GFQ 2-2007 - german films
GFQ 2-2007 - german films
GFQ 2-2007 - german films
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German Films<br />
Quarterly 2 · <strong>2007</strong><br />
AT CANNES<br />
In Competition AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE by Fatih Akin<br />
Un Certain Regard AM ENDE KOMMEN TOURISTEN by Robert Thalheim<br />
Cinéfondation HALBE STUNDEN by Nicolas Wackerbarth<br />
PORTRAITS<br />
Chris Kraus, Ulrike von Ribbeck, Filmquadrat, Nina Hoss<br />
SPECIAL REPORT<br />
10 Years of NEXT GENERATION
German Films and Co-Productions<br />
IN THE OFFICIAL PROGRAM<br />
In Competition<br />
Auf der anderen<br />
Seite<br />
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN<br />
by Fatih Akin<br />
Producer: corazón international/Hamburg<br />
World Sales: The Match Factory/Cologne<br />
Un Certain Regard<br />
You the Living<br />
by Roy Andersson<br />
German Co-Producer: Essential Filmproduktion-<br />
Thermidor Filmproduktion/Berlin<br />
World Sales: Coproduction Office/Paris<br />
In Competition<br />
The Man From London<br />
by Béla Tarr<br />
German Co-Producers: Black Forest Films &<br />
Von Vietinghoff Filmproduktion/Berlin<br />
World Sales: Fortissimo Films/Amsterdam<br />
Cinéfondation<br />
Halbe Stunden<br />
HALF HOURS<br />
by Nicolas Wackerbarth<br />
Producers: Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie (dffb)<br />
& Jost Hering Filme/Berlin<br />
World Sales: Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie (dffb)/Berlin
OF THE<br />
Cannes Film Festival <strong>2007</strong><br />
60th Anniversary Tribute<br />
Ulzhan<br />
by Volker Schloendorff<br />
German Co-Producer: Volksfilm/Potsdam<br />
World Sales: Rezo Film International/Paris<br />
Directors’ Fortnight<br />
Gegenueber<br />
COUNTERPARTS<br />
by Jan Bonny<br />
Producer: Heimatfilm/Cologne<br />
World Sales: Wide Management/Paris<br />
Un Certain Regard<br />
Am Ende kommen<br />
Touristen<br />
AND ALONG COME TOURISTS<br />
by Robert Thalheim<br />
Producer: 23|5 Filmproduktion/Berlin<br />
World Sales: Bavaria Film International/Geiselgasteig<br />
Critics’ Week<br />
The Mosquito Problem<br />
and Other Stories<br />
by Andrey Paounov<br />
German Co-Producer: Filmtank/Hamburg<br />
World Sales: TV2 World/Copenhagen<br />
Credits not contractual
German Films Quarterly 2 · <strong>2007</strong><br />
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TALKIN’ ‘BOUT MY “NEXT GENERATION”<br />
focus on 10 Years of Next Generation<br />
directors’ portraits<br />
STAYING POWER<br />
A portrait of Chris Kraus<br />
“TEAMWORK, TRUST AND TENSION”<br />
A portrait of Ulrike von Ribbeck<br />
producers’ portrait<br />
PLATFORM FOR DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS<br />
A portrait of Filmquadrat<br />
actress’ portrait<br />
A PASSION FOR ACTING<br />
A portrait of Nina Hoss<br />
news<br />
in production<br />
CHIKO<br />
Oezguer Yildirim<br />
DR. ALEMÁN<br />
Tom Schreiber<br />
DIE EINSAMKEIT IST NIE ALLEIN<br />
Roland Reber<br />
FRUEHSTUECK MIT EINER UNBEKANNTEN<br />
Maria von Heland<br />
HANAMI<br />
Doris Doerrie<br />
IM JAHRES DES HUNDES<br />
Ursula Scheid<br />
IRONMAN<br />
Adnan G. Koese<br />
LIEBE UND ANDERE VERBRECHEN<br />
Stefan Arsenijevic<br />
LULU UND JIMI<br />
Oskar Roehler<br />
SHORT CUT TO HOLLYWOOD<br />
Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg<br />
STELLUNGSWECHSEL<br />
Maggie Peren<br />
VIER SIND EINER ZUVIEL<br />
Torsten C. Fischer<br />
new <strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong><br />
AM ENDE KOMMEN TOURISTEN AND ALONG COME TOURISTS<br />
Robert Thalheim<br />
DIE ANRUFERIN THE CALLING GAME<br />
Felix Randau<br />
AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE THE EDGE OF HEAVEN<br />
Fatih Akin
45<br />
46<br />
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48<br />
49<br />
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56<br />
57<br />
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60<br />
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75<br />
AUTOPILOTEN AUTOPILOTS<br />
Bastian Guenther<br />
[DESI’RE:] – THE GOLDSTEIN REELS<br />
Romeo Gruenfelder<br />
DOS PATRIAS CUBA Y LA NOCHE<br />
TWO HOMELANDS CUBA AND THE NIGHT<br />
Christian Liffers<br />
DER GOLDENE NAZIVAMPIR VON ABSAM 2 –<br />
DAS GEHEIMNIS VON SCHLOSS KOTTLITZ<br />
THE GOLDEN NAZI VAMPIRE OF ABSAM PART II –<br />
THE SECRET OF KOTTLITZ CASTLE<br />
Lasse Nolte<br />
HALBE STUNDEN HALF HOURS<br />
Nicolas Wackerbarth<br />
DAS HAUS DER SCHLAFENDEN SCHOENEN<br />
HOUSE OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES<br />
Vadim Glowna<br />
DAS HERZ IST EIN DUNKLER WALD<br />
THE HEART IS A DARK FOREST<br />
Nicolette Krebitz<br />
KLASSENFAHRT IN DAS REVIER DER WILDERER<br />
SCHOOL TRIP INTO POACHERS’ TERRITORY<br />
Marcus Lenz, Ingo Rudloff<br />
LIBANON – STANDHALTEN IM WAHNSINN<br />
LEBANON – RESISTING LUNACY<br />
Uwe-S. Tautenhahn<br />
LIEBESLEBEN LOVELIFE<br />
Maria Schrader<br />
MIKROFAN<br />
Matthias Staehle<br />
MONDMANN MOONMAN<br />
Fritz Boehm<br />
MONKS – THE TRANSATLANTIC FEEDBACK<br />
Dietmar Post, Lucía Palacios<br />
NEUES VOM WIXXER THE VEXXER<br />
Cyrill Boss, Philipp Stennert<br />
OSDORF<br />
Maja Classen<br />
PAUL UND BATAAR PAUL AND BATAAR<br />
Caterina Klusemann<br />
PRATER<br />
Ulrike Ottinger<br />
PREUSSISCH GANGSTAR PRUSSIAN GANGSTARS<br />
Irma-Kinga Stelmach, Bartosz Werner<br />
DER ROTE ELVIS THE RED ELVIS<br />
Leopold Gruen<br />
VOLLIDIOT COMPLETE IDIOT<br />
Tobi Baumann<br />
DIE WILDEN HUEHNER UND DIE LIEBE WILD CHICKS IN LOVE<br />
Vivian Naefe<br />
film exporters<br />
foreign representatives · imprint
TALKIN’ ‘BOUT MY<br />
“NEXT GENERATION”<br />
Exterior. Night. An incandescent moon lights the sky as throngs of<br />
cinemagoers stream out of a packed Cannes movie theater, where<br />
they’ve just attended a highly-anticipated world premiere. We<br />
overhear bits of conversation. “Amazing narrative structure for a first<br />
film!” “A brilliant documentary, never thought of stewardesses<br />
like that.” “The claymation was fantastic.” “Who was that hunky<br />
actor?” “The light in the lake scenes was magical.” “I never saw an<br />
en tire film shot in the subway.” “I never saw an entire film shot backwards.”<br />
Wait, there aren’t any multiplexes in Cannes! But all these people<br />
can’t be talking about the same film! There’s a simple explanation: The<br />
crowd is leaving another packed showing of “Next Generation,”<br />
a program of the year’s best shorts by students at German film<br />
schools. On May 20th in Cannes, German Films will unveil the tenth<br />
edition of this selection.<br />
FLASHBACK<br />
1998: German Films (or the Export-Union of German Cinema, as it<br />
was then known) was seeking to diversify its activities, increase<br />
awareness of its role, and find new mandates and partners. Jochem<br />
Strate, former supervisory board chairman of German Films, whose<br />
son was attending the Munich Academy of Television and Film, had a<br />
brainwave. Why not involve Germany’s various film schools in a project<br />
to showcase a selection of their productions in Cannes?<br />
Many of Germany’s best-known directors – Wim Wenders, Werner<br />
Herzog, Caroline Link and Tom Tykwer, to name only a few – all start -<br />
ed out making shorts. And Next Generation offers status-hungry<br />
Cannes audiences bragging rights: “I was at the world premiere of X’s<br />
first student film.” They would see new stars being born. Not only<br />
that the extraordinary vitality, quality and originality of the Next<br />
Generation <strong>films</strong> and their creators are winning over new audiences<br />
everywhere.<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
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Scene from “Fair Trade” (photo © Michael Dreher)
That is Next Generation’s drawing card, the best shorts by the most<br />
talented directors of the youngest generation. For instance, back in<br />
2000 the program included the Munich Academy of Television and<br />
Film’s Dobermann, by the tallest short film director in Next<br />
Generation history. Seven years later director Florian Henckel von<br />
Donnersmarck was again towering over his peers, winning the OSCAR<br />
for Best Foreign Language Film for The Lives of Others.<br />
Henckel von Donnersmarck said of his experience with Next<br />
Generation: "When Dobermann was selected by German Films to<br />
be part of the Next Generation reel in Cannes in 2000, I was almost<br />
as excited as I was when my nomination for the Academy Awards was<br />
announced seven years later. Apart from a thrilling and all-expensespaid<br />
trip to Cannes, it was a great bonding experience with the other<br />
short film makers. I am still friends with many of them. We had in -<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
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Scene from ”Dobermann” Next Generation 2000
Lively discussion late at night: 2005 at “Petit Majestic”<br />
Premiere cinema: Star 2<br />
vitations to all the German events and were suddenly taken seriously<br />
by the German industry leaders. After all, our <strong>films</strong> were being shown<br />
at Cannes! The turnout at our screening was very impressive, and I<br />
got to meet many of the people who would end up organizing and<br />
financing my first feature film only four years later.”<br />
Next Generation is the real thing, the diamond in the raw, the newest<br />
new German cinema and directors. To ensure a selection of the<br />
highest quality, the <strong>films</strong> are selected by a prestigious independent jury<br />
composed of two permanent members (Astrid Kuehl, managing<br />
director of the Short Film Agency and co-head of the International<br />
Short Film Festival Hamburg, and Heinz Badewitz, director of the Hof<br />
Film Days and head of the German Cinema program at the Berlin Film<br />
Festival), as well as a rotating third juror – this year Anke Sterneborg,<br />
a film journalist with Munich’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung.<br />
Film schools are invited to submit their year’s best productions – 59<br />
for <strong>2007</strong>. Since the total running time is limited to about 90 minutes,<br />
and in order to ensure the broadest possible selection, individual <strong>films</strong><br />
may not exceed 15 minutes.<br />
The selection is also competitive, for the jury chooses one director<br />
who will be sponsored at Cannes by German Films and will represent<br />
the other directors from that year. In fact the lure of presenting one’s<br />
film at a Cannes screening proves irresistible, so almost all the directors,<br />
as well as many producers and other members of their posse –<br />
actors, DoPs, friends and relatives – travel down, most of them at<br />
their own expense, by camping car, bus, train, even sleeping in tents<br />
in nearby camping parks, if that’s all their budget will allow.<br />
The rewards are ample. They present their <strong>films</strong> on stage to a packed<br />
audience and deafening applause. And then are fêted like the stars<br />
they are by an international crowd at a beach party that German Films<br />
throws in their honor.<br />
And their enthusiasm has been echoed by that of ever larger Cannes<br />
audiences. Astrid Kuehl has noted a huge interest in the selection by<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
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Scene from “Rocks”<br />
programmers from festivals around the world. And Heinz Badewitz,<br />
who hosts the series of German features shown in the Cannes<br />
Market, says buyers and journalists are also eager to discover the<br />
newest talents Germany has to offer. Regulars wouldn’t dream of<br />
missing a year, having learned to “expect the unexpected.” The only<br />
constants are quality and imagination.<br />
MAKING WAVES & BREAKING GROUND<br />
German short directors are making waves. After presenting At the<br />
Lake in the 2002 edition of Next Generation, Ulrike von Ribbeck<br />
(German Film and Television Academy Berlin - dffb) was invited back<br />
to Cannes the following year to the official program as one of the<br />
Cinéfondation short film directors. In 2004 her short Charlotte screen -<br />
ed at both the Perspectives German Cinema section in Berlin and the<br />
Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes.<br />
Other success stories abound: Ulrike Grote (Hamburg Media School,<br />
NG 2004) garnered a Student OSCAR in 2005 and an OSCAR nomination<br />
in 2006 for her follow-up film The Runaway. In 2003 Florian<br />
Baxmeyer (a fellow Hamburg Media School graduate, NG 2002)<br />
earned a Student OSCAR and an OSCAR nomination for The Red Jacket<br />
in 2004. Shown in Next Generation in 2002, Rocks, directed by<br />
Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Heidi Wittlinger (Film Academy<br />
Baden-Wuerttem berg ) went on to receive an OSCAR nomination the<br />
follow ing year.<br />
German film schools get high marks from the industry, too. Heinz<br />
Badewitz says the <strong>films</strong> are getting better and better, and points to the<br />
Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg in Ludwigsburg, the first in<br />
Germany to offer studies in computer animation, which has provided<br />
director Roland Emmerich with many of his best collaborators in<br />
Hollywood. And at film schools, free from market pressures, directors<br />
may enjoy far greater freedom to express their vision than they<br />
will when they turn pro. Next Generation also serves as a promo reel<br />
for the schools and for the quality of their programs, as attested by<br />
the annual crop of international honors their students’ harvest.<br />
In looking back over the ten years of Next Generation, Christian<br />
Dorsch, managing director of German Films, stresses the benefits for<br />
all concerned: “With Next Generation we are investing in the future.<br />
And the program allows us to establish contacts with filmmakers we’ll<br />
soon be working with. The students get an immersion into the reality<br />
of the movie business. We provide the students with festival<br />
accreditat ion, which allows them to participate fully in the festival.<br />
They can see the latest and best <strong>films</strong> from around the world. Plus, it<br />
is easy for them to meet producers and funding board representa-<br />
tives, many of whom will have attended the screening in Cannes, and<br />
discuss future projects.”<br />
Anke Zindler, of Munich’s Just Publicity PR company, agrees: “In<br />
Cannes students have their first ’real life’ opportunity – at one of the<br />
most exciting international platforms – to learn how to present and<br />
market their <strong>films</strong>, to deal with the public and press – vital for reaching<br />
and winning over audiences at home and especially abroad.”<br />
Jochem Strate says there are two mythical cities all filmmakers dream<br />
about: L.A. and Cannes. And since German Films has always offered<br />
film professionals its expertise and a highly developed support system<br />
in Cannes, it was a natural choice as a launch-pad for Next<br />
Generation. The German Films staff at the German pavilion provides<br />
advice and organizational resources. In the experience of Mariette<br />
Rissenbeek, publicity manager for German Films, the more the<br />
students invest in taking advantage of their stay, the more they get out<br />
of it.<br />
According to Heinz Badewitz, the charms of the seaside resort, the<br />
sun, food, and beautiful setting are more than just perks – they en -<br />
courage filmmakers to persevere. Their <strong>films</strong> are shown alongside<br />
those of the greatest directors, and the electric atmosphere is con -<br />
ducive to discussion, to chance encounters and meetings of minds.<br />
Almost everyone who is anyone in German film converges on<br />
Cannes, and they’re far more available there than back home. Martin<br />
Scheuring, who coordinates Next Generation at German Films, often<br />
hears how the screenings pay off for the students, since it helps them<br />
to be taken seriously by established directors and producers. And it<br />
works both ways: the impressive array of shorts creates interest in<br />
German feature <strong>films</strong>, too.<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
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Christian Dorsch and the Next Generation 2005 Poster
Next Generation 2002<br />
Next Generation 2004<br />
Next Generation in Cannes has also been the forum for ground-breaking<br />
discussions between the filmmakers and two federal ministers. In<br />
2002 they met with Julian Nida-Ruemelin, then State Minister for<br />
Culture and the Media, and in 2003 with his successor, Dr. Christina<br />
Weiss. “Film students are driven by passion, ambition and vision – and<br />
often too by difficult economic realities,” says Susanne Reinker, for-<br />
mer PR manager at German Films who originally initiated the meetings<br />
between the Next Generation participants and the developers of<br />
film policy. “They have the most vivid dreams and the most critical,<br />
not to say radical views of the film industry. The 2002 meeting was<br />
the first time students had a chance to speak directly with a minister,<br />
to express what they cared about, what they need, the steps they’d<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 10
like to see implemented. And the ministers obviously recognized in<br />
the students essential partners in developing a national film policy.”<br />
After its initial outing in 1998 and the enthusiastic reception, it was<br />
clear that, for Next Generation, “Einmal ist keinmal.” (Once is never<br />
enough.) Cannes is only the kick-off for the program, which, since<br />
year two has been shown for the rest of the year at numerous festivals<br />
and German film weeks around the world, including Moscow,<br />
New York, Mexico, Buenos Aires, Paris, and London – to name but<br />
a few – often accompanied by a different director chosen to represent<br />
her or his colleagues. For German Films, Next Generation<br />
is a year-long commitment: the 2006 selection last screened in March<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 11<br />
Next Generation 2005<br />
Next Generation 2006
Jan Koester, Till Nowak, Bernd Neumann<br />
this year at Wiesbaden, a little over a month before the <strong>2007</strong> program<br />
unspooled.<br />
Laurence Kardish, senior curator at the New York Museum of<br />
Modern Art’s film department, says, “Next Generation screens as<br />
part of ‘Kino’, our annual program of new German <strong>films</strong>. The series<br />
is very popular, and I’m both pleased and surprised that there is such<br />
great attendance for shorts by filmmakers who are not yet wellknown<br />
but will, we hope, achieve some celebrity in the near future.<br />
While the student filmmakers often attend screenings of other<br />
German <strong>films</strong> that haven’t yet opened, I don’t really see them very<br />
much. They take advantage of their stay in one of the world’s great<br />
film cities to watch hard-to-see <strong>films</strong> – they’re busy educating themselves.”<br />
INCREASING VISIBILITY & CREDIBILITY<br />
Interestingly, the fact of being present in Cannes insures the students<br />
greater visibility back home. German audiences and media are eager<br />
to discover the new <strong>films</strong> and faces shown in Cannes. And since<br />
German festivals already dedicate a large part of their programming<br />
to local productions, shorts by unknowns run the risk of going unnoticed.<br />
Also, France is the cradle of a thriving short film culture, and its<br />
audiences are avid fans of German <strong>films</strong>.<br />
Many festivals are recognizing the need to support young film students.<br />
It’s surely no coincidence that in 1998, the year that German<br />
Films launched Next Generation, the Cannes film festival inaugurated<br />
a new section, Cinéfondation, which allows 20 film students from aro-<br />
und the world to attend Cannes and show their <strong>films</strong>. The director of<br />
Cinéfondation, Georges Goldenstern, explains: “The festival wanted to<br />
create a specific forum for film students. It was important that they<br />
have a unique role, to help them stand out, and to allow the film professionals<br />
in Cannes, distributors, buyers, producers and journalists,<br />
to spot the work of filmmakers with a future. What’s more, the prestige<br />
of Cannes gives credibility to the directors in their home countries.”<br />
Shorts are definitely enjoying a renaissance, for the Cannes Film<br />
Market too has come on board. In 2004 it created the Short Film<br />
Corner, a center to support producers, distributors and festival organizers,<br />
which screens, in addition to a multitude of other German and<br />
international shorts, the Next Generation <strong>films</strong> too. The German<br />
Short Film Association also hosts a Short Film Lounge every year in<br />
Cannes.<br />
Let’s leave the last word to Germany’s newest star, Florian Henckel<br />
von Donnersmarck: “Next Generation was a major stepping stone<br />
for me, and I hope it will be for many more filmmakers in the future."<br />
Robert Gray, Kinograph / Words for Moving Images<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?<br />
A selection of some of the current projects of former Next Generation participants<br />
Oliver Dommenget (Train Roulette, NG 1999, University of Hamburg): 2001 children’s film Help, I’m a Boy! (Berlin festival)<br />
Branwen Okpako (LoveLoveLiebe, NG 1999, German Film & Television Academy, Berlin): 2000 documentary Dirt for Dinner (prizes<br />
at Leipzig, Saarbruecken, Ouagadougou, etc.), 2003 Valley of the Innocent (Toronto and Berlin festivals), currently in post-production on the<br />
documentary The Pilot and the Passenger<br />
Zueli Aladag (Listen, NG 2000, Academy of Media<br />
Arts Cologne): feature Elefantenherz (2002), television <strong>films</strong><br />
include the highly acclaimed Wut (2006)<br />
Christian Ditter (Enchanted, NG 2000, Munich<br />
Academy of Television and Film): 2006 feature French for<br />
Beginners (produced by Christoph Menardi, who also produced<br />
the NG 2002 entry, Early Bird)<br />
Holger Ernst (Little Fish, NG 2001, Academy of Art<br />
Kassel): 2004 short Rain is Falling in competition in Venice,<br />
numerous prizes and festival invitations; and 2006 feature<br />
The House Is Burning as a Special Screening in Cannes<br />
Carsten Strauch (The Pocket Organ, NG 2001,<br />
Academy of Art and Design Offenbach): <strong>2007</strong> theatrical<br />
feature Die Aufschneider<br />
Franziska Stuenkel (Make a Wish, NG 2001,<br />
University of Applied Sciences & Arts): 2006 theatrical featu re Vineta<br />
Ulrike von Ribbeck (At the Lake, NG 2002, German Film & Television Academy, Berlin): 2003 with the same film at Cinéfondation in<br />
Cannes, 2004 with Charlotte in Berlin and Cannes (Directors’ Fortnight), <strong>2007</strong> feature Frueher oder spaeter<br />
Florian Baxmeyer (Benny X, NG 2002, Hamburg Media School): 2003 Student OSCAR and 2004 OSCAR nomination for The Red Jacket,<br />
2004 two-part TV mini-series Das Blut der Templer, <strong>2007</strong> theatrical feature Die drei Fragezeichen<br />
Ulrike Grote (One Way Ticket, NG 2004, Hamburg<br />
Media School): 2005 Student OSCAR and 2006 OSCAR nomination<br />
for The Runaway<br />
Ann-Kristin Wecker Reyels (Dim, NG 2005,<br />
“Konrad Wolf ” Academy of Film and Television Potsdam):<br />
<strong>2007</strong> theatrical feature Hounds (Berlinale Forum, FIPRESCI<br />
Award)<br />
Sonja Heiss (Christina Without, NG 2005, Munich<br />
Academy of Television and Film): <strong>2007</strong> with Hotel Very<br />
Welcome, (which also stars former NG colleague Carsten<br />
Strauch and received a Special Mention at the Berlin festival)<br />
Marc Brummund (Home, NG 2006, Hamburg Media<br />
School): <strong>2007</strong> short Land gewinnen, Special Mention at the<br />
Berlin festival<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
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Scene from “Listen”<br />
Scene from “Christina Without”
Scene from “Window with a View”<br />
Scene from “Wedding Day”<br />
MEMORIES<br />
Vera Lalyko (Window with a View, NG 2002)<br />
At the last minute, my school, the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, offered to<br />
pay my way to Cannes. I got a cheap flight to Marseille and from there traveled by<br />
train to Cannes. I spent the first few nights in a neighboring town. The Next<br />
Generation directors were supposed to meet on Saturday, but I didn’t have my<br />
festival accreditation so I couldn’t get to the German pavilion. It was raining and<br />
quite cool, so I couldn’t pass the time by strolling along the Croisette. The only<br />
thing I could think of was to go to a normal movie theater that wasn’t part of the<br />
festival, where I watched Star Wars II with a group of kids (a matinee screen ing!).<br />
Despite my faulty French, it was a lot of fun: “Que la force soit avec vous!”<br />
Afterwards the Next Generation group met to prepare for our meeting with<br />
Minister Julian Nida-Ruemelin in a hotel lobby, where I met my fellow filmmakers.<br />
We met with the minister the next day and I remember that Professor Nida-Ruemelin explained to us changes to the federal film funding laws.<br />
We talked to him about our situation as young filmmakers. After the official discussions I had a chance to talk with him about short <strong>films</strong> and<br />
animation <strong>films</strong>. He was open to the idea of introducing a separate category for Best Animation Short at the German Film Awards.<br />
Then it was time to present our <strong>films</strong>. At the party afterwards I had many interesting conversations with other student directors and producers.<br />
I met Nana Rebhan, who was studying film production in Berlin, which led to our working together. She helped me to pro duce my next<br />
animation film, Promenade.<br />
German Films had given us DVDs with all the shorts. On our way home from the party, walking along the beach, who should I see coming<br />
toward us but Jim Jarmusch, whose <strong>films</strong> I really like. I spontane ously gave him our DVD. Who knows, perhaps he even watch ed it.<br />
I have such fond memories of our participation in Cannes. For us animation filmmakers, the glitter of Cannes and pressures of the film world<br />
will always seem like a mysterious world.<br />
Marco Gilles (producer, Knight Games, NG 2003)<br />
For me personally it was a great experience, being supported by German Films,<br />
attending for the first time the prestigious Cannes festival, and being invited to all<br />
kinds of events and meetings. The inter national recognition that our short film<br />
gained because of Next Generation was a great help in being invited to other fes -<br />
tivals. Even now, many years later, I’m still in close touch with several of the film -<br />
makers who were also in my year. Today, Daniel Mann (who co-produced<br />
Knight Games with me) and I have our own production company, where<br />
we’re de veloping feature <strong>films</strong> and tele vision projects.<br />
NEXT GENERATION, TAKE TWO!<br />
Tanja Brzakovic (Wedding Day, NG 2002)<br />
Next Generation and especially our stay in Cannes was really amazing – it was one<br />
of the greatest experiences of my professional life. Hopefully there will be more<br />
of them in the future!<br />
Seven of us (from two shorts in the program) drove down to Cannes. I was that<br />
year’s guest director, so German Films put me up in an apartment. But several<br />
other students had no place to stay, so they moved in with me. It was a lot of fun.<br />
(I hope I won’t get into trouble now – no harm was done!) It was a tremendous<br />
experience, we saw a lot, did a lot, and met a lot of interesting people.<br />
Five directors and one producer have been invited twice to Next Generation: Vera Lalyko, Susanne Buddenberg, Felix Goennert, Romeo<br />
Gruenfelder, Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Raoul Reinert. And Astrid Rieger, whose Apple on a Tree is screening in Next Generation<br />
<strong>2007</strong>, starred in last year’s Promenade d’après-midi.<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 14<br />
Scene from “Knight Games”
NEXT GENERATION 1998 – <strong>2007</strong><br />
Next Generation 1998<br />
EIN EINFACHER AUFTRAG (AN ORDINARY MISSION)<br />
by Raymond Boy, 11 min, KHM Koeln<br />
FAKE! by Sebastian Peterson, 12 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
FISCHFLECKEN (FISH STAINS) by Michael Salzbrenner, 6 min,<br />
Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
FIVEFORTYFIVE by Christoph Roehl, 10 min, dffb<br />
FRUEHLING (SPRING) by Silke Parzich, 4.5 min, Filmakademie<br />
Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
DAS GELBE TRIKOT (THE YELLOW JERSEY) by Samira Radsi,<br />
7 min, Hamburger Filmwerkstatt<br />
LATE AT NIGHT by Stefanie Jordan, Stefanie Saghri, Claudia<br />
Zoller, 4 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
NIGHTHAWKS by Dmitri Popov, 15 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
EIN PERFEKTER MORD (A PERFECT MURDER)<br />
by Frank-Peter Lenze, 6 min, Hamburger Filmwerkstatt<br />
DER SIEG (STEP TOWARDS VICTORY) by Robert Krause,<br />
8 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
Next Generation 1999<br />
BASTA PASTA by Nicolás Hammerschlag, 6 min, dffb<br />
LES DEUX CLEFS (THE TWO KEYS) by Sabine Burg, 10 min,<br />
KHM Koeln<br />
EMMIS GEBURTSTAG (EMMI’S BIRTHDAY) by Tonguc<br />
Baykurt, 7.5 min, Hamburger Filmwerkstatt<br />
FLYING PAUL by Svend Stein-Angel, 1.5 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
THE GONER by Peter Kaboth, 4 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
HANDLE WITH CARE by Susanne Buddenberg, Lorenz Trees,<br />
3 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
LOVELOVELIEBE by Branwen Okpako, 10 min, dffb<br />
MASKS by Piotr Karwas, 5 min, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttem -<br />
berg<br />
PLATONISCHE LIEBE (PLATONIC LOVE) by Philip<br />
Kadelbach, 10 min, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
ROAD TO PALERMO by Marcel-Kyrill Gardelli, 8 min, HFF<br />
Muenchen<br />
SIND SIE LUIGI? (ARE YOU LUIGI?) by Stephan Brueggenthies,<br />
7 min, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
DIE SUPERSCHURKEN (SUPER JERKS) by Vera Lalyko, 4 min,<br />
KHM Koeln<br />
ZUGROULETT (TRAIN ROULETTE) by Oliver Dommenget,<br />
6 min, Hamburger Filmwerkstatt<br />
Next Generation 2000<br />
BIN WEG – LISA (I HAVE GONE – LISA) by Matthias<br />
Kutschmann, 8 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
BSSS by Felix Goennert, 2 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
DOBERMANN by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 4 min,<br />
HFF Muenchen<br />
HARARA by Andy Kaiser, 9.5 min, Filmakademie Baden-<br />
Wuerttemberg<br />
HARTES BROT (STICKY DOUGH) by Nathalie Percillier,<br />
7.5 min, dffb<br />
HOER DEIN LEBEN (LISTEN) by Zueli Aladag, 7 min,<br />
KHM Koeln<br />
LETTERS by Matthias Wittmann, 9 min, Filmakademie Baden-<br />
Wuerttemberg<br />
MANN IM MOND (MAN IN THE MOON) by Chris Stenner,<br />
Arvid Uibel, 7 min, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
TROMPE L’ŒIL by Ingo Panke, 4.5 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
VERZAUBERT (ENCHANTED) by Christian Ditter, 9 min,<br />
HFF Muenchen<br />
Special Presentation:<br />
Student OSCAR 1999 / OSCAR-nomination 2000<br />
KLEINGELD (SMALL CHANGE) by Marc-Andreas Bochert,<br />
15 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
Next Generation 2001<br />
DANS L’ATELIER DU SCULPTEUR by Richard Badé, 2<br />
min, KHM Koeln<br />
ENDSTATION: PARADIES (TERMINAL: PARADISE)<br />
by Jan Thuering, 7 min, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
FUER DICH MEIN HERZ (FOR YOU MY SWEETHEART)<br />
