Quarterly 2 · 2008 - German Films
Quarterly 2 · 2008 - German Films
Quarterly 2 · 2008 - German Films
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong><br />
<strong>Quarterly</strong> 2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
AT CANNES<br />
Un Certain Regard WOLKE 9 by Andreas Dresen<br />
Cinéfondation GESTERN IN EDEN by Jan Speckenbach<br />
Critics’ Week DAS FREMDE IN MIR by Emily Atef<br />
PORTRAITS<br />
90 Years of ARRI,<br />
Directors Pepe Danquart & Sylke Enders,<br />
Producer 23|5 Film, and Actor Andreas Schmidt
In Competition<br />
PALERMO SHOOTING<br />
by Wim Wenders<br />
Producer: Neue Road Movies/Berlin<br />
World Sales: HanWay <strong>Films</strong>/London<br />
Un Certain Regard<br />
TULPAN<br />
by Sergey Dvortsevoy<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producer: Pandora Film/Cologne<br />
World Sales: The Match Factory/Cologne<br />
GERMAN FILMS AND<br />
IN THE OFFICIAL PROGRAM OF<br />
Directors’ Fortnight<br />
SALAMANDRA<br />
by Pablo Aguero<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producer: Rohfilm/Leipzig & Berlin<br />
In Competition<br />
DELTA<br />
by Kornél Mundruczó<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producer:<br />
Essential Filmproduktion/Berlin<br />
World Sales: Coproduction Office/Paris<br />
Cinéfondation<br />
GESTERN IN EDEN<br />
THE OTHER DAY IN EDEN<br />
by Jan Speckenbach<br />
Producer/World Sales: Deutsche Film- &<br />
Fernsehakademie (dffb)/Berlin<br />
Critics’ Week<br />
DAS FREMDE IN MIR<br />
THE STRANGER IN ME by Emily Atef<br />
Producer: NiKo Film/Berlin<br />
World Sales: Bavaria Film<br />
International/Geiselgasteig<br />
In Competition<br />
WALTZ WITH BASHIR<br />
by Ari Folman<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producer: Razor Film/Berlin<br />
World Sales: The Match Factory/Cologne<br />
Atelier<br />
WOMB<br />
by Benedek Fliegauf<br />
<strong>German</strong> Producer: Razor Film/Berlin<br />
Critics’ Week<br />
DER KLOANE<br />
THE RUNT by Andreas Hykade<br />
Producer/World Sales:<br />
Studio Film Bilder/Stuttgart
CO-PRODUCTIONS<br />
THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL <strong>2008</strong><br />
In Competition<br />
LE SILENCE DE LORNA<br />
by Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producers: Mogador Film/<br />
Frankfurt-Berlin & Gemini Film/Cologne<br />
World Sales: Celluloid Dreams/Paris<br />
Cannes Classics<br />
LOLA MONTEZ<br />
by Max Ophuels<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producers: Gamma Film, Oska-Film,<br />
Union-Film/Munich<br />
World Sales: Les <strong>Films</strong> du Jeudi/Paris<br />
Critics’ Week<br />
BETTER THINGS<br />
by Duane Hopkins<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producer: Flying Moon<br />
Filmproduktion/Berlin<br />
World Sales: Celluloid Dreams/Paris<br />
Un Certain Regard<br />
WOLKE 9<br />
CLOUD 9 by Andreas Dresen<br />
Producer: Rommel Film/Berlin<br />
World Sales: The Match Factory/Cologne<br />
Midnight Special<br />
SURVEILLANCE<br />
by Jennifer Lynch<br />
<strong>German</strong> Producer: Lago Film/Berlin<br />
World Sales: Arclight <strong>Films</strong>/Los Angeles<br />
Critics’ Week<br />
LA SANGRE BROTA<br />
BLOOD APPEARS by Pablo Fendrik<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producer: Neue Cameo Film/Cologne<br />
World Sales: Coach14/Paris & Barcelona<br />
Un Certain Regard<br />
O’ HORTEN<br />
by Bent Hamer<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producer: Pandora Film/Cologne<br />
World Sales: The Match Factory/Cologne<br />
Directors’ Fortnight<br />
LIVERPOOL<br />
by Lisandro Alonso<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producer: Black Forest <strong>Films</strong>/Berlin<br />
World Sales: The Match Factory/Cologne<br />
Critics’ Week<br />
SNOW<br />
by Aida Begic<br />
<strong>German</strong> Co-Producer: Rohfilm/Leipzig & Berlin<br />
All photos courtesy of producers and world sales agents. Credits not contractual.
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> <strong>Quarterly</strong> 2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
6<br />
12<br />
14<br />
16<br />
18<br />
20<br />
26<br />
27<br />
28<br />
28<br />
29<br />
30<br />
31<br />
32<br />
33<br />
33<br />
34<br />
35<br />
36<br />
37<br />
38<br />
39<br />
40<br />
42<br />
43<br />
portrait 90 YEARS OF ARRI<br />
MAKING YOUR VISION A REALITY<br />
directors’ portraits<br />
ON THE BORDER<br />
A portrait of Pepe Danquart<br />
CONTRADICTIONS & SANDCASTLES<br />
A portrait of Sylke Enders<br />
producers’ portrait<br />
PART OF THE PROCESS<br />
A portrait of 23|5 Filmproduktion<br />
actor’s portrait<br />
SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL<br />
A portrait of Andreas Schmidt<br />
news<br />
in production<br />
13 SEMESTERS<br />
Frieder Wittich<br />
66/67<br />
Carsten Ludwig, Jan-Christoph Glaser<br />
FRAEULEIN STINNES FAEHRT UM DIE WELT<br />
Erica von Moeller<br />
GEGEN DEN STROM<br />
Jan Fehse<br />
GEORGE TABORIS MEIN KAMPF<br />
Urs Odermatt<br />
DIE GESCHICHTE VOM BRANDNER KASPAR<br />
Joseph Vilsmaier<br />
HANNA’S WORDS<br />
Andreas Struck<br />
JERICHOW<br />
Christian Petzold<br />
LIPPELS TRAUM<br />
Lars Buechel<br />
DIE PERLMUTTERFARBE<br />
Marcus H. Rosenmueller<br />
PINK TAXI<br />
Uli Gaulke<br />
SCHATTENMENSCHEN<br />
Darioush Shirvani<br />
THE THREE INVESTIGATORS –<br />
THE SECRET OF TERROR CASTLE<br />
Florian Baxmeyer<br />
UNTER STROM<br />
Zoltan Paul<br />
WERTHER<br />
Uwe Janson<br />
DIE WUNDERSAME WELT DER WASCHKRAFT<br />
Hans-Christian Schmid<br />
ZWISCHEN HEUTE UND MORGEN<br />
Fred Breinersdorfer<br />
new german films<br />
ALLEALLE<br />
Pepe Planitzer<br />
AUGE IN AUGE – EINE DEUTSCHE FILMGESCHICHTE<br />
EYE TO EYE – ALL ABOUT GERMAN FILM<br />
Michael Althen, Hans Helmut Prinzler
44<br />
45<br />
46<br />
47<br />
48<br />
49<br />
50<br />
51<br />
52<br />
53<br />
54<br />
55<br />
56<br />
57<br />
58<br />
59<br />
60<br />
61<br />
62<br />
63<br />
64<br />
65<br />
66<br />
67<br />
71<br />
75<br />
BERLIN AM MEER BERLIN BY THE SEA<br />
Wolfgang Eissler<br />
COMEBACK<br />
Maximilian Plettau<br />
DR. ALEMÁN<br />
Tom Schreiber<br />
DWK 5 – DIE WILDEN KERLE THE WILD SOCCER BUNCH 5<br />
Joachim Masannek<br />
DIE ENTDECKUNG DER CURRYWURST<br />
THE INVENTION OF THE CURRIED SAUSAGE<br />
Ulla Wagner<br />
DIE FRAU DES ANARCHISTEN THE ANARCHIST’S WIFE<br />
Marie Noëlle, Peter Sehr<br />
DAS FREMDE IN MIR THE STRANGER IN ME<br />
Emily Atef<br />
GESTERN IN EDEN THE OTHER DAY IN EDEN<br />
Jan Speckenbach<br />
DIE HANDWERKER GOTTES GOD’S CRAFTSMEN<br />
Siegmar Warnecke<br />
ICH WILL DA SEIN – JENNY GROELLMANN<br />
THE BALLAD OF JENNY G.<br />
Petra Weisenburger<br />
IM JAHR DES HUNDES IN THE YEAR OF THE DOG<br />
Ursula Scheid<br />
LAUF UM DEIN LEBEN – VOM JUNKIE ZUM IRONMAN<br />
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE – FROM JUNKIE TO IRONMAN<br />
Adnan G. Koese<br />
LOVE, PEACE & BEATBOX<br />
Volker Meyer-Dabisch<br />
MEINE MUETTER – SPURENSUCHE IN RIGA<br />
TWO MOTHERS – THE SEARCH BEGAN IN RIGA<br />
Rosa von Praunheim<br />
MEIN TRAUM ODER DIE EINSAMKEIT IST NIE ALLEIN<br />
MY DREAM OR LONELINESS NEVER WALKS ALONE<br />
Roland Reber<br />
MEMORY BOOKS<br />
Christa Graf<br />
NOVEMBERKIND NOVEMBER CHILD<br />
Christian Schwochow<br />
DIE OESTERREICHISCHE METHODE THE AUSTRIAN METHOD<br />
Florian Mischa Boeder, Peter Boesenberg, Gerrit Lucas, Erica von Moeller, Alexander Tavakoli<br />
PLATTLN IN UMTATA SHOESLAPPING IN AFRICA<br />
Peter Heller<br />
SOMMER SUMMER<br />
Mike Marzuk<br />
SOMMERSONNTAG SUMMER SUNDAY<br />
Sigi Kamml, Fred Breinersdorfer<br />
TROUBLE – TEATIME IN HEILIGENDAMM<br />
Mind Pirates<br />
DER WEISSE MIT DEM SCHWARZBROT<br />
WHITE MAN WITH BLACK BREAD<br />
Jonas Grosch<br />
WOLKE 9 CLOUD 9<br />
Andreas Dresen<br />
film exporters<br />
foreign representatives <strong>·</strong> imprint
90 YEARS OF ARRI<br />
MAKING YOUR VISION A REALITY<br />
The ARRI Group is the world's largest manufacturer and distributor<br />
of motion picture cameras, digital intermediate systems and lighting<br />
equipment. The company, with headquarters in Munich, was founded<br />
over 90 years ago by the filmmakers August Arnold and Robert<br />
Richter, and has continually introduced revolutionary technologies<br />
such as the reflex mirror shutter, the ARRIFLEX 435 camera and the<br />
ARRILASER film recorder. Today, the ARRI Group is one of the key<br />
global players in the business; the company’s 12 scientific and engi -<br />
neer ing Oscars ® for numerous state-of-the-art products attest to this<br />
fact. Innovation, reliability and high quality are the cornerstones of the<br />
company’s philosophy as well as the goals of the product development,<br />
manufacturing and service teams. ARRI is in the unique posi tion<br />
of being manufacturer and end-user at the same time. Its sub si diaries,<br />
such as Rental and Film & TV, get to test the latest tech nologies under<br />
‘real-life’ conditions and, through an ongoing dialogue with product<br />
development engineers, optimize the technology as well as the workflows.<br />
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FOR NATIONAL &<br />
INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS<br />
The ARRI Rental Group provides equipment and services for domes -<br />
tic and international film productions. Major hubs in Munich, New<br />
York and London work with subsidiaries and partners across the<br />
globe to give productions access to a worldwide rental network. With<br />
its state-of-the-art camera, lighting and grip equipment, and its experienc<br />
ed team, the ARRI Group can assist even the most complex projects<br />
such as feature film productions shooting on tight schedules in<br />
multiple locations. Recently, such productions have included The<br />
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (director: Andrew Adamson, pro-<br />
german films quarterly portrait the ARRI group<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 6<br />
The young filmmakers and founders of the company:<br />
August Arnold and Robert Richter
duction company: Walden Media, locations: Prague, New Zealand);<br />
Green Zone (director: Paul Greengrass, production company:<br />
Working Title <strong>Films</strong>, locations: Morocco, Spain, England); and last but<br />
not least the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace (director:<br />
Marc Forster, production company: EON Productions, locations:<br />
England, Chile, Panama, Austria). As well as feature films, the ARRI<br />
Group has a proven track record of successfully servicing major television<br />
series and dramas, as well as top-end commercials for the most<br />
demanding of clients.<br />
Having access to such an efficient network of rental facilities puts production<br />
teams at ease, especially when that network is manned by a<br />
workforce that can assist in even the most unforeseen and com -<br />
plicated situations. In addition, ARRI is a renowned all-in-one postproduction<br />
house, with facilities in Munich and Berlin servicing<br />
acclaim ed national and international film and television projects as<br />
well as commercial productions. The post-pro duction division recently<br />
expanded by bringing the Swiss company Schwarzfilm, based in<br />
Bern, on board and by opening an additional facility in Zurich. ARRI<br />
german films quarterly portrait the ARRI group<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 7<br />
On the set of “Der Mongole” ARRI Head Office Munich
On the set of “The Company”: Michael Zimbrich, Ben Nott,<br />
Michael Carella, Mikael Salomon (photo © Jan Thijs)<br />
Michelle Dockery in the Mob Film Co./Sky TV production “Hogfather”<br />
customers can now count on high quality servi ce in five locations<br />
across <strong>German</strong>y and Switzerland.<br />
Recently, <strong>German</strong>-international projects such as Perfume – The Story<br />
of a Murderer and The International have exclusively used ARRI Rental<br />
and ARRI Film & TV for all their rental and post-production needs.<br />
ARRI continues to promote its unique ability to assist clients through<br />
the full filmmaking workflow by offering rental as well as postproduction<br />
services.<br />
FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN: ONE-STOP SHOP<br />
The collaboration of the rental and post-production departments<br />
offers film productions all over the world a unique ‘from script to<br />
screen’ service. ARRI customers can arrive with a script and leave<br />
with a finished film! The ‘one-stop shop’ philosophy is possible be -<br />
cause ARRI offers consulting, planning, budgeting, assistance (in -<br />
cluding on location), equipment as well as services. This in turn en -<br />
sures that the available rental and post-production resources are<br />
german films quarterly portrait the ARRI group<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 8
utilized to the fullest extent, resulting in nothing less than the best possible<br />
production support. State-of-the-art technology and ARRI’s<br />
highly competent staff, with its creative sensibilities and technological<br />
know-how in all areas – including camera and lighting equipment as<br />
well as a nalogue and digital post-production – are the guarantors.<br />
THE PERFECT SOLUTION FOR EACH JOB<br />
ARRI Rental offers the complete range of 16, 35 and 65 mm cameras,<br />
lenses and accessories. Also available are digital cameras such as the<br />
ARRIFLEX D-21, which was recently introduced at the NAB SHOW.<br />
Available lighting systems include standard products such as the<br />
ARRISUN 40/25, the Compact 1200 and the new True Blues range<br />
as well as the high-end ARRIMAX – the world’s most powerful HMI<br />
light, and the new MaxMover remote automated stirrup. Besides all<br />
this, the company offers ARRI Motion Control Systems, stabilized<br />
remote heads and telescopic cranes, as well as the latest dolly equipment<br />
from leading manufacturers. Such equipment can be supplied<br />
german films quarterly portrait the ARRI group<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 9<br />
ARRI Lighting Rental Munich<br />
Lustre Grading Suite
Stage 1 Sound<br />
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” DoP Karl Walter Lindenlaub with an ARRICAM ST<br />
worldwide through special in-house, tailor-made logistic solutions,<br />
proven by productions like The Bourne Ultimatum (director: Paul<br />
Greengrass, studio: Universal pictures, locations: USA, UK and<br />
Europe) for which equipment was supplied from various ARRI Rental<br />
outlets worldwide according to the individual location of each set.<br />
Digital technology continues to set new stand ards and is increasingly<br />
used on highly sophisticated film, television and commercial productions.<br />
These types of productions require the most advanced equipment,<br />
such as the ARRI LASER film recorder and the ARRI SCAN digital<br />
film scanner. In Europe, ARRI is among the market leaders when<br />
german films quarterly portrait the ARRI group<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 10
DoP Florian Emmerich keeps up pace with Matt Damon (photo © Jasin Boland/2007 Universal Studios)<br />
it comes to digital intermediate (DI) processes. In <strong>German</strong>y, the company<br />
set up the first DI grading suite featuring Lustre grading software<br />
and Barco 2K projectors, allowing ARRI to offer digital color correction<br />
for feature films under movie theater conditions.<br />
ARRI’s Berlin facility now features Europe’s largest grading cinema,<br />
with a 500 square foot screen, 23 seats and a 2K digital projector. It<br />
has also successfully completed the transition from a film lab, focusing<br />
primarily on television productions, to a fully-fledg ed post-production<br />
facility featuring cutting-edge technology. This benefits the high-end<br />
national and international productions which film in and around Berlin.<br />
But its location is not the only advantage of ARRI Berlin; it offers a<br />
wide range of services and con siderable facilities, which provide perfect<br />
conditions for the completion of sophisticated and involved productions.<br />
ARRI’s experienced and dedicated team of color graders are well<br />
versed in analogue as well as digital post-production. The com petent<br />
and motivated team honed their skills in the VFX department as well<br />
as in the related video and film post-pro duction di vision. The company’s<br />
graphic designers have the know-how and the creative ideas necessary<br />
to create an impressive opening for any film. State-of-the-art<br />
data transmission technology and sophisticat ed work flows assure a<br />
seamless collaboration between various ARRI depart ments and facilities.<br />
Last but not least, there is also the ARRI cinema: with its 32 x 14<br />
foot screen and 360 seats it plays a vital role in a unique production<br />
chain that incorporates co ordinated color management. Thanks to<br />
the cinema’s market leading analogue and digital projectors, ARRI<br />
customers can view their project under movie theater conditions not<br />
only when it is completed, but at all stages of production.<br />
DIGITAL CINEMA – THE NEW WAVE<br />
Anticipating the needs of the cinema of the future, ARRI Film & TV is<br />
expanding its service range by adding digital cinema technologies. The<br />
latest developments in information and digital projection technology<br />
as well as in data compression continue a trend towards ‘digita -<br />
lization’ of the film business at all stages. ARRI Film & TV offers a<br />
start-to-finish solution for the production of digital cinema content.<br />
For this purpose ARRI developed its own tools and integrated them<br />
into the ARRI post-production workflow. The specifications adhere<br />
to the Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC (DCI) as well as SMPTE stand -<br />
ards. This workflow offers the greatest possible flexibility, quality and<br />
security to ARRI customers.<br />
NOW AND FOREVER<br />
In today’s world most films are finished digitally, but it is not yet possib<br />
le to archive films in digital form. With its separation master service,<br />
ARRI Film & TV offers a film-based option for the long term storage<br />
of DI data. For this process a black & white separation master<br />
negative is used, because unlike color stock, the black & white emulsion<br />
remains stable over many years. ARRI therefore recommends<br />
that clients shoot on film (still the best possible acquisition format),<br />
post in 4K and archive on separation masters.<br />
ARRI Media Worldsales was founded in 2000 as a division of the<br />
ARRI Group, a world sales company selling theatrical, video and TV<br />
rights (license rights). The company specializes in <strong>German</strong> arthouse<br />
films, TV movies, miniseries and documentaries. Its portfolio includes<br />
the renowned Heimat trilogy by Edgar Reitz and its latest theatrical<br />
production is Clara by Helma Sanders-Brahms. In the TV sector ARRI<br />
Media Worldsales cooperates closely with the production company<br />
LISA FILMPRODUKTION (which has made TV series such as Ein<br />
Schloss am Woerthersee). The company has also distributed further<br />
high-level TV events like Queen of Cherries by Rainer Kaufmann, an<br />
NDF production made in collaboration with ZDF/ARTE.<br />
Full contact information for the entire ARRI group is available at<br />
www.arri.de.<br />
german films quarterly portrait the ARRI group<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 11<br />
The Film Style Digital Camera ARRIFLEX D-21
Pepe Danquart (photo © Jim Rakete/photoselection)<br />
DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT<br />
Pepe Danquart studied Media & Communication at Freiburg<br />
University from 1975-1981 and was a founding member of the Media<br />
Workshop Freiburg (MWF). He made around 30 documentaries,<br />
docu-dramas and short films as an author-director-producer within<br />
the MWF film and video collective from 1978-1988. In 1983, the<br />
national documentary prize of the <strong>German</strong> Film Critics Association<br />
was presented to the Media Workshop for its “entire output”. In<br />
1991, Pepe left the collective and made the move from Freiburg to<br />
Berlin where he made the short Black Rider (Schwarzfahrer,<br />
1993), which had its premiere at the Berlinale in 1993 before being<br />
shown at countless film festivals and subsequently received an<br />
Academy Award in the Live-Action Short category. He followed this<br />
by spending two years from 1994-1996 in the Bosnian town of<br />
Mostar during the war making the film Off Season (Nach<br />
Saison, 1996) which premiered in Berlin in 1997. In 2000, he re -<br />
ceived a <strong>German</strong> Film Award in the Best Director category for his<br />
documentary Home Game (Heimspiel, 2000), the first of his<br />
sports trilogy followed by Hell on Wheels (Hoellentour, 2004)<br />
and To the Limit (Am Limit, 2007). He has also directed such<br />
films as the international thriller Semana Santa (2002), shot in<br />
Spain and starring Mira Sorvino, Olivier Martinez, Alida Valli, Feodor<br />
Atkin; the gangster comedy C(r)ook (2004) with Moritz Bleibtreu,<br />
Henry Huebchen, Corinna Harfouch, and Josef Hader; and the Adolf<br />
Grimme Prize-nominated musical film In the Heart of Light<br />
(2002), written by Andre Heller and starring Jessye Norman, Deedee<br />
Bridgewater, Christina Branco, and Sheila Chandra. Last year, he<br />
received a nomination at the European Film Awards in the Best<br />
Documentary category for To the Limit which picked up a<br />
Bavarian Film Award this January and was nominated in the category<br />
Best Documentary for the <strong>2008</strong> <strong>German</strong> Film Awards. Apart from his<br />
work as a director-writer, Danquart has also taught Film Directing at<br />
various film schools in <strong>German</strong>y such as the dffb in Berlin, the Baden-<br />
Wuerttemberg Film Academy in Ludwigsburg, and the Academy of<br />
Fine Arts in Hamburg. His other films include: Daedalus (docudrama,<br />
1991), … And Other Emissions (video, 1992),<br />
Phoolan Devi – Rebellion of a Female Bandit (co-director,<br />
documentary, 1995), Old Indians Never Die (documentary, TV,<br />
1995), Itinerary Alsace – Notes from a <strong>German</strong> Film -<br />
maker (essay film, TV, 1996), Playboys (short, 1998), Release<br />
(TV, 2000), A Day of Passion (commercial, 2006), and<br />
Schattenschwester (currently in development).<br />
Contact:<br />
Charade Kuenstleragentur <strong>·</strong> Antje Schlag<br />
Joseph-Haydn-Strasse 1 <strong>·</strong> 10557 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-32 77 93 4 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-32 77 93 55<br />
email: artists@charade-agentur.com <strong>·</strong> www.charade-agentur.com<br />
ON THE BORDER<br />
A portrait of Pepe Danquart<br />
“I’ve always been on the border, crossing between genres, and regard<br />
myself as an artist and director rather than as the documentary or feature<br />
filmmaker, or the theater man. Putting people into compartments<br />
is not my thing,” says Pepe Danquart whose interest as a child for<br />
photography and painting led him to make his own Super 8 films<br />
during his teenage years.<br />
His interest in film continued when he began studying Communication<br />
Studies at the University of Freiburg where he met Miriam Quinte<br />
(who later became his wife) and Bertram Rothemund with whom he<br />
founded the Medienwerkstatt Freiburg in 1977. “We established our<br />
own Super 8 scene and later discovered the medium of video,”<br />
Danquart recalls. “We shot away like mad, everything was fresh,<br />
radical and subjective without the filter of a funder or commissioning<br />
editor. After five years we had developed a new aesthetic and left our<br />
mark on the documentary film scene.”<br />
In the course of 15 years the Medienwerkstatt produced over 30 films<br />
german films quarterly director’s portrait<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 12
as a filmmakers’ collective, but Danquart then made a break with the<br />
workshop with the making in 1989/1990 of Daedalus, a science<br />
fiction film with documentary elements which – for the first time –<br />
bore his name as director.<br />
Soon after, he made the move to Berlin … with the idea for a short<br />
film which was realized as Black Rider and premiered at the<br />
Berlinale in 1993. The film was then shown at countless film festivals<br />
around the world and received an Academy Award in the Live-Action<br />
Short category the following year.<br />
“News of winning the Oscar ® had a tremendous reaction,” Danquart<br />
says, “I had been a ’no name’ without any infrastructure in Berlin and<br />
this prize suddenly brought me my own identity after the time in the<br />
collective.”<br />
He admits that everybody wanted him to try his hand at a fiction<br />
feature film after the Oscar ® triumph, but a meeting with Hans Robert<br />
Eisenhauer, then head of the thematic evenings for ARTE, changed all<br />
of this.<br />
“He asked if I might like to go to Bosnia for two years to accompany<br />
Hans Koschnick in Mostar who was trying to bring a separated town<br />
