michael is now a liability for Hamal as the boy’s school things
together with the money in the bag will alert the police. It comes, as
it must, to a showdown.
“The film takes its audience with it because it has emotion, laconic
humor and also a hard edge,” say producer Claus Boje. “It has feeling but is unsentimental.”
“We filmed over a short period, doing the music and editing parallel,
to give Knallhart a sense of energy,” Boje continues. “We make
stories that mean something to us and here we have a 15-year-old, in
a new environment, who has to make hard moral choices. It’s exciting
to observe people in these situations.”
Boje Buck Produktion was founded by Boje (who also founded
distribution Delphi Filmverleih) and Buck in 1991.
Knallhart
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama
Production Company Boje Buck/Berlin, in co-production with
WDR/Cologne, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from BKM,
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
Producer Claus Boje Director Detlev Buck Screenplay Zoran
Drvenkar, Gregor Tessnow Director of Photography Kolja
Brandt Editor Dirk Grau Production Design Udo Kramer
Principal Cast David Kross, Jenny Elvers-Elbertzhagen, Jan Henrik
Stahlberg, Hans Loew, Arnel Taci, Kai Mueller Casting Astrid
Rosenfeld Format 16 mm, color, blow-up to 35 mm, 1:1.85, Dolby
SRD Shooting Language German Shooting in Berlin, June July 2005 German Distributor Delphi Filmverleih/Berlin
Among its many critically and publicly acclaimed films, Maennerpension
(1995), with Til Schweiger, Heike Makatsch, Marie Baeumer and Buck
in the main leads, is still one of the most successful German comedies
with over 3 million admissions while Sonnenallee (1999, directed by
Leander Haussmann), which taught former East Germans how to
laugh at the fall of their own Wall, pulled in over 2.5 million viewers
and has also sold successfully overseas.
In 2003 Herr Lehmann (also directed by Leander Haussmann), a
comedy about a group of total losers whose one ability is to hang
around getting drunk, was nominated for the German Film Award,
including for Best Film. It won for Best Filmed Script and Best
Supporting Actor for Buck.
SK
Contact
Boje Buck Produktion GmbH · Sonja Schmitt
Kurfuerstendamm 226 · 10719 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-8 85 91 30 · fax + 49-30-88 59 13 15
email: [email protected] · www.knallhart-der-film.de
Based on the critically praised novel of the same title by Gregor
Tessnow, who also co-authors the film, Knallhart (a German
word which has no exact English equivalent but conveys the idea of
being even tougher than tough, whether a person or fate) is the latest
slice of life from Detlev Buck.
This time Buck (think character observation à la Britain’s Ken Loach)
goes for gritty realism with laconically humorous undertones in the
tale of a woman, Miriam, and her fifteen-year-old son, Michael, who
are forced to leave their villa in the upscale Berlin district of
Zehlendorf and move to the less than salubrious Neukoelln area.
A fish-out-of-water in his new environment, Michael is forced to pay
protection money to a local gang. He breaks into his former home in
an attempt to buy them off but gets into a fight with the ever more
demanding gang leader, Errol. Unfortunately, Michael is rescued by
Hamal, an Afghan pretending to be Italian, and, since this is Neukoelln
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
in production
31
Director Henner Winckler
(photo © Annette Hauschild)
Schnitzer. “Initially, I wasn’t so sure because she looks very young
and wondered whether one would believe that she has a child,”
recalls Winckler who enjoys the opportunity to work on a film based
exclusively in Berlin. “I find it much easier to be shooting here,” he
says, while admitting that “it is perhaps a bit more difficult switching
between the roles of the film director and father when I come home
from a day’s shooting. But I really know the places where we are
shooting, I don’t have to drive three hours to have a look at them and
then just get a superficial impression – these are places I drive by
every day.”
Lucy marks the second collaboration with the Berlin production
company Schramm Film after Klassenfahrt and has already secured theatrical distribution for Germany through Piffl Medien.
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama
Production Company Schramm Film Koerner & Weber/Berlin,
in cooperation with ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz With
backing from BKM, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
Producers Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber
Director Henner Winckler Screenplay Henner Winckler, Stefan
Kriekhaus Director of Photography Christine A. Maier Editor
Bettina Boehler Production Design Reinhild Blaschke Principal
Cast Kim Schnitzer, Feo Aladag, Gordon Schmidt Casting Ulrike
Mueller Special Effects Mike Bols Format 16 mm, blow-up 35
mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting Language German
Shooting in Berlin, September - October 2005 German
Distributor Piffl Medien/Berlin
“I always hope that when you come out of the cinema, you’ll have the
feeling of having gotten to know someone,” says producer Florian
Koerner von Gustorf on what the audience could take away
from the film. “I always think that is the nicest thing. It’s something we
managed in Gespenster, Marseille and the other films, getting close to
someone, but not in a pushy way.”
MB
Scene from “Der Mann von der Botschaft”
(photo © Tatfilm 2005)
Lucy
Contact
Arne Hoehne Presse · Arne Hoehne
Boxhagener Strasse 18 · 10245 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-29 36 16 16 · fax +49-30-29 36 16 22
email: [email protected] · www.hoehnepresse.de
The fact that both Henner Winckler and his co-author from
Klassenfahrt Stefan Kriekhaus are currently both fathers of toddlers had more than a passing influence on their new project Lucy,
which cranked up production at locations in Berlin at the beginning of
September.
“Since we both have small children, we tried to organize our writing
around them,” explains Winckler, “and so it was somehow logical that
we should include this subject of raising children into the new film,
especially when you come to the kindergarten with the children and
see other [parents] who are fifteen years younger than yourself who
seem to be managing alright having children. It made us curious to
know what kind of conflicts there could be.”
Lucy focuses on the attempt of the 18-year-old Maggie to live
together with her new boyfriend Gordon who, however, is not her
child’s father. She tries to create a family situation with him, but
comes to realize that the child is a problem for the new relationship.
What should she do with the child? Give her to her mother to look
after? What would be the best solution?
Winckler recalls that he looked for some time for the right person to
play the young mother and was then given a tip by casting director
Ulrike Mueller to look at a short film which featured Kim
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
Der Mann von der Botschaft
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama
Production Company Tatfilm/Cologne, in cooperation with
ZDF/Mainz, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from Filmstiftung
NRW Producer Christine Ruppert Director Dito Tsintsadze
Screenplay Dito Tsintsadze, Zaza Rusadze Director of
Photography Benedict Neuenfels Editor Katja Dringenberg
Production Design Vaja Jalagania, Alexander Scherer Principal
Cast Burghart Klaussner, Lika Martinova, Marika Giorgobiani, Irm
Hermann Format 16 mm, color, blow-up to 35 mm, 1:1.85, Dolby
Digital Shooting Languages German, Georgian Shooting in
Tbilisi/Georgia, Cologne, July - September 2005
World Sales
Sola Media GmbH · Solveig Langeland
Osumstrasse 17 · 70599 Stuttgart/Germany
phone +49-7 11-4 79 36 66 · fax +49-7 11-4 79 26 58
email: [email protected]
www.sola-media.net
In Der Mann von der Botschaft (aka Sashka), writer-director Dito Tsintsadze tells the story of Herbert, a German embasin production
32
Team of “Reine Formsache”
(photo © Nik Konietzny)
sy official in Georgia living an empty existence doing his job by the
numbers. His private life offers him no compensation. It is an encounter and subsequent relationship with a young girl, twelve-year-old
Sashka, which enables him to rediscover laughter and a sense of
responsibility for another person. But it also brings suspicions of
pedophilia, corrupt policemen, burglary and violence. Then the
embassy becomes involved.
“I like it when stories bring not just people but also countries
together,” says producer and Tatfilm founder Christine Ruppert.
“We need to create bridges, not just finance for co-productions or
tax write-offs but story connections.”
“This particular story,” Ruppert explains, “continues our collaboration with Dito after Schussangst. He’s a very cinematic director, thinking in pictures. That makes it more exciting for me than, say, some of
the directors who come from a television background because that
has a different language.”
Born in 1957 in Tbilisi, Tsintsadze attended the Tbilisi Theater and
Film Institute, made his first short in 1990 and worked for the
Schvidkatsa film company before coming to Berlin in 1996 to take up
a NIPKOW scholarship. It was here he wrote and directed Lost Killers
(his first film shot in Germany) that played in, among others, Cannes,
San Sebastian and Torino.
“It’s hard to put Dito into a category,” says Ruppert. “The film is a
drama, it’s melancholic but he always has a sense of humor. It’s a very
human story: The hero is resigned to the negative side of society but
discovers his feelings and emotions.”
Burghart Klaussner, who won the German Film Award 2005 for
Best Supporting Actor in Hans Weingartner’s Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei, plays that hero, Herbert. As for Georgia, Ruppert is most effusive. “It’s a very beautiful country,” she says excitedly. “The people
are warm-hearted and artistic, even though organization is not their
strength! The young generation has great potential and cinematically
they could be up there with Russia and Iran. Tbilisi is only four hours
away by plane and could become the next Prague.”
For collectors of trivia, Tatfilm takes it’s name from the German
word “Tat”, which means a deed, action or act, and is also an
acronym for “Tuchuss auf dem Tisch”, the Yiddish for “Arse on the
Table!” – a phrase, says Ruppert, “commonly uttered by Jewish producers a week before a film went into production when it was too
late to back out and one’s posterior was well and truly on the line, or
table!”
SK
Reine Formsache
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Romantic Comedy
Production Company Independent Players/Berlin, in co-production with Senator Film Produktion/Berlin, SevenPictures/
Unterfoehring With backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) Producer Béla Jarzyk CoProducers Benjamin Herrmann, Stefan Gaertner, Alicia Remirez
Director Ralf Huettner Screenplay Béla Jarzyk, Ralf Huettner
Director of Photography Hannes Hubach Editor Dirk
Vaihinger Production Design Ingrid Buron Principal Cast
Marc Hosemann, Christiane Paul, Bastian Pastewka, Floriane Daniel,
Oliver Korritke, Petra Schmidt-Schaller, Robert Schupp, Michael
Gwisdek Casting An Dorther Braker Format 35 mm, color,
1:1.85, Dolby Digital Shooting Language German Shooting in
Berlin, Ruegen, July – September 2005 German Distributor
Senator Film Verleih/Berlin
Contact
Independent Players GmbH · Béla Jarzyk
Sophienstrasse 21 · 10178 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-28 51 68 0 · fax +49-30-28 51 68 6
email: [email protected]
Writer-producer Béla Jarzyk debuts with a romantic comedy that
begins where romance normally ends; in the divorce court! Pola has
had enough of husband Felix’s flings. Not that their friends Wito and
Ada and Gustav and Effi are having an easier time of it. Making matters better/worse is Felix’s father, desperately trying to fan the flames
of love!
Taking his cues from Britain’s writer-director Richard Curtis and the
U.S.’s Steven Soderbergh, Jarzyk says, he “wanted to tell a story from
life and Reine Formsache is a larger than life story. It’s about problems I know, told with humor.”
Jarzyk, who had already secured lead Christiane Paul and broadcaster Sat.1, then sent the script to Senator Film’s managing director
and head of production and distribution, Benjamin Herrmann.
Herrmann says he “found it a classic romantic comedy with a new
touch where most don’t go – with the divorce. It has great dialogue
and I knew it was going to be very entertaining and also touching.
That’s why we took it.”
Now all Jarzyk needed was a director!
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
in production
33
“I knew from my contact network,” says Jarzyk, who founded the
agency Players together with his wife Mechthild Jarzyk-Holter, “that
Ralf was already working on a related subject. I called his agency, sent
him the script and he agreed in 24 hours! Then we worked together
on the script for three months. We orientated ourselves on the
British producers Working Title to make sure we had the light touch.”
Films such as the crime comedy Die Musterknaben and the comedy
Mondscheintarif (also co-produced and distributed by Senator), amply
demonstrate that Huettner has “the light touch”.
Jarzyk, who came into film via theater promotion and actor management via the art trade, left Players to pursue his production ideas. “It’s
untypically German,” he says, “but I didn’t want to do the same thing
my whole life!”