by Johannes von Gwinner, 10 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
KLEINE FISCHE (LITTLE FISH) by Holger Ernst, 9 min,<br />
Kunsthochschule Kassel<br />
MARIE MUSS RENNEN (MARY MUST RUN) by Konrad<br />
Sattler, 5 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
OBERSTUBE (THE UPPER STOREY) by Sebastian Winkels,<br />
6 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
OHNE TITEL (WITHOUT TITLE) by Romeo Gruenfelder,<br />
10 min, HfbK Hamburg<br />
DER PILOT (THE PILOT) by Oliver Seiter, 6 min, Filmakademie<br />
Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
QUAK by Wolfgang Dinslage, 7 min, Hamburger Filmwerkstatt<br />
DAS TASCHENORGAN (THE POCKET ORGAN)<br />
by Carsten Strauch, 10 min, Hochschule fuer Gestaltung Offenbach<br />
WUENSCH DIR WAS (MAKE A WISH) by Franziska Stuenkel,<br />
7 min, Fachhochschule Hannover<br />
Special Presentation: OSCAR-winner 2001<br />
QUIERO SER by Florian Gallenberger, 34 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
Next Generation 2002<br />
AM SEE (AT THE LAKE) by Ulrike von Ribbeck, 10 min, dffb<br />
BENNY X by Florian Baxmeyer, 9 min, Hamburger Filmwerkstatt<br />
FENSTER MIT AUSSICHT (WINDOW WITH A VIEW)<br />
by Vera Lalyko, 9 min, KHM Koeln<br />
HOCHZEITSTAG (WEDDING DAY) by Tanja Brzakovic,<br />
10 min, Hamburger Filmwerkstatt<br />
MORGENSTUND (EARLY BIRD) by David Emmenlauer,<br />
10 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
DAS RAD (ROCKS) by Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel, Heidi<br />
Wittlinger, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
RED GOURMET PELLZIK by Andreas Samland, 10 min, dffb<br />
UNDERCOVER by Susanne Buddenberg, 6 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
Special Presentation: OSCAR-nomination 2002<br />
GREGORS GROESSTE ERFINDUNG (GREGOR’S<br />
GREATEST INVENTION) by Johannes Kiefer, 11 min<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 15
Next Generation 2003<br />
THE DAY WINSTON NGAKAMBE CAME TO KIEL<br />
by Jasper Ahrens, 9 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
FETISCH (FETISH) by Richard Lehun, 7 min, dffb<br />
GACK GACK (CLUCK CLUCK) by Olaf Encke, 6 min, HFF<br />
Potsdam<br />
GUERRA ALLE PIETRE (WAR ON STONES) by Andreas<br />
Teuchert, 11 min, dffb<br />
HOCHBETRIEB (NUTS AND BOLTS) by Andreas Krein,<br />
6 min, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
KUNSTGRIFF (TRICKY FINGERS) by André F. Nebe, 6 min,<br />
Hamburger Filmwerkstatt<br />
LETZTE BAHN (LAST TRAIN) by Tom Uhlenbruck, 10 min,<br />
KHM Koeln<br />
RITTERSCHLAG (KNIGHT GAMES) by Sven Martin, 6 min,<br />
Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
SOFA by Hyekung Jung, 3 min, Kunsthochschule Kassel<br />
SPRING by Oliver Held, 7 min, KHM Koeln<br />
Special Presentation: OSCAR-nomination 2003<br />
DAS RAD (ROCKS) by Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel, Heidi<br />
Wittlinger, 8 min, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
Next Generation 2004<br />
ANNAOTTOANNA by Clemens Pichler, 9.5 min, HFF<br />
Muenchen<br />
ANNIE & BOO by Johannes Weiland, 15 min, Filmakademie<br />
Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
BUSINESS AS USUAL by Tom Zenker, 5 min, dffb<br />
HIMMELFAHRT (ONE WAY TICKET) by Ulrike Grote,<br />
13 min, Hamburger Filmwerkstatt<br />
HIMMELFILM by Jiska Rickels, Sanne Kurz, 15 min, HFF<br />
Muenchen<br />
ICH UND DAS UNIVERSUM (ME, MYSELF AND THE<br />
UNIVERSE) by Hajo Schomerus, 14 min, Fachhochschule Dortmund<br />
JUERGEN IN SEINEM PASSAT (DRIVING VOLKSWAGEN)<br />
by Sebastian Poerschke, 7 min, KHM Koeln<br />
LUCIA by Felix Goennert, 9 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
NEON EYES by Thomas Gerhold, Markus Wambsganss, 8 min,<br />
Bauhaus Universitaet Weimar<br />
Next Generation 2005<br />
DIE AMERIKANISCHE BOTSCHAFT (THE AMERICAN<br />
EMBASSY) by David Sieveking, 10 min, dffb<br />
CHRISTINA OHNE KAUFMANN (CHRISTINA WITH-<br />
OUT) by Sonja Heiss, 15 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
DIM by Ann-Kristin Wecker (Reyels), 15 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
ENDSPIEL (THE FINAL) by Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 12 min, HFF<br />
Muenchen<br />
I TOOK THE RED PILL by Ramesh Pallikara, 4 min,<br />
Hochschule Anhalt/Dessau<br />
JAM SESSION by Izabela Plucinska, 9.5 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
KERNSEIF (CURD SOAP) by Alexander Kiesl, Sebastian Stolle,<br />
3.5 min, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
DAS KIND (THE CHILD) by Steffen Blechschmidt, 7.5 min,<br />
Hochschule Anhalt/Dessau<br />
LÂL by Dirk Schaefer, 16 min, KHM Koeln<br />
RALLYE by Romeo Gruenfelder, 2.5 min, HfbK Hamburg<br />
DER TOURIST (THE TOURIST) by Lancelot von Naso, 7 min,<br />
HFF Muenchen<br />
Next Generation 2006<br />
AUF DEM FELD (IN THE FIELD) by Philipp Wolf, 9.5 min, dffb<br />
BAZAR by Markus Sehr, Mathias Kraemer, 3 min, ifs koeln<br />
DELIVERY by Till Nowak, 9 min, Fachhochschule Mainz<br />
DER GEIST VON ST. PAULI (ST. PAULI FOREVER) by<br />
Michael Sommer, 7.5 min, Hamburg Media School<br />
HEIM (HOME) by Marc Brummund, 6 min, Hamburg Media School<br />
ICH RETTE DAS MULTIVERSUM (I’LL SAVE THE<br />
MULTIVERSE) by Ulf Groote, 11 min, HfbK Hamburg<br />
KALTE HAUT (COLD SKIN) by Sebastian Kutzli, 15 min, HFF<br />
Muenchen<br />
MY DATE FROM HELL by Tim Weimann, Tom Bracht,<br />
14 min, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
OUR MAN IN NIRVANA by Jan Koester, 11 min, HFF<br />
Potsdam<br />
PROMENADE D’APRÈS MIDI by Claire Walka, 2.5 min,<br />
Hochschule fuer Gestaltung Offenbach<br />
Next Generation <strong>2007</strong><br />
ANALOG BROTHER by Falk Peplinski, 7.5 min, Filmakademie<br />
Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
APPLE ON A TREE by Astrid Rieger, Zeljko Vidovic, 5 min,<br />
Hochschule fuer Gestaltung Offenbach<br />
DOPPELZIMMER (DOUBLE ROOM) by Erim Giresunlu,<br />
13.5 min, KHM Koeln<br />
FAIR TRADE by Michael Dreher, 15 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
DIE GUTE LAGE (IN A GOOD POSITION) by Nancy Brandt,<br />
13.5 min, HFF Muenchen<br />
INFINITE JUSTICE by Karl Tebbe, 2 min, FH Dortmund<br />
L.H.O. by Jan Zabeil, Kristof Kannegiesser, 3 min, HFF Potsdam<br />
OUTSOURCING by Markus Dietrich, 6 min, Bauhaus<br />
Universitaet Weimar<br />
SPROESSLING by Anne Breymann, 8.5 min, Kunsthochschule<br />
Kassel<br />
TRUCK STOP GRILL by Daniel Seideneder, 5.5 min, FH Mainz<br />
VIDEO 3000 by Joerg Edelmann, Joern Grosshans, Jochen<br />
Haussecker, Marc Schleiss, 5 min, Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart<br />
WHIRR by Timo Katz, 2.5 min, FH Bielefeld<br />
WUNDERLICH PRIVAT by Aline Chukwuedo, 9 min, dffb<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly focus on 10 years of next generation<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 16
NEXT GENERATION <strong>2007</strong><br />
A Selection of Short Films by Students of German Film Schools<br />
We thank for their support
Chris Kraus (photo © Jim Rakete)<br />
DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT<br />
Chris Kraus was born in Goettingen in 1963 and,<br />
after stints as a journalist and illustrator, studied at the<br />
German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin from<br />
1991 to 1997. For ten years, Chris has enjoyed an out -<br />
standing reputation as one of Germany’s most acclaim -<br />
ed screenwriters, being nominated twice for the German<br />
Screenplay Award – in 1997 for Poll and in 1999 for The<br />
Einstein of Sex (Der Einstein des Sex) – as well as penning<br />
the screenplays for Detlev Buck’s A Bundle of Joy<br />
(Liebesluder, 1999) and Pepe Danquart’s C(r)ook (Basta –<br />
Rotwein oder tot sein, 2003), among others. He also<br />
works as a novelist and teaches Dramaturgy at the dffb<br />
and the “Konrad Wolf ” Academy of Film and Television<br />
in Potsdam. In 2002, his debut feature Shattered<br />
Glass (Scherbentanz) was premiered at the Munich<br />
Film Festival where it won the Young German Cinema<br />
Award in the Best Screenplay category and picked up the<br />
prize for Best Newcomer Director at the Bavarian Film<br />
Awards the fol low ing year. His second feature as director,<br />
Four Minutes (Vier Minuten), had its world premiere<br />
at the 2006 Shanghai International Film Festival<br />
where it won the Golden Cup for Best Feature Film and<br />
followed this by garnering prizes at festivals in Reyjkjavik,<br />
San Francisco, Hof, Braunschweig and Sofia, among<br />
others. (Prior to production, it had been presented with<br />
the Baden-Wuerttemberg Screenplay Award). In January<br />
<strong>2007</strong>, the film received four Bavarian Film Awards for<br />
Best Screenplay, Best Female Lead (Monica Bleibtreu),<br />
and Best New Talent (Hannah Herzsprung) as well as<br />
the VGF Young Producers Award. It was also nominated<br />
in eight categories for the <strong>2007</strong> German Film Awards. His<br />
other credits include: Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass<br />
(dir: Klaus Kraemer, 1999, dramaturgy), Die Blech -<br />
trommel 2 (2000, screenplay), Home Sweet Home (dir:<br />
Filippos Tsitos, 2001, co-screenplay), Acapulco (2004,<br />
screenplay), and, currently in development, Poll (2008).<br />
Contact:<br />
Above the Line Berlin GmbH · Uschi Keil<br />
Wielandstrasse 5 · 10625 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-2 88 77 30 · fax +49-30-2 88 77 310<br />
email: office@abovetheline.de · www.abovetheline.de<br />
STAYING POWER<br />
A portrait of Chris Kraus<br />
If there is one thing writer-director Chris Kraus definitely has, it is<br />
staying power to see an idea through to its realization.<br />
His second feature is a case in point. It may have the short and sweet<br />
title of Four Minutes, but the German Film & Television Academy<br />
(dffb) graduate spent more than eight years developing the project<br />
before it first saw the light of a projector on its world premiere at the<br />
Shanghai International Film Festival last year.<br />
“I got the idea for the film from an item in a newspaper, but I also<br />
want ed to make a very personal film,” he recalls. ”I was attracted by<br />
the biography of an old lady who had taught for 60 years in a Berlin<br />
prison. This story then led me to look for an adversary, someone who<br />
would be quite the opposite of the old woman.”<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly director’s portrait<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 18
In spite of the ups and downs during the eight-year odyssey to get the<br />
film made, Kraus was adamant that Four Minutes would be his<br />
next project as a director after his impressive debut with Shattered<br />
Glass in 2002. “I like <strong>films</strong> which ask the question to what extent art<br />
has anything to do with real life and how far artistic expression can<br />
actually intrude on reality. That’s what I like about cinema because<br />
there have been <strong>films</strong> which have really touched me and changed my<br />
life. I was particularly interested in this potential of the story and that<br />
was the reason why I held out for so many years to see the film<br />
made.”<br />
During the 2005 Berlinale, Kraus began discussing the project with<br />
producer sisters Meike and Alexandra Kordes of the recently<br />
establish ed production company Kordes & Kordes Film and at last<br />
found kindred spirits who shared his vision. “Suddenly, it was like<br />
rock’n’roll,” he observes. “We didn’t have any money, but just a great<br />
passion. I knew from Meike [who had served as line producer on<br />
Shattered Glass] that she only does things she really likes and<br />
would go through concrete to achieve it. I like people who aren’t put<br />
off by the concrete!”<br />
It hadn’t been plain sailing either for his first feature Shattered<br />
Glass which had existed in screenplay form for several years before<br />
going into production. “It just takes a while until you can push through<br />
such individual projects,” Kraus argues, although his perseverance was<br />
then rewarded when the completed film was praised at the 2002<br />
Munich Film Festival as one of the buzz titles and Kraus held up as a<br />
major new talent.<br />
The film went on to win two Bavarian Film Awards, the German<br />
Screenplay Award, the German Film Award for Best Cinematography<br />
for DoP Judith Kaufmann, the New Talent Award for Best Directorial<br />
Achievement, and the Golden Camera for lead actor Juergen Vogel.<br />
While Kraus showed himself adept at working with such seasoned<br />
players as Vogel, Margit Carstensen, Peter Davor and Nadja Uhl in<br />
Shattered Glass – Uhl recalled last year that he “was always prepared<br />
to be open to our suggestions and made for a very creative<br />
atmosphere which has stayed with me in my memory” – Four<br />
Minutes posed new challenges, but also further proof of the director’s<br />
collaborative relationship with his actors.<br />
Casting the two leads – veteran Monica Bleibtreu for the elderly<br />
pianist Traude Krueger and the newcomer Hannah Herzsprung as the<br />
convicted killer Jenny – was of crucial importance. “I could see that it<br />
wouldn’t be possible to have an 80-year-old on such a project work -<br />
ing for 16 hours a day,” Kraus notes. “So when I met Monica<br />
Bleibtreu, I thought she could do it but there’d be the problem of age,<br />
as she is only 60. There was the question of whether the make-up<br />
would function and, above all, whether there would be any chemistry<br />
between the older woman and the younger one.”<br />
As Kraus recalls, he had to go in two different directions with his two<br />
lead actresses: “In actual fact, Monica is a very extroverted person<br />
and we had to tie her down [for the role], while Hannah is very<br />
reserv ed and modest in real life. But this contrast worked thanks to<br />
their talent and the desire to follow this extreme line of preparation.<br />
Hannah, of course, had much more to do in this respect before<br />
the shooting because she had six months of piano lessons and boxing<br />
training.”<br />
He says that it was “a conscious decision” to have the world pre miere<br />
of Four Minutes outside of Germany – at the Shanghai<br />
International Film Festival in June of 2006 – although German film<br />
festivals had also been clamoring to show the film. Four Minutes<br />
then had its German premiere at the 40th Hof Film Days last October<br />
where it was one of the program highlights with a packed-out<br />
Saturday evening slot and Hannah Herzsprung was feted as a “name<br />
to watch”.<br />
As Chris Kraus points out, there has been great interest around the<br />
globe in this film which has now been sold to 40 territories: “In<br />
Eastern Asia, Four Minutes is mostly being launched [in the<br />
cinemas] on a larger scale than in Germany. In these countries, in<br />
parti cular China and Japan, it is, above all, the disciplining by the older<br />
teach er that is at the fore,” he explains. “Most of the Japanese<br />
journalists ask about details of the character of Traude Krueger and<br />
see her as the main figure. In the Western countries, particularly the<br />
USA, the focus is on the young Jenny. That is quite a surprisingly<br />
differ ent reception. But the high emotional effect of the drama goes<br />
straight through all cultural milieus and it is understood everywhere as<br />
a signal for the free dom of the individual.”<br />
Back home in Germany, the film began picking up prizes even before<br />
its theatrical release at the end of January with four Bavarian Film<br />
Awards for Best Screenplay, Best Female Lead (Monica Bleibtreu), and<br />
Best New Talent (Hannah Herzsprung) as well as the VGF Young<br />
Producers Award for Kordes & Kordes Film. Kraus describes himself<br />
as being “overjoyed” at the film’s success on its home turf: distributor<br />
Movienet reached 250,000 admissions with just 70 prints by mid-April<br />
to make it the most successful German arthouse film so far this year.<br />
“The distributor reckons that we will reach between 300,000 and<br />
400,000 spectators in the end, a sensation for this little film,” Kraus<br />
says. “As far as the recognition with the many prizes is concerned, you<br />
only have this luck once in your life. We are all pleased that we can<br />
use this attention to continue working.”<br />
Having also bagged eight nominations for the German Film Awards,<br />
Kraus is now looking at working together again with Meike and<br />
Alexandra Kordes on future projects for the cinema.<br />
He has already prepared one project entitled Acapulco, a black co -<br />
medy and satire, which is intended to be made with the Kordes<br />
sisters. This might seem to be a shift in genre for Kraus, but as he<br />
explains: “that’s where I came from – writing for comedy – starting an<br />
age ago with the Motzki series for television and later writing screenplays<br />
for Pepe Danquart [C(r)ook] and Detlev Buck [A Bundle of Joy].”<br />
Another long-gestating and much cherished project of Kraus’ is the<br />
historical romantic drama Poll whose screenplay was nominated for<br />
the German Screenplay Award back in 1997. Set in the Baltic German<br />
community of Latvia shortly before the outbreak of the First World<br />
War, Poll also has a young girl in the foreground in the same way as<br />
Four Minutes: “It is a love story between a 13-year-old and a<br />
revolutionary she hides on a country estate,” Kraus says. “This project<br />
is a very personal one for me because my family originates from<br />
Riga, my grandmother was Latvian, and so there’s a particular af finity.”<br />
Chris Kraus spoke with Martin Blaney<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly director’s portrait<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 19
Ulrike von Ribbeck (photo © Fergus Padel)<br />
DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT<br />
Ulrike von Ribbeck was born in Minden/Westfalia<br />
in 1975. Bitten by the film bug at an early age (living<br />
in the same street as the cinema playing a large part in<br />
this), she spent many hours a week sitting alone in the<br />
dark! After graduating school she majored in Visual<br />
Communication at Hamburg’s Hochschule fuer bildende<br />
Kunst, made videos, realized she was permanently in<br />
love with film, applied for and was accepted by the<br />
German Film & Television Academy Berlin (dffb), where<br />
she studied from 1999. Her short <strong>films</strong> Laurentia<br />
(1999), Kleine Traeume (2000), Little Star<br />
(2001), Am See (2001) and Charlotte (2004) have<br />
played at more festivals and won more awards than<br />
there is space to list! Suffice it to say that Am See<br />
screen ed in the Cinéfondation section at Cannes 2003<br />
and Charlotte in the Berlinale’s Perspectives German<br />
Cinema and Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2004. Her first<br />
feature, the family drama Frueher oder Spaeter<br />
which she developed during her attendance of the<br />
“Atelier de la Cinéfondation” in Cannes 2005, was produced<br />
by Polyphon in co-production with ZDF/Das kleine<br />
Fernsehspiel and ARTE. Today, Ulrike von Ribbeck<br />
lives and works in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin.<br />
Contact:<br />
Ulrike von Ribbeck<br />
Grimmstrasse 30 · 10967 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-61 62 36 42 · email: ulrikeri@gmx.net<br />
“TEAMWORK, TRUST<br />
AND TENSION”<br />
A portrait of Ulrike von Ribbeck<br />
Walking into one of these interview situations is very much like Forest<br />
Gump and his box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna<br />
get! Especially when it’s a noisy, smokey, overcrowded café and you’ve<br />
kept the interviewee waiting long enough to finish at least half of her<br />
tuna fish sandwich!<br />
Once the initial power struggle had been waged and won, Ulrike<br />
von Ribbeck, despite her claims she has never been interviewed<br />
before and instead of rightfully mauling me to death in a public place,<br />
proved a confident and self-assured conversation partner.<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly director’s portrait<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 20
Watch her shorts and you’ll know she tells the truth when she affirms,<br />
“I love emotional cinema.” But the kicker is that she loves emotional<br />
cinema that derives its power from the script and cast, not directoral<br />
theatricality. “I thought Woody Allen’s Match Point was fantastic,” she<br />
continues. “Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm, The Graduate, Lost in Translation,<br />
too. I like tense, emotional stories that show the characters’ inner<br />
conflicts. They’re plot-orientated, certainly, but the main driver is the<br />
emotional. Personal feelings are most important,” she continues, “I<br />
build on my own experience and build that into the story.”<br />
And then, just when you think we are about to take the Arthouse<br />
Autobahn, she mentions ET as one of her favorites and then cites Star<br />
Wars and suddenly we’re cruising the Hollywood Highway!<br />
“Feelings and moments become part of the fantasy and story-telling.<br />
I’ve read and studied the classic three-act-structure, the story of the<br />
hero – it functions just like the Star Wars principle – and I stay with the<br />
classical narrative methods but I love it when genres get mixed. You<br />
can have crossover with realism, sure.”<br />
And given that the mainstream is also a broad stream, von Ribbeck<br />
also “loves thrillers because they leave so many possibilities open,<br />
such as The Cut from Jane Campion. Match Point is also a thriller but<br />
it tells so much about human relationships.”<br />
So what kind of director is she? She tries “to get the actors to bring<br />
in as much as possible about their own lives. I work long and closely<br />
with them, building up a basis of trust to create an ensemble film. We<br />
talk a lot about role and character. We talk our way into the characters<br />
and create them between us.”<br />
Now, finally unleashed to talk about her latest film, Frueher oder<br />
Spaeter, von Ribbeck immediately expands her definition of teamwork<br />
to those behind the camera, singling out co-author Katharina<br />
Held, editor Natali Barrey, casting agent Bernhard Karl, music con -<br />
sultant Martin Hossbach, first AD Petra Misovic and camerawoman<br />
Sonja Rom for praise.<br />
On the writing process, von Ribbeck says she “likes working with coauthors.<br />
You talk, you get new ideas, you toss them around. It’s less<br />
lonely! The ideas are your own but team working opens new doors,<br />
new opinions, inspiration and confrontation. Katharina made the<br />
whole process very constructive and I’ll co-write with her again on my<br />
next film.”<br />
While some are content to film the storyboard, von Ribbeck is ready<br />
to seize any opportunity that comes her way if it adds to the film,<br />
such as “when you come across a great prop, like this small ballerina<br />
that turns on a box. I took that immediately! I have my plans and ideas<br />
but am ready to change. If rehearsals give the actors the opportunity<br />
to develop the character then I take that as well. Likewise with the<br />
locations.”<br />
She says she also cares very much about the other partner in the relationship,<br />
the audience, “to give them a view of life they might not have<br />
had before. I like it when <strong>films</strong> stay in the memory, touch and affect<br />
people.”<br />
Then she reels off another list of people, whom she thanks for making<br />
Frueher oder Spaeter happen: Kirsten Niehuus of Medienboard<br />
Berlin-Brandenburg, Lucas Schmidt of ZDF’s Das kleine Fernsehspiel,<br />
Georg Steinert at ARTE, actors Lola Klamroth and Peter Lohmeyer,<br />
producer Steffi Ackermann, Michael Weber and Tobias Pausinger of<br />
The Match Factory, and very much Georges Goldenstern and<br />
Catherine Jacques at the “Atelier de la Cinéfondation” for their support.<br />
Von Ribbeck is now working on the treatment for a thriller about a<br />
young manager who is mobbed and tries to discover who is behind it.<br />
“He’s lost his job, his life and woman,” she says. “It’s about control.<br />
How strong must an individual be? Personally and socially? We live in<br />
a performance-orientated society and I’m interested in what happens<br />
when this society, or the family in Frueher oder Spaeter, falls<br />
apart; that threat in the everyday when the familiar comes under<br />
pressure.”<br />
Now about that name … Yes, lovers of classical German literature<br />
everywhere, Ulrike von Ribbeck is related to the Herr von Ribbeck im<br />
Havelland in the poem by Theodor Fontane!<br />
“Kids had to learn it at school,” she says, “and the name’s always<br />
associat ed with it. He was an ancestor and I get people reciting the<br />
poem to me! It happens a great deal!”<br />
Like all young and new directors, von Ribbeck is “optimistic about the<br />
future. I’d love to work in France as it inspires me, but there is also so<br />
much talent in German film and good stories can and will be told.”<br />
Simon Kingsley spoke with Ulrike von Ribbeck<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly director’s portrait<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 21
Thomas Riedelsheimer, Thomas Wartmann, Stefan Tolz<br />
(photo courtesy of Filmquadrat)<br />
PRODUCERS’ PORTRAIT<br />
Filmquadrat was founded in 2002 by a trio of experienced independent<br />
filmmakers – Thomas Riedelsheimer, Thomas<br />
Wartmann and Stefan Tolz – with the aim of creating a company<br />
within which they could be mutually supportive in the making of<br />
their <strong>films</strong>. Working according to this principle, Filmquadrat has de ve -<br />
lope d into one of the leading German production houses for creative<br />
documentaries with production offices in Munich and Cologne and a<br />
network of international contacts. The company’s output has ranged<br />
from work by the three founders to third party projects, including<br />
Beyond Horizon – The Niger Delta (dirs: Thomas Riedels -<br />
heimer, Thomas Wartmann, doc series, 2003), Shomal – Riviera<br />
of the Mullahs (dir: Stefan Tolz, TV doc, 2003), Arjeplog – Ice<br />
and High Tech in Lapland (dir: Claudia Seifert, TV doc, 2004),<br />
Touch the Sound – A Sound Journey with Evelyn<br />
“When we decided to join forces in 2002, the idea was to create an<br />
open platform rather than just establish another production company,”<br />
says Stefan Tolz, one of the founding fathers along with<br />
Thomas Riedelsheimer and Thomas Wartmann of<br />
Cologne/Munich-based Filmquadrat.<br />
All three had built up quite a track record in the documentary world<br />
before they took this step to pool their forces.<br />
Glennie (dir: Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2004), Adobe Towns (dirs:<br />
Stefan Tolz, Thomas Wartmann, doc series, 2004), Living<br />
Heritage – Beyond Samarkand (dirs: Lisa Eder, Thomas<br />
Wartmann, doc series, 2005), Neither Heaven Nor Hell –<br />
Cuba (dir: Arnim Stauth, TV, 2005), The Dubai Experiment<br />
(dir: Arnim Stauth, TV, 2005), The Search for Happiness (dir:<br />
Annette Dittert, doc series, 2005), Between the Lines – India’s<br />
Third Gender (dir: Thomas Wartmann, 2005), Living<br />
Heritage – The Andean Healer (dirs: Richard Ladkani,<br />
Thomas Wartmann, doc series, 2006), Living Heritage – Days<br />
of the Dead (dirs: Joanna Michna, Thomas Wartmann, doc series,<br />
2006), Nomads (dirs: Bettina Haasen, Thomas Wartmann, doc<br />
series, 2006), and Traders’ Dreams (dirs: Stefan Tolz, Marcus<br />
Vetter, 2006). Filmquadrat’s productions have been shown at numerous<br />
international festivals and won several awards at home and a -<br />
broad. Last year, for example, Lisa Eder and Thomas Wartmann’s<br />
Beyond Samarkand received the Bavarian Television Award, Der<br />
blaue Panther for Best Documentary and the City of Bolzano Award at<br />
the International Mountain Film Festival in Trento, while Annette<br />
Dittert’s The Search for Happiness won two Adolf Grimme<br />
Awards and nominations for the German Camera Award and the<br />
International Emmy Awards. In addition, Thomas Wartmann’s<br />
Between the Lines – India’s Third Gender won, among<br />
other things, the Vision School Award at the Ophuels Festival in<br />
Saarbruecken, the Audience Award at Turin’s Gay & Lesbian Film<br />
Festival and prizes in all categories at River to River in Florence.<br />
Previous to this, Thomas Riedelsheimer’s Touch the Sound was<br />
awarded the main prize of the Critics Week at Locarno in 2004, the<br />
Leipzig Documentary Film Festival’s Golden Dove for Best Film, and a<br />
nomination for the 2004 European Film Awards in the category of<br />
European Documentary of the Year as well as receiving a BAFTA<br />
Award Scotland, the German Film Award ’s Lola for Best Sound Design<br />
and the 2006 One World Film Festival’s prize for Best Sound.<br />
Contact: Filmquadrat<br />
Viktoriastrasse 34 · 80803 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-38 32 98 20 · fax +49-89-38 32 98 21<br />
Goltsteinstrasse 28-30 · 50968 Cologne/Germany<br />
phone +49-2 21-80 04 71 30 · fax +49-2 21-80 04 71 25<br />
email: info@filmquadrat.de · www.filmquadrat.de<br />
PLATFORM FOR<br />
DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS<br />
A portrait of Filmquadrat<br />
Thomas Riedelsheimer, who studied at the Academy of Television &<br />
Film (HFF/M) in Munich, worked after graduation as a freelance<br />
author, director, cameraman and producer, with an increasing focus on<br />
feature-length documentaries for cinema release. His most wellknown<br />
work was Rivers and Tides – Andy Goldsworthy Working with<br />
Time which was produced by Berlin-based Mediopolis with Scotland’s<br />
Skyline Productions and was shown in cinemas all over the world,<br />
taking $2.5 million at the US box office.<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly producers’ portrait<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 22
Similarly, Stefan Tolz was a graduate of Munich’s HFF/M, but had also<br />
studied at the Georgian Institute for Theater in Tbilisi, with shortterm<br />
stays at the film department of New York University and at the<br />
Beijing Film Academy. He then worked, since 1993, as a freelance<br />
filmmaker and producer for various public broadcasters and pro -<br />
ductions for theatrical release, with his multi-award-winning feature<br />
documentary On the Edge of Time becoming a ’must-see for cinema<br />
lovers’ around the globe.<br />
Thomas Wartmann, on the other hand, had studied Journalism in<br />
Munich and later Directing at the American Film Institute in Los<br />
Angeles. After working on several productions as an assistant director,<br />
he traveled throughout Asia, Africa and South America as a<br />
journa list for leading magazines before focusing on the directing of<br />
more than 25 documentaries since 1994.<br />
OPEN PLAN<br />
“We had been making our <strong>films</strong> independently with individual companies<br />
and came to the realization that it would be better to have a<br />
mutually supportive infrastructure which would also take care of the<br />
<strong>films</strong> once the production was completed,” Tolz recalls. “The idea<br />
from the outset was that the company should not just be for us, but<br />
should be open for other filmmakers as well so that they could have<br />
a chance of participating in the value chain of their productions.”<br />
Hence, the name Filmquadrat and the fact that there were only three<br />
partners in the company: the fourth corner in the square was to be<br />
kept open for others.<br />
Among the filmmakers welcomed into the Filmquadrat fold were<br />
Claudia Seifert (Arjeplog – Ice and High Tech in Lapland),<br />
Lisa Eder (co-director with Thomas Wartmann on Living<br />
Heritage – Beyond Samarkand), Bettina Haasen (Shadows<br />
