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

Neele Leana Vollmar (photo © Rick Ostermann)
DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT
Neele Leana Vollmar was born in Bremen in 1978. After her
schooling, she was a director’s assistant for various film productions,
followed by studies in Directing at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Film
Academy in Ludwigsburg from 2000 to 2005. She already demonstrated
an interest in interpersonal relationships in her first short films
like Sans une Parole (2001). Her enduring theme of the family
first attracted attention in My Parents (Meine Eltern, 2003),
which received several awards world-wide. She has developed more
and more facets of cinematic relatives in the full-length features
Vacation from Life (Urlaub vom Leben, 2004), Peaceful
Times (Friedliche Zeiten, 2008), and Maria, ihm
schmeckt’s nicht (2008/2009, currently in production). During
her studies, she received the Caligari Fellowship (2002), and participated
in the Berlinale Talent Campus and the Hollywood
Masterclass (2003). Together with Caroline Daube she established
her own production company, Royal Pony Film, with a VGF grant. In
future, Royal Pony Film hopes to realize projects by other directors as
well, but first the aim is to make more films by Vollmar, written once
again by the well-known scriptwriter Ruth Toma. Vollmar often falls
back on a familiar team for her productions: in front of the camera,
she employs regular actors like Gustav Peter Woehler or Anna
Boetcher, and the cameraman is very often Pascal Schmitt. So she has
even internalized her theme on set: “There, I am simply a family kind
of person.”
Contact:
Royal Pony Film GmbH & Co. KG
Bayerisches Filmzentrum
Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 98 11 20 · fax +49-89-64 98 13 20
email: info@royalponyfilm.com · www.royalponyfilm.com
A SENSE OF FAMILY
A portrait of Neele Leana Vollmar
Although she is the “family filmmaker” among young German directors,
there is no sign of the quiet life in Neele Leana Vollmar’s
work. In her film families, either the children or the parents are prone
to depression, as a rule the family members are ashamed of each
other, and talking to one another is the exception. Why does she like
to plumb the depths of family life so much, driving her dysfunctional
family members to the fringe of madness?
When she is asked the reason for this, the lanky director from Bremen
only laughs and shakes her head. “No, no, no. My own family is a
dream family,” she assures us. They have a close relationship; her
parents know almost everything about her. “It is precisely because
things have always been so great for me that I look for the skeletons
in the closet.” However, her mother is a little to blame for Vollmar’s
favorite theme. After all, she showed her daughter Ingmar Bergman
films at an early age: an object lesson in complicated souls and the
inspiration for film material that Vollmar has already made into her
specialty – from the hysterical short film My Parents to her tragicomic
feature Peaceful Times. This film version of the novel was
launched in German cinemas in September and the international premiere
took place at the 32nd World Film Festival in Montreal shortly
before that.
She even succeeds in recounting people’s fears and tragic events in a
light, laconic tone: Vollmar’s films are suited to an age in which life’s
plans are becoming more and more complicated and the contradictions
in almost every biography are evident. Her characters seem
to say – so why don’t you tell me, what exactly is normal?
german films quarterly director’s portrait
4 · 2008 6