Jarzyk is also keen to point out that his production company,
Independent Players, is what it says on the box, independent.
“So the film is even more market compatible and there’s no conflict
of interest! But seriously, we cast the film on its and the actors’
merits. Independent Players is a separate entity. It’s not a pre-packaged deal like in the U.S.”
And coming next from Independent Players is Der Absacker. “Also a
comedy,” says Jarzyk, “about a man who very quickly loses everything
and only then gets to know what life really is and has to offer.”
On the set with the Seven Dwarves
(photo courtesy of Zipfelmuetzenfilm)
SK
Sieben Zwerge – Der
Wald ist nicht genug
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Family, Comedy,
Family Entertainment Production Company Zipfelmuetzenfilm/
Hamburg, in cooperation with Film & Entertainment VIP Medienfonds
2/Munich, MMC Independent/Cologne, Rialto Film/Berlin, Universal
Pictures Productions/Hamburg, in association with Telepool/Munich
With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFernseh
Fonds Bayern Producers Otto Waalkes, Bernd Eilert, Douglas
Welbat Director Sven Unterwaldt Screenplay Otto Waalkes,
Bernd Eilert, Sven Unterwaldt Director of Photography Peter
von Haller Editor Norbert Herzner Music by Joja Wendt
Production Design Thomas Freudenthal Principal Cast Otto
Waalkes, Mirco Nontschew, Martin Schneider, Ralf Schmitz, Norbert
Heisterkamp, Boris Aljinovic, Gustav Peter Woehler, Nina Hagen,
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
Cosma Shiva Hagen, Hans Werner Olm, Christian Tramitz, Ruediger
Hoffmann, Heinz Hoenig Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby
Digital Shooting Language German Shooting in Hamburg,
Bremen, Goslar, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Quedlinburg, Wernigerode,
Bad Harzburg, Braunschweig, July-September 2005 German
Distributor Universal Germany & United International Pictures/
Frankfurt
World Sales
TELEPOOL GmbH
Wolfram Skowronnek, Carlos Hertel
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
email: [email protected] · www.telepool.de
Proving you can’t keep a good dwarf down, let alone seven of the
little fellows, those feisty fairy-tale critters, the Seven Dwarves are
back! And this time the forest isn’t big enough to hold ’em!
As created by the multitalented writing, directing, producing, singing,
comedy-performing Otto Waalkes, this time the dwarves Cloudy,
Sunny, Bubi, etc. (who seem much taller than real dwarves should but
explain it away as “a common misconception”) set off to help Snow
White – who has since had a baby – guess the name of the evil dwarf
that has threatened to take her child. Will they succeed? Can you say
“Rumpelstiltskin”? ’Course they will! But that’s only after they’ve gone
about things in their own, highly unique way, together with director
Sven Unterwaldt, doing for (or is it to?) the Brothers Grimm
what the Monty Python team did for King Arthur in Monty Python and
the Holy Grail.
“We decided to make the sequel last May,” says producer Douglas
Welbat, “before the first one was even released. We wanted to
take the story further so while the first film was ninety-percent studio
filmed, this time we’ve gone for locations. Otherwise there have been
few changes. The cast regulars are back but we also have many, many
new surprises!”
Not even the promise to write something nice about him could persuade Welbat to say what those surprises are, but since the first film
reached more than 7 million viewers in the German-speaking territories he’s certainly not going to let them down. As Welbat says: “We
hit their nerves with the first film and hope it will happen a second
time.”
As already mentioned, this time the production heads outdoors and
Welbat promises “viewers will see a greatly increased production
value. The Seven Dwarves are very valuable and what’s valuable costs
money so we couldn’t afford to be mean. Visually, it will be absolutely wonderful.”
About the first film, Variety wrote: “When it’s clicking, it’s hilarious ...
Anarchic, satiric and silly enough to ignite a midnight movie-style cult
following, this comedy-as-cudgel from Sven Unterwaldt could, with
appropriate handling, break out of the foreign film/festival forest and
make some real noise at the international box office.”
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in production
34
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama
Production Company Oe Filmproduktion Loeprich &
Schloesser/Berlin, in co-production with SWR/Baden-Baden,
BR/Munich, WDR/Cologne, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing
from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFoerderung Hamburg,
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM Producers Frank Loeprich,
Katrin Schloesser Director Stefan Krohmer Screenplay Daniel
Nocke Director of Photography Patrick Orth Production
Design Silke Fischer Principal Cast Martina Gedeck, Peter
Davor, Robert Seeliger, Svea Lohde, Lucas Kotaranin Casting Nina
Haun, Anne Schulte Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby
Shooting Language German Shooting in Schleswig and surroundings, Namibia, July-September 2005 German Distributor
Alamode Film/Munich
Mostly Martha’s Martina Gedeck and Canadian actor Robert
Seeliger (from Miss Texas) were cast in the lead roles of Miriam and
Bill, while Livia is played by Svea Lohde (Rosenstrasse) and Miriam’s
partner André by Peter Davor (Scherbentanz).
Described by Oe Filmproduktion as “a powerful drama about
the limits of guilt and love, a confrontation with one’s own moral conceptions”, Sommer ’01 shares common elements with the previous
Krohmer/Nocke collaborations, according to Schloesser. “The subject of family is definitely something that occupies them,“ she says,
“and there is also this playing with one’s own imagination, playing with
the characters and the audience about their expectations.”
“It’s a wonderful gift that they found one another and work so well
together,” remarks Schloesser about Krohmer and Nocke who have
collaborated since their days as students at the Film Academy BadenWuerttemberg in Ludwigsburg. “They trust one another and are
really suited to each other.”
MB
Motive from “The Three Investigators”
(photo © SHIP)
Scene from ”Sommer ’01 an der Schlei“
(photo © Oe Filmproduktion)
Sommer ’01 an der Schlei
Sommer ’01 an der Schlei centers on 40-year-old Miriam’s
growing unease at what she perceives as the beginnings of an affair
between her son’s 13-year-old girlfriend Livia and an older man Bill
during summer holidays on the North German coast. Miriam feels
responsible for the teenager’s welfare and wants to stop the questionable relationship. However, matters become more complicated
when Miriam finds herself falling in love with Bill and they begin a
secret affair. It is not long before she is unable to distinguish between
her sense of responsibility and jealousy – with tragic consequences.
World Sales
Bavaria Film International
Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH
Thorsten Schaumann
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20
email: [email protected]
www.bavaria-film-international.de
The saying goes “Never change a winning team!” and this particularly
applies to the director-screenwriter duo of Stefan Krohmer and
Daniel Nocke after such award-winning films as Barracuda Dancing
(TV, 1999), Ende der Saison (TV, 2000), Familienkreise (TV, 2002) and
Sie haben Knut (2003).
This summer, Krohmer and Nocke came together again for a new feature film project, Sommer ’01 an der Schlei, produced by
Berlin-based independent production house Oe Filmproduktion with
broadcasters SWR, BR, WDR, and ARTE.
As producer Katrin Schloesser notes, writing the screenplay for
this project had a particular resonance for Nocke since he grew up in
this area. Moreover, there was another unexpected personal touch
with the decision to shoot part of the film in his parents’ house: the
production team had scouted in the region for suitable locations, but
the Nockes’ house proved to be exactly what they were looking for
and the parents were subsequently packed off on holiday for the
duration of the shoot!
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
The Three Investigators and
the Secret of Skeleton Island
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Action/Adventure,
Family Production Company Studio Hamburg International
Production/Hamburg & Los Angeles, in co-production with
GFP/Berlin With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),
FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, IDC
South Africa Producers Sytze van der Laan, Ronald Kruschak
Director Florian Baxmeyer Screenplay Philip LaZebnik
Director of Photography Peter J. Krause Production
Design Albrecht Konrad Casting Celestia Fox, Jennifer Smith
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Shooting Language English
Shooting in Germany and Capetown/South Africa, November
in production
35
“TKKG” (photo © Constantin Film)
2005 - March 2006 German Distributor Buena Vista
International (Germany)/Munich
Contact
SHIP – Studio Hamburg International Production
Sytze van der Laan
Jenfelder Allee 80 · 22039 Hamburg/Germany
phone +49-40-66 88 48 46 · fax +49-40-66 88 48 66
email: [email protected]
www.studio-hamburg-produktion.de
The Three Investigators and the Secret of Skeleton
Island is based on a worldwide best-selling series of children’s
books, penned by Robert Arthur. The books’ heroes are three young
boys who solve mysteries very much in the manner of Scooby-Doo
(but without the dog) or Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven or Famous Five (but
without the British class-system).
In the first of what according to producer Ronald Kruschak “will
become a major franchise”, our intrepid young detectives head off on
holiday to visit one of their number’s fathers who is busy constructing
a theme park on “Skeleton Island”.
With a name like that and rumors of treasure and ghostly haunting to
boot, it’s only a matter of minutes before Pete, Bob and Jupiter find
themselves up to their necks in a mystery just waiting for them to
solve!
“This is actually our first move into international theatrical feature
production,” says Studio Hamburg’s managing director Sytze van
der Laan, “and we made sure to acquire the sole rights to the
whole series beforehand. What counts these days is having content,
a library, and The Three Investigators is perfect material.”
Directed by Florian Baxmeyer (Das Blut der Templer, TV, 2004),
the film is written by longtime Disney writer Philip LaZebnik
(Pocahontas, Mulan) and is being filmed in English in South Africa. The
Rainbow Nation’s IDC is helping with the financing.
As reported during this year’s Cannes film festival, after a fierce
bidding war all German-language rights went to Buena Vista
International (Germany) for a low- to mid-seven figure sum that is,
says van der Laan “the highest pre-sale price ever paid for a German
family film.”
SK
TKKG
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Family
Production Company Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktion/
Geiselgasteig, in co-production with Lunaris Film/Munich, BR/Munich
With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Bayerischer
Bankenfonds, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) Producer Uschi Reich
Director Tomy Wigand Screenplay Marco Petry, Burt
Weinshanker, based on ideas by Rolf Kalmuczak & Stefan Wolf
Director of Photography Egon Werdin Editor Christian
Nauheimer Production Design Uwe Szielasko Principal Cast
Juergen Vogel, Jannis Niewoehner, Jonathan Duemcke, Lukas
Eichhammer, Svea Bein, Hauke Diekamp, Jeanette Hain, Anna
Hausburg Casting An Dorthe Braker Format 35 mm, color, cs,
Dolby Digital Shooting Language German Shooting in
Munich, Neubeuern, Wasserburg, Tutzing, August-October 2005
German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich
Contact
Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktions-GmbH
Uschi Reich
Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 28 73 · fax +49-89-64 99 31 43
email: [email protected]
www.bavaria-film.de
Producer Uschi Reich has had a busy summer this year: Principal
photography had just cranked up on Vivian Naefe’s Die Wilden
Huehner as preparations for Tomy Wigand’s TKKG came onto the
final straight. This is not the first time that the adventures of the four
young sleuths Tim, Karl, Kloesschen and Gaby, known for short as
TKKG, appeared in the cinema – Ulrich Koenig directed a film TKKG
– Das Drachenauge in 1992 – and author Stefan Wolf’s series of
books and audiocassettes have also spawned a number of spin-offs
including TV live-action and cartoon series since the first books
appeared on the market in 1979. To date, over 26 million TKKG
books, tapes and CD-ROMs have been sold, with the quartet’s
exploits known as far as China where 20 titles were published in
2000.
As producer Reich recalls, Wolf came to see her about making a film
based on the TKKG stories after he had seen Puenktchen & Anton, but
she wanted to carry on with the updates of the Kaestner classics.
Wolf didn’t let up, though; he contacted her again after Bibi Blocksberg
and found Reich was now receptive for the idea of bringing the TKKG
detectives to the big screen.
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
in production
36
While the screenplay for Die Wilden Huehner draws on one of the
Cornelia Funke books (Fuchsalarm), the script for TKKG, penned by
director Marco Petry (Schule) with Burt Weinshanker, is of a
completely new story that has not appeared as a TKKG book or
audiocassette. “What is special about this film and distinguishes it
from the books is that we will be trying to put the characters in the
foreground, while the case they are solving is in the background. In
the books, it tends to be the other way around,” Reich explains.