of the Desert), Arnim Stauth (The Dubai Experiment),<br />
Annette Dittert (The Search for Happiness) as well as Richard<br />
Ladkani (co-director with Thomas Wartmann on Living Heritage<br />
– The Andean Healer) and Marcus Vetter (co-director on<br />
Traders’ Dreams).<br />
As Tolz explains, the focus of Filmquadrat’s output in the past five<br />
years has been on feature-length documentaries for theatrical release<br />
– such as Touch the Sound and Traders’ Dreams – and documentary<br />
series whose subject matter is usually set abroad out side of<br />
Germany. “We don’t make reportages, historical documentaries or<br />
journalistic reports,” he notes. “We come from cinema and thus want<br />
our productions to be visually of a high quality.”<br />
As the titles of Filmquadrat’s productions show – e.g. Beyond<br />
Horizon – The Niger Delta, Shomal – Riviera of the<br />
Mullahs, or Living Heritage – Beyond Samarkand – the<br />
output addresses international issues and is mainly shot in countries<br />
outside of Germany. One of the reasons for this international dimension<br />
is, Stefan Tolz argues, the fact that he and Thomas Wartmann,<br />
for example, spent some time studying abroad and so became fa miliar<br />
with foreign cultures.<br />
But there are exceptions with <strong>films</strong> where the story is based in<br />
Germany. Thomas Riedelsheimer’s latest theatrical documentary, for<br />
example, Das rote Sofa (working title) is being made in co -<br />
operation with a children’s cancer unit in Munich and addresses the<br />
question of how children who are threatened by deadly diseases like<br />
leukemia cope with the issues of life and death. Shooting has now<br />
reach ed halfway through and been mainly done in Munich, with the<br />
financing partly coming from the German Film Award prize-money.<br />
Moreover, Stefan Tolz and Marcus Vetter have been looking at the<br />
phenomenon of the online auction house Ebay in Germany in<br />
Traders’ Dreams which will be released theatrically by Piffl<br />
Medien later this year.<br />
MAKING CONTACTS<br />
“As a company, we enjoy a special situation in Germany,” Tolz con -<br />
tinues. “There are few people in our age group with similar <strong>films</strong><br />
work ing the way we do, and it is a very small segment.” Moreover, he<br />
is optimistic about the situation of documentary production in<br />
Germany at the moment: “The possibilities have become more varied<br />
and there are many program slots available. The fact is that everything<br />
has become more and more diversified, and the contacts you have<br />
are increasingly important.”<br />
Since founding Filmquadrat, the filmmaker trio has been keen to de -<br />
velop and extend their international network of contacts. “There are<br />
all different kinds of ways of making international contacts: it can be<br />
at the film academies where we are teaching, or when we sit on juries,<br />
or at film festivals when you have a film invited. We have also been<br />
recommended to people by the commissioning editors at SWR, and<br />
the German-French “Rendez-vous” in Cologne and Munich was help -<br />
ful.”<br />
“At the documentary film festival in Leipzig, for example, we had an<br />
opportunity to meet Canadian and Chinese producers to talk about<br />
projects and the pitching sessions there are in a more family atmosphere<br />
than at the Documentary FORUM in Amsterdam.”<br />
FESTIVAL SUCCESSES<br />
In its first five years, Filmquadrat has seen many of its productions<br />
invited to international festivals and picked up for theatrical release or<br />
TV airing by foreign distributors or broadcasters.<br />
Thomas Riedelsheimer’s Touch the Sound was awarded the main<br />
prize of the Critics’ Week after premiering at the Locarno<br />
International Film Festival in August 2004 and then went on to pick up<br />
the Golden Dove for Best Film in Leipzig and a nomination for the 2004<br />
European Film Award in the category of European Documentary of the<br />
Year (Riedelsheimer was a member of the jury for the European<br />
Documentary Award for last year’s European Film Awards presented in<br />
Warsaw in December). Touch the Sound also received a BAFTA<br />
Award Scotland, a Lola for Best Sound Design and the 2006 One<br />
World Film Festival’s prize for Best Sound.<br />
Meanwhile, Thomas Wartmann’s Between the Lines – India’s<br />
Third Gender has been to over 20 festivals, winning such commendations<br />
as the Vision School Award at the Ophuels Festival in<br />
Saarbruecken and the Audience Award at Turin’s Gay & Lesbian Film<br />
Festival. The film was on the German Film Academy’s shortlist this<br />
year in the German Film Awards’ categories for Best Sound and Best<br />
Editing.<br />
Moreover, Annette Dittert’s The Search for Happiness was<br />
sold to the UK’s BBC and Russia’s Channel One, won two Adolf<br />
Grimme Awards and received nominations for the German Camera<br />
Prize and the International Emmy Awards.<br />
Martin Blaney<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly producers’ portrait<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 23
Nina Hoss in “Yella” (photo © Hans Fromm)<br />
ACTRESS’ PORTRAIT<br />
Born in Stuttgart in 1975, Nina Hoss received her training at the<br />
renowned Hochschule fuer Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch” and on<br />
graduating became a member of the company at Berlin’s Deutsches<br />
Theater for two years in 1998. Since then, she has often returned as<br />
a guest to appear there in productions by such directors as Thomas<br />
Ostermeier, Einar Schleef and Amelie Niermeyer. She could be seen<br />
in Michael Thalheimer’s stagings of Lessing’s Emilia Galotti and<br />
Hauptmann’s Einsame Menschen and appeared as Helena in his production<br />
of Goethe’s Faust. Der Tragoedie Zweiter Teil. After playing the<br />
title role of Minna von Barnhelm for Amelie Niermeyer, Nina was cast<br />
by Barbara Frey in her version as the maid Franziska opposite Martina<br />
Gedeck and Ulrich Matthes. Moreover, she appeared in the Salzburg<br />
Festspiele production of Jedermann along with this year’s “Shooting<br />
Star” Maximilian Brueckner. In March of this year, she received the<br />
Gertrud Eysoldt Ring, one of the most respected acting awards in the<br />
It was as if German actress Nina Hoss had been struck by lightning:<br />
for a few seconds she couldn’t believe that her name – and not<br />
Marianne Faithfull’s – had been called out at this year’s Berlinale<br />
awards ceremony to receive the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her<br />
performance as Yella in Christian Petzold’s film of the same name.<br />
But anyone familiar with the 31-year-old’s resume would know that<br />
the award was totally justified and recognition for a talent with much<br />
more to show in the future.<br />
In many respects, it is not that surprising that Nina Hoss should have<br />
German speaking area, for her interpretation of Eurypides’ Medea in<br />
Frey’s staging at the Deutsches Theater. Nina became known to a<br />
wider audience both through her work with Luc Bondy and Robert<br />
Wilson at the Berliner Ensemble as well as through her roles for TV<br />
and cinema. The lead part in Bernd Eichinger’s TV remake A Girl<br />
Called Rosemarie (Das Maedchen Rosemarie) in 1996<br />
marked her breakthrough, winning her the Golden Camera of the<br />
HÖRZU listings magazine, the German Video Prize, and the Golden Lion.<br />
She has since worked with such film directors as Detlev Buck,<br />
Ottokar Runze, Doris Doerrie and with Christian Petzold on three<br />
occasions. At the 1999 Montreal Film Festival, Nina received the Best<br />
Actress prize for her performance in Der Vulkan and an Adolf<br />
Grimme Award for Petzold’s Something to Remind Me (Toter<br />
Mann) in 2003. Two years later, she picked up her second Grimme<br />
trophy for the second collaboration with Petzold on Wolfsburg.<br />
She took the lead in Hermine Huntgeburth’s The White Masai<br />
(Die weisse Massai) which was based on Corinne Hofmann’s<br />
international bestseller and had its world premiere at the 2005<br />
Toronto International Film Festival, bringing her a Bavarian Film Award<br />
for Best Actress in January 2006. Her title role in Christian Petzold’s<br />
latest film Yella won her a Silver Bear for Best Actress at this year’s<br />
Berlinale in February. A selection of her other <strong>films</strong> includes: And<br />
Nobody Weeps For Me (Und keiner weint mir nach, dir:<br />
Joseph Vilsmaier, 1995), Love Your Neighbor (Liebe Deine<br />
Naechste, dir: Detlev Buck, 1997), Fire Rider (Feuerreiter,<br />
dir: Nina Grosse, 1997), Die Geiseln von Costa Rica (dir: Uwe<br />
Janson, TV, 1999), “Naked” (Nackt, dir: Doris Doerrie, 2001),<br />
Epstein’s Night (Epsteins Nacht, dir: Urs Egger, 2001),<br />
Bloch – Schwestern (dir: Edward Berger, TV, 2003), Living<br />
with Hannah (Leben mit Hannah, dir: Erica von Moeller,<br />
2005), Elementary Particles (Elementarteilchen, dir:<br />
Oskar Roehler, 2005), The Heart is a Dark Forest (Das<br />
Herz ist ein dunkler Wald, dir: Nicolette Krebitz, <strong>2007</strong>), Die<br />
Frau des Anarchisten (co-dirs: Marie Noelle and Peter Sehr,<br />
<strong>2007</strong>), and Anonyma (dir: Max Faerberboeck, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
Contact:<br />
Players Agentur Management GmbH<br />
Sophienstrasse 21 · 10178 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-2 85 16 80 · fax +49-30-2 85 16 86<br />
email: mail@players.de · www.players.de<br />
A PASSION FOR ACTING<br />
A portrait of Nina Hoss<br />
decided to follow the career of an actress: after all, her mother<br />
Heidemarie Rohwedder appeared on the stage and was the former<br />
director of the Wuerttembergische Landesbuehne. Nina’s first<br />
contact with the world of thespians came at the tender age of seven<br />
when she started acting in radio plays. “Some people came from the<br />
radio station to my school and held a casting session,” she recalls.<br />
“I was chosen, but I didn’t do it on a large scale. However, I liked being<br />
on stage and took piano and singing lessons and so on. Acting was<br />
always my passion, and then I started appearing on the stage, with<br />
the first production Ich liebe Dich, ich liebe Dich nicht by Wendy<br />
Kesselmann.”<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly actress’ portrait<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 24
“At the time, I set myself a personal test: if it all goes well, then that’s<br />
what I will do, that will be my profession,” Nina says. “Fortunately, it<br />
went really well and so I continued acting and singing until I decided<br />
during high-school to start applying for a place at one of the drama<br />
schools.”<br />
Hoss was accepted by the famous Hochschule fuer Schauspielkunst<br />
“Ernst Busch” – where she studied at the same time as Yella co-star<br />
Devid Striesow – and praises the “very good personal training and the<br />
fact that I had a voice coach who was specially working with me<br />
rath er than doing this in a group. The studies were predominantly<br />
geared to acting on the stage, and film really only became aware of<br />
me by chance.”<br />
“The teaching approach was a bit like Stella Adler,” Nina explains.<br />
“You learn from out of a situation and put yourself into a character.<br />
You aim to preserve an openess about the relationship of the character<br />
to the space he or she is in and to the other figures.”<br />
The first brush with cinema came before Nina had even made the<br />
move from her home town of Stuttgart to Berlin to start her studies<br />
at “Ernst Busch”: Joseph Vilsmaier was looking for a lead actress for<br />
his next feature And Nobody Weeps For Me and was given her<br />
name by an acting friend. Nina was in her final year at school, but<br />
Vilsmaier liked what he saw and cast her shortly before the film went<br />
before the camera.<br />
Her performance in Vilsmaier’s film was subsequently seen by producer<br />
Bernd Eichinger who was preparing his directorial debut with a<br />
remake of A Girl Called Rosemarie as part of SAT.1’s “German<br />
Classics”. Screen tests were made – just a month into her studies at<br />
acting school – and the rest is, as they say, history.<br />
Nina’s lead role as Rosemarie catapulted into the headlines and subsequently<br />
the hearts of audiences in cinemas and theater alike, winning<br />
the Golden Camera of the HÖRZU listings magazine, the German<br />
Video Prize, and the Golden Lion for her performance. But despite<br />
many tempting offers for film and TV work, she resolutely stayed on<br />
the course at “Ernst Busch” to complete her studies. “I wanted to be<br />
on the stage and also enjoy being a student, something you don’t<br />
always have a chance to do,” Nina says.<br />
As her subsequent career shows, she has been able to combine work -<br />
ing for theater and film: “I am not afraid of the stage,” she explains. “I<br />
was helped by the fact that I come from a theater family and had good<br />
advisors and an agent to support me.”<br />
On her graduation from drama school, she became a member of the<br />
company at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater on the invitation of Thomas<br />
Langhoff where she stayed for two years before trying her luck with<br />
freelance status (she has become a permanent member of the company<br />
again since 2005). Nevertheless, she often returned as a guest to<br />
appear at the Deutsches Theater in productions by such directors as<br />
Michael Thalheimer (Emilia Galotti, Einsame Menschen) or Barbara<br />
Frey (Minna von Barnhelm). In March of this year, she received the<br />
Gertrud Eysoldt Ring, one of the most respected acting awards in the<br />
German speaking area, for her interpretation of Eurypides’ Medea in<br />
Frey’s production.<br />
“I have also been able to coordinate my theater engagements with<br />
roles for the cinema projects,” Nina observes. “The theater is like a<br />
home away from home for me because it gives me a continuity to<br />
work with interesting people again and again. The combination of<br />
stage and cinema is good for me – I would really miss it if one of them<br />
was gone because I find that my work in <strong>films</strong> is something I can use<br />
for my roles on the stage.”<br />
Her regular collaborations with certain theater directors is reflected<br />
in her work for the cinema with the now long-standing working<br />
partner ship with Christian Petzold: she first worked with him on<br />
Something to Remind Me in 2001 and followed this a year later<br />
with Wolfsburg, both performances winning her one of the covet -<br />
ed Adolf Grimme Awards, and was then cast in the title role of<br />
Petzold’s <strong>2007</strong> Berlinale competition film Yella.<br />
“Christian has a similar approach to me: he revolves around the story<br />
and the figure and gives me such a freedom,” Nina explains. “I like the<br />
way that he talks about the plot and the characters – he never be -<br />
comes concrete. I don’t like it when a director tells you in detail how<br />
you should play a scene. A good director should give you space and<br />
their confidence in your ability. The work with Christian is all about<br />
give and take.”<br />
“When I am making a decision about which role to accept, I look to<br />
see if I feel the story is coherent and the figure is interesting for me,”<br />
Nina continues. “And I also think about the other people involved in<br />
the project. In fact, there are so many different factors that lead to this<br />
decision.”<br />
Nina Hoss has often been said to have almost magical qualities in the<br />
way she can slip from one character into another, but she finds it hard<br />
to identify that one film role which was a particular challenge. “Every<br />
film and character is a challenge in its own way. I always have the feel -<br />
ing that each role brings you a little further and that it is an ongoing<br />
process,” she suggests. In her theater work, though, she has no problem<br />
naming the role which was a real challenge for her as an actress:<br />
the award-winning performance as Medea.<br />
Winning the Silver Bear in February is sure to have put Nina’s name on<br />
to the radar of many international producers who were perhaps not<br />
so aware of her work, although she did become known to a wider<br />
international audience after the Toronto premiere of Hermine<br />
Huntgeburth’s The White Masai in 2005.<br />
With genuine modesty, the young actress says that she doesn’t want<br />
to get too caught up in the excitement generated at the Berlinale and<br />
prefers to let things take their course. While she is “very satisfied”<br />
with what is now possible in German cinema and the success of the<br />
<strong>films</strong> on an international level, Nina wouldn’t be averse to taking on<br />
roles in international productions.<br />
A start will be made this month [May] with Marie Noelle and Peter<br />
Sehr’s German-French-Spanish co-production Die Frau des<br />
Anarchisten where she will be required to speak her lines in<br />
French, playing opposite such internationally respected colleagues as<br />
Laura Morante and Jean-Marc Barr. Then, in June, she will follow this<br />
with the lead role in Max Faerberboeck’s Anonyma, to be shot in<br />
Berlin and in St. Petersburg, with Russian actors. “I think it is enriching<br />
for me to act in another language because you get to become<br />
acquainted with other cultures, languages and people,” Nina suggests.<br />
“One gets to see different ways of acting and other approaches to the<br />
characters, and that’s what I like about this greater openness in<br />
European cinema!”<br />
Nina Hoss spoke with Martin Blaney<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly actress’ portrait<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 25
Scene from “One Who Set Forth: Wim Wenders’ Early Years” (photo courtesy of MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg)<br />
NEWS 2/<strong>2007</strong><br />
DOKVILLE <strong>2007</strong><br />
From 21 - 22 June the MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg-funded<br />
documentary sector meeting will take place: Dokville <strong>2007</strong>. One of<br />
the event’s highlights is the Baden-Wuerttemberg Award for Best<br />
Documentary <strong>2007</strong> which is awarded every second year. The award<br />
of €20,000 is presented by the MFG and SWR for outstanding achievement<br />
in the field of classical documentary <strong>films</strong> for television and<br />
cinema. It is one of the highest endowed prizes for documentaries in<br />
Germany.<br />
In <strong>2007</strong>, 15 <strong>films</strong> are nominated – including four projects funded by the<br />
MFG: Comrades in Dreams (Uli Gaulke), Die Unzerbrechlichen (Dominik<br />
Wessely), Heavy Metal auf dem Lande (Andreas Geiger) and One Who<br />
Set Forth: Wim Wenders’ Early Years (Marcel Wehn).<br />
MFG FUNDS INTERNATIONALLY<br />
SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTIONS<br />
MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg is the competency center for the<br />
film scene in the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and<br />
has been supporting exceptional and cultural film production in the<br />
area since 1995 – from script development and production to distribution<br />
and film theater support.<br />
One of the many successful examples of MFG Filmfoerderung’s fund -<br />
ed projects is Four Minutes by Chris Kraus. The prison drama tells the<br />
story of two very different characters, an elderly piano teacher and<br />
the young, talented but disturbed convict Jenny who is trained for a<br />
Young Musicians’ competition. The movie has not only emerged as a<br />
screen success but has also won numerous prizes at different re -<br />
nowned film festivals. So far it is being distributed in 40 countries<br />
world wide (e.g. Italy, France and Australia) and was nominated in<br />
eight categories for this year’s German Film Awards.<br />
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2 · <strong>2007</strong> 26
M. Wiedemann, U. Muehe, Q. Berg, S. Koch, S. Buhr, P. Rommel,<br />
C. Gordon, C. Danckwerts, M. Borries-Knopp, C. Stocks<br />
(photo © Jack Zeman)<br />
Florian Henckel von Donnermarck and “OSCAR”<br />
(photo © Jack Zeman)<br />
FLORIAN GOES TO HOLLYWOOD …<br />
Once again this year, German Films and Villa Aurora (Foundation for<br />
European American Relations) in cooperation with the German<br />
Consulate General and the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles welcomed<br />
some 400 guests to the traditional OSCAR reception under the<br />
California sun at the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades in honor of the<br />
nomination for The Lives of Others.<br />
AND THE OSCAR GOES TO …<br />
With the support of German Films, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern and<br />
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, over 200 guests got together for<br />
a “viewing party” of this year’s OSCAR awards ceremony at a<br />
private villa in Hollywood and celebrated Florian Henckel von<br />
Donnersmarck’s victory into the early morning hours.<br />
The Lives of Others (US distributor: Sony Pictures Classics) got off to<br />
a great start in the US and can already claim the second largest box<br />
office take for a German-language film in the US.<br />
AWARDS FOR GERMAN SHORT FILMS<br />
IN TAMPERE, ASPEN AND MAR DEL PLATA<br />
At recent festivals, German short <strong>films</strong> have garnered some major<br />
awards: At the Tampere International Short Film Festival (7-11 March<br />
<strong>2007</strong>) Michaela Kezele’s short Milan was the first German film to win<br />
the Grand Prix. Fair Trade by Michael Dreher received the Best Drama<br />
award at the Aspen Shortsfest (3-8 April <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
Both awards qualified the <strong>films</strong> for entry at the 2008 Academy Awards<br />
in the Short Film-Live Action category. At Aspen, Fair Trade also won<br />
the Youth Jury Prize, and Motodrom by Joerg Wagner received the<br />
award for Best Cinematography. And at the Mar del Plata Film Festival<br />
(8-18 March <strong>2007</strong>), the ACCA Jury (Asociación Cronistas Cine -<br />
matográficos de la Argentina) chose the short dark comedy Wigald by<br />
Timon Modersohn as Best Foreign Short Film.<br />
GERMAN SHORT DOCUMENTARIES<br />
IN ECQUADOR AND MEXICO<br />
In April <strong>2007</strong>, the fourth edition of Ambulart – Festival of Visual Arts,<br />
a non-commercial, trilateral event was organized in Ecuador.<br />
Ambulart is a traveling festival founded in 2004 by German and Latin<br />
American students from the Academy of Visual Arts Hamburg. Its aim<br />
is to stimulate cultural exchange between European and Latin<br />
American countries, thereby improving cultural understanding.<br />
The German Short Film Association (AG Kurzfilm) presented<br />
a selection of outstanding German short documentaries at the<br />
festival: Motodrom by Joerg Wagner, Cousins (Cousin Cousine) by Maria<br />
Mohr, Hallelujah! by Jochen Hick, Through Red Wine (Durch Rotwein<br />
durch) by Dagie Brundert, Cigaretta mon Amour – Portrait of My Father<br />
by Hannah Ziegler, Benidorm by Carolin Schmitz, female/male by<br />
Daniel Lang, and Fresh Air Matchcut (Frischluft Matchcut) by Stephan-<br />
Flint Mueller. Director Maria Mohr was on hand to present the program<br />
and conducted a one-week workshop for Ecuadorian film -<br />
makers. Festival venues were the cinema Ocho y Medio in Quito and<br />
the MAAC Cine in Guayaquil. In September <strong>2007</strong>, Ambulart will be a<br />
guest of the Museo de Artes in Guadalajara/Mexico. The festival’s<br />
program can also be seen in Hamburg from 10-11 November <strong>2007</strong>.<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly news<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 27<br />
Scene from “Cousins” (photo © Maria Mohr)
Dirk Schuerhoff, Oliver Mahrdt, Marcus H. Rosenmueller,<br />
Andreas Richter (photo © Karin Kohlberg)<br />
Scene from “Motodrom”<br />
(photo courtesy of BV Kommunale Filmarbeit)<br />
GERMAN PREMIERES IN NEW YORK<br />
Great start into the new year: in January, German Films started off its<br />
new “Premiere” year presenting the national box office hit Grave<br />
Decisions (Wer frueher stirbt ist laenger tot) by Marcus H. Rosenmueller<br />
in the presence of the director, the producer Andreas Richter (Roxy<br />
Film) and world sales agent Dirk Schuerhoff (Beta Cinema).<br />
In March, Ulrike Ottinger arrived in New York with her latest film<br />
Prater, which had its world premiere during the Berlinale. Ottinger was<br />
accompanied by Ida Martins (Media Luna Entertainment) who is handling<br />
the film’s international sales. In April, the documentary The Big<br />
Sellout by Florian Opitz was also screened to buyer’s in New York, just<br />
before it was shown in competition at Nyon. Director Opitz and<br />
world sales agent Thorsten Schaumann (Bavaria Film International)<br />
were on hand for the screening in New York.<br />
GERMAN SHORT FILM AWARD 2006<br />
ON TOUR<br />
The best short <strong>films</strong> from 2006 will be touring German communal<br />
cinemas until October <strong>2007</strong>. Two programs (Grenzen and Suechte) will<br />
be presenting the German Short Film Award nominated and winning<br />
<strong>films</strong> and the winners of the German Federal Film Board’s Short Tiger<br />
Award. For the first time in 2006, both prizes were awarded during a<br />
joint ceremony. The tour not only proves that the short film form<br />
brings forth great talent, but also that the short film genre is an experi -<br />
mental field for technical and aesthetic innovation. At the same time,<br />
the tour mirrors the creative diversity of current topics that German<br />
short <strong>films</strong> are dealing with today. And Germany’s communal cinemas<br />
are particularly active in supporting and promoting short <strong>films</strong> – this<br />
year’s tour marking the eighth time that such an event has been<br />
organiz ed. Tour dates and further information are available at<br />
www.kommunale-kinos.de and www.kurzfilmpreisunterwegs.org.<br />
The Grenzen program will be presenting: The Ballad Battle by Dirk<br />
Hendler, Motodrom by Joerg Wagner, Eine einfache Liebe by Maike Mia<br />
Hoehne, Kein Platz fuer Gerold (Short Tiger Award 2006) by Daniel<br />
Nocke, Dog by Daniel Lang, Fair Trade (German Short Film Award 2006)<br />
by Michael Dreher, and Hattenhorst (Short Tiger 2006) by Ove Sander.<br />
The Suechte program will screen: Ralf Stadler’s Zigarettenpause<br />
(German Short Film Award 2006), Hanna Nordholt and Fritz<br />
Steingrobe’s Drei Grazien, Hanna Doose’s Gut moeglich, dass ich fliegen<br />
kann, and Carolin Schmitz’ documentary Benidorm.<br />
A JOINT EFFORT FOR FILM<br />
The new joint Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-<br />
Holstein is due to commence operating from Hamburg as of this<br />
June. The merge entails the examination of the combined economic<br />
space. Thus the regional effects cease to be split up within the funding<br />
section, while the film commission sees a substantial increase in<br />
attracti ve shooting locations. “Both federal states will profit from this<br />
fusion. In future we can operate more generously and are in a posi tion<br />
to promote both locations and their respective advantages together,”<br />
says Eva Hubert, executive director of FilmFoerderung<br />
Hamburg. Besides the fusion of the film funding institutions of<br />
Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the mutual interstate media treaty<br />
also regulates the joining together of both respective regional media<br />
authorities. The new MAHSH has already begun its work and will be<br />
seated in Norderstedt.<br />
SHORT FILM LOUNGE IN CANNES<br />
After the huge success last year, the German Short Film<br />
Association (AG Kurzfilm) resumes its activities in Cannes. As<br />
the major event, AG Kurzfilm, the BMW Group and German Films<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly news<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 28<br />
Scene from “Duell in Griesbach”<br />
(photo © Olaf Held/Filmwerkstatt Chemnitz)
FFF Bayern’s Dr. Klaus Schaefer, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck<br />
will hold a reception to create a meeting point for the short film scene<br />
in Cannes. On May 19th at 6pm, industry professionals and film -<br />
makers are invited to a Short Film Lounge on the boat El Bravo.<br />
Additionally, with the support of German Films, international buyers<br />
and festivals once again have the opportunity to access German short<br />
<strong>films</strong> in the Short Film Corner. This year’s selection includes some of<br />
the most recent German short film productions: the short fictions<br />
Duel in Griesbach (Duell in Griesbach) by Olaf Held and Moonman<br />
(Mondmann) by Fritz Boehm, as well as the short documentary<br />
Chainsaw Woodcarver (Der Holzmenschbauer) by Katrin Jaeger. To provide<br />
an additional service for industry professionals, the short <strong>films</strong><br />
presented in the Short Film Corner are available on the fourth volume<br />
of the German Short Films DVD edition.<br />
FFF BAYERN AND THE OSCAR:<br />
A DECADE’S STORY …<br />
After having won all important German Film Awards as well as three<br />
European Film Awards, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s drama The<br />
Lives of Others finally achieved the ultimate success in the film busi -<br />
ness: In February, the FFF-funded production by Wiedemann & Berg,<br />
BR, ARTE and creado film won the OSCAR as “Best Foreign Language<br />
Film”. The OSCAR-nomination for a supported film has become a<br />
pleasant routine for FFF Bayern: This year’s success was the 15th<br />
nomination since the Bavarian film fund’s foundation in 1996. In 1997,<br />
Caroline Link first entered OSCAR territory with her debut feature<br />
Beyond Silence.<br />
In 2001 Florian Gallenberger’s Quiero Ser won an OSCAR for Best Short<br />
Film, and Steffen Schaeffler’s The Periwig Maker received a nomination<br />
for Best Animated Short. Two years later, two FFF-supported <strong>films</strong><br />
won Academy Awards: Nowhere in Africa by Caroline Link and The<br />
Pianist by Roman Polanski, which won three OSCARS and had four<br />
further nominations. In 2005, Luigi Falorni and Byambasuren Davaa<br />
were short-listed for their documentary The Story of the Weeping<br />
Camel, accompanied by Oliver Hirschbiegel for The Downfall as Best<br />
Foreign Language Film. Marc Rothemund followed the year after:<br />
Sophie Scholl – The Last Days was nominated in 2006.<br />
GERMAN SHORT FILMS IN ABU DHABI<br />
From 7 – 13 March <strong>2007</strong>, the Cultural Foundation of Abu Dhabi/<br />
United Arab Emirates organized the 6th edition of the Emirates Film<br />
Competition. Last year, the competition for filmmakers from Arab<br />
countries was complemented by a non-competitive section for international<br />
short <strong>films</strong>.<br />
This year’s topic, Road Cinema, dealt not only with the classic perception<br />
of “the road”, but also with its philosophical, social and professional<br />
dimension, i.e. changes in life and the crossing of real or imagined<br />
borders. 18 German short <strong>films</strong> were screened at the festival,<br />
including Stay Like This (Einfach so bleiben) by Sven Taddicken, Subway<br />
Score by Alexander Isert, and The Raft (Das Floss) by Jan Thuering.<br />
FILMSTIFTUNG NRW’S INTERNATIONAL<br />
FILM CONGRESS: “LIMITLESS” IN COLOGNE<br />
Where does it work well, and where are there still problems with<br />
international co-productions? This is just one of the topics to be discussed<br />
during the Filmstiftung NRW’s International Film Congress<br />
from 16 – 19 June <strong>2007</strong>. Under the motto “Limitless”, the North<br />