together. I didn’t know what I should be doing there as I didn’t know<br />
the language or the story, but I traveled there to do some research<br />
and was so taken by the fates of these people. It was a gut reaction –<br />
like so many in my life – to just disappear for two years after the<br />
Oscar ® to make a documentary for the cinema about the war in<br />
black-and-white and on 35 mm.”<br />
In between working on Off Season, as the project was called,<br />
Danquart made his “summer films” such as the road movie documentary<br />
Old Indians Never Die during breaks away from the<br />
war zone.<br />
“Off Season won about everything that you could win,” he recalls.<br />
“It was nominated in the Best Film category at the <strong>German</strong> Film<br />
Awards because there wasn’t a documentary category at the time,<br />
and that was a real satisfaction to be among the top five best films of<br />
the year. As this film showed, I have always trusted my instinct to do<br />
things I feel strongly about and not because they will serve my<br />
career.”<br />
Since then, Danquart has moved effortlessly between working on<br />
feature films and documentaries, always wanting to cross borders and<br />
trying his hand at different genres and forms of expression. “I think my<br />
work in fictional as well as the documentary field have influenced one<br />
another,” he explains. “The last three documentaries in the sport<br />
trilogy – Home Game, Hell on Wheels, and To the Limit –<br />
are in essence the creation of a new form, conjuring up a staged<br />
documentary cinematic experience which has a clear dramaturgical<br />
structure with turning points and climaxes, and characters like in a<br />
thriller, but you are nevertheless dealing with real people. I had a complete<br />
ly controlled situation like working on a fiction film and that was<br />
great fun to do.”<br />
Danquart is likely to be good for more surprises in the future as well:<br />
still very much the border-hopper, he is currently developing what he<br />
calls an “aerial road movie”, a joint venture between Japan, <strong>German</strong>y<br />
and France which would present “a new dimension of documentary<br />
filmmaking" and be "a film for extra-terrestrials about this world!”<br />
Before that he is likely to start shooting on his next feature film<br />
Schattenschwester which will be produced by Berlin-based<br />
Ziegler Film. “It is a very important project for me about a borderline<br />
personality disorder. It is based on the diary of a young girl during her<br />
stay in a clinic. There is a parallel to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and the<br />
secret diary of Laura Palmer, but this here is a real case. The young<br />
woman reappraised her own childhood and the abuse in the past<br />
while she was in the clinic. It is the drama of a woman who is fighting<br />
for her life, and this moved me so that I really wanted to make it into<br />
a film. It will be quite demanding for me both in the narrative plot as<br />
well as the visual realization to be able to present the inner and outer<br />
life of this young woman.”<br />
Danquart has already recruited veteran cinematographer Ed<br />
Lachman, who worked with his “regular” DoP Wolfgang Thaler on<br />
Ulrich Seidl’s Import Export, to the project, and “Shooting Star <strong>2008</strong>”<br />
Hannah Herzsprung is attached to play the central lead figure.<br />
“Hannah is good at playing broken characters,” he says. “The emotional<br />
shifts, the intensity of joy and hatred – these are all things she<br />
can portray.”<br />
At the same time, Danquart has not restricted himself to only work -<br />
ing as director of documentaries and fiction films: he has directed<br />
music videos since 1995 and became a successful director of commercials<br />
since 2005, mostly for the company Bigfish. “The work here<br />
is very useful for my other films because I can try things out,” he<br />
notes. “And I get to meet a lot of very talented young people working<br />
here as cameramen, costume designers and so on. They are an<br />
inspiration for me with their new view of the world. Here is a new<br />
generation used to multi-tasking and working with computers.<br />
Working with them keeps me young.”<br />
And his stage production Human Voices which was inspired by the film<br />
In the Heart of Light has also had a crossover effect on his other<br />
work: Christoph Israel, who was musical director for the staging at<br />
Bar jeder Vernunft in Berlin subsequently wrote the music for<br />
Danquart’s documentary To the Limit.<br />
While he has served as a creative partner for his wife Miriam’s<br />
Freiburg-based production company Quinte Film on such projects as<br />
Austrian documentary filmmaker Michael Glawogger’s trilogy<br />
Megacities, Workingman’s Death and Whores’ Glory, Danquart has his<br />
own ambitions in the sphere of fiction feature films and, to this end,<br />
founded a new production outfit called Bittersuess Pictures with the<br />
commercials company Bigfish Productions: “We have 4-5 projects in<br />
development and hope to have the first one shooting next year.”<br />
Pepe Danquart spoke with Martin Blaney<br />
german films quarterly director’s portrait<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 13
Sylke Enders (photo © Stephan Rabold)<br />
DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT<br />
Sylke Enders grew up in the 1970s in Kleinmachnow, in the former<br />
GDR. Her mother was a bookkeeper, her father a social scientist.<br />
Excelling at getting expelled from school and unable to fulfill her<br />
dream of film directing, she studied Sociology at the Humboldt<br />
University in Berlin but had to leave in 1986 due, again, to behavioral<br />
issues. After pursuing a career in unemployment and homelessness<br />
she became a doorkeeper at Berlin’s Volksbuehne theater. She made<br />
her first short AWO, about bikers, which sold to western TV. Then<br />
she married, emigrated to the West and studied Social and Business<br />
Communication at the Berlin University of Arts. From 1990 she work -<br />
ed as a script and continuity consultant and director’s assistant, then<br />
entered the <strong>German</strong> Film & Television Academy (dffb) in 1996, graduating<br />
in 2002. Since then she’s worked as a director and writer.<br />
While at the dffb, she made the short, Kroko, which she turned into<br />
a feature in 2003. It picked up the <strong>German</strong> Film Award in Silver 2004<br />
and was nominated for the European Newcomers Film Award in<br />
2004 as well as the First Steps Award in 2003. Then came Hab mich<br />
lieb! (2004) and in 2007, Mondkalb, her third feature, which open -<br />
ed the Hof 2007 festival and was in competition at the Max Ophuels<br />
Festival Saarbruecken <strong>2008</strong>. She is currently working on several projects.<br />
Contact:<br />
Henschel SCHAUSPIEL Theaterverlag Berlin GmbH<br />
Marienburger Strasse 28 <strong>·</strong> 10405 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-44 31 88 88 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-44 31 88 77<br />
email: verlag@henschel-schauspiel.de <strong>·</strong> www.henschel-schauspiel.de<br />
CONTRADICTIONS<br />
& SANDCASTLES<br />
A portrait of Sylke Enders<br />
The tea is brewing, but there’s a lack of biscuits, despite her having been<br />
asked to bring some, which means Sylke Enders is hitting the chocolate.<br />
She’s as relaxed as she can be, given she’s in a stranger’s apartment<br />
and I’m between her and the door, but she opens up from the get go.<br />
“I’m a real Zone Kid!” she says of her upbringing, laughing heartily. “I<br />
wasn’t an unhappy child, despite several disciplinary problems, but<br />
they did mean I lost my place at the university. In those days, it was<br />
possible to study in Moscow or Lodz as a post-graduate but that was<br />
out, so aged eighteen I took myself off to discover more of life and<br />
society and the eternal fight of the individual against the latter.”<br />
While “opening doors and welcoming directors and actors” at the<br />
Volksbuehne theater in Berlin, Enders made her first film, AWO,<br />
“about a motorbike gathering in Saxony. There were 600 bikers and<br />
350 ’Awos’, that’s a special name for a motorbike. They thought, with<br />
my leather jacket, short hair and Japanese camera, I was from the<br />
West or the secret police!” AWO later got sold to western TV and<br />
Enders collected yet another disciplinary hearing! “Then I met a man,<br />
got married and emigrated to West <strong>German</strong>y!”<br />
In what could quite easily come from a film script and proves life is,<br />
well, like that, Enders applied to the University of Arts in West Berlin<br />
german films quarterly director’s portrait<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 14
“via a Dutch diplomat who smuggled my application over. I got accept<br />
ed the day I got out of the GDR!”<br />
Her dream of directing neither gone nor forgotten, Enders met the<br />
now deceased producer, Rudi Kaufmann, who was making the film<br />
Kinderspiele with Wolfgang Becker and for whom “I was Best Girl –<br />
girl for everything! Afterwards, I decided to stay close to directors to<br />
learn by doing, hence script continuity. I did that for ten years.”<br />
Getting into the dffb finally gave her the chance to study what she<br />
really wanted.<br />
“I’d already written scripts,” Enders explains, “and applied to other<br />
schools, but it was very hard with my personality! I still don’t know<br />
what the problem is! Babelsberg felt I was too objective and not emotional<br />
enough. Then I met someone who’d been there, he read my<br />
documents and advised me to reapply. I got accepted there and also<br />
at the dffb. I went with the dffb because I felt the course was more<br />
practical, given where I was in terms of experience and knowledge.”<br />
Enders then did “the obligatory shorts” and worked, as well, on a special<br />
project for regional broadcaster RBB. “It was a series of student<br />
films called Boomtown Berlin and I wrote about a girl, Kroko. I got the<br />
story about girls and girl gangs from the lighting guy, Lars Paetow.<br />
Afterwards, I was given the opportunity to turn it into a feature and<br />
Lars stayed very close to the project, advising, assisting with the<br />
casting, keeping me credible. I also had Franziska Juenger reprise the<br />
role of Kroko.”<br />
The film, the attention and awards it garnered, acted as Enders’ foundation.<br />
She then made Hab mich Lieb! for her graduation film.<br />
“It’s about fighting for status inside a friendship,” Enders explains. “It’s<br />
based on the basic idea of Waiting for Godot and Franziska had the<br />
main role again.”<br />
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to actually receive a film<br />
award? When Enders won the <strong>German</strong> Film Award for Kroko she<br />
was “heavily pregnant, and desperate for food! I heard the announcement,<br />
Artiste, and thought ’Hey! There aren’t any others! I’m the only<br />
one!’ I was more worried about my skirt sitting properly and my<br />
mother asking why I wasn’t dressed better!”<br />
She then tells how Kroko was shown in a school and, afterwards,<br />
the teacher told her that children who rarely uttered a word had been<br />
the ones doing the most asking and talking. “That hour,” says Enders,<br />
“made the film worth it for me.”<br />
Three years on and she’s now a mother, Enders made Mondkalb<br />
(2007) and, for the first time is stumped by one of my questions:<br />
what’s it about? Unwilling to be nailed down, still wrestling with the<br />
themes of her own creation, she talks of relationships to violence,<br />
against oneself, others and children, and that “I needed 100 minutes<br />
to tell a very complex story.”<br />
Now working on up to five projects, she’s keen to push Kokon,<br />
“about a woman who helped someone to die. And Ein hauch<br />
von … which is about a 40-year-old family father who fights for his<br />
self-respect after his mother dies, has a crisis and is unemployed.”<br />
While we might have to wait a bit for Enders to make her first comedy,<br />
she is, in reality, a very funny woman. “I like lively, vital films with<br />
a pinch of humor,” she admits. “I like films that tell the story with a<br />
light touch.” Inspired by American films from the 1960s and 70s, she<br />
reels off the names of Cassavetes, Penn, Schlesinger, Forman and<br />
Bogdanovich, then adds Danish director Susanne Bier, who made<br />
Open Hearts and Brothers: “I like the mixture of very interesting<br />
figures, contradictory figures, unsentimentally told but still very emotional.”<br />
Not a great watcher of TV, Enders prefers to let zapping be her program<br />
guide! “Discovery is fun,” she says. “It has something magical<br />
about it. The films you need come to you at the right time, just like<br />
the stories sometimes do! By that I mean mostly documentaries. I find<br />
they’ve become almost essential. I think actors should be made to<br />
watch them to see how people express their feelings in reality.<br />
Genuine, deep feelings flash for a millisecond. I find that very interesting.”<br />
When casting, Enders looks “for someone who can listen and wants<br />
to. Someone who doesn’t know they know a lot: they need to be<br />
curious. They should listen because they have to act as if they don’t<br />
know much just yet. And they mustn’t take themselves too seriously.”<br />
Her hobbies include reading, “novels from all centuries, anything I can<br />
get my hands on!” Again, she lets serendipity do the work: “I trust<br />
things to come to me! I don’t go into bookshops: my friends’ libraries<br />
are my source!”<br />
Enders is, above all, grounded. “Filmmaking is a privilege,” she readily<br />
admits. “It should be used to try things out and also to keep making<br />
mistakes because they’re the best thing that can happen to you!<br />
Wanting to direct has something childish about it. Building sandcastles<br />
again, a second world. You can conjure more out of the first one or<br />
de-magic it entirely!” And then she trots out one of her own contradictions:<br />
“I would also love to make a Tatort!”<br />
Sylke Enders spoke with Simon Kingsley<br />
german films quarterly director’s portrait<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 15
Britta Knoeller, Hans-Christian Schmid (photo © Gerald von Foris)<br />
PRODUCERS’ PORTRAIT<br />
It is now four years since Hans-Christian Schmid, the director<br />
of such films as It’s a Jungle Out There (Nach fuenf Im Urwald), 23,<br />
Distant Lights and Crazy, decided to launch his own production company<br />
23|5 Filmproduktion in early 2004.<br />
“I had moved to Berlin in 2000 and I wanted to have here what I’d had<br />
with Claussen+Woebke+Putz in Munich,” Schmid recalls. “A base for<br />
the films I wanted to make. A more egoistical reason was that I want -<br />
ed to own my films. I was also interested in working with other<br />
people and not just thinking about my next film. It appealed to me to<br />
be involved in projects from the very beginning, and I was also keen to<br />
be part of the process after a film is completed, how it is released in<br />
the cinema.”<br />
The name 23|5 Filmproduktion is, naturally, connected with Schmid’s<br />
1999 film 23, starring August Diehl and Fabian Busch, “and the 5 is<br />
then the sum of the digits. Of course, there is another side to the<br />
company name for those people who are aware of the Illuminati.”<br />
23|5 Filmproduktion GmbH was founded by <strong>German</strong> film<br />
director Hans-Christian Schmid in April 2004. Britta<br />
Knoeller, who previously worked for X Filme Creative Pool, joined<br />
the company as a producer in August 2005 and is now a shareholder<br />
and managing director together with Schmid. The company’s goal is to<br />
produce feature films and documentaries for theatrical release. These<br />
can be films from and by Hans-Christian Schmid as well as projects<br />
from other authors and directors. A main focus is on the thorough<br />
development of scripts and the support of young writers. Requiem,<br />
the first feature film produced and directed by Schmid, premiered in<br />
the Official Competition in Berlin in 2006 where Sandra Hueller<br />
won the Silver Bear for Best Actress and the film was awarded the<br />
FIPRESCI Prize. Requiem won five <strong>German</strong> Film Awards – including<br />
Best Film in Silver, Best Lead Actress and Best Supporting Actress.<br />
Several national and international festivals and awards followed, in -<br />
cluding invitations to Karlovy Vary, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro and<br />
Warsaw. The company’s second theatrical feature film And Along<br />
Come Tourists (Am Ende kommen Touristen) by Robert<br />
Thalheim was shot entirely on location in Poland in 2006 and had its<br />
world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes in 2007.<br />
23|5 is currently producing Schmid’s documentary Die wundersame<br />
Welt der Waschkraft and has a number of projects in develop<br />
ment: Schmid’s political thriller Storm (Sturm), the <strong>German</strong>-<br />
French co-production La Lisiere by Geraldine Bajard, a children’s<br />
feature Mein Sommer mit Molomok, and projects by screenwriters<br />
Markus Busch and Daniel Nocke.<br />
Contact:<br />
23|5 Filmproduktion<br />
Methfesselstrasse 23 <strong>·</strong> 10965 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-76 76 82 0 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-76 76 82 29<br />
email: info@235film.de <strong>·</strong> www.235film.de<br />
PART OF THE PROCESS<br />
A portrait of 23|5 Filmproduktion<br />
“We looked for a concrete project to make this step into production<br />
and decided that Requiem would be the right one to start off with,”<br />
says Schmid, who was able to draw on the services of several people<br />
from Claussen+Woebke+Putz such as Uli Putz and Peter Dress to<br />
oversee the film’s production.<br />
Starring Sandra Hueller, Imogen Kogge and Burghart Klaussner,<br />
Requiem premiered in the Official Competition of the Berlin<br />
International Film Festival in 2006 where Sandra Hueller won the<br />
Silver Bear for Best Actress and the film was awarded the FIPRESCI<br />
Prize. Requiem subsequently won five <strong>German</strong> Film Awards – including<br />
Best Film in Silver, Best Lead Actress and Best Supporting Actress<br />
– and was nominated in another five categories.<br />
In August 2005, Schmid was joined by Britta Knoeller in the company<br />
after she had overseen the post-production on Requiem, and has<br />
also been a shareholder and managing director since May 2007.<br />
Previous to this, she had been an intern at Claussen+Woebke+Putz<br />
german films quarterly producers’ portrait<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 16
in Munich, worked as an assistant director for various projects, and<br />
was the assistant to Maria Koepf at X Filme for three years until the<br />
end of 2004.<br />
23|5’s second film – And Along Come Tourists – was the<br />
company’s first to be directed by someone other than Schmid. “We<br />
came across the project pretty much at the same time. Britta had read<br />
an early draft of the treatment and I met Robert Thalheim in Slubice<br />
because he had made a short film about the <strong>German</strong>-Polish border<br />
and it was shown there with my Distant Lights,” Schmid recalls.<br />
“Funnily enough, this <strong>German</strong>-Polish relationship has not let go of me<br />
since Distant Lights: I have continued working with my Polish DoP<br />
Bogumil [Godfrejow] and the interest in our neighbor is just as keen<br />
as shown by my upcoming documentary Die wundersame Welt<br />
der Waschkraft [about the journey made by dirty bed-linen from<br />
Berlin’s 5-star hotels to laundries in Poland]. The idea for this film<br />
came from a newspaper article I had read, and I immediately thought<br />
that it was like a missing episode from Distant Lights. It was a<br />
spontaneous reaction to make the film.”<br />
For Schmid, who had studied at Munich’s University of Television &<br />
Film (HFF/M), it was the first time that he had directed a documentary<br />
since his graduation film Die Mechanik des Wunders in 1992 about<br />
his home town of Altoetting in Bavaria. Since then, he had only been<br />
involved in the shooting of one other documentary when he served<br />
as cameraman in Poland for Michael Gutmann’s contribution to the<br />
Denk’ ich an Deutschland series. “It was a very new experience for me<br />
after 15 years and really exciting,” Schmid observes.<br />
Currently in post-production, Die wundersame Welt der<br />
Waschkraft will be released theatrically in <strong>German</strong>y by Piffl<br />
Medien and is being handled internationally by Bavaria Film<br />
International.<br />
At the same time, Schmid is preparing his own next feature project –<br />
Storm – for 23|5 which will see him reunited with Requiem screen -<br />
writer Bernd Lange, this time as co-writers.<br />
“We are both fans of New Hollywood Cinema and political thrillers,<br />
and of films which function for a good part of the time as dramas<br />
alongside the thriller elements,” says Schmid.<br />
The €6.4 million project is set to be co-produced by 23|5 with<br />
Zentropa Berlin and Cologne, the Zentropa mother company in<br />
Denmark, and the new Zentropa Amsterdam outpost with an international<br />
cast this summer at locations in Bosnia and the Netherlands<br />
and interiors in a <strong>German</strong> studio. Piffl Medien is already lined up as<br />
<strong>German</strong> distributor, with Trust Film Sales as the international sales agent.<br />
“The film is about a prosecutor at the war tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia<br />
in The Hague who is trying to persuade a witness to come to the<br />
court to give evidence,” Schmid explains. “The woman has to risk a<br />
lot and confront her past trauma, but it eventually turns out that there<br />
is resistance from the outside as well as within the tribunal to this eviden<br />
ce being made public. The tribunal does not operate in a vacuum,<br />
but is embedded in a political context and dependent on financial<br />
backers.”<br />
As to be expected with such subject matter, this project has demand -<br />
ed that two screenwriters undertake a lot of background research,<br />
making trips to The Hague and field research in Sarajevo and Banja<br />
Luka and speaking with prosecutors and defense counsel as well as<br />
people from the Victims and Witnesses Unit and the International<br />
Criminal Tribunal for Ex-Yugoslavia (ICTY).<br />
“Thematically, it is about law, justice and integrity and the question as<br />
to what amount of importance is given to this precious entity of international<br />
law,” Schmid notes.<br />
Meanwhile, Knoeller is working at the same time on the development<br />
of the <strong>German</strong>-French co-production La Lisiere by Geraldine<br />
Bajard which was presented at the <strong>German</strong>-French Rendez-vous in<br />
Munich in 2006 and at the Capital Regions for Cinema co-production<br />
meeting during this year’s Berlinale.<br />
As Knoeller points out, there is no hard and fast division of labor be -<br />
tween herself and Schmid in the company. On a superficial level, she<br />
looks after the production nuts-and-bolts, while Schmid focuses on<br />
the artistic side. “But I am not someone who is just interested in the<br />
figures. I am just as keen at being involved in the phase of story development<br />
and the discussions on the screenplays,” she adds.<br />
“Of course, it is a great advantage to have somebody like Hans-<br />
Christian in the company who is making his own films apart from<br />
those of the other filmmakers,” she says. “But with La Lisiere, for<br />
example, I discovered this project and will continue with the development.<br />
We discuss the project together, but it is more with me.<br />
Moreover, Hans-Christian is not just involved in artistic matters for<br />
there were moments on And Along Come Tourists where he<br />
was very much playing the producer and looking at his watch.”<br />
“We complement one another,” Schmid continues. “My interest is<br />
also, of course, to know how the film will be produced, what will the<br />
budget and financing plan look like. And the same goes for Britta’s<br />
interest in the storylines.”<br />
“A particular focus for us is on developing the screenplays thoroughly,”<br />
Knoeller stresses. “All of the projects have needed longer in the<br />
development phase than originally scheduled. But it paid off as far as<br />
And Along Come Tourists is concerned, which we shot a year<br />
later than planned. We have also worked very intensively on the screen -<br />
play for La Lisiere and the writing process has taken longer on<br />
Storm as well. But I don’t think that is a bad thing because there are<br />
too many films in <strong>German</strong> cinemas where the scripts don’t seem fully<br />
developed.”<br />
As for the future, 23|5 has plenty to keep it busy: a children’s feature<br />
Mein Sommer mit Molomok is in development for production<br />
next year, and new projects by screenwriters Markus Busch and<br />
