Quarterly 4 · 2008
Transcription
Quarterly 4 · 2008
German Films Quarterly 4 · 2008 AT ROME Cinema 2008 Competition LONG SHADOWS by Connie Walther Anteprima-Premiere THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX by Uli Edel PORTRAITS Directors Hannes Stoehr & Neele Leana Vollmar, Rat Pack Filmproduktion, Actor David Kross German Films Quarterly 4 6 4 · 2008 directors’ portraits GLOBAL STORYTELLER A portrait of Hannes Stoehr A SENSE OF FAMILY A portrait of Neele Leana Vollmar 8 producers’ portrait PACKING A PUNCH A portrait of Rat Pack Filmproduktion 10 actor’s portrait NORTHERN LIGHT IN THE MOVIE SKY A portrait of David Kross 12 news 18 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 26 27 28 29 30 32 33 34 35 in production 24 STUNDEN SCHLESISCHES TOR Eva Lia Reinegger, Anna de Paoli BERLIN Michael Ballhaus, Ciro Cappellari DIE FREMDE Feo Aladag DER GROSSE KATER Wolfgang Panzer HAUS UND KIND Andreas Kleinert HILDE Kai Wessel HITLER VOR GERICHT Bernd Fischerauer KINDERSUCHE Miguel Alexandre MAENNERSACHE Gernot Roll, Mario Barth ROMY Torsten C. Fischer ROSAMUNDE PILCHER: VIER JAHRESZEITEN Giles Foster SCHWERKRAFT Maximilian Erlenwein THIS IS LOVE Matthias Glasner TRANSFER Damir Lukacevic UNTER BAUERN Ludi Boeken new german films 9TO5 – DAYS IN PORN Jens Hoffmann 88 – PILGERN AUF JAPANISCH 88 – PILGRIMAGE IN JAPANESE Gerald Koll ADEMS SOHN ADEM’S SON Hakan Savas Mican ANONYMA — EINE FRAU IN BERLIN A WOMAN IN BERLIN Max Faerberboeck 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX Uli Edel DIE BIENEN – TOEDLICHE BEDROHUNG KILLERBEES Michael Karen BUDDENBROOKS BUDDENBROOKS – THE DECLINE OF A FAMILY Heinrich Breloer DEM KUEHLEN MORGEN ENTGEGEN INTO THE COLD DAWN Oliver Becker, Katharina Bruner FINNISCHER TANGO FINNISH TANGO Buket Alakus FRECHE MAEDCHEN CHEEKY GIRLS Ute Wieland GELIEBTE CLARA CLARA Helma Sanders-Brahms HINTER KAIFECK KAIFECK MURDER Esther Gronenborn HOTEL SAHARA Bettina Haasen IN JEDER SEKUNDE AT ANY SECOND Jan Fehse JERICHOW Christian Petzold KRABAT Marco Kreuzpaintner MA’RIB Rainer Komers MIKE FIGGIS – THE SEDUCTION OF THE EYE Ina Borrmann DAS MORPHUS-GEHEIMNIS MYSTERY OF MORPHUS Karola Hattop NARRENSPIEL FOOL’S GAME Markus F. Adrian NEBEN DER SPUR TOUR EXCESS Detlef Bothe NOBODY’S PERFECT Niko von Glasow DER PFAD DES KRIEGERS THE WAY OF A WARRIOR Andreas Pichler SCHATTENWELT LONG SHADOWS Connie Walther SHORT CUT TO HOLLYWOOD Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg STANDESGEMAESS NOBLE COMMITMENTS Julia von Heinz U-900 Sven Unterwaldt WARTEN AUF ANGELINA WAITING FOR ANGELINA Hans-Christoph Blumenberg WELTSTADT CITY OF THE WORLD Christian Klandt ZWEIER OHNE COXLESS PAIR Jobst Christian Oetzmann 65 film exporters 67 foreign representatives · imprint D I R E C TO R ’ S P O RT R A I T Hannes Stoehr (photo © Filmfestival Locarno) Hannes Stoehr was born in Stuttgart in 1970 and studied European Law at the University of Passau after completing his civilian service and a nine-month trip through South America. He then studied Scriptwriting and Directing at the German Film & Television Academy Berlin (dffb) from 1995 to 1999. After a number of shorts and medium-length documentaries, he made his feature directorial debut with Berlin is in Germany in 2001, based on a 15-minute short with the same name from 1999. The film was shown at over 30 festivals worldwide and released theatrically in Germany, France, Spain and Turkey, winning prizes at festivals in Poitiers, Valencia and Annonay. In Germany, the film received, among others, the Panorama Audience Award at the 2001 Berlinale, the German Film Critics’ Award for actor Joerg Schuettauf, 1st Prize in Studio Hamburg’s Next Generation Competition, the New Faces Award for Best Young Director 2002, and the Association of German Film Critics’ Award for Best Film 2002. In 2003, he wrote and directed the Tatort TV movie Odins Rache which was nominated for the German and European CIVIS Television Award 2004 and received the German Television Award 2004 in the category of Best Supporting Role for actress Sandra Borgmann. His second feature film, One Day in Europe, was invited to the Official Competition of the 2005 Berlinale, screened at over 30 other festivals around the world and was released abroad in cinemas in Japan, Spain, Turkey, the UK, Poland, and Russia. In 2006, he obtained a writing fellowship for the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles to work on the project Forty Eighters and directed his third feature Berlin Calling in the summer 2007. Starring the electronic composer Paul Kalkbrenner, who also wrote the film’s score, Berlin Calling had its world premiere on the Piazza Grande in Locarno this August. Hannes Stoehr works as a scriptwriter and director in Berlin and is a lecturer at the dffb and the Baden-Wuerttemberg Film Academy. His other films include: Biete Argentinien, Suche Europa (short, 1995), Lieber Cuba Libre (documentary, 1997), Prawda (short, 1998), and Gosh – Live in Paris (documentary, 1998). Agent: Above the Line GmbH · Uschi Keil Wielandstrasse 5 · 10625 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-2 88 77 30 · fax +49-30-28 87 73 10 email: [email protected] www.abovetheline.de · www.stoehrfilm.eu GLOBAL STORYTELLER A portrait of Hannes Stoehr Thoughtfully entertaining rather than sermonizing – that’s the goal of director Hannes Stoehr whose latest feature Berlin Calling had its world premiere on the Piazza Grande at the Locarno International Film Festival in August 2008. german films quarterly 4 · 2008 “I see myself as more of a clown than a priest,” says Hannes. “I love solid storytelling which is based on research. Reality is complex, the main thing is to find the right angle for your story. And the right tone: I prefer tragicomedies.” director’s portrait 4 Hannes was born in Stuttgart and grew up in Hechingen in BadenWuerttemberg. Before and after civil service, he did extended backpacking tours through Central and South America. He then studied Law, but his involvement in various art projects making films made him decide to “turn my hobby into a profession.” In 1994, he moved to Berlin. Hannes became part of an underground-style filmmaking movement in the reunified capital, “which was really anarchic, low budget and of course without any shooting permits. Everything was possible then because there was such a great energy in the air.” These Super 8 films were then shown at basement bars and can now also be viewed on Hannes’ own YouTube channel. “In fact, looking back, I think that this atmosphere at the beginning of the 90s in Berlin was very important to me,” he suggests. “It wasn’t just Germans, because you seemed to have the whole world coming here to find answers. That energy is something you find in my films.” His application to Berlin’s German Film & Television Academy (dffb) was accepted in 1995 where he studied until 1999, making such films as the documentaries, Lieber Cuba Libre, Gosh – Live in Paris, and a 15-minute short version of his 2001 feature debut Berlin is in Germany. Hannes admits that there may at times have been an ideological clash between him and dffb director Reinhard Hauff over his work, but he has nothing but respect for the veteran filmmaker’s humanism. “I learned a lot from Reinhard Hauff, although or maybe because he comes from a different generation.” Moreover, several of his fellow students from film school days have worked with him on subsequent projects such as DoPs Andreas Doub and Florian Hoffmeister, editor Anne Fabini and producer Karsten Aurich. Berlin is in Germany stirred things up winning the Panorama Audience Award at the 2001 Berlinale, the German Film Critics Prize for Best Film 2002 and many others, including four international first film awards. in a universal way. So, it is important to know the cinema styles of other countries.” His feature One Day in Europe – which had its premiere in the Official Competition of the Berlinale in 2005 – he describes as his response to “a historical European moment coming from this chance of the fall of the Wall” with interwoven stories set in Berlin, Moscow, Istanbul and Santiago de Compostela. The overall theme of the film was languages in Europe. And looking back now, Hannes says that he can see his three feature films as forming a trilogy: “Berlin is in Germany shows Berlin viewed from the alien perspective, One Day in Europe shows Berlin in the European context, and Berlin Calling is now the view from within.” As Hannes points out, it is not by coincidence that his three features to date all have English titles: “The titles may be English but the films have a very German content or at least a German point of view. The films are very local, but at the same time very universal. It worked out: Berlin is in Germany and One Day in Europe were released in the cinemas in France, Spain, Turkey, Poland, Russia, the UK and Japan, and elsewhere. “Also, English titles are an advantage in a Google world,” Hannes quips. At the moment, he is promoting the release of Berlin Calling in Germany and is invited to several international festivals. Berlin Calling portrays the world of an electronic music composer, a tragicomedy in the Berlin of today, starring Paul Kalkbrenner, Rita Lengyel, Corinna Harfouch and Araba Walton. “Our main role and musician, Paul Kalkbrenner, is an internationally known electronic music artist, so we have a worldwide audience on all continents around the globe. We are trying to also reach our global community by net guerilla activities through My Space, Facebook and YouTube. The Internet gives you a great opportunity to promote your film without having so much money,” Hannes adds. “We live in a time where global storytelling is possible. This is a great opportunity.” Hannes Stoehr spoke with Martin Blaney This feature debut played in the here and now of 2001 Berlin whereas subsequent films about the recent German past, such as Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye, Lenin! or Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others, were set during the GDR or in the autumn of ’89. “I saw myself more in the present,” Hannes explains. “The important thing for me here was that a wall comes down and, from one day to the next, a human experiment begins which had never taken place before. A country is divided and is then brought back together.” “With my first film I fortunately had the chance to travel around the world and see what is important for a German film,” Hannes continues. “My generation of filmmakers is quite privileged because after the Second World War people had had enough of the Germans, something which I can understand fully. But after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the interest in German culture has come back strongly. People see that something is happening and the clichéd images of the Second World War are being changed. One can see more nuances there now.” Hannes loves traveling and speaks English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. “I enjoy attending film festivals and being present for the releases of my films in other countries. I always try to tell my stories german films quarterly 4 · 2008 director’s portrait 5 D I R E C TO R ’ S P O RT R A I T Neele Leana Vollmar (photo © Rick Ostermann) Neele Leana Vollmar was born in Bremen in 1978. After her schooling, she was a director’s assistant for various film productions, followed by studies in Directing at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Film Academy in Ludwigsburg from 2000 to 2005. She already demonstrated an interest in interpersonal relationships in her first short films like Sans une Parole (2001). Her enduring theme of the family first attracted attention in My Parents (Meine Eltern, 2003), which received several awards world-wide. She has developed more and more facets of cinematic relatives in the full-length features Vacation from Life (Urlaub vom Leben, 2004), Peaceful Times (Friedliche Zeiten, 2008), and Maria, ihm schmeckt’s nicht (2008/2009, currently in production). During her studies, she received the Caligari Fellowship (2002), and participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus and the Hollywood Masterclass (2003). Together with Caroline Daube she established her own production company, Royal Pony Film, with a VGF grant. In future, Royal Pony Film hopes to realize projects by other directors as well, but first the aim is to make more films by Vollmar, written once again by the well-known scriptwriter Ruth Toma. Vollmar often falls back on a familiar team for her productions: in front of the camera, she employs regular actors like Gustav Peter Woehler or Anna Boetcher, and the cameraman is very often Pascal Schmitt. So she has even internalized her theme on set: “There, I am simply a family kind of person.” Contact: Royal Pony Film GmbH & Co. KG Bayerisches Filmzentrum Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany phone +49-89-64 98 11 20 · fax +49-89-64 98 13 20 email: [email protected] · www.royalponyfilm.com A SENSE OF FAMILY A portrait of Neele Leana Vollmar Although she is the “family filmmaker” among young German directors, there is no sign of the quiet life in Neele Leana Vollmar’s work. In her film families, either the children or the parents are prone to depression, as a rule the family members are ashamed of each other, and talking to one another is the exception. Why does she like to plumb the depths of family life so much, driving her dysfunctional family members to the fringe of madness? When she is asked the reason for this, the lanky director from Bremen only laughs and shakes her head. “No, no, no. My own family is a dream family,” she assures us. They have a close relationship; her parents know almost everything about her. “It is precisely because things have always been so great for me that I look for the skeletons in the closet.” However, her mother is a little to blame for Vollmar’s german films quarterly 4 · 2008 favorite theme. After all, she showed her daughter Ingmar Bergman films at an early age: an object lesson in complicated souls and the inspiration for film material that Vollmar has already made into her specialty – from the hysterical short film My Parents to her tragicomic feature Peaceful Times. This film version of the novel was launched in German cinemas in September and the international premiere took place at the 32nd World Film Festival in Montreal shortly before that. She even succeeds in recounting people’s fears and tragic events in a light, laconic tone: Vollmar’s films are suited to an age in which life’s plans are becoming more and more complicated and the contradictions in almost every biography are evident. Her characters seem to say – so why don’t you tell me, what exactly is normal? director’s portrait 6 These films appear to tread lightly, but they are also profound. And they touch people outside Germany: My Parents won three prizes in Clermont-Ferrand in 2004. It is not surprising: when petit-bourgeois parents recreate the illusion of a once happy marriage and actually find themselves and each other in the process, the idea has considerable potential for identification in any country. “They are situations that everyone has experienced at some time,” Vollmar says of her films. She loves the situation comedy that develops in relationships, but: “The story is always the most important thing, the laughter comes second.” Vollmar searches for poetry in everyday life: “I want my viewers to immerse themselves in the film for one or two hours, and for each person to leave the cinema with his own story afterwards.” Her most lavish project to date, Peaceful Times is set in the Germany of the 1960s: the Striesow family have escaped from the GDR. Irene is still haunted by her memories of the East and her husband Dieter is a big dreamer, longing for America – the two could scarcely be less alike. The minor and major crises in life – as often in Vollmar’s films – are set off by ironic off-screen commentary. Here, it is the naive voice of one of the couple’s children that recounts the family drama. The mother constantly has fantasies of suicide in the film, certainly, but the viewer cannot hate her for it: an achievement of actress Katharina Schubert, as well as the direction. Later, she founded her own production company, Royal Pony Film, together with Caroline Daube and made Peaceful Times. She refuses to be categorized, constantly seeking new facets of her film theme. The next one on the list is a witty, perceptive comedy; the film version of a book that has been very successful in Germany – Maria, ihm schmeckt’s nicht by Jan Weiler. This Claussen+Woebke+Putz production centers on a German-Italian relationship and the resultant misunderstandings: again and again, Vollmar focuses on the minor cultural clashes – between East and West, between bourgeois and dropout, between German and Italian mentality. “I love the cliché,” she says, and adds that she loves to play with it. And often it conceals something that is simply true. But the sense of homelessness in a different culture felt by the main character is important to Vollmar as well. That is what gives the comedy its depth. Even though her parents sometimes find it annoying to be asked constantly what went wrong when they were bringing up their daughter: Vollmar is not working off any kind of trauma. She has merely found a lively source of inspiration. Christoph Groener spoke with Neele Leana Vollmar GmbH Film neuroses, the decor of the times, or shooting with children: Vollmar never balks at such challenges. She also refused to accept the pressure to make another scurrilous comedy after My Parents. Indeed, melancholy dominated in Vacation from Life: a bank employee recognizes that his existence is no more than routine. And because Vollmar likes to get her own way, she made her student graduation project into a full-length film despite the opposition. worldwide transport solutions Int. Medienspedition FILMTRANSPORTS . FIRST CLASS SERVICE ! AIRFREIGHT WORLDWIDE: EXPORT . IMPORT . WAREHOUSE INTERNATIONAL COURIERSERVICE: WORLDWIDE „DOOR TO DOOR“ TRUCKING SERVICE . OVERNIGHT FESTIVALS . FILMPRODUCTION-HANDLING www.multi-logistics.de Airport Offices: München Frankfurt Berlin Hamburg 089/97 58 07-0 Fax 089/97 59 52 82 [email protected] 069/69 52 36-0 Fax 069/69 52 36 15 [email protected] 030/412 20 34 Fax 030/412 20 94 [email protected] 040/50 75 15 73 Fax 040/50 75 25 36 [email protected] Anita Schneider, Christian Becker (photo courtesy of Rat Pack Filmproduktion) P R O D U C E R S ’ P O RT R A I T Rat Pack Filmproduktion was founded in 2001 by Christian Becker and Anita Schneider as a production house for feature films, TV movies, and international event productions with Constantin Film as a shareholder. A graduate of Munich’s University of Television & Film (HFF), Becker had produced such films as Bang Boom Bang, Kanak Attack, Was nicht passt …, 7 Days To Live and Das Phantom whilst serving as shareholder and managing director of Indigo Filmproduktion and Becker & Haeberle Filmproduktion before joining forces with Curt Cress and Michael Bischoff to launch F.A.M.E. Film & Music Entertainment on the Frankfurt stock exchange in 2000. Meanwhile, Schneider, who oversees business affairs at Rat Pack, has several years of experience working for such companies as Bavaria Film, ProSiebenSat.1 and Indigo Film/F.A.M.E. Rat Pack’s productions include: Hunt for the Hidden Relic (Das Jesus Video, dir: Sebastian Niemann, 2002, TV), Blood of the Templars (Das Blut der Templer, dir: Florian Baxmeyer, 2005, TV), ProSieben Fairy Tales (Die ProSieben Maerchenstunde, various directors, 2005-2007, TV), Goldene Zeiten (dir: Peter Thorwarth, 2005), Hui Buh – The Goofy Ghost (Hui Buh – Das Schlossgespenst, dir: Sebastian Niemann, 2006), The Vexxer (Neues vom Wixxer, dirs: Cyril Boss and Philipp Stennert, 2007), The Wave (Die Welle, dir: Dennis Gansel, 2008), ProSieben Funny Movies (various directors, 2008, TV), Killing is My Business, Honey (Mord ist mein Geschaeft, Liebling, dir: Sebastian Niemann, 2008/2009, post-prod), Vorstadtkrokodile (dir: Christian Ditter, 2009, post-prod), Vickie the Viking (Wickie und die starken Maenner, dir: Michael “Bully” Herbig, 2009, in production), Jerry Cotton (dirs: Cyril Boss and Philipp Stennert, in preparation), The Dawn (dir: Dennis Gansel, in preparation) and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivfuehrer, dir: Sebastian Niemann, in preparation). Contact: Rat Pack Filmproduktion GmbH Beethovenplatz 2 · 80336 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-1 21 14 87 12 · fax +49-89-1 21 14 87 77 email: [email protected] · www.ratpack-film.de PACKING A PUNCH A portrait of Rat Pack Filmproduktion “Big entertainment – that’s our goal and what we like to see ourselves,” says producer Christian Becker about the strategy of the Munich-based production house Rat Pack Filmproduktion he founded with Constantin Film AG, Anita Schneider and a group of screenwriters and directors in 2001. german films quarterly 4 · 2008 As Becker and Schneider explain, their company’s name refers to the legendary Rat Pack of entertainers led by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin with Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, who were friends and worked and partied together in the 1950s. producers’ portrait 8 “Drawing on the original Rat Pack idea, the company aimed to bring people together who fitted well together, got on with one another and wanted to make films together,” Becker recalls. In fact, the core team of collaborators at Rat Pack had been working together since their film school days in the mid-1990s at Munich’s University of Television & Film (HFF): “I have always worked with Peter Thorwarth, starting with his short films Mafia Pizza Razzia and Was nicht passt, wird passend gemacht and then going on to his feature film Bang Boom Bang, the feature-length version of Was nicht passt … and Goldene Zeiten. The same is with Dennis Gansel with Wrong Trip and Living Dead leading to his first feature-length project Das Phantom and now The Wave.” “Sebastian Niemann was someone to emulate because he was two years above me at film school and had already worked with Rainer Matsutani on Over My Dead Body (Nur ueber meine Leiche),” says Becker. Their first collaboration was the TV movie Biikenbrennen – made for Indigo Filmproduktion and Becker&Haeberle Filmproduktion, the production companies Becker set up with former Kinowelt founder Thomas Haeberle after his graduation from the HFF. “It was such a sensational feature debut that we said we would do all of our projects together from now on,” Becker recalls. They followed the TV movie with an English-language feature film 7 Days To Live aimed at the international market, produced by Indigo Filmproduktion. Niemann and Becker came together for Rat Pack’s first big production Hunt for the Hidden Relic which was shot on location in Morocco doubling up for Israel. “This production scored the best ever ratings for a German TV mini-series on ProSieben and the record still stands,” notes Anita Schneider who is “responsible for the business and financial side of the company’s operation and keeps an eye on the budgets, while Christian is the one coming up with the ideas for our projects.” Rat Pack began with a focus on working for German television – ranging from such TV movies as Hunt for the Hidden Relic or Blood of the Templars as well as the comedy series the ProSieben Fairy Tales and the ProSieben Funny Movies – but Becker and Schneider are aiming “to get to a situation where we can make something in English every two years, although German TV programs and feature films will continue to be our area of emphasis.” Thus, next year will see the company embarking on an English-language remake of Hunt for the Hidden Relic, to be shot again by Sebastian Niemann with the same team and an international cast. “The story will be more compressed, nearer to the novel, more action-laden, everything bigger and louder!,” Becker explains. The fairy tales series has worked its way through the Brothers Grimm and will now turn its attention to the Arabian Tales – with a change of production location from studio sets built in warehouses outside Prague to the Antalya Studios in Turkey. “However, we will continue to use the Czech craftsmen because they are really world class. You don’t see anything like this elsewhere in Europe.” The work for television also enables Rat Pack to try out young writers and directors who can then progress to feature projects. A case in point is the directorial duo Cyril Boss and Philipp Stennert. “We are really proud that we have accompanied their careers from the first german films quarterly 4 · 2008 steps after film school,” Becker says. “At Indigo we had developed TV movies with them and they wrote a lot for the Was nicht passt … TV series at Westside [the NRW-based sister company of Rat Pack]. They then wrote scripts for the fairy tales series and directed some episodes. The next step was for them to take on directing the feature film The Vexxer.” The next project Rat Pack is planning with the duo is a feature film around the 1960s cult detective Jerry Cotton, which will be the company’s first flagship project for 2009. Becker promises “a fantastic new interpretation which will be like the way people approached Starsky & Hutch. It won’t be a parody because we take the character of Jerry Cotton very seriously but we see him a bit like Inspector Drebin in The Naked Gun. The film industry as well as the fans and readers are already all very enthusiastic.” While the “bread and butter” TV projects keep Rat Pack quite busy, it is not idle on the feature film front either. Last winter saw Sebastian Niemann working on the comedy Killing is My Business, Honey in and around Berlin with a cast including Rick Kavanian, Nora Tschirner, Christan Tramitz, Gunther Kaufmann and