The four mini-sleuths are faced in this new case with the disappearance of three children. The strange thing is that there are no
ransom demands made. TKKG eventually find out that the missing
children are being used as guinea-pigs for a mysterious mind machine.
A tricky rescue plan is prepared …
In a clear case of ’never change a winning team’, Reich hired Tomy
Wigand who had helmed the updated version of Erich Kaestner’s
Das fliegende Klassenzimmer for Bavaria Film in 2002. “We have the
same love of cinema and thus understand each other very well,”
Reich says. “Tomy likes this creative triangle between the author,
director and producer which is terribly important for me. I need a
director who – like me – is fighting for the best possible film and not
asserting his ego. Moreover, the children love him. The best prerequisites then for a new collaboration.”
Klaus J. Behrendt, Jan Josef Liefers
(photo © Polyphon / Marion von der Mehden)
“The film will be aimed at 9 to 11-year-olds, but we will also be wanting to appeal to the old fans of TKKG who are now between 18 and
25,” Reich notes. “The important thing is that it is exciting and entertaining.”
MB
Der Untergang der
Pamir
Type of Project TV Movie Genre Action/Adventure, Drama,
History Production Company Polyphon Film- und Fernsehgesellschaft/Hamburg, in cooperation with Degeto Film/Frankfurt,
NDR/Hamburg, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from
FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Nordmedia, Filmstiftung NRW
Producer Matthias Esche Director Kaspar Heidelbach Screenplay Fritz Mueller-Scherz Director of Photography Daniel
Koppelkamm Production Design Goetz Weidner Editor Hedy
Altschiller Music by Arno Steffen Principal Cast Klaus J.
Behrendt, Jan Josef Liefers, Herbert Knaup, Max Riemelt, Karoline
Teska, Elena Uhlig Casting Anja Dihrberg-Siebler Special Effects
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
Peter Wiemker (SFX), Steinmeier & Mohr, Michael Mohr (Stunts)
Format Super 16 mm, Dolby SR Shooting Language German
Shooting in Hamburg, Cuxhaven, Moenchengladbach, Cologne,
Schleswig-Holstein, Tenerife, Malta, June - October 2005
World Sales
TELEPOOL GmbH
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 61 88
email: [email protected] · www.telepool.de
Man against nature turned savage, an epic battle for survival against
the elements; that is Der Untergang der Pamir, the true story
of the four-mast, merchant navy training ship, the Pamir, which foundered on 21 September 1957 in the face of the full-on fury of hurricane “Carrie”. From her 86 hands, including 52 very young cadets, just
six survived after days in storm-tossed and shattered lifeboats.
“I was twelve when the Pamir sank,” says writer Fritz MuellerScherz, who was himself born on a ship and spent his first eight
years afloat. “I experienced it live on the radio and never forgot it.”
In fact, the nine-day hunt for survivors involved 180 ships and 20
aircraft, making it the then world’s largest search and rescue action.
Told through, among others, the story of boatswain Acki Lueders
(Klaus J. Behrendt), 1st Officer Hans Ewald (Jan Josef
Liefers) and Cadet Carl-Friedrich von Krempin (Max Riemelt),
Mueller-Scherz, who has written with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and
Wim Wenders, adopted the same technique that made the awardwinning, mining-disaster drama Das Wunder von Lengede (2003) a
national and international success.
“I paint the big picture by looking at the smaller, human one,” he says.
“I look for a main character I can be close to. The drama arises from
the basic situation. Here we have young men on a journey into adulthood and they die on the very cusp.”
For Kaspar Heidelbach, who also directed Das Wunder von
Lengede and cites great narrative directors such as Ridley Scott and
Michael Mann as his mentors, “Pamir has everything a great filmic
story needs! A big ship, the hard fate of the sailors, action and adventure! But there is also the emotional story to keep people watching.
The characters develop and there is conflict and friendship; all the elements to bring them closer to the viewer so they care who lives or
dies.” In a film such as this, technical and special effects matter and,
says Heidelbach, “we’re giving every effort to come close to Titanic
and Master and Commander while also trying to compensate emotionally. We’re working under very good conditions for a German TV
movie, including using the world’s 2nd largest water tank, in Malta.”
For Polyphon, a company whose pedigree stretches back forty
years and which now specializes in high-end drama series, managing
director Matthias Esche “agreed on a handshake after a five minute pitch! The reaction was the same from our two partners, NDR
and Degeto Film, who were enthusiastic enough to back us from the
start. It has everything a film like this should have! Our philosophy is
to deliver great entertainment but also the unusual, and this, our first,
big TV movie event story, will do that and more.”
SK
in production
37
Director Joachim Masannek
Die Wilden Kerle III
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Children’s Film,
Sports Production Company SamFilm/Munich With backing
from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),
Bayerischer Bankenfonds Producers Ewa Karlstroem, Andreas
Ulmke-Smeaton Director Joachim Masannek Screenplay Joachim
Masannek Director of Photography Sonja Rom Editor Dunja
Campregher Music by Bananafishbones Production Design
Manfred Doering Principal Cast Jimi Blue Ochsenknecht, Wilson
Gonzalez Ochsenknecht, Constantin Gastmann, Uwe Ochsenknecht,
Nick Reimann Casting Extras & Actors, Stefany Pohlmann, Anne
Walcher Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital Shooting
Language German Shooting in Bavaria, August - October 2005
German Distributor Buena Vista International (Germany)/
Munich
“Also what’s new,” says Ulmke-Smeaton “is that ’Die Wilden Kerle’
no longer exist at the beginning of the film. They first have to be
resurrected, hence the new character of Nerv, who ’saves’ them. We
also have a new main actor, Nick Reimann.”
SamFilm are also taking the franchise in another new direction.
“We’re aiming for younger viewers, aged four to ten, as we’ve discovered there is a whole younger fan-base out there,” says UlmkeSmeaton.
Since they first hit the shops in 2002, Masannek’s series of children’s
books and audiotapes has sold more than one million copies. And just
to recap: The first film won the Kinder-Medien-Award (2003), the
Bavarian Film Award (2003), the Golden Gryphon in the KIDZ category
at Giffoni – one of Europe’s largest festivals for children’s and youth
films – and was nominated for the German Film Award. In July of this
year, the second film also took Giffoni’s Golden Gryphon. The juries,
made up of over 300 children aged six to nine, obviously knew quality when they saw it.
SamFilm and ’Die Wilden Kerle’ prove it’s possible to go from
strength to strength, even with sequels!
SK
Contact
SamFilm GmbH · Hanna Stoll
Rumfordstrasse 10 · 80469 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-3 39 95 30 · fax +49-89-33 99 53 24
email: [email protected] · www.samfilm.de
Proving you can’t put a good franchise down, The Wild Soccer
Bunch return for more soccer-related shenanigans!
In their last outing, they defended their hold on the Teufelstopf trophy and saw off the skater gang, the Flammenmuetzen. But this time
they’re up against their greatest challenge so far, an opponent more
devious, more dangerous, more diabolical than even they had ever
imagined – girls!!!
There is an unwritten law in filmmaking, that of diminishing returns,
that the higher the number after the title, the poorer the film. This is
also known as sequelitis and is something producers Andreas
Ulmke-Smeaton and Ewa Karlstroem, together with writerdirector Joachim Masannek, have taken great pains to avoid.
“There aren’t many sequels in Germany,” says Ulmke-Smeaton. “But
we’ve noticed the admissions figures are going up with every film. The
brand is growing and that’s because so many kids identify with ’Die
Wilden Kerle’; girls just as much as boys.”
“That’s why,” Ulmke-Smeaton continues, “we are making sure the
girls are treated equally. In the last film there was a love interest. This
time we’ve got a whole pack of ’em!”
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
in production
38
Film und Video
Untertitelung Gerhard Lehmann AG
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Laser Subtitling on Film • Video Subtitling in Broadcast Quality • DVD Subtitling with specially developed fonts,
such as DVD Script Hardy • Subtitling for all Computer Programmes (or other disc-based systems)
Translation to and from all Languages • Final Check and In-House Editing of all Subtitles and Translations • Voice-overs
• Digital Editing in PAL and NTSC • Standard Conversions • 3D Graphics in PAL and NTSC • Telecine
• Video Transfer into all Standard Formats • Inspection of Broadcast Material
• Audio and Video for the Internet and Multimedia
…and many other services!
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FILM UND VIDEO UNTERTITELUNG GERHARD LEHMANN AG
WETZLARER STR. 30 . D-14482 POTSDAM-BABELSBERG . TEL: +49 331 704 74-0 . FAX: +49 331 704 74-99
EMAIL: [email protected]
Scenes from “24/7 The Passion of Life” (photo © wtp international)
24/7 The Passion of Life
24/7 The Passion of Life is about our fear of ourselves,
about the fear of facing our passions in a society ridden
with taboos and double-morals.
Eve, a hotelier’s daughter, and Magdalena, a sociologist
who works as the dominatrix “Lady Maria” in an S & M
studio, meet coincidentally through a motorcycle accident.
Fascinated by the bizarre world of Lady Maria, Eve begins
to search for her own identity and sexuality and goes on
an odyssey through the hidden locations of lust – dominatrix studio, swinger club, striptease bar – and meets
other people torn between their desires: Dominik, who
wants to empathize with the life and suffering of Jesus, and
Mike, who pretends to be Eve’s travel guide of desire and
falls madly in love with her.
A lyrical study of obsession and loneliness, about secret
desires and public morale: 24 hours a day – 7 days a
week.
Genre Drama, Erotic Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2005 Director Roland Reber Screenplay Roland
Reber, Mira Gittner Director of Photography Mira Gittner,
Roland Reber Editor Mira Gittner Music by Wolfgang Edelmayer Producers Patricia Koch, Marina Anna Eich Production
Company wtp international/Geiselgasteig Principal Cast
Marina Anna Eich, Mira Gittner, Christoph Baumann, Michael
World Sales
wtp international GmbH · Marina Anna Eich
Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 98 11 12 · fax +49-89-64 98 13 12
email: [email protected] · www.wtpfilm.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
Burkhardt, Reinhard Wendt Casting wtp international/Geiselgasteig Length 115 min, 3,146 m Format DV Cam Blow-up 35
mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled
Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival
Screenings Hof 2005, Sitges 2005, Fantasporto 2006 German
Distributor wtp international/Geiselgasteig
Roland Reber has worked as a director, actor and writer around
the world since the 70s. In 1989, he founded the Welt Theater
Projekt (within the framework of the World Decade for Cultural
Development of the United Nations and UNESCO) and worked as
a director, writer and head of WTP in India, Moscow, Cairo, Mexico
City and in the Caribbean. He also has been a cultural advisor to different countries and institutes and taught Acting and Directing in
Moscow and the Caribbean. He received the Cultural Prize of
Switzerland (1976) and the Caribbean award Season of Excellence
(1991 and 1993) as a director and writer. For his direction of the
feature The Room (Das Zimmer, 2001) he was awarded the
Emerging Filmmaker Award 2001 in Hollywood and the President’s
Award 2000 in Ajijic/Mexico, among others. WTP was named
Producer of the Year by the Bavarian Film Center in 2000. His other
films include: Ihr habt meine Seele gebogen wie einen
schoenen Taenzer (1979), Manuel (short, 1998), Der
Fernsehauftritt (short, 1998), Der Koffer (short, 1999),
Zwang (short, 2000), Sind Maedchen Werwoelfe? (short,
2002), Pentamagica (2003), The Dark Side of Our Inner
Space (2003), and 24/7 The Passion of Life (2005). Since
2003, he has been the official German representative of the Cairo
Film Festival and since 2005 the official European representative of
the Damascus Film Festival. He has also served as a jury member at
festivals in Alexandria, Cairo and Dhaka.
new german films
40
Berlin Nights
Berlin Nights: a mixture of painting and literature
brought to vivid life on screen.