Daniel Nocke are currently in the treatment stage.<br />
Hans-Christian Schmid and Britta Knoeller spoke with Martin Blaney<br />
german films quarterly producers’ portrait<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 17
Andreas Schmidt (photo © Jennifer Bressler)<br />
ACTOR’S PORTRAIT<br />
Andreas Schmidt initially studied <strong>German</strong> and Philosophy at<br />
Berlin’s Free University before taking private acting lessons under<br />
Hilla Preuss and attending seminars in directing by Edward Zebrowski,<br />
Filip Bajon, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieslowski. He sub -<br />
sequently appeared on the stage in Mannheim, Dortmund and Berlin<br />
before making his film acting debut in Reinhard Hauff ’s Linie 1 in<br />
1988. There is a particular link between Schmidt and the Irish-born<br />
filmmaker Eoin Moore: he appeared in one of the director’s shorts<br />
and Moore’s graduation film Plus Minus Null from Berlin’s dffb<br />
and has since worked with him on another three features and a TV<br />
movie. In 2003, he was nominated in the category of Best Lead Actor<br />
for the <strong>German</strong> Film Award for his role in Moore’s Pigs Will Fly<br />
and received another nomination three years later in the Best<br />
Supporting Actor category for his performance in Andreas Dresen’s<br />
Summer in Berlin (Sommer vorm Balkon). Schmidt has<br />
also appeared in: Black Rider (Schwarzfahrer, dir: Pepe<br />
Danquart, short, 1993), Life Is All You Get (Das Leben ist<br />
eine Baustelle, dir: Wolfgang Becker, 1996), Conamara (dir:<br />
Eoin Moore, 1999), Crazy (dir: Hans-Christian Schmid, 1999),<br />
Heidi M. (dir: Michael Klier, 2000), Balls (Maenner wie wir,<br />
dir: Sherry Hormann, 2003), Farland (dir: Michael Klier, 2003), Bin<br />
ich sexy (dir: Katinka Feistl, 2003), Im Schwitzkasten (dir: Eoin<br />
Moore, 2004), Das Gespenst von Canterville (dir: Isabel<br />
Kleefeld, TV, 2004), Gefangene (dir: Ian Dilthey, 2005), Cataract<br />
(dir: Sainath Choudhury, short, 2005), Neandertal (dir: Ingo Haeb,<br />
2005), the Tatort episode Aus der Traum (dir: Rolf Schuebel, TV,<br />
2006), Rudy – The Return of the Racing Pig (Renn -<br />
schwein Rudi Ruessel 2, dir: Peter Timm, 2006), Polizeiruf 110:<br />
Jenseits (dir: Eoin Moore, TV, 2006), The Counterfeiters<br />
(Die Faelscher, dir: Stefan Ruzowitzky, 2007), Fleisch ist mein<br />
Gemuese (dir: Christian Goerlitz, 2007), Tatort: Borowski und<br />
das Maedchen im Moor (dir: Claudia Garde, TV, 2007), Die<br />
Tage sind endlich (dir: Bernd Boehlich, 2007), and Tatort: Der<br />
tote Chinese (dir: Hendrik Handloegten, TV, <strong>2008</strong>).<br />
Seeing Marlon Brando as the ex-prizefighter Terry Malloy in Elia<br />
Kazan’s On the Waterfront started Andreas Schmidt’s fascination<br />
with the acting profession.<br />
“I must have been 13 or 14 when I saw the film and something very<br />
special happened,” Schmidt recalls. “I had the feeling for the first time<br />
that here was somebody portraying something that came from his<br />
innermost being, something very valuable. Brando definitely triggered<br />
off something.”<br />
Contact:<br />
VELVET Management<br />
Neue Schoenhauser Strasse 16 <strong>·</strong> 10178 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-3 92 60 78 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-39 90 39 54<br />
email: info@agentur-velvet.de <strong>·</strong> www.agentur-velvet.de<br />
SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL<br />
A portrait of Andreas Schmidt<br />
However, drama school wasn’t the destination he aimed for after fin -<br />
ish ing school. “I wanted to learn about writing and so decided to study<br />
<strong>German</strong> at the Free University in Berlin,” Schmidt continues, pointing<br />
out that he began taking private acting lessons during his studies and<br />
then attended a series of seminars on directing given by such filmmakers<br />
as Agnieszka Holland and the late Krzysztof Kieslowski. “I knew<br />
then that I was more at home with the film world because I would<br />
have a better opportunity of learning how to structure a story than at<br />
the university.”<br />
german films quarterly actor’s portrait<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 18
Breaking off his studies, he decided to embark on an actor’s career<br />
without having attended drama school. “At the time, I was rather<br />
distrustful of authority and never applied to any of the drama<br />
schools,” he observes. “Today, I would go to drama and film school<br />
and want to learn everything!”<br />
Nevertheless, the budding young actor had engagements in theaters<br />
in Mannheim, Dortmund – where he was encouraged in his writing<br />
ambitions by a friend and scriptwriter of Adolf Winkelmann, Jost<br />
Krueger – and Berlin before being cast in his first larger film role in<br />
Reinhard Hauff ’s adaptation of the Grips Theater musical Linie 1 in<br />
1988.<br />
He had appeared in TV movies by such directors as Winkelmann,<br />
Marco Serafini and Dominik Graf as well as a small part in Pepe<br />
Danquart’s Oscar ® -winning short Black Rider and Wolfgang<br />
Becker’s Berlinale competition film Life Is All You Get when he<br />
got to know the Irish-born filmmaker Eoin Moore who was studying<br />
at Berlin’s <strong>German</strong> Film & Television Academy (dffb) at the time.<br />
“I was producing a short film and looking for a sound man,” Schmidt<br />
says, “and came across Eoin who was also a member of a film computer<br />
mailbox I had set up. He later asked me if I would like to take<br />
on the lead in his graduation film Plus Minus Null. I was a bit skeptical<br />
about the prospect but, after the first rehearsals, I felt so at ease.<br />
It was the best film shoot I have ever had and a deep friendship developed<br />
between the two of us.”<br />
Indeed, an inside-joke between the two of them are the slight chang -<br />
es to the name of Schmidt’s character in three of their collaborations:<br />
Alex in Plus Minus Null, Axel in Conamara, and Laxe in Pigs<br />
Will Fly, although the series was not continued for Im<br />
Schwitzkasten – where Schmidt was called Toni Neer – or his<br />
secondary role in the Jenseits episode of the Polizeiruf 110 crime<br />
series.<br />
While Schmidt has had his fair share of working-class characters to<br />
play – he hails from the Berlin district of Maerkisches Viertel – he<br />
admits to being frustrated at times that TV commissioning editors<br />
cannot be more flexible in their thinking of how to cast him. “Just<br />
because I have played a man who beats his wife [in Pigs Will Fly],<br />
then I can only play such parts, or you’re always a policeman. I don’t<br />
know why the editors can’t imagine me as a doctor or a professor of<br />
literature, but they think that I’ll always play the good prole because I<br />
come from a particular area of Berlin. As a rule, though, I tend to play<br />
weird characters, what I’d call outlaws or people outside of society.”<br />
At the same time, he stresses that he has “the opportunity to work<br />
on some great projects at the moment and am really happy about<br />
what is happening with the cinema in <strong>German</strong>y now. It is quite different<br />
from how the situation was in the 80s. Moreover, it’s one of the<br />
nice advantages when you have come along a bit in your career that<br />
you can use your name to get a project moving. I really like the fact<br />
that my name can have such a value.”<br />
Schmidt has also kept up the collaboration with Berlin’s dffb which he<br />
began with Eoin Moore on Plus Minus Null: “Whenever time<br />
allows, I always try to make myself available as an actor for the students’<br />
entrance examination,“ he explains, “because I learn an awful<br />
lot from these young people. I then have a connection to a whole year<br />
of students and I’m always curious whenever someone comes to me<br />
later with an interesting project.”<br />
But acting is only one of the strings in Schmidt’s bow. Together with<br />
friends from Maerkisches Viertel, he formed the <strong>German</strong> country<br />
rock band – Lillies Grosse Liebe – where he was the lead singer in the<br />
late 1980s and has since composed songs for Plus Minus Null and<br />
an episode of Polizeiruf 110 by Bernd Boehlich.<br />
He has also followed his interest in writing over the years: his play Die<br />
sieben Todsuenden (The Seven Deadly Sins) was staged at the Komoedie<br />
am Kurfuerstendamm in 2006 and he is now completing the second<br />
draft of a screenplay for a feature film project.<br />
Furthermore, while Schmidt has not appeared on stage now for more<br />
than 10 years, the theater has not lost its grip on him: he has made a<br />
name for himself in recent years as a theater director with such productions<br />
as David Gow’s Cherry Docs at the Berliner Vagantenbuehne<br />
and Kristof Magnusson’s Maennerhort (70% rewritten by Andreas<br />
Schmidt and the acting ensemble). Meanwhile, his staging of Agnes<br />
Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri’s Und abends Gaeste (Cuisine et<br />
Dependances) has been running at the Komoedie am<br />
Kurfuerstendamm since the end of February this year.<br />
Whether he will make the move from theater director to film director<br />
remains to be seen, although he admits that he has had several<br />
enquiries thanks to his work in the theater. “But that is a profession<br />
on its own which you must learn,” Schmidt warns. “I wouldn’t rule out<br />
the possibility that I will direct a film in the future but I would really<br />
like to prepare things properly. As an actor, I’m not afraid of working<br />
with actors but it is all about finding the right cinematic language and<br />
timing is quite different than in the theater.”<br />
Andreas Schmidt spoke with Martin Blaney<br />
german films quarterly actor’s portrait<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 19
Norbert Maas, Oliver Mahrdt, Thomas Grube, Uwe Dierks (photo © Karin Kohlberg)<br />
NEWS 2/<strong>2008</strong><br />
GERMAN PREMIERES IN NEW YORK & ROME<br />
For its second <strong>German</strong> Premiere in New York this year, <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong><br />
presented the documentary Trip to Asia – The Quest for Harmony by<br />
Thomas Grube in January in the ‘Big Apple’. Together with the<br />
director, producer Uwe Dierks and sales agent Norbert Maas were<br />
also on hand for the event. Mid-April saw the presentation of Adnan<br />
G. Koese’s Run for Your Life – From Junkie to Ironman, with Max Riemelt<br />
(Napola, The Wave) in the leading role of real-life triathlete Andreas<br />
Niedrig.<br />
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> also organized for the fourth time a <strong>German</strong> Premiere<br />
mid-March in Rome. Sales agent Sebastian Kiesmueller of Bavaria<br />
Film Inter national presented Keinhorhasen in the well-known Quattro<br />
Fontane cinema to more than a dozen buyers.<br />
AG KURZFILM IN ANNECY<br />
Supported by <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong>, <strong>German</strong> animated films will be given a<br />
special platform at this year’s International Festival of Animated Film<br />
in Annecy. Under the title GermAnimation, the AG Kurzfilm –<br />
<strong>German</strong> Short Film Association, <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong>, the <strong>German</strong><br />
Institute for Animated Film (DIAF) and the Association of <strong>German</strong><br />
Animation Producers (VdAP) will be present with a booth at the<br />
festival’s film market MIFA for the first time. The MIFA is one of the<br />
biggest business venues for animated film worldwide. In cooperation<br />
with the MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Animations Department of<br />
the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg and the Festival of Animated<br />
Film Stuttgart, the <strong>German</strong> Reception is another meeting point for<br />
filmmakers and industry professionals. It is scheduled for 10 June <strong>2008</strong><br />
at 6pm at the hotel Le Clos Marcel. Idyllically situated at the Lac<br />
german films quarterly news<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 20
d’Annecy, the reception provides the ideal opportunity for a relaxed<br />
meeting of animation professionals from all over the world.<br />
The Annecy Film Festival is one of the world’s most renowned festivals<br />
specializing in animated films. Numerous prizes are awarded in the<br />
various sections. Among the short films competing for the Annecy<br />
Cristal this year is the latest film by Izabela Plucinska, 7 More Minutes.<br />
The section Graduation <strong>Films</strong> will screen A6/A9 by Johannes Schiehsl,<br />
My Happy End by Milen Vitanov, My Rusty Dusty Head by Moonjoo<br />
Lee, Red Rabbit by Egmont Mayer, Sapmi by Max Lang and Jan<br />
Lachauer as well as Ver rueck tge spiegel t by Tim Romanowsky.<br />
Altogether, fourteen short animations from <strong>German</strong>y have been select<br />
ed for screening in different sections of the festival.<br />
CENTRAL GERMANY – THE BEST STATION<br />
Numerous large international projects with world-class star ensembles<br />
and support from Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung<br />
(MDM) are currently in production in Central <strong>German</strong>y. The adaptation<br />
of Bernhard Schlink’s international best seller The Reader was partially<br />
shot in Goerlitz and united Hollywood stars like Kate Winselt<br />
and Ralph Fiennes with great <strong>German</strong>-speaking talent like Bruno Ganz<br />
and Susanne Lothar as well as with up-and-coming young actors like<br />
David Kross, Hannah Herzsprung and Karoline Herfurth. Another high -<br />
light in the area is The Last Station, which is being shot in the Leipzigbased<br />
MCA Studios. Oscar ® -winner Helen Mirren and Christopher<br />
Plummer play the lead roles in this drama about the last days of the<br />
Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Another Oscar ® -winner, France’s multitalent<br />
Julie Delpy, is shooting The Countess at the famous Wartburg<br />
Castle and the Kriebstein Castle. William Hurt and <strong>German</strong> top star<br />
Daniel Bruehl are starring along with Delpy in this historical adap -<br />
tation of the life of Elisabeth Bathory, who went down in history as<br />
“the Blood Countess”. And soon provocateur Michael Haneke will be<br />
shooting his thriller Das weisse Band in the area too.<br />
KINOWELT PRESENTS LUBITSCH’S<br />
“THE LOVES OF PHARAOH”<br />
The Loves of Pharaoh was Ernst Lubitsch’s last big film production shot<br />
in Berlin with thousands of extras and dozens of horses, with Emil<br />
Jannings playing the lead of Pharaoh Amenes. After that Lubitsch left<br />
Europe to continue his career in the USA. In order to impress the<br />
Hollywood film industry, the film had it’s premiere in New York on 22<br />
February 1922. It was a huge success and well-appreciated by the<br />
audience and critics alike. However, after World War II there were no<br />
prints of the film in existence. It became a so-called “lost movie”.<br />
Sixty years later the Filmmuseum Munich discovered and restored,<br />
from 2004 – 2006, the film out of one fragment of a Russian print and<br />
a second one out of an Italian print brought into the project by the<br />
George-Eastman-House archive. The digital restoration was made by<br />
Alpha-Omega (also responsible for the restoration of Metropolis by<br />
Fritz Lang) with the original music score composed by Eduard<br />
Kuenneke. The newly restored version is about 90% of the original<br />
version, with a running time of 120 minutes.<br />
It is certain that this film restoration shows the movie’s original storyline<br />
in a completeness that has not been seen for over sixty years,<br />
including the colorful tints, some of the most popular visual cinematic<br />
appearances of the times. Kinowelt is proud to be presenting this<br />
newly restored masterpiece.<br />
german films quarterly news<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 21<br />
Scene from “The Loves of Pharaoh” (photo courtesy of Kinowelt)
Scene from “The Frozen Sea”<br />
(photo © naked eye filmproduction)<br />
GERMAN SHORT FILM AWARD ON TOUR<br />
On behalf of the <strong>German</strong> Minister of State for Culture and Media, the<br />
<strong>German</strong> Short Film Association (AG Kurzfilm) will be<br />
organizing the event “<strong>German</strong> Short Film Award on Tour” during the<br />
next three years. Awarded since 1956, the <strong>German</strong> Short Film Award<br />
is the most prestigious and highest endowed award for short films in<br />
<strong>German</strong>y.<br />
Together with the partners KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg (short film distri<br />
butor) and Bundesverband kommunale Filmarbeit (association of<br />
non-commercial cultural cinemas) three short film programs have<br />
been compiled of the nominees and award winners. In April, the tour<br />
had its premiere at the Filmfest Dresden, which celebrated its 20th<br />
anniversary this year. Starting in May, the short film programs will be<br />
touring <strong>German</strong> cinemas until October. With a reorientation of the<br />
tour, the AG Kurzfilm intends to reach a wider audience and to in -<br />
crease the presence of short films in <strong>German</strong> cinemas. As for the next<br />
tour, which will start at the end of this year, it is planned to extend the<br />
tour to an international level and to cooperate with other European<br />
premium awards. More information can be found at www.kurzfilm<br />
preisunterwegs.org.<br />
FILMS, STARS & DISCUSSIONS<br />
Watch and talk about films: that is the tried and true concept of the<br />
International Film Congress, organized by the <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW<br />
from 7 – 10 July <strong>2008</strong>.<br />
The event, taking place within the medienforum.nrw, is once again this<br />
year offering previews of productions backed by the <strong>Films</strong>tiftung<br />
NRW in the showcase “KinoSpecials” as well as five discussion rounds<br />
on current film industry topics. Some of the topics to be included are<br />
the challenges of digitalization, the amendment to the Film Funding<br />
Law, the current short film situation, the subject of migration in film,<br />
and the requirements of literary adaptations. The convention will be<br />
complemented by a workshop organized between the <strong>Films</strong>tiftung<br />
NRW and the producers’ network ACE. Up-to-date information on<br />
the panels and participants is available at www.filmstiftung.de.<br />
Registration forms for the International Film Congress can be requested<br />
from: filmkongress@filmstiftung.de.<br />
DOKVILLE <strong>2008</strong><br />
The main topic of this year’s annual meeting of the <strong>German</strong>-speaking<br />
documentary scene will be the Internet, which is not only changing,<br />
but also revolutionizing the production, marketing and distribution of<br />
documentary films. The Internet provides a platform to effectively<br />
advertise and market films online. But can films also be financed via<br />
the Internet? Are new forms necessary to reach the “Online<br />
Generation”? Can the Internet offer documentary filmmakers a new<br />
sense of freedom? Are media companies in control of it all? And what<br />
role do television broadcasters play in offering their programs online?<br />
Can professional filmmakers compete with user-generated content?<br />
These are but a few of the hot topics to be discussed at the MFG<br />
Baden-Wuerttemberg-funded industry meeting Dokville <strong>2008</strong>:<br />
Dokumentarfilm 2.0. Registration forms and up-to-date information<br />
can be attained from: www.dokville.de.<br />
MEET & GREET GERMAN SHORTS<br />
IN CANNES<br />
During the last years, the AG Kurzfilm – <strong>German</strong> Short Film<br />
Association has established a platform for <strong>German</strong> short films in<br />
the traditionally feature film-centered atmosphere of the Cannes Film<br />
Festival. The major event is the Short Film Lounge organized by AG<br />
Kurzfilm, the BMW Group and <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> as a meet-and-greet<br />
reception for the short film scene in Cannes. This year it will have a<br />
more exclusive character, as it is being held on the terrace of the<br />
Hotel Palais Stéphanie on May 17th. Directors, buyers and festival<br />
representatives are given the chance to meet personally and establish<br />
business contacts.<br />
Additionally, with the support of <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong>, international buyers<br />
and festivals once again have the opportunity to access <strong>German</strong> short<br />
films in the Short Film Corner. This year’s selection includes some of<br />
german films quarterly news<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 22<br />
Scene from “Shift” (photo © Nico Zingelmann/<br />
Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg)
the most recent <strong>German</strong> short films such as the short fictions Summer<br />
Sunday by Sigi Kamml and Fred Breinersdorfer and Shift by Nico<br />
Zingelmann. To provide an additional service for industry profes -<br />
sionals, the short films presented in the Short Film Corner are avail -<br />
able on the new volume of the <strong>German</strong> Short <strong>Films</strong> DVD edition. The<br />
short film distributors Interfilm Berlin and KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg<br />
will also present a selection of their latest short film acquisitions in the<br />
Short Film Corner.<br />
LOCATION HAMBURG SCHLESWIG-<br />
HOLSTEIN ON THE UPWIND<br />
Since the beginning of the year, some 40 different projects have been<br />
in preparation and shooting in the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein<br />
area, including numerous crime series, TV movies and feature films<br />
like Lars Jessen’s latest film Buddies (a Neue Mira production), Ina<br />
Weisse’s Rigor Mortis (Reverse Angle Production), Die Tuer by Anno<br />
Saul with Mads Mikkelsen in the leading role (Wueste Film), and Ben<br />
Verbong’s Laura (Elsani Film).<br />
According to statistics from the Film Commission of the Filmfoerderung<br />
Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, from January to<br />
May eleven features, 32 TV movies, crime series and other series,<br />
as well as three short films were shot in Hamburg and Kiel. Antje<br />
Reimer and Christiane Scholz were in contact with all of the pro -<br />
duction companies and could offer them their comprehensive services<br />
in the area. Favorite locations in Hamburg included the harbor, classic<br />
scenes along the Alster River and streets and squares in Hamburg’s<br />
“in” districts. In Schleswig-Holstein the harbour and the coastal<br />
areas were among the productions’ favorites. A big location tour of<br />
the area is planed for June. More information is available at:<br />
www.fchsh.de.<br />
ALLIANCE OF GERMAN PRODUCERS<br />
FILM & TELEVISION FOUNDED<br />
On 3 March <strong>2008</strong>, the newly founded Alliance of <strong>German</strong><br />
Producers – Film & Television held its first general assembly in<br />
Berlin. Representatives of the 75 founding members gathered to elect<br />
the first board and to meet with the Minister of Cultural Affairs, the<br />
Minister of Justice, members of Parliament and of the other organizations<br />
of the <strong>German</strong> film and television industry. The Alliance brings<br />
together theatrical producers and producers of TV fiction as well as<br />
entertainment and non-fiction programs. It is driven by the firm belief<br />
that only a joint representation of all producers in <strong>German</strong>y will give<br />
producers a voice that will be heard in the current discussion on the<br />
future development of the audiovisual market in <strong>German</strong>y. Three previous<br />
organizations of film, television and entertainment producers<br />
(Bundesverband, film20 and AGEP) have been merged into the new<br />
organization. The Alliance is looking for a strong representation in<br />
Brussels and is aiming to strengthen the cooperation with its counterparts<br />
in other European countries.<br />
german films quarterly news<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 23<br />
On the set of “Buddies” (photo courtesy of FFHSH)
GERMAN FILMS AT SUNDANCE <strong>2008</strong><br />
During this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January, <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong><br />
launched a party on the occasion of Veit Helmer’s world premiere of<br />
his feature film Absurdistan, shown in the festival’s World Cinema<br />
Dramatic Competition. Also invited into competition was The Wave<br />
(Die Welle) by Dennis Gansel, which is currently running very well in<br />
<strong>German</strong> cinemas, and the <strong>German</strong> co-production The Drummer by<br />
Kenneth Bi. The World Cinema Documentary Competition showed<br />
the intense documentary Alone in Four Walls (Allein in vier Waenden) by<br />
Alexandra Westmeier.<br />
