Dearest readers and users of this catalogue, - German Documentaries

THE CONQUEST OF INNER FREEDOM
by Aleksandra Kumorek and Silvia Kaiser BERLIN | CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY| SOCIAL BIOTOPE | PRISON | EDUCATION
Tegel prison in Berlin, Germany, permitted a unique experiment in 2000 which saw serious criminals
engaging in philosophy. For a whole year we accompany hardened convicts who use Socratic
dialogues to question themselves and their own value systems. This is a serious undertaking, for the
conquest of inner freedom takes place in the violent atmosphere of a prison where both internal and
external resistance must be overcome.
German title: DIE EROBERUNG DER INNEREN FREIHEIT
80min | 35mm | DigiBeta | BetaSP | PAL | original German version with English subtitles available
COSMIC STATION
by Bettina Timm SCIENCE | ADVENTURE
Solaris in Armenia. At an altitude of 3.500 metres, half-ruined concrete shelters project from Aragaz
mountain among snow-covert summits. A pyramid, some strange devices, pipes. Rusty wire rise to
the sky – this place is in direct contact with outer space. Once built by the Soviet Union as one of
the most ambitious projects of modern space research, there was neither money nor interest in the
study of cosmic rays after the country fell apart. A staff of six are holding the fort at the "High Altitude
Scientific Station": forgotten, isolated, unterred, tackling the universe with screw-drivers. In a setting
that seems to date from the age of the steam machine, they direct their eyes to the future of mankind.
Pulling endless cables (where? what for?), calling commands into a cracking field telephone, helping
the women hang up the laundry, staring silently into their evening vodka. Carefully constructed,
the film keeps a constant balance between an elegy of forlornness, captured by cinemathographer
Alexander Riedel's long travelling shots, and the humour of an omnipresent absurdity. An ode to persistence
– even if no one can be absolutely sure that the rest of the world hasn't perished long ago.
Festivals: Nyon, Oberhausen, Karlovy Vary, Marseille, Golden Apricot/Armenien, DOK Leipzig, Vancouver
30min | 35mm | Armenian/English version with German subtitles available
COSMONAUT POLYAKOV
by Dana Ranga
Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov is nr. 66 in the line of Soviet,
later Russian space travelers – he holds the record of the longest
trip into space, 1 year and 2 month without disruption. He is
a solitary figure in the comonauts' club, both a daredevil and
a fragile man, a doctor and an object of experimentation. He
tested the limits of body and mind, of bones and soul, of belief
and dream.
After going through the hardship of an orphan's life after
World War II, he became a physican and donated his blood and marrow for experiments on interplanetary
flights. As a scientist and cosmonaut he has not only improved life on a space station, but
proved that man could fly to Mars ...
In this film he speaks for the very first time – about the KGB, the psychological hardship on Earth waiting
for his flight, about being an exile on Earth after his return. Polyakov reveals the immense struggle
a space traveler has to go through: accurate, strategic planning of the spaceflight system meets the
hopeful human being. Only in space are dreams becoming true, where the cosmonaut is alone with
his self. In the weightlessness the mind meets infinity and the body learns about a new dimension.
110min | orignal Russian version with English subtitles available
512
german documentaries 2009
World Sales:
Deckert Distribution
Marienplatz 1
04103 Leipzig, Germany
tel.: +49 (0) 341-2156638
fax: +49 (0) 341-2156639
info@deckert-distribution.com
Contact:
Pelle Film GbR
Alexander Riedel & Bettina Timm
Baaderstr. 45 / Rgb
80469 Munich, Germany
tel/fax +49 (0) 89-2802210
info@pelle-film.de
Contact:
Dana Ranga
Motzstr. 88
10777 Berlin, Germany
tel,: +49 (0) 30-21475048
info@danaranga.com
www.cosmonaut-polyakov.com