2008 A Meeting for German and French Filmmakers ... - German Films

Finnischer Tango
FINNISH TANGO
Finnish Tango tells the story of a man, who – on his quest
of finding the easy way out – discovers his own humanity.
Alex is a passionate but unsuccessful musician. Nothing
more, nothing less. He is neither the nice guy, nor a good
friend, not even a reliable partner, and definitely no one
who takes responsibility in life. After a tragic accident,
Alex suddenly finds himself without a band and without a
plan, but with a mountain of debt and raging metal players
breathing down his neck.
While searching for a job, he comes across a theater group
of handicapped people, who are searching for another
actor for an upcoming play. Alex invents a handicap,
steals a handicap ID, gets the part and moves in with the
group, who open their arms, hearts and minds to him. He
wins them over, most of them at least, with his music –
heartbreaking tango melodies. But Rudolph, a highly intelligent,
suicidal and fatally ill misanthropist, doesn’t really
trust him and puts Alex to the test.
Genre Tragicomedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2008 Director Buket Alakus Screenplay Marcus
Hertneck, Jan Berger Director of Photography Daniela
Knapp Editor Andreas Radtke Music by Christoph Blaser,
World Sales
Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins
Aachener Strasse 26 · 50674 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-8 01 49 80 · fax +49-2 21-80 14 98 21
email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de · www.medialuna-entertainment.de
Steffen Kahles Production Design Ralf Mootz, Sabine Rudolph
Producer Eike Besuden Production Company Geisberg
Studios/Bremen, in co-production with Pinguin Film/Wolfsburg,
NDR/Hamburg, Radio Bremen Principal Cast Christoph Bach,
Mira Bartuschek, Fabian Busch, Nele Winkler, Michael Schumacher,
Christian Naethe, Daniel Zillmann Casting Mai Seck Length 90
min, 2,511 m Format Super 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color,
1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby Surround Festival Screenings
Emden 2008 (In Competition/Opening Film), Festival des
Deutschen Films Ludwigsburg 2008 (In Competition) Awards
Audience Award Ludwigsburg 2008 With backing from
Nordmedia, Filmstiftung NRW, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF)
German Distributor Neue Visionen Filmverleih/Berlin
Buket Alakus was born in 1971 in Istanbul and grew up in
Hamburg. After finishing her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Berlin in 1995, she studied Film Directing at Hamburg University’s
Institute of Theater, Music and Film from 1996-1998. Her films
include: the shorts Martin (1995), Schluessel (1996), Tango
(1997), Kismet (1998), her award-winning feature debut Anam
(2000), Offside (Eine andere Liga, 2004), Freundinnen
fuers Leben (TV, 2005), the children’s series Kinder.de (2006),
and Finnish Tango (Finnischer Tango, 2008).
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Scene from “Finnish Tango” (photo © Geisberg Studios)