One night in Berlin approaching the year 2000 – a portrayal of the city’s youth experiencing the excesses of the
Berlin nightlife. Driven by a shared need to escape the
monotony of their daily lives, Lutz, Nana, Luise and Dick
Tracey are drawn into a nightclub. Inside, their day-to-day
sorrows are drowned in the decadence of this artificial
world. Dick Tracey, a TV-host, gets caught up in the constant search for sensations. He must ultimately confront
the shocking truth about the dangers of this nightlife, to
which his best friend has already surrendered.
Genre Art, Drama, Experimental Category Short Year of
Production 2005 Director Gabriela Tscherniak Screenplay
Gabriela Tscherniak Director of Photography Uwe Mann
Editor Martin Granata Music Supervisor Evan Franco
Production Design Pierre Brayard Producers Rose Marie
Couture, Gabriela Tscherniak Production Company Cohen
Sisters Entertainment/Berlin Principal Cast Milton Welsh,
Natascha Paulick, Nicole Weissbrodt, Dirk Borchardt Length 45
min Format DigiBeta, color Original Version German
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR
Gabriela Tscherniak, of German-Jewish origin and Latvianborn, started her career as a director’s assistant in theater productions in Berlin and as a photographer for bands, society magazines
and fashion labels. Through her focus in Industrial Design and
Photography she became interested in experimental filmmaking,
which she first strongly pursued during her studies and work in
London at Central St. Martins and during the Pratt Institute Erasmus
exchange program in New York. She also attended classes at the
“Konrad Wolf ” Academy of Film & Television in Potsdam and the
M.F.A. program at the American Film Institute, during which time
she directed several shorts. Currently she is creative producing and
directing the series Everybody Has a Secret for the Latvian TV
channel LNT. Her other films include: the shorts The Tramp,
The Pimp & The Policeman, Willy & Ute, Rebecca,
Bird’s Eye View, Homefront, and Berlin Nights.
World Sales (please contact)
Furat al Jamil
Krossenerstrasse · 10245 Berlin/Germany
phone/fax +49-30-27 57 36 77
email: [email protected]
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
41
– Across American Counterculture
Scene from “Breaking The Rules“
(photo © David Sleek/NEUZEITFILM)
Breaking The Rules
The history of counterculture has never been told in a
cohesive way: neither in a form that appeals equally to all
generations, nor has anyone explored the links between
the different movements more intensively. Breaking The
Rules aspires to close this gap.
Breaking The Rules is a cineastic journey through time
across the history of American counterculture, from the
Beat Generation in New York and San Francisco all the
way to the beginnings of Hip Hop in the Bronx. Always
searching for the key moments that gave each movement
its name, the film travels from coast to coast, encountering
important eye-witnesses of the times. Enhanced by a captivating soundtrack (including studio and concert performances by Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Jimi
Hendrix, Janis Joplin and others), compelling snapshots
and exclusive archive material, their stories make counterculture come alive once again.
Genre Art, History, Music Category Documentary Cinema
Year of Production 2005 Director Marco Mueller Screenplay Angie J. Koch, Marco Mueller Director of Photography
Roland Breitschuh Editor Dietmar Deissler Music by Reinhard
Besser Producer Angie J. Koch Production Company NEUZEITFILM/Frankfurt, in co-production with ZDF/Mainz, ARTE/
Strasbourg With Peter Fonda, Ray Manzarek, Wavy Gravy, Anne
Waldman, and others Length 94 min Format 16 mm/
DVCPro/DigiBeta, color, 16:9 Original Version English Sound
Technology Stereo Festival Screenings Ghent-Flanders
2005 With backing from IBH FilmInvest
Marco Mueller was born in 1969 in Guetersloh. After Theater
Studies, he enrolled at the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg to
study Directing and Scriptwriting. Also active as a writer
(Spaetzuender, Die Anrheiner, and Yetiskin), his films include: Life’s
Ready to Happen (short, 1994), Grit und Hansel – Ein
Maerchen ’95 (short, 1995), Second Hand (short, 1997), and
Breaking The Rules (2005).
World Sales (please contact)
NEUZEITFILM · Angie J. Koch
Hanauer Landstrasse 139 · 60314 Frankfurt/Germany
phone +49-69-4 05 63 90 · fax +49-69-40 56 39 39
email: [email protected] · www.neuzeitfilm.com
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
42
Brudermord
Scene from “Fratricide” (photo © Yilmaz Arslan Film/Jean-François Hensgens)
FRATRICIDE
Semo, a Kurdish immigrant and pimp living in Germany,
offers to pay for his younger brother Azad to come and
join him. Reluctantly, Azad accepts his brother’s offer and
makes the long journey from his poverty-stricken homeland. He moves in to an asylum for refugees where, amidst
hopeless squalor he befriends Ibo, an eleven-year-old
Kurdish orphan. A powerful and tender bond grows between the two boys, but the odds are against them.
Ahmet and Zeki are young second-generation Turks.
Frustrated, unemployed, alienated from their heritage and
with no place in German society, their anger simmers at
fever pitch. Meanwhile they devote themselves to petty
crime and their savage pit bulls. When these four doomed
exiles meet, their encounter unleashes a nightmarish cycle
of violence they believed they had left behind.
Boasting astonishing performances from a largely non-professional cast, Fratricide is an explosive tale of desperate
conflict and bloody revenge, a savage, furious, and heartbreaking portrait of raw humanity struggling for safety, for
dignity, for survival in the face of violence, exile and the
brutal indifference of a society that wants no part of them.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2005 Director Yilmaz Arslan Screenplay Yilmaz
Arslan Director of Photography Jean-François Hensgens
Editor André Bendocchi-Alves Music by Evgueni Galperine
Production Design Régine Constant Producers Donato
Rotunno, Eddy Géradon-Luyckx, Eric Tavitian, Yilmaz Arslan
Production Companies Tarantula/Luxemburg, Tarantula/
Paris, Yilmaz Arslan Film/Mannheim, in co-production with RhôneAlps Cinema/Lyon Principal Cast Xewat Gectan, Erdal Celik,
Nuretin Celik, Buelent Bueyuekasik, Taies Farzan Casting
Valentina Christova-Katina, Jean-Luc Ristic, Cécile Navarro, Mai
Seck, Yusuf Gectan Length 96 min, 2,627 m Format 35 mm,
color, 1:1.85 Original Version Kurdish/Turkish/German
Subtitled Versions English, French, German Sound
Technology Dolby Surround Festival Screenings Locarno
2005 (In Competition) Awards Silver Leopard Locarno 2005
With backing from Filmfund Luxemburg, MFG BadenWuerttemberg, Hessische Rundfunk Filmfoerderung (HFF-HR),
MEDIA, Cinegate
Yilmaz Arslan was born in Kazanli/Turkey in 1968 and emigrated to Germany in 1975. He founded the theater group “SummerWinter” in 1988. His directorial debut Passages (Langer Gang,
1992) won Best First Film at San Sebastian and received a Silver Rose
in Bergamo and a nomination to the German Film Awards in 1993.
His other award-winning films include: Yara, which premiered at
Venice in 1998, Angst isst Seele auf (short) which also premiered at Venice in 2002, and Fratricide (Brudermord, 2005).
World Sales
Exception Wild Bunch · Lucie Kalmar
99, rue de la Verrerie · 75004 Paris/France
phone +33-1-53 01 50 26 · fax +33-1-53 01 50 49
email: [email protected] · www.exception-wb.com · www.fratricide-movie.com
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
43
Du hast gesagt, dass Du mich liebst
Scene from ”You Told Me You Love Me“ (photo © Moana-Film GmbH/Berlin)
YOU TOLD ME YOU LOVE ME
Johanna Perl, a seven-time swimming champion, lives her
retired life isolated and lonely. Constant thoughts about
death and the meaning of her existence torture her.
Except for her memories of previous victories and her
daughter, she has nothing left in life. But her days of senseless vegetation come to an end when she stumbles upon
a lonely hearts ad in the newspaper. Drawn to it as though
it were a sign from God, she arranges to meet the man.
And it’s love at first sight.
Johannes is a writer and not until he meets Johanna does
his luck strike. Finally he is able to finish his novel – You
Told Me You Love Me – and it becomes a bestseller. Johanna
too discovers new talents in photography and is finally
able to make peace with her dead mother. But Johannes’
success soon casts a dark cloud over their relationship. He
starts to distance himself from Johanna and gets tangled up
in an affair, not yet realizing that Johanna is indeed the
love of his life.
And after a turbulent odyssey, the two find their way back
to each other, thus proving the fate and destiny of their
love for one another …
Genre Drama, Love Story Category Feature Film Cinema Year
of Production 2005 Director Rudolf Thome Screenplay
Rudolf Thome Director of Photography Ute Freund Editor
Doerte Voelz Music by Katia Tchemberdji Production Design
Susanna Cardelli Producer Rudolf Thome Production Company Moana-Film/Berlin Principal Cast Hannelore Elsner,
Johannes Herrschmann, Anna de Carlo, Bastian Trost Length 117
min, 3,201 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version
German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology
Dolby Digital
Rudolf Thome was born in Wallau/Lahn in 1939 and studied
German, Philosophy and History in Munich and Bonn. He began
writing film reviews in 1962 for various newspapers and magazines.
In 1964, he collaborated with Max Zihlmann and Klaus Lemke on his
first short film, Die Versoehnung. He then became managing
director of the Munich Film Critics’ Club in 1965 and founded his
own production company, Moana-Film, in 1977. He received the
2nd place Guild Award in the category Best German Film for Berlin
– Chamissoplatz in 1981, and the International Film Critics’ Award
in Montreal in 1989 for his film The Philosopher. In 1993, he
went on to establish his own distribution company, Prometheus. His
film Paradiso (1999) won a Silver Bear at Berlin in 2000. His other
films include: Stella (1966), Red Sun (Rote Sonne, 1969),
Supergirl (1971), Made in Germany and USA (1974),
Love at First Sight (Liebe auf den ersten Blick, 1991),
Das Geheimnis (1995), Just Married (1998), Venus
Talking (2001), Red and Blue (Rot und Blau, 2002),
Woman Driving, Man Sleeping (Frau faehrt, Mann
schlaeft, 2003), and You Told Me You Love Me (Du hast
gesagt, dass Du mich liebst, 2005), among others.
World Sales
Cine-International Filmvertrieb GmbH & Co. KG · Lilli Tyc-Holm, Susanne Groh
Leopoldstrasse 18 · 80802 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-39 10 25 · fax +49-89-33 10 89
email: [email protected] · www.cine-international.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
44
Die Grosse Stille
Scene from “Into Great Silence” (photo © 2005 Philip Groening/VG Bild Kunst)
INTO GREAT SILENCE
Silence. Repetition. Rhythm.
Into Great Silence is a very strict, next to silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form. No music except
the chants in the monastery, no interviews, no commentaries, no extra material. Changing of time, seasons, and
the ever repeated elements of the day, of the prayer. A
film to become a monastery, rather than depict one. A
film on awareness, absolute presence, and the life of men
who devoted their lifetimes to God in the purest of form.
Contemplation. An object in time.
Genre Art, Religion Category Creative Documentary Year of
Production 2005 Director Philip Groening Screenplay Philip
Groening Director of Photography Philip Groening Editor
Philip Groening Producers Philip Groening, Michael Weber,
Andres Pfaeffli, Elda Guidinetti Production Company Philip
Groening Filmproduktion/Duesseldorf, in co-production with
Venturafilms/Meride, Bavaria Film/Munich, Cine Plus/Berlin,
BR/Munich, ZDF/Mainz, in cooperation with ARTE/Strasbourg,
TSI Televisione Svizzera/Lugano Length 162 min, 4,510 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version French/Latin
Subtitled Versions English, Italian Sound Technology
Dolby SRD Festival Screenings Venice 2005, Toronto 2005
With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt
(FFA), Filmbuero NW German Distributor X Verleih/Berlin
Philip Groening was born in Duesseldorf in 1959 and was
raised in Duesseldorf and the United States. He studied Medicine
and Psychology before enrolling at the Munich Academy of
Television & Film (HFF/M) in 1982. Groening developed a passion
for screenwriting and began to work as an actor for Peter Keglevic
and Nicolas Humbert. He also worked as a sound assistant, propmaster and assistant director. His film credits include the awardwinning and critically acclaimed films The Swimmer (1983),
The Last Picture Taken (1983), Summer (1986, Main Prize
Bergamo 1988), Stachoviak! (1988, Silver Hugo Chicago), The
Terrorists! (1992, Bronze Leopard Locarno), Victims.