BAVARIA MEETS BUCHAREST –<br />
WITH FILM & JAZZ<br />
Just five days after the big NATO conference in Bucharest, the<br />
Bavarian State Minister Eberhard Sinner and FFF Bayern CEO Dr.<br />
Klaus Schaefer, together with a delegation of 15, presented the first<br />
big showcase of <strong>German</strong> films in the Romanian capital.<br />
Best Times, the first part of Marcus H. Rosenmueller’s trilogy, opened<br />
the event in the presence of lead actress Rosalie Thomass, followed<br />
by a reception with world-famous Bavarian beer. Other films in the<br />
program included: Silly’s Sweet Summer by Johannes Schmid, Special<br />
Escort by Maggie Peren, Wild Chicks by Vivian Naefe, Annaluise and<br />
Anton by Caroline Link, and The Wild Soccer Bunch 4 by Joachim<br />
Masannek.<br />
Before the tour of the Castel film site, Gereon Wetzel’s documentary<br />
Castells was presented, as was Alexander Riedel’s Draussen bleiben,<br />
just ahead of its Munich premiere. Hans Steinbichler’s drama Winter<br />
Journey was presented by producer Ulrich Aselmann, who represented<br />
the Association of New Feature Film Producers (AG Spielfilm) in<br />
discussions with key players from the Romanian film industry. Ralf<br />
Westhoff ’s single-comedy Shoppen was then shown to prove just how<br />
laid-back Bavaria can be.<br />
german films quarterly news<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 24<br />
Veit Helmer, Nino Chkheidze, Kristy´na Malérová, Maximilian Mauff (photo © Otto Arsenault)<br />
Bavarian film delegation at Castel Film Studios in Bucharest<br />
(photo courtesy of FFF Bayern)
“One of the strengths of Bavaria’s ‘creatives’ is that they can take any<br />
topic or genre and handle it with the greatest of quality. This, the perfect<br />
infrastructure and the high quality of film technique ‘made-in-<br />
Bavaria’ is what makes Munich such an important film location,” is<br />
how FFF Bayern CEO Dr. Klaus Schaefer summed up Bavaria’s qualities.<br />
A musical highlight of the event was the jazz concert by the<br />
Ametsbichler 5, who were accompanied by the renowned Bucharest<br />
pianist Mircea Tiberian.<br />
13TH BABELSBERG MEDIA AWARDS<br />
On 13 June <strong>2008</strong>, the Film & Television Academy “Konrad Wolf ” in<br />
Potsdam-Babelsberg will host the 13th Babelsberg Media Awards. The<br />
event, which is under the patronage of <strong>German</strong>y’s First Lady Eva Luise<br />
Koehler, will award GWFF and RBB promotion prizes for the<br />
Best Graduation Film (feature and documentary), endowed with<br />
€18,000 each, and the GWFF-funded Erich Kaestner Television<br />
Award, endow ed with €25,500 in prize money. Further information is<br />
available from www.babelsbergermedienpreise.de.<br />
Airport Offices:<br />
München<br />
( 089/97 58 07-0<br />
Fax 089/97 59 52 82<br />
muc@multi-logistics.de<br />
GERMAN DOCS ON<br />
A WINNING STREAK<br />
This spring is proving to be a hot<br />
one for <strong>German</strong> documentaries.<br />
Director Volker Koepp was award -<br />
ed the Grand Prix for his film Elder<br />
Blossom at the recent Cinéma du<br />
Réel in Paris (7 – 18 March). Gerd<br />
Kroske’s Wolli in Paradise – also in<br />
the festival’s competition section –<br />
received a Special Mention.<br />
worldwide transport solutions Int. Medienspedition<br />
The 13th International Docu -<br />
mentary Film Festival ‘It’s All True’<br />
in São Paulo (26 March – 6 April)<br />
also named a <strong>German</strong> documentary<br />
as Best Feature-Length Film:<br />
Dana Ranga’s Cosmonaut Polyakov.<br />
The It’s All True program will also be shown in 5 other Brazilian cities<br />
and is one of the most important documentary festivals in Latin<br />
America.<br />
And the 10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (7 – 16 March) gave<br />
the <strong>German</strong>-Greek co-production The Lovers from Axos by Nico<br />
Ligouris three honors: the FIPRESCI Award, the Greek Film Center<br />
Award and the ERT3 Broadcasting Award.<br />
FILMTRANSPORTS . FIRST CLASS SERVICE !<br />
AIRFREIGHT WORLDWIDE:<br />
EXPORT . IMPORT . WAREHOUSE<br />
INTERNATIONAL COURIERSERVICE:<br />
WORLDWIDE „DOOR TO DOOR“<br />
TRUCKING SERVICE . OVERNIGHT<br />
FESTIVALS . FILMPRODUCTION-HANDLING<br />
Frankfurt<br />
( 069/69 52 36-0<br />
Fax 069/69 52 36 15<br />
fra@multi-logistics.de<br />
Berlin<br />
( 030/412 20 34<br />
Fax 030/412 20 94<br />
ber@multi-logistics.de<br />
www.multi-logistics.de<br />
Hamburg<br />
( 040/50 75 15 73<br />
Fax 040/50 75 25 36<br />
ham@multi-logistics.de<br />
german films quarterly news<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 25<br />
GmbH<br />
Volker Koepp (photo © Mélodie Penet/Cinéma du Réel <strong>2008</strong>/<br />
Bibliothèque Publique d’information/Centre Pompidou)
IN PRODUCTION<br />
13 Semesters<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Comedy, Comingof-Age-Story<br />
Production Company Claussen+Woebke+Putz<br />
Filmproduktion/Munich, in co-production with HR/Frankfurt,<br />
ARTE/Mainz With backing from Hessen Invest,<br />
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) Producers<br />
Jakob Claussen, Uli Putz Director Frieder Wittich Screenplay<br />
Frieder Wittich, Oliver Ziegenbalg Director of Photography<br />
Christian Rein Production Design Tamo Kunz Editor Marty<br />
Schenk Principal Cast Max Riemelt, Alexander Fehling, Robert<br />
Gwisdek, Claudia Eisinger, Amit Shah Casting Suse Marquardt<br />
Besetzungsbuero/Berlin Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby<br />
Digital Shooting Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in Darmstadt,<br />
March – May <strong>2008</strong> <strong>German</strong> Distributor 20th Century Fox<br />
(<strong>German</strong>y)/Frankfurt<br />
Contact<br />
Claussen+Woebke+Putz Filmproduktion GmbH<br />
Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse 27 <strong>·</strong> 80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-23 11 01 0 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-26 33 85<br />
email: kontakt@cwp-film.com<br />
www.cwp-film.com<br />
A chance meeting with author Oliver Ziegenbalg set the ball roll -<br />
ing for Frieder Wittich’s feature debut 13 Semesters which<br />
began principal photography at the end of March in the university<br />
town of Darmstadt.<br />
“I was still at the HFF [University of Television & Film] in Munich and<br />
was looking for a story idea for my first feature,” recalls Wittich who<br />
studied Film and Television Direction between 1998 and 2005 and<br />
won several prizes for his short films and commercials. “I read Oliver’s<br />
unpublished novel about his student days and immediately thought:<br />
’This will be my debut’.”<br />
After getting Claussen+Woebke+Putz Filmproduktion<br />
onboard as producer, Wittich and Ziegenbalg set to work on writing<br />
an exposé and a treatment before embarking on the screenplay proper.<br />
“Three-and-a-half years later, the characters in Oliver’s novel<br />
have gone through many a transformation and it was often a case of<br />
kill your darlings,” Wittich says. “For Oliver, it is a coming-of-age story<br />
about being a student. He himself studied Business Mathematics, but<br />
became a writer after finishing university.”<br />
Scene from “13 Semesters” (photo © Dirk Haeger)<br />
13 Semesters follows two friends from an East <strong>German</strong> backwater<br />
town – Momo and Dirk – coming to study in Darmstadt and passing<br />
through the highs and lows of student life over the course of six-anda-half<br />
years.<br />
“It was fascinating for me that we have a story that stretches over such<br />
a long period. This epic nature makes it quite different from all of the<br />
other films set in the student world,” Wittich explains. “You don’t just<br />
have a development with the actors, but also see the changes in the<br />
look of the flat they share together. The flat is like one of the lead characters<br />
so that we have paid particular attention to the set design as<br />
well as the costumes. And we also show the passage of time in the<br />
make-up to show how the characters grow older from the day when<br />
they leave home to go to university to the point of their graduation<br />
after 13 semesters.”<br />
While the screenplay was able to draw largely from Ziegenbalg’s<br />
memories of his own student days, Wittich admits that he could contri<br />
bute some of his own experiences from his time at the HFF and also<br />
did some undercover field research at the refectory of the Technical<br />
University in Munich to get a feeling for the university atmosphere.<br />
“My experience as a student at the HFF was, of course, different from<br />
what you have at normal universities,” he notes. “We had around 30<br />
students on our course whereas there can be another 300 fellow students<br />
in a lecture hall at a big university.”<br />
No stone was left unturned in <strong>German</strong>y during the search for the right<br />
actors to play the main characters: “They needed to be between 20<br />
and 25-years-old and be able to make this travel through time starting<br />
as a freshman at the beginning of the film and ending as a 26-year-old,”<br />
Wittich continues, and is pleased to have such a prestigious lineup of<br />
young actors onboard including Max Riemelt (Napola and The<br />
Wave), Robert Gwisdek (NVA) and Alexander Fehling (And<br />
Along Come Tourists).<br />
Meanwhile, the university town of Darmstadt was chosen as the<br />
comedy’s backdrop because Wittich “didn’t want to have a hip city as<br />
a location, as I am keen to concentrate on the characters and their<br />
studies. Darmstadt is relatively small and we have found some great<br />
locations and will of course be using different parts of the campus.”<br />
13 Semesters is the third film after Marco Kreuzpaintner’s Krabat<br />
and Maggie Peren’s Special Escort to come under the multi-picture distri<br />
bution deal producer Claussen+Woebke+Putz Filmproduktion seal -<br />
ed with 20th Century Fox (<strong>German</strong>y) in 2006.<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 26<br />
MB
66/67<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama<br />
Production Company FRISBEEFILMS/Berlin, in co-production<br />
with jetfilm/Berlin, ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz,<br />
ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from Medienboard Berlin-<br />
Brandenburg, Nordmedia Producers Alexander Bickenbach,<br />
Manuel Bickenbach, Jon Handschin Co-Producers Burkhardt<br />
Althoff, Georg Steinert Directors Carsten Ludwig, Jan-Christoph<br />
Glaser Screenplay Carsten Ludwig Director of Photography<br />
Ngo The Chau Editor Sarah Levine Music by Dirk Dresselhaus<br />
Production Design Petra Albert Principal Cast Fabian<br />
Hinrichs, Christoph Bach, Sibel Kekilli, Maxim Mehmet, Fahri Oguen<br />
Yardim, Bernhard Schuetz, Ludwig Trepte, Victoria Deutschmann,<br />
Aurel Manthei, Christian Ahlers, Marc Zwins Casting Suse<br />
Marquardt Besetzungsbuero/Berlin Format Super 16 mm, blow-up<br />
to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital 5.1 Shooting Language<br />
<strong>German</strong> Shooting in Braunschweig and Berlin, July – August <strong>2008</strong><br />
<strong>German</strong> Distributor Farbfilm Verleih/Berlin<br />
Contact<br />
FRISBEEFILMS GmbH & Co. KG<br />
Alexander Bickenbach<br />
Mulackstrasse 19 <strong>·</strong> 10119 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-24 62 83 30 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-24 62 83 31<br />
email: info@frisbeefilms.com <strong>·</strong> www.frisbeefilms.com<br />
In this rough, gang movie the six members of the football fan club<br />
66/67 are a close-knit bunch, sticking together through thick and thin.<br />
But all too late they realize that their time has run its course and their<br />
potential for violence is steering them towards disaster. They are all<br />
forced to question the basis of their friendship, their love for the team<br />
and their future in their home town.<br />
“We’re interested in the subject, of course, which is very con -<br />
temporary,” say Alexander Bickenbach, 66/67’s producer, “as<br />
well making an ensemble film with upcoming young talent before the<br />
camera and recognized talent behind it. Most of all we deal with re -<br />
levant themes such as friendship, home and when football fandom<br />
becomes football fanaticism.”<br />
For the main characters, 66/67 is about how the individual should<br />
tackle the modern world. It’s easier to cheer on their favorite football<br />
team than to think about their future, staying rooted in a familiar past.<br />
But some of them, such as Ulf, are already thinking of moving on<br />
(He’s applied for a new job in a new town but not told his friends)<br />
Cast of “66/67” (photo courtesy of FRISBEEFILMS)<br />
whilst Otto sees the disaster which is heading Christian’s way, but<br />
does nothing.<br />
“On this level,” Bickenbach continues, “this is a film the vast majority<br />
can relate to, especially in a world which is always making demands<br />
on us; demands that we should always perform more quickly, with<br />
increased digitalization and globalization. Many young people are<br />
unsure if they even want to fight for a place for themselves in such a<br />
world.”<br />
In the face of such challenges, 66/67’s protagonists can still feel the<br />
meaninglessness, almost tragedy, which their attempt to conserve the<br />
past entails.<br />
“The film relies on an explosive mixture of aggression, humor and<br />
subversive behavior,” Bickenbach explains. “It’s authentic and deliberately<br />
aims to be the outsider, the underdog.”<br />
Arthouse specialists FRISBEEFILMS was founded by brothers<br />
Alexander and Manuel Bickenbach (both graduates of the<br />
Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg) in 2006.<br />
66/67 also marks the continuation of the successful teamwork be -<br />
tween FRISBEEFILMS and jetfilm after the feature film Berlin – 1.<br />
Mai, for which the director duo of Ludwig & Glaser made the episode<br />
Ausflug.<br />
The film’s author Carsten Ludwig studied at the <strong>German</strong> Film &<br />
Television Academy in Berlin. A keen football fan himself, he and his<br />
co-director, Jan-Christoph Glaser, “intend to give 66/67 a high<br />
tempo. Viewers will be unable to escape the feeling that the characters<br />
are constantly on the look out, always ready to strike, whether<br />
verbally or physically.”<br />
They are assisted in this by DoP Ngo The Chau, who won the<br />
<strong>German</strong> Camera Award in 2006 for his work on the 600th episode of<br />
the Scene of the Crime (Tatort) detective series.<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 27<br />
SK
Fraeulein Stinnes<br />
faehrt um die Welt<br />
Scene from “Fraeulein Stinnes faehrt um die Welt”<br />
(photo © taglicht media)<br />
Type of Project (Semi-)Fictional Documentary Genre<br />
Docudrama Production Company taglicht media/Cologne<br />
With backing from <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film<br />
Fund (DFFF), MEDIA Producers Bernd Wilting, Uli Veith<br />
Director Erica von Moeller Screenplay Soenke Lars<br />
Neuwoehner Director of Photography Sophie Maintigneux<br />
Editor Gesa Marten Production Design Anina Diener<br />
Principal Cast Sandra Hueller, Bjarne Henriksen Casting Anja<br />
Dihrberg Format HD Digital, 16:9, blow-up to 35 mm, color,<br />
1:1.85, Dolby Stereo Shooting Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in<br />
Morocco, Kommern, Dueren, Cologne, January – February <strong>2008</strong><br />
<strong>German</strong> Distributor Real Fiction Filmverleih/Cologne<br />
World Sales<br />
german united distributors Programmvertrieb GmbH<br />
Silke Spahr<br />
Breite Strasse 48-50 <strong>·</strong> 50667 Cologne/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-2 21-92 06 90 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-2 21-92 06 96 9<br />
email: silke.spahr@germanunited.com<br />
www.germanunited.com<br />
While Annie Lennox was singing with Aretha Franklin in the 1980s<br />
that “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves”, their message came sixty<br />
years too late for Claerenore Stinnes, who decided in 1927 to do it<br />
for herself and became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe<br />
by car. Unfairly lost in the mists of history (although some might argue<br />
that’s due to history being written by men!), her epic story of true-life<br />
adventure and romance with travel companion and cameraman Carl-<br />
Axel Soederstroem is finally hitting the big screen.<br />
Containing film and photographic material the two of them shot on<br />
the way, Fraeulein Stinnes faehrt um die Welt (“Fraeulein<br />
Stinnes Travels the World”) also uses re-enacted footage to depict<br />
the two-year journey and the budding love affair between two<br />
people who came from the most different of backgrounds. But they<br />
first have to overcome the obstacles of the journey itself, as well as<br />
their emotions and social conventions.<br />
Claerenore, essentially the black sheep of the family, was already an<br />
accomplished racing driver by her mid-20s before she decided to<br />
show what she and a “modern” car can do. When her crew alternatively<br />
fell ill and ran off, she was left with Swedish cameraman, Carl-<br />
Axel. And so off they went: Istanbul, Damascus, Tehran, Tiflis,<br />
Moscow, Novosibirsk, Ulan Bator, Beijing, Tokyo, San Francisco,<br />
Panama, La Paz and back via the US, Paris and Berlin – two years in<br />
all.<br />
As producer Bernd Wilting says, “This is a story that, when you<br />
hear it, you don’t believe it. 1927! And the next reaction is, ’I never<br />
knew that!’ Even more astounding is that her story has never been film -<br />
ed; not even a documentary. And we’ve acquired original footage<br />
shot by Soederstroem. What a treasure!”<br />
Wilting felt the film deserved to have women in the key positions, so<br />
he hired Erica von Moeller to direct, with Sophie<br />
Maintigneux as DoP.<br />
“I want to understand what created this woman,” von Moeller says.<br />
“What drove her on to risk her life? Her strategic planning and use of<br />
the media fascinate me. How did the journey and surmounted<br />
dangers change her? She was one of the first citizens of the world<br />
who wanted to bring people together.”<br />
Sandra Hueller plays Claerenore. A graduate of the Ernst Busch<br />
acting school in Berlin, her latest screen outing is in Anonyma (dir: Max<br />
Faerberboeck). Danish actor Bjarne Henriksen is best known for<br />
his role of the chef in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration.<br />
Producer Bernd Wilting, a very experienced public broadcaster, found<br />
ed taglicht media, together with Uli Veith, in 1996. The company<br />
specializes in high quality documentaries with the emphasis on<br />
history, science and nature, as well as human interest.<br />
So fasten your seatbelts, even though Claerenore couldn’t since they<br />
hadn’t been invented in 1927, and settle back for the ride!<br />
Gegen den Strom<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama, Love Story<br />
Production Company TV60 Filmproduktion/Munich, in co-production<br />
with Goldkind Film/Munich, BR/Munich With backing<br />
from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF),<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Bayerische Landesregierung Pro -<br />
ducers Sven Burgemeister, Andreas Schneppe Director Jan Fehse<br />
Screenplay Jan Fehse, Christian Lyra Director of Photog -<br />
raphy Philipp Kirsamer Editor Dirk Goehler Music by Andreas<br />
Helmle Production Design Anette Ingerl Principal Cast<br />
Sebastian Koch, Mina Tander, Barbara Auer, Ronald Zehrfeld, Wotan<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 28<br />
SK<br />
Scene from “Gegen den Strom”<br />
(photo © Rolf von der Heydt)
Wilke Moehring, Jenny Schily Casting Lore Bloessel,<br />
TV60 Filmproduktion Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital<br />
Shooting Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in Munich, November<br />
– December 2007 <strong>German</strong> Distributor X Verleih/Berlin<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International GmbH <strong>·</strong> Thorsten Ritter<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 7 <strong>·</strong> 82031 Geiselgasteig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de<br />
www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
“We wanted to make a small, but intensive and emotional film,” says<br />
producer Sven Burgemeister of TV60 Filmproduktion<br />
about Gegen den Strom, the feature debut by cinematographer<br />
Jan Fehse, which is currently in post-production.<br />
Before donning the director’s hat, Fehse had been working as a DoP<br />
since 1997 on such titles as Vanessa Jopp’s alaska.de (2000), Robert<br />
Schwentke’s Tattoo (2000) and three films with Dutch director Ben<br />
Verbong – Sams in Gefahr (2003), Es ist ein Elch entsprungen (2005)<br />
and Herr Bello (2006), as well as such TV productions as Urs Egger’s<br />
Eva Blond (2002) and the Sony Pictures series Post Mortem<br />
(2005/2006).<br />
“Jan is someone who had always thought about the dramaturgy of the<br />
films he was working on as well as the credibility of their characters,”<br />
says Burgemeister, who had previously worked with him on three TV<br />
movies, including two episodes of the Das Duo series by Rene Heisig<br />
and Thomas Jauch. “He came to us with a story idea and then sat<br />
down with a friend [Christian Lyra], who is also a first-time screen -<br />
writer, to develop a story revolving around five characters whose lives<br />
are fatefully interconnected with one another.”<br />
Although it is an episodic film, there isn’t any attempt here to emu late<br />
the example of the late Robert Altman’s Short Cuts. “The characters<br />
are not linked in an arbitrary way because the connections are more<br />
of a thematic nature,” Burgemeister explains. “The film has a definite<br />
artistic quality that shows it is different from what is usually being produced.<br />
I think this is something positive and nearer to the mainstream<br />
because it will make the audience more curious about the story and<br />
become more involved with the fates of the characters portray ed.”<br />
Rather than trying to juggle both the director and DoP chores, Fehse<br />
brought in his former assistant Philipp Kirsamer to light the film,<br />
and Burgemeister is convinced that the drama “will have a real visual<br />
power. Although we didn’t have an enormous budget, Jan has never -<br />
theless made the most of what he could draw out of the production<br />
design. He clearly had fun directing and was always in control.”<br />
Gegen den Strom also attracted an impressive cast ranging from<br />
Sebastian Koch and Barbara Auer through Ronald<br />
Zehrfeld and Wotan Wilke Moehring to Mina Tander in<br />
her first more substantial film part.<br />
Apart from overseeing the post-production on Gegen den<br />
Strom, Burgemeister – who was a co-producer of Luigi Falorni’s<br />
Berlinale competition film Feuerherz – is expecting to work as a ser -<br />
vice producer on two projects by Senator Film and Barefoot <strong>Films</strong> this<br />
year and also has an adaptation of Sebastian Fitzek’s thriller novel<br />
Amokspiel in development for shooting in 2009.<br />
MB<br />
George Taboris<br />
Mein Kampf<br />
Type of Project Drama, Theater Production Company<br />
Schiwago Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-production with Dor Film/<br />
Vienna, Hugofilm Productions/Zurich With backing from BKM,<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Mitteldeutsche Medien foerderung,<br />
Investitionsbank Hessen, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,<br />
Oesterreichisches Filminstitut (OFI), Bundesamt fuer Kultur (BAK),<br />
Zuercher <strong>Films</strong>tiftung, Aargauer Kuratorium, ZDFtheaterkanal, 3sat,<br />
ARTE, ORF, SRG, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producers<br />
Martin Lehwald, Michal Pokorny, Marcos Kantis, Danny Krausz,<br />
Christof Neracher Director Urs Odermatt Screenplay Fedor<br />
Mosnak Director of Photography Jo Molitoris Editor Lilo<br />
Gerber Production Design Carola Gauster Principal Cast<br />
Goetz George, Tom Schilling, Anna Unterberger, Roland Wiesnekker,<br />
Karin Neuhaeuser Format Super 16 mm, color Shooting<br />
Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in Zittau and Vienna, April – June<br />
<strong>2008</strong><br />
Contact<br />
Schiwago Film GmbH <strong>·</strong> Martin Lehwald<br />
Gneisenaustrasse 66 <strong>·</strong> 10961 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-6 95 39 80 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-69 53 98 50<br />
email: info@schiwagofilm.de <strong>·</strong> www.schiwagofilm.de<br />
After five years in development, shooting of a film adaptation of the<br />
late George Tabori’s 1987 stage play Mein Kampf began at locations<br />
in Vienna towards the end of April and then moved in May to Zittau<br />
in Saxony under the direction of Urs Odermatt who is equally at<br />
home in the theater, cinema and television.<br />
Set in Vienna in 1910, the story of George Taboris Mein<br />