Rhine Westphalia-based film funder invites the international film industry<br />
to the Cologne Exhibition for the Medienforum NRW to examine<br />
the possibilities of transnational cooperation and the current situation<br />
of European <strong>films</strong> in the individual neighboring countries. In addition<br />
to the top-class panels, which will also present the new German<br />
Federal Film Fund, the event will serve as the German premiereground<br />
and preview forum for NRW-funded <strong>films</strong> and offer a co-production<br />
meeting, organized this year in cooperation with ACE.<br />
More information about the International Film Congress is available<br />
on the Filmstiftung’s website www.<strong>films</strong>tiftung.de or contact<br />
filmkongress@<strong>films</strong>tiftung.de.<br />
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2 · <strong>2007</strong> 29<br />
Scene from “Stay Like This”<br />
(photo © Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg)
The FFA’s Branchentiger <strong>2007</strong><br />
(photo courtesy of the FFA)<br />
GERMANY’S INDUSTRY TIGERS <strong>2007</strong><br />
Germany’s most successful producers and distributors<br />
of German <strong>films</strong> were awarded a total<br />
of €18.5 million in March during the<br />
German Federal Film Board’s FFA<br />
Branchentiger <strong>2007</strong> get-together. The<br />
deciding factors for the prize money<br />
are the number of tickets sold and<br />
awards received. The most successful<br />
producers at national and international<br />
film festivals in 2006 were Berlinbased<br />
Razor Film Produktion, whose<br />
film Paradise Now won a Golden Globe<br />
among other honors, and Wiedemann &<br />
Berg Filmproduktion, whose production<br />
The Lives of Others began its victory march in<br />
2006 with the German Film Award in Gold and<br />
the European Film Award.<br />
For the third year in a row, Constantin Film Produktion and<br />
Constantin Film Verleih took home the Golden Branchentiger in both<br />
categories: production and distribution. The Munich-based company<br />
(whose hits include Perfume – The Story of a Murderer, Elementary<br />
Particles, Hui Buh – The Goofy Ghost, and The Robber Hotzenplotz,<br />
among others) received €3.4 million in support funds for new feature<br />
projects. In the field of production, the other Branchentigers were<br />
SamFilm (The Wild Soccer Bunch 1 – 3) with €1.3 million and<br />
Zipfelmuetzen Film (7 Dwarves – The Wood is Not Enough). The distribution<br />
Tigers were X Verleih AG (Summer in Berlin, Into Great Silence,<br />
Requiem) with €424,594 in funding and Buena Vista International<br />
Germany (The Lives of Others and The Wild Soccer Bunch 3, among<br />
others) with €284,147.<br />
The reference funding is based on the legal claims that producers and<br />
distributors are entitled to as laid down in the Federal Funding Law<br />
(FFG). The FFG makes it possible for companies to receive financial<br />
support based on the audience and festival success of their <strong>films</strong> and<br />
provides funds for the production and distribution of new projects.<br />
The funding is available without any obligations to location or to television<br />
broadcasters and can be used without having to receive project<br />
approval from a funding committee.<br />
GERMAN FEDERAL FILM FUND IN<br />
THE WORLD WIDE WEB<br />
Since the beginning of <strong>2007</strong>, the German film industry has a new funding<br />
model that can hold up competitively in the European context.<br />
On the initiative of State Minister for Culture Bernd Neumann, the<br />
German federal government is putting up €180 million over the next<br />
three years for the German Federal Film Fund in order to<br />
promote Germany as a film location.<br />
To find out more about the new fund since its introduction in January<br />
<strong>2007</strong>, just go to www.ffa.de/dfff for a pool of information about the<br />
innovative fund ing model. The website provides an up-to-date production<br />
list of projects which have received this support with complete<br />
crew and content information and a project status report.<br />
Answers to detailed questions can be found in the BKM Guidelines,<br />
which are available for download, as is the application form. And of<br />
course, the FAQs offer a quick alternative to some of most common<br />
inquiries into the fund. All information is available in both English and<br />
French.<br />
FIRST MOONSTONE FILMMAKERS’ LAB<br />
IN THURINGIA<br />
This year the international training initiative Moonstone International<br />
is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Established in 1997 in Edinburgh in<br />
cooperation with Robert Redford and the Sundance Institute,<br />
Moonstone has organized numerous Screenwriters’ and Filmmakers’<br />
Labs which have been instrumental in bringing forth internationally<br />
successful <strong>films</strong>. Two years ago, Moonstone opened an office in<br />
Leipzig to serve as the contact central for writers and filmmakers from<br />
German-speaking as well as Eastern and Central European countries.<br />
And Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung has been supportive<br />
of Moonstone East from the outset: after four Screenwriters’ Labs in<br />
Central Germany, a first Filmmakers’ Lab took place from 13 – 28<br />
April <strong>2007</strong> in Thuringia. Eight young directors were able to gain film -<br />
making experience with a complete crew and with renowned<br />
directors such as John Irvin, Robert Pejo and Srdan Golubovic as ad -<br />
visors. Other Moonstone Lab supporters include the EU MEDIA program<br />
and the German Federal Film Board.<br />
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2 · <strong>2007</strong> 30<br />
The German Federal Film Fund Team<br />
(photo courtesy of the FFA)
GERMAN ANIMATIONS IN ANNECY<br />
For the first time, German Films and the German Short Film<br />
Association are partners of MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, the<br />
Animations Department of the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg<br />
and the Festival of Animated Film Stuttgart in holding the German<br />
Reception at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The<br />
festival in Annecy and the accompanying film market MIFA are the biggest<br />
business venues for animated film worldwide. The reception is<br />
scheduled for 12 June <strong>2007</strong> at the hotel Le Clos Marcel. Among the<br />
short <strong>films</strong> competing for the Annecy Cristal this year are four German<br />
shorts: Bernd und sein Leben by Ingo Schiller and Stephan-Flint Mueller,<br />
Bildfenster/Fensterbilder by Bert Gottschalk, Canary Beat by Juergen<br />
Haas, and Der Kloane (The Runt) by Andreas Hykade.<br />
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<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly news<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 31<br />
GmbH Gm mbH<br />
Scene from “The Runt” (photo © Studio Film Bilder)
IN PRODUCTION<br />
Chiko<br />
Denis Moschitto in “Chiko”<br />
(photo © corazón international/Maria Krumwiede)<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama<br />
Production Company corazón international/Hamburg, in coproduction<br />
with NDR/Hamburg With backing from<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), German Federal Film Fund (DFFF),<br />
FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Nordmedia, Kuratorium junger deutscher<br />
Film Producers Fatih Akin, Klaus Maeck Director Oezguer<br />
Yildirim Screenplay Oezguer Yildirim Director of Photog -<br />
raphy Matthias Bolliger Editor Sebastian Thuemler Production<br />
Design Iris Trescher Principal Cast Denis Moschitto, Moritz<br />
Bleibtreu, Volkan Oezcan, Fahri Oguen Yardim, Reyhan Sahin<br />
Casting Nurhan Sekerci Special Effects Norbert Skodock<br />
Format 16 mm, color, blow-up to 35 mm, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital<br />
Shooting Language German Shooting in Hamburg, Hanover,<br />
February – April <strong>2007</strong> German Distributor Falcom Media<br />
Group/Berlin<br />
Contact<br />
corazón international GmbH & Co KG<br />
Ann-Kristin Demuth<br />
Ditmar-Koel-Strasse 26 · 20459 Hamburg/Germany<br />
phone +49-40-3 11 82 38 34 · fax +49-40-3 11 82 38 21<br />
email: kristin@corazon-int.de · www.corazon-int.de<br />
Marking the feature directorial debut of Oezguer Yildirim,<br />
Chiko is as hard and gnarly as any film about a Turkish wannabe drug<br />
boss can be.<br />
Throwing instead of pulling its punches, this is the story of Isa (as he’s<br />
actually named, but who finds the nickname Chiko much cooler) who<br />
grows up in a Hamburg suburb. It might be one of the world’s richest<br />
cities but every beast has its belly and here, in the very underbelly,<br />
Chiko lives in a world where violence, staking and keeping a claim, and<br />
drug taking are the norm. Where down is not an option, Chiko is<br />
determined to rise to the top, whatever and whomever it costs.<br />
Regardless of time and circumstances, he wants immediate and un -<br />
limited respect. And with the means justifying his ends, for Chiko<br />
every means is justified.<br />
Yildirim, who also wrote the script, was born in 1979 in Hamburg and<br />
had a novel (Graue Naechte, translation: “Grey Nights”) published<br />
when he was just fourteen. After graduating high school and complet -<br />
ing his non-military service, he entered the University for Theater,<br />
Musical Theater and Film, today known as the Hamburg Media School,<br />
and graduated as a director in 2004.<br />
He has already made a number of shorts, including the 2002 Der<br />
noeti ge Schneid, which was nominated for the Short Tiger Award at the<br />
Filmfest Munich, an award he was to carry away two years later with<br />
Alim Market. This latter film was also nominated for the First Steps<br />
Award 2004 and the Studio Hamburg Newcomer Award for Best Film.<br />
Chiko is played by Denis Moschitto, last seen on the big screen in<br />
the comedy Kebab Connection in which he played the young hero, Ibo,<br />
trying to win back his pregnant girlfriend Titzi by persuading her he can<br />
indeed be a good father. As wonderful and charming as he was in that<br />
film, think of Chiko as the flipside of the coin and if any young actor<br />
can carry it off, it’s Moschitto.<br />
Moritz Bleibtreu (Elementary Particles) plays Brownie, the local big<br />
man, who eventually forces Chiko to question where his loyalties and<br />
future lie: it is a question of life and death.<br />
Production company corazón international was founded in<br />
2003 by Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel and Klaus Maeck. Their<br />
<strong>films</strong> include Akin’s Head-On, which won, among many others, the<br />
Golden Bear in Berlin in 2004, Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of<br />
Istanbul, which screened Out of Competition in Cannes in 2005, and<br />
most recently Auf der anderen Seite, screening this year In Competition<br />
in Cannes.<br />
SK<br />
Dr. Alemán<br />
Type of Project Action/Adventure, Drama Production<br />
Company 2 Pilots Filmproduction/Cologne With backing<br />
from éQuinoxe, BKM, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Filmstiftung<br />
NRW, MEDIA Plus Producers Harry Floeter, Joerg Siepmann<br />
Director Tom Schreiber Screenplay Oliver Keidel Director of<br />
Photography Olaf Hirschberg Editor Andreas Wodraschke<br />
Production Design Alex Scherer Principal Cast August Diehl<br />
Casting Anja Dihrberg Special Effects Flash Art Format 35<br />
mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital Shooting Language Spanish<br />
Shooting in Cali/Colombia, North-Rhine Westphalia, May – June<br />
<strong>2007</strong> German Distributor ZORRO Filmverleih/Munich<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly in production<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 32<br />
On location for “Dr. Alemán”<br />
(photo courtesy of 2 Pilots Film)
World Sales<br />
TELEPOOL GmbH · Wolfram Skowronnek<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29<br />
email: cinepool@telepool.de · www.telepool.de<br />
It’s a common complaint: there are not enough good scripts. That<br />
doesn’t stop <strong>films</strong> getting made, of course. And a good script can<br />
always be killed by the wrong director, miscasting, bad camerawork,<br />
poor editing, etc. But start with a good script and you have as solid a<br />
foundation as possible. With Dr. Alemán, Oliver Keidel won<br />
the German Script Award 2006.<br />
Dr. Alemán is the story of Marc, a 26-year-old German medical<br />
student, who decides to spend his year of on-the-job training in<br />
Colombia. What starts off as an adventure very quickly develops into<br />
a fight between life and death – and death is an ever-present threat<br />
that is not confined just to the hospital.<br />
Referencing such <strong>films</strong> as City of God, Blow, Traffic and The Beach, Dr.<br />
Alemán is, says Keidel, “an emotional film about a young man<br />
search ing for adventure. It’s about the collision of two cultures in<br />
extreme form, a man from cosy Germany in the hardest region of<br />
South America, in a city with the highest murder rate.”<br />
Director Tom Schreiber was “fascinated by Marc’s story because<br />
it tells what it’s like to be lost in a foreign world. It tells of the hope<br />
of understanding the foreign reality, of the desperate attempt to<br />
adapt to foreign places and integrate into foreign societies, and of the<br />
fact, that despite all efforts, you always remain an outsider.”<br />
In fact, Dr. Alemán originated when Schreiber described to Keidel<br />
the true story of a friend of his, a German anaesthetist, who spent a<br />
year doing on-the-job medical training in Cali.<br />
With a mixture of professionals and non-actors, Dr. Alemán promises<br />
to deliver another show stopping performance from August<br />
Diehl. German Film Award, Best Actor, 1999; European “Shooting<br />
Star”, Berlinale 2000; German Film Critic’s Award for Best Actor (for<br />
Was nuetzt die Liebe in Gedanken) 2005, Diehl brings a depth to his<br />
performances that few actors his age can.<br />
Says Diehl, “Dr. Alemán describes via its story, and especially via its<br />
main character, what it’s like to make a decision based on the need to<br />
look for danger. The need to look for oneself in something strange<br />
and foreign, as it were.”<br />
Dr. Alemán will not be an easy journey, and there is no guaran tee<br />
of arriving safely, but it promises to be an exciting ride!<br />
SK<br />
Die Einsamkeit ist<br />
nie allein<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Tragicomedy,<br />
Phantasmagoria Production Company wtp international/<br />
Munich Producers Patricia Koch, Marina Anna Eich, Roland Reber<br />
Director Roland Reber Screenplay Roland Reber, Mira Gittner<br />
Directors of Photography Mira Gittner, Juergen Kendzior<br />
Editor Mira Gittner Music by Wolfgang Edelmayer Production<br />
Design Martin Lippert, Christoph Baumann Principal Cast Mira<br />
Gittner, Wolfgang Seidenberg, Marina Anna Eich, Sabrina Brencher,<br />
Antonio Exacoustos, Andreas Heinzel, Sven Thiemann Format DV<br />
Cam, blow-up to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting<br />
Language German Studio Location Panther Studios/Ober -<br />
haching Shooting in Munich, Landsberg/Lech, Kaufbeuren, April –<br />
May <strong>2007</strong><br />
World Sales<br />
wtp international GmbH · Marina Anna Eich<br />
Bayerisches Filmzentrum · Bavariafilmplatz 7<br />
82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 98 11 12 · fax +49-89-64 98 13 12<br />
email: wtp@wtpfilm.de · www.wtpfilm.de<br />
Lest we forget, film itself is just a medium. It is the message that<br />
counts. Each film, and here we are talking about the finished product,<br />
whether it be viewed in a cinema, on TV or DVD, seeks to elicit an<br />
emotional response. That response can be measured in the number<br />
of millions it takes at the box office, bags of popcorn sold, merchandise<br />
shifted over the counter: the film as product, if you like, the ones<br />
with star names and the classic three-act structure.<br />
Then there are other <strong>films</strong>, the ones that seek to elicit an emotional<br />
response in the same way Philip Glass does with his music; minimalist<br />
and profound. Die Einsamkeit ist nie allein (translation:<br />
“Lonli ness is Never Alone”) is just such a film.<br />
The man (Wolfgang Seidenberg) flees from the constant<br />
reoccuranc es of his life; from the expectations, from the respon sibility<br />
forced upon him by a normal life. On a disused industrial estate he<br />
meets Godot (Mira Gittner), a woman who collects rubbish, lives<br />
in an old caravan and spends her time on a paradise island, a rubber<br />
boat with inflatable palm tree, drifting along the city’s sewers, search -<br />
ing for signs of human existence.<br />
In memories, tragic and strange phantasmagorias, the man – in this<br />
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Mira Gittner, Wolfgang Seidenberg<br />
(photo courtesy of wtp)
one night – reviews his own life. In his visions he meets the main<br />
charact ers of his life: the wife (Marina Anna Eich), whom he has<br />
left, his girlfriend, his mother, his grandfather.<br />
“The film is a phantasmagoric excursion into the depths of the soul,”<br />
explains writer-director-producer Roland Reber. “It is a revue-like<br />
confrontation with the forces of the conscious and subconscious. The<br />
man’s confused thoughts,” he continues, “offer the material for a<br />
media spectacle that excludes not a single genre of the contemporary<br />
media landscape, with intellectual discourses and fantas tic images,<br />
crazy and grotesque scenes that twist fairytales and satirize the political<br />
past. In partly impressively real, partly amazingly surreal images full<br />
of comedy, the man zaps through his thoughts like through a tele -<br />
vision program.”<br />
In 2001 Roland Reber won the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Angel<br />
City Hollywood Film Festival for his feature-length thriller Das<br />
Zimmer.<br />
wtp international dates back to 1998 and, says actress-producer<br />
Marina Anna Eich, “makes all its feature <strong>films</strong> without subsidy or<br />
broad caster money so we are even more engaged with the project<br />
and place the emphasis on artistic creativity. We see ourselves as a<br />
forum of innovative materials and techniques.”<br />
Jan Josef Liefers, Julia Jentsch in<br />
“Fruehstueck mit einer Unbekannten“<br />
(photo © SAT.1/Stefan Rabold)<br />
Fruehstueck mit einer<br />
Unbekannten<br />
Type of Project TV Movie Genre Romantic Comedy<br />
Production Company Egoli Tossell Film/Berlin, in co-production<br />
with Cinema for Peace & Star Entertainment/Berlin With backing<br />
from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Producers Judy Tossell,<br />
Jens Meurer, Jaka Bizilj Director Maria von Heland Screenplay<br />
Martin Rauhaus, adapted from English original by Richard Curtis<br />
Director of Photography Gero Steffen Editor Patricia<br />
Rommel Music by Biber Gullatz Production Design Ulrika von<br />
Vegesack Principal Cast Julia Jentsch, Jan Josef Liefers, Andrea<br />
Sawatzki, Stefan Kurt, Juergen Heinrich Casting Anja Dihrberg<br />
Format S16 mm, color, 1:1.78, Dolby SR Shooting Language<br />
German Shooting in Berlin and Heiligendamm, February – March<br />
<strong>2007</strong><br />
SK<br />
Contact<br />
SevenOne International GmbH<br />
Medienallee 7 · 85774 Unterfoehring/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-95 07 23 20 · fax +49-89-95 07 23 21<br />
email: info@sevenoneinternational.com<br />
www.sevenoneinternational.com<br />
The idea for Fruehstueck mit einer Unbekannten came<br />
during a conversation after the awards ceremony of the Cinema for<br />
Peace gala during last year’s Berlinale.<br />
The British screenwriter Richard Curtis, whose credits include Four<br />
Weddings and a Funeral, Mr Bean and Bridget Jones, had just received<br />
an award for his BBC/HBO film The Girl in the Cafe and was talking to<br />
event organizer Jaka Bizilj and Bob Geldof about the possibility of<br />
making a German version to coincide with the G8 summit being held<br />
in Germany in June <strong>2007</strong>.<br />
“Jaka very quickly got SAT.1 onboard and then approached us to be<br />
the producers,” recalls Berlin-based producer Judy Tossell who<br />
was reunited on this project with director Maria von Heland with<br />
whom she made the comedy Big Girls Don’t Cry in 2001. “Jan Josef<br />
[Liefers] was the first choice for the male lead, but we decided to<br />
make him much younger than Bill Nighy in the original,” Tossell<br />
explains. “Julia Jentsch was cast as ‘the girl’ [played by Kelly<br />
McDonald in the BBC version] just before Christmas, and the rest of<br />
the cast includes Iris Berben as the Federal Chancellor, Stefan<br />
Kurt, Andrea Sawatzki, Joerdis Triebel and Juergen<br />
Heinrich.”<br />
Moreover, Tossell landed quite a coup during the shoot in February by<br />
persuading French diva Catherine Deneuve – who is one of the<br />
leading lights of the Cinema for Peace initiative – to make a cameo<br />
appearance as a mysterious French delegate at the summit in a morn -<br />
ing shoot at the Konzerthaus at Gendarmenmarkt just hours after the<br />
Cinema for Peace gala had been staged there.<br />
But it was quite a race against time for the production, since, as with<br />
the BBC film, the idea all along was to have the finished TV film aired<br />
in the days leading up to the G8. Thus, SAT.1 is planning to broadcast<br />
von Heland’s film at the end of May in a primetime slot.<br />
Adapted by Martin Rauhaus from Curtis’ original screenplay, the<br />
German version has Liefers as a research assistant of the Finance<br />
Minister and shy workaholic who falls in love in a coffee shop with the<br />
unconventional Gina (played by Jentsch who was in Berlin this year<br />
with Jiri Menzel’s competition film I Served the King of England). She<br />
follows his invitation to accompany him to the G8 summit in<br />
Heiligendamm where she not only changes his life but also causes<br />
rippl es among the other bureaucrats there.<br />
“It will be younger, sweeter and lighter, but the political side is just as<br />
pronounced as in the Curtis original. It is more of a classical romantic<br />
comedy with a political twist,” Tossell observes. “We have made the<br />
couple younger and the girl is more like a normal young woman that<br />
the audience would be able to identify with.”<br />
Tossell points out that the project will come into its own with the<br />
DVD release of Fruehstueck mit einer Unbekannten: “It is<br />
more than just a one-off TV film, there is so much more you can do<br />
with background materials on the G8 and Cinema for Peace.”<br />
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Moreover, the venture will also be benefiting some good causes:<br />
SAT.1 is donating all income from DVD, video and international sales<br />
to the UNICEF schools in Africa as well as “Deine Stimme gegen<br />
Armut”, the German branch of Richard Curtis’ “Make Poverty<br />
History” campaign. Furthermore, producers Egoli Tossell Film<br />
and Cinema for Peace will be waiving any profit and all proceeds from<br />
the production, and Curtis has committed to donate his fee for the<br />
adaptation rights to “Make Poverty History”.<br />
Hanami<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama Pro -<br />
duction Company Olga Film/Munich With backing from<br />
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), German Federal Film Fund (DFFF)<br />
Producers Molly von Fuerstenberg, Harald Kuegler Director<br />
Doris Doerrie Screenplay Doris Doerrie Director of Photog -<br />
raphy Hanno Lentz Editor Inez Regnier Production Design<br />
Bele Schneider Principal Cast Elmar Wepper, Hannelore Elsner,<br />
Nadja Uhl, Birgit Minichmayr, Felix Eitner, Maximilian Brueckner,<br />
Floriane Daniel Casting Nessie Nesslauer Format HD, blow-up<br />
to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Shooting Language German<br />
Shooting in Tokyo, Berlin, Baltic Sea coast, Allgaeu, March – April<br />
<strong>2007</strong> German Distributor Majestic Filmverleih/Berlin<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International<br />
Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de<br />
www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
Doris Doerrie has once more traveled around the globe to the<br />
distant climes of Japan for her latest production Hanami after<br />
having filmed there in the past for her two features Enlightenment<br />
Guaranteed and The Fisherman and His Wife.<br />
The €2.9 million film also marks another kind of reunion: with Molly<br />
von Fuerstenberg and Harald Kuegler’s Munich-based production<br />
house Olga Film which had produced Doerrie’s inter -<br />
national breakthrough hit Men more than twenty years ago as well as<br />
two other of her <strong>films</strong>, Straight Through the Heart and Money.<br />
MB<br />
“Hanami” team (photo © courtesy of Olga Film)<br />
“We worked over the past two years with Doris on this film idea and<br />
it is naturally wonderful that we are able to work together again after<br />
such a long time. The film is just right for us,” von Fuerstenberg de -<br />
clares.<br />
“This new film can’t be seen as a continuation of the previous two<br />
<strong>films</strong> set in Japan,” she stresses. “There is perhaps a little connection<br />
with Enlightenment Guaranteed, but in fact it is really something quite<br />
different.” Unlike many of her previous <strong>films</strong>, Hanami is not based<br />
on one of Doerrie’s short stories, but is an original story this time.<br />
Doerrie and the Olgas have put an impressive cast together for this<br />
tragicomic drama about a widower traveling from Germany to Japan<br />
in the search of the lost dreams of his late wife.<br />
“The cast was pretty clear from the outset,” von Fuerstenberg recalls,<br />
“but we then had to re-cast one role at the last minute when Monica<br />
Bleibtreu fell ill and we were fortunately able to get Hannelore<br />
Elsner instead.” This year’s “Shooting Star” Maximilian<br />
Brueckner plays the widower’s son who is living in Japan, and other<br />
roles are taken by Nadja Uhl (Summer in Berlin), Birgit<br />
Minichmayr (Fallen) and Floriane Daniel (Winter sleepers).<br />
“The shooting schedule was so rigid for us to start in the middle of<br />
March because the global warming means that the blossoming of the<br />
cherry trees in Japan is taking place earlier than ever,” she continues.<br />
“This is an important element in the film so we couldn’t postpone the<br />
start of shooting.”<br />
The producers and Doerrie are also very pleased to have been able<br />
to cast Elmar Wepper in the role of the widower: “We knew that<br />
he is a very good actor and would be the right choice to play an older,<br />
Bavarian civil servant from the countryside,” von Fuerstenberg says.<br />
Indeed, Doerrie had worked with Wepper on her last feature The<br />
Fisherman and His Wife and Olga Film knew him from their collaboration<br />
on the 2005 TV movie Mathilde liebt by Wolfram Paulus.<br />
However, it is the first time that Doerrie will have worked with the<br />
cinematographer Hanno Lentz whose feature film credits include<br />
the lensing of Sherry Hormann’s Guys and Balls and Jobst Oetzmann’s<br />
The Loneliness of the Crocodiles.<br />
“We are shooting in the HD format because it is very important for<br />
Doris and us at Olga Film to have this feeling of mobility and to be up<br />
close to the characters,” von Fuerstenberg explains. “And you have a<br />
much better chance of really capturing the crazy atmosphere in Tokyo<br />
than if you tried to set up a 35 mm camera there.”<br />
After the Japanese end of the shoot, the production moved at the<br />
beginning of April to locations in Berlin and on the Baltic Sea coast<br />
before wrapping in the Allgaeu region in Southern Germany at the<br />
end of April.<br />
MB<br />
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Im Jahr des Hundes<br />
Type of Project Documentary Cinema Genre Tragicomedy,<br />
Society Production Company Wasabi Film/Munich With<br />
backing from Filmstiftung NRW, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern<br />
Producers Martin Kircher, Hendrik Feil Director Ursula Scheid<br />
Screenplay Ursula Scheid Directors of Photography Armin<br />
Dierolf, Petra Wallner Format HDV-C Pro, blow-up to 35 mm,<br />
color, 1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting Language Chinese Shooting<br />
in Beijing, Chang Chun, Gong Zhu Lin, February & May <strong>2007</strong><br />
Contact<br />
Wasabi Film GmbH & Co. KG · Hendrik Feil<br />
Bayerisches Filmzentrum · Bavariafilmplatz 7<br />
82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 98 12 00 · fax +49-89-64 98 13 00<br />
email: info@wasabifilm.com · www.wasabifilm.com<br />
Scene from “Im Jahr des Hundes”<br />
(photo courtesy of Wasabi Film)<br />
In the words of writer-director Ursula Scheid, “Im Jahr des<br />
Hundes tells of dogs in China and about the dogs of people and<br />
about the people of that society. Of belief and superstition, of the<br />
rituals in the Year of the Dog, of dog owners and dog food, of children<br />
and money, of loneliness and faith in the future. These are entertaining<br />
stories, informative, bright and wacky, critical and sad. I come<br />
closer to the people via the dogs, and vice versa.”<br />
Scheid, who is no stranger to China, least of which being that she did<br />
her Master’s degree in Sino-German Relations, has known most of<br />
her film’s protagonists for many years. “Close enough,” she says, “to<br />
share a part of their lives, to show their everyday existence.”<br />
Opting for an episodic structure, Im Jahr des Hundes narrates<br />
several stories.<br />
There is the nouveau-riche and pregnant property dealer who has left<br />
her dog, and a 50-year-old woman who was left by her husband and<br />
lives, together with her dog and old mother, in a dark flat. They tell of<br />
the problems of having children while unmarried, the high dog tax and<br />
the prices of property.<br />
Episode two features an artist’s family, with one child and six dogs,<br />
who have settled for life in the country. Scheid depicts their everyday<br />
life; getting up, cooking, playing chess. The conversation ranges from<br />
the Year of the Dog and faith to art and money.<br />
Northern China is the setting of the third episode where we meet an<br />
old man, a civil servant, who was born in the Year of the Dog.<br />
Mourning his deceased wife, he dares to start anew.<br />
In episode four, a young couple plan their wedding and celebrate, sing<br />
karaoke, argue, play with teddy bears and swear eternal love to each<br />
other. “At the end of the film,” says Scheid, “I explain, from the dog’seye<br />
perspective, about the new love people have developed for the<br />
animal, of dyed and stuffed dogs, of dog restaurants and dog<br />
cemeter ies. Of the Olympic dog, Milu, his owner and life in poverty<br />
in Hutong. Also, dog training with the Beijing police and a dog butcher.<br />
Of stories and places that have not been revealed before.”<br />
As should now be patently obvious, Im Jahr des Hundes is about<br />
dogs in China and more than about dogs in China. It is about China<br />
itself, from a wholly new perspective; the dog as metaphor, as a<br />
vehicle for a new and original take on this amazing country.<br />
Founded in 2006 by Martin Kircher and Hendrik Feil,<br />
Wasabi Film takes its name from the very hot and delicious green<br />
horseradish, without which no sushi is complete. Once tasted, never<br />
forgotten!<br />
