GFQ 2-2007 - german films

World Sales
TELEPOOL GmbH · Wolfram Skowronnek
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
email: cinepool@telepool.de · www.telepool.de
It’s a common complaint: there are not enough good scripts. That
doesn’t stop films getting made, of course. And a good script can
always be killed by the wrong director, miscasting, bad camerawork,
poor editing, etc. But start with a good script and you have as solid a
foundation as possible. With Dr. Alemán, Oliver Keidel won
the German Script Award 2006.
Dr. Alemán is the story of Marc, a 26-year-old German medical
student, who decides to spend his year of on-the-job training in
Colombia. What starts off as an adventure very quickly develops into
a fight between life and death – and death is an ever-present threat
that is not confined just to the hospital.
Referencing such films as City of God, Blow, Traffic and The Beach, Dr.
Alemán is, says Keidel, “an emotional film about a young man
search ing for adventure. It’s about the collision of two cultures in
extreme form, a man from cosy Germany in the hardest region of
South America, in a city with the highest murder rate.”
Director Tom Schreiber was “fascinated by Marc’s story because
it tells what it’s like to be lost in a foreign world. It tells of the hope
of understanding the foreign reality, of the desperate attempt to
adapt to foreign places and integrate into foreign societies, and of the
fact, that despite all efforts, you always remain an outsider.”
In fact, Dr. Alemán originated when Schreiber described to Keidel
the true story of a friend of his, a German anaesthetist, who spent a
year doing on-the-job medical training in Cali.
With a mixture of professionals and non-actors, Dr. Alemán promises
to deliver another show stopping performance from August
Diehl. German Film Award, Best Actor, 1999; European “Shooting
Star”, Berlinale 2000; German Film Critic’s Award for Best Actor (for
Was nuetzt die Liebe in Gedanken) 2005, Diehl brings a depth to his
performances that few actors his age can.
Says Diehl, “Dr. Alemán describes via its story, and especially via its
main character, what it’s like to make a decision based on the need to
look for danger. The need to look for oneself in something strange
and foreign, as it were.”
Dr. Alemán will not be an easy journey, and there is no guaran tee
of arriving safely, but it promises to be an exciting ride!
SK
Die Einsamkeit ist
nie allein
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Tragicomedy,
Phantasmagoria Production Company wtp international/
Munich Producers Patricia Koch, Marina Anna Eich, Roland Reber
Director Roland Reber Screenplay Roland Reber, Mira Gittner
Directors of Photography Mira Gittner, Juergen Kendzior
Editor Mira Gittner Music by Wolfgang Edelmayer Production
Design Martin Lippert, Christoph Baumann Principal Cast Mira
Gittner, Wolfgang Seidenberg, Marina Anna Eich, Sabrina Brencher,
Antonio Exacoustos, Andreas Heinzel, Sven Thiemann Format DV
Cam, blow-up to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting
Language German Studio Location Panther Studios/Ober -
haching Shooting in Munich, Landsberg/Lech, Kaufbeuren, April –
May 2007
World Sales
wtp international GmbH · Marina Anna Eich
Bayerisches Filmzentrum · Bavariafilmplatz 7
82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 98 11 12 · fax +49-89-64 98 13 12
email: wtp@wtpfilm.de · www.wtpfilm.de
Lest we forget, film itself is just a medium. It is the message that
counts. Each film, and here we are talking about the finished product,
whether it be viewed in a cinema, on TV or DVD, seeks to elicit an
emotional response. That response can be measured in the number
of millions it takes at the box office, bags of popcorn sold, merchandise
shifted over the counter: the film as product, if you like, the ones
with star names and the classic three-act structure.
Then there are other films, the ones that seek to elicit an emotional
response in the same way Philip Glass does with his music; minimalist
and profound. Die Einsamkeit ist nie allein (translation:
“Lonli ness is Never Alone”) is just such a film.
The man (Wolfgang Seidenberg) flees from the constant
reoccuranc es of his life; from the expectations, from the respon sibility
forced upon him by a normal life. On a disused industrial estate he
meets Godot (Mira Gittner), a woman who collects rubbish, lives
in an old caravan and spends her time on a paradise island, a rubber
boat with inflatable palm tree, drifting along the city’s sewers, search -
ing for signs of human existence.
In memories, tragic and strange phantasmagorias, the man – in this
german films quarterly in production
2 · 2007 33
Mira Gittner, Wolfgang Seidenberg
(photo courtesy of wtp)