movie icons Franco Nero and Bud Spencer. Warner Bros. will release the film next spring. “We had a great experience shooting in Berlin and Brandenburg on Dennis Gansel’s The Wave,” Becker recalls, adding that the reaction to this school drama, which has been seen by over 2.5 million cinemagoers in Germany, “was the first time that one of our productions had such international recognition. We have received invitations to many festivals, won audience awards and have prints of the film traveling around all the time.” Meanwhile, this summer saw the company handling the production of two feature film projects at the same time: Christian Ditter’s adaptation of Max von der Gruen’s 1977 novel Vorstadtkrokodile, produced with Rat Pack’s Krefeld-based sister company Westside Filmproduktion and Constantin Film, and Michael “Bully” Herbig’s Vickie the Viking which is billed as the most expensive German family entertainment film to be produced this year. And Becker and Schneider, together with their in-house creative producers Lena Olbrich, Nina Maag, Mathias Loesel and Simon Happ, have plenty in store for the future to keep German and international audiences on tenterhooks. Projects in development range from the vampire love story The Dawn and a war drama based on Gert Ledig’s novel Vergeltung – both to be directed by Dennis Gansel – to a plane catastrophe film and a western set during the Second World War by Peter Thorwarth. Three feature films are also in the works with Sebastian Niemann: the aforementioned English remake of Hunt for the Hidden Relic, a big screen version of the children’s classic Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, and a sequel to his 2006 film Hui Buh – The Goofy Ghost. “This time, it will be ’Hui Buh meets The Mummy’,” Becker explains. “After the first part was in dark woods and dungeons, the adventure’s journey will now be going to Egypt!” Christian Becker and Anita Schneider spoke with Martin Blaney producers’ portrait 9 A C TO R ’ S P O RT R A I T David Kross was born in the small northern German town of Bargteheide in July 1990. After his first efforts at acting in a children’s theater group, news of his unusual talent – although he was only fifteen at the time – spread so fast that German director Detlev Buck invited him to a casting in Berlin. There, he successfully competed against 500 fellow applicants and landed his first leading role in Tough Enough (Knallhart). The role of Michael Polischka, who must come to terms with the hard life at a school in Berlin’s problem district Neukoelln, catapulted him into the film world’s field of vision overnight. His authentic performance met with great acclaim at the world premiere during the Berlinale in 2006, and in the following weeks the film drew 143,000 admissions to German cinemas and triggered a socio-political debate in the German government about conditions at socially disadvantaged schools. Kross, who seemed astonishingly unaffected by all the fuss, subsequently secured the title role in the lavish filming of bestseller Krabat (2008) by director Marco Kreuzpaintner. The film, which screened in Toronto, was already much-discussed worldwide during shooting because of its opulent realization. The 18-year-old actor then drew the attention of Hollywood director Stephen Daldry, who casted Kross alongside Kate Winslet in his third key role in The Reader (2008), which looks set to further his faultless reputation. David Kross (photo © Andreas Muehe) Agent: Schulze & Heyn FILM PR · Peter Schulze Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse 17 · 10178 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-88 68 20 35 · fax +49-30-88 68 28 10 email: [email protected] · www.film-pr.de NORTHERN LIGHT IN THE MOVIE SKY A portrait of David Kross After this three-year, vertical take-off as Germany’s leading young generation actor, David Kross took a short time off this August before the world premiere of Krabat, considering the future and recuperating his energies. In a peaceful moment, we spoke to the young talent about a future that certainly seems to hold every opportunity. “When I made Tough Enough, I had no idea what furore the film would bring in its wake. I would probably have been much more nergerman films quarterly 4 · 2008 vous if I had known about the risks beforehand.” David Kross gazes thoughtfully at the ground. Now, after three main roles, the 18-yearold talent naturally has a better understanding of the business, but in purely optical terms, he has lost nothing of his youthful integrity. His facial features may have become more striking, but the sparkle in his eyes still reflects the mixture of profundity and post-pubertal vehemence that directors regard as the secret of his natural style of acting. “He acts as if he has been doing nothing else all his life,” director actor’s portrait 10 Marco Kreuzpaintner enthuses. And he should know – for several weeks, he filmed Krabat together with Kross in deepest Romania – and he expresses only what almost everyone on the set thought of the young talent. Kross’ down-to-earth personality and professionalism were even obvious after shooting was over for the day: while his fellow actors spent the evenings in provincial bars, Kross stayed in his hotel room, learned his texts, and studied on the Internet for his secondary school graduation exams. “Actually, I was quite frightened of the part, because in this film a lot depended on my performance," Kross sums up in retrospect. "And by contrast to Tough Enough, in the case of Krabat I knew just what I was up against.” The genre film produced by Claussen+Woebke+Putz is 120 minutes long, and Kross features in almost every scene. The tremendous past success of Otfried Preussler's original book made the role into quite a burden from the start. Krabat was sold more than 1.8 million times in Germany, translated into 31 languages, and showered with prizes. Young as he was, Kross knew that if he failed with this film, his early laurels would be forgotten as rapidly as he had earned them. “It is important that I remain true to myself,” Kross says. We have heard this statement from many an up-and-coming star before him, but very few sound as honest as this young actor, who looks forward with anticipation but without exaggerated expectations to what lies ahead. “I don’t know what sort of reactions I will have to face after the premieres of Krabat and The Reader. But actually, I don’t really want to know. It is all the same to me where I end up working. The main thing is that I am involved in filming stories with material that works well.” In the meantime, David Kross has completed the first part of his own very personal story – and it has been a great success. Johannes Bonke spoke with David Kross But that was highly unlikely, as must have been clear to any observant visitor to the set when they saw his level of concentration. While a hectic, up to 230-man team worked around him in the icy cold of the Carpathian Mountains, Kross listened patiently to Marco Kreuzpaintner’s explanations. As soon as the word 'action' had been spoken, his body pose, facial expression and breathing altered – and with astonishing speed and attention to detail, Kross – the lad from northern Germany – turned into Krabat, a beggar boy from the 17th century. “Krabat is a small young man who has a hard time mentally and financially after the death of his mother. He reacts in a rather passive way to the things that happen to him. But then he falls in love, grows up, begins to question things, and finally manages to act instead of just reacting.” This development into a thinking, acting individual is noticeable in Kross himself as well. When he saw the film for the first time at a special screening in Berlin, he analyzed his performance most perceptively. Afterwards, there was no word of self-praise, but a critical assessment of what he might have done better. “I cannot explain what exactly happens to me when I have to act in front of a camera. But I know that I need to experience a lot more in my life. Only experience of my own will help me to go on playing my parts well.” Nevertheless, according to eye-witnesses, he also gave an utterly competent performance in his shared love scenes with Kate Winslet in The Reader, brilliantly embodying the boy from a rich family who falls for the conductress on a train journey. But the 18-year-old actor still lacks assurance in personal conversations – he has a sympathetic, rather awkward manner. The media interest in his person apparently knows no end since Tough Enough, and several journalists crowding around a table pepper him with questions at interviews, but he is obviously not the sort of person who likes to hear himself speak or pat himself on the shoulder. “I have to confess that sometimes I am still rather uncertain,” Kross admits and then continues, “but perhaps that is quite a good thing for my roles. If I felt selfconfident, I would probably come onto the set without preparing so well.” From the human perspective, at least, David Kross has kept the rural mentality of a lad from the North: modest, reserved and with an eye for the truly important. Professionally, he comes across as someone who is already experienced and privately, he is in the process of finding his own way. german films quarterly 4 · 2008 actor’s portrait 11 4/2008 “The Baader Meinhof Complex” producer Bernd Eichinger, director Uli Edel (photo © 2008 Constantin Film Verleih GmbH) NEWS “THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX” TO REPRESENT GERMANY IN THE RACE FOR THE ACADEMY AWARD® The independent expert jury, appointed by German Films to select the German entry to compete for the Academy Award® for the Best Foreign Language Film, has – under the chairmanship of Alfred Huermer – chosen The Baader Meinhof Complex by Uli Edel. The jury on its decision: “The brilliant performance by the entire cast and the extraordinary adaptation of the story allows a view of the early 70s in the Federal Republic of Germany, without glorifying the perpetrators.” Produced by Constantin Film Produktion/Munich (producer: Bernd Eichinger), Nouvelles Editions de Films/Paris, and G.T. Film Production/Prague, the film, based on the book by Stefan Aust, was released in German cinemas on 25 September 2008 (distributor: Constantin Film Verleih/Munich). International sales are being handled by Summit Entertainment/Los Angeles – The Baader Meinhof Complex has already been german films quarterly 4 · 2008 sold in the most important international territories. Bernd Eichinger on the jury’s decision: “Uli Edel and I are extremely pleased. We invested a lot of energy into this film and are proud to represent German cinema in the race for the Academy Award®.” The Baader Meinhof Complex was supported by FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Bayerischen Bankenfonds, the German Federal Film Board (FFA), the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. The broadcasters NDR, BR, WDR and Degeto were also involved in the project. On 22 January 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will nominate five films from the international entries to participate in the final selection to compete for the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film. Films from some 100 countries are being submitted for this year’s coveted trophy. The official awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on 22 February 2009. news 12 From the exhibit “Movies on the Mind. Psychology and Film” (photo © Deutsche Kinemathek/Marian Stefanowsky) HANDS ON HD IN HANOVER Hands on HD in Hanover (photo courtesy of nordmedia) With some 400 participants from the fields of film and television, over 40 German and European experts and exclusive technical equipment, this year’s Hands on HD, organized by nordmedia and Band Pro Munich, was once again a unique industry event. For seven days, practical exercises and lectures on cinematography and post-production were on the program for workshop participants. MUSEUM FOR FILM AND TELEVISION “ON TOUR” Numerous exhibitions conceived by the Berlin Museum for Film and Television are on tour this year. In December alone, three exhibitions will be taken over by international museums. “Moving Spaces. Production Design + Film” will be shown at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne starting 4 December 2008. The project is dedicated to the work of production designers, set designers and film architects through the use of film examples, designs and models. From 11 December 2008, the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw will show “film.kunst: Ulrike Ottinger.” This extensive show presents the large-scale photographs, costumes and workbooks of the self-willed filmmaker. “Movies on the Mind. Psychology and Film” will open at the Hong Kong Film Archive in mid-December 2008. In multimedia experience spaces, visitors can place themselves “on the couch” and explore their emotions in a “crying room.” Directors and producers were offered extensive insight on High Definition during a two-day seminar. Through the support of around 50 sponsors and cooperation partners, more than 50 HD cameras and 25 high-tech editing boards were made available, giving the participants a rare opportunity to get to know almost all camera systems currently on the market. The goal of the event is to provide intensive technical and workflow training and to keep the entire film and television production industry up-to-date on changing transformation processes. From the exhibit “Movies on the Mind. Psychology and Film” (photo © Deutsche Kinemathek/Marian Stefanowsky) BONJOUR PARIS During her tours in the 19th century, Clara Schumann also traveled to Paris. Now she is returning to the French capital as the leading role in Helma Sanders-Brahms’ new film Clara. The German-French co-production, with Martina Gedeck in the leading role, opens the film program of Saison France-North Rhine-Westphalia 2008/2009 on October 5th in the Parisian Cinema Arlequin. For an entire year, the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) will present itself also from its cultural “best side” in France. The selection of films, which shows the diversity of the productions from NRW, was made by the Filmstiftung NRW, Goethe-Institut Paris, German Films and the Duisburger Filmwoche. Other highlights will include the NRW-supported films being shown at the 13th Festival of German Films in Paris (15 - 21 October), a short film program at the Goethe-Institut Paris, a screening of the globalizationdocumentary Losers and Winners, and the European premiere of Oskar Roehler’s latest film Lulu & Jimi, which was shot in 2007 in NRW. Further information on the cultural and arts program Saison France-North Rhine-Westphalia 2008/2009 can be found at www.artention.info. german films quarterly 4 · 2008 news 13 The Bavarian delegation in Montreal (photo courtesy of FFF Bayern) GERMAN SHORTS SUCCESSFUL AT SUMMER FESTIVALS In 1999, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern established a center for German film at Harvard University – the German Film Collection. In the meantime, over two hundred 35 mm prints of German films are archived at the university in Cambridge, MA, where symposia and workshops are also offered. Now FFF Bayern, with the support of numerous producers, is currently adding new German films to the stock. “There is no other place in North America that is better equipped than Harvard University for the research and viewing of German films,” says Prof. Eric Rentschler. His colleague, Haden Guest, director of the Film Archive adds: “Thanks to the mediation from FFF Bayern, we have also received English-subtitled prints from American distributors including, for example, the Oscar®-winning The Lives of Others. German shorts celebrated one success after another during the summer months. And the USA proved to be particularly interested in German short films. Tomer Eshed’s Our Wonderful Nature won the Best Well Told Fable Prize at the SIGGRAPH Festival in Los Angeles, one of the most internationally renowned competitions in the area of computer animation. At the end of August at the LA Shorts Festival – with over 600 films, one of the largest worldwide – Peter Ladkani’s film Guenstige Prognose won the award for Best Foreign Language Film and thereby qualifies for submission for the Short Film Oscar®. In July, Gil Alkabetz won the Best Short for Children award at Animamundi in Brasil for his film Ein sonniger Tag. Scene from “Weiss” (photo © Florian Grolig) SUPPORT FOR THE GERMAN FILM COLLECTION AT HARVARD Some of the latest additions to the film library include: Grenzverkehr by Stefan Betz, Die Scheinheiligen by Thomas Kronthaler, Oktoberfest by Johannes Brunner, Winterreise and Hierankl by Hans Steinbichler, the literary adaptation Durch diese Nacht sehe ich keinen einzigen Stern by Dagmar Knoepfel, and the political drama Schlaefer by Benjamin Heisenberg. To secure future events in the coming year, further prints, press materials and film literature will be sent at the end of 2008. Other producers have confirmed their films. “We will continue our support for the German Film Collection in Harvard, for there is no better place outside of Germany to get to know and study German films than at Harvard,” says FFF Bayern’s CEO Dr. Klaus Schaefer. In addition to Harvard, the FFF Bayern was also active at two other North American “locations”: the German Currents in Los Angeles and the presentation of 10 Bavarian productions recently at the World Film Festival in Montreal were great successes. german films quarterly 4 · 2008 At the Monterrey International Film Festival in Mexico, Florian Grolig’s film Weiss took home the Best Animated Short Film prize. And Reto Caffi’s highly-acclaimed short Auf der Strecke continued its winning streak after the Student-Oscar®: at the International Tabor Short film Festival in Croatia, the moving drama was distinguished as Best Short news 14 Feature. The film also received the Patrick Peyton Excellence in Filmmaking Award at the Angelus Student Festival in Hollywood. MFG BADEN-WUERTTEMBERG IN ROME & PRAGUE Scene from “Long Shadows” (photo © Olaf Aue) The MFG-supported film Long Shadows by Connie Walther is being screened in the Official Selection (Cinema 2008 competition) of this year’s Rome film festival. The Next Film and Gambit Film production tells the story of Widmer, a former member of the Red Army Faction who sat in prison for some 20 years. A key witness confirmed his involvement in the murder of a bank president and bank employee. But the doubts concerning his involvement remain. Until he meets Valerie. Then he has to pay… group of women who start a sex-strike in their village when their men refuse to repair the local water supply. Runaway Horse, with Ulrich Noethen, Katja Riemann and Ulrich Tukur in the leading roles, recounts the coincidental meeting of two old school friends; a meeting which turns into a competition on life’s philosophies and women’s fancies. And Sonbol portrays the strong woman of the title name: a self-employed dentist who lives in the Islamic Republic of Iran – and drives in sports rallies! RECORD ATTENDANCE AT 8TH FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS IN BUENOS AIRES Some 5,500 cinemagoers packed the Village Recoleta cinemas in Buenos Aires to see German films. For the third year in a row, attendance figures climbed and the festival has become a welcomed cultural event for local audiences, press and distributors in the Argentine capital. This year’s festival opened with Dennis Gansel’s The Wave, with the director and his leading actress Jennifer Ulrich in attendance. The film was shown in three sold-out screenings. Director Martin Gypkens was also on hand to present his film Nothing But Ghosts. Other films in the festival program included: Cherry Blossoms – Hanami by Doris Doerrie, The Edge of Heaven by Fatih Akin, Trade by Marco Kreuzpaintner, Special Escort by Maggie Peren, Chiko by Oezguer Yildirim, Beautiful Bitch by Martin Theo Krieger, And Along Come Tourists by Robert Thalheim, the documentary To the Limit by Pepe Danquart, the children’s film Red Zora by Peter Kahane and the TV movie Rose by Alain Gsponer. Lothar Herzog, Dennis Gansel, Jennifer Ulrich, Martin Gypkens in Buenos Aires Three other MFG-supported films were screened at the third DER FILM festival in Prague, which was organized by the local GoetheInstitute: Absurdistan by Veit Helmer, Runaway Horse by Rainer Kaufmann, and Sonbol by Niko Apel. Absurdistan tells the story of a Lothar Herzog was also in Buenos Aires to represent German Films’ NEXT GENERATION 2008 program and presented his film Yuppy Cars to an enthusiastic audience. The silent movie Hamlet by Sven Gade and Heinz Schall closed up the event with live musical accompaniment by the Seronoser Quartett. german films quarterly 4 · 2008 news 15 CINE-REGIO IN LEIPZIG The Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung (MDM) will host this year’s Cine-Regio Annual Meeting, which takes place during the 51st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (27 October – 2 November). Cine-Regio is a network of regional film funds in Europe and was established in 2005 as an independent nonprofit association. The network today represents 33 funds from 15 countries. Cine-Regio’s main objectives are to exchange information for the benefit of the European film industry, to promote regional audiovisual interests towards European institutions and to strengthen co-production activities, including creative exchange and know-how throughout Europe. The Annual Meeting’s agenda, amongst others, features discussions on members’ activities in the field of children’s and documentary film, and speakers from the European Commission and European Audiovisual Observatory. RENDEZ-VOUS IN HAMBURG PREMIERES IN TORONTO With a total of 36 productions in the festival's various sections, the German film industry had a very high profile at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival (4-13 September 2008). Four films celebrated their eagerly awaited world premieres at the festival and were received very favorably by audiences and critics alike: A Year Ago In Winter by Caroline Link as a Gala Presentation, A Woman in Berlin by Max Faerberboeck as a Special Presentation, as well as Krabat by Marco Kreuzpaintner and Sunshine Barry and the Disco Worms by Thomas Borch Nielsen (DK/DE) in the Sprockets Family Zone section. Other films presented at Toronto included Tonight by Werner Schroeter (FR/DE/PT) in Masters, Jerichow by Christian Petzold, Cloud 9 by Andreas Dresen, My Mother, My Bride, and I by Hans Steinbichler in Contemporary World Cinema, and the documentaries The Heart of Jenin by Leon Geller and Marcus Vetter, Peace Mission by Dorothee Wenner and Upstream Battle by Ben Kempas in Real to Reel. Most of the directors attended the festival to personally introduce their films to enthusiastic audiences. German Films provided information about the German film industry at a stand at the Sales & Industry area in the Sutton Place Hotel. Together with the Goethe-Institut and the German Consulate Toronto, German Films hosted a reception where the German and international festival guests could exchange ideas for new upcoming projects and potential co-productions. Dancing with “Sunshine Barry and the Disco Worms” in Toronto The Hanseatic City of Hamburg will be hosting the sixth Rendez-Vous Franco-Allemand du Cinéma. Some 400 representatives from France and Germany will meet from 20 – 22 November to discuss current film industry issues on various panels. Topics include co-productions, means of funding, and digital cinema projection. The Senate of Hamburg is holding a reception and dinner in the Town Hall, after which alumni of the German-French Masterclass of the Ludwigsburg Film Academy will throw a party for all the Rendez-Vous guests. “The three-day event will deepen the contacts established between our two countries throughout the past years. As hosts, we will do our best to enthuse our French guests and the entire German film industry for Hamburg as an ambitious, cosmopolitan film city,” says Eva Hubert, who, as executive director of Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, is helping to finance and organize the meet- ing in cooperation with Unifrance and German Films, the Centre National Cinématographie (CNC), the German Federal Film Board (FFA), other regional film funding institutions, the Chamber of Commerce Hamburg and the Free & Hanseatic City of Hamburg. german films quarterly 4 · 2008 news 16 8+5+105&74d'. +06'40#6+10#.(+./('56+8#. &1%176.11-+06'40#6+10#./#4-'6 0;10±#24+. (+./59+6*9+&'52+4+6 #/#4-'69+6*56410)+557'5 ;'#45('56+8#.+00;10 8+5+10561$'%106+07'& '064;(14/5#0&4')7.#6+105 9998+5+105&74''.