Ironman<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama<br />
Production Company enigma film/Munich, in co-production<br />
with Odeon Pictures/Munich, Lunaris Film- und Fernseh -<br />
produktion/Munich, Neue Kinowelt Filmproduktion/Berlin With<br />
backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),<br />
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF)<br />
Producers Fritjof Hohagen, Clarens Grollmann Director Adnan<br />
G. Koese Screenplay Adnan G. Koese, Fritjof Hohagen Director<br />
of Photography James Jacobs Editor Alexander Dittner<br />
Production Design Oliver Hoese Principal Cast Max Riemelt,<br />
Jasmin Schwiers, Axel Stein, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Ingo Naujoks<br />
Casting Buenker Casting/Berlin Format 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby<br />
Digital 5.1 Shooting Language German Shooting in Dinslaken,<br />
Amsterdam, Lanzarote, February – March, May <strong>2007</strong> German<br />
Distributor Kinowelt Filmverleih/Leipzig<br />
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SK<br />
Max Riemelt, Uwe Ochsenknecht in<br />
“Ironman” (photo © enigma film/Kerstin Stelter)
World Sales<br />
Beta Cinema / Dept. of Beta Film GmbH<br />
Andreas Rothbauer<br />
Gruenwalder Weg 28 d · 82041 Oberhaching/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88<br />
email: ARothbauer@betacinema.com<br />
www.betacinema.com<br />
In 2000, an article in the magazine Der Spiegel on the book about the<br />
true story of the world-class triathlete Andreas Niedrig caught the<br />
attention of producer Frithjof Hohagen.<br />
“The book Vom Junkie zum Ironman created quite a stir at the time,”<br />
Hohagen recalls. “There were TV documentaries about the case, and<br />
several film production companies showed interest in the story, but<br />
nothing then came of these plans.”<br />
However, when he set up Munich-based enigma film with partner<br />
Clarens Grollmann in 2004, the Ironman story came to mind<br />
again and he approached Niedrig in person to discuss the idea of<br />
making a film about his life. The next step was to find a director, the<br />
choice falling on Adnan G. Koese whom Hohagen already knew<br />
from a previous collaboration.<br />
As Koese recalls, his reaction after being approached by Hohagen was<br />
to ask to meet Niedrig: “I am interested in the person behind the<br />
story and in getting to know them. We met and a very good relation -<br />
ship developed with Andreas, giving me every creative freedom.”<br />
“We have had a very close and trusting collaboration with Andreas<br />
and he has been very supportive and constructive with his advice,”<br />
Hohagen adds.<br />
“Creatively, one of the very first questions was who would play<br />
Andreas and we had extensive casting sessions in Berlin with many of<br />
the leading young German actors attending,” he continues.<br />
Germany’s “Shooting Star” 2005 Max Riemelt, whose previous<br />
credits include Napola and The Red Cockatoo, was finally chosen for<br />
the physically demanding role of Niedrig who had lived the life of a<br />
junkie and petty thief before radically changing direction and training<br />
to become one of the world’s most successful triathletes.“Max was in<br />
superb condition and muscular in Napola, but he had to really lose<br />
weight for this role and is now quite skinny for the scenes during<br />
Andreas’ decline as a junkie in the Ruhr region,” explains Hohagen,<br />
who co-wrote the screenplay with Koese.<br />
The cast includes Jasmin Schwiers (Tattoo) as Andreas’ wife<br />
Sabine and Uwe Ochsenknecht as his mentor and trainer, while<br />
Axel Stein – known until now for his roles in such pratfall co medies<br />
as Ants In The Pants – takes a distinctly new direction with a character<br />
part as one of Andreas’ friends who pays the price for their drug<br />
addiction.<br />
For Koese, who came to directing via acting and screenwriting,<br />
Ironman is his feature film debut and also marks the first pro duction<br />
of newly-established Neue Kinowelt Filmproduktion run by<br />
Hermann Florin and Boris Schoenfelder. “I really like the<br />
classic way of filmmaking and working with light,” the director says.<br />
“I also spend a lot of time on the visual composition: before we began<br />
shooting, I sat down with the DoP and discussed the shots to the last<br />
detail. Everything is composed and prepared, there is no room for<br />
improvisation.”<br />
“Moreover, my background as an actor means that when we are<br />
rehearsing, I am not in front of the monitor, but always like to be with<br />
the actors as if on the stage. That physical contact is important for<br />
me.”<br />
80% of the shoot was in and around Dinslaken – an area Koese knew<br />
well as he originates from this part of the Ruhr region – and the production<br />
team couldn’t want for more support from the local people<br />
and authorities, with mayor Sabine Weiss doing everything in her<br />
power to make the shoot feel welcome. The NRW shoot was then<br />
followed by a day of scenes in Amsterdam and then a break of six<br />
weeks for Riemelt to “fatten up” to look like a real sportsman before<br />
three days of filming on Lanzarote during the real Ironman com -<br />
petition in mid-May.<br />
MB<br />
Liebe und andere<br />
Verbrechen<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama,<br />
Tragicomedy Production Company COIN Film/Cologne, in coproduction<br />
with Art & Popcorn/Belgrade, Amour Fou<br />
Filmproduktion/Vienna, Studio Arkadena/Trzin With backing<br />
from Filmstiftung NRW, BKM, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Eurimages,<br />
City of Belgrade, Serbian Ministry of Culture, South Eastern<br />
European Cinema Network, Vienna Film Fund, Hubert Bals Fund,<br />
Atelier du Cinéma Européen, WDR, BMW Group Producer<br />
Herbert Schwering Director Stefan Arsenijevic Screenplay<br />
Stefan Arsenijevic Director of Photography Simon Tansek<br />
Editor Andrew Bird Production Design Volker Schaefer<br />
Principal Cast Anica Dobra, Milena Dravic, Vuk Kostic, Hanna<br />
Schwamborn Casting Susanne Ritter Format 35 mm, color,<br />
1:1.85, Dolby Digital Shooting Language Serbian Shooting in<br />
Belgrade, February – March <strong>2007</strong> German Distributor Pandora<br />
Film Verleih/Aschaffenburg<br />
World Sales<br />
The Match Factory GmbH · Michael Weber<br />
Sudermanplatz 2 · 50670 Cologne/Germany<br />
phone +49-2 21-2 92 10 20 · fax +49-2 21-29 21 02 10<br />
email: info@matchfactory.de<br />
www.the-match-factory.com<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly in production<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 37<br />
Director Stefan Arsenijevic (right) on the set of<br />
“Liebe und andere Verbrechen”<br />
(photo © COIN Film/Biljana Ristivojcevic)
After working together on the omnibus film Lost and Found which<br />
opened the Berlinale’s Forum section in 2005, Belgrade-born film -<br />
maker Stefan Arsenijevic and German producer Herbert<br />
Schwering of COIN Film have collaborated again on the young<br />
Serbian director’s feature film debut, the tragicomedy Liebe und<br />
andere Verbrechen (“Love and Other Crimes”) which wrapp ed<br />
at the end of March. The film is the first production by Herbert<br />
Schwering with his new company COIN Film (formerly ICON Film).<br />
Expectations are running high after Arsenijevic’s numerous short<br />
<strong>films</strong>, including (A)torsion from 2003 which won the European Film<br />
Award, a Berlin Golden Bear and a nomination for the Academy Award’s<br />
Best Fiction Short category. “I feel quite different,” says Arsenijevic<br />
about the transition from short to a feature-length shoot. “The whole<br />
shooting will be as many days I had for my shorts, it feels strange and<br />
it’s like I am running a marathon!”<br />
“Liebe und andere Verbrechen is about a woman who is not<br />
satisfied with her life in contemporary Serbia and decides to steal<br />
some money and escape from the country forever,” Arsenijevic<br />
explains. “The film follows her over the course of this last day from<br />
morning to evening. In the evening, she is supposed to steal the<br />
money and leave and we see her meeting people who were part of<br />
her life; she is now able to take some small acts of revenge and tell<br />
them what she really thought of them, to leave some presents and<br />
make a quiet departure from her imperfect life. But, then on that very<br />
day – since life is not easy and simple – a boy from the neighborhood<br />
who is more than ten years younger tells her that he is in love with<br />
her and their relationship develops during this day. At the end of the<br />
day, she will have to de cide what she is going to do.”<br />
“In a way, the film deals with the Serbia of today and will give us a picture<br />
of the life of the main character and the situation and feeling in<br />
Serbia nowadays,” he continues. “It also looks at one topic which is<br />
really important here and that is of emigration: in the last 15 years<br />
because of the war and so on, 300,000 people left Serbia and it is<br />
mainly young people who went. This is so present in our lives and<br />
everyone of us knows someone who left. As a young person, you<br />
keep asking yourself whether you should go or not. I had an urge to<br />
deal with this issue and show how hard it is to make this decision.”<br />
As Arsenijevic points out, it would “usually be hard to make a co-production<br />
on such a movie because it is so very much based in the<br />
neigh borhood of New Belgrade where I grew up. It is very, very local<br />
even though there is a universal story. I see it as a very intimate film<br />
and, in a way, it is my Amarcord.”<br />
Nevertheless, his feature debut has been structured as a co-production<br />
between Germany, Serbia, Austria and Slovenia for the financing<br />
of the €1.43 million budget and drew its cast and crew from the four<br />
countries. “I shot almost all of my short <strong>films</strong> here, but I had the feel -<br />
ing that I lost my objective view of the space,” Arsenijevic explains.<br />
“So, my idea was to invite the DoP (Simon Tansek from Slovenia)<br />
and production designer (Volker Schaefer from Germany) from<br />
outside to come and see things objectively. This really helped me<br />
because they have a similar taste as I do and we were going through<br />
New Belgrade together and seeing things afresh through their eyes.”<br />
The central role of Anica who is planning to turn her back on her<br />
homeland is played by Anica Dobra (equally familiar to audiences<br />
in Serbia and Germany thanks to her appearances in Doris Doerrie’s<br />
Am I Beautiful? and Enlightenment Guaranteed as well as Srdan<br />
Golubovic’s <strong>2007</strong> Berlinale film The Trap), while the part of her young<br />
admirer Stanislav is taken by Vuk Kostic (star of Golubovic’s 2001<br />
drama Absolute Hundred), with other roles cast with veteran Serbian<br />
actress Milena Dravic and the young German actress Hanna<br />
Schwamborn (Good Bye, Lenin!).<br />
Meanwhile, the international flavor is continued behind the camera:<br />
production designer Volker Schaefer, who, among other things, creat -<br />
ed the sets at Cologne’s MMC Studios for Amelie from Montmartre,<br />
brought his art department team to Belgrade; Veronika Albert,<br />
sister of filmmaker Barbara Albert, is serving as co-costume designer,<br />
with NRW-based Georg Nonnenmacher (whose recent credits<br />
include The Wind That Shakes The Barley and Paradise Now) as gaffer,<br />
and Hamburg-based editor Andrew Bird (Head-On) coming to<br />
Cologne to work on the edit over the coming months.<br />
MB<br />
Lulu und Jimi<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Love Story, Music,<br />
Road Movie, Pop Art Production Company sperl + schott<br />
film/Munich, in cooperation with BR/Munich, WDR/Cologne,<br />
NDR/Hamburg, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from Filmstiftung<br />
NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche<br />
Medienfoerderung Producers Gabriela Sperl, Uwe Schott Director<br />
Oskar Roehler Screenplay Oskar Roehler Director of<br />
Photography Wedigo von Schultzendorff Editor Bettina Boehler<br />
Music by Martin Todsharow Production Design Eduard Krajewski<br />
Principal Cast Ray Fearon, Teresa Weissbach, Katrin Sass, Rolf<br />
Zacher, Udo Kier, Bastian Pastewka, Georg Friedrich Casting Nina<br />
Haun Casting Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting<br />
Language German Shooting in Thueringer Wald, Rheinland, July –<br />
September <strong>2007</strong> German Distributor X Verleih/Berlin<br />
World Sales<br />
Beta Cinema / Dept. of Beta Film GmbH<br />
Andreas Rothbauer<br />
Gruenwalder Weg 28 d · 82041 Oberhaching/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88<br />
email: ARothbauer@betacinema.com<br />
www.betacinema.com<br />
Oskar Roehler’s next film Lulu und Jimi will be the first feature<br />
project coming from the new company sperl + schott film set up<br />
last year by Bavarian Television’s former TV drama chief Gabriela<br />
Sperl and producer Uwe Schott, formerly managing director of<br />
Allmedia Pictures.<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly in production<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 38<br />
Gabriele Sperl, Oskar Roehler
However, Roehler and Sperl are not strangers to one another: during<br />
her time at the TV drama department in Munich, Sperl had been the<br />
commissioning editor for Angst (Der alte Affe Angst) and collaborated<br />
with him on the screenplay for Agnes and his brothers (Agnes und seine<br />
Brueder).<br />
“The idea for Lulu und Jimi comes from Oskar Roehler,” Sperl<br />
stresses, pointing out that she is “particularly keen in this film to look<br />
beyond the level of the Romeo and Juliet story and portray a<br />
Germany of racial prejudice and narrow-mindedness in the 1950s. At<br />
the center is a family of the Economic Miracle, which rejects every -<br />
thing that doesn’t fit in with its view on life. I think you will find that<br />
one can see several levels to this film. It is a typical ‘Oskar Roehler<br />
story’, he is really in his element with this family story which has that<br />
cruel twist which is so ‘Oskar’, but it is also a modern fairytale with a<br />
rock’n’roll pop art world, wild and full of color.”<br />
“It is the story of an impossible love affair,” she continues, “and of a<br />
conflict between a mother and daughter: the mother sees that her<br />
former beauty is slipping away and begrudges her daughter any happi -<br />
ness of her own.”<br />
While recent period pieces in German cinema have concentrated on<br />
the years in the nation’s history between 1933 and 1945, Sperl be -<br />
lieves that “a lot of <strong>films</strong> will start coming through in the future about<br />
the 50s because it shows us how Germany was reconstructed on a<br />
Nazi past that was not reflected upon, a fact which led to the student<br />
uprisings in the 60s and ultimately to the terrorism of the RAF. I think<br />
it is an extremely exciting and fascinating time – I am myself working<br />
on a screenplay set in the 50s – because there was so much suppress -<br />
ed.”<br />
While an eclectic cast has been brought together for the film with the<br />
likes of Katrin Sass, Udo Kier, Rolf Zacher, Bastian<br />
Pastewka and Georg Friedrich, casting of the two lovers<br />
fighting against all odds has been particularly imaginative.<br />
The role of Lulu will be taken by the young German actress Teresa<br />
Weissbach who made her film debut at the age of 17 in a headturn<br />
ing performance in Leander Haussmann’s comedy Sun Alley<br />
(Sonnenallee) and followed this up with a role in Catharina Deus’<br />
acclaimed film About a Girl (Die Boxerin).<br />
Meanwhile, Jimi will be played by the Royal Shakespeare Company<br />
actor Ray Fearon who, in addition to his stage work, also appear -<br />
ed in the British soap opera Coronation Street and Harry Potter and the<br />
Philosopher’s Stone and was a contestant on the BBC’s Saturday night<br />
show Strictly Come Dancing.<br />
The project, which is scheduled to shoot in the Thuringian Forest and<br />
North Rhine-Westphalia from July, and will be released in Germany<br />
by X Verleih.<br />
According to Sperl, she is currently in negotiations with English and<br />
French production partners to possibly come onboard the project as<br />
co-producers.<br />
MB<br />
Short Cut to Hollywood<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Road Movie,<br />
Tragicomedy, Black Comedy Production Companies Schiwago<br />
Film/Berlin, Bavaria Pictures/Geiselgasteig, Muxfilm/Pentling, Bavaria<br />
Film/Geiselgasteig, in co-production with Capture Film Inter -<br />
national/Los Angeles, Artdeluxe/Vienna With backing from<br />
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),<br />
BKM, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Kuratorium junger deutscher<br />
Film Producers Marcos Kantis, Marcus Mittermeier, Jan<br />
Henrik Stahlberg, Philipp Kreuzer, Dr. Matthias Esche Co-<br />
Producers Andrea Balen, Corina Danckwerts, Robert Hofferer<br />
Directors Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg Screenplay<br />
Jan Henrik Stahlberg Director of Photography David Hofmann<br />
Editors Sarah Clara Weber, Stine Munch Music by Rainer Oleak<br />
Production Design Peter Naguib Principal Cast Jan Henrik<br />
Stahlberg, Marcus Mittermeier, Christoph Kottenkamp, Marta<br />
McGonagle, Henning Gruebel Casting Astrid Rosenfeld Format<br />
HDV, transfer to 35 mm, color, 1:1.78, Dolby Shooting<br />
Language German Shooting in New York, Emporia, Lynchburg,<br />
Orlando, Miami, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Las Vegas, Los Angeles,<br />
Berlin, February – April <strong>2007</strong> German Distributor Senator Film<br />
Verleih/Berlin<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International<br />
Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de<br />
www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
After Quiet as a Mouse, which was shown in the 2004 Berlinale’s<br />
Perspectives German Cinema section after winning the Max Ophuels<br />
Award, Short Cut to Hollywood is the second collaboration<br />
between Marcus Mittermeier and Jan Henrik Stahlberg.<br />
The duo co-directs and appears in front of the camera, and Stahlberg<br />
is also serving as screenwriter.<br />
According to one of the film’s producers, Philipp Kreuzer of<br />
Bavaria Pictures, Short Cut to Hollywood “is a combi -<br />
nation of a road movie, black comedy and media satire and has the<br />
same kind of approach to the screenplay and concept that the duo<br />
Stahlberg/Mittermeier had followed successfully in Quiet as a Mouse.<br />
They have a screenplay, but efficiently use the room for creativity and<br />
improvisation.”<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly in production<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 39<br />
Christoph Kottenkamp, Jan Henrik Stahlberg,<br />
Marcus Mittermeier<br />
(photo © Bavaria Pictures/Stefan Falke)
He explains that the new project is “also a ‘film within a film’: the<br />
three friends from Germany embark to the USA, the paradise of fame<br />
and fortune. The plan is to turn one of them into a media star named<br />
John F. Salinger [played by Stahlberg], by shooting his first, unforget -<br />
table and, in many ways, exceptional movie. But the price for eternal<br />
fame is high. John F. Salinger is willing to give everything for it and that<br />
can be a lot …”<br />
“In contrast to Quiet as a Mouse, Short Cut to Hollywood is a<br />
very emotional story,” Mittermeier and Stahlberg suggest. “John F.<br />
Salinger is looking for the purpose of his life. Our 35-year-old hero<br />
hasn’t really achieved anything and is longing for ‘true’ meaning and<br />
love. John F. Salinger is a tragic hero and evolves, despite the humor<br />
and ab surdity, into a living legend within the story of the film.”<br />
Turning to the issue of media satire addressed in their film, the directorial<br />
duo point out that “the world is constantly looking for a new<br />
superstar, the next hot thing. Who hasn’t had the dream of fame and<br />
success? The dream of a life with glory, screaming groupies, money,<br />
stardom and the feeling of being loved for your exceptional nature. If<br />
you thought talent separates the wheat from the chaff, think again!<br />
Today, anybody can be a superstar as long as the media pay attention.”<br />
“If it’s true that success comes from breaking limits, we are not far off<br />
from our hero’s story,” they continue. “Whether it approves or not,<br />
the theater audience has to admit that John F. Salinger is right about<br />
the world we live in. The recipe for great success is breaking great<br />
taboos.”<br />
Mittermeier and Stahlberg describe their film as “a ride on the razor<br />
blade because our heroes are unpredictable. Every time you think you<br />
know what to feel about them, the pendulum swings into the op -<br />
posite direction. At times, you will be with them, laugh at them or<br />
scorn them. Nevertheless, deep inside you understand and sympa -<br />
thize with them. Once more, we will break conventions and go past<br />
limits.”<br />
Kreuzer admits that it has been a “big challenge to make a road movie<br />
like this for a modest budget”, but “looking at the rushes, one can see<br />
that the team has really captured the American look with many extraordinary<br />
locations to render lots of production value. Audiences will<br />
see locations throughout the US they know well including New York,<br />
Florida, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Especially the ones in Arizona and<br />
New Mexico remind you of <strong>films</strong> like Easy Rider.”<br />
Marcos Kantis, producer at Schiwago Film, which also produced<br />
Quiet as a Mouse and is now working with Stahlberg for the third time,<br />
underlines thanks to the support of Capture Film, “we managed to<br />
produce the film with a value which multiplies its low budget many<br />
times over.” He adds that for future projects, there might be a similar<br />
co-production set-up.<br />
Produced by Schiwago Film, Muxfilm, Bavaria Pictures and<br />
Bavaria Film with Capture Film International and<br />
Artdeluxe as co-producers, Short Cut to Hollywood is the<br />
first project with a foreign shoot to benefit from the recently<br />
establish ed German Federal Film Fund (DFFF). It will be distributed<br />
theatrically in Germany by Senator Film and handled internationally by<br />
Bavaria Film International.<br />
MB<br />
Stellungswechsel<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Social Comedy<br />
Production Company Claussen+Woebke+Putz Film/Munich, in<br />
co-production with ZDF/Mainz, in cooperation with ARTE/<br />
Strasbourg With backing from German Federal Film Fund<br />
(DFFF), Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,<br />
MEDIA Producers Jakob Claussen, Uli Putz, Thomas Woebke<br />
Director Maggie Peren Screenplay Maggie Peren, Christian Bayer<br />
Director of Photography Christian Rein Editor Peter<br />
Kirschbaum Music by Superstrings (Caro Heiss, Marc Sidney<br />
Mueller) Production Design Heike Lange Principal Cast<br />
Florian Lukas, Sebastian Bezzel, Gustav P. Woehler, Kostja Ullmann,<br />
Herbert Knaup, Lisa Maria Potthoff, Nina Kronjaeger, Ulrike Kriener,<br />
Diana Staehly Casting An Dorthe Braker Format 35 mm, color,<br />
1:1.85, Dolby Surround Shooting Language German<br />
Shooting in Munich, January – February <strong>2007</strong> German<br />
Distributor 20th Century Fox (Germany)/Frankfurt<br />
World Sales<br />
TELEPOOL GmbH · Wolfram Skowronnek<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29<br />
email: cinepool@telepool.de · www.telepool.de<br />
What do five (male) losers do when life has dealt them too many<br />
lemons? Well, in the case of Frank (Doctor of Philology and househusband),<br />
Gy (police officer locked in an eternal struggle with his<br />
health insurance company), Olli (delicatessen owner, no customers),<br />
Giselher (unemployed and most likely to stay that way) and Lasse (the<br />
living definition of a non-starter) the answer is … No, NOT make<br />
lemonade! But rather start an escort agency for women, offering<br />
“German gourmet food to get your hands on!”<br />
Although the German language does not lend itself to the same level<br />
of punning and wordplaying that English does, the word<br />
‘Stellungswechsel’ means to change one’s position, as in getting a<br />
differ ent job, as well as, quite literally, shifting your body posture. It<br />
also applies in a sexual context …<br />
With wordplays and situational comedy to the fore, writer-director<br />
Maggie Peren again proves she is one of the most versatile hyphenates<br />
working in contemporary German cinema.<br />
“The idea came from my co-author, Christian Bayer,” says Peren,<br />
“and I found it very sweet. It was intensive work because they are<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly in production<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 40<br />
Director Maggie Peren with her male cast<br />
(photo © Clausen+Woebke+Putz Film)
offering to sleep with women via the Internet, so the characters need -<br />
ed to stay sympathetic. It’s a social comedy, after all.”<br />
“The main character, Frank, is very similar to Christian,” Peren con -<br />
tinues, “while the girls are based on women I’ve met. We did a lot of<br />
research and wrote over sixteen drafts. I have to say, comedy can be<br />
a real nightmare!”<br />
Then she confesses she’s working on, yes, another comedy, Bloody<br />
Germans, about the 1996 World Cup in which England was knocked<br />
out by Germany in the semi-finals, on penalties! And an England fan is<br />
forced to admit he’s the father of a German child!<br />
Peren’s many credits include Vergiss Amerika (1999), the multi-Grimme<br />
Award winning TV movie Das Phantom (1999) and the smash hit<br />
comedy Girls on Top (2001). She then turned her talents to the Third<br />
Reich with Napola (2004) and co-authored (with Stefan Schaller)<br />
Detlev Buck’s latest film Haende weg von Mississippi.<br />
As befits an ensemble film, Stellungswechsel has assembled<br />
some top notch Teutonic thesps. Florian Lukas (Frank) won Best<br />
Supporting Actor in the 2003 German Film Awards for Good Bye,<br />
Lenin!. Sebastian Bezzel (Gy) is one of Germany’s best known<br />
TV cops. Gustav Woehler, when not singing with his band, has<br />
featur ed in, among many, Doris Doerrie’s Der Fischer und seine Frau<br />
and Sven Unterwaldt’s 7 Zwerge comedies. Herbert Knaup<br />
(Giselher) was in the OSCAR-winning Das Leben der Anderen while<br />
Kostja Ullmann (Lasse) starred in Verfolgt, which won a Golden<br />
Leopard at Locarno in 2006.<br />
Claussen+Woebke+Putz Filmproduktion can claim the<br />
credit for many a critical and audience hit. To name just a few: the<br />
horror <strong>films</strong> Anatomie and Anatomie 2, the OSCAR-nominated Jenseits<br />
der Stille, Crazy, 23 and Lichter.<br />
SK<br />
Vier sind einer zuviel<br />
H. Jaenicke, M. Brandt, J.-G. Kremp, B. Auer<br />
(photo © Nicolas Maack)<br />
Type of Project TV Movie Genre Romantic Comedy<br />
Production Company mementoFilm/Berlin, in co-production<br />
with NDR/Hamburg Producers Markus Gruber, Doris J. Heinze<br />
Director Torsten C. Fischer Screenplay Hans G. Raeth, Sathyan<br />
Ramesh Director of Photography Achim Poulheim Editor<br />
Benjamin Hembus Production Design Martin Schreiber<br />
Principal Cast Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Hannes Jaenicke,<br />
Jan-Gregor Kremp Casting Gitta Uhlig Format 16 mm, color,<br />
Stereo Shooting Language German Shooting in Hamburg and<br />
surroundings, February – March <strong>2007</strong><br />
Contact<br />
mementoFilm GmbH · Andrea Guenther<br />
Leibniz Strasse 33 · 10625 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-43 72 79 10 · fax +49-30-43 72 79 19<br />
email: a.guenther@mementofilm.de<br />
www.mementofilm.de<br />
Spare a thought for what has to be one of the hardest genres of them<br />
all, the romantic comedy, or romcom as it is affectionately known.<br />
Now, factor in this is a German romcom and, be honest now, you’re<br />
most likely playing the word association game: which is to say the two<br />
words you least associate with Germany are comedy and romantic!<br />
Well … you lose! Because, contrary to popular belief, there is a very<br />
strong and developed German romcom tradition that, for business<br />
and structural reasons, exists primarily on TV.<br />
Long introduction to one side, Vier sind einer zuviel (trans -<br />
lation: “Four is One Too Many”) takes the traditional ingredients (men<br />
and a woman) and serves up a helping of bittersweet romantic comedy<br />
in which melancholy and slapstick harmonize in a swirl of delicious<br />
delight.<br />
Lisa (Barbara Auer) discovers on her wedding anniversary that<br />
husband Felix (Matthias Brandt) makes her really unhappy, and<br />
vice versa. She packs her bags and takes up residence in a shabby<br />
hotel to get her thoughts together, with little success. Felix, mean -<br />
while, makes the transition from househusband to homeless. Lisa then<br />
lands in a shared apartment with Chris (Hannes Jaenicke) and<br />
Edgar (Jan-Gregor Kremp), two not-quite-over-the-hill ladies’<br />
men. Separate soon be come shared beds. Life is great, until the po -<br />
lice deliver a handcuffed Felix to her door. Now four really are one<br />
too many!<br />
Production company mementoFilm was founded in Cologne in<br />
2001, with the Berlin subsidiary opening its doors in 2005. With an<br />
impressive number of <strong>films</strong>, for the big as well as small screen, already<br />
under the belt, company credits include the 2002 Das Jahr der<br />
ersten Kuesse and the TV movie Der Anwalt und sein Gast (2002),<br />
which won a slew of awards including the Nymphe D’Or at the 43rd<br />
Monte Carlo Television Festival 2002 for Best Actor (Goetz George)<br />
and director Torsten C. Fischer took the 2003 German Television<br />
Award for Best Director. On Vier sind einer zuviel Fischer again<br />
occupies the director’s chair and is working again with Barbara Auer<br />
who also starred in his feature film Liebeswunsch.<br />
SK<br />
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2 · <strong>2007</strong> 41
Am Ende kommen Touristen<br />
AND ALONG COME TOURISTS<br />
Auschwitz wasn’t what Sven, a young German, had in<br />
mind when he signed up to do his civil service abroad. For<br />
him, Auschwitz is a small town in Poland, a strange language,<br />
a concentration camp, all the musty grayness of highschool<br />
German history classes. To make matters worse,<br />
he’s got to care for an unpleasant old man, Stanislaw<br />
Krzemińki, a former inmate who never left the camp and<br />
now spends his time either giving contemporary-witness<br />
lectures or repairing suitcases. Krzemińki’s world revolves<br />
around the suitcases taken from the Jews as they arrived<br />
at the concentration camp from all over Europe. Besides<br />
having to endure Krzemińki’s haughty, gruff manner, Sven<br />
also has to put up with the barely concealed contempt of<br />
various locals. Luckily, there’s Ania, a young guide who<br />
lets Sven stay at her place … As the weeks go by, Sven<br />
begins to discover both Auschwitz and Os´wiecim, the<br />
place of horror and the Polish town, the memorial to inhumanity<br />
and the tourist industry that has sprung up around<br />
it. Yet within this push and pull of conflicting sensations<br />
grow love for Ania, compassion for Krzemińki, and the<br />
troubling, challenging realization about his own role in preserving<br />
the memory of this place …<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Robert Thalheim Screenplay<br />
Robert Thalheim Director of Photography Yoliswa Gaertig<br />