Kampf sees the young Hitler down on his luck after being turned<br />
down by the city’s Arts Academy and then befriended by an elderly<br />
Jew, Schlomo Herzl, in a hostel for homeless men. Herzl supports him<br />
like a father would a son and unconsciously helps Hitler find his way<br />
into politics and triggers a fatal turn of events for world history. The<br />
fact that the good-natured Schlomo is himself a Jew is one of the<br />
ironic coincidences which show how the biggest disaster of recent<br />
history was able to result out of almost nothing …<br />
As producer Martin Lehwald of Berlin-based Schiwago Film<br />
recalls, while there was no direct creative involvement by Tabori in<br />
the development of the project, “he knew about it and gave his<br />
approval of the screenplay’s first draft. Since then, we have kept<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 29<br />
Urs Odermatt, Goetz George<br />
(photo © Schiwago Film)
contact with his agent and she has always read each new version of<br />
the screenplay.”<br />
“It wasn’t such an easy thing when we began work on creating film<br />
images from Tabori’s wonderful text,” Lehwald continues, pointing<br />
out that they wanted to avoid at all costs anything slapstick, like in<br />
Dani Levy’s My Fuehrer.<br />
“We didn’t just want to have something like a filmed theater performance,<br />
but are aiming rather for the greatest possible historical au -<br />
thenti city, a historical realism where there is the suggestion that it<br />
could have been like this. At the same time, one will have the feeling<br />
of theater in Tabori’s funny dialogues and the wit which we didn’t<br />
want to translate completely into colloquial speech.”<br />
While the film team will be using some original locations in Vienna<br />
such as the Schoenbrunn Palace and the Hofburg, much of the<br />
Austrian capital will be recreated at specially built sets in Zittau in the<br />
south-eastern part of Saxony near to the borders with Poland and the<br />
Czech Republic.<br />
Moreover, the fact that, architecturally, Zittau has similarities with<br />
Vienna has also proven to be fortuitous for the producers since shoot -<br />
ing in the Austrian capital will be restricted from May onwards due to<br />
the EURO <strong>2008</strong> Football Championships being held in Austria and<br />
Switzerland this June and July.<br />
Lehwald stresses, though, that George Taboris Mein Kampf<br />
will be far from being a chamber piece between the young Hitler<br />
(played by Tom Schilling who appeared opposite Max Riemelt in<br />
Dennis Gansel’s Napola) and Herzl (cast with the veteran <strong>German</strong><br />
film and TV actor Goetz George): “We have more than 35 different<br />
locations for the film,” he notes. “We will be going to the Arts<br />
Academy for Hitler’s entrance examination, to the bridge where he<br />
tries to commit suicide, and so on. Showing the historical Vienna of<br />
that time is not so easy now, so we will have some locations digitally<br />
reproduced by Magna Mana in Hessen.”<br />
MB<br />
Die Geschichte vom<br />
Brandner Kaspar<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Family<br />
Entertainment Production Companies Clasart Film/Munich,<br />
Perathon Film/Gruenwald With backing from FilmFernsehFonds<br />
Bayern, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Filmfoerderungsanstalt<br />
(FFA), CineTirol Producers Markus Zimmer, Joseph Vilsmaier<br />
Director Joseph Vilsmaier Screenplay Klaus Richter Directors<br />
of Photography Joseph Vilsmaier, Joerg Widmer Editor Uli<br />
Schoen Music by Chris Heyne Production Design Anton Gerg<br />
Principal Cast Franz Xaver Kroetz, Michael “Bully” Herbig, Lisa<br />
Potthof, Peter Ketnath, Sebastian Bezzel, Alexander Held, Detlev<br />
Buck, Joerg Hube, Elisabeth Trissenaar Special Effects Christoph<br />
Hierl Format 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby Digital Shooting<br />
Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in Munich and surroundings, Tyrol<br />
<strong>German</strong> Distributor Concorde Filmverleih/Munich<br />
Contact<br />
Clasart Filmproduktion <strong>·</strong> Markus Zimmer<br />
Kaufingerstrasse 24 <strong>·</strong> 80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-45 06 10 24 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-45 06 10 11<br />
email: zimmer@tmg.de <strong>·</strong> www.concorde-film.de<br />
One of the most popular folk tales in <strong>German</strong>y, Brandner Kaspar is a<br />
widower who lives in the middle of the 19th century with his niece,<br />
Nannerl. Together with young Toni, who’s courting Nannerl, Kaspar<br />
improves his meager income by poaching in the local forests. Shortly<br />
before his 70th birthday he’s visited by Death. But Kaspar’s no fool<br />
and gets his unwelcome guest drunk! Then he cheats at cards in order<br />
to gain another twenty years life!<br />
But Kaspar soon notices that extra life has a price. When Nannerl dies<br />
in an accident he accepts Death’s offer to have a look at heaven and<br />
to decide whether or not he wouldn’t like to join the saints that bit<br />
sooner after all.<br />
“This is actually the third filmed version,” says co-producer Markus<br />
Zimmer. “The others were in 1949 and 1975. We’re staying true to<br />
the original story but tuning it for a modern child and family audience.<br />
So playing Death is none other than top comedian Michael<br />
“Bully” Herbig.”<br />
Where to start? Herbig only made and starred in Der Schuh des<br />
Manitu – the most successful film (let alone comedy) in <strong>German</strong>y and<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 30<br />
Scene from “Brandner Kaspar”<br />
(photo © Concorde Filmverleih <strong>2008</strong>)
Austria ever, the Star Trek-spoof (T)Raumschiff Surprise – Periode 1<br />
and, most recently, Asterix at the Olympic Games.<br />
Joseph Vilsmaier is one of <strong>German</strong>y’s heavyweight contemporary<br />
directors. Born in 1939, his credits are extensive and varied. He<br />
made his debut with Herbstmilch in 1988, which brought him international<br />
recognition and won three Bavarian Film Awards and the<br />
<strong>German</strong> Film Award in Silver and Gold (for actress and wife, Dana<br />
Vávrová). The films and awards then piled in: Stalingrad (two Bavarian<br />
Film Awards, among others), Charlie & Louise – Das doppelte Lottchen,<br />
Schlafes Bruder (Bavarian Film Award, <strong>German</strong> Film Award, Golden<br />
Globe nomination) and Comedian Harmonists (with 2.9 million ad -<br />
missions, the most successful <strong>German</strong> film of 1998). His latest major<br />
outing is Die Gustloff, a €10 million two part TV-event-movie about<br />
the wartime sinking of the refugee ship of the same name, the largest<br />
maritime loss of life in history.<br />
“He is an incredibly talented and very versatile director,” Zimmer<br />
says. “His style is unmistakable but he orientates himself to the material,<br />
knowing just which touch to give it.”<br />
The same goes for Zimmer himself. No stranger to these pages, he is<br />
head of distributor Concorde Film and a producer for the<br />
TeleMuenchen Gruppe. His credits, many of which are both critical<br />
and commercial successes, include Soloalbum (2002), Rosenstrasse<br />
(2003), Die Wolke (2005), and Ich bin die Andere (2006).<br />
Hanna’s Words<br />
Chulpan Khamatova, Stefan Rudolf<br />
(photo © Bernd Spauke)<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama, Love Story,<br />
Music Production Company Neue Mediopolis Filmproduktion/<br />
Cologne, in co-production with WDR/Cologne, ARTE/Strasbourg<br />
With backing from <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW, Mitteldeutsche<br />
Medienfoerderung Producers Petra Hengge, Alexander Ris<br />
Director Andreas Struck Screenplay Dagmar Gabler Director<br />
of Photography Andreas Doub Editor Karin Jacobs Music by<br />
Nils Petter Molvaer Production Design Jutta Freyer Principal<br />
Cast Stefan Rudolf, Chulpan Khamatova, Traute Hoess, Paula<br />
Kalenberg, Barnaby Metschurat, Martin Kiefer, Michael Altmann<br />
Casting Anja Dihrberg Format Super 16 mm, blow-up to 35 mm,<br />
color, 1:1.85, Dolby Stereo Shooting Language <strong>German</strong><br />
Shooting in Cologne, April – May <strong>2008</strong> <strong>German</strong> Distributor<br />
Neue Visionen Filmverleih/Berlin<br />
SK<br />
World Sales<br />
ARRI Media Worldsales <strong>·</strong> Antonio Exacoustos<br />
Tuerkenstrasse 89 <strong>·</strong> 80799 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-38 09 12 88 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-38 09 16 19<br />
email: aexacoustos@arri.de<br />
www.arri-mediaworldsales.de<br />
Hanna’s Words tells the story of Martin, a trumpet player with a<br />
unique style. But he cannot escape the feeling that the love of his life,<br />
Christine, loves him for his musical abilities more than anything else.<br />
Hurt, he bids farewell to both her and his previous life. Landing on the<br />
edge of society he meets a dying woman, Hanna, who bequeaths him<br />
her pain in the form of poems. Can they guide him back to himself, to<br />
Christine and music?<br />
This paean to music being the food of love and also redemption sees<br />
the renowned Norwegian musician Nils Petter Molvaer composing,<br />
playing and producing the score (Readers can listen to samples<br />
his work on his website, www.nilspettermolvaer.no, as well as gaining<br />
an impression of the way he plays trumpet and the mood he evokes).<br />
Playing Martin is Stefan Rudolf, who won the Studio Hamburg<br />
Newcomer Award 2007 (Best Short/Audience Award) for Der<br />
Mungo. Chulpan Khamatova (Christine), studied under<br />
Alexander Borodin at the Russian Academy for Theater. In 2004 she<br />
won her most recent award, the Golden Mask, the Russian Theater<br />
Award for Best Actress. Her film credits include Tuvalu (dir: Veit<br />
Helmer, 1998), Good Bye, Lenin! (dir: Wolfgang Becker, 2001) and,<br />
most recently, The Team (dir: Alexei <strong>German</strong>, 2007).<br />
Director Andreas Struck was born in Cologne and studied acting<br />
before making his directorial theater debut with Don Juan by Molières.<br />
Working on Derek Jarman’s Edward II and Wittgenstein, he fell in love<br />
with filmmaking.<br />
His first feature, Chill Out (1999), was world-premiered in Berlin and<br />
then played in, to name but a few, Edinburgh, Toronto, Palm Springs,<br />
São Paulo, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montreal, Hong Kong and<br />
Sydney.<br />
Sugar Orange (2004), his second feature, had its world premiere in<br />
Montreal and won the <strong>German</strong> Independence Award (in Oldenburg)<br />
before being invited to other festivals such as Gijon (2004) and<br />
Jerusalem (2005).<br />
Hanna’s Words is written by Dagmar Gabler, who studied at<br />
Berlin’s dffb film school. (Her CV doesn’t say whether that was be -<br />
fore or after she trained as a helicopter pilot!)<br />
Production company Neue Mediopolis Filmproduktion<br />
stems from the more familiar Mediopolis, Film- und Fernseh -<br />
produktion. But the company’s owners remain, as before,<br />
Alexander Ris and Joerg Rothe. Hanna’s Words is pro -<br />
duced by Petra Hengge, who heads operations in Cologne.<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 31<br />
SK
Jerichow<br />
Location motif from “Jerichow”<br />
(photo courtesy of Schramm Film)<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama Pro -<br />
duction Company Schramm Film Koerner & Weber/Berlin, in<br />
co-production with BR/Munich, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing<br />
from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund<br />
(DFFF), BKM, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Producers Florian<br />
Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber Director Christian Petzold<br />
Screenplay Christian Petzold Director of Photography Hans<br />
Fromm Editor Bettina Boehler Music by Stefan Will<br />
Production Design Kade Gruber Principal Cast Benno<br />
Fuermann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Soezer, André Hennicke Casting<br />
Simone Baer Special Effects Mike Bols Format 35 mm, color,<br />
1:1.85, Dolby Digital Shooting Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in<br />
Wittenberge, April – June <strong>2008</strong> <strong>German</strong> Distributor Piffl<br />
Medien/Berlin<br />
Contact<br />
World Sales<br />
The Match Factory GmbH <strong>·</strong> Michael Weber<br />
Balthasarstrasse 79-81 <strong>·</strong> 50670 Cologne/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-2 21-5 39 70 90 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-2 21-5 39 70 91 0<br />
email: info@matchfactory.de <strong>·</strong> www.the-match-factory.com<br />
“Never change a winning team” was the motto adopted by director<br />
Christian Petzold and the Berlin-based production outfit<br />
Schramm Film as they began their seventh collaboration this<br />
spring on the feature film Jerichow.<br />
“My crew has been almost identical now for 14 years,” says Petzold<br />
whose past successes include The State I Am In and the Berlinale compe<br />
tition films Ghosts and Yella. It goes without saying that he is working<br />
again with cinematographer Hans Fromm as well as make-up<br />
artist Monika Muennich, sound man Andreas Muecke-<br />
Niesytka and editor Bettina Boehler. Moreover, composer<br />
Stefan Will, production designer Kade Gruber, casting director<br />
Simone Baer and special effects wizard Mike Bols are also<br />
onboard.<br />
Meanwhile, Petzold’s ensemble of actors also has links with his previous<br />
films: Jerichow marks the fourth collaboration with Nina<br />
Hoss (after Something To Remind Me, Wolfsburg and Yella), and the<br />
second time he is working with André Hennicke (Something To<br />
Remind Me) and Benno Fuermann (Wolfsburg).<br />
Petzold had visited the small town of Jerichow while scouting for<br />
locations for Yella, “and I knew it as the setting for Uwe Johnson’s<br />
book Jahrestage,” he recalls, adding that he had always been fascinat -<br />
ed by the origin of these place-names which have “a mythical, almost<br />
legendary aura.”<br />
He explains that the plot for Jerichow was inspired in many ways by<br />
Vincent Minelli’s 1958 film Some Came Running, starring Frank Sinatra,<br />
Shirley Maclaine and Dean Martin, “about love, honesty, deception<br />
and betrayal. For Jerichow, I thought we ought to begin like in<br />
Wolfsburg. There we had the Volkswagen factory in the first frame,<br />
but here there isn’t a factory anymore, it has been closed down. The<br />
question is what happens then. In the old stories, you had a character<br />
who wanted to go up in the world, become rich and marry the<br />
factory owner’s daughter, but that’s not possible now because every -<br />
thing is just in ruins. That is why we are shooting in Wittenberge and<br />
the Prignitz region and along the River Elbe where there is no longer<br />
any industry.”<br />
The filmmaker is succinct in his description of the new film’s plot:<br />
Thomas (played by Benno Fuermann) is at the end of his tether. He<br />
meets Julia (Nina Hoss). They fall in love with one another. Both be -<br />
lieve that they can only have a future if they murder Julia’s husband<br />
(André Hennicke). It seems to be about money. Or perhaps something<br />
else after all. They plan the murder …<br />
While Petzold sees a connection between Something To Remind Me,<br />
Wolfsburg and Jerichow – “in all three, it is about crime, passion and<br />
deep emotions, and deadly sins like revenge and greed” – he warns<br />
against interpreting these three as forming a trilogy in the same way<br />
as was done for The State I Am In, Ghosts, and Yella, and notes that<br />
"Jerichow will be a neo-realistic film.”<br />
“I have the feeling that Christian is drawing the essence out of all of<br />
his previous works and letting everything flow into Jerichow,” adds<br />
producer Florian Koerner von Gustorf. “It has something very<br />
solid and classical compared, for example, to Ghosts as far as the narrative<br />
structure is concerned.”<br />
“As in film noir, the characters here are driven by something that slips<br />
out of their grasp and they no longer have under their control,”<br />
Koerner von Gustorf explains. “From a certain point onwards, they<br />
are no longer prepared to face up to the question of guilt and both<br />
believe that they have the right to behave the way they do. What is<br />
really interesting about Jerichow is that the characters say: ’We<br />
must get rid of someone so that our life is better, we take what we<br />
believe we are entitled to.’”<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 32<br />
MB
Lippels Traum<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Children’s Film,<br />
Family Entertainment, Literature Production Company collina<br />
Filmproduktion/Munich, in co-production with BR/Munich, Uni -<br />
versum Film/Munich, Kinowelt Filmproduktion/Munich, element e film -<br />
produktion/Hamburg With backing from Filmfoerderungs -<br />
anstalt (FFA), Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein<br />
Producer Ulrich Limmer Director Lars Buechel Screenplay<br />
Paul Maar, Ulrich Limmer Director of Photography Jana Marsik<br />
Editor Sandy Saffeels Music by Konstantin Wecker Production<br />
Design Frank Polosek Principal Cast Anke Engelke, Moritz<br />
Bleibtreu, Christiane Paul, Karl Alexander Seidel, Amrita Cheema,<br />
Steve-Marvin Dwumah, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Edgar Selge, Eva Mattes<br />
Casting Nicole Fischer Casting, Stefany Pohlmann Casting Special<br />
Effects Juergen Schopper Format 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby SR<br />
Shooting Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in Munich, Passau,<br />
Morocco, March – May <strong>2008</strong> <strong>German</strong> Distributor Universum<br />
Film/Munich<br />
World Sales<br />
TELEPOOL GmbH <strong>·</strong> Anja Uecker<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21 <strong>·</strong> 80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-55 87 60 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-55 87 62 29<br />
email: cinepool@telepool.de <strong>·</strong> www.telepool.de<br />
Steve-Marvin Dwumah,Karl Alexander Seidel,<br />
Amrita Cheema (photo courtesy of collina Film)<br />
Producer Ulrich Limmer has assembled a top-notch cast and<br />
crew for Lippels Traum, the story of an 11-year-old boy, Lippel,<br />
whose father leaves for a week’s business trip, entrusting the boy to<br />
a new housekeeper. The two of them get on like honey and oil!<br />
Lippel’s days turn to nightmares and, to escape, he dreams of being in<br />
the Orient of 1001 Nights where he meets all the people from his real<br />
life again. With them, he masters adventures which help him to cope<br />
with his problems in the here and now.<br />
Limmer, who specializes in family entertainment, is best known for<br />
films such as Schtonk!, Rennschwein Rudi Ruessel, Comedian Harmonists,<br />
the Das Sams series, and Herr Bello.<br />
Writer Paul Maar is the other half of the team on this, their fourth<br />
joint outing, having worked with Limmer on such critical and audience<br />
hits as the Sams series and, most recently, Herr Bello. He also author<br />
ed the original book, Lippels Traum!<br />
Directing Lippels Traum is Lars Buechel. Among his credits is<br />
2000’s Jetzt oder nie – Zeit ist Geld and Erbsen auf halb sechs (2003).<br />
Proving that family entertainment means more than just making a film<br />
for adults to suffer through, Lippels Traum boasts four of<br />
<strong>German</strong>y’s most popular and recognized film and TV faces: Anke<br />
Engelke, Moritz Bleibtreu, Uwe Ochsenknecht (here<br />
making a guest appearance) and Christiane Paul.<br />
Lippels Traum, Limmer says, “is a song of praise to imagination<br />
and its healing effect in everyday life. The story is a magical game<br />
between reality and fiction by which an adventurous imagination prov<br />
es to be the best aid for dealing with the acute existential<br />
problems of a child’s real world.”<br />
collina Filmproduktion was founded by Limmer in 2002, follow -<br />
ing stints at Kinowelt and Bavaria Film. Along the way, he has picked<br />
up an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination, two <strong>German</strong><br />
Film Awards and two Bavarian Film Awards.<br />
SK<br />
Die Perlmutterfarbe<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Family Enter -<br />
tainment Production Company d.i.e. film/Munich, in co-production<br />
with Constantin Film Produktion/Munich With backing<br />
from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), BKM,<br />
<strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Kuratorium junger deutscher Film<br />
Producers Robert Marciniak, Uli Aselmann Director Marcus H.<br />
Rosenmueller Screenplay Marcus H. Rosenmueller, Christian<br />
Lerch Director of Photography Torsten Breuer Editor Georg<br />
Soering Music by Gerd Baumann Production Design Johannes<br />
Sternagel, Doerthe Komnick Principal Cast Markus Krojer, Zoé<br />
Mannhardt, Dominik Nowak, Benedikt Hoesl, Thomas Wittmann,<br />
Brigitte Hobmeier, Sigi Zimmerschied, Gustav-Peter Woehler, Josef<br />
Hader Casting Franziska Aigner-Kuhn Special Effects Jens<br />
Doeldissen, Juergen Schopper Format 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby<br />
Digital Shooting Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in Burghausen,<br />
Weidenberg, Plauen, Sulzbach-Rosenberg, February – April <strong>2008</strong><br />
<strong>German</strong> Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich<br />
Contact<br />
d.i.e. film gmbh <strong>·</strong> Sophia Aldenhoven<br />
Zentnerstrasse 42 <strong>·</strong> 80796 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-27 77 71 0 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-27 77 71 77<br />
email: aldenhoven@diefilmgmbh.de<br />
www.diefilmgmbh.de<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 33<br />
Scene from “Die Perlmutterfarbe”<br />
(photo courtesy of d.i.e. film)
The 13-year-old Alexander is an A-stream school student. He’s<br />
popular and his best friend is Maulwurf. He’s also somewhat in love<br />
with Lotte. But when Maulwurf ’s latest invention, Die Perl -<br />
mutterfarbe, falls into his hands, his life spins out of control. The<br />
class searches for the thief and, instead of telling the truth, Alexander<br />
lies out of necessity. Gruber, an unpopular kid, covers for him and<br />
then uses Alexander for his own purposes. He puts the suspicion on<br />
B-Karli and starts a smear campaign. Alexander becomes more and<br />
more caught up in a tissue of lies and distances himself from Maulwurf<br />
and his friends, while Gruber plays the two of them off against each<br />
other …<br />
Marcus H. Rosenmueller, Die Perlmutter farbe’s director<br />
and co-writer, has set a sign for the new self-consciousness of a young<br />
film generation with such critical and audience hits as the black<br />
comedy coming-of-ager Wer frueher stirbt ist laenger tot, Schwere Jungs,<br />
Beste Zeit and Beste Gegend.<br />
Die Perlmutter farbe is a subtle and humorous parable of friendship<br />
and truth, set in the year 1931. The script, by Rosenmueller<br />
and Christian Lerch is based on the novel of the same name by<br />
Anna Maria Jokl, who captured the threatening world of the on -<br />
coming National Socialism in the microcosmos of school before she<br />
fled Berlin in 1933.<br />
The main roles are played by Markus Krojer (Wer frueher stirbt ist<br />
laenger tot) and Zoé Mannhardt (in the young girl and a pony film,<br />
Haende weg von Mississippi).<br />
Marcus H. Rosenmueller won the <strong>German</strong> Film Award 2007 for Best<br />
Director and, together with Christian Lerch, for Best Script (Wer frueher<br />
stirbt ist laenger tot). Gerd Baumann, who is responsible for Die<br />
Perlmutter farbe’s music, has also won a <strong>German</strong> Film Award for<br />
his work. In addition, Rosenmueller won the Bavarian Film Award<br />
2007 for Best Newcomer Director.<br />
d.i.e. film was founded in 1997 by Uli Aselmann and in 2002<br />
Robert Marciniak joined the company as managing partner and<br />
producer. In addition to numerous TV productions, d.i.e. film can<br />
claim Vaya con Dios (4 Bavarian Film Awards 2002), Aus der Tiefe des<br />
Raumes (Best Newcomer Production at the 2005 Bavarian Film<br />
Awards) and Winterreise (nominated for Best Film in the 2007<br />
<strong>German</strong> Film Awards) among its credits.<br />
SK<br />
Pink Taxi<br />
Type of Project Documentary Cinema Genre Drama,<br />
Melodrama, Family, Love Story, Road Movie, Romantic Comedy,<br />
Tragicomedy Production Company Flying Moon Film -<br />
produktion/Berlin, in co-production with ZDF/Mainz, ARTE/<br />
Strasbourg With backing from Medienboard Berlin-<br />
Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung Producers Helge<br />
Albers, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad Director Uli Gaulke Director<br />
of Photography Axel Schneppat Editor Inge Schneider<br />
Format XD-CAM, blow-up to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, DTS Stereo,<br />