%* &GCFNKPGUHQTGPVTKGU /CTMGV /CTEJ (GUVKXCN 1EVQDGTCPF,CPWCT[ Scene from “24 Stunden Schlesisches Tor” (photo © dffb) IN PRODUCTION personalities. These interviews became the film’s backbone. We are trying, in this way, to create a document of time that explains something about life in the year 2007.” To turn the location itself, Schlesisches Tor, and the people into the main protagonists, Reinegger and de Paoli used Mini DV video, the format’s flexibility and the small size of the camera allowing them to react spontaneously, interviewing passers-by as they go. 24 Stunden Schlesisches Tor is a slice of Berlin life, a snapshot of the many people who make this city the exciting and dynamic metropolis it is. SK Ciro Cappellari, Michael Ballhaus (photo courtesy of Just Publicity) 24 Stunden Schlesisches Tor Type of Project Documentary Cinema Genre Society, Culture Production Company Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb) Producer Hartmut Bitomsky Directors Eva Lia Reinegger, Anna de Paoli Screenplay Eva Lia Reinegger Directors of Photography Luciano Cervio, Jenny Lou Ziegel Editor Karin Nowarra Format Digi Beta/Mini-DV, color, 1:1.78, Dolby SR Shooting Languages German, English Shooting in Berlin, July 2007 German Distributor Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb) World Sales (please contact) Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb) Maximilian Muellner Potsdamer Strasse 2 · 10785 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-25 75 91 15 · fax +49-30-25 75 91 63 email: [email protected] · www.dffb.de Schlesisches Tor in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg is one of the most lively places in the city. The area is full of shops, snack bars, restaurants and clubs. It is also home to the above-ground subway station of the same name, which is the last stop line U1 makes in Kreuzberg before it crosses the Oberbaumbruecke into the eastern part of the city. Just behind the bridge used to be the Wall. Directors Eva Lia Reinegger and Anna de Paoli, both students at the dffb, acknowledge Louis Malle’s 1972 Place de la République as their template, but instead of ten days talking to and observing the people of Paris, they’re doing 24 hours Schlesisches Tor! “We’re taking the rhythm of the place,” Reinegger explains, “Its breath, the subway, the cars, pedestrians. We’re participating in its daily routine, acknowledging its atmosphere, how its tempo changes from morning hectic to afternoon sleepiness. Then comes the evening rush hour and then the night, which belongs to partygoers, clubbers and, finally, people making their way home.” “We spoke to passers-by, and asked them about themselves,” de Paoli explains. “They paused for thought for a moment, and then told us about their lives, their work, their children, the people and things they love. It was astonishing and touching to experience such a variety of german films quarterly 4 · 2008 Berlin Type of Project Documentary Cinema Genre Art, Biopic, Theater, Music, City Portrait Production Company cine plus/Berlin, in co-production with RBB/Postdam-Babelsberg, ARTE/ Strasbourg With backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producers Joerg Schulze, Arndt Potdevin Directors Michael Ballhaus, Ciro Cappellari Screenplay Michael Ballhaus, Ciro Cappellari Directors of Photography Michael Ballhaus, Ciro Cappellari Editor Karl Riedl Music by Fetisch With Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Maybrit Illner, Alexander Hacke, Danielle de Picciotto, Dieter Kosslick, Angela Winkler, Nele Winkler, Dimitri Hegemann, Christoph Schlingensief, Jeff Mills and others Format HD (HDCAM, HDCAM-SR, XDCAM EX), blow-up to 35 mm, color, 1:1.66, Dolby Digital Shooting Language German Shooting in Berlin, June – July 2008 German Distributor Farbfilm Verleih/Berlin World Sales Bavaria Film International Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Ritter Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 email: [email protected] www.bavaria-film-international.com Fate evidently wanted Michael Ballhaus and Ciro Cappellari to work on a film together. in production 18 As the two producers explain, the digital workflow – combining the XDCAM-EX format footage with the F23’s HDCAM-SR material – is being handled completely at cine plus’ post-production facilities in Berlin for theatrical release in Germany by Farbfilm Verleih in 2009. MB Scene from “Die Fremde” (photo courtesy of Independent Artists Filmproduktion) Three years ago, Joerg Schulze and Arndt Potdevin of the production department of Berlin’s cine plus had approached the internationally celebrated cinematographer, who was working on Martin Scorsese’s The Departed at the time, to make a portrait on the occasion of his 70th birthday. They had suggested that fellow cinematographer and director Ciro Cappellari, with whom cine plus has made several documentaries, including his Adolf Grimme Awardwinning A Struggle for Love on the musician Abdullah Ibrahim, could be the director. Although this project was not realized, Ballhaus proposed Cappellari as a co-director when broadcaster RBB came to him last year with the idea of a film about Berlin, tracing the changes and dynamism of the German capital 20 years after the fall of the Wall as it finds its way to a new normality. The new Berlin is shown through the portraits of some 20 people through their projects and activities, ranging from the city’s mayor Klaus Wowereit and Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Nele Winkler, the handicapped daughter of actress Angela Winkler, to Clara Leskovar and Doreen Schulz of the young fashion label C.Neeon and the Turkish kiosk owner Ercan Ergin. Producer Joerg Schulze explains that directing a documentary was “a totally new experience for Michael, involving a lot of preliminary research. But he had a lot of fun coming back to his native city and broadening his view of Berlin.” “It wasn’t just a case of Michael doing the directing and Ciro being the operator behind the camera,” he continues. “They both wanted the film to be a joint effort and since Ciro has been living in Berlin for more than 20 years, he could introduce Michael to people he might otherwise not have known. There was an open discourse between the two about whom to interview.” “Some of the portraits would deserve a whole film in themselves,” adds producer colleague Arndt Potdevin. “Whether it is celebrities like Christoph Schlingensief, the musician Alexander Hacke and the Foreign Minister Steinmeier or less well-known people such as Nele Winkler.” “For both of them, an important criterion was that they didn’t just gather official statements from their interviewees,” Potdevin says. “Each person had to have a project affecting the city where we could observe what they are doing and to see some progress in the project during the film. It was also important that they could develop an intimate relationship with each person, and not have just talking heads, because it is much more interesting to know what goes on ’behind the scenes’ and see how these people really operate.” The two were able to get up close and personal with their interviewees thanks to their decision to use the small Sony PMW/EX1, while the Sony CineAlta F23 camera was deployed for the premium shots. “We wanted consciously to avoid those camera movements for which Michael is so well-known such as crane shots and lots of dollies,” Potdevin notes. “There is more of a split between a lot of hand-held and off the shoulder camerawork to always be close to the people being interviewed and then the wide angle shots with the helicopter or from the top of buildings around Berlin.” german films quarterly 4 · 2008 Die Fremde Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama Production Company Independent Artists Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-production with WDR/Mainz, ARTE/Strasbourg, RBB/PotsdamBabelsberg With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM, Filmstiftung NRW, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, German Federal Film Board (DFFF) Producers Feo Aladag, Zueli Aladag Director Feo Aladag Screenplay Feo Aladag Director of Photography Judith Kaufmann Editor Andrea Mertens Music by Max Richter Production Design Silke Buhr Principal Cast Sibel Kekilli, Nizam Schiller, Settar Tanrioegen, Derya Alabora, Tamer Yigit, Florian Lukas, Serhad Can, Almila Bagriacik, Nursel Koese, Alwara Hoefels, Ufuk Bayraktar, Orhan Guener Casting Ulrike Mueller, Harika Uygur, Luci Lenox Format 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby SR Shooting Languages German, Turkish Shooting in Berlin, Istanbul, JulySeptember 2008 German Distributor Delphi Filmverleih/Berlin World Sales TELEPOOL GmbH · Anja Uecker Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29 email: [email protected] · www.telepool.de Twenty-five year old Umay flees with her young son, Cem (5), from her husband in Istanbul back to her home city of Berlin. She wants Cem to grow up in a loving environment and hopes for her family’s support. But trapped in convention and convinced that Umay is bringing shame upon them, her parents and brothers withhold their support. Torn between their affection for their own daughter and sister and a system of archaic rules, they struggle with a seemingly unresolvable situation until Umay leaves her family. With hope in her heart and a good deal of strength and endurance, Umay builds a new life for Cem and herself. Unable to cut those strongest of bonds, family ties, she makes repeated attempts to reconcile. But Umay’s struggle for self-determination unleashes a deadly chain of events. in production 19 Scene from “Der grosse Kater” (photo courtesy of Neue Bioskop Film) Die Fremde (“The Stranger”) is the powerful debut film of writerdirector Feo Aladag who, together with Zueli Aladag, is the cofounder of Berlin-based Independent Artists Filmproduktion, whose first feature film this also happens to be. “First and foremost,” Feo Aladag says, “we want to realize our own film material, material which is artistically of a high standard as well as commercial. We are convinced that films which have relevant content, made in a universal way will – if they have high cinematic standards and are entertaining – find their audience.” In which case, Die Fremde is certainly off to a flying start with the casting of Sibel Kekilli as the main protagonist, Umay. Kekilli is the winner of the German Film Award in Gold and the New Faces Award, both 2004, for her searing performance in Fatih Akin’s HeadOn. This is a woman who brings burning intensity to the screen. Kekilli is supported by a great cast which includes Turkish stars Derya Alabora and Settar Tanrioegen, as well as Florian Lukas (Good Bye, Lenin!), Nursel Koese (The Edge of Heaven) and Tamer Yigit (Freunde). Making their screen debuts are Nizam Schiller (5), Serhad Can (16) and Almila Bagriacik (18). Other names to note in Die Fremde’s credits are that of director of photography Judith Kaufmann, nominated for the German Film Award 2007 for her work on Four Minutes, and production designer Silke Buhr, who worked on the Oscar® and German Film Award-winning The Lives of Others. The circumstances and events depicted in Die Fremde, sadly, are only too real in many parts of the world, including here in Europe, where certain sections of immigrant communities embody culturally archaic notions of male-female relationships. As Die Fremde shows, the truth is that there is nothing at all honorable about a so-called ’honor killing’’ but “our aim from the beginning,” Zueli Aladag says, “is to depict all the characters in this drama as human, with their contradictions, inner struggles and distress. This is not a polemic about so-called honor killings, otherwise we’d have written a newspaper article. The first rushes show this will be a special film.” SK Der grosse Kater Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama, Love Story, Thriller Production Company Neue Bioskop Film/Munich, in co-production with Abrakadabra Films/Zurich, Barry Films/Berlin With backing from Hessen Invest, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Eurimages, Zuercher Filmstiftung, Bundesamt fuer Kultur, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producers Dietmar Guentsche, Wolfgang Behr, Wolfgang Mueller Co-Producers Claudia Wick, Benito Mueller Director Wolfgang Panzer Screenplay Claus Hant, Dietmar Guentsche Director of Photography Edwin Horak Editor Jean-Claude Piroué Production Design Josef Sanktjohanser Principal Cast Bruno Ganz, Ulrich Tukur, Marie Baeumer, Christiane Paul, Edgar Selge, Justus von Dohnányi, Antoine Monot Jr. Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital Shooting Language German Shooting in Berne, Munich, Bad Toelz, August – October 2008 German Distributor Senator Film Verleih/Berlin World Sales TELEPOOL GmbH · Irina Ignatiew Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 61 88 email: [email protected] · www.telepool.de Principal photography took place between August and October on Wolfgang Panzer’s Der grosse Kater by Munich-based Neue Bioskop Film under the new management of Dietmar Guentsche since he and new producing partner Wolfgang Behr took the company over from Eberhard Junkersdorf at the beginning of last year. At the 2007 Berlinale, the Swiss production house Abrakadabra Films and its German partner Barry Films approached Neue Bioskop looking for a partner with production experience to board the adaptation of Thomas Huerlimann’s 1998 bestselling novel of the same name. “Bruno Ganz was already attached and we began the financing on the German side,” Guentsche recalls, pointing out that the shoot had to be put back until this summer since the screenplay needed to be rewritten. “We received the highest sums possible granted by the Zuercher Filmstiftung and the Federal Office for Culture (BAK) in Berne along with backing from Germany – FFF Bayern, Hessen Invest and the new ’German spend’ incentive scheme DFFF – as well as Eurimages.” german films quarterly 4 · 2008 in production 20 Scene from “Haus und Kind” (photo © Kineo Film/Conny Klein) In Der grosse Kater, Huerlimann juxtaposes the political work of a Federal President – his politician father Hans held this position for a year in 1979 – with the private tragedy of a dying son (Huerlimann’s brother in real life). “It is a Swiss story but, at the same time, a local story for global markets,” Guentsche explains. “We see the politician Kater [Ganz] at the zenith of his career whose rival [played by Ulrich Tukur] is planning his downfall out of revenge. He begins intriguing that the Federal President has arranged a visit to his terminally ill son in the hospital as part of the official program during the state visit by the Spanish royal couple. Kater lands up rock bottom, but through a trick manages to turn the story around to his favor the next day and win back his wife’s love.” “The plot is very emotional, has great drama, and is a political thriller and a love story,” Guentsche says, arguing that “the film has lots of potential to appeal to different audiences.” He adds that the novel by Thomas Huerlimann, who is one the best known living Swiss authors on a par with Max Frisch or Friedrich Duerrenmatt, has “a half documentary and half fictional form. The book blurs the distinctions. While the novel was set in 1979, we have transposed the action [for the film] to the present and put more emphasis on the fictional elements.” Meanwhile, the choice of director will ensure that the “behind the scenes” in this depiction of the world of high politics and diplomacy will have a particularly authentic feel since Munich-born director Wolfgang Panzer worked for many years for Swiss television reporting and directing programs from the Swiss parliament assembly for the nightly news flagship Tagesschau. “He has an intimate knowledge of the life of politicians and their habits,” Guentsche explains. Moreover, the project, which has attracted such top-notch actors as Marie Baeumer, Christiane Paul, Edgar Selge, and Justus von Dohnányi, alongside Ganz and Tukur, also enjoyed great support from the Swiss political establishment at the highest level when applying for shooting permits for original locations in Berne, including a last-minute intervention from the Ministry of Defense to ensure that the Swiss Army could provide a guard of honor for a scene depicting the state visit of the Spanish royals. MB Haus und Kind Type of Project TV Movie Genre Drama, Comedy Production Company Kineo Filmproduktion/Potsdam for BR/ Munich, in co-production with ARTE/Strasbourg, Typhoon Films/Munich Producers Peter Hartwig, Cooky Ziesche Commissioning Editors Cornelia Ackers (BR), Andreas Schreitmueller (ARTE) Director Andreas Kleinert Screenplay Wolfgang Kohlhaase Director of Photography Johann Feindt Editor Gisela Zick Production Design Gabriele Wolff Principal Cast Marie Baeumer, Stefan Kurt, Stephanie Schoenfeld, Lilly Marie Tschoertner, Karin Neuhaeuser Casting Nina Haun Format Super 16 mm, color, 1:1.77, Stereo Shooting Language German Shooting in Seegrehna, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Berlin, Ahrenshoop, June – August 2008 Contact Bayerischer Rundfunk · Maike Beba Floriansmuehlstrasse 60 · 80939 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-38 06 51 62 · fax +49-89-38 06 76 44 email: [email protected] · www.brnet.de Producers Peter Hartwig and Cooky Ziesche embarked this summer on their third collaboration with veteran screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase for Andreas Kleinert’s Haus und Kind (“House and Child”) after previously working together on Andreas Dresen’s Summer in Berlin and Whisky mit Wodka. It was particularly after their experiences on Summer in Berlin in 2004 that Hartwig and Ziesche decided to work with Kohlhaase on more projects in the future. Ziesche developed the story idea for Haus und Kind together with Kohlhaase before she and Hartwig started looking for the right director for the project. Their choice fell on Andreas Kleinert who was last seen in the cinemas with his surreal grotesque drama Head Under Water which premiered at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. “Cooky had made two epiosodes of the series Polizeiruf with Andreas Kleinert for RBB and he was our first choice as director for the film,” recalls Hartwig who has served as production manager or line producer on some 35 TV movies and feature films since 1995, including many of Andreas Dresen’s films as well as films by Dani Levy (My Fuehrer) and Oskar Roehler (Angst). “Andreas Kleinert works very well with the actors and they appreciate his directness and attentiveness. He is a very passionate director with great attention to detail. There are many nuances in a Kohlhaase script which one could german films quarterly 4 · 2008 in production 21 Heike Makatsch as “Hilde” (photo © Egoli Tossell Film/MMC/Bernd Spauke) easily read over, but Andreas is very precise.” The project by Hartwig’s Babelsberg-based production company Kineo Film then found its champions in Cornelia Ackers, a commissioning editor at BR who had already worked with Kleinert in the past, and in Andreas Schreitmueller at ARTE in Strasbourg. The plot of Haus und Kind centers on a professor of Modern German History (played by Stefan Kurt) who wants to move into a new house in the country with his wife (Marie Baeumer) and also have a child with his girlfriend (Stephanie Schoenfeld). A summer and winter between Berlin and the Baltic coast see the man getting himself entangled in that old, old story: what does a man do with two women? Or rather: what do two women do with one man? As Kohlhaase explains, he sees Haus und Kind as “playing with the classical love triangle constellation. After all, how can monogamy prove its worth if it doesn’t have a chance to fall into temptation? The man confidently dedicates himself to his goal, but we already have a feeling that things won’t go well. We are dealing here with a serious subject but it can also be told with irony. Everything can end murderously or laconically.” Meanwhile, Kleinert expresses his admiration for Kohlhaase’s skill “of how he manages to describe, in a few clear sentences, processes that are much more complex in reality. At first glance, the story appears to be quite simple, but it has so much to say about our time and that really touched me. It is not comparable with other films by Kohlhaase. I wouldn’t describe it as a pure comedy because there are melancholic and even tragic moments.” Moreover, Hartwig and Kleinert are both full of praise for lead actor Stefan Kurt whose recent films have included Dani Levy’s My Fuehrer, Chris Kraus’ Four Minutes and Justus von Dohnányi’s Bis zum Ellenbogen. “Stefan Kurt looks a bit like one of those desperate characters from a Woody Allen film,” Hartwig explains. “He perfectly transports this desperation of not being able to make a choice between two women.” “You can do a lot with Stefan,” Kleinert adds. “Every close-up is exciting. We are shooting with him every day and he is in every scene, and yet he is constantly surprising us with new reactions and nuances. It is a perfect joy!” As for the personnel behind the camera, it is clearly a case of ’never change a winning team’ for Kleinert, since he is working on Haus und Kind with many of his regular family of collaborators from the past 15 years – ranging from the DoP Johann Feindt (who is a respected documentary filmmaker in his own right) through editor Gisela Zick to costume designer Dorothee Kriener and production designer Gabriele Wolff. “That makes the atmosphere on the set more relaxed and the actors feel more at ease when they see that we have been working together for so long,” Kleinert says. MB Hilde Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Biopic Production Company Egoli Tossell Film AG/Berlin, in co-production with MMC Independent/Cologne, Pictorion – DAS WERK/ Duesseldorf With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producer Judy Tossell Director Kai Wessel Screenplay Maria von Heland Director of Photography Hagen Bogdanski Editor Tina Freitag Production Design Thomas Freudenthal Principal Cast Heike Makatsch, Dan Stevens, Monica Bleibtreu, Michael Gwisdek, Hanns Zischler, Anian Zollner, Trystan Puetter, Johanna Gastdorf, Sylvester Groth, Roger Cicero Casting Nina Haun, Leo Davis, Nancy Bishop Format 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby Shooting Languages German & English Shooting in in Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Magdeburg, South Africa, June – August 2008 German Distributor Warner Bros. Pictures Germany/Hamburg 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 Just over two years ago, producer Judy Tossell made two feature films with Heike Makatsch – Ed Herzog’s Twisted Sister and Almost Heaven – and was then “looking for a great role and great German stories” to continue the collaboration with the award-winning actress. Their attention turned to the life of legendary German diva and international star Hildegard Knef: “I was amazed that nothing had been made for the cinema about her because her life is incredible,” recalls Tossell who then optioned the rights to Knef ’s story from her estate. Initially, a screenplay was developed charting Knef ’s life between 1943 and 1966 without a director attached until Egoli Tossell Film brought director Kai Wessel onboard the project in Spring 2007. As Tossell points out, Wessel’s work on the event TV movie March of Millions (Die Flucht) with Maria Fuertwaengler and Dagmar Manzel “showed that Kai can handle high-quality historical drama and very subtle characterization, often with very strong women characters.” In a next stage of the screenplay’s development, Swedish-born Maria von Heland – Tossell had produced her feature film debut german films quarterly 4 · 2008 in production 22 Scene from “Hitler vor Gericht” (photo courtesy of Tellux-Film) Big Girls Don’t Cry in 2001 – then prepared a new version of the script which gave a new perspective to the story. “Having not grown up with Hildegard Knef, neither Maria nor I had any pre-conceptions about who she was – or indeed who she later became,” Tossell explains. “Maria was able to take a totally fresh look at her life.” “Knef ’s life was dictated by the world she was brought up in,” she continues, stressing that Wessel’s take on the multi-talent is “a human story and not a walk through German history.” The 9.5 million Euros production by Berlin-based Egoli Tossell Film in co-production with Cologne’s MMC Independent and the postproduction company Pictorion – DAS WERK was filmed over the summer at original locations in Berlin such as the Philharmonie (for Knef ’s legendary concert in 1966), Tempelhof Airport, the Schiller Theater (for the premiere of her 1950 film Die Suenderin), and at the Babelsberg studios before moving on to locations in Magdeburg, Bonn and Cologne and interior sets at the MMC studios in Cologne-Huerth, while locations in South Africa doubled up for Hollywood and London. Apart from Makatsch who plays the pivotal role of Hildegard Knef and has also recorded new arrangements of her songs with the WDR Big Band for the film, Wessel’s Hilde has put an impressive cast together for the other parts, ranging from Michael Gwisdek as Knef ’s beloved grandfather through Monica Bleibtreu as the Ufa casting director Else Bongers to Sylvester Groth as the theater director Boleslaw Barlog and Hanns Zischler as the legendary film producer Erich Pommer. Shortly before shooting began in June, the production landed a coup by casting the German jazz and swing musician Roger Cicero in his first acting role as the musician Ricci Blum, a figure loosely based on a real-life character who meets Knef at important stages in her life. In addition, Tossell speaks of “a gift from heaven” in the casting of the young British actor Dan Stevens (starring in the BBC’s new adaptation of Sense & Sensibility) in his first cinema role as David Cameron, the actor and director who was married to Hildegard Knef from 1962 to 1976. “He looks the part and also happens to speak German,” says Tossell, who is planning to release the film in German cinemas through Warner Bros. next March. MB Hitler vor Gericht Type of Project Docudrama Genre TV Movie Production Company Tellux-Film/Munich Producer Martin Choroba Director Bernd Fischerauer Screenplay Klaus Gietinger, Bernd Fischerauer Director of Photography Markus Fraunholz Editor Gaby Kroeber Production Design Rudi Czettl Principal Cast Johannes Zirner, Alexander Held, Johannes Silberschneider, Franjo Marincic, Peter Fricke, George Meyer-Goll, Andreas Nickel, Heinrich Schmieder, Alexander Goebel, Dieter Fischer Format 16 mm, color, 16:9 Shooting Language German Shooting in Munich, July – August 2008 German Distributor TELEPOOL/Munich World Sales TELEPOOL GmbH · Ricarda Scherff Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 61 88 email: [email protected] · www.telepool.de Hitler