Editor Stefan Kobe Music by Anton Feist, Uwe Bossenz<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de · www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
Production Design Michal Galinski, Rita-Maria Hallekamp<br />
Producers Britta Knoeller, Hans-Christian Schmid<br />
Commissioning Editor Christian Cloos Production<br />
Company 23|5 Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-production with<br />
ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz, in cooperation with Pictorion<br />
Pictures/Huerth Principal Cast Alexander Fehling, Ryszard<br />
Ronczewski, Barbara Wysocka, Piotr Rogucki, Rainer Sellien, Lena<br />
Stolze, Lutz Blochberger, Adam Nawojczyk, Roman Gancarczyk,<br />
Willy Rachow, Halina Kwiatkowska, Joachim Laetsch Casting<br />
Simone Baer, Magda Szwarcbart Length 85 min, 2,400 m<br />
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German/<br />
Polish/English Subtitled Versions English, French Sound<br />
Technology Dolby Digital Festival Screenings Cannes <strong>2007</strong><br />
(Un Certain Regard) With backing from Medienboard Berlin-<br />
Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), BKM German<br />
Distributor X Verleih/Berlin<br />
Robert Thalheim was born in Berlin in 1974. After completing<br />
his schooling in the USA and Germany, he worked as an assistant<br />
director for the Berlin Ensemble theater and took up studies at the<br />
Free University and the “Konrad Wolf ” Academy of Film and<br />
Television. Also a writer and a publisher, his <strong>films</strong> include: Um vier<br />
Uhr ploetzlich ging die Welt unter (documentary, 1996),<br />
Zeit ist Leben (short, 2000), Granica (short, 2002), Three<br />
Percent (short, 2002), Ich (short, 2003), his feature debut<br />
Netto (2004), and And Along Come Tourists (Am Ende<br />
kommen Touristen, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Ryszard Ronczewski, Alexander Fehling (photo © Gerald von Foris)
Die Anruferin<br />
THE CALLING GAME<br />
“Please, can you tell me another story? No, not a bedtime<br />
story. A really exciting one …,” the voice of a lonely child<br />
begs somebody on the telephone. Craving for warmth and<br />
compassion, it is Irm, a woman in her early 30s. She calls<br />
strangers and, imitating a child’s voice, pretends she is a<br />
young cancer patient. In heart-rending conversations, she<br />
establishes relationships that she abruptly ends when they<br />
threaten to become too close. This is Irm’s way of reaching<br />
out from her life, a life in which she jobs in a laundrette<br />
and looks after her bed-ridden mother. Though no longer<br />
able to talk, her mother still makes it clear that her favor -<br />
ite was always Irm’s sister Margit. But now Irm has the<br />
upper hand and lets her know it.<br />
When she meets the self-assured but emotionally vulner -<br />
able Sina, she comes up against a woman who is in great<br />
need of a friend and thinks she’s found her in Irm. Caught<br />
between the pull of her mother’s imminent death and her<br />
manipulative play-acting, Irm is increasingly drawn to the<br />
strong, life-loving woman who offers her friendship. She<br />
knows that Sina must learn the truth some day and is<br />
afraid of losing her. But Sina is more tenacious than she<br />
thinks – and believes in Irm more than she does herself …<br />
The Calling Game is director Felix Randau’s second<br />
feature after his 2003 film Northern Star, which also won<br />
him the Studio Hamburg Newcomer Award for Best Script.<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de · www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Felix Randau Screenplay Vera<br />
Kissel Director of Photography Jutta Pohlmann Editor<br />
Gergana Voigt Music by Thies Mynther Production Design<br />
Peter Menne Producers Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert, Hejo<br />
Emons Associate Producer Bjoern Vosgerau Commis -<br />
sioning Editors Lucas Schmidt, Barbara Haebe Production<br />
Company Wueste Film West/Cologne, in co-production with<br />
ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz, in cooperation with ARTE/<br />
Strasbourg Principal Cast Valerie Koch, Esther Schweins,<br />
Franziska Ponitz Casting Deborah Congia Length 80 min, 2,189<br />
m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German<br />
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR<br />
With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Nordmedia<br />
Felix Randau was born in 1974 in Emden. After studies in<br />
German Literature and Ethnology in Bonn, he enrolled in the<br />
Directing program at the German Academy of Film & Television<br />
(dffb) in Berlin. His <strong>films</strong> include: Ritual and Something<br />
Happened to Me Yesterday (shorts, 1996), Matadore and<br />
Boomtown Berlin (shorts, 1997), Something Stupid<br />
(short, 1998), Siemensstadt (short, 2000), Northern Star<br />
(2003), and The Calling Game (Die Anruferin, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Valerie Koch (photo © Wueste Film West/Thekla Ehling)
Auf der anderen Seite<br />
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN<br />
Nejat seems disapproving about his widower father Ali’s<br />
choice of prostitute Yeter for a live-in girlfriend. But he<br />
grows fond of her when he discovers she sends money<br />
home to Turkey for her daughter’s university studies.<br />
Yeter’s sudden death distances father and son. Nejat<br />
travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter’s daughter Ayten.<br />
Political activist Ayten has fled the Turkish police and is<br />
already in Germany. She is befriended by a young woman,<br />
Lotte, who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home, a<br />
gesture not particularly pleasing to her conservative<br />
mother Susanne. When Ayten is arrested and her asylum<br />
plea is denied, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey.<br />
Lotte travels to Turkey, where she gets caught up in the<br />
seemingly hopeless situation of freeing Ayten …<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Fatih Akin Screenplay Fatih Akin<br />
Director of Photography Rainer Klausmann Editor Andrew<br />
Bird Music by Stefan “Shantel” Hantel Production Design<br />
Tamo Kunz, Sirma Bradley Producers Fatih Akin, Andreas Thiel,<br />
Klaus Maeck Production Company corazón international/<br />
Hamburg, in co-production with NDR/Hamburg, Anka Film/<br />
Istanbul, Dorje Film/Rome Principal Cast Baki Davrak, Patrycia<br />
Ziolkowska, Nurcel Koese, Hanna Schygulla, Tuncel Kurtiz, Nurguel<br />
Yesilcay Casting Monique Akin Length 122 min, 3,312 m<br />
World Sales<br />
The Match Factory GmbH · Michael Weber<br />
Sudermanplatz 2 · 50670 Cologne/Germany<br />
phone +49-2 21-2 92 10 20 · fax +49-2 21-29 21 02 10<br />
email: michael.weber@matchfactory.de · www.the-match-factory.com<br />
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version<br />
German/Turkish/English Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Technology Dolby Digital Surround Ex Festival Screenings<br />
Cannes <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition) With backing from<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), BKM, FilmFoerderung Hamburg,<br />
Filmstiftung NRW, Nordmedia, Kulturelle Filmfoerderung<br />
Schleswig-Holstein German Distributor Pandora Film Verleih/<br />
Aschaffenburg<br />
Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg and began studying<br />
Visual Communications at Hamburg’s College of Fine Arts in 1994.<br />
In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, Sensin –<br />
You’re The One! (Sensin – Du bist es!), which received the<br />
Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival, followed<br />
by Weed (Getuerkt, 1996). His first full-length feature<br />
film, Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos, 1998),<br />
won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award<br />
(Best Young Director) in 1998. His other <strong>films</strong> include: In July (Im<br />
Juli, 2000), Wir haben vergessen zurueckzukehren<br />
(2001), Solino (2002), the Berlinale Golden Bear-winner and winner<br />
of the German and European Film Awards Head-On (Gegen<br />
die Wand, 2003), Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of<br />
Istanbul (2005), and The Edge of Heaven (Auf der<br />
anderen Seite, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Scene from “The Edge of Heaven” (photo © corazón international)
Autopiloten<br />
AUTOPILOTS<br />
Autopilots tells the story of four people trying to live up<br />
to their lost ideals in interwoven episodes. Each of them<br />
has become a social outcast. Lacking a foothold, they<br />
errati cally move through their own lives. During 24 hours<br />
these characters’ paths cross on the freeways of the Ruhr<br />
Area.<br />
Georg, trainer of a soccer league team, must win the game<br />
tonight if he wants to keep his job. He discovers how the<br />
mechanisms of the soccer trade have begun to turn against<br />
him. Dieter, freelance reporter is on the pursuit of spectacular<br />
images. He loves his son, who lives with his ex-wife<br />
Rita, but does not devote much attention to him. Joerg, a<br />
salesman for bathtub lifts finds himself drifting off into isolation<br />
and discovers he cannot go on with his double life.<br />
Heinz, an aging pop singer spends his days singing at<br />
anniver sary celebrations for shopping malls and the like.<br />
And he can’t keep up the illusion anymore.<br />
They are all heroes of an inner insecurity, who are just trying<br />
to hang in there …<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Bastian Guenther Screenplay<br />
Bastian Guenther Director of Photography Michael Kotschi<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Lichtblick Film- & Fernsehproduktion GmbH · Yvonne Gottschalk<br />
Apostelnstrasse 11 · 50667 Cologne/Germany<br />
phone +49-2 21-9 25 75 20 · fax +49-2 21-9 25 75 29<br />
email: info@lichtblick-film.de · www.lichtblick-film.de<br />
Editor Olaf Tischbier Music by Bernd Begemann, Andreas<br />
Doerne, Jens Hafemann Production Design Dorothee von<br />
Bodelschwingh Producers Joachim Ortmanns, Martin Heisler<br />
Production Company Lichtblick Film/Cologne, in co-production<br />
with SWR/Baden-Baden, ARTE/Strasbourg Principal Cast<br />
Charly Huebner, Wolfram Koch, Walter Kreye, Manfred Zapatka,<br />
Susanne-Marie Wrage Casting Kathrin Bessert Length 106 min<br />
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German<br />
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR<br />
Festival Screenings Berlin <strong>2007</strong> (Perspectives German<br />
Cinema) With backing from Filmstiftung NRW<br />
Bastian Guenther was born in 1974 in Hachenburg and studied<br />
English, Social Sciences and Sports at Cologne University. He<br />
then worked as a trainee on several film productions and as a freelancer<br />
at the public broadcaster WDR/Phoenix in Cologne.<br />
Followed by working as an assistant director for Marin<br />
Martschewski and Christian Petzold, he enrolled at the German<br />
Academy of Film & Television Berlin (dffb). His graduation film<br />
Ende einer Strecke won the First Steps Award in 2006. His other<br />
<strong>films</strong> include: Kuscheln in Vingst (documentary, 2000),<br />
Corinna, Corinna (short, 2001), Punkt Null (video, 2002),<br />
Acapulco (short, 2003), Bleib zuhause im Sommer (documentary,<br />
2003), and Autopilots (Autopiloten, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Scene from "Autopilots" (photo © LICHTBLICK/Alex Trebus)
[desi’re:] – The Goldstein Reels<br />
Mysterious find. A naked woman disappears during the<br />
ongoing film shootings. Presumably the film belongs to the<br />
estate of the American film artist Jack Goldstein.<br />
Genre Art, Drama, Experimental, Fantasy, Thriller Category<br />
Semi Fictional Documentary Year of Production 2006<br />
Director Romeo Gruenfelder Producer Romeo Gruenfelder<br />
Production Company felderfilm/Hamburg, in co-production<br />
with Peter Stockhaus Film/Hamburg Length 4 min, 90 m<br />
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.37 Original Version German<br />
Dubbed Version English Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Technology Mono Festival Screenings Stuttgart Filmwinter<br />
2006, Bamberg 2006, Rotterdam 2006, Navarra 2006, Nice 2006,<br />
IndieLisboa 2006, European Media Arts Festival Osnabrueck 2006,<br />
Interval 2006, VideoEx Zurich 2006, Hamburg 2006, Corta! Porto<br />
2006, Impakt Festival Utrecht 2006, Transilvania Cluj Napoca 2006,<br />
Sao Paulo 2006, Milan 2006, PureScreen Manchester 2006,<br />
BunterHund Munich 2006, Shortfilm Slam Hamburg 2006,<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
felderfilm · Romeo Gruenfelder<br />
Marthastrasse 31 · 20259 Hamburg/Germany<br />
phone/fax +49-40-3 89 28 68<br />
email: info@felderfilm.de · www.felderfilm.de<br />
Contravision Berlin 2006, Winterthur 2006, Exground Wiesbaden<br />
2006, Leipzig 2006, Backup Weimar 2006, Lausanne Underground<br />
2006, Short Cuts Cologne 2006, Video_Dumbo New York 2006,<br />
One Take Zagreb 2006, Zwergwerk Oldenburg 2006, Wuerzburg<br />
<strong>2007</strong>, Augsburg <strong>2007</strong>, Cine de reel Paris <strong>2007</strong> Awards 2nd Jury<br />
Award Zurich 2006, 2nd Jury Award Bamberg 2006, Special Mention<br />
Porto 2006 With backing from FilmFoerderung Hamburg,<br />
FO’KO Hamburg<br />
Romeo Gruenfelder was born in 1968 and studied Visual<br />
Communication, Philosophy and Classical Music at the Hamburg<br />
Hochschule fuer bildende Kuenste from 1995-2001. In 2001, he<br />
founded felderfilm (www.felderfilm.de). His <strong>films</strong> include: Jimmy<br />
Jenseits (1993), Sorgenbrecher (1995), Himmel ueber<br />
Freiburg (1995), Der blonde Engel (1996), Shahrzadeh<br />
Scampolo (1996), ohne Titel (2000), Borderline Pilots<br />
(2002), Rallye 35 mm (2004), 4 kurzeDialoge (2005), and<br />
[desi’re:] – The Goldstein Reels (2006).<br />
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Scenes from “[desi’re:] – The Goldstein Reels”<br />
(photos courtesy of felderfilm)
Dos Patrias Cuba y la noche<br />
TWO HOMELANDS CUBA AND THE NIGHT<br />
A film about the discovery of poetry and love in a system<br />
of oppression and discrimination.<br />
The director Christian Liffers travels with his team to Cuba<br />
to search for evidence. Part of his luggage are poems and<br />
prose texts of the Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas. Texts,<br />
which describe the desire for love, sexual freedom and the<br />
proud and unbending attitude in the fight against discrimination.<br />
Are these desires and attitudes still to be found<br />
in Cuba? And which desires, clichés, and projections of<br />
Cuba attract the producer and many more people? Poems<br />
and prose texts are the reference points for the protagonists<br />
and their personal stories of present-day Cuba, which<br />
are always the center of attention. Six men with different<br />
backgrounds and of different ages describe their life,<br />
afflict ions, desires, longings and joys in Cuba. They have<br />
some things in common: homosexuality (with the ex -<br />
ception of Isabel, the transsexual) and the daily social<br />
exclusion on the part of the Cuban “Machismo-society”<br />
and the Cuban government. However they differ heavily<br />
concerning their social status and their opinions of the<br />
topic.<br />
The author made two journeys of investigation to Havana,<br />
where he won the confidence of the protagonists, so that<br />
for the first time people spoke openly in front of a<br />
camera about their homosexuality and life in Cuba.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Christian Liffers<br />
Seerobenstrasse 30 · 65195 Wiesbaden/Germany<br />
phone +49-1 71-8 30 23 36<br />
email: christianliffers@web.de · www.dospatrias.com<br />
Genre Education, Gay & Lesbian, Literature Category<br />
Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2006 Director<br />
Christian Liffers Screenplay Christian Liffers Director of<br />
Photography Mirko Schernickau Editor Todd P. Mercuri<br />
Music by Michael Espinosa Rodríguez, Los Transes Producer<br />
Christian Liffers Production Company Christian Liffers/<br />
Wiesbaden Length 84 min Format DV Cam, color, 16:9<br />
Original Version Spanish Subtitled Versions English,<br />
German Voice Over German Sound Technology Stereo<br />
Festival Screenings Miami <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition), San Diego<br />
Latino Film Festival <strong>2007</strong>, Montevideo <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition),<br />
European Independent Film Festival Paris <strong>2007</strong>, London Lesbian and<br />
Gay Festival <strong>2007</strong>, Santa Cruz <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition), Las Americas<br />
Latino Film Festival <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition), Nicosia <strong>2007</strong> (In<br />
Competition), Festival de Cine Pobre <strong>2007</strong>, Denver XicanIndie<br />
Filmfest <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition), Da Sodoma a Hollywood Turin<br />
<strong>2007</strong> (In Competition), MediaWave Gyoer <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition),<br />
NOPOP Aarhus <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition), Hollanda Latin American<br />
Film Festival <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition), ECO Rhodos <strong>2007</strong> (In<br />
Competition), Inside Out Toronto <strong>2007</strong><br />
Christian Liffers studied Theater Direction in Hamburg and<br />
worked for several years in German theaters and as an assistant<br />
director for Werner Schroeter. Active as a writer, director and producer,<br />
he has been working as a journalist for the last 10 years and<br />
for the German broadcaster ZDF. In addition to numerous theater<br />
works, his <strong>films</strong> include the documentaries: Suicide<br />
Commando, Diary of a Suicide (2001) and Dos Patrias,<br />
Cuba y la noche (2006).<br />
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Scene from “Two Homelands Cuba and the Night” (photo © Christian Liffers)
Der Goldene Nazivampir von Absam 2 – Das Geheimnis von Schloss Kottlitz<br />
THE GOLDEN NAZI VAMPIRE OF ABSAM PART II – THE SECRET OF KOTTLITZ CASTLE<br />
If things were up to General Donovan, then the Military<br />
Secret Service of the United States would take care of really<br />
important things, of which there are plenty in this<br />
Autumn of 1942. Let the Waffen-SS search for Atlantis<br />
and dance around Germanic Druid Stones – who believes<br />
in the occult of “Wunderwaffen” or “miracle weapons”<br />
anyway? At least no straightforward American patriot,<br />
only pathetic wimps like William Blazkowicz, the only person<br />
at the OSS who wears glasses. But then … can you<br />
dare risk to ignore explicit warnings? Secretly shot <strong>films</strong>?<br />
Evidence?<br />
What is really happening in Kottlitz Castle? Who killed<br />
Smokey Savallas? What kind of research is the “Ahnenerbe<br />
der SS” involved in? Who stole Count Dracula’s bones<br />
from a crypt in Wallachia? And where’s the connection<br />
between a fanatic SS General, underground laboratories<br />
full of German scientists, and a huge pit filled with molten<br />
gold?<br />
Questions, questions … and of all people William<br />
Blazkowicz is being smuggled into the Austrian Alps to<br />
find answers. But no one could ever imagine in the wildest<br />
of dreams what Blazkowicz is going to unearth at Kottlitz<br />
Castle …<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Muenchner Filmwerkstatt e.V. · Martin Blankemeyer<br />
Postfach 860 525 · 81632 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-20 33 37 12 · fax +49-7 21-1 51 37 76 29<br />
email: info@muenchner-filmwerkstatt.de · www.muenchner-filmwerkstatt.de<br />
Genre Comedy, Horror, Trash Category Short Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Lasse Nolte Screenplay Lasse<br />
Nolte Director of Photography David Emmenlauer Editor<br />
Lasse Nolte Music by Tuomas Kantelinen Production Design<br />
Tobias Maier, Oliver Hoese Producers Martin Blankemeyer,<br />
Cornel Schaefer, Robin Schaefer, Christl Catanzaro, Damien<br />
Donnelly, Mike Dehghan, Daniel Nadj Production Company<br />
Muenchner Filmwerkstatt/Munich, in co-production with Creative<br />
Gap Filmproduktion/Munich, Hochschule fuer Fernsehen und Film<br />
Muenchen (HFF/M)/Munich Principal Cast Daniel Krauss,<br />
Goetz Burger, Hendrik Martz, Walter Stapper, Kim Baermann,<br />
Oliver Kalkofe Special Effects Sascha Kolmikow Length 46<br />
min, 1,330 m Format HD Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.78<br />
Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Technology Surround<br />
Lasse Nolte was born 1980 in Goettingen and is currently<br />
study ing Directing at the Munich Academy of Television & Film. A<br />
selection of his <strong>films</strong> includes: Der Sensenmann (1996), Ein<br />
Fehler (2001), Massaker (2002), Nachtfahrt (2002), Chris<br />
und Henning (2002), Ein besonderer Abend (2003), an<br />
image film for the company Knorr-Bremse (2005), and The<br />
Golden Nazi Vampire of Absam Part II – The Secret<br />
of Kottlitz Castle (Der Goldene Nazivampir von<br />
Absam 2 – Das Geheimnis von Schloss Kottlitz, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Scene from “The Golden Nazi Vampire of Absam Part 2”<br />
(photo © Chris Hirschhaeuser)
Halbe Stunden<br />
HALF HOURS<br />
Melanie Straub lives aimlessly into the day, or more<br />
accurate ly: into a Saturday. She’s alone at home, surround -<br />
ed by the emptiness of her new life.<br />
Genre Fiction Category Short Year of Production <strong>2007</strong><br />
Director Nicolas Wackerbarth Screenplay Nicolas<br />
Wackerbarth Director of Photography Reinhold<br />
Vorschneider Editor Janina Herrhofer Music by Anton Webern-<br />
Passacaglia Production Design Eric Segoll Producers<br />
Hartmut Bitomsky, Jost Hering Executive Producers Oliver<br />
Fleischmann, Ursula Mueller Production Company Deutsche<br />
Film- und Fernsehakademie (dffb)/Berlin, in co-production with Jost<br />
Hering Filme/Berlin Principal Cast Cristin Koenig, Joanna<br />
Czerwìnska, Abel vom Acker Casting Ulrike Mueller Length 20<br />
min, 560 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version<br />
German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology<br />
Dolby SR Festival Screenings Cannes <strong>2007</strong> (Cinéfondation),<br />
Oberhausen <strong>2007</strong> (In Competition) With backing from<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA)<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin GmbH (dffb) · Jana Wolff<br />
Potsdamer Strasse 2 · 10785 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-25 75 91 52 · fax +49-30-25 75 91 62<br />
email: wolff@dffb.de · www.dffb.de<br />
Nicolas Wackerbarth was born in 1973 in Munich and studied<br />
Acting at the Bavarian Theater Academy, followed by acting en -<br />
gagements at theaters in Frankfurt and Cologne. Since 2000, he has<br />
been studying at the German Academy of Film & Television Berlin<br />
(dffb) and is an editor of the film magazine Revolver. A selection of<br />
his <strong>films</strong> includes: Brat (short, 2000), Lovesick (short, 2003),<br />
Anfaenger! (TV, 2004), Westernstadt (documentary, 2005),<br />
and Half Hours (Halbe Stunden, short, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Scene from “Half Hours” (photo © dffb/Jost Hering Filme)
Das Haus der schlafenden Schoenen<br />
HOUSE OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES<br />
Edmond, a man in his late 60s, visits a mysterious<br />
“maison”, a kind of a brothel specialized for customers<br />
beyond their 80s. In this “establishment” it is possible for<br />
these old men to spend time in bed with beautiful,<br />
sleeping girls the whole night through. The girls won’t<br />
awake, they are drugged; the older men feel warm and<br />
comfortable, embracing the youth and the beauty of these<br />
young women.<br />
More and more, Edmond surrenders to this unconscious<br />
seduction, juvenile virginity and unpredictable sensuality.<br />
In confrontation to his age, bedazzled by the breath, scent<br />
and innocent warmth of the young women, he glides into<br />
associations and memories of his past life. Bizarre<br />
moments become the inspiration and urge to simply fade<br />
away next to a girl.<br />
But one day, Edmond observes the Madame supervising a<br />
corpse being packed in a bag, thrown into a car and secretly<br />
taken away. Nevertheless, Edmond returns more and<br />
more often to “The House of the Sleeping Beauties”, considering<br />
questions of morality and limits. Where reality<br />
doesn’t seem to exist, it doesn’t take long until it sends –<br />
with fatal complications – the dreams of the old men to<br />
an end.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Atossa Film Produktion GmbH · Raymond Tarabay<br />
Wielandstrasse 46 · 10625 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-3 12 14 72 · fax +49-30-3 13 79 33<br />
email: info@atossafilm.de · www.dashausderschlafendenschoenen.de<br />
Genre Drama, Literature Category Feature Film Cinema Year<br />
of Production 2006 Director Vadim Glowna Screenplay<br />
Vadim Glowna Director of Photography Ciro Cappellari<br />
Editor Charlie Lézin Music by Nick Glowna, Siggi Mueller<br />
Production Design Peter Weber Producers Raymond<br />
Tarabay, Vadim Glowna Production Company Atossa<br />
Film/Berlin Principal Cast Vadim Glowna, Angela Winkler,<br />
Maximilian Schell, Birol Uenel Casting Julia Dierks Special<br />
Effects Sven Hanten Length 103 min, 2,824 m Format 35 mm,<br />
color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Versions<br />
English, French Sound Technology Dolby Digital Festival<br />
Screenings Belgrade <strong>2007</strong> With backing from Filmstiftung<br />
NRW German Distributor Atossa Film/Berlin<br />
Vadim Glowna was born 1941 and grew up in Hamburg. The<br />
versatile actor, director and author began his career in 1961 when<br />
Gustaf Gruendgens took him on at the Hamburger Schauspielhaus.<br />
Glowna went on to become one of Germany’s most popular<br />
actors, and also appeared in international productions like Sam<br />
Peckinpah’s epos Cross of Iron and Claude Chabrol’s Quiet Days in<br />
Clichy. In 2000 he was named Best Actor of the Year by the German<br />
Film Critics’ Association for his appearance in Oskar Roehler’s<br />
award-winning film No Place to Go. Glowna is also a very successful<br />
director, having directed more than 30 television <strong>films</strong> and eight<br />
feature <strong>films</strong>. In 1981 he won several awards for the film<br />
Desperado City including the Caméra d’Or in Cannes. Two of his<br />
other <strong>films</strong>, Nothing Left to Lose (1983) and Raising to the<br />
Bait (1992), were in the official competition at Berlin and received<br />
Honorable Mentions. In 1989 Glowna was member of the jury at the<br />
Berlinale.<br />
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Scene from “House of Sleeping Beauties” (photo © Atossa Film)
Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald<br />
THE HEART IS A DARK FOREST<br />
Marie accidentally discovers that her husband and the<br />
father of her two children is leading a double life. He has<br />
two of everything: two wives, two homes and two<br />
families. As soon as night falls, Marie leaves her home and<br />
secretly follows her husband to a masked ball. She is look -<br />
ing for consolation, for explanations. After daybreak, she<br />
will know whether she can face this new reality and return<br />
to her children …<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Pro -<br />
duction <strong>2007</strong> Director Nicolette Krebitz Screenplay<br />
Nicolette Krebitz Director of Photography Bella Halben<br />
Editor Sara Schilde Music by Fetisch & Me, Whitest Boy Alive<br />
Production Design Christel Rehm, Sylvester Koziolek<br />
Producer Tom Tykwer Production Company X Filme<br />
Creative Pool/Berlin, in co-production with NDR/Hamburg<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
X Filme Creative Pool GmbH<br />
Kurfuerstenstrasse 57 · 10785 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-23 08 33 11 · fax +49-30-23 08 33 22<br />
email: info@x-filme.de · www.x-filme.de<br />
Principal Cast Nina Hoss, Devid Striesow, Marc Hosemann,<br />
Franziska Petri, Monica Bleibtreu, Otto Sander, Angelika Taschen,<br />
Guenther Maria Halmer Casting Molitoris Casting/Hamburg<br />
Length 83 min, 2,270 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original<br />
Version German Subtitled Versions English, French Sound<br />
Technology Dolby SRD Awards Best Screenplay Nordische<br />
Filmtage Luebeck <strong>2007</strong> With backing from FilmFoerderung<br />
Hamburg, MSH Schleswig-Holstein, Medienboard Berlin-Branden -<br />
burg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor X<br />
Verleih/Berlin<br />
Nicolette Krebitz is an award-winning actress, writer and<br />
director. Her <strong>films</strong> as a director include: Jeans (2001), Mon<br />
Chérie (2001), and The Heart is a Dark Forest (Das<br />
Herz ist ein dunkler Wald, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Nina Hoss in “The Heart is a Dark Forest” (photo © X Filme/Ulla Kimmig)
Klassenfahrt in das Revier der Wilderer<br />
SCHOOL TRIP INTO POACHERS’ TERRITORY<br />
A village on the edge of the Lower Zambesi National<br />
Park. The children hate wild animals because they destroy<br />
harvests and kill people. But there are actually many animals<br />
which the children have never seen. We accompany<br />
a few children on their first trip into the nearby but un -<br />
known wilderness.<br />
Meanwhile Wildlife Police Officers try to track down<br />
poach ers in the national park. Shots are echoing through<br />
the bush.<br />
Genre Education, Nature Category Documentary TV Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Directors Marcus Lenz, Ingo Rudloff<br />
Screenplay Marcus Lenz Director of Photog raphy Marcus<br />
Lenz Editors Marcus Lenz, Ingo Rudloff Music by Oliver Heuss<br />
Producer Ingo Rudloff Production Company irrlichtfilm/Berlin<br />
Length 52 min Format DigiBeta, color, 16:9<br />
Original Version German Dubbed Version English Sound<br />
Techno logy Dolby<br />
World Sales<br />
HS Media Consult · Heide Schramm<br />
Wasenstrasse 29 · 72135 Dettenhausen/Germany<br />
phone +49-71 57-62 00 08 · fax +49-71 57-62 00 09<br />
email: info@hsmedia-consult.de · www.hsmedia-consult.de<br />
Marcus Lenz was born in the Ruhr Basin in 1969. After com -<br />
pleting his studies in Essen, he worked as a communications de -<br />
signer before discovering his love for storytelling. In 1995 he began<br />
studies at the German Film & Television Academy in Berlin and<br />
founded the production company irrlicht-film in 2001 together with<br />
Ingo Rudloff. He also works as an animal film director and director<br />
of photography. Among other <strong>films</strong>, he shot Das Wunder von<br />
Kaufbeuren (by Gerald Maas and Tine Kugler), as well as the<br />
Portuguese features Esquece tudo o que te disse and Respirar (by<br />
Antonio Ferreira) and won the award for Best Cinematography at the<br />
Festival Ibérico de Cine in Badajoz/Spain in 2001. His <strong>films</strong> as a<br />
director include: immer und immer (short, 1997), alles ist<br />
nie (short, 1998), Der gelbe Fluss – Leben und Sterben<br />
in Hongkong (documentary, 2000), Deutsche Angst (2001),<br />
Close (2004), 24 UTC – Die Welt um Mitternacht (documentary,<br />
2006), and (together with Ingo Rudloff) Phantoms of<br />
the Night – Lynxes in Europe (2003), Snakes Nearby –<br />
The Hunt for Species (2005), and School Trip Into<br />
Poachers’ Territory (<strong>2007</strong>).<br />
Ingo Rudloff was born in 1969 in Bochum and studied<br />
Psychology with high honors at the Ruhr University Bochum, where<br />
he also instructed after his graduation. His other <strong>films</strong> include:<br />