Witnesses (1993), L’Amour, L’Argent, L’Amour (2000,
Bronze Leopard Locarno, Swiss Film Award, Silver Camera Bitola), and
Into Great Silence (Die Grosse Stille, 2005).
World Sales
Bavaria Film International / Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20
email: [email protected] · www.bavaria-film-international.de · www.diegrossestille.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
45
Scene from “Jungle Spirit” (photo © 2nd Life Film Production)
Jungle Spirit
60 years after World War 2, an aging former officer of the
Japanese Imperial Army travels to Malaysia to exorcise
horrible memories that have tortured him for the past 60
years. Towards the end of the war, he, as a member of a
military command, participated in the execution of 5
young innocent locals. One nightmare has followed him
from that time but is never completed and drives him
mad. He needs to find out what really happened back
then …
He returns to the place where it happened with unexpected consequences. He visits the horrible island and gets
involved in mystical time travel with an American tourist,
who until the end doesn't want to believe in what he had
seen. The psychedelic meeting of the past, and reincarnated figures from the massacre in the tropical jungle,
bring them both to the unexpected discovery of who they
really are.
Genre Drama, Fantasy, Psycho Thriller Category Feature Film
Cinema Year of Production 2005 Director Ingo Storm
Screenplay Ingo Storm Director of Photography John Goh
Editors John Goh, Gregory Keenan Music by Barry Ryerson, Sai
Khuan Production Design John Goh, Joseph Wong, Adeline
Ong Producer Ingo Storm Production Company 2nd Life
Film Production/Kaufbeuren Principal Cast Lynzabel Lee, Tui
Shin Kae, Jack Chuang, Hiroki Onishi, and others Casting Dianah
Goh, Cheok Ching Wan Special Effects Gregory Keenan
Length 90 min, 2,565 m Format DVPRO Blow-up 35 mm,
color Original Version English/Japanese/Cantonese Subtitled Versions English, Japanese Sound Technology Dolby
Surround 5.1
Ingo Storm was initially a nuclear physicist before he became a
writer on environmentally related topics and moral issues. His
contact with DoP John Goh inspired him to start making films based
on his own books. Jungle Spirit (2005) marks his film debut.
The belief in reincarnation, mysticism, the casualties of
war, the tropical psychedelic drugging effect of the jungles
and time travel brings the two different mentalities
together as friends, supporting each other to overcome
their post-war trauma.
World Sales (please contact)
2nd Life Film Production · Ingo Storm c/o Landwehr
Sudetenstrasse 121 · 87600 Kaufbeuren/Germany
phone +49-83 41-6 88 15 · fax +49-83 41-63 91
email: [email protected] · www.ingostorm.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
46
Die letzten Tage
Scene from “The Last Days” (photo © Thomas Moeller, Stuttgart)
THE LAST DAYS
April 1945.
An American B-17 bomber is shot down over Germany
and three crew members parachute out.
Gunner David Feingold and navigator Ben Rayment watch
from a distance as a German patrol kills one of their crewmates in cold blood, a shocking act that makes them realize how badly they need a place to hide.
The Allies will soon take over the country, and Germany
has ordered its teenagers and old men to patrol near the
front and execute any deserters on the spot.
David and Ben find cover in an abandoned farmhouse.
They are surprised by the presence of the German deserter Anton Kreetz who is hiding there.
Hate, distrust and the will to survive the last days of war
will put the relationship of the three men to the ultimate
test.
Genre Drama, History Category Short Year of Production
2005 Director Oliver Frohnauer Screenplay Oliver Frohnauer,
Sebastian Feld Director of Photography Thomas Bergmann
Editors Stephan Roth, Oliver Frohnauer Music by Philipp E.
Kuempel, Andreas Moisa Production Design Jan Jericho
Producer Martin Liebig Production Company Filmakademie
Baden-Wuerttemberg/Ludwigsburg, in co-production with SWR/
Stuttgart, ARTE/Strasbourg Principal Cast Clayton Nemrow,
Jeff Burrell, Sebastian Rueger, Christian Gaul Special Effects
Michael Landgrebe Length 35 min, 1,049m Format HD
DVCPro Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version
German/English Subtitled Version English/German Sound
Technology Dolby SRD
Oliver Frohnauer was born in 1977 and studied Audio-Visual
Media Sciences at the University of Hildesheim. During an internship at ZDF, he trained as a camera assistant. From 1999-2005, he
studied Feature Film Directing at the Film Academy BadenWuerttemberg. His films include: the shorts Operation
Durante (2001), Superstar (2002), Welcome to Estonia
(2003), and his graduation film The Last Days (Die letzten
Tage, 2005).
World Sales (please contact)
Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg · Eva Steegmayer
Mathildenstrasse 20 · 71638 Ludwigsburg/Germany
phone +49-71 41-96 91 03 · fax +49-71 41-96 95 51 03
email: [email protected] · www.filmakademie.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
47
Scene from "Making of ZEPPELIN!" (photo © Transit Film/Munich)
Making of ZEPPELIN!
6 May 1937: While approaching Lakehurst/New Jersey
the German blimp “LZ 129 Hindenburg” explodes. The
causes of the accident, which unlike the sinking of the
Titanic, were recorded but have to this day still not been
entirely resolved. The writer Alexander Haeusser and
director Gordian Maugg tell their own version of the catastrophe in the film Zeppelin!.
How is the archive material integrated in a story which
spans a time frame of almost an entire century, from 1909
to the present? How do past and present come together?
What role does fiction play in the interpretation of facts?
And how can fantasy and the fertile imaginations of a film
crew replace the time, effort and expense that otherwise
only Hollywood can afford? Hans Guenther Pflaum observed the principle photography, spoke to many of the
crew and illustrates in detail just how actors can be planted into historic photos by use of digital means.
Genre History Category Documentary TV Year of Production 2005 Director Hans Guenther Pflaum Director of
Photography Manuel Lommel Editor Petra Scherer
Producer Loy W. Arnold Production Company Transit
Film/Munich Length 59 min Format DV, color/b&w, 4:3
Original Version German Sound Technology Stereo
Hans Guenther Pflaum was born in 1941. Also active as a
freelance journalist and writer in Munich for the Sueddeutsche
Zeitung and various radio and television broadcasters, a selection of
his films includes: Ich will nicht nur, dass ihr mich liebt
(1992, about Rainer Werner Fassbinder), Der Niemandslandstreicher (1996, about Herbert Achternbusch), Aufbruch
der Traeumer (2002, about the cinema of the 60s), and Von
Sex bis Simmel (2004, about the cinema of the 70s).
World Sales
Transit Film GmbH · Loy W. Arnold, Susanne Schumann
Dachauer Strasse 35 · 80335 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax +49-89-59 98 85 20
email: [email protected], [email protected] · www.transitfilm.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
48
Die Megaklinik
Scene from “The Megahospital“ (photo © Sisyphos Film)
THE MEGAHOSPITAL
The Megahospital is not your usual nurses-doctors-patients dramolet, but a cinematic and realistic narrative
about Europe’s largest communal hospital, the “Klinikum
Nuernberg”, with 39 clinics and institutes. 8,000 people
work and live there. The film shows how this microcosm
works, what is necessary to keep the machinery running;
in its impressive dimensions a synergetic system meshing
people and technology in diverse ways. The film concentrates on a specialized clinic. Gradually, an institution
with an immense infrastructure invisible to the outside
world is revealed before the viewer’s eyes: Europe’s largest
hospital laundry, a goods depot of enormous dimensions,
an underground labyrinth of utility corridors stretching for
miles. An almost endless row of operating theaters with
simultaneous operations going on.
The Megahospital resumes a documentary tradition of
institutional analyses, films that try to make transparent
social institutions which have become incomprehensible
for the individual.
Genre Social Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2004 Director Hans Andreas Guttner Screenplay
Hans Andreas Guttner, Werner Petermann Director of
Photography Ralph Klamert Editor Jean André Music by
Lars Kurz Producer Jutta Malin Production Company
Sisyphos Film/Munich, in co-production with BR/Munich
Principal Cast Christian Bornhof, Guenter Vorwerk, Reimund
Walther Length 90 min Format DigiBeta, color Original
Version German Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Dolby Festival Screenings Amsterdam 2004,
MipDOC 2005, Marseille 2005 German Distributor Sisyphos
Film/Munich
Hans Andreas Guttner completed Theater, Jounalistic and
Law Studies. With his own production company (Sisyphos Film,
founded in 1976), he made numerous films for cinema and television. In 1985 he initiated the Munich International Documentary
Film Festival. His most important work is the five-part Europe –
A Transnational Dream (Europa – Ein transnationaler
Traum, 1979-1999) which received numerous national and international awards. A selection of his other films includes: Labyrinth
(1976), Kiosk (1977), The Kings of the Whole Wide
World (1983), Fuersprecher (1986), Eine Erfolgsgeschichte (1990), Die Fuhre (1991), A Candle for the
Madonna (1996), Weichen fuer die Zukunft (2002), and
Die Megaklinik (2004).
World Sales (please contact)
Sisyphos Film · Hans Andreas Guttner
Wagmuellerstrasse 21 · 80538 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-22 95 05 · fax +49-89-50 14 64
email: [email protected] · www.guttner.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
49
Scene from “Obaba” (photo © José Luis López de Zubiría)
Obaba
Young Lurdes takes on a trip to the Pyrenean Obaba
territories, all along the ’87 curves’, to the place full of
riddles and mysteries. With her video camera she sets out
to capture Obaba’s reality and its people, but she will find
much more, maybe her inner self and meaning.
In Merche, Ismael, Tomás or Miguel she finds friends but
she sees also that they seem trapped in a past they cannot
escape. Gradually, she learns about them diving into their
childhood and brings about the common threads that
link them together. But as Lurdes tries to solve the puzzle,
there is always something missing, something that escapes
that neither she nor her video camera can hold or explain,
like the mysterious behavior of the lizards that live
there …
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2005 Director Montxo Armendáriz Screenplay
Montxo Armendáriz Director of Photography Javier
Aguirresarobe Editor Rori Sáinz de Rozas Production Design
Julio Esteban, Julio Torrecilla Producers Puy Oria, Montxo
Armendáriz, Karl Baumgartner, Michael Eckelt Production
Companies Oria Films/Madrid, Pandora Film/Cologne, Neue
Impuls Film/Hamburg Principal Cast Pilar López de Ayala, Juan
Diego Botto, Bárbara Lennie, Eduard Fernández, Peter Lohmeyer,
Mercedes Sampietro, Héctor Colomé, Pepa López, Lluis Homar,
Txema Blasco, Iñake Irastorza, Juan Sanz, Ryan Cameron, Christian
Tardío Length 107 min, 2,943 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version Spanish Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Dolby Digital Festival Screenings Toronto 2005
(Masters), San Sebastian 2005 (Opening Film/In Competition)
With backing from Televisión Espagñola, Canal+, EITB,
Gobierno de Navarra, Eurimages, Ministero de Cultura/ICAA,
MEDIA, FilmFoerderung Hamburg, ICO
Montxo Armendáriz’s other films include: Tasio (1984), 27
Hours (1986), Letters from Alou (1990), Stories from
the Kronen (1995), Secrets of the Heart (1997), Broken
Silence (2001), and Escenario móvil (2004).
World Sales
Bavaria Film International / Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20
email: [email protected] · www.bavaria-film-international.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
50
Peladão
– Elf Freunde und eine Koenigin
Scene from “Peladão”
(photo © Lunacy Film)
PELADÃO – SOCCER TEAMS AND BEAUTY QUEENS
In the Brazilian city of Manaus, deep in the heart of the
Amazon, more than 1,000 soccer teams converge every
year to battle each other for the most glorious honor of all
– the Peladão Championship title.