did once stand trial for his crimes! Obviously, he escaped judgment at Nuremberg but thirty years earlier he was brought before the courts following the failure of what is known as the Beer Hall (or Munich) Coup of November 8, 1923. On that day Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff and other leaders of the Kampfbund (a league of “patriotic” fighting societies and the Nazis in Bavaria) tried unsuccessfully to gain power in Munich, and Germany. A painful mixture of melodrama and histrionics continued until the next day, when the conspirators decided to march – with no clear plan of where to go! They were met by the police who opened fire. Ludendorff stood his ground. Hitler fled. Four police and sixteen putschists were killed. We cut to Tuesday, February 26, 1924. Hitler stands before the court, accused of high treason: his guilt is patently clear and the death penalty appears inevitable. Instead, the presiding judge, Georg Neithardt, opens the proceedings and gives Hitler the opportunity to make a four-hour speech denouncing the Weimar Republic and its government! “To understand how this came about,” producer Martin Choroba says, “you have to realize that the three most influential politicians in Bavaria, Gustav von Kahr, Otto von Lossow and Hans Ritter von german films quarterly 4 · 2008 in production 23 Seisser, who, essentially, controlled the state’s government, police and military, were under the greatest pressure because they had coup plans of their own! Hitler’s trial could have brought their connections and conspiracies into the light!” Thus, the Bavarian justice system went through even less than the motions and Hitler had the luckiest of escapes. The murder, or at least manslaughter, of the four police officers was not even mentioned, the taking of Jewish hostages passed over and a bank robbery was reduced to a “confiscation”. Hitler received the minimum sentence of five years and, in another travesty of justice, permitted to apply for parole and his deportation obstructed. Just nine months after his arrest, he was back on the streets. The rest is sad history. “The trial is our foreground,” Choroba continues. We take that as the narrative thread and use flashbacks to witness Hitler’s putsch, first in the beer hall and then the march through the city the next day. From the different perspectives of Kahr, Seisser and Lossow we receive different views of the whole scenario as well as the underlying political situation.” “This enables us to examine who was responsible for the failure of the legal situation, what the chain of events was that enabled Hitler to escape the fate he deserved and who were the people who supported him. “It’s important to convey the then-prevailing mood and to explain the conditions which were the soil in which Hitler flourished later. He was treated with kid gloves as an instrument of the government. Then, as well as later, everyone underestimated him.” Scene from “Kindersuche”(photo © Ziegler Film GmbH & Co. KG/Britta Krehl) SK Kindersuche Type of Project TV Movie Genre Drama, History Production Company Ziegler Film/Berlin, in cooperation with SWR/Baden-Baden, ARD Degeto/Frankfurt, ARTE/Strasbourg, ORF/Vienna Producers Gabriela Sperl, Wolfgang Hantke Director Miguel Alexandre Screenplay Gabriela Sperl, based on an idea by Renate Michel Director of Photography Busso von Mueller Editor Tobias Forth Production Design Thomas Franz Principal Cast Felicitas Woll, Wotan Wilke Moehring, Inga Birkenfeld, Hermann Beyer, Roman Knizka, Magali Greif Casting Heta Mantscheff Casting Format Super 16, color, 16:9, Dolby 5.1 german films quarterly 4 · 2008 Shooting Language German Shooting in Sulzburg, Sperenberg, Wrangelsburg, Berlin, June – August 2008 Contact Ziegler Film GmbH & Co. KG · Thomas Petersen Neue Kantstrasse 14 · 14057 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-3 20 90 50 · fax +49-30-3 22 73 53 email: [email protected] www.ziegler-film.com A mother searches desperately for her daughter in the confusion and chaos of post-war Europe. It is summer 1946. Germany lies in ruins. Millions of displaced persons are on the move. At Gleiwitz/Gliwice station, Rosemarie Herrmann (Felicitas Woll) and family are trying to reach the train for western Germany. Among the huge crowds, her ten-year-old daughter Marie (Magali Greif) becomes separated and vanishes in the teeming masses. The desperate Rosemarie, her father, sister and small son end up in Swabia. Rosemarie tries everything to find her daughter. Official channels prove no use. Then she meets Harald Bergmann (Wotan Wilke Moehring) who offers to help her. Rosemarie intensifies her search. Meanwhile, Marie is now in a children’s home on the Baltic. Her emotional and mental state is deteriorating. Gripping drama from Ziegler Film, one of the Germany’s largest independent film and television producers. Founded in 1973 by Regina Ziegler, “Our aim,” she says, “is to awaken the interest and attention of the audience. This has always been a demanding market and the only way to stimulate an audience is with a profile of creativity and quality.” As Ziegler Film’s track record shows, it’s something they’re very good at! Past honors include the Golden Rose at Montreux, the German Film Award and the Adolf Grimme Award. “We have always placed a constant focus on film,” Ziegler continues, “with productions such as Korczak (screened in Cannes), A Year of the Quiet Sun (Golden Lion Venice), Fabian (Oscar® and Golden Globe nomination) and the Erotic Tales series (Oscar®-nomination for The Dutch Master)”. For Kindersuche, the company was able to win two top names, Felicitas Woll and Wotan Wilke Moehring. An extremely versatile actress, one who puts the character before herself, Woll first became a household name in the comedy series Berlin, Berlin, for which she walked away with the Adolf Grimme Award and the Bavarian TV Award. And as her various credits show (Maedchen, Maedchen, Tatort, Dresden), she is equally at home on the big as well as small screen, able to cross genres with ease. Wotan Wilke Moehring makes for great onscreen tough guy presence with depth! A character actor, he’s much in demand for both film and television. Yet to be seen in the Tom Cruise epic Valkyrie, his previous and extensive credits include Bang Boom Bang – Ein todsicheres Ding, Das Experiment, Lammbock, Antikoerper, and Nichts als Gespenster. Director Miguel Alexandre can also look back on an award-winning track record (not that he’s finished by any means!). In 2005 he won the Adolf Grimme Award for Gruesse aus Kaschmir. Gran Paradiso (2001) was nominated in the German Film Awards for Best Film, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Der Pakt (1996) was recognized with a Golden Lion in Venice, while his About in production 24 War (1993) was nominated for an Oscar® in the category of Best Foreign Student Film. Creativity and quality: two givens at Ziegler Film, with Kindersuche, a gripping emotional drama, set to continue the trend.” Gernot Roll, Mario Barth, Oliver Berben (photo © 2008 Constantin Film Verleih) SK Maennersache Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Comedy Production Company Constantin Film Produktion/Munich With backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producer Oliver Berben Executive Producer Martin Moszkowicz Directors Gernot Roll, Mario Barth Screenplay Mario Barth, Dieter Tappert Director of Photography Gernot Roll Editor Carsten Eder Production Design Florian Lutz Principal Cast Mario Barth, Dieter Tappert, Michael Gwisdek, Anja Kling Casting Emrah Ertem Format HD, color, 1:1.85, blow-up to 35 mm, Dolby Digital Shooting Language German Shooting in Berlin, June – August 2008 German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich Contact Constantin Film Produktion GmbH Feilitzschstrasse 6 · 80802 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-44 44 60 0 · fax +49-89-44 44 60 666 email: [email protected] · www.constantinfilm.de More than ten years ago, German stand-up comedian Mario Barth and colleague Dieter Tappert promised each other that when they hit the big time, they would write a screenplay for a feature film to star in – and whoever was the first one to get an offer would bring the other onboard the project. “The two had been thinking of a story for their first film for some time and we worked very closely together, with influence on my part as far as the film side was concerned and from their side for the comedy elements. Even before they began writing the screenplay, Mario had always wanted Michael Gwisdek to play his father and then we came upon Anja Kling for the girlfriend. The idea of guest roles for Juergen Vogel and Uwe Ochsenknecht also came during the development.” Barth plays the shop assistant Paul in a pet shop in Berlin, who has dreams of becoming a successful comedian. However, nothing seems to go right until he starts making jokes about his best mate Hotte (Tappert) and girlfriend Susi (Kling). The audience goes wild with excitement, but Hotte and Susi are far from pleased. Paul has to decide – between friendship or career. Berben stresses that Maennersache (“A Man’s World”) “isn’t a standup comedy show, but rather a film with its own plot. Our aim and desire is to give the audience what they know from Mario and Dieter, but not just that – we want to give them a little more to make that difference!” He admits that humor is a genre which traditionally finds it hard to travel: “Apart from Jewish humor, this genre is very much a national concern with its own stars in the comedy and stand-up fields. With Mario, for example, he is clearly aiming at a German audience by drawing from his observations from his day-to-day life and what he sees around him.” “But that doesn’t mean that this humor can’t appeal to other people internationally. The story here in Maennersache isn’t a purely German topic as the logline – ’two men and a woman, she’s the problem’ – shows. On the one hand, you have the humor dealing with the differences between men and women and then there is a form of selfdeprecating humor that is able to laugh about oneself. That’s something that one doesn’t see that often in Germany.” With two greenhorns in front of the camera, Berben made sure that he had someone experienced behind the camera – and who better than director/DoP Gernot Roll, whose career has managed to combine work on such varying productions as Heimat, Robber Hotzenplotz and Ballermann 8. “It was my wish from the outset that we had a director with extensive experience both of film und comedy, who was also someone prepared to work with a person like Mario who knows exactly what he wants, but is not necessarily conversant with the technical side,” Berben says, explaining the decision of picking Roll as a co-director for Barth. MB In the meantime, Barth and Tappert have both become established figures in the German comedy scene, Barth winning the German Comedy Award on three occasions and being the author of the bestselling book Deutsch-Frau/Frau-Deutsch. As producer Oliver Berben recalls, plans for the duo’s feature film debut began in earnest two years ago when development of a screenplay began with Constantin Film in Munich. german films quarterly 4 · 2008 in production 25 Type of Project TV Movie Genre Biopic, Drama Production Company Phoebus Film/Huerth, in co-production with SWR/Baden-Baden & Stuttgart, WDR/Cologne, Degeto/Frankfurt, ORF/Vienna, NDR/Hamburg With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Land Salzburg Producers Markus Brunnemann, Nicole Galley Commissioning Editors Carl Bergengruen (SWR), Michael Schmidl (SWR), Michael André (WDR), Hans-Wolfgang Jurgan (Degeto), Klaus Lintschinger (ORF), Doris Heinze (NDR) Director Torsten C. Fischer Screenplay Benedikt Roeskau Director of Photography Holly Fink Editor Benjamin Hembus Music by Annette Focks Production Design Martin Schreiber Principal Cast Jessica Schwarz, Thomas Kretschmann, Guillaume Delorme, Maresa Hoerbiger, Heinz Hoenig Casting Ingrid Cuenca Format 16 mm, color, 16:9, Stereo Shooting Language German Shooting in Paris, French Riviera, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Salzburg, Berlin, September – November 2008 German Distributor Phoebus Film/Huerth She spent her childhood years in a boarding school, far from her parents. She fell deeply in love with French superstar Alain Delon, had what is best-termed a difficult marriage to Harry Meyen, suffered great personal loss and tragedy (including the death of her son) and, last but not least, fought constantly to escape her image as Sissi (the role of the empress Elisabeth of Austria she played in the 1955, 1956 and 1957 films of the same title). It was this struggle, just one of the many which defined her, that was to take her to France and there, finally, enable her rise to become a great international and awardwinning star. Alongside Jessica Schwarz, Thomas Kretschmann (who has already made a name for himself both in German as well as Hollywood cinema) plays Harry Meyen, Romy’s first husband, whilst French shooting star Guillaume Delorme plays Alain Delon. Maresa Hoerbiger appears as Magda Schneider and Heinz Hoenig plays her stepfather, Herbert Blatzheim. The younger Romy is portrayed by Alicia von Rittberg and Stella Kunkat, respectively. Romy is not a kiss and tell piece of sensationalism for scandalmongers, but a respectful depiction of this unique and deservedly venerated woman who lived her life, as she herself said, to the extreme. But as to her regrets? She surely had a great many. SK From the set of “Vier Jahreszeiten” (photo © TMG/ Stephen Morely) Jessica Schwarz as “Romy” (photo © SWR/Phoenix/Joachim Gern) Romy who achieved such great success and yet searched unceasingly for the happiness and love that were to elude her. World Sales Beta Film GmbH · Dirk Schuerhoff Gruenwalder Weg 28d · 82041 Oberhaching/Germany phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax+49-89-67 34 69 888 email: [email protected] www.betafilm.com “I must always go the most extreme, even if it’s not good. I love going to the limits of the possible, professionally as in my private life. I regret nothing” – Romy Schneider. How many stars, in whichever field, are instantly recognizable from just their first name? Elvis Presley, from the world of music, of course. But actors? Romy Schneider is one of the very few to have earned a place among that elite pantheon and in this, a biopic whose title says it all, the award-winning the Jessica Schwarz, demonstrates that behind her beauty lie great acting chops. Romy, the film, depicts the most important events and passages in the life of this world star, a life that was lived both passionately and intensively and fascinates still to this very day. Romy Schneider was a woman, an artist, who remained a puzzle to the world as well as herself. There was the myth and reality of the celebrated and sought-after actress, and the sad reality of a woman german films quarterly 4 · 2008 Rosamunde Pilcher: Vier Jahreszeiten Type of Project Mini-Series Genre Drama, Love Story Production Company Tele Muenchen/Munich, in cooperation with Gate Television Production/Munich & London Producers Herbert Kloiber, Rikolt von Gagern Director Giles Foster Screenplay Matthew Thomas, Trevor Bowen Director of Photography Tony Imi Editor Catherine Creed Music by Richard Blackford Production Design Martyn John Principal Cast Senta Berger, Tom Conti, Michael York, Paula Kalenberg, Franco Nero, Max V. Pufendorf Casting Beth Charkham Format 16 mm, color, 16:9, Dolby 5.1 Shooting Language English Shooting in Cornwall & Bath/UK, June – August 2008 in production 26 Scene from “Schwerkraft” (photo courtesy of FRISBEEFILMS) World Sales TMG International · Carlos Hertel Kaufingerstrasse 24 · 80331 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-29 09 30 · fax +49-89-29 09 31 09 email: [email protected] · www.tmg.de An internationally acclaimed, star studded, cast brings yet another of the more than prolific Rosamunde Pilcher’s great romantic works to the small screen. What is here not to like?! This time, the tried and tested combination of the Tele Muenchen Gruppe and Gate Film Television proudly presents Vier Jahreszeiten (“The Four Seasons Collection”). The drama unfolds, as the title has it, over the course of one year in the lives of the aristocratic Combe family. Endelion, their magnificent country seat, the crown of Cornwall’s rugged coast (a setting no stranger to millions of Pilcher’s fans), sets the scene for this sweeping saga which revolves around three women of three generations. There is Julia, previously banished from Endelion for “crimes” to be revealed, whose return is the trigger for the turbulent events. Abby, her grand-daughter, wants to know the secrets of her past so that she can face the future. There is Charlotte, Julia’s daughter and Abby’s mother who supposedly killed herself but is still very much alive in the hearts of the Combe family – and is maybe not quite as dead, or as far away from Endelion, as some would believe. All of which would mean nothing without the right cast to bring Vier Jahreszeiten to life. Senta Berger (who plays Julia) has received numerous awards, including a Bambi and an Adolf Grimme Award garnered over a career that started in 1955 and has not slowed since. Tom Conti has been nominated for Golden Globes, the Bafta and an Oscar®. Michael York, whom even Queen Elizabeth II decorated with an OBE, has an Emmy nomination to his hugely extensive credits. And last but not least in the line-up, Franco Nero (whom many will remember as one of the nasties in Die Hard 2) was once nominated for a Golden Globe. Directing Vier Jahreszeiten is British TV-movie and mini-series stalwart, Giles Foster, whose credits include Foyle’s War, Relative Strangers, Bertie and Elizabeth and Talking Heads, all or most of which would be instantly familiar to British audiences and then some. Rounding up the top level technical credits is writer (and also actor) Trevor Bowen, who is at home wherever the drama calls for characters to say and do something and actors to act, as opposed to standing in front of blue or green screens and having special effects added in post-production. But this is really preaching to the converted. Vier Jahreszeiten is another piece of classic Pilcher that pushes all the right buttons, both before and behind the camera. Romantic fiction does not come any better than this. SK Schwerkraft Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama Production Company FRISBEEFILMS/Berlin, in co-production with ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz, dffb/Berlin, in cooperation with ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producers Alexander Bickenbach, Manuel Bickenbach, Valeska Bochow Director Maximilian Erlenwein Screenplay Maximilian Erlenwein Director of Photography Ngo The Chau Editor Toni Froschhammer Production Design Petra Albert Principal Cast Fabian Hinrichs, Juergen Vogel, Nora von Waldstaetten, Uwe Bohm Format 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby Digital 5.1 Shooting Language German Shooting in Halle, Leipzig, November – December 2008 German Distributor Farbfilm Verleih/Berlin World Sales TELEPOOL GmbH · Anja Uecker Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29 email: [email protected] · www.telepool.de A mild mannered bank clerk experiences trauma in the workplace and goes rogue in this latest production from Berlin-based FRISBEEFILMS. That’s the premise for Frederik Feinermann’s radical and not so gradual change from would-be employee of the month, if anybody really noticed him, to career criminal as his dark side takes over. Everyday rules and regulations lose their value, he finally begins a relationship with the woman, Nadine, whom he has until now observed only from afar. He hooks up with Vince, an ex-convict, and, together, they undertake a series of burglaries, by using insider information from the bank where Frederik works. But what begins as an adrenaline-fuelled hobby soon turns violent and both men spiral deeper into dangerous places. It can only be a matter of time before someone ends up dead. But who? “Schwerkraft (“Gravity”) is a strange story,” writer-director Maximilian Erlenwein admits with a grin. “Frederik is trapped in the prison of his own life, lonely and unhappy. The more rogue he goes, the freer he becomes. But he is also a disturbed man who acts unmorally. So how should we empathize with someone like this?” For Alexander Bickenbach, producer and co-founder (with brother Manuel Bickenbach) of FRISBEEFILMS, it’s because “there’s a Frederik in each one of us! We all have lurking depths, a german films quarterly 4 · 2008 in production 27 “This Is Love” producers Lars Kraume, Matthias Glasner, Juergen Vogel (photo courtesy of Just Publicity) secret desire to do things outside common sense and the norm.” Despite the protagonist’s sick behavior, it’s a tribute to all concerned that he becomes increasingly likeable as the film unfolds. “Which is also the tragedy,” Manuel Bickenbach says, “because it’s only when he crosses the lines of society that he finds himself savoring genuine human warmth. He’s a person in need of love, just as we all are.” Schwerkraft, which has Erlenwein and DoP Ngo The Chau continuing their ongoing cooperation, draws its tension from audience fears that Frederik will become a victim of himself. But here the director has chosen “not to expose or make fun of him, but to take him seriously and allow him his dignity. The story may sound dark and tragic, but it’s told with tempo, humor and scurrility, very much in the vein of, say, Taxi Driver, Fight Club and Trainspotting.” The film was written especially for actor Fabian Hinrichs (66/67, Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, Blackout) with whom Erlenwein shared an apartment for two years and co-developed the character of Frederik. Playing his buddy in crime is Juergen Vogel whose many credits include such smash hits as The Free Will, The Wave, and Rabbit Without Ears. Founded in 2006 by Alexander and Manuel Bickenbach, FRISBEEFILMS places its values on strong emotionality, working with outstanding talents to become an important player in the international independent film business. Their greatest successes to date are Nevermore, Berlin – 1st of May, and Let the Cat Out of the Bag: the first of which won the Student Oscar® 2007. SK This Is Love Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama Production Company Badlands Film/Berlin, in co-production with Schwarzweiss Filmproduktion/Berlin, cine plus Filmproduktion/ Berlin, WDR/Cologne, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producers Matthias Glasner, Lars Kraume, Juergen Vogel Director Matthias Glasner Screenplay Matthias Glasner Director of Photography Sonja Rom Editor Mona Braeuer Music by Christoph Kaiser, Julian Maas Production Design Frank Pruemmer Principal Cast Corinna Harfouch, Jens Albinus, Duyen Pham, Juergen Vogel, Katja Danowski, Devid Striesow Shooting Language German Format HD, blow-up to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting in Vietnam, Berlin, North RhineWestphalia, July – September 2008 German Distributor Kinowelt Filmverleih/Leipzig World Sales TrustNordisk · Susan Wendt Filmbyen 12 · 2650 Hvidovre/Denmark phone +45-36-86 87 88 · fax +45-36-77 44 48 email: [email protected] · www.trust-film.dk Principal photography wrapped in September on This Is Love which is the first project of the Berlin-based production company Badlands Film director Matthias Glasner set up last year with fellow filmmaker Lars Kraume and actor Juergen Vogel. “The film’s title comes from the song This Is Always,” Glasner explains. “I found this romantic text also to be so threatening because there is that level about the obsession of love. It’s like The Police’s song Every Breath You Take, which one can see both ways. It is a seemingly romantic film which also looks at the dark sides of love, of suffering and breaking down, and everything love can do to us and change our personality.” Set in Vietnam and Germany, This Is Love centers on Chris and the nine-year-old Jenjira on the run from the mafia. Together with his friend Holger, Chris bought the young Vietnamese girl’s freedom from human traffickers – without actually being able to pay. Meanwhile, the female detective Maggie learns after 16 years why her husband up and left her without a word. These two worlds come together when Chris is accused of murder and Maggie is charged with interrogating him … german films quarterly 4 · 2008 in production 28 Scene from “Transfer” (photo © Schiwago Film/Novapool Pictures) As Glasner recalls, the idea for the new film came during his research for his previous feature film The Free Will which was shown in the Berlinale Official Competition in 2005: “I came across a story which moved me a lot about a man falling in love with a child and suffering because he knows that he can never live this love, that he will never be able to really fall in love. The other story around the Maggie character played by Corinna Harfouch was about being left and not knowing the reason why. These were issues which were of interest to me and people in my circle of friends, so I decided to address the question of love and suffering.” While he had Corinna Harfouch in mind from the outset for the part of Maggie whilst writing the screenplay – she had appeared in two of his feature films Sexy Sadie and Fandango and several TV movies – a happy coincidence brought him to the choice of the lead actor, the Dane Jens Albinus. “I was working on the screenplay in Hong Kong and happened to see Lars von Trier’s The Boss of It All where Jens has the lead. I was quite impressed by his performance and then learned by chance that he is also represented by my agency in Berlin. I liked the idea of writing a part for someone I didn’t know in