Evacuation (1994), Rungholt – Hommage to Mechthild<br />
von Leusch (1995), and Oskar Sala – The Former Future<br />
of Sound (2000).<br />
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Scene from “School Trip Into Poachers’ Territory”<br />
(photo © irrlicht-film)
Libanon – Standhalten im Wahnsinn<br />
LEBANON – RESISTING LUNACY<br />
Two Lebanese women, who have lived in Germany for 15<br />
years and organized public art performances in Berlin<br />
during the Israel-Lebanon war, travel to Lebanon to better<br />
understand the impact of the war in their country. At sites<br />
which represent the past and present times, they tell about<br />
their own experiences in Lebanon, meet friends and<br />
strang ers, and offer an insight into the current situation in<br />
Lebanon – between hope and hopelessness.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Tpoint Film · Uwe-S. Tautenhahn<br />
Schoenhauser Allee 151 · 10435 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-42 01 74 70 · fax +49-30-6 71 26 32<br />
email: tautenhahn.film@t-online.de<br />
Genre History Category Documentary TV Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Uwe-S. Tautenhahn Director of<br />
Photography Uwe-S. Tautenhahn Editors Uwe-S. Tautenhahn,<br />
Michael Schehl Music by Frank Makaroon Producer Uwe-S.<br />
Tautenhahn Production Company Tpoint Film/Berlin, in coproduction<br />
with Gaffer & Grip Filmproduktion/Berlin, Raouche-<br />
Film/Beirut With Houda Peatz, Chaza Charafeddine Length 60<br />
min Format HDV, color, 16:9 Original Version<br />
German/Arabic Subtitled Version English Voice Over<br />
English Sound Technology Stereo<br />
Uwe-S. Tautenhahn was born in 1962 in Zwickau. In 1988, he<br />
began working as a cameraman and documentary filmmaker. His<br />
<strong>films</strong> include: Outing (short, 1996), The Fall (short, 2003), and<br />
Lebanon – Resisting Lunacy (Libanon – Standhalten<br />
im Wahnsinn, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Scene from “Lebanon – Resisting Lunacy” (photo © Uwe-S. Tautenhahn)
Liebesleben<br />
LOVELIFE<br />
When Jara meets Arie, her father’s boyhood friend, she is<br />
immediately drawn to his unflinching and assured pre -<br />
sence. It is not long before she forsakes her well-meaning<br />
husband for the powerful, mysterious older man, who<br />
seems to represent something totally new and exciting in<br />
her life. In short: will, strength and the key to her family’s<br />
mysterious past. They fall into a heated affair that soon<br />
drifts towards the destructive as Jara realizes the things in<br />
Arie that attract and repel her with equal intensity at the<br />
same time. The story does not only deal with getting her<br />
feelings and love under control, in addition it describes the<br />
way of finding her own personality in consideration of her<br />
difficult family background.<br />
The novel Lovelife is cerebral, seductive, provocative, and<br />
profound and was 25 weeks in the European Top 10 list<br />
of bestselling books. Lovelife has been declared a true<br />
literary celebration … one of the most inspired novels ever<br />
written in Israeli literature.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
X Filme Creative Pool GmbH<br />
Kurfuerstenstrasse 57 · 10785 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-23 08 33 11 · fax +49-30-23 08 33 22<br />
email: info@x-filme.de · www.x-filme.de<br />
Genre Drama, Literature Category Feature Film Cinema Year<br />
of Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Maria Schrader Screenplay<br />
Maria Schrader, Laila Stieler, based on a novel by Zeruya Shalev<br />
Director of Photography Benedict Neuenfels Editor Antje<br />
Zynga Music by Niki Reiser Production Design Christian M.<br />
Goldbeck Producers Stefan Arndt, Marek Rozenbaum<br />
Production Company X Filme Creative Pool/Berlin, in co-production<br />
with Transfax Film/Tel Aviv Principal Cast Netta Garti,<br />
Rade Sherbedgia, Tovah Feldshuh, Stephen Singer Casting Esther<br />
Kling, Avy Kaufman Special Effects Pini Klavir Length 104 min,<br />
2,846 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version English<br />
Dubbed Version German Sound Technology Dolby SRD<br />
With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Film foerderungs anstalt<br />
(FFA), Medien board Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM, Israel Film Fund<br />
German Distributor X Verleih/Berlin<br />
Maria Schrader was born in 1965 in Hanover. In 1999, she was<br />
named as one of the European Film Promotion’s “Shooting Stars”.<br />
Primarily active as an actress, she has worked with some of<br />
Germany’s most successful directors, in <strong>films</strong> including Aimée &<br />
Jaguar (Max Faerbrboeck), Bin ich schoen? (Doris Doerrie), Emil und<br />
die Detektive (Franziska Buch), Meschugge, Vaeter, and Stille Nacht<br />
(Dani Levy), Rosenstrasse (Margarethe von Trotta), and Schneeland<br />
(Hans W. Geissendoerfer). Together with director Dani Levy, she<br />
also co-directed Meschugge and Stille Nacht.<br />
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Cover of the novel “Liebesleben” (motif courtesy of Berlin Verlag)
Mikrofan<br />
Sam is a rapper, so are his best friends. Around a soccer<br />
field in Hamburg in the shadow of three skyscrapers they<br />
live their lives and love their music. When one of his<br />
friends starts an affair with Sam’s girlfriend Lisa, angry<br />
silence starts, till the ‘mikrofan’ takes the word up …<br />
Mikrofan is a milieu film about hip hop music, friendship,<br />
love, morals, drugs, dealing, betraying and about talking<br />
and not talking.<br />
Genre Drama, Music Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Matthias Staehle Screenplay<br />
Matthias Staehle Director of Photography Sven O. Hill<br />
Editor Tobias Peper Music by Starssindamarsch Production<br />
Design Anke Spaeth Producer Matthias Staehle Production<br />
Company Meerfilm/Hamburg Principal Cast Philipp Babing,<br />
Julia Ehlers, David Stegemann, Johannes Schaefer, Renato Schuch,<br />
Nadine Nollau, Rebecca Lina Casting Matthias Staehle Length<br />
80 min, 2,200 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original<br />
Version German Subtitled Versions English, French Sound<br />
Technology Dolby SR With backing from HfbK Hamburg,<br />
Mbf, Studio Hamburg, Kodak, VCC, Das Werk, Konken Tonstudios<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Meerfilm · Matthias Staehle<br />
Scheplerstrasse 1 · 22767 Hamburg/Germany<br />
phone +49-1 72-7 15 49 42<br />
email: mat@meerfilm.com · www.meerfilm.com<br />
Matthias Staehle was born in 1975 and studied Visual<br />
Communication in Film at the Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg.<br />
After his studies, he worked as a freelance director and founded<br />
the production company meerfilm and the audiovisual label musicfiction<br />
(www.musicfiction.de). A selection of his <strong>films</strong> as a writer<br />
and director include: the shorts Leaving (1999), Johnny’s Ark<br />
(2001), 4 O’Clock (2002), 50 Euro (2003), Window to<br />
Chile (2004), Advent, Advent (2004), Desertion (2005)<br />
and the feature Mikrofan (<strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Scenes from “Mikrofan” (photo courtesy of Meerfilm)
Mondmann<br />
MOONMAN<br />
Once upon a time there lived a man up in the silvery<br />
moon. He was so lonely that he hadn’t laughed for a hundred<br />
years. His greatest wish was to visit us humans, just<br />
once in his life. One night his dream was fulfilled and he<br />
managed to voyage down to earth on a buzzling comet.<br />
But nobody understood the poor creature. Nobody –<br />
except one …<br />
A dreamlike adventure into the imagination of a child,<br />
based on Tomi Ungerer’s classic picture-book The<br />
Moonman.<br />
Genre Children and Youth, Family Category Short Year of<br />
Production 2006 Director Fritz Boehm Screenplay Fritz<br />
Boehm Director of Photography Michael Praun Editors<br />
Horst Reiter, Fritz Boehm Music by Martina Eisenreich<br />
Production Design Susanne Prieschl, Monika Nuechtern<br />
Producers Sven Nuri, Fritz Boehm, Christoph Strunck<br />
Production Company Toccata Film/Munich, in co-production<br />
with Hochschule fuer Fernsehen und Film Muenchen (HFF/M)/<br />
Munich, BR/Munich, Alexander Dierbach & Hannah Maag/Munich<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Toccata Film<br />
Bayerisches Filmzentrum · Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 98 17 18 · fax +49-89-64 98 13 18<br />
email: info@toccata-film.com · www.toccata-film.com<br />
Principal Cast Michael Tregor, Jana Andjelkovic, Ralf Richter,<br />
Piet Klocke, Stefan Rutz Casting Stefany Pohlmann Special<br />
Effects Dirk Lange Length 29 min, 831 m Format 35 mm,<br />
color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version<br />
English Sound Technology Dolby Digital 5.1 Festival<br />
Screenings Sprockets Toronto <strong>2007</strong>, Golden Sparrow<br />
Gera/Erfurt <strong>2007</strong>, Sehsuechte <strong>2007</strong>, Munich <strong>2007</strong>, Hearts of Gold<br />
<strong>2007</strong> With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, BKM,<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Foerderverein der HFF/Munich<br />
Fritz Boehm was born in 1980 in Berlin and spent part of his<br />
childhood in the US. He shot his first film, A Fratricide, based on<br />
the short novel by Franz Kafka, in Prague in 2001. During his studies<br />
at the Munich Academy of Television & Film, he founded the production<br />
company Toccata Film together with fellow students Sven<br />
Nuri and Christoph Strunck. Together they have produced more<br />
than 15 short <strong>films</strong> and are currently preparing their first feature.<br />
Moonman (Mondmann, 2006) is Boehm's graduate film as a<br />
producer and director.<br />
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Scene from “Moonman” (photo © Toccata Film)
Monks – The Transatlantic Feedback<br />
Everybody knows Elvis Presley served Uncle Sam in West<br />
Germany, but have you ever heard of the five American<br />
G.I.s who stayed on after their military discharge and<br />
form ed one of the wildest and most influential rock bands<br />
of the 60s? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the<br />
stage the first avant-garde band, The Monks.<br />
Combining rare archival footage of the band’s amazing<br />
performances on live TV with contemporary interviews<br />
with band members, eye witnesses and music com -<br />
mentators, this documentary traces the evolution of a<br />
combo determined to expand the frontiers of popular<br />
music. What emerges is a vital and illuminating picture of<br />
German-American cross-cultural experience, and a tribute<br />
to genuine rock and roll pioneers.<br />
“A loving and penetrating documentary film.” (Hollywood<br />
Reporter)<br />
“An overdue history lesson.” (Rolling Stone)<br />
“The filmmakers do a vivid job etching the creatively fervid<br />
times, with an editing style whose dynamism echoes that of<br />
Monk music.” (Variety)<br />
“Like Fechner’s film about the Comedian Harmonists, this documentary<br />
combines beautifully the private with the political. The<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
play loud! productions · Dietmar Post<br />
Gubener Strasse 23 · 10243 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-29 77 93 15 · fax +49-30-29 77 93 16<br />
email: info@playloud.org · www.playloud.org<br />
Monks were the essence of the 60s art world.” (Berthold<br />
Seliger)<br />
Genre Art, Culture, History, Music Category Documentary<br />
Cinema Year of Production 2006 Directors Dietmar Post,<br />
Lucía Palacios Editors Dieter Jaufmann, Karl-W. Huelsenbeck<br />
Soundtrack “silver monk time” featuring The Fall, Faust, Jon<br />
Spencer, Alan Vega, Psychic TV, Mouse on Mars, Alec Empire, Int.<br />
Noise Conspiracy, The Gossip, the original Monks and others<br />
Movie Poster Daniel Richter Producers Dietmar Post, Lucía<br />
Palacios Production Company play loud! productions/Berlin,<br />
in co-production with ZDF & 3sat/Mainz, HR/Frankfurt Principal<br />
Cast The Monks, Charles Wilp, Jochen Irmler, Jon Spencer,<br />
Genesis P. Orridge, Peter Zaremba, Byron Coley, Jimmy Bowien,<br />
Gerd Henjes, Wolfgang Gluszczewski Length 100 min Format<br />
DigiBeta, color, 4:3 Original Version English/German<br />
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Stereo<br />
Festival Screenings Los Angeles 2006, Leeds 2006, Munich<br />
2006, Chicago 2006, Minneapolis 2006, Frankfurt 2006, Kassel<br />
2006, Oslo 2006, Gijon 2006, Goeteborg <strong>2007</strong>, Copenhagen <strong>2007</strong>,<br />
Wuerzburg <strong>2007</strong> Awards Audience Pick Leeds 2006, Best<br />
Documentary Wuerzburg <strong>2007</strong>, Audience Award Berlin & Beyond San<br />
Francisco <strong>2007</strong> With backing from Filmfoerderung Hessen,<br />
Filmstiftung NRW, Filmbuero NW, Chicago Underground Film<br />
Fund, Anthology Film Archives, Cine Impuls<br />
Dietmar Post was born in 1962. As a director and producer, he<br />
has been working on short <strong>films</strong> and documentaries, such as Bowl<br />
of Oatmeal (1996), Cloven Hoofed (1998) and Reverend<br />
Billy (2002). Together with Spanish-born Lucía Palacios he<br />
directed his second feature-length documentary Monks – The<br />
Trans atlantic Feedback (2006). They are currently planning a<br />
new film together entitled Franco’s Settlers.<br />
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The Monks (photo © play loud! + monks)
Neues vom Wixxer<br />
THE VEXXER<br />
He’s back … meaner and more dangerous than ever …<br />
The Vexxer … Scotland Yard’s funniest nightmare!<br />
Thick fog is once again covering night-time London. Dark<br />
shadows fall on the city like a freshly ironed shroud.<br />
Sounds exactly like Edgar Wallace! But honestly, he also<br />
had nothing to do with this installment of the Skeletonfaced<br />
killer.<br />
Three years ago, Chief Inspector Evan Longer and his<br />
partner, Very Long, fought the evil gangster for the first<br />
time, but ever since he’s re turn ed, Scotland Yard is in<br />
shock. The Vexxer has published a death-list and Very<br />
Long is on it!<br />
The most important thing is to protect the poor and helpless<br />
victims, especially the beautiful Victoria Dickham,<br />
daughter of Lord Dickham and the secret love-interest of<br />
Evan Longer. While the Chief Inspector is in seventh heav -<br />
en, the Vexxer starts working his list …<br />
Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Directors Cyrill Boss, Philipp Stennert<br />
Screenplay Oliver Kalkofe, Oliver Welke, Bastian Pastewka<br />
Director of Photography Jochen Staeblein Editor Stefan<br />
Essl Music by Helmut Zerlett, Christoph Zirngiebl Pro duction<br />
Design Matthias Muesse Producer Christian Becker Pro -<br />
World Sales<br />
Atlas International Film GmbH · Stefan Menz, Dieter Menz, Philipp Menz<br />
Candidplatz 11 · 81543 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-2 10 97 50 · fax +49-89-22 43 32<br />
email: mail@atlasfilm.com · www.atlasfilm.com<br />
duction Company Rat Pack Filmproduktion/Munich, in co-production<br />
with German Filmproduction GFP/Berlin, B.A. Produktion/<br />
Munich Principal Cast Oliver Kalkofe, Bastian Pastewka, Joachim<br />
Fuchsberger, Christiane Paul, Sonja Kirchberger, Judy Winter,<br />
Christoph Maria Herbst, Hella von Sinnen, Christian Tramitz, Oliver<br />
Welke, Chris Howland, Wolfgang Voelz, Lars Rudolph, Thomas<br />
Heinze, Martin Semmelrogge Special Effects Gregor Eckstein<br />
Length 94 min, 2,571 m Format 35 mm, color/b&w, cs<br />
Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Technology Dolby Digital With backing from<br />
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Bayerischer BankenFonds BBF,<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Constantin<br />
Film Verleih/Munich<br />
Cyrill Boss’s <strong>films</strong> include: Richtung All gaeu (2003),<br />
Maerchenstunde: Rapunzel oder Mord ist ihr Hobby<br />
(TV, 2006), Maerchen stunde: Zwerg Nase – 4 Faeuste<br />
fuer ein Zauberkraut (TV, 2006), and The Vexxer (Neues<br />
vom Wixxer, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
Philipp Stennert’s <strong>films</strong> include: Dark (1998), Shadowman<br />
(short, 2001), Agujero (2004), Maerchenstunde: Rapunzel<br />
oder Mord ist ihr Hobby (TV, 2006), Maerchen stunde:<br />
Zwerg Nase – 4 Faeuste fuer ein Zauberkraut (TV,<br />
2006), and The Vexxer (Neues vom Wixxer, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Scene from “The Vexxer”<br />
(photo courtesy of Atlas International Film)
Osdorf<br />
The highrise estate Osdorfer Born in west Hamburg is<br />
regarded as something of a social hot spot. Although most<br />
of the boys from Osdorf weren’t even born in Germany,<br />
they feel strongly attached to their neighborhood and<br />
proudly display their ghetto identity. However, the boys<br />
have their doubts – they are aware that it is a strange<br />
world they live in, where a criminal counts more than<br />
someone who goes to school. The film follows these boys,<br />
in their search for answers to the difficult questions of<br />
everyday life – why do they commit crimes? Which other<br />
ways can they see for themselves? Do they have dreams?<br />
In what way do they feel responsible? It is the ambiguity<br />
between the boys’ refreshingly honest reflections and the<br />
gangster clichés they copy that lets their charm unfold.<br />
To gain respect, certain codes have to be adhered to.<br />
Alican and Siar, the film’s protagonists, know the rules of<br />
the Osdorf streets. They worked hard for their reputation,<br />
and they see hardly any alternative to the lives they live<br />
there.<br />
Some of the boys from the group take part in the project<br />
“Prisoners Help Juveniles”. They are deeply impressed<br />
after a visit with inmates of the Fuhlsbuettel correctional<br />
facility, “Santa Fu”. They identify with the felons: the meet -<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf’ · Cristina Marx<br />
Marlene-Dietrich-Allee 11 · 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germany<br />
phone +49-3 31-6 20 25 64 · fax +49-3 31-6 20 25 69<br />
email: distribution@hff-potsdam.de · www.hff-potsdam.de<br />
ing becomes a reflective experience. However, the film<br />
leaves open what consequences this visit may have and<br />
what the boys’ future may bring.<br />
Genre Society, Youth & Immigration Category Documentary<br />
Cinema Year of Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Maja Classen<br />
Screenplay Maja Classen Directors of Photography<br />
Johannes Neumann, Christoph Lemmen Editor Thomas Krause<br />
Music by Nicolas Hoeppner, CC Attack, Adrenalin featuring<br />
Danny Producer Max Springer Production Company<br />
Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf ’/Potsdam-<br />
Babelsberg Length 77 min Format DigiBeta, color, 16:9<br />
Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Technology Dolby Surround Festival Screenings Berlin<br />
<strong>2007</strong> (Perspectives German Cinema)<br />
Maja Classen was born in 1974 in Hamburg. Before her studies<br />
at the ’Konrad Wolf ’ Academy of Film & Television from 2000-<br />
2006, she worked as an assistant director and completed a training<br />
course in editing and production in San Francisco and studied<br />
American Studies, Psychology and German Literature in Hamburg.<br />
Her <strong>films</strong> include: the shorts Nightshot (1999), The Juggler<br />
(2000), Alles soll in Erfuellung gehen (2001), Heimat<br />
(2003), Tancu (2004), and the documentary features Don’t<br />
Forget to Go Home (Feiern, 2006), and Osdorf (<strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Scene from “Osdorf ” (photo © Katja Ruge)
Paul und Bataar<br />
PAUL AND BATAAR<br />
Paul has lived all over the world, but he hasn’t really seen<br />
much of it. His father is a diplomat. But since Paul’s<br />
mother died, his father has become rather introverted and<br />
is not really interested in much. At the moment, the family,<br />
which also includes Paul’s little sister, lives in Mongolia.<br />
One day Paul breaks out of his pampered home. What he<br />
is really after is his father’s attention, and what he gets is a<br />
great adventure. Paul befriends Bataar, who has also run<br />
away from his difficult nomad existence.<br />
Together, the two observe a gang of thieves and while on<br />
the chase after them not only do they get to know the en -<br />
tire country but also get into a heap of trouble. Then surprisingly<br />
they manage to outwit the gang and finally get<br />
the recognition they so dearly crave.<br />
With Bataar, Paul discovers a foreign culture, the vastness<br />
of the steppe, and the freedom that allows him to leave his<br />
disappointments behind.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Zieglerfilm Koeln GmbH<br />
Breite Strasse 100 / Auf dem Berlich 1 · 50667 Cologne/Germany<br />
phone +49-2 21-2 72 72 60 · fax +49-2 21-27 27 26 26<br />
email: mail@zieglerfilmkoeln.de · www.zieglerfilmkoeln.de<br />
Genre Children and Youth, Family, Road Movie Category<br />
Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2006 Director<br />
Caterina Klusemann Screenplay Caterina Klusemann<br />
Directors of Photography Batmunkh Purevdorj, Gonchig<br />
Batnyagt Editor Anja Lueke Music by Claas Willeke, Matthias<br />
Raue Producers Caterina Klusemann, Elke Ried Production<br />
Companies Zieglerfilm Koeln/Cologne, Caterina Klusemann<br />
Filmproduktion/Berlin Principal Cast Vashik Piños, Ajnai<br />
Erdenee, Josh Evans, David O’Connor, Myagmar Rentzenkhand<br />
Length 70 min Format DV, color Original Version English/<br />
Mongolian Dubbed Version German Sound Techno logy<br />
Mono<br />
Caterina Klusemann was born in 1973 in Lucca/Italy and<br />
grew up in Venezuela, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. She studied<br />
Biochemistry from 1991-1995 in Basel, followed by studies in Film<br />
Direction at Columbia University from 1996-2001. Her <strong>films</strong> in -<br />
clude: H&G (short, 2000), Matrilineal (short, 2001), Ima<br />
(2001), For Our Man (short, 2002), and Paul and Bataar<br />
(2006).<br />
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Team from “Paul and Bataar” (photo courtesy of Caterina Klusemann)
Prater<br />
Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire ma -<br />
chine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sen -<br />
sational innovation could escape incorporation into the<br />
Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film<br />
Prater transforms this place of sensations into a modern<br />
cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the be -<br />
ginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those<br />
who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic<br />
images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary<br />
by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film<br />
quotes, and photogr aphic and written documentary<br />
materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place<br />
of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural<br />
medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von<br />
Sternberg, Erich Kaestner and Elias Canetti, as well as in<br />
music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the<br />
course of its history.<br />
Genre Culture Category Documentary Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Ulrike Ottinger Assistant<br />
Director Hanne Lassl Screenplay Maria Turek Director of<br />
Photography Ulrike Ottinger Editor Bettina Blickwede Music<br />
by Klaus Kellermann Producer Ulrike Ottinger Production<br />
World Sales<br />
Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins<br />
Hochstadenstrasse 1-3 · 50674 Cologne/Germany<br />
phone +49-2 21-8 01 49 80 · fax +49-2 21-80 14 98 21<br />
email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de · www.medialuna-entertainment.de<br />
Company Ulrike Ottinger Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-pro -<br />
duction with Kurt Mayer Film/Vienna, WDR/Cologne Length<br />
104 min, 3,009 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original<br />
Version German Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Technology Dolby Digital Surround Festival Screenings<br />
Berlin <strong>2007</strong> (Forum), Mar del Plata <strong>2007</strong> With backing from<br />
ORF, Filmfonds Wien<br />
Ulrike Ottinger was born in Konstanz in 1942 and studied Art<br />
in Munich from 1959-1961. She has been living in Berlin since 1973<br />
and is a member of the Academy of Arts and the European Film<br />
Academy in Berlin. Active as a writer, director and camerawoman,<br />
her <strong>films</strong> include: Laokoon & Sons (Laokoon & Soehne,<br />
1973), Madame X – An Absolute Ruler (Madame X –<br />
eine absolute Herrscherin, 1977), Ticket of No Return<br />
(Bildnis einer Trinkerin, 1979), Freak Orlando (1980),<br />
Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press (Dorian<br />
Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse, 1984), China.<br />
The Arts – The People (China. Die Kuenste, der<br />
Alltag, 1985), Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia (1989), Taiga<br />
(1992), Exil Shanghai (1997), Southeast Passage<br />
(Suedost Passage, 2002), Twelve Chairs (Zwoelf<br />
Stuehle, 2004), and Prater (<strong>2007</strong>) among others.<br />
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Scene from “Prater” (photo © Ulrike Ottinger Filmproduktion)
Preussisch Gangstar<br />
PRUSSIAN GANGSTARS<br />
Prussian Gangstars is a slice of life view of three youths<br />
in small-town Brandenburg. The idyllic setting and the<br />
modest prosperity of the community mask the problems<br />
with which the young people have to contend. Nico is a<br />
school drop-out, dreaming of a hip-hop career. Tino, in an<br />
effort to satisfy the expectations of his mother, struggles<br />
to gain his lower school certificate. Oli wants to open a<br />
club, but his girlfriend dreams of leaving their hum-drum<br />
provincial life behind them. The difficulties seem routine<br />
enough. Nonetheless, an unfathomable void develops be -<br />
tween their youthful values and those of their parents.<br />
Only their friendship gives them a degree of security.<br />
Together they are the “Prussian Gangstars”.<br />
Genre Coming-of-Age, Drama Category Feature Film Cinema<br />
Year of Production <strong>2007</strong> Directors Irma-Kinga Stelmach,<br />
Bartosz Werner Screenplay Irma-Kinga Stelmach, Bartosz<br />
Werner Directors of Photography Andreas Bergmann, Ben<br />
Pohl Editor Marc Hofmeister Music by Benjamin Krbetschek,<br />
Preussisch Gangstar, Kolonne Ost Producer Philip Pratt<br />
Production Company Fortuna Film/Berlin, in co-production<br />
with Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf ’/Potsdam-<br />
Babelsberg Principal Cast Mario Knofe, Robert Ohde, Benjamin<br />
Succow Length 88 min Format HDV Blow-up 35 mm, color,<br />
1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf’ · Cristina Marx<br />
Marlene-Dietrich-Allee 11 · 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germany<br />
phone +49-3 31-6 20 25 64 · fax +49-3 31-6 20 25 69<br />
email: distribution@hff-potsdam.de · www.hff-potsdam.de<br />
Sound Technology Stereo Festival Screenings Ophuels<br />
Festival Saarbruecken <strong>2007</strong>, Filmkunst Fest Schwerin <strong>2007</strong>, Filmfest<br />
Cottbus <strong>2007</strong> Awards Best Original Score Saarbruecken <strong>2007</strong><br />
With backing from MSH Schleswig-Holstein, Filmbuero<br />
Bremen<br />
Irma-Kinga Stelmach was born in 1975 in Boleslawiec/<br />
Poland and has been living in Germany since 1989. After taking a<br />
diploma in Fine Arts in Berlin, she studied at the Central Saint<br />
Martins College of Art & Design in London and at UIC Chicago. She<br />
has been studying Directing at the ’Konrad Wolf ’ Academy of Film<br />
& Television since 2002. Her <strong>films</strong> include: Kurowski Shop<br />
(2001), Happy Christmas (Frohe Weihnachten, 2002),<br />
Jubilate (2004), hold.me.loose (halt.mich.los, 2005),<br />
afterhour (2006), and Prussian Gangstars (Preussisch<br />
Gangstar, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
Bartosz Werner was born in 1979 in Bielsko Biala/Poland and<br />
has been living in Germany since 1986. He studied at the ’Konrad<br />
Wolf ’ Academy of Film & Television from 2000-2006. His <strong>films</strong><br />
include: Seven Seconds (Sieben Sekunden, 2001), Mr.<br />
Hollywood Star (2002), New Worlds (Neue Welten,<br />
2003), Sweet Lullabies (2004), Highway (Autobahn,<br />
2005), Kinzels Backyard (Kinzels Hinterhof, 2006), and<br />
Prussian Gangstars (Preussisch Gangstar, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
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Scene from “Prussian Gangstars” (photo © Fortuna Film)
Der Rote Elvis<br />
THE RED ELVIS<br />
On the 17th of June 1986 a man is dragged out of a lake<br />
in East Berlin. He turns out to be the US American singer<br />
and actor Dean Reed, a highly mysterious legend of<br />
global pop culture during Cold War times.<br />
After leaving his hometown in Colorado at a young age in<br />
order to take acting classes in Hollywood, Reed soon is<br />
produced by Capitol Records and successfully launched in<br />
South America. In Chile he experiences his political initiation<br />
and transforms to a contradictive freedom fighter<br />
after the Pinochet Coup in 1973. He devotes himself to<br />
the promotion of Socialism. His beliefs make him travel to<br />
support Arafat – this time with a Kalashnikov in addition<br />
to his guitar. Always trying to use his artistic talents to in -<br />
fluence global politics, he gains the aura of a US American<br />
activist. Rockstar, Cowboy, Socialist – Reed becomes the<br />
ultimate superstar of the Eastern Bloc. Moreover, he wants<br />
to become Senator of Colorado and calls Reagan a “state<br />
terrorist”. This directs his life to a point of no return.<br />
Dean Reed embodies qualities of mutual exclusiveness,<br />
thereby likewise irritating devotees and enemies with his<br />
manifold persona. He acts in 18 movies, records 13<br />
albums and performs in more than 32 countries. Reed<br />
ends up being a distraught rebel. His desire for peace and<br />
World Sales<br />
ARRI Media Worldsales · Antonio Exacoustos<br />
Tuerkenstrasse 89 · 80799 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-38 09 12 88 · fax +49-89-38 09 16 19<br />
email: aexacoustos@arri.de · www.arri-mediaworldsales.de<br />
justice collides with his yearning for love and affection. He<br />
remains an icon and his ideals remind us of those policies<br />
that presently regain a strong contemporary quality.<br />
Genre Biopic, History, Music Category Documentary Cinema<br />
Year of Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Leopold Gruen Screen -<br />
play Leopold Gruen Director of Photography Thomas Janze<br />
Editor Dirk Uhlig Music by Monomango Producer Thomas<br />
Janze Production Company Totho cmp/Berlin With Isabel<br />
Allende Bussi, Celino Bleiweiss, Peter Boyles, Egon Krenz, Maren<br />
Zeidler, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Wiebke Reed, Guenter Reisch<br />
Length 90 min, 2,466 m Format DigiBeta, color, 16:9 Blow-up<br />
35 mm, color, 16:9 Original Version German/English/Spanish<br />
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR<br />
Festival Screenings Berlin <strong>2007</strong> (Panorama) With backing<br />
from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, DEFA Foundation, SONY<br />
Deutschland German Distributor Neue Visionen Filmver -<br />
leih/Berlin<br />
Leopold Gruen was born in 1968 in Dresden. He studied Media<br />
Pedagogy and worked as a teacher from 1990-1996, followed by<br />
studies in Media Consultancy and Sociology from 1998-2001. Since<br />
2001, he has been working as a freelance documentary director and<br />
