GFQ 2-2007 - german films

Autopiloten
AUTOPILOTS
Autopilots tells the story of four people trying to live up
to their lost ideals in interwoven episodes. Each of them
has become a social outcast. Lacking a foothold, they
errati cally move through their own lives. During 24 hours
these characters’ paths cross on the freeways of the Ruhr
Area.
Georg, trainer of a soccer league team, must win the game
tonight if he wants to keep his job. He discovers how the
mechanisms of the soccer trade have begun to turn against
him. Dieter, freelance reporter is on the pursuit of spectacular
images. He loves his son, who lives with his ex-wife
Rita, but does not devote much attention to him. Joerg, a
salesman for bathtub lifts finds himself drifting off into isolation
and discovers he cannot go on with his double life.
Heinz, an aging pop singer spends his days singing at
anniver sary celebrations for shopping malls and the like.
And he can’t keep up the illusion anymore.
They are all heroes of an inner insecurity, who are just trying
to hang in there …
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2007 Director Bastian Guenther Screenplay
Bastian Guenther Director of Photography Michael Kotschi
World Sales (please contact)
Lichtblick Film- & Fernsehproduktion GmbH · Yvonne Gottschalk
Apostelnstrasse 11 · 50667 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-9 25 75 20 · fax +49-2 21-9 25 75 29
email: info@lichtblick-film.de · www.lichtblick-film.de
Editor Olaf Tischbier Music by Bernd Begemann, Andreas
Doerne, Jens Hafemann Production Design Dorothee von
Bodelschwingh Producers Joachim Ortmanns, Martin Heisler
Production Company Lichtblick Film/Cologne, in co-production
with SWR/Baden-Baden, ARTE/Strasbourg Principal Cast
Charly Huebner, Wolfram Koch, Walter Kreye, Manfred Zapatka,
Susanne-Marie Wrage Casting Kathrin Bessert Length 106 min
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR
Festival Screenings Berlin 2007 (Perspectives German
Cinema) With backing from Filmstiftung NRW
Bastian Guenther was born in 1974 in Hachenburg and studied
English, Social Sciences and Sports at Cologne University. He
then worked as a trainee on several film productions and as a freelancer
at the public broadcaster WDR/Phoenix in Cologne.
Followed by working as an assistant director for Marin
Martschewski and Christian Petzold, he enrolled at the German
Academy of Film & Television Berlin (dffb). His graduation film
Ende einer Strecke won the First Steps Award in 2006. His other
films include: Kuscheln in Vingst (documentary, 2000),
Corinna, Corinna (short, 2001), Punkt Null (video, 2002),
Acapulco (short, 2003), Bleib zuhause im Sommer (documentary,
2003), and Autopilots (Autopiloten, 2007).
german films quarterly new german films
2 · 2007 45
Scene from "Autopilots" (photo © LICHTBLICK/Alex Trebus)