the same way as I did with Sabine Timoteo for The Free Will.” Actor Juergen Vogel, who won a Silver Bear at the 2005 Berlinale for his work as lead actor/co-screenwriter and producer of The Free Will, notes that the success of this film nationally and internationally was a great help when they were putting the financing together for This Is Love. “Stylistically and formally, it is a quite different film from The Free Will,” Vogel explains. “The story offers an insight into a world that one is not aware of, it is quite an adventure.” The shoot began with two days of filming on location in Saigon – with the local service producer Star Film handling the logistics on the ground – before moving back to Berlin and then interiors in North Rhine-Westphalia. Vogel adds that the decision to use the new RED digital camera had financial and artistic reasons: “When you are shooting with an elevenyear-old child who is appearing in front of the camera for the first time, it is much easier to work with two cameras rather than having to have a 35 mm setup. Moreover, we found that you can create a very interesting aesthetic for the special kind of world where this film plays.” “Using the RED was ideal for Matthias so that he could improvise on set,” adds executive producer Joerg Schulze of cine plus Filmproduktion whose previous credits include Philip Groening’s Into Great Silence. “We had only two days of shooting in Vietnam, which was important because you can’t capture that atmosphere of the Saigon streets and clubs in the studio in Germany, but using the RED meant that we had plenty of material to work from.” “That’s certainly an advantage of the RED that you have lots of material,” Glasner agrees, “and I also like the fact that what you see directly on the HD monitor is the final result.” MB german films quarterly 4 · 2008 Transfer Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Fantasy/Science Fiction Production Company Schiwago Film/Berlin, in co-production with ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producers Marcos Kantis, Martin Lehwald, Michal Pokorny Commissioning Editor Christian Cloos Director Damir Lukacevic Screenplay Damir Lukacevic, Gabi Blauert, Gerald Klein Director of Photography Francisco Dominguez Editor Frank Brummundt Music by Gerd Wilden Production Design Tom Hornig Principal Cast B.J. Britt, Regine Nehy, Hans Michael Rehberg, Ingrid Andree, Jeanette Hain, Mehmet Kurtulus, Ulrich Voss Casting Lisa Hamill Format 4K HD, blow-up to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital Shooting Languages German & English Shooting in Ueberlingen, Stuttgart, and Berlin, August – September 2008 German Distributor Novapool Pictures/Berlin Contact Schiwago Film GmbH Gneisenaustrasse 66 · 10961 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-69 53 98 10 · fax +49-30-69 53 98 50 email: [email protected] · www.schiwagofilm.de Man’s dream of eternal youth and life – as old as humanity itself – is the subject of Damir Lukacevic’s second feature film Transfer which wrapped on location in Berlin in mid-September. Originally, Croatian-born Lukacevic, who studied Directing at the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin, had planned to adapt a short story entitled Thousand Euros, One Life by veteran Spanish authoress Eli Barcelo as one of the films in a series planned by ZDF’s Das kleine Fernsehspiel under the banner of “2020”, presenting different visions of how the future might look. Realizing that Lukacevic’s proposed adaptation could not be made for 2020’s budget of 100,000 Euros, commissioning editor Christian Cloos accompanied the young filmmaker in further developing the project and actively looking for a production company to come onboard. Berlin’s Schiwago Film was one of the producers approached by Cloos and Lukacevic and decided to take on the job of further development of the screenplay and raising the financing. in production 29 The film’s plot centers on the elderly couple Hermann and Anna who have the dream of beginning anew at the end of their lives. In a sanatorium, they buy the young bodies of Apolain and Sarah for a million Euros and, in a personality transfer developed in Germany, the couple received control over these bodies for 20 hours each day. Apolain and Sarah are only themselves again for four hours each night … story. Nevertheless, there is always a risk with such a camera and the occasional teething troubles.” “You have a needle-sharp picture with this camera,” Kantis adds. “At the same time, it all remains a little artificial, but that’s something which supports the production design and the actors in the frame.” MB Ludi Boeken (photo © Petra Seeger/FilmForm Koeln) “We had a very positive reaction from the film funders to Damir because they knew his last feature, Homecoming, and were impressed by the screenplay for Transfer,” producer Marcos Kantis recalls. “I don’t think there is really anything comparable to this film in German cinema,” says Kantis. “It is a very modern, futuristic story and a love story. There is a lot of tongue-in-cheek here, but it is also a subject which can be discussed in ethical and moral terms in all seriousness. Moreover, we are medically and technologically up-to-date, and even a bit further.” While the elderly couple of Hermann and Anna were cast relatively quickly, finding the two African actors took a lot more time. “I hadn’t known Ingrid Andree before, but I was fascinated by her visually and what I read about her,” Lukacevic explains. The veteran actress had been a big star in German cinema during the 1950s in such films as Rolf Thiele’s Primanerinnen, Wolfgang Becker’s Peter Voss, Der Millionendieb and Helmut Kaeutner’s Der Rest ist Schweigen, but had concentrated on stage work for the theater in the past 20 years. “I wrote to her about my project without knowing her, and two days later she replied that she would like to be part of the film and that she had fallen in love with the script,” he says. “And it was her suggestion that we approach Hans Michael Rehberg – with whom she had often appeared on stage – for the part of Hermann,” adds Kantis. Finding the right actors for Apolain and Sarah led the director and producers to casting sessions in Germany, France, South Africa, London, and, finally, Los Angeles. Thanks to casting director Lisa Hamill they could cast B.J. Britt – whose past credits include Victor Salva’s Peaceful Warrior, Tammi Sutton’s Sutures and the CSI Miami TV series – and Regine Nehy who appeared this year opposite Samuel L. Jackson in Neil LaBute’s Lakeview Terrace. “The story was so structured that we needed young actors between 20 and 30, who are attractive, have a great body and are so good as actors that they can portray the difference between an African and a white man or woman,” Lukacevic says. And Mehmet Kurtulus, who appears with his dark locks bleached peroxide blonde and wearing blue contact lenses, gives an otherworldly dimension to the film by speaking his lines in English (he will dub himself into German for the theatrical release in Germany by Novapool Pictures next year). After Matthias Glasner’s This Is Love, Transfer is the second German feature film this summer to deploy the RED One 4K HD camera as an alternative to 35 mm. “We did some tests with the camera beforehand and were extremely convinced,” Lukacevic recalls. “It has another finish instead of the grainy look of 16 mm. Everything is a little bit more perfect and that is ideal for this futuristic german films quarterly 4 · 2008 Unter Bauern Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre History Production Company FilmForm/Cologne, Pandora Film/ Cologne, 3L Filmproduktion/Dortmund, in co-production with Acajou Films/Paris, WDR/Cologne, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Eurimages, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producers Joachim von Mengershausen, Karl Baumgartner, Werner Wirsing Co-Producers Gebhard Henke & Michael Andre (WDR), Pascal Judelewicz (Acajou Films) Director Ludi Boeken Screenplay Otto Jaegersberg, Imo Moszkowicz, Heidrun Schleef Director of Photography Dani Schneor Editor Susan Fenn Music by David Greilsamm Production Design Agnette Schloesser Principal Cast Veronica Ferres, Armin Rohde, Margarita Broich, Martin Horn, Lia Hoensbroech, Louisa Mix Casting Filmcast Sabine Schwedhelm/Duesseldorf Format S16 mm, color, 1:1.85, blow-up to 35 mm, Dolby SR Shooting Language German Shooting in Duelmen, Wadersloh, Lippstadt, August – October 2008 German Distributor 3L Licensing/Dortmund 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 “It is about people rather than ideology,” says producer Joachim von Mengershausen about Unter Bauern (“Among Farmers”) which is based on the memoirs of Marga Spiegel that were published in book form under the title of Retter in der Nacht in 1969 and have been adapted for the screen by Otto Jaegersberg, Imo Moszkowicz and Heidrun Schleef. in production 30 The German-French co-production is – after the documentary In Search of Memory by Petra Seeger – the second foray into production for Mengershausen’s Cologne-based company FilmForm, although the former commissioning editor at WDR can look back on an extensive career in broadcasting with involvement in such prestige projects as Edgar Reitz’s Heimat family chronicles. Unter Bauern recounts how some courageous farmers in the Muensterland region gave refuge to Marga Spiegel’s husband Menne, herself and her daughter under false names in their farmhouse between 1943 and 1945. The farmers succeeded in achieving the seemingly impossible: protecting the whole family for two years and saving them from deportation to the death camps without themselves having to pay with their own lives or being punished in other ways by the German government in those days. Bauern,” Mengershausen recalls. “His German grandmother had married a Jew in Amsterdam and was so outraged during the Second World War about the German occupation of the Netherlands and the persecution of the Jews that she helped bring hundreds of Jews to safety by hiding them in the countryside outside of Amsterdam. Our film’s story is a German variation of what Ludi’s family went through.” MB The leads are taken by Veronica Ferres (who appeared in Paul Schrader’s Adam Resurrected which premiered at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals), Armin Rohde (Mr. Woof) and child actor Louisa Mix, with Margarita Broich (Four Windows), Martin Horn (Buddenbrooks) and child actor Lia Hoensbroech playing the Aschoff family of farmers in front of the camera of the Israeli DoP Dani Schneor. Other parts are taken by Marlon Kittel (Summer Storm) and Veit Stuebner (The Counterfeiters). As Mengershausen notes, the actors approached during the casting for the film were immediately enthusiastic about being involved in the project: Veronica Ferres and Armin Rohde both accepted without hesitation to play the Spiegels. Interestingly, these two roles were cast with German actors of non-Jewish origin, while there are some Jewish actors cast for non-Jewish roles. The veteran writer-director Imo Moszkowicz had given Mengerhausen Marga Spiegel’s memoirs to read in 1999 as this had been a pet project of his to direct. In the meantime, Moszkowicz’s state of health prevented him from being in the director’s chair himself. “I was very moved by what I read because it is an extraordinary story about the persecution of the Jews during the Nazi terror,” Mengershausen says. “The farmers’ decision to save the Spiegel family was their reaction to the excesses of the Nazi party to drive the Jews out of Germany. It was a unique incident to save a whole Jewish family and it was never found out. The people who saved them did not have to pay for their actions.” “The farmers had decided in all humility that somebody like Menne Spiegel, their former horse dealer, should be saved from this injustice,” Mengershausen continues. “This human feeling of solidarity was very rare in those days, like a light in the darkness.” Shooting of Unter Bauern has been done in the original Muensterland locations, some of which have hardly changed since the 1940s. “It is as if time has stood still,” the producer says, adding that the locals in the Muensterland region are proud that this story is now being told at last for the big screen. The project also has a personal resonance for the film’s Dutch-born director Ludi Boeken who was the producer of another film about this particular chapter of recent history, Radu Mihaileanu’s awardwinning film Train of Life in 1998. “Ludi was really shocked when he received the screenplay for Unter german films quarterly 4 · 2008 in production 31 Scene from “9to5 – Days in Porn” (photo © F24 Film) 9to5 – Days in Porn “When you are fucking for a living, not everyone is going to understand it – and even less are they going to like it.” 9to5 – Days in Porn is a portrait about people who work in adult entertainment, a business bigger than the music industry. Filmed over a period of more than a year, ten different stories unfold, delivering insight into the personal lives of people in the adult movie business, their hopes and their dreams. However, the demands of the job can take a toll; and a short time in this world can be the start, a part or the end of both a career and a normal life. Genre Portrait Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Jens Hoffmann Screenplay Jens Hoffmann Editor Christopher Klotz, Kai Schroeter Original Score Alex McGowan, Michael Meinl Music by Brant Bjork, Martina Topley-Bird, The Dwarves, Sweet Machine, and others Producer Cleonice Comino Production Company F24 Film/Munich With Tom Herold, Belladonna, Sasha Grey, Mia Rose, Katja Kassin, Roxy Deville, Otto Bauer, Audrey Hollander, Mark Spiegler, Jim Powers, John Stagliano, Dr. Sharon Mitchell Length 90 min Format 16 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version English & German Subtitled Versions English, German Sound Technology Dolby Digital Festival Screenings Montreal 2008, Rio 2008 Jens Hoffmann first started making films in the 1990s, filming himself and friends at mountain sports. After numerous years experience in television and film projects, he founded his own production company, F24 Film, in 2000 and produces and directs not only commercials and corporate films, but also feature documentaries including Fatima’s Hand 2006), 20 Seconds of Joy (2007), and 9to5 – Days in Porn (2008). World Sales Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins Aachener Strasse 26 · 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 german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 32 88 – pilgern auf japanisch Scene from “88 – pilgrimage in japanese” (photo © Gerald Koll) 88 – PILGRIMAGE IN JAPANESE There’s a nearly unknown Buddhist pilgrimage in Japan: a circle along 88 temples. It’s strange. It’s older and longer than the Spanish pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It’s probably the longest of all marked pilgrim-routes of the world: the hachiju-hakkasho! It circles the island of Shikoku. According to the temples, shrines and monks, Shikoku is called the “holy island”. Pilgrims have been going here for 1,200 years, along a route of 1,300 km, marked by 88 temples. Normally only Japanese Buddhists walk the route. Some of them have done it over 300 times. Only by exception does a foreigner participate here. Like in the spring of 2007: A German pilgrim was on the road, on his own, joined by his camera. He was searching for “henro boke”, the special state of mind of a pilgrim. That’s the aim of this amusing and self-ironic documentary. Genre Adventure, Religion, Road Movie Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Gerald Koll Screenplay Gerald Koll Director of Photography Gerald Koll Editor René Perraudin Music by Arpad Bondy Production Design Gerald Koll Producer Gerald Koll Production Company Koll Filmproduktion/Kiel Principal Cast Gerald Koll, Hideo Fujikawa, Hira Yusaku, Kajitani Shigetsugu, Kosho Omoto, Makoto Sato, Masahiko Monzen, Nobuo Morikawa, Ogawa Masaki, Osamu Ohno, Shigeo Ishikawa, Taiten Kouyama, Yuki Kawamura, Yves La Rose Durand Length 88 min Format Mini DV, color, 16:9 Original Version German/Japanese/English Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Stereo Festival Screenings Hof 2008 With backing from Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Kulturelle Filmfoerderung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern German Distributor Salzgeber & Co. Medien/Berlin Gerald Koll was born in Kiel in 1966 and studied German Literature, completing his PhD on “Erotics in Silent Movies”. Since 1989 he has been a freelance journalist and independent filmmaker. His films include: Among Gauchos (1998), Dangerous Affections (2000), Weekend on Wannsee (2000), A Fancy in the Orient (2001), The Silence of Gods – Portrait of Theo Angelopoulos (2001), Harry Piel – The Unleashed (2004), Brave Little Bride (2007), and 88 – pilgrimage in japanese (2008). World Sales (please contact) Koll Filmproduktion · Gerald Koll Sredzkistrasse 44 · 10435 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-41 71 58 16 email: [email protected] · www.88-pilgrimage-in-japanese.de german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 33 Adems Sohn Scene from “Adem’s Son” (photo © dffb/Thomas Vesper) ADEM’S SON “You could have had a day out a long time ago. Now, just before your release, you take advantage of this opportunity. Why?” asks the prison director. Ali’s answer is short and decisive: “To talk.” Ali, who has been sitting in a juvenile detention center for six years, finished his training course as a chef with accolades. But he never spoke about his past. Today, on the very day of his brother Ibo’s wedding, he wants to visit his family and talk. Like a silent bomb, Ali bursts into the traditional wedding preparations and opens up old wounds in a matter of seconds. He is looking for common ground, but finds out that it is impossible now. When he meets his father in a small side room, he notices that there is nothing left to discuss. His actions have cut him off from his family – with no chance of return. Genre Drama, Family, Melodrama Category Short Year of Production 2008 Director Hakan Savas Mican Screenplay Hakan Savas Mican, Max Honert Director of Photography Sebastian Lempe Editors Hakan Savas Mican, Sebastian Lempe Music by Devil Inside, Daria Marschinina Production Design Petra Schlie Producers Hartmut Bitomsky, Christin Geigemueller Production Company Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb), in co-production with RBB/Potsdam-Babelsberg Principal Cast Tamer Yigit, Murat Seven, Erden Alkan, Sema Poyraz, Nilam Farooq, Lars Pape, Burak Yigit, Katja Sieder, Vedat Kaygan Casting Greta Amend Length 30 min Format 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German/Turkish Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings Film Festival Turkey-Germany Nuremberg 2008 German Distributor Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb) Hakan Savas Mican was born in 1978 in Berlin and grew up in Turkey. In 1997 he returned to Berlin to study Architecture and began shooting his first films. Also active as a journalist for radio broadcasters, he has been a student at the German Academy of Television & Film (dffb) since 2004. His films include: Mother’s Mark (Muttermal, 2006), Foreign (Fremd, 2007), and Adem’s Son (Adems Sohn, 2008). World Sales (please contact) Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie Berlin GmbH (dffb) · Jana Wolff Potsdamer Strasse 2 · 10785 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-25 75 91 52 · fax +49-30-25 75 91 62 email: [email protected] · www.dffb.de german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 34 Anonyma — Eine Frau in Berlin Scene from “A Woman in Berlin” (photo © Constantin Film Verleih GmbH) A WOMAN IN BERLIN April 1945. The Red Army is invading Berlin. Women fall victim to rape in a half-destroyed house. One of them is Anonyma, who had been a journalist and photographer. In her desperation she decides to look for an officer who can protect her. What happens is what she had least been prepared for. A relationship develops with the Russian officer Andrej that would feel like love were it not for the barrier that keeps them enemies till the end. Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Max Faerberboeck Screenplay Max Faerberboeck Director of Photography Benedict Neuenfels Editor Ewa J. Lind Music by Zbigniew Preisner Production Design Uli Hanisch Producer Guenter Rohrbach Production Company Constantin Film Produktion/Munich, in co-production with Tempus Film/Lodz, in cooperation with ZDF/Mainz Principal Cast Nina Hoss, Evgeny Sidikhin, Irm Herrmann, Ruediger Vogler, Ulrike Krumbiegel, Rolf Kanies, Joerdis Triebel, Roman Gribkow, Juliane Koehler Casting Simone Baer Length 131 min, 3,591 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital Festival Screenings Toronto 2008 With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Medienboard BerlinBrandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich Max Faerberboeck produced plays at theaters in Hamburg, Heidelberg, and Cologne before writing and directing several episodes of the TV series Der Fahnder. He then wrote and directed four award-winning TV films (Schlafende Hunde, Einer zahlt immer, Bella Block – Die Kommissarin, and Bella Block – Liebestod) before making his feature film debut with Aimée & Jaguar, which was nominated for the Golden Globe Award 2000. His other films include: Jenseits (2002), September (2003), and A Woman in Berlin (Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin, 2008) 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 · 2008 new german films 35 Der Baader Meinhof Komplex Scene from “The Baader Meinhof Complex” (photo © Constantin Film Verleih 2008) THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX Germany in the 1970s: Murderous bomb attacks, the threat of terrorism and the fear of the enemy inside are rocking the very foundations of the yet fragile German democracy. The radicalized children of the Nazi generation led by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin are fighting a violent war against what they perceive as the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German establishment, many of whom have a Nazi past. Their aim is to create a more human society, but by employing inhuman means they not only spread terror and bloodshed, they also lose their own humanity. The man who understands them is also their hunter: the head of the German police force Horst Herold. And while he succeeds in his relentless pursuit of the young terrorists, he knows he’s only dealing with the tip of the iceberg. Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Uli Edel Screenplay Bernd Eichinger, based on the book by and in consultation with Stefan Aust, in cooperation with Uli Edel Director of Photography Rainer Klausmann Editor Alexander Berner Music by Peter Hinderthuer, Florian Tessloff Production Design Bernd Lepel Producer Bernd Eichinger Production Company Constantin Film Produktion/Munich, in co-production with Les Nouvelles Editions de Films/Paris, G.T. Film Production/Prague, NDR/Hamburg, BR/Munich, WDR/Cologne, Degeto Film/ Frankfurt Principal Cast Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Nadja Uhl, Heino Ferch, Bruno Ganz, and others Length 149 min, 4,090 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital Festival Screenings Zurich 2008, Rome 2008, London 2008 With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Bayerischer Bankenfonds, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich Uli Edel was born in 1947. He studied German Language Studies and Theater Sciences before enrolling at the Munich University of Television & Film, where he first met Bernd Eichinger, whom he worked with on numerous films. A selection of his award-winning films include: Christiane F – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (1981), Letzte Ausfahrt Brooklyn (1989), an episode of the series Twin Peaks (1990) and numerous other US event movies and mini-series, Body of Evidence (1993), Der kleine Vampir (2000), Die Nebel von Avalon, (TV, 2001), King of Texas (2002), Julius Caesar (TV, 2003), Die Nibelungen (TV, 2004), and The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), among others. World Sales Summit Entertainment Group 1601 Cloverfield Boulevard, Suite 200, South Tower Santa Monica, California 90404/USA www.summit-ent.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 36 Die Bienen – Toedliche Bedrohung Scene from “Killerbees” (photo © Sat.1/Wasabi Film/Trixter) KILLERBEES Killerbees involves a race against time as young doctor Karla searches for the serum to save her desperately ill father who has been stung by one of the little buzzers. Aided by the charming biologist Ben, they stumble upon the origins of the deadly creatures, the work of entomologist Dr. Alvarez, who now uses all means possible to stop them from revealing what he’s done. To make matters worse, Karla and Ben are also now wanted by the police, who are about to take some drastic and potentially catastrophic action of their own … Genre Adventure, Ecology, Thriller Category TV Movie Year of Production 2008 Director Michael Karen Screenplay Nicole & Uli Bujard, Annette Simon Director of Photography Jochen Staeblein Editor Stefan Essl Music by Siggi Mueller Production Design Ina Kirchhoff Producers Martin Kircher, Hendrik Feil Production Company Wasabi Film/Munich, in coproduction with SAT.1/Berlin Principal Cast Janin Reinhardt, Stephan Luca, Sonja Kirchberger, Klaus J. Behrendt, Rolf Kanies, Patrick von Blume, Paula Schramm Length 92 min Format Super 16 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern German Distributor SevenOne International/Unterfoehring Michael Karen began his career as an actor and radio reporter before making his first short Die Loosers in 1986. He followed this with various jobs on documentaries, a six-month stay in Los Angeles, and directing for television in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He attended the Frank Daniel script workshop and Robert McKee’s story structure seminar and directed the musical The Little Shop of Horrors in Duesseldorf in 1995. Apart from writing many scripts for film and television, a selection of his directing credits include: Im Namen des Gesetzes (TV, 1994), So ist das Leben – Die Wagenfelds (TV, 1995), Parkhotel Stern (TV, 1996), Die Diebin (TV, 1997), Verfuehrt – Eine gefaehrliche Affaere (TV, 1998), Alarm fuer Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei (TV, 1999), Flashback (1999), SOS – The Bunnyguards on Board (Erkan & Stefan – Der Tod kommt krass, 2005), Arme Millionaer (TV, 2006), Summerhill (2007), Pro7 Funny Movies – Halloween Horror Hostel (2007), and Killerbees (Die Bienen – Toedliche Bedrohung, 2008). World Sales SevenOne International GmbH Medienallee 7 · 85774 Unterfoehring/Germany phone +49-89-95 07 23 20 · fax +49-89-95 07 23 21 email: [email protected] · www.sevenoneinternational.