media consultant and began working on The Red Elvis (Der<br />
Rote Elvis) in 2002.<br />
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Dan Reed (photos courtesy of Totho cmp)
Vollidiot<br />
COMPLETE IDIOT<br />
Not all men are idiots – some are complete idiots.<br />
Simon Peters, a passionless telephone salesman, is down<br />
on his luck, has no girlfriend and is about to turn thirty. His<br />
girlfriend left him a year ago and a new situation is no -<br />
where in sight. Neither the Cologne nightlife scene nor the<br />
attempts by his Croatian cleaning lady to hook him up<br />
with someone offer any sort of hope of sexual fulfillment.<br />
But one day, behind the window of the All American<br />
Coffee Company he sees the woman of his dreams:<br />
Marcia P. Garcia, a South American expert in the art of<br />
frothing milk. She has a sensational smile and an equally<br />
sensa tional body. Simon is certain – she’s the one. The<br />
woman of his life. The mother of his bilingual children. Just<br />
one lit tle thing stands in the way of a romantic wedding:<br />
Simon still has to approach her first.<br />
Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Tobi Baumann Screenplay<br />
Tommy Jaud Director of Photography Jo Heim Editor<br />
Martin Wolf Music by Stephan & Cecil Remmler Production<br />
Design Josef Sanktjohanser Producers Christoph Mueller, Sven<br />
Burgemeister Production Company Senator Film Produktion/<br />
World Sales<br />
TELEPOOL GmbH · Wolfram Skowronnek<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29<br />
email: cinepool@telepool.de · www.telepool.de<br />
Berlin, in co-production with Europool/Munich, in cooperation with<br />
Pictorion Pictures/Huerth, Goldkind Film/Munich Principal<br />
Cast Oliver Pocher, Oliver Fleischer, Tanja Wenzel, Anke Engelke,<br />
Ellenie Salvo González, Tomas Sinclair Spencer, Herbert Feuerstein<br />
Casting Emrah Ertem Length 102 min, 2,783 m Format 35<br />
mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version<br />
English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing<br />
from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),<br />
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM German Distri butor<br />
Senator Film Verleih/Berlin<br />
Tobi Baumann was born in 1974 in Koblenz. He began his<br />
comedy career as a writer for the RTL Nachtshow and Die Harald<br />
Schmidt Show and has been directing and winning awards for such<br />
television comedy shows as Die Wochenshow, Lady -<br />
kracher, and Ohne Worte. A “self-made man” in the German<br />
comedy scene, Der Wixxer (2004) was his feature debut, follow -<br />
ed by the TV series LiebesLeben and Ladyland, and his<br />
second feature Complete Idiot (Vollidiot, <strong>2007</strong>).<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly new <strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong><br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 64<br />
Scene from “Complete Idiot” (photo © Senator Film Verleih)
Die Wilden Huehner und die Liebe<br />
WILD CHICKS IN LOVE<br />
Love sure is a tough nut to crack, and Sprotte, Frieda,<br />
Melanie, Wilma and Trude can tell you a thing or two<br />
about it. All the "wild chicks" are struggling with it.<br />
Melanie is deeply hurt since Willi has left her for another<br />
girl, Nana, who’s two years older than him. Frieda has a<br />
complicated weekend relationship with Maik, whom she<br />
met at riding camp. Trude dreams of fellow student Ricky’s<br />
smoldering gaze. And Sprotte is still seeing Fred. In fact,<br />
everything would be great between them if it weren’t for<br />
Sprotte’s jealousy. The wild chicks’ leader also has another<br />
problem to cope with: her mother Sybille is planning to<br />
marry Thorben when Sprotte’s father sudden ly turns up<br />
after twelve years and sets Sybille’s heart all aflutter … But<br />
the most difficult relation of all has to be Wilma’s. Love, as<br />
the chicks come to realize, doesn’t always have to do with<br />
boys. In spite of all the emotional turmoil, the clique<br />
manages to stick together – which is just what you’d<br />
expect from these wild chicks!<br />
Genre Family Entertainment Category Feature Film Cinema<br />
Year of Production <strong>2007</strong> Director Vivian Naefe<br />
Screenplay Marie Graf, Uschi Reich, Vivian Naefe Director of<br />
Photography Peter Doettling (bvk) Editor Hansjoerg<br />
Weissbrich (bfs) Music by Annette Focks Production Design<br />
Annette Ingerl Producers Uschi Reich, Peter Zenk Co-<br />
Producers Gabriele Heuser, Susanne van Lessen Production<br />
Company Bavaria Filmverleih- & Produktion/Munich, in co-pro-<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de · www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
duction with Lunaris Film/Munich, Constantin Film Production/<br />
Munich, ZDF/Mainz Principal Cast Michelle von Treuberg, Paula<br />
Riemann, Jette Hering, Lucie Hollmann, Zsá Zsá Inci Buerkle, Svea<br />
Bein, Veronica Ferres, Thomas Kretschmann, Oliver Stokowski,<br />
Jessica Schwarz, Doris Schade, Benno Fuermann Casting<br />
Jacqueline Rietz, Maria Schwarz, An Dorthe Braker Length 108<br />
min, 2,970 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version<br />
German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology<br />
Dolby SR With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, FilmFern -<br />
sehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungs anstalt (FFA), Bayerischer<br />
BankenFonds BBF German Distri butor Constantin Film<br />
Verleih/Munich<br />
Vivian Naefe studied at the Academy of Television & Film in<br />
Munich from 1978-1982. Her other <strong>films</strong> include: Schwarzer<br />
Bube (1984), Ticket nach Rom (1985), Der Boss aus dem<br />
Westen (1987), Pizza-Express (1988), Mauritius-Los<br />
(1989), Fuer immer jung (1990), Mit allen Mitteln (aka<br />
Meine Tochter gehoert mir, 1991), Todesreigen (TV,<br />
1992), Toedliches Netz (TV, 1993), Mann sucht Frau (TV,<br />
1994), Zaubergirl (TV, 1994), Ich liebe den Mann meiner<br />
Tochter (TV, 1995), Blutiger Asphalt (TV, 1995), Lautlose<br />
Jagd (TV, 1996), 2 Maenner, 2 Frauen, 4 Probleme (1997),<br />
Rache fuer mein totes Kind (TV, 1998), Einer geht noch<br />
(TV, 2000), Kleine Diebe (TV, 2000), Frauen luegen besser<br />
(TV, 2000), Bobby (TV, 2001), Die Schoenheit von<br />
Bitterfeld (TV, 2002), So schnell Du kannst (TV, 2002),<br />
Wellen (TV, 2004), and Die Wilden Huehner (2005).<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly new <strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong><br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 65<br />
Scene from “Wild Chicks in Love” (photo © <strong>2007</strong> Constantin Film)
VGF INFORMATION<br />
REMUNERATION IN GERMANY<br />
FOR<br />
PRIVATE COPYING – RENTAL OF VIDEOGRAMS – CABLE RETRANSMISSION<br />
VGF, a collecting society under German law, was founded in 1981 when private homecopying of TV-programs (in<br />
particular feature <strong>films</strong>) by means of videorecording equipment started to become commercially important.<br />
Since 1982 VGF collects video levy monies due to German and foreign film producers under Art. 54 of the German Copyright<br />
Act (for blank cassettes and VCR’s) and distributes them to the respective rightsowners. The German<br />
Collecting Societies Act obliges VGF to make sure that all authors/rightsowners and owners of neighbouring rights of<br />
motion pictures, including foreign rightsowners who enjoy national treatment under the international copyright<br />
conventions, receive an equitable share of the monies collected for all rightsowners of programs broadcasted by<br />
German TV-Stations. Since it is virtually impossible for the individual rightsowners to control the use of the property<br />
and to make claims individually, Art. 54 provides that the respective rights must be administered collectively and<br />
claims can be made through a collecting society only.<br />
VGF now administers a great number of film rights of important film and TV producers from USA, Great Britain,<br />
Germany and other countries who have joined VGF as members. Since VGF’s activities come under the supervision of<br />
the German Patent Office, it is safeguarded that a fair devision of monies among all rightsowners concerned takes place<br />
and that producers receive an equitable share of the video levy revenues in Germany.<br />
The following rights/claims, which can only be brought forward through a collecting society, presently<br />
administered by VGF are:<br />
Art. 54 German Copyright Act – Video Levy<br />
Art. 54 of the German Copyright Act provides a remuneration for private copying of TV programs. As the rightowner<br />
cannot prevent private copying, manufacturers and importers of blank cassettes and VCR’s are charged with a levy.<br />
The claim can be made by a collecting society only (Art. 54 Sec. 6.1 German Copyright Act). VGF as a trustee<br />
administers the rights for film and TV producers and distributes the respective amounts to the rightsowners.<br />
Licensing of television rights does not imply transfer of the above mentioned right.<br />
Art. 27 German Copyright Act – Rental Levy<br />
Art. 27 of the German Copyright Act entitles rightsowners to a supplementary remuneration for the rental and lending<br />
of videograms by video-retailers. The money must be paid by the video-retailer. It is provided by law (Art. 27 Sec.3)<br />
that claims can be made by collecting societies only.<br />
Art. 20 b German Copyright Act – Cable Retransmission Fee<br />
Rightowners whose programs are broadcast by German TV stations and retransmitted via cable are also entitled to a<br />
remuneration for such cable retransmission. VGF is also active in collecting this fee. Administration of the above<br />
mentioned fees by VGF incurrs no costs for the rightsowners. If your company is interested in collecting these remu nerations,<br />
please contact VGF for more detailed information.<br />
VGF Verwertungsgesellschaft für Nutzungsrechte an Filmwerken mbH<br />
Neue Schönhauser Straße 10, D-10178 Berlin<br />
Phone: 0049-30-2 79 07 39-46 Fax: 0049-30-2 79 07 39 48<br />
post@vgf.de<br />
Beichstraße 8, D-80802 München<br />
Phone: 0049-89-39 14 25 Fax: 0049-89-3 40 12 91
GERMAN FILMS<br />
SHAREHOLDERS & SUPPORTERS<br />
Arbeitsgemeinschaft<br />
Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V.<br />
Association of New Feature Film Producers<br />
Muenchner Freiheit 20, 80802 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-2 71 74 30, fax +49-89-2 71 97 28<br />
email: mail@ag-spielfilm.de, www.ag-spielfilm.de<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt<br />
German Federal Film Board<br />
Grosse Praesidentenstrasse 9, 10178 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-27 57 70, fax +49-30-27 57 71 11<br />
email: presse@ffa.de, www.ffa.de<br />
Verband Deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE)<br />
Association of German Film Exporters<br />
Tegernseer Landstrasse 75, 81539 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49- 89-6 42 49 70, fax +49-89-6 92 09 10<br />
email: mail@vdfe.de, www.vdfe.de<br />
Verband Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V.<br />
Association of German Feature Film Producers<br />
Beichstrasse 8, 80802 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-39 11 23, fax +49-89-33 74 32<br />
Bundesverband Deutscher Fernsehproduzenten e.V.<br />
Association of German Television Producers<br />
Brienner Strasse 26, 80333 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-28 62 83 85, fax +49-89-28 62 82 47<br />
email: post@tv-produzenten.de, www.tv-produzenten.de<br />
Deutsche Kinemathek<br />
Museum fuer Film und Fernsehen<br />
Potsdamer Strasse 2, 10785 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-30 09 03-0, fax +49-30-30 09 03-13<br />
email: info@deutsche-kinemathek.de, www.deutsche-kinemathek.de<br />
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm e.V.<br />
German Documentary Association<br />
Schweizer Strasse 6, 60594 Frankfurt am Main/Germany<br />
phone +49-69-62 37 00, fax +49-61 42-96 64 24<br />
email: agdok@agdok.de, www.agdok.de<br />
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kurzfilm e.V.<br />
German Short Film Association<br />
Kamenzer Strasse 60, 01099 Dresden/Germany<br />
phone +49-3 51-4 04 55 75, fax +49-3 51-4 04 55 76<br />
email: info@ag-kurzfilm.de, www.ag-kurzfilm.de<br />
Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung<br />
fuer Kultur und Medien<br />
Referat K 35, Europahaus, Stresemannstrasse 94,<br />
10963 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-18 88-6 81 49 29, fax +49-18 88-68 15 49 29<br />
email: Ulrike.Schauz@bkm.bmi.bund.de<br />
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH<br />
Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Medien<br />
in Bayern<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21, 80331 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-54 46 02-0, fax +49-89-54 46 02 21<br />
email: filmfoerderung@fff-bayern.de, www.fff-bayern.de<br />
FilmFoerderung Hamburg GmbH<br />
Friedensallee 14–16, 22765 Hamburg/Germany<br />
phone +49-40-39 83 70, fax +49-40-3 98 37 10<br />
email: filmfoerderung@ffhh.de, www.ffhh.de<br />
Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen GmbH<br />
Kaistrasse 14, 40221 Duesseldorf/Germany<br />
phone +49-2 11-93 05 00, fax +49-2 11-93 05 05<br />
email: info@<strong>films</strong>tiftung.de, www.<strong>films</strong>tiftung.de<br />
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH<br />
August-Bebel-Strasse 26-53, 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germany<br />
phone +49-3 31-74 38 70, fax +49-3 31-7 43 87 99<br />
email: info@medienboard.de, www.medienboard.de<br />
Medien- und Filmgesellschaft<br />
Baden-Wuerttemberg mbH<br />
Breitscheidstrasse 4, 70174 Stuttgart/Germany<br />
phone +49-7 11-90 71 54 00, fax +49-7 11-90 71 54 50<br />
email: filmfoerderung@mfg.de, www.mfg.de/film<br />
Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung GmbH<br />
Hainstrasse 17-19, 04109 Leipzig/Germany<br />
phone +49-3 41-26 98 70, fax +49-3 41-2 69 87 65<br />
email: info@mdm-online.de, www.mdm-online.de<br />
MSH Gesellschaft zur Foerderung audiovisueller<br />
Werke in Schleswig-Holstein mbH<br />
Schildstrasse 12, 23552 Luebeck/Germany<br />
phone +49-4 51-7 19 77, fax +49-4 51-7 19 78<br />
email: info@mshfoerderung.de, www.m-s-h.org<br />
nordmedia – Die Mediengesellschaft<br />
Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH<br />
Expo Plaza 1, 30539 Hanover/Germany<br />
phone +49-5 11-1 23 45 60, fax +49-5 11-12 34 56 29<br />
email: info@nordmedia.de, www.nordmedia.de<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly shareholders & supporters<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 67
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ASSOCIATION OF GERMAN FILM EXPORTERS<br />
Verband deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE) · please contact Lothar Wedel<br />
Tegernseer Landstrasse 75 · 81539 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-6 42 49 70 · fax +49-89-6 92 09 10 · email: mail@vdfe.de · www.vdfe.de<br />
Action Concept Film- &<br />
Stuntproduktion GmbH<br />
please contact Wolfgang Wilke<br />
An der Hasenkaule 1-7<br />
50354 Huerth/Germany<br />
phone +49-22 33-50 81 00<br />
fax +49-22 33-50 81 80<br />
email: wolfgang.wilke@actionconcept.com<br />
www.actionconcept.com<br />
ARRI Media Worldsales<br />
please contact Antonio Exacoustos<br />
Tuerkenstrasse 89<br />
80799 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-38 09 12 88<br />
fax +49-89-38 09 16 19<br />
email: aexacoustos@arri.de<br />
www.arri-mediaworldsales.de<br />
Atlas International Film GmbH<br />
please contact<br />
Stefan Menz, Dieter Menz, Philipp Menz<br />
Candidplatz 11<br />
81543 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-21 09 75-0<br />
fax +49-89-22 43 32<br />
email: mail@atlasfilm.com<br />
www.atlasfilm.com<br />
ATRIX Films GmbH<br />
please contact Beatrix Wesle,<br />
Solveig Langeland<br />
Aggensteinstrasse 13a<br />
81545 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 28 26 11<br />
fax +49-89-64 95 73 49<br />
email: atrix<strong>films</strong>@gmx.net<br />
www.atrix-<strong>films</strong>.com<br />
Bavaria Film International<br />
Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH<br />
please contact Thorsten Schaumann<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 8<br />
82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86<br />
fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de<br />
www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
Beta Cinema<br />
Dept. of Beta Film GmbH<br />
please contact Andreas Rothbauer<br />
Gruenwalder Weg 28d<br />
82041 Oberhaching/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80<br />
fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88<br />
email: ARothbauer@betacinema.com<br />
www.betacinema.com<br />
cine aktuell Filmgesellschaft mbH<br />
please contact Ralf Faust, Axel Schaarschmidt<br />
Werdenfelsstrasse 81<br />
81377 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-7 41 34 30<br />
fax +49-89-74 13 43 16<br />
email: mail@cine-aktuell.de<br />
www.cine-aktuell.de<br />
Cine-International Filmvertrieb<br />
GmbH & Co. KG<br />
please contact Lilli Tyc-Holm, Susanne Groh<br />
Leopoldstrasse 18<br />
80802 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-39 10 25<br />
fax +49-89-33 10 89<br />
email: email@cine-international.de<br />
www.cine-international.de<br />
EEAP Eastern European<br />
Acquisition Pool GmbH<br />
please contact Alexander van Duelmen<br />
Alexanderstrasse 7<br />
10178 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-25 76 23 30<br />
fax +49-30-25 76 23 59<br />
email: info@eeap.de<br />
www.eeap.de<br />
Exportfilm Bischoff & Co. GmbH<br />
please contact Jochem Strate,<br />
Philip Evenkamp<br />
Isabellastrasse 20, 80798 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-2 72 93 60<br />
fax +49-89-27 29 36 36<br />
email: export<strong>films</strong>@exportfilm.de<br />
www.exportfilm.de<br />
<strong>german</strong> united distributors<br />
Programmvertrieb GmbH<br />
please contact Silke Spahr<br />
Breite Strasse 48-50<br />
50667 Cologne/Germany<br />
phone +49-2 21-92 06 90<br />
fax +49-2 21-9 20 69 69<br />
email: silke.spahr@<strong>german</strong>united.com<br />
Kinowelt International GmbH<br />
Futura Film Weltvertrieb<br />
im Filmverlag der Autoren GmbH<br />
please contact Stelios Ziannis, Anja Uecker<br />
Karl-Tauchnitz-Strasse 10<br />
04107 Leipzig/Germany<br />
phone +49-3 41-35 59 60<br />
fax +49-3 41-35 59 64 19<br />
email: sziannis@kinowelt.de,<br />
auecker@kinowelt.de<br />
www.kinowelt-international.de<br />
Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co.KG<br />
please contact Ida Martins<br />
Hochstadenstrasse 1-3<br />
50674 Cologne/Germany<br />
phone +49-2 21-8 01 49 80<br />
fax +49-2 21-80 14 98 21<br />
email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de<br />
www.medialuna-entertainment.de<br />
Progress Film-Verleih GmbH<br />
please contact Christel Jansen<br />
Immanuelkirchstrasse 14b<br />
10405 Berlin/Germany<br />
phone +49-30-24 00 32 25<br />
fax +49-30-24 00 32 22<br />
email: c.jansen@progress-film.de<br />
www.progress-film.de<br />
Road Sales GmbH Mediadistribution<br />
please contact VDFE<br />
c/o Verband deutscher Filmexporteure e. V.<br />
Tegernseer Landstrasse 75<br />
81539 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-6 42 49 70<br />
fax +49-89-6 92 09 10<br />
email: mail@vdfe.de · www.vdfe.de<br />
SOLA Media GmbH<br />
please contact Solveig Langeland<br />
Osumstrasse 17, 70599 Stuttgart/Germany<br />
phone +49-7 11-4 79 36 66<br />
fax +49-7 11-4 79 26 58<br />
email: post@sola-media.net<br />
www.sola-media.net<br />
TELEPOOL GmbH<br />
please contact Wolfram Skowronnek<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21, 80331 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-55 87 60<br />
fax +49-89-55 87 62 29<br />
email: cinepool@telepool.de · www.telepool.de<br />
Transit Film GmbH<br />
please contact Loy W. Arnold, Mark Gruenthal<br />
Dachauer Strasse 35<br />
80335 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-59 98 85-0<br />
fax +49-89-59 98 85-20<br />
email: loy.arnold@transitfilm.de,<br />
mark.gruenthal@transitfilm.de<br />
www.transitfilm.de<br />
uni media film gmbh<br />
please contact Irene Vogt, Michael Waldleitner<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 7<br />
82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-59 58 46<br />
fax +49-89-54 50 70 52<br />
email: info@unimediafilm.com<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly association of <strong>german</strong> film exporters<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 69
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Walter Brus<br />
Phone +49-(0)89-3809-1772<br />
Fax +49-(0)89-3809-1773<br />
www.arri.com<br />
Laboratory<br />
Sound<br />
Video Postproduction<br />
Digital Intermediate<br />
Visual Effects<br />
Cinema<br />
Angela Reedwisch<br />
Phone +49-(0)89-3809-1574<br />
Fax +49-(0)89-3809-1773<br />
www.arri.com<br />
THE BEST SUPPORT YOUR VISION CAN GET<br />
GESTALTUNG: THOMAS DREHER, DREHER@GESTALTUNGSWELTEN.DE
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7<br />
GERMAN<br />
FILMS<br />
PREVIEWS<br />
<strong>2007</strong><br />
12 - 15 July <strong>2007</strong> in Cologne<br />
Contact Martin Scheuring at scheuring@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de
GERMAN FILMS: A PROFILE<br />
German Films Service + Marketing is the national infor -<br />
mation and advisory center for the promotion of German <strong>films</strong> world -<br />
wide. It was established in 1954 under the name Export-Union of<br />
German Cinema as the umbrella association for the Association of<br />
German Feature Film Producers, since 1966 the Association of New<br />
German Feature Film Producers and the Association of German Film<br />
Exporters, and operates today in the legal form of a limited com pany.<br />
In 2004, new shareholders came on board the Export-Union which<br />
from then on continued operations under its present name: German<br />
Films Service + Marketing GmbH.<br />
Shareholders are the Association of German Feature Film<br />
Producers, the Association of New German Feature Film Producers,<br />
the Association of German Film Exporters, the German Federal Film<br />
Board (FFA), the Association of German Television Producers, the<br />
Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, the German Documentary<br />
Association, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern and Filmstiftung NRW re -<br />
presenting the eight main regional film funds, and the German Short<br />
Film Association.<br />
Members of the advisory board are: Alfred Huermer (chairman),<br />
Peter Dinges, Antonio Exacoustos, Dr. Klaus Schaefer, Ulrike Schauz,<br />
and Michael Weber.<br />
German Films itself has 14 members of staff:<br />
Christian Dorsch, managing director<br />
Mariette Rissenbeek, public relations/deputy managing director<br />
Petra Bader, office manager<br />
Kim Behrendt, PR assistant<br />
Sandra Buchta, project coordinator/documentary film<br />
Myriam Gauff, project coordinator<br />
Simon Goehler, trainee<br />
Christine Harrasser, managing director’s assistant/project co ordinator<br />
Angela Hawkins, publications & website editor<br />
Barbie Heusinger, project coordinator/distribution support<br />
Nicole Kaufmann, project coordinator<br />
Michaela Kowal, accounts<br />
Martin Scheuring, project coordinator/short film<br />
Konstanze Welz, project coordinator/television<br />
In addition, German Films has 10 foreign representatives in nine<br />
countries.<br />
German Films’ budget of presently €5.4 million comes from film<br />
export levies, the office of the Federal Government Commissioner<br />
for Culture and the Media, and the FFA. The eight main regional film<br />
funds (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFoerderung Hamburg,<br />
Filmstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MFG Baden-<br />
Wuerttemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, MSH Schleswig-<br />
Holstein, and Nordmedia) make a financial contribution – currently<br />
amounting to €360,000 – towards the work of German Films.<br />
German Films is a founding member of the European Film Promotion,<br />
a network of 27 European film organizations (including Unifrance,<br />
Swiss Films, Austrian Film Commission, Holland Film, among others)<br />
with similar responsibilities to those of German Films. The organiza -<br />
tion, with its headquarters in Hamburg, aims to develop and realize<br />
joint projects for the presentation of European <strong>films</strong> on an inter -<br />
national level.<br />
German Films’ range of activities includes:<br />
Close cooperation with major international film festivals, in -<br />
cluding Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Locarno, San<br />
Sebastian, Montreal, Karlovy Vary, Moscow, Nyon, Shanghai,<br />
Rotterdam, San Francisco, Sydney, Goeteborg, Warsaw,<br />
Thessaloniki, Rome, and Turin, among others<br />
Organization of umbrella stands for German sales companies<br />
and producers at international television and film markets<br />
(Berlin, Cannes, AFM Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai)<br />
Staging of ”Festivals of German Films“ worldwide (Madrid,<br />
Paris, London, New York, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Copen hagen,<br />
Stockholm, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne)<br />
Staging of the ”German Premieres“ industry screenings in New<br />
York, Los Angeles and Rome<br />
Providing advice and information for representatives of the<br />
international press and buyers from the fields of cinema, video,<br />
and television<br />
Providing advice and information for German filmmakers and<br />
press on international festivals, conditions of participation, and<br />
German <strong>films</strong> being shown<br />
Organization of the annual NEXT GENERATION short film<br />
program, which presents a selection of shorts by students of<br />
German film schools and is premiered every year at Cannes<br />
Publication of informational literature about current German<br />
<strong>films</strong> and the German film industry (German Films Quarterly),<br />
as well as international market analy ses and special festival<br />
brochures<br />
An Internet website (www.<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de) offering informa -<br />
tion about new German <strong>films</strong>, a film archive, as well as in -<br />
formation and links to German and international film festivals<br />
and institutions<br />
Organization of the selection procedure for the German entry<br />
for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film<br />
Collaboration with Deutsche Welle’s DW-TV KINO program<br />
which features the latest German film releases and inter -<br />
national productions in Germany<br />
Organization of the ”German Films Previews“ geared toward<br />
European arthouse distributors and buyers of German <strong>films</strong><br />
Selective financial Distribution Support for the foreign releases<br />
of German <strong>films</strong><br />
On behalf of the association Rendez-vous franco-allemands du<br />
cinéma, organization with Unifrance of the annual German-<br />
French film meeting<br />
In association and cooperation with its shareholders, German Films<br />
works to promote feature, documentary, television and short <strong>films</strong>.<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly <strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong>: a profile<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 74
FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES IMPRINT<br />
Argentina<br />
Gustav Wilhelmi<br />
Ayacucho 495, 2º ”3“<br />
C1026AAA Buenos Aires/Argentina<br />
phone +54-11-49 52 15 37<br />
phone/fax +54-11-49 51 19 10<br />
email: wilhelmi@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
China<br />
Anke Redl<br />
CMM Intelligence<br />
A 606, Tianhai Business Plaza<br />
No. 107 Dongsi Beidajie<br />
Dongcheng District<br />
Beijing 100007/China<br />
phone +86-10-64 07 05 62<br />
fax +86-10-64 07 05 64<br />
email: redl@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
Eastern Europe<br />
Simone Baumann<br />
L.E. Vision Film- und<br />
Fernsehproduktion GmbH<br />
Koernerstrasse 56<br />
04107 Leipzig/Germany<br />
phone +49-3 41-96 36 80<br />
fax +49-3 41-9 63 68 44<br />
email: baumann@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
German Films Quarterly is published by:<br />
German Films<br />
Service + Marketing GmbH<br />
Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse 16<br />
80331 Munich/Germany<br />
phone +49-89-5 99 78 70<br />
fax +49-89-59 97 87 30<br />
email: info@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
www.<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
ISSN 1614-6387<br />
Credits are not contractual for any<br />
of the <strong>films</strong> mentioned in this publication.<br />
© German Films Service + Marketing GmbH<br />
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of<br />
this publication may be made without written permission.<br />
France<br />
Cristina Hoffman<br />
33, rue L. Gaillet<br />
94250 Gentilly/France<br />
phone +33-1-40 4108 33<br />
fax +33-1-49 8644 18<br />
email: hoffman@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
Italy<br />
Alessia Ratzenberger<br />
Angeli Movie Service<br />
Piazza San Bernardo 108a<br />
00187 Rome/Italy<br />
phone +39-06-48 90 70 75<br />
fax +39-06-4 88 57 97<br />
email: ratzenberger@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
Japan<br />
Tomosuke Suzuki<br />
Nippon Cine TV Corporation<br />
Suite 123, Gaien House<br />
2-2-39 Jingumae, Shibuya-Ku<br />
150-0001 Tokyo/Japan<br />
phone +81-3-34 05 09 16<br />
fax +81-3-34 79 08 69<br />
email: suzuki@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
Editor<br />
Production Reports<br />
Contributors for this issue<br />
Translations<br />
Design & Art Direction<br />
Printing Office<br />
Financed by<br />
Cover Photo<br />
Spain<br />
Stefan Schmitz<br />
Pza. del Cordón, 2<br />
28005 Madrid/Spain<br />
phone +34-91-3 66 43 64<br />
fax +34-91-3 65 93 01<br />
email: schmitz@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
United Kingdom<br />
Iris Ordonez<br />
37 Arnison Road<br />
East Molesey KT8 9JR/Great Britain<br />
phone +44-20-89 79 86 28<br />
email: ordonez@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
USA/East Coast & Canada<br />
Oliver Mahrdt<br />
Hanns Wolters International Inc.<br />
211 E 43 rd Street, #505<br />
New York, NY 10017/USA<br />
phone +1-2 12-7 14 01 00<br />
fax +1-2 12-6 43 14 12<br />
email: mahrdt@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
USA/West Coast<br />
Corina Danckwerts<br />
Capture Film International, LLC<br />
1726 N. Whitley Avenue<br />
Los Angeles, CA 90028/USA<br />
phone +1-3 23-9 62 67 10<br />
fax +1-3 23-9 62 67 22<br />
email: danckwerts@<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
Angela Hawkins<br />
Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley<br />
Martin Blaney, Robert Gray, Simon Kingsley<br />
Lucinda Rennison<br />
www.werner-schauer.de<br />
ESTA DRUCK GMBH,<br />
Obermuehlstrasse 90, 82398 Polling/Germany<br />
the office of the Federal Government Commissioner<br />
for Culture and the Media<br />
Printed on ecological, unchlorinated paper.<br />
Scene from “The Edge of Heaven”<br />
(photo © corazón international)<br />
<strong>german</strong> <strong>films</strong> quarterly foreign representatives · imprint<br />
2 · <strong>2007</strong> 75
IN CANNES <strong>2007</strong><br />
GERMAN PAVILION · #125 · INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE<br />
GERMAN FILMS · phone +33-(0)4-93 99 86 00 · fax +33-(0)4-93 99 86 21 · www.<strong>german</strong>-<strong>films</strong>.de<br />
FOCUS GERMANY · phone +33-(0)4-93 99 85 54 · fax +33-(0)4-93 99 85 71 · www.focus<strong>german</strong>y.de