Dolby SR Shooting Language Russian Shooting in Moscow,<br />
February – March <strong>2008</strong> <strong>German</strong> Distributor Flying Moon<br />
Distribution/Berlin<br />
Contact<br />
Flying Moon Distribution GmbH <strong>·</strong> Helge Albers<br />
Seestrasse 96 <strong>·</strong> 13353 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-32 29 71 80 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-3 22 97 18 11<br />
email: info@flyingmoon.com <strong>·</strong> www.flyingmoon.com<br />
“So far, it has been the easiest of projects with Uli to develop and<br />
finance,” says producer Helge Albers about Pink Taxi, his<br />
fourth collaboration with Uli Gaulke after the previous documentaries<br />
Havanna, Mi Amor (2000), Heirate Mich (2003), and Comrades in<br />
Dreams (2007).<br />
“He came to us with the idea for Pink Taxi last year on March 8th,<br />
International Women’s Day,” Albers recalls. “He had seen a feature in<br />
the [ARD news program] Tagesthemen about this company called<br />
Pink Taxi which is a women-only taxi service in Moscow. Uli received<br />
a small grant from the DEFA Foundation and traveled to meet the<br />
women, and then we were in Moscow for the film festival with<br />
Comrades in Dreams. They had a chance to see his film and we soon<br />
had everything settled as to who the protagonists are, what we want<br />
to shoot and the story we want to tell.”<br />
Based on women-only taxi services already operating in London and<br />
Tokyo, Pink Taxi was launched by Olga Fomina and two friends in<br />
Moscow in August 2006 with two Daewoo Nexia cars and two fe -<br />
male drivers. Six months later, they had 20 Daewoos and 27 drivers<br />
and the service’s success had already inspired other women to set up<br />
their own company, Ladies Red Taxi, in the Russian town of Khimki.<br />
Last autumn, ZDF and ARTE committed to the project, funding was<br />
granted by MDM and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and a mini-<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 34<br />
Scene from ”Pink Taxi”<br />
(photo courtesy of Flying Moon)
mum guarantee was put up by Flying Moon’s in-house distribution<br />
arm so that shooting could begin this February.<br />
“The film is set between February 23rd, Men’s Day [formerly known<br />
as Red Army Day] when all of the men receive presents, and March<br />
8th, International Women’s Day when the women are the ones getting<br />
the presents,” Albers explains. “It tells the story of this taxi company<br />
and the lonely struggle of the only man in the company as he<br />
desperately searches for the right presents for Women’s Day.”<br />
“Pink Taxi is closest in approach to Havanna, Mi Amor,” he<br />
suggests, since the new film “draws predominantly on situations from<br />
daily life and has them played out between the various protagonists<br />
in front of the camera. There are episodes set in the taxis which are<br />
linked with the days leading up to the Women’s Day. The film will<br />
focus particularly on human relationships and on the battle of the<br />
sexes between the Russian women and the macho men.”<br />
“I think it will be a very entertaining film and, in places, a very sad film<br />
because the women at the center here have all lived quite eventful<br />
lives, losing their husbands in wars or through divorce,” he observes.<br />
Shooting in Moscow continued to the end of March with Gaulke work<br />
ing with the “regulars” from his previous documentaries, DoP Axel<br />
Schneppat and sound man Raimund von Scheibner, al -<br />
though the editing for this film has been taken on by a new collabora -<br />
tor, Inge Schneider whose past credits include Pool of Princesses<br />
and Addicted to Acting.<br />
Pink Taxi is expected to be finished by the end of <strong>2008</strong> for a premiere<br />
in early 2009.<br />
But, in the meantime, producers Helge Albers and Roshanak<br />
Behesht Nedjad have plenty to do this year. In April, they re -<br />
leased Ayat Najafi and David Assmann’s award-winning documentary<br />
Football Under Cover in <strong>German</strong> cinemas after the world premiere<br />
during the Berlinale. The story of a friendly match in Tehran between<br />
Iran’s national women’s football team and one from Berlin’s<br />
Kreuzberg district had its international premiere at the Tribeca Film<br />
Festival and is being screened as a market premiere at the Cannes<br />
market.<br />
In addition, the company is continuing its collaboration with Koreanborn<br />
director Sung-Hyung Cho after her surprise box-office success<br />
Full Metal Village with the first block of shooting of her new documentary<br />
Endstation der Sehnsuechte. The project focuses on the creation<br />
in 2003 of a <strong>German</strong>-style village in South Korea by the inhabitants<br />
who returned home after spending 30 years as guest-workers in<br />
<strong>German</strong>y. Another Flying Moon co-production, Better Things by<br />
Duane Hopkins, is screening in this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week.<br />
MB<br />
Schattenmenschen<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Art, Melodrama<br />
Production Company Darioush Shirvani Film & Fernseh -<br />
produktion/Augsburg, in co-production with FEN-Film/Augsburg,<br />
SKM/Augsburg, CINEMA-YE-AZD/Saarbruecken Producer<br />
Darioush Shirvani Director Darioush Shirvani Screenplay<br />
Darioush Shirvani Director of Photography Darioush Shirvani<br />
Editors Dariush Noori, Gregor Kuschel, Behzad Beheshtipoor<br />
Music by Darioush Shirvani Production Design Robert Hoesle,<br />
Michael Krebs, Pia Haertinger, Monika Ruby, Barbara Pfahler<br />
Principal Cast Peter Reinwarth, Petr Kuschmitz, Giuliana Triziana<br />
de Carlo, Ali Kamrani, Iacov Grinberg, Michaela Wein, Michaela<br />
Demhalte, Beri Vranesié, Giulia Sophia Young, Anja Rajch, Peyman<br />
Saba, Konstantin Mayer Casting FEN-Film/Augsburg Special<br />
Effects Amir Barootian, Christopher Boehm Format HD, blow-up<br />
to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Dolby SR Shooting Language <strong>German</strong><br />
Shooting in Munich, Augsburg, Regensburg, Tyrol, October 2006<br />
– May 2007<br />
Contact<br />
Darioush Shirvani Film & Fernsehproduktion<br />
Bergstrasse 10 <strong>·</strong> 86199 Augsburg/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone/fax +49-8 21-2 19 86 38<br />
email: darioush@shirvani.de <strong>·</strong> www.shirvani.de<br />
“Do you see how powerfully the river flows? It’s irreversible. Men<br />
could straighten a river, construct barrages, redirect it, but they can’t<br />
hold it up! The river flows, grabbing everything on its way. And as the<br />
river, so our community! There are always new forces arranging,<br />
whose power people can’t resist. People are uprooted and washed<br />
away. Human flotsam!”<br />
Thus speaks Paul Bridge, the 70-year-old former professor, a philosopher<br />
with a weakness for books and quotes. Through his own fault he<br />
has experienced a tragic fate and his existence no longer makes sense.<br />
He has lived the past 23 years on the road.<br />
He has a deep, platonic love affair with the young prostitute, Isabel,<br />
who reminds him of his deceased daughter. The strong relationship<br />
with Paul and his understanding changes Isabel’s perspective and selfesteem.<br />
Paul is also friends with the young Czech, Vaclav, who is a piano player.<br />
Paul helps Vaclav find his place again in life by recognizing his musical<br />
abilities. But a misunderstanding involving Isabel and conflicted<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 35<br />
Darioush Shirvani (left) on the set of “Schatten -<br />
menschen” (photo courtesy of Darioush<br />
Shirvani Film & Fernsehproduktion)
emotions leads to a confrontation between the two men, with Paul<br />
having to realize that he has misread Vaclav’s personality.<br />
Seeking solace with Isabel, Paul disturbs her at work. She fails to grasp<br />
his precarious situation and cry for help. In that moment Paul experiences<br />
again the trauma of his helpless life. Alone and desperate, he<br />
begins to drink.<br />
Isabel realizes what she’s done and panics. She follows Paul’s tracks<br />
in the snow to their favorite place and finds him on the verge of<br />
death …<br />
“Schattenmenschen (“Shadow People”) is not a sociological<br />
documentary,” says Darioush Shirvani, the film’s producer,<br />
writer and director. “The framework of the story is a group of homeless<br />
people and prostitutes, with all their problems and small joys.<br />
Paul’s clan is multinational, such as Jacov the Russian Jewish refugee<br />
and his friend Ahmed, a Persian actor who was persecuted at home.”<br />
“The film is about people,” Shirvani explains, “who have preserved<br />
their senses and emotions in spite of their hard circumstances. It’s<br />
about the human relations between people of different origins and<br />
nationalities; people outside of civil life whose wishes, dreams and<br />
aspirations are no different from ordinary people.”<br />
Darioush Shirvani was born in Shiraz/Iran in 1963. By the age of 14<br />
he was already studying Music and making short films. From 1977-<br />
1981 he was an assistant director, stage manager and actor at the local<br />
theater and between 1980-1985 he made six features, all of which he<br />
wrote. He was then forced to flee the country.<br />
In <strong>German</strong>y, his musical work was recognized by the city of Munich<br />
with a scholarship award and in 2002 Augsburg University voted him<br />
Artist of the Year. With one documentary, three shorts and six features<br />
already under his belt, Schattenmenschen is the next of<br />
doubtlessly many features to come.<br />
SK<br />
The Three Investigators –<br />
The Secret of Terror Castle<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Children’s Film<br />
Production Company Studio Hamburg Produktion/Hamburg, in<br />
co-production with Two Oceans Production/Cape Town With<br />
backing from Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein,<br />
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF),<br />
Industrial Development Cooperation, Department of Trade and<br />
Industry Producers Sytze van der Laan, Malte Grunert Co-<br />
Producers Giselher Venzke, Bertha Spieker Director Florian<br />
Baxmeyer Screenplay Philip LaZebnik, Aaron Mendelsohn<br />
Director of Photography Peter J. Krause Editor Ueli Christen<br />
Production Design Sylvain Gingras, Albrecht Konrad Principal<br />
Cast Chancellor Miller, Nick Price, Cameron Monaghan, Annette<br />
Kemp, James Faulkner, Jonathan Pienaar, Axel Milberg, Julia<br />
Bremermann Casting Jennifer Smith, Celia Bannerman Special<br />
Effects Rise FX, Robert Pinnow Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85,<br />
Dolby Digital Shooting Language English Shooting in and<br />
around Cape Town/South Africa, November 2007 – February <strong>2008</strong><br />
<strong>German</strong> Distributor Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures<br />
<strong>German</strong>y/Munich<br />
World Sales<br />
Beta Cinema / Dept. of Beta Film GmbH<br />
Dirk Schuerhoff<br />
Gruenwalder Weg 28 d <strong>·</strong> 82041 Oberhaching/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-67 34 69 14 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88<br />
email: Dirk.Schuerhoff@betafilm.com<br />
www.betacinema.com<br />
Plans for the second installment in Studio Hamburg’s The Three<br />
Investigators franchise were already underway even before the first<br />
film – The Secret of Skeleton Island – had been released in <strong>German</strong>y’s<br />
cinemas last November.<br />
Just a matter of days after director Florian Baxmeyer and his cast<br />
had attended the world premiere in Berlin, they were setting off to<br />
South Africa to begin shooting on The Three Investigators –<br />
The Secret of Terror Castle which reunited the child actors<br />
Chancellor Miller (Justus), Nick Price (Peter) and Cameron<br />
Monaghan (Bob) in a new adventure pitted against the veteran<br />
actor James Faulkner as the trio’s adversary Victor Huguenay.<br />
In the new story, a mysterious video leads the budding boy detectives<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 36<br />
Scene from “The Three Investigators –<br />
The Secret of Terror Castle”<br />
(photo © Beta SHIP/Disney/Beta Cinema)
Justus Jonas, Peter Shaw and Bob Andrews to an abandoned house,<br />
Terror Castle, which is apparently haunted by the ghost of a wealthy<br />
industrial tycoon, Stephen Terrill. However, there is much more<br />
awaiting them than they first assume, and, what’s more, an old<br />
acquaintance pops up as well …<br />
“From the outset, we planned to make two or three films based on<br />
the Robert Arthur books,” explains producer Malte Grunert. “It<br />
was important for us to get the second one made pretty quickly<br />
because we and Disney both believe that the gap between the films<br />
shouldn’t be too big if you are wanting to establish a brand in the cinemas.<br />
During production on the first film we had developed the screen -<br />
play for the second one and, after they saw the first edit of Skeleton<br />
Island, Disney gave its OK for the second part.”<br />
While the Cape Town-based Two Oceans Production had been the<br />
production services company on the first film, this second outing for<br />
The Three Investigators was an official bilateral co-production between<br />
<strong>German</strong>y and South Africa according to the co-production treaty.<br />
“This meant that we could benefit from the tax rebate of 25% of the<br />
South African costs – with a cap of 10 million Rands – and also re -<br />
ceived support from the Industrial Development Cooperation fund<br />
which even committed to the film before seeing how the first film had<br />
performed in the cinema,” Grunert adds.<br />
The film’s €10 million budget also profited from Studio Hamburg’s<br />
credit line agreed with the Commerzbank, secured by a state-backed<br />
guarantee from Berlin, as well as funding from Filmfoerderung<br />
Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and<br />
the <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF) incentive scheme.<br />
The second time round, the cast and crew around director Florian<br />
Baxmeyer were using the locations in and around Cape Town to<br />
double for Southern California (the first film had been set in South<br />
Africa). In addition, there were two days of shooting at the beginning<br />
of January on Berlin’s Pariser Platz in front of the Brandenburg Gate<br />
with <strong>German</strong> actors Axel Milberg and Julia Bremermann as<br />
Justus’ parents.<br />
Post-production over the coming months will be undertaken at VCC<br />
Pictures and Studio Funk in Berlin and Hamburg as well as in Robert<br />
Pinnow’s new Berlin visual effects facility Rise FX.<br />
A professed fan of adventure films such as The Goonies, Back to the<br />
Future or E.T., director Baxmeyer says that “the biggest challenge for<br />
me on this second film was that we have a different genre: there’s a<br />
little horror and a haunted-house story. We had to make sure that the<br />
film would also function for kids 6 years and above. It has to be really<br />
creepy and exciting for 12-year-olds, but not too hard for 6-yearolds,<br />
so that was the big challenge to find the right tone.”<br />
He explains that he is not keen on an over-reliance on visual effects<br />
added later in the computer where actors thus have to spend a lot of<br />
time on set in front of green screens. “I like working with mechanical<br />
effects,” he explains. “You are much freer than with visual effects<br />
which can be terribly restricting as you are constantly having to think<br />
about matte lines and where you are going to put the camera. The<br />
way we have done it, the sets can function 360 degrees and shooting<br />
is much more pleasant.”<br />
The Three Investigators – The Secret of Terror Castle<br />
is set to be released by Walt Disney in <strong>German</strong>y in early 2009, and a<br />
third installment (The Silver Spider) may go into production later that<br />
year on location in Eastern Europe.<br />
MB<br />
Unter Strom<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Comedy<br />
Production Company Next Film/Leipzig, in-coproduction with<br />
Cine Plus Filmproduktion/Berlin With backing from Mittel -<br />
deutsche Medienfoerderung, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF)<br />
Producer Clementina Hegewisch Co-Producers Frank Evers,<br />
Zoltan Paul Director Zoltan Paul Screenplay Uli Brée, Zoltan<br />
Paul Director of Photography Christopher Rowe Editor<br />
Sebastian Thuemler Music by Julian Adam Pajzs Production<br />
Design Helen Kraiczy Principal Cast Harald Krassnitzer, Catrin<br />
Striebeck, Hanno Koffler, Robert Stadlober, Anna Fischer, Ralph<br />
Herforth, Tilo Nest, Franz Xaver Zach, Sunnyi Melles Casting Bo<br />
Rosenmueller Special Effects Jens Doeldissen Format HD,<br />
blow-up to 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby SR Shooting Language<br />
<strong>German</strong> Shooting in Dresden, Weimar, Jena and surroundings,<br />
February – March <strong>2008</strong> <strong>German</strong> Distributor Salzgeber & Co.<br />
Medien/Berlin<br />
Contact<br />
Next Film Filmproduktion GmbH & Co. KG<br />
Clementina Hegewisch<br />
Almstadtstrasse 5 <strong>·</strong> 10119 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-61 78 91 60 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-61 78 91 61 9<br />
email: next@nextfilm.de <strong>·</strong> www.nextfilm.de<br />
Unter Strom (“Live Wire”) is, says co-producer, co-writer and<br />
director Zoltan Paul, a “lightning short circuit of all those recent<br />
films which made going to the cinema a real event, and more. It’s an<br />
extraordinary successful amalgam of Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction,<br />
Reservoir Dogs), Pedro Almodóvar (Women on the Verge of a Nervous<br />
Breakdown), British humor (black and absurd), Swedish humor à la<br />
Kops and Austrian laconicism.“<br />
Frankie (Hanno Koffler) is sentenced to fifteen years for murder:<br />
being innocent, he flips out and takes hostage the newly divorced<br />
Daniel and Anna Trieb. Needing a hideout, they end up at the Trieb’s<br />
summer place. On the way, Frankie kidnaps the economics minister,<br />
Jan van Moellerbreit, whom he holds responsible for his plight.<br />
For reinforcements, Frankie also collects his wife, Gloria and his best<br />
friend Cheesie (Robert Stadlober). He needs them, too, be cause<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 37<br />
Scene from “Unter Strom”<br />
(photo © Sandra Steh)
Anna Trieb’s new lover (Franz Xaver Zach) has already made<br />
himself comfortable at the house – with champagne and Viagra!<br />
Before Frankie can get the group under control, Detective Kaminski<br />
and his men already have the place surrounded.<br />
Frankie’s situation would be hopeless, if Kaminski hadn’t sneaked in<br />
to rescue his secret lover, van Moellerbreit; if Daniel and Anna would<br />
not fight so much; if it didn’t come out that Cheesie has got Gloria<br />
pregnant; if Anna’s lover didn’t have a painfully permanent erection,<br />
and if Sigrid (Sunnyi Melles), Kaminski’s right hand, who is hopelessly<br />
in love with her boss, doesn’t have to discover that Kaminski<br />
has no interest in women! It all comes to a dramatic showdown in<br />
which events spin totally out of control!<br />
For anyone who likes fast-paced, well-constructed comedy with a<br />
sense of the absurd, Unter Strom promises to be a treat. And for<br />
everyone else it’s still got to be as much fun as a barrel of monkeys!<br />
Hungarian-born director-producer and co-writer Zoltan Paul<br />
began his professional career as a stage and TV actor, having studied<br />
in Vienna. A move to Bavaria saw him swapping actor’s for director’s<br />
hats as well the start of his screenwriting activities. His first short,<br />
Gone, was invited to the Max Ophuels Festival. Two years later, in<br />
2003, he made his first feature, also called Gone, which in 2004 was in<br />
competition at Argentina’s Mar del Plata festival.<br />
Co-producer and co-writer Uli Brée also studied acting in Vienna<br />
and became one of Austria’s most well-known theater and television<br />
writers. He has penned numerous TV-movies for ORF, RTL, ARD and<br />
ZDF and is a multi-Romy Award winner.<br />
Werther<br />
Type of Project TV Movie Genre Theater Production<br />
Company teamWorx Television & Film/Potsdam, in co-production<br />
with sturmunddrangfilm/Weimar, commissioned by ZDFtheater -<br />
kanal/Mainz, in cooperation with ARTE/Strasbourg, 3sat/Mainz<br />
Producers Christian Rohde, Oliver Czeslik, Uwe Janson, Sigi<br />
Kamml Commissioning Editors Wolfgang Bergmann, Meike<br />
Klingenberg Director Uwe Janson Screenplay Uwe Janson<br />
Director of Photography Phillipp Sichler Editor Florian<br />
Drechsler Production Design Olaf Rehahn Principal Cast<br />
Stefan Konarske, Hannah Herzsprung, Aaron Hildebrand, David Rott,<br />
Fritz Roth Casting Nina Haun Format HD, color, 1:1.85, Stereo<br />
SK<br />
Scene from “Werther” (photo © Nils Kinder)<br />
Shooting Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in Berlin, Ilmenau,<br />
Schmiedefeld, Zella-Mehles, Suhl, February <strong>2008</strong><br />
Contact<br />
teamWorx Television & Film GmbH <strong>·</strong> Anja Kaeumle<br />
Dianastrasse 21 <strong>·</strong> 14482 Potsdam/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-3 31-7 06 03 79 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-3 31-7 06 03 80<br />
email: anja.kaeumle@teamworx.de<br />
www.teamworx.de<br />
Earlier this year saw the filming of Werther, based on Goethe’s epistolary<br />
novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther, as the third collaboration<br />
between writer-director Uwe Janson and the production house<br />
teamWorx (after Baal and Lulu).<br />
“A common element linking Werther with the previous two is the<br />
fact that the films are drawing on the <strong>German</strong> theater classics but<br />
transporting their ideas in a modern way,” says producer Christian<br />
Rohde of teamWorx. “I think it has always been exciting to see how<br />
we can attract younger people to these plays without frightening them<br />
away. The direction was shown with Baal which was very powerful<br />
and wild with a young cast. Then we had Lulu with Jessica Schwarz,<br />
and Werther has Hannah Herzsprung and Stefan<br />
Konarske. We wanted to provide young people with the opportunity<br />
to become involved with these texts and stories.”<br />
The modern interpretation of Werther is set to be the first part by<br />
teamWorx of a Weimar Classics trilogy – to be followed by Die<br />
Raeuber and Hyperion – and has prompted the establishment by<br />
Janson and Oliver Czeslik of a new production outfit, sturmunddrangfilm,<br />
which is based in Weimar and Berlin and intends to<br />
focus on adapting <strong>German</strong> theater classics for the screen.<br />
As Rohde points out, there has been considerable interest from branches<br />
of the Goethe-Institut around the globe in these productions,<br />
but they are made primarily for the <strong>German</strong> market with premieres<br />
on the Franco-<strong>German</strong> channel ARTE followed by screenings on the<br />
ZDFtheaterkanal.<br />
“In Werther we have a mixture of realistic and artificial worlds,” he<br />
continues. “After principal photography was completed, a week was<br />
spent on computer animation to create a virtual reality based on<br />
Second Life. In Goethe’s original, Werther’s feeling for poetry is always<br />
misunderstood by the world around him. We then asked ourselves<br />
what a world would look like nowadays where he is constantly rejected.<br />
We decided that this would be a computer world where every -<br />
thing is anything but poetic. The avatar of Werther is not understood<br />
when he speaks the original texts of Goethe – only Lotte’s avatar<br />
understands him.”<br />
For the casting of the lead roles of Werther and Lotte, the producers<br />
had extensive casting sessions with different combinations of actors<br />
and were soon sure that they had the right pairing with Stefan<br />
Konarske and Hannah Herzsprung. Konarske is better known for his<br />
theater work, having won two Newcomer Actor awards last year for<br />
his performance as Orestes in a Deutsches Theater production, while<br />
Herzsprung’s career has taken leaps and bounds since her award-winning<br />
lead part in Chris Kraus’ Four Minutes.<br />
“We always look to have someone people will know, as that makes<br />
the production more accessible, and then we want to give young,<br />
wild, up-and-coming actors a chance to be involved,” Rohde explains.<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 38
“Stefan is a modern Werther who possesses an enormous intelli -<br />
gence as an actor, which immediately filled us with enthusiasm during<br />
the casting session,” Oliver Czeslik recalls in a interview for the blog<br />
diary chronicling the film’s shooting. “In his acting with Hannah<br />
Herzsprung it was then clear that the two are a dream couple.<br />