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 37 Buddenbrooks Scene from “Buddenbrooks” (photo © Bavaria Film/Stefan Falke) BUDDENBROOKS – THE DECLINE OF A FAMILY Buddenbrooks – The Decline of a Family is the gripping cinematic adaptation of Thomas Mann’s Nobel Prizewinning novel of 1900, starring Academy Award®nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl in the lead role. In loving, compassionate detail and cinematic scope, Emmy® Awardwinner Heinrich Breloer portrays the rise and decline of a merchant family in the bourgeois aristocracy in Luebeck in their fight and sacrifice for the economic survival of the family and their pursuit of happiness and impossible love. While Thomas is willing to fill the void of their father, Consul Jean, and to steer the firm through the times of modernization and rising competition, his brother Christian is trying to break away from any responsibility. We find him in dubious company, marrying a woman from a vaudeville show, rebelling against everything their father stood for. It is left to their sister, Tony, who sacrifices her true love for the sake of the family’s fortune, to hold the family ties together. But when their competitor Hagenstroem proves to have the better instinct for the changing needs of the market, even her influence seems to vanish … Genre Drama, Literature Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Heinrich Breloer Screenplay Heinrich Breloer, Horst Koenigstein, based on the novel by Thomas Mann Director of Photography Gernot Roll Editor Barbara von Weitershausen Music by Hans P. Stroeer Production Design Goetz Weidner Producers Matthias Esche, Michael Hild, Jan S. Kaiser, Uschi Reich, Winka Wulff Co-Producer Burkhard von Schenk Production Company Bavaria Film/ Munich, in co-production with Pirol Film Production/Munich, Colonia Media/Cologne, WDR/Cologne, NDR/Hamburg, SWR/ Baden-Baden, BR/Munich, Degeto Film/Frankfurt, ORF/Vienna, ARTE/Strasbourg Principal Cast Armin Mueller-Stahl, Jessica Schwarz, August Diehl, Mark Waschke, Iris Berben, Léa Bosco, Fedja van Huêt, Raban Bieling, Justus von Dohnányi Casting An Dorthe Braker Length 150 min Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), MEDIA German Distributor Warner Bros. Pictures Germany/Hamburg Heinrich Breloer was born in 1942 in Gelsenkirchen. Active as a writer and director, a selection of his films includes: Das Beil von Wandsbek (TV, 1982), Kampfname: Willy Brand (TV, 1984), Todesspiel (TV, 1997), the Emmy® award-winning Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman (2001), Speer and Hitler (2005), and Buddenbrooks (2008). World Sales Bavaria Film International / Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Ritter Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 email: [email protected] · www.bavaria-film-international.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 38 Dem kuehlen Morgen entgegen Scenes from “Into the Cold Dawn” (photos © Oliver Becker) INTO THE COLD DAWN Into the Cold Dawn recounts the life of the composer Dimitri Shostakovich from the perspective of a film director who is shooting a movie about him. In 1961 the song Into the Cold Dawn, composed by Shostakovich for the film Der Gegenplan and sung by Yuri Gagarin, was the first music in space. While editing the film, the director shifts through scenes from feature films for which Shostakovich wrote the music during Stalin’s rule. The director meets and interviews family members and companions of the composer, such as Mstislav Rostropovich. Key moments in the life of Shostakovich are re-enacted with marionette puppets. At the end of his investigation, the director realizes that he is unable to draw a clear-cut portrait of the composer – what his interview partners tell him is just too contradictory. Genre Art, Music Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2008 Directors Oliver Becker, Katharina Bruner Screenplay Oliver Becker, Katharina Bruner, Dietrich Mack Director of Photography Joerg Jeshel Editor Bernd Euscher Original Music by Dimitri Shostakovich Production Design Katharina Bruner Producer Manfred Frei Production Company LOFT music/Gauting, in co-production with ZDF/ Mainz, 3sat/Mainz Principal Cast Armin Mueller-Stahl World Sales (please contact) LOFT music GmbH · Manfred Frei Wessobrunner Strasse 4 · 82131 Gauting/Germany phone +49-89-89 34 08 94 · fax +49-89-89 34 08 60 email: [email protected] · www.loft-music.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 Special Effects Georg Jenisch Format HD Cam Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg Oliver Becker was born in 1967 and started making short films at the age of 14. In 1995, he made his first television documentary, followed by numerous other classical music documentaries and international concert recordings. A selection of his films includes: Dem Licht entgegen – Alexander Skrjabin: Kalkuel und Ekstase (1996), Portrait Peter Michael Hamel (1997), Verschlossene Heimat – Prokofjiews Sowjetisches Tagebuch 1927 (1998), Protest der Stille – der 9. Oktober 1989 in Leipzig (1999), Die Jagd nach dem Blech – ein musikalischer Spass mit German Brass (2000), Longing for Germany – The Conductor Wilhelm Furtwaengler (Wilhelm Furtwaengler – Sehnsucht nach Deutschland, 2003), Enlightened Love – Laughing Death (Wagner: The Staging of a Family Drama) (Leuchtende Liebe – Lachender Tod: Das Familientheater der Wagners, 2004), Kent Nagano – Seeking New Shores (2006), Klangfarbe Zukunft – Das Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester (2007), and Into the Cold Dawn (Dem kuehlen Morgen entgegen, 2008), in co-direction with Katharina Bruner. Katharina Bruner was born in 1975 in Uzbekistan and has been living and working in Germany since 1988. She studied Art History, Theater and Film in Paris and Duesseldorf. Also active in the areas of stage and costume design, she has directed numerous short films and has been working with Oliver Becker since 2005. new german films 39 Finnischer Tango Scene from “Finnish Tango” (photo © Geisberg Studios) FINNISH TANGO Finnish Tango tells the story of a man, who – on his quest of finding the easy way out – discovers his own humanity. Alex is a passionate but unsuccessful musician. Nothing more, nothing less. He is neither the nice guy, nor a good friend, not even a reliable partner, and definitely no one who takes responsibility in life. After a tragic accident, Alex suddenly finds himself without a band and without a plan, but with a mountain of debt and raging metal players breathing down his neck. While searching for a job, he comes across a theater group of handicapped people, who are searching for another actor for an upcoming play. Alex invents a handicap, steals a handicap ID, gets the part and moves in with the group, who open their arms, hearts and minds to him. He wins them over, most of them at least, with his music – heartbreaking tango melodies. But Rudolph, a highly intelligent, suicidal and fatally ill misanthropist, doesn’t really trust him and puts Alex to the test. Genre Tragicomedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Buket Alakus Screenplay Marcus Hertneck, Jan Berger Director of Photography Daniela Knapp Editor Andreas Radtke Music by Christoph Blaser, Steffen Kahles Production Design Ralf Mootz, Sabine Rudolph Producer Eike Besuden Production Company Geisberg Studios/Bremen, in co-production with Pinguin Film/Wolfsburg, NDR/Hamburg, Radio Bremen Principal Cast Christoph Bach, Mira Bartuschek, Fabian Busch, Nele Winkler, Michael Schumacher, Christian Naethe, Daniel Zillmann Casting Mai Seck Length 90 min, 2,511 m Format Super 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Surround Festival Screenings Emden 2008 (In Competition/Opening Film), Festival des Deutschen Films Ludwigsburg 2008 (In Competition) Awards Audience Award Ludwigsburg 2008 With backing from Nordmedia, Filmstiftung NRW, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) German Distributor Neue Visionen Filmverleih/Berlin Buket Alakus was born in 1971 in Istanbul and grew up in Hamburg. After finishing her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin in 1995, she studied Film Directing at Hamburg University’s Institute of Theater, Music and Film from 1996-1998. Her films include: the shorts Martin (1995), Schluessel (1996), Tango (1997), Kismet (1998), her award-winning feature debut Anam (2000), Offside (Eine andere Liga, 2004), Freundinnen fuers Leben (TV, 2005), the children’s series Kinder.de (2006), and Finnish Tango (Finnischer Tango, 2008). World Sales Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins Aachener Strasse 26 · 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 german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 40 Freche Maedchen Scene from “Cheeky Girls” (photo © Constantin Film 2008) CHEEKY GIRLS Mila, Hanna, and Kati are best friends – always there for each other, be it stress at school or boy trouble. And they have plenty of that: A gifted singer, Hanna wants to participate in a casting show, which leads to an argument with her boyfriend Branko; Kati develops a huge crush on Brian, the coolest boy at school. When he turns a poem written by Mila into his band’s new song, Kati becomes jealous. Mila though thinks Markus is kind of cute, but nothing else. She is actually relieved that her first relationship is taking its sweet time because, as she puts it, she has no time for boys right now. But then she falls head over heels for Pit Winter, a young trainee teacher, who of all people happens to be the new boyfriend of her mom, a charming, but chaotic hairdresser … Talk about stress! Cheeky Girls is based on Germany’s most popular book series for girls, Cheeky Girls – Cheeky Books, which has been published in 22 languages and sold over 7 million copies total. Genre Youth, Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Ute Wieland Screenplay Maggie Peren, based on the series of novels Cheeky Girls – Cheeky Books by Bianka Minte-Koenig Director of Photography Peter Przybylski Editor Dunja Campregher Music by Oli Biehler Production Design Frank Polosek, Elena Wegner Producer Ulrich Limmer Production Company collina Filmproduktion/ Munich, in co-production with Constantin Film Produktion/Munich, B.A. Produktion/Munich Principal Cast Emilia Schuele, Selina Shirin Mueller, Henriette Nagel, Anke Engelke, Armin Rohde, David Rott Casting Stefany Pohlmann, Nicole Fischer Special Effects Juergen Schopper Length 97 min, 2,650 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SRD With backing from German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Filmstiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFernsehFonds Bayern German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich Ute Wieland was born in Grossbottwar near Stuttgart. She initially studied German Language Studies and Theater Sciences before enrolling at the Munich University of Television & Film. Her awardwinning films include: Im Jahr der Schildkroete (1988), Polizeiruf 110 – Hetzjagd (TV, 1997), Wie angelt man sich seinen Chef? (TV, 1999), Morgen gehoert der Himmel mir (TV, 1999), Dich schickt der Himmel (TV, 2000), Die Mutter meines Mannes (TV, 2001), Eiskalte Freunde (TV, 2002), Italiener und andere Suessigkeiten (TV, 2003), Miss Texas (TV, 2004), FC Venus – Women with Balls (2006), Fettkiller (TV, 2007), and Cheeky Girls (Freche Maedchen, 2008). World Sales Atlas International Film GmbH · Philipp Menz, Susanne Groh, Dieter Menz Candidplatz 11 · 81543 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-2 10 97 50 · fax +49-89-21 09 75 81 email: [email protected] · www.atlasfilm.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 41 Geliebte Clara Scene from “Clara” (photo © Integral Film) CLARA In 1850, Robert, his wife Clara and their five children settle down in Duesseldorf where he has accepted a position as musical director. For the resourceful musician, considered more as one of the world’s greatest composers than a conductor, it turns out to be a bad decision. Nor is it a happy period for Clara, who is reduced to the role of housewife instead of acclaimed concert pianist performing throughout Europe to sold-out halls. That is, until she meets the young, brilliant Johannes Brahms. Clara and Johannes fall for one another. Robert, who is sick and suffering from severe depression, attempts to drown himself in the Rhine River. His life is saved and he commits himself to a sanatorium. The relationship between Brahms and Clara grows even more intense. When Robert dies two years later, all the obstacles seem to have disappeared for them. Clara, however, refuses to marry again. Robert’s shadow still weighs too heavy on her. But she will go on playing his and Johannes’ music in the world’s concert halls, expressing her feelings for him and for the moments of darkness they both experienced with Robert. Genre Biopic, Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Helma Sanders-Brahms Screenplay Helma Sanders-Brahms Director of Photography Juergen Juerges Editor Isabelle Devinck Original Music by Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms Production Design Uwe Szielasko Producers Alfred Huermer, Helma Sanders-Brahms Production Companies Integral Film/Berg, Helma Sanders-Brahms Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-production with Mact Productions/Paris, Objektiv Film Studio/Budapest, B.A. Produktion/Munich Principal Cast Martina Gedeck, Pascal Greggory, Malik Zidi Length 110 min, 3,173 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SRD With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Eurimages, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM, Kulturstiftung der Deutschen Bank, CNC, Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary, Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture German Distributor Kinowelt Filmverleih/Leipzig Helma Sanders-Brahms was born in Emden in 1940. She attended the drama school for music and theater in Hanover, and studied German and English Languages in Cologne. She worked as a television announcer for WDR and from 1976-1969 became a guest student with both Pier Paolo Pasolini and Sergio Corbucci. In 1970, she founded her own production company. Under the Pavement Lies the Beach became her breakthrough in 1975. Heinrich (1976), her film on the life and death of the German poet Heinrich von Kleist, was awarded the German Film Award in 1977. Her film Germany, Pale Mother (1980) remains an international success today and is one of the classics of German cinema. Her other films include: Shirin’s Wedding (1975), No Mercy No Future (1981), The Future of Emily (1984), Laputa (1986), Manouevres (1989), Apple Trees (1991), My Heart is Mine Alone (1997), Colour of Soul (2003), and Clara (2008). World Sales ARRI Media Worldsales · 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 german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 42 Hinter Kaifeck Scene from “Kaifeck Murder” (photo © 24 Frames Film) KAIFECK MURDER A job brings the photographer Marc and his son Tyll to the remote and mysterious village of Kaifeck in Bavaria. Marc is strangely fascinated by a tale of gruesome murders on a nearby farm in 1922, and, suddenly, inexplicable things start happening to him at night. He feels a weird connection to the events from back then and is drawn ever deeper into the dark past. So deep that it is not only his own life that is in danger, but also that of his son. One of Germany’s most intriguing unsolved murder mysteries has provided inspiration for this atmospheric mystery thriller, starring Benno Fuermann (Merry Christmas) and Alexandra Maria Lara (Control, Youth Without Youth) in the lead roles. Director Esther Gronenborn (alaska.de) weaves an absorbing tale of guilt and superstition based on the real case, where six people found a grim death in a village called Kaifeck in the forests near Munich in 1922. Genre Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Esther Gronenborn Screenplay Christian Limmer, Soenke Lars Neuwoehner Director of Photography Chris Valentien Editors Moune Barius, Dirk Grau Music by Alexander Hacke Production Design Tom Hornig Producers Monika Raebel, Stefan Gaertner, Christian Balz, Boris Schoenfelder, Nikolaus Lohmann, Tilo Seiffert Production Company 24 Frames Film/Gruenwald, in co-production with SevenPictures/Munich, Neue Kinowelt Filmproduktion/Berlin, Cinemendo/Munich Principal Cast Benno Fuermann, Alexandra Maria Lara, Michael Gwisdek, Erni Mangold, Henry Stange Casting Hanna Hansen Length 86 min Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Kinowelt Home Entertainment/Leipzig Esther Gronenborn studied at the University of Television & Film in Munich, specializing in documentaries and shorts. Her films include: I Wonder in Pornoland (short, 1990), The Road to Happiness (Die Strasse zum Glueck, 1995), Sie schaemen sich ihrer Traenen nicht, Morgengrauen (1992), alaska.de (2000) winner of the German Film Award, Adil geht (2005), Berlin Stories (Stadt als Beute, 2005), and Kaifeck Murder (Hinter Kaifeck, 2008), as well as numerous music videos. World Sales Bavaria Film International / Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Ritter Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 email: [email protected] · www.bavaria-film-international.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 43 Scene from “Hotel Sahara” (photo © Bettina Haasen) Hotel Sahara Viewed from above, the Sahara is oddly gentle; the small sand hills, chains of dunes, dried out wadis and sand ripples all lend the desert their special charm. An unbroken yellow surface that occasionally segues into brownish and sometimes shines blazing yellow, it is impossible to remain unaffected by its beguiling beauty. Africa begins directly behind it – or in front of it, depending on the direction one comes from. Hotel Sahara is a film journey to the last invisible border from the West-African coast to Europe: Hotel Sahara is a metaphor, a point of arrival, of departure, of broken dreams. A melting pot. A place of gathering, of right and wrong recitals, of split personalities. It is, above all, a noman’s land, a place of endless waiting, and endless hoping. In the beginning Nouadhibou looks like any other West African city, but entering the colorful lives of the people who live there, we discover what it means to be on transit, on the road, stuck in a desert city next to the Atlantic Ocean, between hope and despair, between homelessness and the search for a home. Hotel Sahara offers a new perspective on the actual situation of migrants attempting a new life in “the North”. Genre Society Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Bettina Haasen Screenplay Bettina Haasen Director of Photography Jacko Vant’Hof Editor Kristine Langner Music by Karsten Hoefer Producer Christian Beetz Production Company Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion/Berlin Length 85 & 52 min Format HD Blow-up 35 mm, color Original Version French/Bambara/English/ Bamileke/Ibo/Hassaniya Subtitled Versions German, English, French Sound Technology Stereo DTS Analog Festival Screenings DOK Leipzig 2008 With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MEDIA, SCAM, UNESCO, EU Awareness Raising in the Field of Development German Distributor GMfilms/Berlin Bettina Haasen was born in 1969. She studied African Languages and Political Sciences in Hamburg and Paris. She was a producer for Egoli Films/Berlin and Wueste Film/Hamburg and lived and work in Niger/Africa. Her films include: Between Two Worlds (1999), Nomads Don’t Kiss (2000), Sisters of a Long Night (2004), Fremde Liebe (2004), Schatten der Wueste (2006), Ma Vie – Irene Dische (2007), Malick Sidibé (2007), Chily Gonzales – A Thousand Faces (2007), Between Illusion and Reality, the Life of Victor Vasarely (2007), and Hotel Sahara (2008). World Sales (please contact) Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion · Christian Beetz Heinrich-Roller-Strasse 15 · 10405 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-69 56 69 10 · fax +49-30-69 56 69 15 email: [email protected] · www.gebrueder-beetz.de german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 44 In jeder Sekunde Scene from “At Any Second” (photo © Philipp Kirsamer) AT ANY SECOND “The angels who proclaim love will extinguish the fire, and you will be punished,” screams the mentally ill patient in Dr. Frick’s ward. Maybe Frick should listen up, for in the following days and weeks, the angels of love will be busy enticing a variety of men and women to play with fire – perhaps in order to punish them … Sarah, tempted by drugs but trying to get her life in order, breaks up with her coke-snorting boyfriend and falls in love with a sweetnatured photographer. Dr. Frick himself, married and the father of a terminally ill child, succumbs to the charms of a strong, self-assured woman. With her, Frick finds a welcome relief from his all-consuming role as dedicated caretaker of his daughter, his patients, and his marriage. Each of them is on the verge of a major change, each of them ready to head off in a new direction and take the risk of burning themselves on love. Until one moment of egotism and thoughtlessness provokes a near-tragedy and sets off a chain reaction that will leave no one unscarred. Director Jan Fehse brings his years-long experience as a sought-after cinematographer to bear on the poignant story of a handful of individuals caught in the grid of modern urban relationships. By the producers of Sophie Scholl — The Final Days, starring Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others). Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Jan Fehse Screenplay Jan Fehse, Christian Lyra Director of Photography Philipp Kirsamer Editor Dirk Goehler Music by Andreas Helmle Production Design Annette Ingerl Producers Sven Burgemeister, Andreas Schneppe, Bernd Burgemeister Production Companies TV60 Film/Munich, Goldkind Film/Munich, in co-production with BR/ Munich Principal Cast Sebastian Koch, Mina Tander, Wotan Wilke Moehring, Ronald Zehrfeld, Jenny Schily, Barbara Auer Casting Lore Bloessel Length 99 min, 1,354 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital Festival Screenings Hof 2008 With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Bayerische Staatsregierung, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor X Verleih/Berlin Jan Fehse was born in 1968 and is one of Germany’s most renowned DoPs. After working as a camera assistant, he was a DoP on feature and television productions as well as commercials and music videos with such directors as Ben Verbong (Es ist ein Elch entsprungen, Sams in Gefahr), Peter Thorwarth (Goldene Zeiten), Robert Schwentke (Tattoo), Esther Gronenborn (alaska.de) and Andreas Thiel (Kismet). At Any Second (In jeder Sekunde, 2008) marks his directorial debut. World Sales Bavaria Film International / Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Ritter Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 email: [email protected] · www.bavaria-film-international.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 45 Scene from “Jerichow” (photo © Schramm Film/Christian Schulz) Jerichow Off the beaten path of life, three people stumble into a fateful encounter. Thomas, young and strong, has been dishonorably discharged from the army. Ali, an affable Turkish businessman, has seen some hard times but now his primary concern is making sure the employees of his snack-bars don’t cheat on him. Laura, an attractive woman with a dark past, seems to find refuge in the shadows of her marriage to Ali. Thomas, Ali, and Laura keep an eye on each other and keep their secrets to themselves. They want love but also security. They consider themselves independent, and what they desire can only be achieved by betrayal. Jerichow is a love-triangle in which yearning evaporates into even bigger dreams. This drama unfolds on the country roads in desolate northeast Germany, where thick forests suddenly end on cliffs overlooking the Baltic Sea. The story is a classic cinematic constellation but with a daring new interpretation: caught between guilt and freedom, between passion and reason, there are wishes whose fulfillment can only mean escape. Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Christian Petzold Screenplay Christian Petzold Director of Photography Hans Fromm Editor Bettina Boehler Music by Stefan Will Production Design Kade Gruber Producers Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber Production Company Schramm Film Koerner + Weber/Berlin, in co-production with BR/Munich, ARTE/ Strasbourg Principal Cast Benno Fuermann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Soezer Casting Simone Baer Length 93 min, 2,545 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR/Dolby Digital Festival Screenings Venice 2008 (In Competition), Toronto 2008 With backing from BKM, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard BerlinBrandenburg German Distributor Piffl Medien/Berlin Christian Petzold is one of the leading directors of recent German cinema. The German Film Critics Association has twice awarded him Best Film awards, for Ghosts (Gespenster, 2005) and The State I Am In (Die Innere Sicherheit, 2000). He was twice named Best Director at the German Film Awards, for Wolfsburg (2002) and The State I Am In, which also won Best Screenplay at Thessaloniki and the Grand Prize at Valenciennes. Petzold has also received much acclaim for his other films, including: Something to Remind Me (Toter Mann, 2002), Die Beischlafdiebin (1998), Cuba Libre (1995), Yella (2007), and Jerichow (2008). Born in 1960, Petzold studied German and Theater Studies at the Free University in Berlin, then graduated from the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in 1994. World Sales The Match Factory GmbH · Michael Weber Balthasarstrasse 79-81 · 50670 Cologne/Germany phone +49-2 21-5 39 70 90 · fax +49-2 21-5 39 70 910 email: [email protected] · www.the-match-factory.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 46 Scene from “Krabat” (photo © CWP-Film/Marco Nagel) Krabat The Thirty Years’ War has brought much death and destruction to central Europe, and has left 14-year-old Krabat an orphan. Lost and devastated, Krabat’s keen survival instincts lead him to a remote valley, where he finds a mysterious mill run by an ominous figure known as the Master. The lure of a safe haven, hot meals and an apprenticeship under the Master is hard to resist … But gradually Krabat uncovers a horrifying secret: the mill is in fact a school of black magic and the Master is in league with satanic powers. While Krabat and his young colleagues revel in the teachings of the Master, they realize there is a price to pay: complete submission to the Master and even death. After Krabat witnesses Tonda, his closest friend at the mill, perish at the Master’s hands, the fire of rebellion starts raging within the young boy. Krabat is able to find strength through the lovely Kantorka. Armed with nothing but courage and their united love, together the young couple brave the Master … Krabat is a dark yet uplifting fantasy based on a worldwide best-seller. A soul-stirring adventure for all ages, Krabat seizes the viewer with its atmospheric power and emotional truthfulness, starring Daniel Bruehl (Good Bye, Lenin!, The Edukators) and David Kross as Krabat. Genre Coming-of-Age Story, Fantasy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Marco Kreuzpaintner Screenplay Michael Gutmann, Marco Kreuzpaintner, based on the novel by Otfried Preussler Director of Photography Daniel Gottschalk Editor Hansjoerg Weissbrich (BFS) Music by Annette Focks Production Design Christian M. Goldbeck (SFK) Producers Uli Putz, Thomas Woebke, Jakob Claussen, Bernd Wintersperger, Nick Hamson, Lars Sylvest Production Companies Claussen+Woebke+Putz Filmproduktion/Munich, Krabat Filmproduktion/Munich, in co-production with SevenPictures Film/Munich, B.A. Produktion/Munich, in association with Brass Hat Films/London Principal Cast David Kross, Daniel Bruehl, Christian Redl, Robert Stadlober, Paula Kalenberg, Anna Thalbach, Hanno Koffler Casting An Dorthe Braker Length 120 min, 3,279 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital/SRD/DTS Festival Screenings Toronto 2008 With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, BKM, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, MEDIA Plus German Distributor 20th Century Fox (Germany)/Frankfurt Marco Kreuzpaintner was born in Rosenheim in 1977. After studying Art History, he worked as an assistant to Edgar Reitz and Peter Lilienthal. His films include: Entering Reality (short, 1998), Der Atemkuenstler (short, 2000), REC – Kassettenmaedchen/Kassettenjungs (TV, 2001), Breaking Loose (Ganz und Gar, 2003), Summer Storm (Sommersturm, 2004), Trade (2007), and Krabat (2008). World Sales Bavaria Film International / Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Ritter Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 email: [email protected] · www.bavaria-film-international.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 47 Scene from “Ma’rib” (photo © Rainer Komers Film) Ma’rib Ma’rib is part two of a tetralogy dealing with cities that had been destroyed in their history. Each film of the series is connected to one of the four elements. Ma’rib is connected to the element "earth" in the form of sand, soil and stone. The city is situated 150 km east of the capital Sana’a where the Yemeni mountains meet the Rhub alKhali desert. 4000 diesel pumps irrigate the oasis and a new power station will supply Sana’a with electricity. With no dialogues or narration, Ma’rib proposes an exploration of particular habits, rhythms and gestures of an arid region in a rugged country – until it transforms immediate register into unfamiliar everyday life, in a constant zigzag between sociological observation and sudden poetry. Genre Portrait Category Documentary Short Year of Production 2008 Director Rainer Komers Screenplay Rainer Komers Director of Photography Rainer Komers Editor Bert Schmidt Producer Rainer Komers Production Company Rainer Komers Film/Muelheim an der Ruhr Length 30 min Format Super 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version no dialogue Festival Screenings Big Sky Missoula 2008, Oberhausen 2008, Planet In Focus Toronto 2008, FeSanCor Santiago de Chile 2008, Leipzig 2008, Invideo Milan 2008 With backing from BKM, Filmstiftung NRW German Distributor Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen Rainer Komers was born in 1944 in Guben. He studied Film at the Art Academy Duesseldorf and Photography at Essen University. His films have been shown by numerous international festivals and broadcasters and he lectures in Film in Berlin, Duesseldorf, Muenster and Vienna. His films as a director include: 2211 Buettel (1974), Zigeuner in Duisburg (1978-1980), 480 Tonnen bis viertel vor zehn (1981), Wer bezahlte fuer Hitler? (1983), Die Sterne der Heimat (1985), Erinnerung an Rheinhausen (1987-1989), Lettischer Sommer (1992), Ofen aus (1993-1995), Ein Schloss fuer alle (1998), B 224 (Earthmoving) (1999), NH 2 (Earthmoving) (2004), Nome Road System (Earthmoving) (2004), Kobe (2006), and Ma’rib (2008). World Sales (please contact) Rainer Komers Film Moritzstrasse 102 · 45476 Muelheim an der Ruhr/Germany phone +49-2 08-77 94 38 · email: [email protected] german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 48 Mike Figgis (photo © Max S. Gerber) Mike Figgis – The Seduction of the Eye “I’ll tell you everything I know. Then it’s up to you, because in fact, knowledge is just a tool. It gives you the ability to do something. It doesn’t actually create anything, it just facilitates it. That’s all. So, I always give away everything,” says Mike Figgis in his most extensive interview ever. Mike Figgis – musician, actor, photographer, screenwriter, theater director and filmmaker – is the creative mastermind behind numerous projects. Undoubtedly, his most popular film is Leaving Las Vegas, which earned him two Academy Award nominations and won Nicolas Cage the Oscar® for the Best Male Lead. Nonetheless, Figgis never allowed himself to get lost in the commercial world of Hollywood, but rather chose to stay true to his experimental way of telling stories. What makes Mike Figgis so intriguing is his exceptional spiritual, inner freedom. This film sets out to uncover the secret behind this mastermind of filmmaking. Genre Art, Interview Category Documentary Year of Production 2007 Director Ina Borrmann Screenplay Ina Borrmann Directors of Photography Nikolaus Summerer, Ina Borrmann Editor Georg Soering Producer Ina Borrmann Production Company Ina Borrmann Filmproduktion/Berlin With Mike Figgis Length 75 & 58 min Format DV, color, 16:9 Original Version English Sound Technology Stereo Festival Screenings Hof 2007, Gothenburg 2008 Ina Borrmann was born in Freiberg in Saxony. She studied Theater Sciences and German Language Studies at the LudwigMaximilan-University in Munich, followed by studies at Munich’s University of Television & Film. Active as a freelance writer, director and director of photography, her films as a director include: Glotzt nicht so romantisch (short, 1997), Haende Hoch (short, 1999), Versuchte Naehe (2000), Texas (part of the MEXartes Berlin exhibit, 2002), Das Verschwinden der Zeit, documentary essay, 2004-2008), and Mike Figgis – The Seduction of the Eye (documentary, 2007). World Sales (please contact) Ina Borrmann Filmproduktion Niebuhrstrasse 56 · 10629 Berlin/Germany phone/fax +49-30-50 18 12 30 email: [email protected] · www.inaborrmann.de german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 49 Das Morphus-Geheimnis Scene from “Mystery of Morphus” (photo © Provobis/Annegret Plehn) MYSTERY OF MORPHUS What happens when all of a sudden everyone else falls asleep and you are the only one who stays awake? This is what ten-year-old Nicki involuntarily experiences when the last composition called Morphus by the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven accidentally ends up in his schoolbag. The melody holds magic powers because everybody who listens to it falls asleep. Only a few people know about this secret, like the gangsters Max and Kwapisch. On a trip with his dad into the snowy mountains, the gangsters follow them to steal the Morphus score. They want to use the magic force of the music for their racketeering. For the shy boy this is the start of a turbulent adventure. After arriving at the hotel Nicki learns about the magic powers of the melody when he starts to play it on his trumpet. He experiences that suddenly everyone around him falls asleep, except for Max and Kwapisch. Now he is completely alone and has to face the attacks and intrigues of the two gangsters. He has to fight for the Morphus score to save himself, his dad and everyone else from the evil doings of the villains. In this difficult situation, he makes substantial progress and changes from an anxious child into a self-confident boy. Genre Adventure, Children and Youth, Family Entertainment Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Karola Hattop Screenplay Andrzej Maleska Director of Photography Sebastian Richter Music by Eike Hosenfeld, Moritz Denis Producer Juergen Haase Production Company Provobis Film/Berlin, in co-production with RBB/ Potsdam-Babelsberg, MDR/Leipzig, BR/Munich, Langfilm/Zurich, Teleclub Switzerland/Zurich Principal Cast Jonas Haemmerle, Michael Roll, Oliver Korittke, Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey, Magali Greif, Charlotte Crome Casting Britt Beyer, Jacqueline Rietz Length 96 min, 2,616 m Format 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.78 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Stereo, Dolby Digital With backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) German Distributor Central Film Vertrieb/Berlin Karola Hattop was born in 1949 in Berlin and studied at the "Konrad Wolf" Academy of Film & Television (HFF/B) in PotsdamBabelsberg. Since then, she has been working as a director for film and television. A selection of her films includes: Eine schoene Bescherung (1984), Elefant im Krankenhaus (1991), Ich schenk Dir meinen Mann (1998), Secondhand Child (Wer kuesst schon einen Leguan?, 2003), Unsere zehn Gebote (2007), Wie verfuehr’ ich meinen Ehemann (2007), and Mystery of Morphus (Das MorphusGeheimnis, 2008). World Sales Progress Film-Verleih GmbH · Christel Jansen Immanuelkirchstrasse 14b · 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 · 2008 new german films 50 Narrenspiel Scene from “Fool’s Game” (photo © Anna Maria Hora/HFF Potsdam) FOOL’S GAME Stefan and Claudia plan a trip to the coast in a camper as a last attempt to save their troubled relationship. Along the way, they pick-up a hitchhiker, Uli, who also happens to be a professional puppeteer. Uli tries to “entertain” them with his puppet, but something just doesn’t seem right. The situation becomes more serious as the puppet seems to develop a life of its own. As Stefan thinks he might recognize Uli from somewhere, a mysterious game begins which becomes more and more dangerous for Stefan and Claudia. Genre Drama, Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Markus F. Adrian Screenplay Heiko Martens Director of Photography Anna Maria Hora Editor Sabine Strunk Music by Nicolas Nohn, Emannuel Hoisl Production Design Andreas Braun Producer Oliver Eitner Production Company Hochschule fuer Film & Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf ’/Potsdam-Babelsberg, in co-production with ARTE/ Strasbourg Principal Cast Wolfgang Menardi, Stefanie Schoenfeld, Norman Schenk Length 82 min Format DigiBeta/Betacam SP Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Stereo SR Festival Screenings Munich 2008 Awards Best Screenplay Munich 2008 Markus F. Adrian was born in 1979. He was a trainee at the public broadcasters NDR, SFB and WDR and worked as an assistant unit manager and assistant director for Hallmark Entertainment, Studio Hamburg, Sat1 and Pro7 from 2000-2002. Since 2002, he has been a student at the “Konrad Wolf ” Academy of Film & Television. His films include: Der Schenker (2003), Energie (2004), Dame (2005), Heute ist der Tag (2005), Nachtwandler (2007), Verflucht (2007), and Narrenspiel (2008). World Sales (please contact) Hochschule fuer Film & Fernsehen “Konrad Wolf” · Cristina Marx Marlene-Dietrich-Allee 11 · 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germany phone +49-3 31-6 20 25 64 · fax +49-3 31-6 20 25 69 email: [email protected] · www.hff-potsdam.de german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 51 Neben der Spur Scene from “Tour Excess” (photo © B-Filme) TOUR EXCESS Julie (22) is traveling with her boyfriend Marcel (28) in his old Porsche towards the south of France, intending to stay at the cottage of her artist mother Susan for a couple of days. Marcel is keeping his drug addiction secret from Julie. Julie, on the other hand, has a hidden matter rumbling within; she doesn’t know her father Heinrich who is said to be living near Goa. After a fight with Marcel, Julie gets in the caravan of the much older Greenpeace activist Dieter. She spends the night with him at the beach and they have sex. The next morning Julie wakes up at the beach on her own, Dieter and his caravan having disappeared. But Julie’s father actually isn’t as far away as assumed. To the contrary, he is a successful manager residing around the corner and he is being observed by Dieter who is following a perfidious plan. Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2007 Director Detlef Bothe Screenplay Detlef Bothe Director of Photography Luis de Maia Editor Constantin Brodt Music by Peer Raben, Fauna Flash Production Design Oliver Hoese Producer Detlef Bothe Production Company B-Filme/Munich, in co-production with BR/Munich Principal Cast Axel Milberg, Tom Schilling, Mia Florentine Weiss, Detlef Bothe, Gabrielle Scharnitzky, Wotan Wilke Moehring, Leslie Malton, Pierre Kiwitt, Dominik Raacke, Oliver Korittke Casting Stefany Pohlmann, Nina Haun, An Dorthe Braker Length 90 min Format HD, color, 1:1.66 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings Montreal 2007 With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern Detlef Bothe was born in 1965 in Braunschweig and trained as an actor from 1989-1992. Since 1990, he has been acting for film, television and theater and debuted as a director in 2002 with Feiertag, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Filmfest Munich in the same year. Also active as a writer for film, television and the theater, his other films include: My Wife, My Friends and Me (Meine Frau, meine Freunde und ich, 2004) and Tour Excess (Neben der Spur, 2007). World Sales Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins Aachener Strasse 26 · 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 german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 52 Kim Morton in “NoBody’s Perfect” (photo © Palladio Film, 2008) NoBody’s Perfect The documentary NoBody’s Perfect follows Niko von Glasow as he looks for eleven people who, like him, were born disabled due to the disastrous side-effects of Thalidomide, and who are prepared to pose for a book of photos. And to pose naked – to allow those who regularly throw furtive glances at Thalidomiders and other physically disabled people, to take a good, long look. In the process, Niko discovers many fascinating characters who work in such diverse areas as politics, the media, sport, astrophysics and acting. Characters who have learned to live with their disability to an impressive level of “normality”. With a darkly humorous touch, and no deference to political correctness, NoBody’s Perfect explores the specific problems which these twelve extraordinary people have faced during childhood, adolescence and adulthood, and shows them reacting with curiosity, enthusiasm or (like Niko himself) horror towards the project. As the film approaches its climax – the photoshoots – von Glasow completes the picture with scenes showing his unsuccessful attempts to make contact with the chemical company Gruenenthal, to talk about Thalidomide and its effects. Von Glasow presents an impressive portrayal of the sensitivities and feelings of disabled people, and our society’s reactions to them. Genre Society Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Niko von Glasow Screenplay Andrew Emerson, Niko & Kiki von Glasow Director of Photography Ania Dabrowska Editor Mechthild Barth Production Design Henrike Mueller Producer Niko von Glasow Production Company Palladio Film/Cologne, in coproduction with WDR/Cologne With Stefan Fricke, Sofia Plich, Bianca Vogel, Sigrid Kwella, Doris Pakendorf, Theo Zavelberg, Petra Uttenweiler, Andreas Meyer, Kim Morton, Fred Dove, Mat Fraser, Niko von Glasow, Mandel von Glasow Length 84 min, 2,376 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German/ English Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings Locarno 2008, Prix Europa 2008, Sao Paulo 2008 With backing from German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Filmstiftung NRW German Distributor Ventura Film/ Berlin Niko von Glasow was born in 1960 in Cologne. He began his career with Rainer Werner Fassbinder as a production assistant, followed by work with various film distributors, studios and festivals. He studied Directing at New York University and at the Film Academy in Lódz/Poland. His films include: Wedding Guests (Hochzeitsgaeste, 1990), Marie’s Song (Maries Lied, 1994), Edelweiss Pirates (Edelweisspiraten, 2004), Schau mich an (TV, 2007), and NoBody’s Perfect (2008). World Sales Autlook Filmsales Zieglergasse 75/1 · 1070 Vienna/Austria phone +43-1-7 20 55 35 70 · fax +43-1-7 20 55 35 72 email: [email protected] · www.autlookfilms.com · www.nobodysperfect-film.de german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 53 Der Pfad des Kriegers Scenes from “The Way of a Warrior” (photo © filmtank) THE WAY OF A WARRIOR Michael N. is a wild child. On his sleigh, he races down the snowy slopes of the forest, almost unable to brake. He leaves his home in South Tyrol in the early 80s, determined to become a Catholic priest. Eventually he turns his back on Europe and joins the Jesuits in South America, where the Catholics priests have sided with the powerless and humiliated. Eight years later, as the head of the Bolivian guerilla troop, he commits terrorist attacks and kidnaps Bolivia’s CocaCola boss. Several months later, he dies in a hail of police bullets, taking with him the kidnapee and almost every commando member. He leaves behind letters addressed to his family, audio recordings of religious and Bolivian folk songs, and a stunned and speechless family, along with the diary of a kidnapping. 1990. The Wall has come down. The Cold War and all the ardent visions that went with it are declared over and forgotten. No one is interested in the boy who wanted to become a priest and bring God’s Kingdom to one of the poorest countries in the world. Ten years later, Europe is confronted with a new generation of educated idealistic young men: men who are deadly serious about God’s Kingdom on Earth. The Way of a Warrior is a documentary about the mortality of ideologies and the immortality of the dead. A film about Michael N. and those who mourn him. Genre History Category Documentary Year of Production 2008 Director Andreas Pichler Screenplay Andreas Pichler Director of Photography Susanne Schuele Editors Marzia Mete, Andreas Zitzmann Music by Paul Lemp Producer Thomas Tielsch Production Company Filmtank/Hamburg, in co-production with Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion/Zurich, Miramonte Film/Bolzano, ZDF/Mainz, DRS-RAI/Bolzano Length 52 & 88 min, 2,587 m Format DigiBeta Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Dubbed Version English Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings Saarbruecken 2008, Solothurn 2008, Docs Barcelona 2008, Al Jazeera Film Festival 2008, Bolzano 2008, Innsbruck 2008, Bellaria Film Festival Anteprima Doc Rimini 2008 Awards Audience Award Bolzano 2008, 2nd Prize Vela d’Argento & UCCA 20 Città Rimini 2008 With backing from Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, BKM, Zuercher Filmstiftung, Land Suedtirol, MEDIA Andreas Pichler was born in 1967 in Bolzano/Italy and studied Film, Cultural Science and Philosophy in Bologna and Berlin. A selection of his films includes: Mirabella – Return Ticket to Germany (2001), Music as a State of Mind – The Composer Max Reger (2002), Call Me Babylon (2003), Antonio Negri – A Revolt That Never Ends (2004), My 3 Peaks (2005), Franco D’Andrea – Jazz Pianist (2006), and The Way of a Warrior (2008). World Sales Deckert Distribution · Heino Deckert Marienplatz 1 · 04103 Leipzig/Germany phone +49-3 41-2 15 66 38 · fax +49-3 41-2 15 66 39 email: [email protected] · www.deckert-distribution.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 54 Schattenwelt Scene from “Long Shadows” (photo © Olaf Aue) LONG SHADOWS After two decades in prison, Widmer, a former German RAF-terrorist, is released. He meets Valerie, his next door neighbor. The young woman tries to get her life back on track after she lost custody of her little son. She shows some interest in Widmer, the two of them seem to have something in common. They discreetly enter into the secrets of their lives. Until the truth comes between them. Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Connie Walther Screenplay Uli Herrmann, in cooperation with Connie Walther and Peter-Juergen Boock Director of Photography Birgit Gudjonsdottir Editor Karen Loenneker Music by Rainer Oleak Production Design Agi Dawaachu Producers Clementina Hegewisch, Michael Jungfleisch Production Companies NextFilm/Berlin, Gambit Film/Ludwigsburg, in co-production with BR/Munich, ARTE/ Strasbourg Principal Cast Franziska Petri, Ulrich Noethen, Tatja Seibt, Uwe Kockisch, Christoph Bach, Mehdi Nebbou, Eva Mattes Casting Sabine Schwedhelm Length 92 min, 2,704 m Format 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology DTS Digital Festival Screenings Rome 2008 (Cinema 2008 Competition) With backing from MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, BKM, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Salzgeber & Co. Medien/Berlin Connie Walther studied Sociology and Spanish before switching over to Photography. After gathering experience as a lighting gaffer and production and directing assistant, she studied at the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin and landed her first success with her graduation film Das erste Mal (1996), which was named Best Graduation Film from a German film academy in that year. Since then, she has demonstrated her talents with various genres and formats with films such as: Boersday Blues (short, 1992), Der Clown II (TV, 1997), Tic Tac Toe (TV documentary, 1998), Hauptsache Leben (1998), Offene Rechnung (TV, 1999), Never Mind the Wall (Wie Feuer und Flamme, 2001), Im falschen Leben (TV, 2001), Und Tschuess, ihr lieben (TV, 2002), Ei in Japan (documentary, 2005), Mord in aller Unschuld (TV, 2006), 12 Means: I Love You (TV, 2007), and Long Shadows (Schattenwelt, 2008). 