Mostly unknown to the world’s soccer fans, this highly
unusual competition is woven deeply into the fabric of
Amazonian culture. However, it’s not merely the excitement generated by the games that makes the Peladão one
of the most exiting soccer tournaments in the world. Each
team is represented by a beauty queen who can enable
her defeated team to return to the competition if she succeeds in the tournament’s beauty contest. These sparkling
Amazon beauties account for at least half of the excitement.
A documentary which uncovers a completely unique
world of soccer, Peladão is also a colorful introduction to
a delightful people and their zealous enthusiasm for the
sport.
Genre Culture, Sports Category Documentary Cinema Year
of Production 2005 Director Joern Schoppe Screenplay
Joern Schoppe, Stefan Deutschmann Director of Photog-
raphy Stefan Deutschmann Editor Joern Schoppe Animation
Merlin Durst Producers Stefan Deutschmann, Lorenz Harms,
Roland Meise, Joern Schoppe, Detlef Schwarte, Stefan Vorbeck
Production Company Lunacy Film/Hamburg, in cooperation
with imFilm - film services agency/Hamburg With Simone de
Nazaré da Silva, Butch Wright, Meyre Jane Martins, Jaynne Stephany
Martins, Jovane Machado de Souza, Gleidiane da Silva e Silva, Rayssa
Cid da Silva, and others Length 86 min, 2,350 m Format 35 mm,
color, 1:1.77 Original Version Portuguese with German subtitles Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby
Stereo With backing from deli pictures postproduction/
Hamburg
Joern Schoppe was born in Hamburg in 1969 and studied Media
Technology at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. After
working as a technician on numerous films and commercials (among
others as lighting technician for Fatih Akin’s award-winning feature
Short Sharp Shock in 1998), he began writing screenplays and directing short films, commercials and music videos in 2000. In 2004 he
founded the production company Lunacy Film to produce his first
documentary. A selection of his films includes the shorts
Doppelpass (2000), Freistosstrick (2001), Noodles (2003)
and his documentary debut Peladão – Soccer Teams and
Beauty Queens (2005).
World Sales
Beta Cinema / Dept. of Beta Film GmbH · Andreas Rothbauer
Gruenwalder Weg 28 d · 82041 Oberhaching/Germany
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88
email: [email protected] · www.betacinema.com
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
51
Sommer vorm Balkon
Scene from "Summer in Berlin" (photo © X Verleih)
SUMMER IN BERLIN
Hot summer. Nike has a balcony, Katrin has a son, Ronald
drives a truck, Tina’s a waitress, Oskar and Helene are old
and alone. At the beginning, middle or end of their lives –
they all ask the same question: Can love last through the
seasons? Or is it something affecting the brain that just
comes and goes?
Summer in Berlin is the story of two girlfriends, who,
from their balcony – between heaven and earth – gaze
down at their turbulent and difficult universe, where the
right men are all too often exactly wrong, and to get ahead
even a good-looking woman had better be strong.
An enchanting comedy, full of human warmth, sincerity
and delightful humor – a film about life.
Genre Tragicomedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2005 Director Andreas Dresen Screenplay
Wolfgang Kohlhaase Director of Photography Andreas
Hoefer Editor Joerg Hauschild Music by Pascal Comelade
Production Design Natalja Meier, Susanne Hopf Producers
Peter Rommel, Stefan Arndt Production Company Peter
Rommel Productions/Berlin, in co-production with X Filme
Creative Pool/Berlin Principal Cast Nadja Uhl, Inka Friedrich,
Andreas Schmidt, Stefanie Schoenfeld Casting Doris Borkmann
Length 107 min, 2,955 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version German Subtitled Versions English,
Spanish, French Sound Technology Dolby Festival
Screenings Toronto 2005, San Sebastian 2005 (In Competition),
Hof 2005 With backing from Medienboard BerlinBrandenburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),
BKM German Distributor X Verleih/Berlin
Andreas Dresen was born in 1963 and started shooting amateur films in 1979. From 1984 to 1985 he worked as a sound technician at the theater in Schwerin, and then apprenticed at the DEFA
studios, working as an assistant director with Guenter Reisch. He
then studied Direction at the "Konrad Wolf" Academy of Film &
Television in Potsdam. Since 1992, he has been working as a writer
and director for television, cinema, and theater. A selection of his
award-winning films includes: Silent Country (Stilles Land,
1992, German Critics’ Award), Night Shapes (Nachtgestalten, 1998, Silver Bear Berlin for Best Actor, German Critics’
Award, German Film Award in Silver), The Policewoman (Die
Polizistin, 2000, Grimme Award), Grill Point (Halbe
Treppe, 2001, Silver Bear Berlin for Best Director, German Critics’
Award, German Film Award in Silver), Vote for Henryk! (Herr
Wichmann von der CDU, 2003), Willenbrock (2004), and
Summer in Berlin (Sommer vorm Balkon, 2005).
World Sales
X Filme World Sales · Bruno Niederpruem, Andro Steinborn
Buelowstrasse 90 · 10783 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-23 08 33 11 · fax +49-30-23 08 33 22
email: [email protected] · www.x-filme.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
52
Was lebst du?
Scene from ”Whatz up?“ (photo © ICON FILM/Bettina Braun)
WHATZ UP?
Ali, Kais, Ertan and Alban are good friends. They are
youths who feature in the picture of our daily lives and of
whom there are hundreds of thousands in Germany.
Nevertheless, we hardly have contact with them on an
every day basis. With their macho behavior and “street
talk” they confirm prejudices that we rarely question. But
on second view, they break the cliché. Self-projection and
poses disappear and are made fun of with a knowing
irony. What is revealed then are the boys’ natures, full of
conflict but also profound and warm-hearted. The four
friends meet regularly at the Cologne ’Youth Center
Klingelpuetz’ where they have found a second home since
their early youth. They come from Moroccan, Tunisian,
Turkish and Albanian backgrounds. But being part of a
minority in Germany ties them together and is stronger
than the differences of their nationalities. Loyalty and respect predominate their being together despite the often
rough manner.
Genre Coming-of-Age Story Category Documentary Cinema
Year of Production 2004 Director Bettina Braun
Screenplay Bettina Braun Director of Photography Bettina
Braun Editors Gesa Martens, Bettina Braun Music by Ali El.
Mkllaki, Amin Aman Saleh Producers Herbert Schwering,
Christine Kiauk Production Company Icon Film/Cologne
Principal Cast Ali El. Mkllaki, Kais Setti, Ertan Dinc, Alban Kadiri
Length 84 min, 2,394 m Format DV Blow-up 35 mm, color,
1:1.66 Original Version German Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Stereo Festival Screenings Duisburg
2004, Berlin 2005 (Perspectives German Cinema), Cologne
Conference 2005, Filmfestival Deutschland-Tuerkei/Nuremberg
2005 Awards Audience Award Duisburg 2004, Phoenix Prize 2005,
Best Documentary Nuremberg 2005 With backing from
Filmstiftung NRW German Distributor Real Fiction/Cologne
Bettina Braun studied Graphic Design at Central St. Martins
College of Art & Design in London and pursued post-graduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts (KHM) in Cologne. Since 1993,
she has been working as a freelance director and designer for
various broadcasters in England and Germany and since 2004 has
been instructing Audio-Visual Media Design. A selection of her films
includes: Bodies & Borders (experimental short, 1996),
Sprech ens aanstaendich (documentary essay, 1997),
Women’s Nature is Different (Frauen sind im Wesen
anders …, documentary, 1999), Behind the Camera is in
Front of the Camera (Hinter der Kamera ist vor der
Kamera, documentary, 2000), and Whatz up? (Was lebst
du?, documentary, 2004).
World Sales (please contact)
Icon Film · Herbert Schwering
Breite Strasse 118-120 · 50667 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-32 20 53 · fax +49-2 21-32 20 54
email: [email protected] · www.icon-film.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
53
Weltverbesserungsmassnahmen
Scene from “Measures to Better the World” (photo courtesy of Datenstrudel)
MEASURES TO BETTER THE WORLD
The world is in need of ideas, visions, utopias and perspectives – the world is in need of new measures. Be it the
improvement of the regional economy and identity by
money with a best-before date, regulating energy consumption by minimizing the body’s need of energy and
making better use of the superfluous energy or finding the
right measure – “eye to eye” is the motto. Finding new
solutions for old problems and not taking yourself too
seriously – fake documentary is the word. In eight episodes solutions, constructs and thinking models are presented, ideas which could be part of our lives in the near
future.
Genre Comedy, Mockumentary Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2005 Directors Joern Hintzer, Jakob
Huefner Screenplay Joern Hintzer, Jakob Huefner Directors of
Photography Volker Mai, Daniela Knapp, Aleksander Kerkovic,
Volker Gerling, Matthias Schellenberg Editors Dan Loghin, Carolin
Ernstling, Andrea Huebers, Vanessa Rossi, Jessica Ehlebracht, Olli
Weiss, Andreas Wodraschke Music by Tonbuero Berlin
Production Design Katrin Hieronymus, Arndt Muehe, Andre
Ceada Cruhl Producers Joern Hintzer, Jakob Huefner
Production Company Datenstrudel/Berlin Principal Cast
Andreas Nickl, Peter Berning, Katja Rosin, Patrick Gueldenberg,
Torsten Schlosser, Christoph Bach, Jan Schuette, Matthias
Breitenbach, Charlotte Crome, Jakob Huefner, Vera Teltz, Michael
Gabat, Cornelius Schwalm, Samuel Finzi, Gianni Meurer, Harald
Schrott, Claudia Geisler Casting Uwe Buenker, Interfacecasting,
Pedro Solár Ferrer Special Effects Jan Bormann, Florian Eberle,
Florian Obrecht Length 88 min, 2,408m Format DV Blow-up
35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled
Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival
Screenings Berlin 2005 (Perspectives German Cinema), Karlovy
Vary 2005 (Variety Critics’ Choice) With backing from
Filmstiftung NRW, Kunststiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt
(FFA) German Distributor Concorde Filmverleih/Munich
Joern Hintzer was born in 1966. He is a Masterclass student of
the Academy of Arts in Muenster and finished a post-graduate program at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He recently created
the teaser for Hans Weingartner’s The Edukators.
Jakob Huefner was born in 1971 and studied at the Academy of
Media Arts Cologne. He has made several short films and worked
as an actor, writer and director. Measures to Better the
World (Weltverbesserungsmassnahmen, 2005) is his first
feature film.
World Sales (please contact)
Datenstrudel · Joern Hintzer, Jakob Huefner
Borsigstrasse 33 · 10115 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-28 04 57 83 · fax +49-30-28 04 58 60
email: [email protected] · www.datenstrudel.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
new german films
54
features
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documentaries
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Das Boot
Scene from “The Boat”
(photo courtesy of Filmmuseum Berlin/Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek)
THE BOAT
Wolfgang Petersen's elaborate and internationally acclaimed film The Boat is based on an authentic submarine
operation during 1941. Leaving harbor from La Rochelle,
the German submarine U96 takes off to torpedo British
freighters.
