Titel Kino 2-2000 - German Films

Wotenick
Mecklenburg-Pommerania, in the Federal Republic of Germany.
There are tens of thousands of unemployed people in the district of Demmin. Sociologists
describe this place as one of the ‘disconnected’ regions of the new Länder. Many grow up
here with an ingrained feeling of having been ‘socially demoted’. A private educational
organisation is currently attempting to help twenty-five hand-picked young individuals to
make the transition into the workplace. The organisation’s committed educators are faced
with the difficult task of trying to combat the drastic sense of personal and social deficiency
harboured by these young people. It is their mission to have found either a job or a training
scheme for their charges after just one year.
Wotenick, summer 1999. This film observes the daily routine of those involved on the course
– from secondary education to woodwork to home economics.
A poetic documentary about imperfect people, who have every right to be happy but who
just don’t have a chance.
Scene from »Wotenick«
Genre Documentary Director/Screenplay Axel
Kalhorn Director of Photography Volker Gerling
Editor Elke Müller Producer Henriette Geiss
Production Company HFF ”Konrad Wolf“, Potsdam
With 25 adolescents of the district of Demmin,
Mecklenburg-Pommerania Length 60 min., 720 m.
Format 16 mm, colour, 1:1,37 Original Version
German Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Mono International Festival
Screenings Berlin 2000: New German Films
Axel Kalhorn was born in 1968 in Barth. He took
his final school examinations in Greifswald and was
posted to Stralsund as a soldier. Kalhorn later
worked as a film developer at a Berlin laboratory.
He is a student at the ”Konrad Wolf“ Academy for
Film & Television in Babelsberg. His films are:
Meister a. D. (short, 1996), Jezerskas lebt am
Vogelpfad (short, 1997), Waffenbrüder (short,
1998) and Wotenick (1999).
World Sales: please contact
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen ”Konrad Wolf“ · Martina Liebnitz, Uta Eberhardt
Karl-Marx-Str. 33/34 · D-14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg
phone: +49-3 31-7 46 93 40 · fax: +49-3 31-7 46 93 49
www.hff-potsdam.de · email: distribution@hff-potsdam.de
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