Intuition and intelligence – I think these are the characteristics uniting<br />
them and making them an image of longing for young lovers.”<br />
MB<br />
On the set of “Die wundersame<br />
Welt der Waschkraft“<br />
(photo courtesy of 23|5 Filmproduktion)<br />
Die Wundersame Welt<br />
der Waschkraft<br />
Type of Project Documentary Cinema Production Company<br />
23|5 Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-production with RBB/Potsdam-<br />
Babelsberg, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from BKM, <strong>German</strong><br />
Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producers Britta Knoeller, Hans-<br />
Christian Schmid Commissioning Editor Soeren Schumann<br />
Director Hans-Christian Schmid Screenplay Hans-Christian<br />
Schmid Director of Photography Bogumil Godfrejow Editor<br />
Stefan Stabenow With Beata Ciesla, Marta Ulatowska, Monika<br />
Ulatowska, Franciszek Witkowski, Marek Olkuska, Irina Lobitz,<br />
Bozena Glanert, and others Format Super 16 mm, color, 1:1.85,<br />
blow-up to 35 mm, Dolby Digital Shooting Languages Polish and<br />
<strong>German</strong> Shooting in Nowe Czarnowo, Widuchowa and<br />
Gryfino/Poland and Berlin, October – December 2007 <strong>German</strong><br />
Distributor Piffl Medien/Berlin<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International GmbH <strong>·</strong> Thorsten Ritter<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 7 <strong>·</strong> 82031 Geiselgasteig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de<br />
www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
Although Hans-Christian Schmid studied Documentary<br />
Filmmaking at Munich’s University of Television & Film he hasn’t directed<br />
a documentary since his graduation film Die Mechanik des<br />
Wunders about his home town of Altoetting in Bavaria in 1992.<br />
Since then, he had only been involved in the shooting of one other<br />
documentary when he served as cameraman in Poland for Michael<br />
Gutmann’s contribution to the Denk’ ich an Deutschland series, and it<br />
was this continuing interest in <strong>German</strong>y’s Eastern neighbor that<br />
prompted him to make the documentary Die wundersame<br />
Welt der Waschkraft (working title).<br />
“The idea for this film came from a newspaper article I had read, and<br />
I immediately thought that it was like a missing episode from Distant<br />
Lights,” Schmid recalls. “It was a spontaneous reaction to make the<br />
film.”<br />
The film focuses on a <strong>German</strong> company which takes the dirty laundry<br />
of leading Berlin hotels to Poland – and brings it back clean the next<br />
day. As Schmid explains, “Waschkraft recounts the journey of the<br />
laundry, but also of the people through whose hands its passes, now<br />
as borders fall in Europe and where, with each job that is lost in<br />
<strong>German</strong>y or created abroad, the buzzword of the consequences of<br />
globalization is uttered.”<br />
“We decided very quickly to be part of this project because it is perfect<br />
for ARTE as the subject is all about today’s Europe,” notes<br />
Soeren Schumann, the commissioning editor responsible for<br />
projects with ARTE at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, pointing out<br />
that Schmid is aiming “to show a slice of life of a year in the life of<br />
these people with their dreams and fears in a very realistic way.”<br />
“As Distant Lights showed, the border between <strong>German</strong>y and Poland<br />
is his specialty. It is the last big frontier, an economic frontier, even<br />
though people try to behave as if there weren’t any contrasts or conflicts,”<br />
Schumann adds. “I see Hans-Christian as someone who moves<br />
between the two genres of fiction film and documentary because<br />
there were scenes, for example, in Requiem which were shot very<br />
much in a documentary style.”<br />
Currently in post-production, Die wundersame Welt der<br />
Waschkraft will be released theatrically in <strong>German</strong>y by Piffl<br />
Medien and is being handled internationally by Bavaria Film<br />
International.<br />
“This film marks a continuation of our collaboration with Hans-<br />
Christian and Britta after handling Requiem and And Along Come<br />
Tourists and Hans-Christian’s previous films from 23 to Distant Lights,”<br />
says Bavaria Film International’s Thorsten Ritter. “With<br />
his choice of subjects, Hans-Christian is one of the most interesting<br />
of the <strong>German</strong> directors because he is able to create extremely credible<br />
figures and then look behind the façades at the persons and their<br />
fates and often make surprising revelations.”<br />
“You also feel in his documentary work that he is very concerned<br />
about the details and devotes a lot of time to how the protagonists<br />
are presented. There is always a sense of justice in his films, but he is<br />
never pretentious and I am sure that this documentary will have many<br />
more facets than one usually expects from documentaries,” Ritter<br />
adds.<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 39<br />
MB
Zwischen Heute<br />
und Morgen<br />
Scene from “Zwischen Heute und Morgen“<br />
(photo © Thomas Moeller)<br />
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama<br />
Production Company Nostro Film/Berlin, in co-production with<br />
Filmers <strong>Films</strong>/Berlin, SWR/Baden-Baden, ARTE/Strasbourg With<br />
backing from MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, Medienboard Berlin-<br />
Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFernsehFonds<br />
Bayern Producers Frank Doehmann, Fred Breinersdorfer<br />
Director Fred Breinersdorfer Screenplay Fred Breinersdorfer,<br />
Dagmar Leupold Director of Photography Rudolf Blahacek<br />
Editor Andy Altschiller Music by Till Broenner Production<br />
Design Anette Kuhn Principal Cast Peter Lohmeyer, Gesine<br />
Cukrowski Casting Dorothee Weyers Format 35 mm, color,<br />
1:1.66, Dolby SR 5.1 Shooting Language <strong>German</strong> Shooting in<br />
Berlin, Stuttgart, October – December 2007 <strong>German</strong> Distri -<br />
butor Majestic Filmverleih/Berlin<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International GmbH <strong>·</strong> Thorsten Ritter<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 7 <strong>·</strong> 82031 Geiselgasteig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de<br />
www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
The proof of the pudding’s in the eating and there’s many a slip be -<br />
tween clapper board and final cut, but check out the ingredients of<br />
Zwischen Heute und Morgen (“Between Tomorrow and<br />
Today”) because they certainly hint at something tasty!<br />
This is the story of Anouk, a woman in her late thirties, a literary<br />
translator from Stuttgart who meets Heiner, an architect in his forties,<br />
by chance in Berlin. They arrange to meet, spontaneously, desirous of<br />
a new life. The stakes are high: either their current existences, seeming<br />
ly anchored in two marriages, or a joint future of great love<br />
which could start this very night.<br />
They share a night of love and lust in a hotel room. They fight with<br />
and for each other. In unconditional trust they open up to each other<br />
and swap intimacies about their lives. Their time together is short but<br />
intense.<br />
Co-writer, together with Dagmar Leupold, and director Fred<br />
Breinersdorfer worked as a lawyer for seventeen years before his<br />
first novel (crime, of course) was published in 1980. There followed<br />
more novels, short stories and plays as well as scripts. He became a<br />
prolific writer of Tatort TV movies and, since 2003, has been producing,<br />
with various partners, films he has written. He now makes his<br />
directorial debut with Zwischen Heute und Morgen.<br />
“Zwischen Heute und Morgen is,” Breinersdorfer says, “a<br />
story of love and common sense, desire and distance; the really<br />
important things in life. This is a moving film about the ebb and flow<br />
of love, the story of one long night.”<br />
Breinersdorfer, it should be noted, has won Grimme, Bavarian and<br />
<strong>German</strong> Film Awards, and been nominated for the European Film<br />
Award, culminating with an Academy Award nomination (Best<br />
Foreign Language Film) for Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage.<br />
Peter Lohmeyer, an actor equally at home across all genres and<br />
a marquee name in <strong>German</strong>y, can boast an excellent body of critical<br />
and commercial success with films such as Das Wunder von Bern,<br />
Cowgirl, Playa del Futuro, Oktoberfest, Vineta and Frueher oder Spaeter.<br />
Gesine Cukrowski’s credits include Lieben und Toeten, Die weisse<br />
Robbe, Annas Alptraum and, most recently, Der Kriminalist. Here, she<br />
makes a remarkable debut in a <strong>German</strong> theatrical feature.<br />
Producer Frank Doehmann, who heads Nostro Film<br />
(together with Hans Joachim Mendig), has a CV which includes some<br />
of the finest names in the <strong>German</strong> film and TV biz – Studio Hamburg<br />
Produktion, Colonia Media, ZDF, ARTE, ORF, Columbia-Tristar, RTL<br />
and SAT.1<br />
So run down that checklist of ingredients again: writer, director, producer,<br />
actors, they’re all in place in Zwischen Heute und<br />
Morgen.<br />
german films quarterly in production<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 40<br />
SK
NEXT GENERATION <strong>2008</strong><br />
A Selection of Short <strong>Films</strong> by Students of <strong>German</strong> Film Schools<br />
We thank for their support
AlleAlle<br />
AlleAlle is an extraordinary film about real-life people<br />
and their quest for responsibility.<br />
Ina, just released from prison, returns to her childhood<br />
village trying to find meaning for her life. In her mother’s<br />
house, which had been abandoned for 30 years, she<br />
meets Domuehl, a desperate underdog, and Hagen, a<br />
mentally handicapped man who had spent his previous<br />
life in a mental institution and, while looking for his uncle,<br />
has ended up in this strange landscape in the middle of<br />
nowhere, south of Berlin. Hagen mistakes Domuehl, a<br />
bankrupt scaffolder who is hardly ever sober, for his uncle.<br />
Domuehl inherited not only his father’s scaffolding busi -<br />
ness but also a military base which his father acquired after<br />
the fall of the Berlin Wall for just one Deutschmark –<br />
shortly later, he froze to death. Ever since, Domuehl has<br />
struggled to eke out a living as a social outcast in cowboy<br />
boots, engrossed in his playground-daydreams and booze.<br />
But once Ina moves into his house together with Hagen<br />
and his rat, Domuehl’s life changes radically.<br />
A film full of hope and a glimpse into the future.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
It Works! Medien GmbH <strong>·</strong> Annekatrin Hendel<br />
Franz-Mehring-Platz 1 <strong>·</strong> 10243 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-28 09 76 31 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-30 88 28 79<br />
email: office@itworksmedien.de <strong>·</strong> www.itworksmedien.de <strong>·</strong> www.allealle.de<br />
Genre Romantic Comedy, Tragicomedy Category Feature Film<br />
Cinema Year of Production 2007 Director Pepe Planitzer<br />
Screenplay Pepe Planitzer, based on Burnout by Oliver Bukowski<br />
Director of Photography Uwe Mann Editor Katrin Ewald<br />
Music by Peter Liljeqvist, Calexico Production Design Justyna<br />
Jaszczuk Producer Annekatrin Hendel, Juergen Grimmer<br />
Production Company It Works! Medien/Berlin, in co-production<br />
with KOPPFILM/Berlin, Das Haus/Altes Lager, K13 Ton -<br />
technik/Berlin Principal Cast Milan Peschel, Eberhard Kirchberg,<br />
Marie Gruber Length 89 min, 2,537 m Format 35 mm, color, cs<br />
Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Versions English,<br />
French, Italian, Polish Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival<br />
Screenings Berlin 2007, Achtung Berlin 2007, Schwerin 2007,<br />
Shadowline Salerno 2007, Lubuskie Lato Filmowe 2007, Vaduz<br />
2007, Valencia 2007, Riga 2007, Ourense 2007, Milan 2007,<br />
Copenhagen 2007, Mainz 2007, among others Awards Studio<br />
Babelsberg Special Award (Production) 2007, New Berlin Film<br />
Award Achtung Berlin 2007, Best Actor Ourense 2007, Film Award<br />
Neisse 2007<br />
Pepe Planitzer was born in Berlin in 1969. In 1988 he finished<br />
his Directorial Studies at the Film & Television Academy “Konrad<br />
Wolf ” and since then has been working as a freelance author and<br />
director for film and television. His feature debut was in 2003 with<br />
Ein Schiff wird kommen.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 42<br />
Scene from “AlleAlle” (photo © Beate Nelken)
Auge in Auge – Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte<br />
EYE TO EYE – ALL ABOUT GERMAN FILM<br />
A film about the love of cinema, a voyage of discovery<br />
through 100 years of <strong>German</strong> film, which shows us that all<br />
which seems so far away, is, in reality, so close. Eye to Eye<br />
charts the great moments of <strong>German</strong> cinematic history.<br />
Unforgettable images are paraded before our eyes and<br />
make us feel like watching the classics again.<br />
Acclaimed <strong>German</strong> filmmakers such as Caroline Link,<br />
Doris Doerrie, Michael Ballhaus, Tom Tykwer, Wim<br />
Wenders, Dominik Graf, Christian Petzold, Andreas<br />
Dresen, Wolfgang Kohlhaase and Hanns Zischler, use film<br />
extracts to illustrate to us the films that have been particularly<br />
important to them; they investigate the essence of<br />
<strong>German</strong> film. Thus, layer by layer, the film uncovers what<br />
so often has obscured our view of <strong>German</strong> film history.<br />
Eye to Eye is an homage to what we love about <strong>German</strong><br />
cinema.<br />
Genre Film History Category Documentary Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Directors Michael Althen, Hans Helmut<br />
Prinzler Screenplay Michael Althen, Hans Helmut Prinzler<br />
Director of Photography Matthias Benzing Editor Tobias<br />
Streck Music by Robert Papst, Christian Birawski Producer<br />
Joachim Schroeder Production Company Preview Pro -<br />
duction/Munich, in co-production with Transit Film/Munich<br />
Length 105 min, 3,033 m Format 35 mm, color & b&w, 1:1.85<br />
Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Technology Dolby Digital 5.1 Festival Screenings Berlin<br />
<strong>2008</strong> (Berlinale Special), Viareggio <strong>2008</strong> With backing from<br />
BKM, FilmFern sehFonds Bayern, <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW, WDR, SWR,<br />
Goethe-Institut, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, DEFA -<br />
Stiftung <strong>German</strong> Distri butor Preview Production/Munich<br />
Michael Althen was born in 1962 in Munich. He is a renowned<br />
film critic and editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and has<br />
written books about Rock Hudson, Robert Mitchum and Dean<br />
Martin. His other films include: Das Kino bittet zu Tisch –<br />
Essen im Film (1995), Das Wispern im Berg der Dinge<br />
and Munich – Secrets of a City (Muenchen – Geheim -<br />
nisse einer Stadt, 2000, both in co-direction with Dominik<br />
Graf).<br />
Hans Helmut Prinzler was born in 1938 in Berlin. From<br />
1969-1979 he was the director of the <strong>German</strong> Film & Television<br />
Academy (dffb) in Berlin. From 1979-1990 he was responsible for<br />
events and publications at the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek and<br />
served on its board of directors from 1990-2006, during which time<br />
(from 2000) he was also director of the Filmmuseum Berlin. Since<br />
2000 he has been the director of the department Film and Media<br />
Art at the Akademie der Kuenste in Berlin. He is also the author of<br />
numerous books on <strong>German</strong> and international film. He also codirected<br />
Zwischen den Bildern – Zur Geschichte der<br />
Filmmontage (1980) together with Meide Breitel, Klaus<br />
Feddermann and Helmut Herbst.<br />
World Sales<br />
Transit Film GmbH <strong>·</strong> Loy W. Arnold, Susanne Schumann<br />
Dachauer Strasse 35 <strong>·</strong> 80335 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-59 98 85 20<br />
email: loy.arnold@transitfilm.de; susanne.schumann@transitfilm.de <strong>·</strong> www.transitfilm.de<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 43<br />
“Eye to Eye” (photo © Preview Production)
Berlin am Meer<br />
BERLIN BY THE SEA<br />
Tom and Malte are both in their early twenties. As DJs<br />
they rule the coolest clubs of Berlin with their own compositions,<br />
dreaming to storm the international music<br />
charts. They party ‘till they drop and earn their living as<br />
waiters for a catering service. Each of them is a character<br />
of his own.<br />
The introverted Tom struggles in search of his destiny. For<br />
him music is everything and studying at a major conservatory<br />
becomes his goal. But despite his undisputed talent,<br />
so far all his applications have been rejected. Emotionally<br />
his life turns into a rollercoaster ride when Mavie, the “lit -<br />
tle” sister of his roommate Mitsch, moves in.<br />
Malte however appears to be born on the sunny side:<br />
always lucky, a go-getter and charmer who is just enjoying<br />
the good times of his “student life”. No question that he is<br />
accepted right away at one of the desired conservatories<br />
and it takes just one interview and a record label signs him<br />
up. And even Mavie seems to fall for him.<br />
During the course of this Berlin summer Tom’s problems<br />
are cumulating. He painfully experiences that all his plans<br />
with his ‘buddy’ Malte are falling apart. Worse comes to<br />
worst when Tom feels rejected by Mavie, the single bright<br />
spot in his life …<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Red Cloud Filmproduction GmbH & Co KG <strong>·</strong> Chris Ribbe<br />
Alter Wall 61 <strong>·</strong> 20457 Hamburg/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-40-41 40 90 15 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-40-41 40 90 29<br />
email: info@redcloudfilm.de <strong>·</strong> www.redcloudfilm.de<br />
Genre Romantic Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year<br />
of Production 2007 Director Wolfgang Eissler Screenplay<br />
Wolfgang Eissler Director of Photography Florian Schilling<br />
Editor Anna Kappelmann Music by Sven Zimmermann Pro -<br />
duction Design Babett Klimmeck Producers Iris Sommerlatte,<br />
Ali Saghri, Chris Ribbe Production Company Alin Film pro -<br />
duktion/Berlin, in cooperation with Red Cloud Film production/<br />
Hamburg Principal Cast Robert Stadlober, Anna Brueggemann,<br />
Axel Schreiber, Jana Pallaske, Claudius Franz Casting Betty<br />
Averbeck, Julia Todorow Length 98 min Format 35 mm, color,<br />
1:1.85 Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English<br />
Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from<br />
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg <strong>German</strong> Distributor<br />
Warner Bros. Entertainment/Hamburg<br />
Wolfgang Eissler was born in 1971 in Bretten. He studied<br />
Theater Sciences and North American Studies in Berlin. In 1995 he<br />
completed his first short films and audio-visual art projects and<br />
worked as a freelance producer for music videos and commercials.<br />
He is also active as an instructor and coordinator for the new talents<br />
program “Talents Getting Started” for young actors. His films in -<br />
clude: boy meets girlS, episodes for the popular children’s<br />
series Loewenzahn, and Berlin by the Sea (Berlin am Meer,<br />
2007), among others.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 44<br />
Scene from “Berlin by the Sea” (photo © Warner Bros./Marco Maria Dresen)
Comeback<br />
A dark, seedy attic in Munich. This is where Juergen, a<br />
<strong>German</strong> boxing pro whose last fight is three years in the<br />
past, lives and trains. In order to make a living he works as<br />
a bouncer in a bar. Week after week he tries to arrange a<br />
fight through US matchmakers on the phone in a local call<br />
shop. Juergen “The Rock” Hartenstein, ex-<strong>German</strong><br />
Champion in the super middleweight division, has a<br />
dream: he wants to launch his international comeback on<br />
his own account.<br />
Eventually, Juergen is called to fight an American new -<br />
comer in Philadelphia and, together with his trainer, he<br />
sets off to the home of Rocky. This is his big chance.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Loopfilm GmbH<br />
Infanteriestrasse 19, Haus 1B <strong>·</strong> 80797 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-30 76 89 05 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-30 76 89 09<br />
email: info@loopfilm.de <strong>·</strong> www.loopfilm.de<br />
Genre Portrait Category Documentary Cinema Year of<br />
Production 2007 Director Maximilian Plettau Screenplay<br />
Maximilian Plettau Director of Photography Maximilian<br />
Plettau Editors Joerg Adolph, Maximilian Plettau Music by<br />
Dominik Schauer Producers Oliver Halmburger, Maximilian<br />
Plettau Production Company Loopfilm/Munich With Juergen<br />
"The Rock" Hartenstein, Markus Kone, Elisabeth Hartenstein,<br />
Alexander Boy, Fritz Sdunek, "King" Artur Grigorian, Bruce<br />
Silverglade, Don Elbaum, Max Alexander, Joey Eye, Frank<br />
Cappuccino Length 79 min, 2,167 m Format DV/HDV/Super<br />
16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version<br />
<strong>German</strong>/English Subtitled Version English Festival<br />
Screenings Hof 2007, Nyon <strong>2008</strong>, DOK Fest Munich <strong>2008</strong><br />
With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern <strong>German</strong><br />
Distri butor Nominal Film/Munich<br />
Maximilian Plettau was born in 1973 in Freiburg. After his<br />
schooling, he worked as a lighting technician and cameraman on<br />
various feature film projects, followed by studies at the University of<br />
Television & Film in Munich. Comeback (2007) marks his directing<br />
debut.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 45<br />
Scene from “Comeback” (photo © Loopfilm GmbH)
Dr. Alemán<br />
Seeking to escape suburban boredom, 26-year-old med<br />
student Marc travels to Cali/Colombia on an exchange.<br />
No sooner has he arrived at the hospital than he is thrust<br />
into the operating room, as if in a war zone. The beautiful<br />
cartel capital of Cali is a battleground, which his conservative<br />
host family tries to keep Marc well away from. But<br />
Marc finds himself drawn to the dangerous life in the<br />
favela of Siloé, a picturesque neighborhood of teenage<br />
hired assassins. There, he meets kiosk owner Wanda, a<br />
charming alcoholic, and little Pavito, a boy who supplies<br />
him with coke. Soon Marc is being pulled into the fast and<br />
furious life of the favelas, which brings him into conflict<br />
with his hospital and host family. He gets thrown out and<br />
takes up residence in Wanda's kiosk, already heavily in<br />
love with the beautiful owner. When gang leader El Juez,<br />
the “Judge”, wants Marc to become his personal doctor,<br />
Marc has to make a choice. Juez is on a bloody crusade for<br />
control of the town, and Marc decides he has to try and<br />
stop him.<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Tom Schreiber Screenplay Oliver<br />
Keidel, Tom Schreiber Director of Photography Olaf<br />
Hirschberg Editor Andreas Wodraschke Music by Josef Suchy<br />
World Sales<br />
TELEPOOL GmbH <strong>·</strong> Anja Uecker<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21 <strong>·</strong> 80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-55 87 60 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-55 87 62 29<br />
email: cinepool@telepool.de <strong>·</strong> www.telepool.de<br />
Production Design Juan Carlos Acevedo, Tim Pannen<br />
Producers Harry Floeter, Joerg Siepmann, Arne Ludwig<br />
Production Company 2 Pilots Filmproduction/Cologne<br />
Principal Cast August Diehl, Marleyda Soto, Hernán Méndez,<br />
Victor Villegas Casting Anja Dihrberg, Teatroas/Babel Length<br />
104 min, 2,757 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version<br />
Spanish Dubbed Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Versions<br />
English, <strong>German</strong> Sound Techno logy Dolby Digital With<br />
backing from <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),<br />
BKM, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF), MEDIA Plus, éQuinoxe<br />
<strong>German</strong> Distri butor ZORRO Filmverleih/Munich<br />
Tom Schreiber was born in 1969 in Freising. He worked as a<br />
camera assistant in still life photography and documentary film<br />
before studying Film at the Academy of Media Arts (KHM) in<br />
Cologne. During an 8-month scholarship at the Escuela de Cine y<br />
Televisión in Cuba, he shot the short film Viene del Cielo<br />
(together with Christian Becker). He finished his studies in Cologne<br />
with the award-winning short film Vita Reducta. After his work<br />