On board the submarine is the young war reporter
Werner, who doesn’t seem to make friends with any of the
crew. After gruelingly boring days out at sea, suddenly a
British fleet appears. But the men overlook one hugely
important detail in their plan of attack: the freighter’s highly armed security escort …
Genre Drama, History Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 1981 Director Wolfgang Petersen Screenplay
Wolfgang Petersen, based on the book by Lothar-Guenther
Buchheim Directors of Photography Ernst Wild, Theodor
Nischwitz, Jost Vacano, Franz Rath, Wolfgang Treu, Peter Maiwald,
Ernst Stritzinger, Leander R. Loosen, Ernst Schmid, Egil S. Woxholt
Editor Hannes Nikel Music by Klaus Doldinger Production
Design Bernhard Neureiter, Rolf Braun, Heinz Schaefer, Erhard
Hose, Pius Huengerl, Joseph Teppert Producer Guenter
Rohrbach Production Companies Bavaria Film/Munich,
WDR/Cologne, SDR/Stuttgart, in co-production with Constantin
Film/Munich, BBC/London, ORF/Vienna, RAI Cinema/Rome
Principal Cast Juergen Prochnow, Herbert Groenemeyer, Klaus
Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge, Bernd
Tauber, Erwin Leder, Claude-Oliver Rudolph, Jan Fedder, Heinz
Hoenig, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Guenter Lamprecht, Otto Sander
Length 149 min, 4,069 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.66
Original Version German Dubbed Versions English, French,
Italian Awards German Film Awards 1982 for Production and
Sound, Bavarian Film Awards 1981 for Direction & Cinematography,
Golden Screen 1982, German Record Award 1982 for Best Score,
Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing 1983 German
Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich
Wolfgang Petersen was born in 1941 in Emden. After studying
Theater in Berlin and Hamburg, he attended the German Film &
Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin from 1966-1970. He first made
his mark in the film world with The Boat (Das Boot) in 1981.
Although he had been making feature films in Germany since 1973,
and television productions before that, it was Petersen’s success
with this anti-war U-boat epic, along with several OSCAR nominations, that bought him his ticket to Hollywood. A selection of his
other films includes: One or the Other (Einer von uns beiden, 1973), The Never Ending Story (1984), Enemy Mine
(1985), In the Line of Fire (1993), Outbreak (1995), Air
Force One (1997), The Perfect Storm (2000), and Troy
(2004).
World Sales
Bavaria Film International / Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20
email: [email protected] · www.bavaria-film-international.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
the 100 most significant german films – no. 95
56
Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern
Scene from “Hunting Scenes from Bavaria”
(photo courtesy of Filmmuseum Berlin/Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek)
HUNTING SCENES FROM BAVARIA
Barbara’s son Abram, a twenty-year-old mechanic, is
homosexual. In the small Bavarian village where he lives
this cannot be hidden for long. Wherever Abram goes, he
is abused and driven away. At the beginning he takes it
calmly, but when Hannelore tells everyone that she is
pregnant with Abram’s child, the situation escalates. In a fit
of rage, the young man strangles Hannelore and is consequently chased like an animal by the villagers.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 1969 Director Peter Fleischmann Screenplay
Peter Fleischmann Director of Photography Alain Derobe
Production Design Guenter Naumann Producer Rob
Houwer Production Company Rob Houwer Film &
TV/Munich Principal Cast Martin Sperr, Angela Winkler, Else
Quecke, Michael Strixner, Maria Stadler, Gunja Seiser, Johann
Brunner, Hanna Schygulla, Renate Sandner, Ernst Wagner, Johann
Lang, Johann Fuchs, Erika Wackernagel, Hans Elwenspoek, Eva
Berthold Length 85 min, 2,315 m Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37
Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Mono Festival Screenings Locarno 1969,
Malaga 1969 Awards 2 German Film Awards 1969, First Prize Jury of
Youth Locarno 1969, Spanish Film Club Prize & FIPRESCI Award Malaga
1969, Preis der 15 for Best Contemporary German Film & Best German
Debut 1969, among others
Peter Fleischmann was born in 1937 in Zweibruecken. He studied at the Deutsches Institut fuer Film und Fernsehen (DIFF) in
Munich as well as at the Institut des Hautes Etudes
Cinematographiques (IDHEC) in Paris. In 1969, he founded the production company Hallelujah Film together with Volker Schloendorff.
A selection of his films includes: Hunting Scenes from
Bavaria (Jagdszenen aus Niederbayern, 1969), Das
Unheil (1972), Die Hamburger Krankheit (1979), Frevel
(1983), Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein (1989) and
Deutschland, Deutschland (1991).
World Sales (please contact)
Rob Houwer Film & Television GmbH & Co. KG · Rob Houwer
Viktoriastrasse 34 · 80803 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-39 90 21 · fax +49-89-33 83 18
email: [email protected]
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
the 100 most significant german films – no. 96
57
Lebenslaeufe
Scene from "Biographies - The Story of the Children of Golzow"
(photo © Progress Film-Verleih)
BIOGRAPHIES – THE STORY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOLZOW
Winfried and Barbara Junge’s long-term observation of
“The Children of Golzow” presents a series of nine individual biographies in which the pupils of the East German
town Golzow are featured, both in observation and with
their own comments. The filming took place in regular
intervals from 1961 to 1980. The resulting recordings
show the portrayed individuals at very distinctive
moments in their lives, for example at school enrolment,
youth initiation ceremony and graduation. At their school
reunion in 1975, we then see which direction they went
in, both privately and professionally.
Genre Biopic, Drama Category Documentary Cinema Year of
Production 1981 Directors Winfried Junge, Barbara Junge
Directors of Photography Hans Dumke, Hans-Eberhard
Leupold, Harald Klix Editors Christel Gass-Hemmerling,
Charlotte Beck Music by Kurt Grottke, Peter Gotthardt, Gerhard
Rosenfeld Production Company DEFA/Berlin Length 257
min, 7,031 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.37 Original Version
German Voice Over English Sound Technology Optical
Sound Festival Screenings Leipzig 1981, Berlin 1982 Awards
Honorary Golden Dove Leipzig 1981, FIPRESCI Award & Otto-DibeliusAward Berlin 1982 German Distributor Progress FilmVerleih/Berlin
Winfried Junge was born in 1935 in Berlin. After studies in
German at the Humboldt University in Berlin, he transferred to the
German Film Academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg in 1954. Graduating
in 1958, he began work at the DEFA studios. A selection of his films
includes: When I Finally Go to School (Wenn ich erst
zur Schule geh’, 1961), Observations in a First Class
(Nach einem Jahr, 1962), Eleven Years Old (Elf Jahre
alt, 1966), Anmut sparet nicht noch Muehe (1979),
Biographies – The Story of the Children of Golzow
(Lebenslaeufe, 1981), Diese Golzower – Umstandsbestimmung eines Ortes (1984), Drehbuch: Die Zeiten
(1992), The Life of Juergen from Golzow (Das Leben
des Juergen von Golzow, 1994), The Story of Uncle
Willy from Golzow (Die Geschichte des Onkel Willy
aus Golzow, 1995), Was geht euch mein Leben an. Elke
(1996), Da habt ihr mein Leben. Marieluise (1997),
Brigitte & Marcel (1998), A Guy Like Dieter – Native of
Golzow (Ein Mensch wie Dieter – Golzower, 1999), and
Jochen – A Golzower from Philadelphia (2001), which
was the eighth Golzow-film to be presented at the Berlinale Forum.
Barbara Junge was born in 1943 in Neunhofen and graduated
from Karl-Marx-University in Leipzig as an English and Russian translator. From 1969 she worked at the DEFA studio for documentary
film in charge of foreign language versions. Since 1978 she has been
the archivist of the Golzow-project, has edited all of Winfried
Junge’s films since 1983 and since 1993 has also co-directed.
World Sales
Progress Film-Verleih GmbH · Christel Jansen
Immanuelkirchstrasse 14 · 10405 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-24 00 32 25 · fax +49-30-24 00 32 22
email: [email protected] · www.progress-film.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
the 100 most significant german films – no. 97
58
Berliner Ballade
Scene from “The Ballad of Berlin”
(photo courtesy of Filmmuseum Berlin/Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek)
THE BALLAD OF BERLIN
The Ballad of Berlin is a satire of post-war reality in
Germany, presented as a flashback in the year 2048.
Otto Normalverbraucher, an average German citizen,
returns from captivity in 1949 to Berlin and has to come
to terms with the new post-war situation. He meets bootleggers and reactionaries, looks for work and food, and in
the end even finds his “dream woman”.
Genre Tragicomedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 1948 Director Robert A. Stemmle Screenplay
Guenter Neumann Director of Photography Georg Krause
Editor Walter Wischniewsky Music by Werner Eisbrenner,
Guenter Neumann Production Design Gabriel Pellon
Producer Alf Teichs Production Company Comedia
Film/Munich & Berlin Principal Cast Gert Froebe, Aribert
Waescher, Tatjana Sais, Ute Sielisch, O.E. Hasse, Werner
Oelschlaeger, Hans Deppe, Erwin Biegel, Brigitte Mira Length 92
min, 2,499 m Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37 Original Version
German Sound Technology Mono Festival Screenings
Venice 1948 Awards Special Prize Venice 1948 German
Distributor Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF/Wiesbaden
Robert A. Stemmle was born in 1903 in Magdeburg and died
in 1973 in Baden-Baden. He began his career in the late 1920s with
puppet theater. From the 1930s on, he worked in various areas,
including radio, theater, as a director’s assistant, and director and
dramaturg for Tobis and Ufa. Particularly specializing in thrillers and
crime stories, a selection of his films includes: Es tut sich was
um Mitternacht (1934), Kleiner Mann – ganz gross!
(1938), Berliner Ballade (1948), … und die Liebe lacht
dazu (1957), Majestaet auf Abwegen (1958), Rasputin
(TV, 1966), Der Fall Kaspar Hauser (TV mini series, 1966),
and Der Fall Mariotti (TV, 1970).
World Sales (please contact)
Dr. Bertold Jakob
Sendlinger Strasse 29 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-23 00 18 58 · fax +49-89-23 07 79 98
email: [email protected]
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
the 100 most significant german films – no. 98
59
GERMAN FILMS
SHAREHOLDERS & SUPPORTERS
Arbeitsgemeinschaft
Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten
Association of New Feature Film Producers
Muenchner Freiheit 20, 80802 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-2 71 74 30, fax +49-89-2 71 97 28
email: [email protected], www.ag-spielfilm.de
Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung
fuer Kultur und Medien
Referat K 35, Graurheindorfer Strasse 198
53117 Bonn/Germany
phone +49-18 88-6 81 36 43, fax +49-18 88-68 15 36 43
email: [email protected]
Filmfoerderungsanstalt
German Federal Film Board
Grosse Praesidentenstrasse 9, 10178 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-27 57 70, fax +49-30-27 57 71 11
email: [email protected], www.ffa.de
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern
Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Medien
in Bayern mbH
Sonnenstrasse 21, 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-54 46 02-0, fax +49-89-54 46 02 21
email: [email protected], www.fff-bayern.de
Verband Deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE)
Association of German Film Exporters
Tegernseer Landstrasse 75, 81539 Munich/Germany
phone +49- 89-6 42 49 70, fax +49-89-6 92 09 10
email: [email protected], www.vdfe.de
FilmFoerderung Hamburg GmbH
Friedensallee 14–16, 22765 Hamburg/Germany
phone +49-40-39 83 70, fax +49-40-3 98 37 10
email: [email protected], www.ffhh.de
Verband Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V.
Association of German Feature Film Producers
Beichstrasse 8, 80802 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-39 11 23, fax +49-89-33 74 32
Filmstiftung NRW GmbH
Kaistrasse 14, 40221 Duesseldorf/Germany
phone +49-2 11-93 05 00, fax +49-2 11-93 05 05
email: [email protected], www.filmstiftung.de
Bundesverband Deutscher Fernsehproduzenten e.V.
Association of German Television Producers
Brienner Strasse 26 · 80333 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-28 62 83 85 · fax +49-89-28 62 82 47
email: [email protected] · www.tv-produzenten.de
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH
August-Bebel-Strasse 26-53, 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germany
phone +49-3 31-74 38 70, fax +49-3 31-7 43 87 99
email: [email protected], www.medienboard.de
Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek
Potsdamer Strasse 2 · 10785 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-30 09 03-0 · fax +49-30-30 09 03-13
email: [email protected] · www.filmmuseum-berlin.de
Medien- und Filmgesellschaft
Baden-Wuerttemberg mbH
Breitscheidstrasse 4, 70174 Stuttgart/Germany
phone +49-7 11-90 71 54 00, fax +49-7 11-90 71 54 50
email: [email protected], www.mfg.de/film
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm e.V.