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 german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 55 Scene from “Short Cut to Hollywood” (photo © Bavaria Pictures/Stefan Falke) Short Cut to Hollywood John F. Salinger’s real name is Johannes Friedrich Selinger. He’s a technician working for a local phone company in Berlin, who, at the ’not so tender’ age of 35, has to admit that his life hasn’t quite turned out the way he imagined. Just when it becomes abundantly clear to him that time is running out in terms of achieving fame and fortune and that he most likely won’t be leaving anything behind for future generations to behold, he has a brilliant idea! He will make a film! A film that will earn him his place in history. His two best friends, a medical school dropout who now works as an ambulance driver and a failed used cars salesman, are stoked! What a terrific idea! And so the three underdogs head to the United States to shoot their documentary-style road movie, convinced that, despite the many obstacles they will most likely have to face, Hollywood will soon be at their beck and call. Singing, they hit the road traveling across the United States on endless highways with nothing but the most unbelievable ideas in the history of filmmaking on their minds. At first people just sneer at them but then the “bomb explodes” and it all starts to happen: the conquest of a new continent begins. A media frenzy ensues. America goes wild. The three succeed and become world famous. But for Johannes the price of fame is high … Genre Road Movie, Black Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Directors Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg Screenplay Jan Henrik Stahlberg Director of Photography David Hofmann Editors Christian Lonk, Sarah Clara Weber Music by Rainer Oleak Production Design Peter Naguib Producers Marcos Kantis, Martin Lehwald, Matthias Esche, Philipp Kreuzer, Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg Production Companies Schiwago Film/Berlin, Bavaria Pictures/Geiselgasteig, Bavaria Film/Geiselgasteig, Muxfilm/Pentling, in co-production with Artdeluxe/Vienna, Capture Film/Los Angeles Principal Cast Jan Henrik Stahlberg, Marcus Mittermeier, Christoph Kottenkamp Casting Astrid Rosenfeld Length 95 min, 1,300 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), BKM, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Kuratorium junger deutscher Film German Distributor Senator Film Verleih/Berlin Marcus Mittermeier is an actor, director and producer. His films include: Quiet as a Mouse (Muxmaeuschenstill, 2004) and Short Cut to Hollywood (2008). Jan Henrik Stahlberg is an actor and director. His films include: Bye Bye Berlusconi! (2005) and Short Cut to Hollywood (2008). World Sales Bavaria Film International / Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Ritter Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 email: [email protected] · www.bavaria-film-international.com german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 56 Standesgemaess Countess Alexandra von Bredow in “Noble Commitments” (photo © Kings&Queens Filmproduktion) NOBLE COMMITMENTS Noble Commitments portrays three aristocratic single women, torn between traditional expectations and everyday life, between manor house and pre-fab high-rise buildings. Unable to live up to their parents expectations, they have to scale down their standards and re-orientate themselves. Within the nobility, the male family line is valid. To belong to noble society, they have to either marry a man with a title or lead a solitary life. Countess Alexandra von Bredow lived a fast life of glittering feasts and balls. Currently she lives in a small apartment and earns her livelihood by assembling gemstone necklaces. At the age of 48, having suffered several setbacks and severe depression, she finally meets the love of her life. Baroness Alexandra von Beaulieu-Marconnay, oboist and teacher, developed a very close relationship with her mother after her father died. After moving to another town, her noble connections benefit her while settling in. But she is incapable of stepping out of a mighty line of ancestors in order to lead her own life. Verena von Zerboni di Sposetti received an elitist education in a girls’ boarding school, followed by law studies. After working as a solicitor for more than two years, she resigned from her profession. The career change had devastating effects on her social life. A film depicting three outsiders in the bizarre and eccentric microcosm of German nobility. Genre Tragicomedy Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Julia von Heinz Screenplay John Quester, Julia von Heinz Director of Photography Marcus Winterbauer Editor Frank Brummundt Music by Matthias Petsche Producers John Quester, Julia von Heinz Production Company Kings&Queens Filmproduktion/Hersching, in cooperation with BR/Munich, SWR/Baden-Baden Length 87 min Format HD, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR, Stereo Festival Screenings Hof 2008 Julia von Heinz was born in 1976 in Berlin where she studied Audio Visual Media. She lectures in Film Directing at several universities and is currently working on her PhD. Her award-winning films include: Doris (short, 2002), Lucie & Vera (short, 2003), Nothing Else Matters (2007), and Noble Commitments (2008). World Sales (please contact) Kings&Queens Filmproduktion · John Quester Rehmstrasse 29 · 82211 Herrsching/Germany phone +49-81 52-9 69 88 48 · email: [email protected] german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 57 Scene from “U-900” (photo © Wiedemann & Berg Film/Rolf von der Heydt) U-900 Atze Schroeder knows what makes his customers on the black market happy. Otherwise, he and his buddy Samuel are keeping a low profile, waiting for the Americans to arrive – it is the year 1944 and World War II is not over yet. But before things get that far, the two pals get caught up in a mad adventure with the actress Maria; one that leaves even big-mouth Atze speechless: the Germans want to send their last available submarine, the U-900, on a secret mission from Toulon to Warnemuende. But when Atze gets into it with the responsible General, he and Samuel and Maria have to flee. The trio captures the U900 and Atze pretends to be the legendary Lieutenant Commander Roenberg. Even though he has no clue about the high seas, Atze wouldn’t be Atze if he didn’t have a solution to every problem. But the crew gets suspicious when their commander starts issuing unconventional orders … Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Sven Unterwaldt Screenplay Michael Gantenberg, Oliver Ziegenbalg Director of Photography Stephan Schuh Editor Stefan Essl Music by Karim Sebastian Elias Production Design Ari Hantke Producers Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann Production Company Wiedemann & Berg Film/Munich, in co-production with Andante Film/Groebenzell, Film & Entertainment VIP Medienfonds/Munich Principal Cast Atze Schroeder, Oliver K. Wnuk, Yvonne Catterfeld, Juergen Schornagel, Goetz Otto, Christian Kahrmann, Maxim Mehmet Casting Die Besetzer/Cologne Special Effects Harald Ruediger Length 99 min, 2,726 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard BerlinBrandenburg, Malta Film Commission German Distributor Warner Bros. Entertainment/Hamburg Sven Unterwaldt was born in Luebeck in 1965. A well-known name in the German comedy scene, his films include Antrag vom Ex (TV, 1999), the TV series Switch (1997-1997), Anke (19992001), Alles Atze (2002), and Berlin, Berlin (2002), as well as the features Wie die Karnickel (2002), 7 Dwarves (7 Zwerge – Maenner allein im Wald, 2004), Siegfried (2005), 7 Dwarves – The Wood is Not Enough (7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug, 2006), and U-900 (2008). World Sales TELEPOOL GmbH · Anja Uecker Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29 email: [email protected] · www.telepool.de german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 58 Warten auf Angelina Scene from “Waiting for Angelina” (photo © Feuerland Filmproduktion/Barbara Schramm) WAITING FOR ANGELINA Two young men have to spend five days and five nights together on a rooftop in Berlin’s Mitte district to get an exclusive view of the most famous couple of the universe. They are as far apart from each other as the Odd Couple, but they need to get along with each other for 120 hours. One is Maik Tremper, a professional paparazzo with residences in London and Monte Carlo; the other is Momme Ulmer, a lifeguard and film projectionist from a small island in the North Sea. Two worlds collide and tension mounts between the hard-nosed photographer and the love-stricken fan. Could this really be the beginning of a wonderful friendship? Screenplay Hans-Christoph Blumenberg Director of Photography Klaus Peter Weber Editor Florentine Bruck Production Design Hans-Christoph Blumenberg Producer Hans-Christoph Blumenberg Production Company Feuerland Filmproduktion/Hamburg Principal Cast Florian Lukas, Kostja Ullmann, Barbara Auer, Anna Brueggemann, Gudrun Landgrebe, Leslie Malton, Jana Pallaske, Joerdis Triebel Length 90 min Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings Hof 2008 With backing from Filmfoerderung Hamburg SchleswigHolstein German Distributor Farbfilm Verleih/Berlin Hans-Christoph Blumenberg was born in Lychen/Mark Brandenburg in 1947 and studied History and German in Cologne During the course of their 120 hours together, the two and Washington, D.C. He worked for many years as a film critic for young men accidentally meet six very different women Die Zeit and Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger and has written books on and everything turns out differently than Maik and Howard Hawks, Robert Siodmak and cinema under the Third Momme had expected or hoped for. They both have Reich. He also directed 23 documentaries for television from 1970changed by the end of their summer adventure. 1982 about cinema. In 1984, he made his feature directorial debut with Tausend Augen and set up the production company Waiting for Angelina is a contemporary urban comedy Rotwang Film with Patrick Brandt in 1993 and his own production of manners and a satiric look at the current international company Feuerland Film in 2007. His other films include: Der celebrity cult and the hardships of surviving one week in Sommer des Samurai (1986), Operation Madonna (Der Berlin. Madonna-Mann, 1987), Rotwang muss weg! (1994), Beim naechsten Kuss knall ich ihn nieder (1995), Genre Romantic Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year Deutschlandspiel (TV, 2000), Hirnschal gegen Hitler (TV, of Production 2008 Director Hans-Christoph Blumenberg 2000), Planet der Kannibalen (2001), Die letzte Schlacht (TV, 2004), and Waiting for Angelina (Warten World Sales (please contact) auf Angelina, 2008). Feuerland Filmproduktion · Hans-Christoph Blumenberg Dorotheenstrasse 143 · 22299 Hamburg/Germany phone/fax +49-40-4 60 13 34 · email: [email protected] german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 59 Weltstadt Scene from “City of the World” (photo © René Gorski/HFF Potsdam) CITY OF THE WORLD In the night of June 16th 2004, in a picturesque East German town, two drunken teenage boys attacked a homeless man in the streets. When they realized that he had no valuables, they bashed him and set him on fire. City of the World portrays five characters, 24 hours prior to the crime: the drunken teenagers Karsten and Till, Till’s girlfriend Steffi, the policeman Guenter, and the snack bar owner Heinrich. Based on a true story, the film depicts an aspect of German society that is often overlooked. The media only treats it with lurid headlines and fake contempt. But what is really going on? Karsten, Till, Steffi, Guenter and Heinrich are average Germans, living a small-town life, in a state of mediocrity and apathy. But sometimes indifference turns into aggression, boredom into violence. The film shows an aspect of small-town banalities, social brutalization and a deeply aggressive youth sub culture. Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Christian Klandt Screenplay Christian Klandt Director of Photography René Gorski Editor Joerg Schreyer Music by Paul Rischer Production Design Tanja Baumgartner Producer Martin Lischke Production Company Hochschule fuer Film & Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf ’/PotsdamBabelsberg, in co-production with ARTE/Strasbourg Principal Cast Florian Bartholomaei, Gerdy Zint, Karoline Schuch, Justus Carriére Length 104 min Format DigiBeta/Betacam SP Blowup 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Versions English, French, Spanish Sound Technology Dolby Stereo SR, Dolby Digital Festival Screenings Achtung Berlin 2008, Montreal 2008 (In Competition), Ourense 2008 (In Competition) Awards Best Editing & Best Film Achtung Berlin 2008, Silver Zenith Montreal 2008 Christian Klandt was born in 1978 in Frankfurt/Oder and grew up in Brandenburg. Before beginning his studies at the Film & Television Academy (HFF) “Konrad Wolf ”, he worked as an assistant director, camera assistant and production assistant for various cinema, television and theater projects. In 2001 he founded the production company nttcfilm Prod. A selection of his films includes: PIX (short, 2003), Senses & Expiation (silent short, 2005), The Last Dance (short, 2005), Infinity Loop (short, 2006), The Cleaner (documentary, 2006), Last Escort (documentary, 2006), Bad Life (short, 2007), Schaustein’s Final Film (2008), and City of the World (2008). World Sales (please contact) Hochschule fuer Film & Fernsehen “Konrad Wolf” · Cristina Marx Marlene-Dietrich-Allee 11 · 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germany phone +49-3 31-6 20 25 64 · fax +49-3 31-6 20 25 69 email: [email protected] · www.hff-potsdam.de german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 60 Zweier ohne Scene from “Coxless Pair” (photo © Lichtblick Film/Uwe Stratmann) COXLESS PAIR The film tells the story of the friendship between Johann and Ludwig as they strive for the ultimate “buddy” relationship. Going beyond, well beyond, what would be considered good and healthy, the pair attempt to become the ideal twins, driving their relationship based on their partnership in competitive rowing (coxless pairs) to the ultimate: to perfect harmony in mind, word, thought and deed. But their symbiotic relationship is thrown out of balance: Ludwig strives to tighten the bonds ever closer, but Johann discovers happiness in the form of love for Ludwig’s sister, Vera. But because Ludwig hates her, the couple keeps their relationship secret. But secrets have a way of coming out and Ludwig is wounded to the core. As the finals of the rowing competition draw closer, Ludwig has already set his sights on a greater goal: to preserve their friendship forever, no longer in life, but in death. Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2008 Director Jobst Christian Oetzmann Screenplay Jobst Christian Oetzmann Director of Photography Tomas Erhart Editor Cosima Schnell Music by Dieter Schleip Pro- duction Design Peter Menne Producer Joachim Ortmanns Production Company Lichtblick Film- & Fernsehproduktion/ Cologne, in co-production with Filmpool Film- & Fernsehproduktion/Cologne Principal Cast Tino Mewes, Jacob Matschenz, Sophie Rogall, Peter Harting, Lena Stolze, Alexandra Schalaudeck, Nora Quest Casting Maria Schwarz, Susanne Ritter Length 93 min, 2,500 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Hessen Invest German Distributor Stardust Filmverleih/Munich Jobst Christian Oetzmann was born in Hanover and studied drama at the University of Television & Film in Munich. His first film, Der Condor opened the Turin Film Festival in 1988. Since then he has made a name for himself primarily as a director of television crime movies, including episodes of SOKO 5133 (1994) and the pilot to the series SK-Babies (1995). A year later he directed Der Neue, the pilot for the crime series Kommissare Suedwest, for which he also directed numerous episodes. His features include: The Loneliness of the Crocodiles (Die Einsamkeit der Krokodile, 2000) and Coxless Pair (Zweier ohne, 2008). World Sales Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins Aachener Strasse 26 · 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 german films quarterly 4 · 2008 new german films 61 Das deutsch-französische Filmtreffen Les Rendez-vous franco-allemands du cinéma Académie franco-allemande du cinéma · Deutsch-französische Filmakademie Hamburg 20 – 22 November 2008 French contact: [email protected] German contact: [email protected] photos: Hamburg Marketing Medienserver A Meeting for German and French Filmmakers, Producers, Distributors, Exhibitors GERMAN FILMS SHAREHOLDERS & SUPPORTERS Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V. Association of New Feature Film Producers Zentnerstrasse 42, 80796 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-2 71 74 30, fax +49-89-27 77 71 77 email: [email protected], www.ag-spielfilm.de Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung fuer Kultur und Medien Federal Government Commissioner for Culture & the Media Referat K 35, Europahaus, Stresemannstrasse 94, 10963 Berlin/Germany phone +49-18 88-6 81 49 29, fax +49-18 88-68 15 49 29 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 GmbH Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Medien in Bayern 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 Schleswig-Holstein GmbH Friedensallee 14–16, 22765 Hamburg/Germany phone +49-40-398 37-0 fax +49-40-398 37-10 email: [email protected], www.ffhsh.de Verband Deutscher Filmproduzenten e.V. Association of German Feature Film Producers Muenchner Freiheit 20, 80802 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-33 08 80 31, fax +49-89-33 08 81 93 email: [email protected] www.filmproduzentenverband.de Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen 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 Deutsche Kinemathek Museum fuer Film und Fernsehen Potsdamer Strasse 2, 10785 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-30 09 03-0, fax +49-30-30 09 03-13 email: [email protected], www.deutsche-kinemathek.de 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 Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kurzfilm e.V. German Short Film Association Foerstereistrasse 36, 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 german films quarterly 4 · 2008 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 MFG 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-filmfoerderung.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 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 shareholders & supporters 63 German Entry for the 81st Academy Awards in the category “Best Foreign Language Film” 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 Action Concept Film- & Stuntproduktion GmbH cine aktuell Filmgesellschaft mbH please contact Wolfgang Wilke 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 An der Hasenkaule 1-7 50354 Huerth/Germany phone +49-22 33-50 81 00 fax +49-22 33-50 81 80 email: [email protected] www.actionconcept.com please contact Ralf Faust, Axel Schaarschmidt Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co.KG please contact Ida Martins Aachener Strasse 26 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 ARRI Media Worldsales EEAP Eastern European Acquisition Pool GmbH Progress Film-Verleih GmbH please contact Antonio Exacoustos please contact Alexander van Duelmen please contact Christel Jansen 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 Alexanderstrasse 7 10178 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-25 76 23 30 fax +49-30-25 76 23 59 email: [email protected] www.eeap.eu Immanuelkirchstrasse 14b 10405 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-24 00 32 25 fax +49-30-24 00 32 22 email: [email protected] www.progress-film.de Atlas International Film GmbH Exportfilm Bischoff & Co. GmbH SOLA Media GmbH please contact Philipp Menz, Susanne Groh, Dieter Menz please contact Jochem Strate, Philip Evenkamp please contact Solveig Langeland Candidplatz 11 81543 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-21 09 75-0 fax +49-89-21 09 75 81 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 ATRIX Films GmbH please contact Beatrix Wesle, Solveig Langeland Aggensteinstrasse 13a 81545 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-64 28 26 11 fax +49-89-64 95 73 49 email: [email protected] www.atrix-films.com TELEPOOL GmbH german united distributors Programmvertrieb GmbH please contact Anja Uecker 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 Silke Spahr 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] www.germanunited.com Transit Film GmbH please contact Loy W. Arnold, Mark Gruenthal Bavaria Film International Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH Kinowelt International GmbH Futura Film Weltvertrieb im Filmverlag der Autoren GmbH please contact Thorsten Ritter please contact Stelios Ziannis Bavariafilmplatz 7 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 email: [email protected] www.bavaria-film-international.com Karl-Tauchnitz-Strasse 10 04107 Leipzig/Germany phone +49-3 41-35 59 60 fax +49-3 41-35 59 64 19 email: [email protected] www.kinowelt-international.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 german films quarterly 4 · 2008 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 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 Michael Waldleitner Bavariafilmplatz 7 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany phone +49-89-59 58 46 fax +49-89-54 50 70 52 email: [email protected] www.unimediafilm.com association of german film exporters 65 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, since 1966 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 since then continues operations under its present name: German Films Service + Marketing GmbH. 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. Members of the advisory board are: Alfred Huermer (chairman), Peter Dinges, Antonio Exacoustos, Dr. Klaus Schaefer, Ulrike Schauz, and Michael Weber. German Films itself has 14 members of staff: Christian Dorsch, managing director Mariette Rissenbeek, public relations/deputy managing director Petra Bader, office manager Sandra Buchta, project coordinator/documentary film Christin Czarnecki, trainee Simon Goehler, trainee Christine Harrasser, managing director’s assistant/project coordinator Angela Hawkins, publications & website editor Barbie Heusinger, project coordinator/distribution support Nicole Kaufmann, project coordinator Michaela Kowal, accounts Kim Liebeck, PR assistant/festival coordinator Martin Scheuring, project coordinator/short film Konstanze Welz, project coordinator/television In addition, German Films has nine foreign representatives in eight countries. German Films’ budget of presently €5.4 million comes from film export levies, the office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, and the FFA. The seven main regional film funds (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderung Hamburg SchleswigHolstein, Filmstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, and Nordmedia) make a financial contribution – currently amounting to €343,000 – towards the work of German Films. German Films is a founding member of the European Film Promotion, a network of European film organizations (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 · 2008 German Films’ range of activities includes: Close cooperation with major international film festivals, including Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Locarno, San Sebastian, Montreal, Karlovy Vary, Moscow, Nyon, Shanghai, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Sydney, Gothenburg, Warsaw, Thessaloniki, Rome, and Turin, among others Organization of umbrella stands for German sales companies and producers at international television and film markets (Berlin, Cannes, AFM Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai) Staging of ”Festivals of German Films“ worldwide (Madrid, Paris, London, New York, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne) Staging of the ”German Premieres“ industry screenings in New York and Rome Providing advice and information for representatives of the international press and buyers from the fields of cinema, video, and television Providing advice and information for German filmmakers and press on international festivals, conditions of participation, and German films being shown 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 Publication of informational literature about current German films and the German film industry (German Films Quarterly), 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 ”German Films Previews“ geared toward arthouse distributors and buyers of German films Selective financial Distribution Support for the foreign releases of German films Together with Unifrance, organization 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 66 FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES IMPRINT 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] Italy Alessia Ratzenberger A-PICTURES Villa Pamphili Via del Forte Bravetta 4 00164 Rome/Italy phone +39-06-48 90 70 75 fax +39-06-4 88 57 97 email: [email protected] United Kingdom Iris Ordonez 37 Arnison Road East Molesey KT8 9JR/Great Britain phone +44-20-89 79 86 28 email: [email protected] China Anke Redl CMM Intelligence B 621, Gehua Tower No. 1, Qinglong Hutong Dongcheng District Beijing 100007/China phone +86-10-84 18 64 68 fax +86-10-84 18 66 90 email: [email protected] Japan Tomosuke Suzuki Nippon Cine TV Corporation Suite 123, Gaien House 2-2-39 Jingumae, Shibuya-Ku 150-0001 Tokyo/Japan phone +81-3-34 05 09 16 fax +81-3-34 79 08 69 email: [email protected] USA/East Coast & Canada Oliver Mahrdt Hanns Wolters International Inc. 211 E 43rd Street, #505 New York, NY 10017/USA phone +1-212-714 0100 fax +1-212-643 1412 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] Spain Stefan Schmitz Avalon Productions S.L. Pza. del Cordón, 2 28005 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 Hollywood Center Studios, Building 5/Loft 1040 N. Las Palmas Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90038/USA phone +1-323-860 5440 fax +1-323-860 5441 email: [email protected] Editor German Films Quarterly is published by: German Films Service + Marketing GmbH Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse 16 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 Design & Art Direction Printing Office ISSN 1614-6387 Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley Martin Blaney, Johannes Bohnke, Christoph Groener Lucinda Rennison Werner Schauer, www.triptychon.biz ESTA DRUCK GMBH, Obermuehlstrasse 90, 82398 Polling/Germany Printed on ecological, unchlorinated paper. Credits are not contractual for any of the films mentioned in this publication. Cover Photo © German Films Service + Marketing GmbH Angela Hawkins Scene from “Long Shadows” (photo © Olaf Aue) All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. german films quarterly 4 · 2008 foreign representatives · imprint 67 LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN BERLIN 05.-15.02.09 www.berlinale.de