German Documentary Association
Schweizer Strasse 6 · 60594 Frankfurt am Main/Germany
phone +49-69-62 37 00 · fax +49-61 42-96 64 24
email: [email protected] · www.agdok.de
Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung GmbH
Hainstrasse 17-19, 04109 Leipzig/Germany
phone +49-3 41-26 98 70, fax +49-3 41-2 69 87 65
email: [email protected], www.mdm-online.de
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kurzfilm e.V.
German Short Film Association
Kamenzer Strasse 60 · 01099 Dresden/Germany
phone +49-3 51-4 04 55 75 · fax +49-3 51-4 04 55 76
email: [email protected] · www.ag-kurzfilm.de
nordmedia – Die Mediengesellschaft
Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH
Expo Plaza 1, 30539 Hanover/Germany
phone +49-5 11-1 23 45 60, fax +49-5 11-12 34 56 29
email: [email protected], www.nordmedia.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
shareholders & supporters
60
ASSOCIATION OF GERMAN FILM EXPORTERS
Verband deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE) · please contact Lothar Wedel
Tegernseer Landstrasse 75 · 81539 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-6 42 49 70 · fax +49-89-6 92 09 10 · email: [email protected] · www.vdfe.de
ARRI Media Worldsales
Cine-International Filmvertrieb
GmbH & Co. KG
Road Sales GmbH
Mediadistribution
please contact Lilli Tyc-Holm, Susanne Groh
please contact Frank Graf
Leopoldstrasse 18
80802 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-39 10 25
fax +49-89-33 10 89
email: [email protected]
www.cine-international.de
Clausewitzstrasse 4
10629 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-8 80 48 60
fax +49-30-88 04 86 11
email: [email protected]
www.road-movies.de
Atlas International
Film GmbH
Exportfilm Bischoff & Co. GmbH
please contact
Dieter Menz, Philipp Menz
please contact Jochem Strate,
Philip Evenkamp
RRS Entertainment Gesellschaft
fuer Filmlizenzen GmbH
Candidplatz 11
81543 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-21 09 75-0
fax +49-89-22 43 32
email: [email protected]
www.atlasfilm.com
Isabellastrasse 20
80798 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-2 72 93 60
fax +49-89-27 29 36 36
email: [email protected]
www.exportfilm.de
Sternwartstrasse 2
81679 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-2 11 16 60
fax +49-89-21 11 66 11
email: [email protected]
www.rrsentertainment.de
ATRIX Films GmbH
german united distributors
Programmvertrieb GmbH
TELEPOOL GmbH
please contact Silke Spahr
Sonnenstrasse 21
80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-55 87 60
fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
email: [email protected]
www.telepool.de
please contact Antonio Exacoustos
Tuerkenstrasse 89
80799 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-38 09 12 88
fax +49-89-38 09 16 19
email: [email protected]
www.arri-mediaworldsales.de
please contact Beatrix Wesle,
Solveig Langeland
Nymphenburger Strasse 79
80636 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-64 28 26 11
fax +49-89-64 95 73 49
email: [email protected]
www.atrix-films.com
please contact Robert Rajber
please contact Wolfram Skowronnek
Breite Strasse 48-50
50667 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-92 06 90
fax +49-2 21-9 20 69 69
email: [email protected]
Bavaria Film International
Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH
Kinowelt International GmbH
Futura Film Weltvertrieb
im Filmverlag der Autoren GmbH
please contact Thorsten Schaumann
please contact Stelios Ziannis, Anja Uecker
Bavariafilmplatz 8
82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86
fax +49-89-64 99 37 20
email: [email protected]
www.bavaria-film-international.de
Karl-Tauchnitz-Strasse 10
04107 Leipzig/Germany
phone +49-3 41-35 59 60
fax +49-3 41-35 59 61 19
email: [email protected],
[email protected]
www.kinowelt.de
Beta Cinema
Dept. of Beta Film GmbH
please contact Andreas Rothbauer
Gruenwalder Weg 28d
82041 Oberhaching/Germany
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80
fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88
email: [email protected]
www.betacinema.com
cine aktuell
Filmgesellschaft mbH
Transit Film GmbH
please contact Loy W. Arnold, Mark Gruenthal
Dachauer Strasse 35
80335 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-59 98 85-0
fax +49-89-59 98 85-20
email: [email protected],
[email protected]
www.transitfilm.de
uni media film gmbh
please contact Irene Vogt, Michael Waldleitner
Media Luna Entertainment
GmbH & Co.KG
please contact Ida Martins
Hochstadenstrasse 1-3
50674 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-8 01 49 80
fax +49-2 21-80 14 98 21
email: [email protected]
www.medialuna-entertainment.de
Bavariafilmplatz 7
82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-59 58 46
fax +49-89-54 50 70 52
email: [email protected]
Progress Film-Verleih GmbH
please contact Ralf Faust, Axel Schaarschmidt please contact Christel Jansen
Werdenfelsstrasse 81
81377 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-7 41 34 30
fax +49-89-74 13 43 16
email: [email protected]
www.cine-aktuell.de
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
Immanuelkirchstrasse 14
10405 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-24 00 32 25
fax +49-30-24 00 32 22
email: [email protected]
www.progress-film.de
association of german film exporters
61
GERMAN FILMS: A PROFILE
German Films Service + Marketing is the national information and advisory center for the promotion of German films worldwide. It was established in 1954 under the name Export-Union of
German Cinema as the umbrella association for the Association of
German Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German
Feature Film Producers and the Association of German Film
Exporters, and operates today in the legal form of a limited company.
In 2004, new shareholders came on board the Export-Union which
from then on operated under its new name: German Films Service +
Marketing GmbH.
German Films’ range of activities includes:
Close cooperation with major international film festivals, including Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Locarno, San
Sebastian, Montreal, San Francisco, Karlovy Vary, Moscow,
Tribeca, Shanghai, Rotterdam, Sydney, Goteborg, Warsaw,
Thessaloniki, and Turin, among others
Organization of umbrella stands for German sales companies
and producers at international television and film markets
Shareholders are the Association of German Feature Film
Producers, the Association of New German Feature Film Producers,
the Association of German Film Exporters, the German Federal Film
Board (FFA), the Association of German Television Producers, the
Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, the German Documentary
Association, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern and Filmstiftung NRW representing the seven main regional film funds, and the German Short
Film Association.
Staging of ”Festivals of German Films“ worldwide (Rome,
Madrid, Paris, London, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney,
Melbourne, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Budapest, Cracow,
Moscow, Scandinavia, Tokyo)
Members of the advisory board are: Alfred Huermer (chairman),
Peter Dinges, Antonio Exacoustos, Dr. Hermann Scharnhoop, Michael
Schmid-Ospach, and Michael Weber.
Providing advice and information for German filmmakers and
press on international festivals, conditions of participation, and
German films being shown
German Films itself has 13 permanent members of staff:
Christian Dorsch, managing director
Mariette Rissenbeek, public relations
Petra Bader, office manager
Kim Behrendt, PR assistant
Danilo Braun, accounts
Sandra Buchta, project coordinator/documentary film
Myriam Gauff, project coordinator
Angela Hawkins, publications & website editor
Nicole Kaufmann, project coordinator
Julia Rappold, assistant to the managing director
Martin Scheuring, project coordinator/short film
Konstanze Welz, project coordinator
Stephanie Wimmer, project coordinator/television
Organization of the annual ”Next Generation“ short film program, which presents a selection of shorts by students of
German film schools and is premiered every year at Cannes
In addition, German Films has nine foreign representatives in eight
countries.
German Films’ budget of presently €5.7 million comes from film
export levies, the office of the Federal Government Commissioner
for Culture and the Media, and the FFA. In addition, the seven main
regional film funds (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFoerderung
Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MFG
Baden-Wuerttemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, and
Nordmedia) make a financial contribution, currently amounting to
€300,000, towards the work of German Films.
German Films is a founding member of the European Film Promotion,
a network of national film agencies in 25 European countries (including
Unifrance, Swiss Films, Austrian Film Commission, Holland Film,
among others) with similar responsibilities to those of German Films.
The organization, with its headquarters in Hamburg, aims to develop
and realize joint projects for the presentation of European films on an
international level.
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
Providing advice and information for representatives of the
international press and buyers from the fields of cinema, video,
and television
Publication of informational literature about current German
films and the German film industry (German Films Quarterly and
German Films Yearbook), as well as international market analyses and special festival brochures
An Internet website (www.german-films.de) offering information about new German films, a film archive, as well as information and links to German and international film festivals
and institutions
Organization of the selection procedure for the German entry
for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film
Collaboration with Deutsche Welle’s DW-TV KINO program
which features the latest German film releases and international productions in Germany
Organization of the ”Munich Previews“ geared toward
European arthouse distributors and buyers of German films
Selective financial support for the foreign releases of German
films
On behalf of the association Rendez-vous franco-allemands du
cinéma, organization with Unifrance of the annual GermanFrench film meeting
In association and cooperation with its shareholders, German Films
works to promote feature, documentary, television and short films.
german films: a profile
62
FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES
Argentina
Gustav Wilhelmi
Ayacucho 495, 2º ”3“
C1026AAA Buenos Aires/Argentina
phone +54 -11- 49 52 15 37
phone/fax +54 -11- 49 51 19 10
email: [email protected]
Eastern Europe
Simone Baumann
L.E. Vision Film- und
Fernsehproduktion GmbH
Koernerstrasse 56
04107 Leipzig/Germany
phone +49-3 41-96 36 80
fax +49-3 41-9 63 68 44
email: [email protected]
France
Cristina Hoffman
33, rue L. Gaillet
94250 Gentilly/France
phone +33-1-40 41 08 33
fax +33-1-49 86 44 18
email: [email protected]
Italy
Alessia Ratzenberger
Angeli Movie Service
Piazza San Bernardo 108a
00187 Rome/Italy
phone +39-06-48 90 22 30
fax +39-06-4 88 57 97
email: [email protected]
United Kingdom
Iris Ordonez
Top Floor
113-117 Charing Cross Road
London WC2H ODT/Great Britain
phone +44-20-74 37 20 47
email: [email protected]
USA/East Coast & Canada
Oliver Mahrdt
c/o Hanns Wolters International Inc.
211 E 43rd Street, #505
New York, NY 10017/USA
phone +1-2 12-7 14 01 00
fax +1-2 12-6 43 14 12
email: [email protected]
Japan
Tomosuke Suzuki
Nippon Cine TV Corporation
Suite 123, Gaien House
2-2-39 Jingumae, Shibuya-Ku
Tokyo/Japan
phone +81-3-34 05 09 16
fax +81-3-34 79 08 69
email: [email protected]
Spain
Stefan Schmitz
C/ Atocha 43, bajo 1a
28012 Madrid/Spain
phone +34-91-3 66 43 64
fax +34-91-3 65 93 01
email: [email protected]
USA/West Coast
Corina Danckwerts
Capture Film International, LLC
1726 N. Whitley Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90028/USA
phone +1-3 23-9 62 67 10
fax +1-3 23-9 62 67 22
email: [email protected]
IMPRINT
Editors
published by:
German Films
Service + Marketing GmbH
Sonnenstrasse 21
80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-5 99 78 70
fax +49-89-59 97 87 30
email: [email protected]
www.german-films.de
Production Reports
Contributors for this issue
Translations
Angela Hawkins, Mariette Rissenbeek
Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley
Martin Blaney, Felix Moeller, Tilmann P. Gangloff,
Marco Schmidt, Ruediger Suchsland
Lucinda Rennison
Design Group
triptychon · agentur fuer design
und kulturkommunikation, Munich/Germany
Art Direction
Werner Schauer
ISSN 1614-6387
Credits are not contractual for any
of the films mentioned in this publication.
Printing Office
Printed on ecological, unchlorinated paper.
© German Films Service + Marketing GmbH
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
german films quarterly
4 · 2005
ESTA DRUCK GMBH,
Obermuehlstrasse 90, 82398 Polling/Germany
Cover Photo
Scene from “Summer in Berlin”
(photo © X Verleih)
foreign representatives · imprint
63
GFQ 4/2005_Berlinale
30.09.2005
16:53 Uhr
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