as an assistant director for various feature films and as a director of<br />
several TV documentaries, he shot his first feature film Fools<br />
(Narren), which had its premiere at the Berlinale 2002. Dr.<br />
Alemán is his second feature.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 46<br />
Scene from “Dr. Alemán” (photo © Tom Trambow/2 Pilots Filmproduction GmbH)
DWK 5 – Die Wilden Kerle<br />
THE WILD SOCCER BUNCH 5<br />
The 5th big screen adventure of the Wild Soccer Bunch<br />
leads our team of teen heroes into the Shadow Realm,<br />
where their most dangerous opponent ever awaits – vampir<br />
es!<br />
Leon and Vanessa have finally fallen in love, and swear<br />
eternal loyalty. But just one day later, Leon is gone. Has he<br />
deserted her, or been kidnapped? To find him, the Wild<br />
Soccer Bunch travels to the horizon and beyond, to the<br />
Shadow Realm. During the day, everything there is just<br />
rocks and dust, but at night, vampires dwell! They have<br />
lured Leon here and now eagerly await his friends.<br />
Vanessa almost succumbs to the allure of their leader,<br />
Darkside, and must learn the vampire's secret to discover<br />
how to overcome them and win back her love. For the<br />
vampires are turned to stone in sunlight – just as Leon was<br />
turned to stone trying to escape. Only true love can bring<br />
him back to life now.<br />
An ultimate soccer battle takes place to free him, between<br />
dark and light, good and evil. This time, the Wild Soccer<br />
Bunch isn’t fooled by vampire tricks, but trust in each<br />
other to defeat the powers of darkness and escape the<br />
Shadow Realm beyond the horizon.<br />
World Sales<br />
TELEPOOL GmbH <strong>·</strong> Anja Uecker<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21 <strong>·</strong> 80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-55 87 60 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-55 87 62 29<br />
email: cinepool@telepool.de <strong>·</strong> www.telepool.de<br />
Genre Family Entertainment, Fantasy Category Feature Film<br />
Cinema Year of Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Joachim<br />
Masannek Screenplay Joachim Masannek Director of<br />
Photog raphy Benjamin Dernbecher Editor Alexander Dittner<br />
Music by Andrej Melita, Peter Horn Jr. Production Design<br />
Heike Lange, Maximilian Lange Producers Ewa Karlstroem,<br />
Andreas Ulmke-Smeaton Production Company SamFilm/<br />
Munich Principal Cast Jimi Blue Ochsenknecht, Sarah Kim Gries,<br />
Marlon Wessel Casting Stefany Pohlmann Length 107 min,<br />
2,925 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version<br />
<strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English Sound Technology<br />
Dolby Digital With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Bayerischer Bankenfonds (BBF),<br />
<strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF) <strong>German</strong> Distributor Walt<br />
Disney Studios Motion Pictures <strong>German</strong>y/Munich<br />
Joachim Masannek was born in 1960 in Hamm and studied<br />
<strong>German</strong>, Philosophy, and Film in Munich. Since 1985, he has worked<br />
as a production designer, lighting technician, cameraman and author.<br />
After working on various animation projects, he wrote the children’s<br />
book Die Wilden Fussballkerle based on the soccer team he founded<br />
in Munich. His films include: Bomber (short, 1992), In Liebe,<br />
Catherine (short, 1992), Der Baer (commercial, 1992), and all<br />
five The Wild Soccer Bunch (Die Wilden Kerle) films.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 47<br />
Scene from “DWK 5” (photo © SamFilm/Erika Hauri)
Die Entdeckung der Currywurst<br />
THE INVENTION OF THE CURRIED SAUSAGE<br />
During the last throes of the war, Lena Bruecker is 47years-old.<br />
Her children have left the roost and her husband<br />
has been stationed on the eastern front for years –<br />
without any regret on her part. Life almost appears to be<br />
over for her – as far as love and passion are concerned –<br />
when Lena is given an unexpected new lease on life.<br />
After an evening in a movie theater, which, as usual, ends<br />
up in an air-raid shelter, she takes Petty Officer Bremer<br />
home with her. Just like that – she is suddenly in a mood<br />
to show everything she has got left. She cooks for the<br />
young man, who reminds her of her son, and shares a<br />
drink with him. It turns out to be a nice evening, which<br />
suddenly turns into more. Lena offers him a place to stay<br />
– first only for the night, but then for good. Facing the<br />
cold, hopeless front as an alternative, Bremer decides to<br />
desert in the morning.<br />
He now places himself at the mercy of a woman he barely<br />
knows, as Lena’s apartment becomes an island, on which<br />
both of them enjoy drifting: Bremer, too young to die in<br />
the final battle of a hopeless war, and Lena, who is still<br />
young enough to feel her passion for life. An unusual and<br />
dramatic love affair unfolds, leaving the war outside the<br />
apartment door – despite its constant dangers. However,<br />
the larger threat to Lena’s new life turns out to be the<br />
impending peace.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
TAG/TRAUM Filmproduktion GmbH & Co. KG<br />
Weyerstrasse 88 <strong>·</strong> 50676 Cologne/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-2 21-65 02 59 00 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-2 21-23 38 94<br />
email: info@tagtraum.de <strong>·</strong> www.tagtraum.de<br />
Thus, she is hiding the fact that <strong>German</strong>y has capitulated<br />
from Bremer and is virtually holding him prisoner in her<br />
home-made war game. When the truth comes out,<br />
unplanned and suddenly, Bremer takes off, just as Lena<br />
has always feared. At first, Lena is beside herself until she<br />
realizes that this elapsed love has been fruitful anyway …<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Ulla Wagner Screenplay Ulla<br />
Wagner, based on the novella by Uwe Timm Director of<br />
Photography Theo Bierkens Editor Corina Dietz Music by<br />
Christine Aufderhaar Production Design Benedikt Herforth<br />
Producer Gerd Haag Production Company TAG/TRAUM<br />
Filmproduktion/Cologne, in co-production with KAENGURUH-<br />
Film/Berlin, in cooperation with Ego Media/Riga Principal Cast<br />
Barbara Sukowa, Alexander Khuon, Wolfgang Boeck, Branko<br />
Samarovski, Astrid Meyerfeldt, Goetz Schubert Casting Anja<br />
Dihrberg Length 105 min Format Super 16 mm Blow-up 35<br />
mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled<br />
Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With<br />
backing from <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),<br />
Nordmedia, BKM, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF) <strong>German</strong><br />
Distributor Schwarz-Weiss Film verleih/Bonn<br />
Ulla Wagner studied Theater, Journalism and <strong>German</strong> Studies in<br />
Berlin. Since 1981, she has worked in film and television: as a director’s<br />
assistant, dramaturge, writer and director. Her films include:<br />
Regenbogenprinz, Unzeit, Max Mal Vier, Error, Aus<br />
und vorbei, Anna Wunder, and The Invention of the<br />
Curried Sausage (Die Entdeckung der Currywurst).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 48<br />
Scene from “The Invention of the Curried Sausage”<br />
(photo © TAG/TRAUM Filmproduktion)
Die Frau des Anarchisten<br />
THE ANARCHIST’S WIFE<br />
Over a million people lost their lives in the Spanish Civil<br />
War, two million were taken prisoner and half a million<br />
expulsed from Spain. Set during these harrowing years<br />
between Franco’s putsch and the end of World War II, this<br />
is the story of a couple and their undying love. Lawyer<br />
Justo Calderón is a glowing Republican who fights Franco<br />
both in the trenches and on the radio as the “Voice of the<br />
Revolution.” His elegant young wife Manuela is spoiled,<br />
non-political, but a loving mother to their daughter Paloma<br />
and intensely in love with her husband. The young family<br />
undergoes all the horrors of the Civil War, all the pain of<br />
betrayal, imprisonment and torture, all the anguish of<br />
separation. When Franco’s troops win, Manuela loses all<br />
contact with Justo. Alone, without money, she and Paloma<br />
struggle to survive. Yet Manuela never gives up believing<br />
that she will find Justo again one day. In her tireless search<br />
for her husband, she sees a photo in a magazine article on<br />
former concentration camp prisoners and becomes convinced<br />
that it is Justo. Her search now takes on a new<br />
urgency …<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Directors Marie Noëlle, Peter Sehr<br />
Screen play Marie Noëlle Director of Photography Jean-<br />
François Robin Editor Luis de la Madrid Music by Frédéric<br />
Sanchez, Zacarías Martinez de la Riva Production Design Marta<br />
Blasco, Juan Botella Ruiz Castillo Producers Peter Sehr, Marie<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International <strong>·</strong> Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH <strong>·</strong> Thorsten Ritter<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 7 <strong>·</strong> 82031 Geiselgasteig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de <strong>·</strong> www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
Noëlle Production Company P’Artisan Film pro duktion/<br />
Munich, in co-production with ZIP <strong>Films</strong>/Barcelona, Ciné Boissière/<br />
Joinville-le-Pont Principal Cast Maria Valverde, Juan Diego<br />
Botto, Nina Hoss, Ivana Baquero, Jean-Marc Barr, Laura Morante,<br />
Irene Visedo Length 112 min, 3,151 m Format 35 mm, color,<br />
1:1.85 Original Version Spanish/French Subtitled Version<br />
English Sound Technology Dolby SRD With backing from<br />
Film foerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,<br />
FilmFern sehFonds Bayern, <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW, Deutsch-<br />
Franzoesisches Minitraité, Deutscher Filmfoerderfonds (DFFF)<br />
<strong>German</strong> Distributor ZORRO Filmverleih/Munich<br />
Marie Noëlle and Peter Sehr have been working to gether<br />
since 1979, when Marie Noëlle began editing and writing many of<br />
Peter Sehr’s films. In 1988, they founded P’Artisan Filmproduktion<br />
and together they have co-directed Und nicht ein Tohu -<br />
wabohu (1988) and The Anarchist’s Wife (Die Frau des<br />
Anarchisten, <strong>2008</strong>). Her other films include: Ich erzaehle<br />
mir einen Mann (1995), Komm doch an den Tisch<br />
(1998), U-Store It, U-Lock It, U-Keep the Key (2001),<br />
30 años al servicio del amor (2002), Kinder suchen<br />
Eltern (2003). His other films include: Serbian Girl (Das<br />
Serbische Maedchen, 1991), Kaspar Hauser: Crime<br />
Against a Man’s Soul (1993) – winner of three <strong>German</strong> Film<br />
Awards, Obsession (1997), and Love the Hard Way (2001,<br />
winner of a Silver Leopard at Locarno 2001).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 49<br />
Scene from “The Anarchist’s Wife” (photo © P’Artisan Film)
Das Fremde in mir<br />
THE STRANGER IN ME<br />
A young couple in love: Rebecca (32) and her boyfriend<br />
Julian (34) are expecting their first child and are full of<br />
pleasant expectation. As Rebecca gives birth to a healthy<br />
boy their luck seems to be perfect. But instead of the<br />
unconditional motherly love she was expecting, she is<br />
thrown into an emotional turmoil. Helplessness and despera<br />
tion reign and her own baby is a stranger to her. With<br />
every day that passes, her inability to meet the demands<br />
of motherhood become more and more apparent. Unable<br />
to admit this to anyone, not even Julian, she falls into a<br />
deep darkness – to the point that she realizes she is becoming<br />
a threat to her child. Now only un conditional love<br />
can bring her back on track …<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Emily Atef Screenplay Emily<br />
Atef, Esther Bernstorff Director of Photography Henner<br />
Besuch Editor Beatrice Babin Music by Manfred Eicher<br />
Production Design Annette Lofy Producer Nicole Gerhards<br />
Executive Producer Hanneke van der Tas Production<br />
Company NiKo Film/Berlin, in co-production with ZDF Das kleine<br />
Fernsehspiel/Mainz, Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie (dffb)/<br />
Berlin, in association with ARTE/Stras bourg Principal Cast<br />
World Sales<br />
Bavaria Film International <strong>·</strong> Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH <strong>·</strong> Thorsten Ritter<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 7 <strong>·</strong> 82031 Geiselgasteig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de <strong>·</strong> www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
Susanne Wolff, Johann von Buelow, Maren Kroymann, Hans Diehl,<br />
Judith Engel, Doerte Lyssewski, Brigitte Zeh Casting Anja<br />
Dihrberg, Bernhard Karl Length 99 min, 2,709 m Format 16 mm<br />
Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version <strong>German</strong><br />
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR<br />
Festival Screenings Cannes <strong>2008</strong> (Critics’ Week) With<br />
backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Nordmedia,<br />
<strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF) <strong>German</strong> Distributor<br />
Ventura Film/Thuengers heim<br />
Emily Atef was born in Berlin to French and Iranian parents. She<br />
grew up in Los Angeles and Paris, before moving to London to work<br />
in the theater. In 2001, she enrolled in the <strong>German</strong> Film & Television<br />
Academy (dffb) in Berlin. Her acclaimed films include: XX to XY<br />
Fighting to be Jake (short documentary, 2002), Sundays<br />
(short, 2003), I Love You, I Kill You (short, 2004), Djibril<br />
und Zoran (short, 2004), her feature debut Molly’s Way<br />
(2005), and The Stranger in Me (Das Fremde in mir,<br />
<strong>2008</strong>).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 50<br />
Scene from “The Stranger in Me” (photo © Markus Schaedel)
Gestern in Eden<br />
THE OTHER DAY IN EDEN<br />
To take care of his father’s estate, Ulrich Meinert has to go<br />
to a trailer park where his father used to live. And sudden -<br />
ly he finds himself in a nudist colony in eastern <strong>German</strong>y<br />
which stirs up mixed feelings. Although he felt a lot of<br />
resentment towards his father, days go by without him<br />
taking care of any unsettled business. Instead, he starts to<br />
get involved with Anja, his father’s girlfriend, takes on one<br />
of his father’s old friends and settles into his father’s trailer.<br />
Against his own wishes, he starts to fill the void his father<br />
left behind …<br />
Genre Drama Category Short Year of Production <strong>2008</strong><br />
Director Jan Speckenbach Screenplay Jan Speckenbach,<br />
Melanie Rohde Director of Photography Jenny Lou Ziegel<br />
Editor Wiebke Gundler Music by Daniel Freundlieb<br />
Production Design Ralf Swinley, Petra Schlie Production<br />
Company Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie (dffb)/Berlin, in<br />
co-production with Hochschule fuer Film & Fernsehen ‘Konrad<br />
Wolf ’/Potsdam-Babelsberg Principal Cast Bernhard Schuetz,<br />
Sylvia Schwarz, Heiner Stadelmann Length 30 min, 855 m<br />
Format Super 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original<br />
Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings Cannes <strong>2008</strong><br />
(Cinéfondation)<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie Berlin GmbH (dffb) <strong>·</strong> Jana Wolff<br />
Potsdamer Strasse 2 <strong>·</strong> 10785 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-25 75 91 52 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-25 75 91 62<br />
email: wolff@dffb.de <strong>·</strong> www.dffb.de<br />
Jan Speckenbach was born in 1970 and studied Art History,<br />
Philosophy and Media Arts in Munich, Karlsruhe and Paris. Since<br />
1999, he has been working as a freelance video artist, particularly<br />
for the theater. In 2005, he took up post-graduate studies in Film<br />
Directing at the <strong>German</strong> Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin.<br />
His other films include: A Few Minutes Jean Rouch (documentary,<br />
1995), DCX (2001), Zeitspuren oder die Ver -<br />
messung eines Theaters (documentary, 2003), Badezimmer<br />
oder die Geschichte von B.B. (2004), and La<br />
Chambre penchée (2005).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 51<br />
Scene from “The Other Day in Eden” (photo © dffb)
Die Handwerker Gottes<br />
GOD’S CRAFTSMEN<br />
God’s Craftsmen tells the story of the wandering painters<br />
Bruno and Buffalmacco. In Upper Bavaria in the year<br />
1830, they are commissioned to paint the fresco Jesus<br />
Heals the Blind – but the two are mainly just enjoying life.<br />
However, the greedy prior, who cares more for his dog<br />
Mariedl and his money than anything else, keeps hound -<br />
ing them.<br />
One day they meet the beautiful Agnes – the personification<br />
of all their dreams and desires. But she is the wife of<br />
a jealous farmer. And then there is Xaver, another one of<br />
Agnes’ admirers who even asks the painters to help him in<br />
his efforts to win her over.<br />
Bruno and Buffalmacco develop a plan. But will they be<br />
successful? Without luck even some of the best plans are<br />
doomed to failure. But since luck rules the world, some -<br />
times even a little bit of luck is better than a whole lot of<br />
wit.<br />
God’s Craftsmen is an adaptation of a novella from Il<br />
Decamerone by G. Boccaccio. Beyond that, the film is<br />
indebted to the images and spirit of Wilhelm Busch and<br />
Carl Spitzweg and follows in the tradition of folkloric tales<br />
and ballads.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Muenchner Filmwerkstatt e.V. <strong>·</strong> Martin Blankemeyer<br />
Postfach 860 525 <strong>·</strong> 81632 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-20 33 37 12 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-7 21-1 51 37 76 29<br />
email: info@muenchner-filmwerkstatt.de <strong>·</strong> www.muenchner-filmwerkstatt.de<br />
Genre Art, Comedy, History Category Short Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Siegmar Warnecke Screenplay<br />
Siegmar Warnecke Director of Photography Bjoern Kurt<br />
Editor Siegmar Warnecke Music by Patrick Buttmann<br />
Production Design Oliver Hoese Producer Martin<br />
Blankemeyer Production Company Muenchner Filmwerk -<br />
statt/Munich, in co-production with Hochschule fuer Fernsehen<br />
und Film Muenchen (HFF/M)/Munich Principal Cast Tim Seyfi,<br />
Roland von Kummant, Christian Steinfelder, Malah Helman, Robert<br />
Spitz, Stefan Rutz, Maurice Schoenen, Ottfried Fischer Length 38<br />
min Format 16 mm/DigiBeta, color, 1:1.78 Original Version<br />
<strong>German</strong> Subtitled Versions English, Italian Sound Tech -<br />
nology Dolby Digital 5.1 With backing from FilmFern -<br />
sehFonds Bayern, Foerderverein der HFF Muenchen<br />
Siegmar Warnecke was born in 1971 in Bonn. After studying<br />
Art History, <strong>German</strong> Studies and Philosophy in Frankfurt, he en -<br />
rolled at the University of Television & Film in Munich to study<br />
Directing. He is also active as a storyboard artist and is a lecturer at<br />
the University of Television & Film in Munich. His other films as a<br />
director include: the shorts Die Ruhe auf der Flucht (1997),<br />
Die laengste Koksline der Welt (1998), Nacht ueber<br />
Edensloh (2001), Die Windsbraut (2004), Denn die<br />
Revolution findet wo anders statt (2005), and Eine<br />
zweite Chance (2006).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 52<br />
Graphic from “God’s Craftsmen” (photo © Thomas von Kummant/Die Artillerie)
Ich will da sein – Jenny Groellmann<br />
THE BALLAD OF JENNY G.<br />
Jenny Groellmann (1947-2006) was one of the great charact<br />
er actors of the GDR whose presence on stage and the<br />
strength of the characters she played would have carried<br />
her effortlessly, under other circumstances, into the<br />
annals of world cinema. She was an exceptional actress<br />
who rose to the heights of her art, sank to oblivion with<br />
the end of an era, was publicly defamed and ultimately<br />
vindicated.<br />
The Ballad of Jenny G. is an insightful portrait of a<br />
strong, fascinating woman and consummate artist in extraordinary<br />
times. Clips from Groellmann’s stellar career on<br />
screen are intercut with intimate and revealing scenes of<br />
her later life and with the words of her friends and col -<br />
leagues.<br />
Her life and her performances in film mesh to produce a<br />
compelling document, combining the public and the<br />
private; interweaving the singular history of East <strong>German</strong><br />
cinema and that of the two <strong>German</strong>ies with a searching<br />
portrayal of the late Jenny Groellmann and her art.<br />
Genre Biopic, Arts & Culture, Women’s Film Category<br />
Documentary Cinema Year of Production <strong>2008</strong> Director<br />
Petra Weisenburger Screenplay Petra Weisenburger Directors<br />
of Photography Thomas Mauch, Martin Gressmann, Wojciech<br />
Szepel, Max Zaher Editor Klaus-Peter Schmitt Producer Petra<br />
World Sales<br />
defa-spektrum GmbH <strong>·</strong> Manja Meister<br />
Chausseestrasse 103 <strong>·</strong> 10115 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-2 46 56 21 15 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-2 46 56 21 50<br />
email: m.meister@defa-spektrum.de <strong>·</strong> www.defa-spektrum.de<br />
Weisenburger Production Company Weisenburger Film/<br />
Berlin, in co-production with DEFA Foundation/Berlin With Jenny<br />
Groellmann, Hermann Beyer, Thomas Goguel, Michael Gwisdek,<br />
Henry Huebchen, Bert Huelpuesch, Felix Huelpuesch, Uwe<br />
Kockisch, Anna Maria Muehe, Ernst Noennecke, Claus-Juergen<br />
Pfeiffer, Peter Pragal, Christiane Preusse-Huelpuesch, Jaecki<br />
Schwarz, Michael Weidt Length 95 min, 2,832 m Format DV<br />
Cam/HDV Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version<br />
<strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English Sound Technology<br />
Dolby SR Festival Screenings Sofia <strong>2008</strong> With backing<br />
from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Kulturelle Filmfoerderung<br />
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, DEFA Foundation <strong>German</strong> Distri -<br />
butor defa-spektrum/Berlin<br />
Petra Weisenburger was born in 1958 in Karlsruhe. She<br />
studied Art History, Literature and Sociology in Paris and Heidel -<br />
berg. She held various creative positions in film and theater pro -<br />
ductions and realized several video films for the Joachim Schloemer<br />
Dance Theater. Since 1995 she has been a project manager and<br />
head of studies at the Nipkow Programm in Berlin, a grant program<br />
for European filmmakers, and in 2005 she founded her own production<br />
company. Her films as an author and co-director include the<br />
award-winning Jean Weidt – Le Danseur Rouge (1988),<br />
Homage to Free Dance in <strong>German</strong>y – Part I: The<br />
Silent Scream and Part II: Lone Fighters (1991). She work<br />
ed as co-producer on Memories of Happiness (1990) and wrote,<br />
produced and directed the short documentary Shep herd’s Big<br />
Moment (Schaefers Stunde, 2005). The Ballad of Jenny<br />
G. (Ich will da sein – Jenny Groell mann, <strong>2008</strong>) is her first<br />
documentary feature.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 53<br />
Jenny Groellmann (photo © Michael Weidt)
Im Jahr des Hundes<br />
IN THE YEAR OF THE DOG<br />
In the Year of the Dog tells about dogs in China, and of<br />
dogs belonging to the people, and of people belonging to<br />
the society. Entertaining and informative, colorful and<br />
bizarre, critical and sad. A film about animal love and animal<br />
death, rituals and superstitions. Above all, a film about<br />
current affairs, about winning and losing. Of the people.<br />
And the dogs.<br />
We plunge, for a day or an entire year, into the middle of<br />
different living situations, and discover just how similar our<br />
lives are. And, finally, how different.<br />
Genre Society Category Documentary Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Ursula Scheid Screenplay Ursula<br />
Scheid Directors of Photography Armin Dierolf, Petra<br />
Wallner Editor Daniela Drescher Producers Hendrik Feil,<br />
Martin Kircher Production Company Wasabi Film/Munich, in<br />
co-production with BR/Munich, WDR/Cologne, Ursula Scheid/<br />
Munich Length 88 min Format HD CAM SR, color, 1:1.85<br />
Original Version Chinese Subtitled Versions English,<br />
<strong>German</strong> Festival Screenings DOK Fest Munich <strong>2008</strong> With<br />
backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW,<br />
Gerd Ruge Stipendium<br />
Ursula Scheid studied Political Science at the Ludwig-<br />
Maximilians-University in Munich, taking a degree in <strong>German</strong>-<br />
Chinese Relations, followed by studies in Journalism at the <strong>German</strong><br />
Journalism School in Munich. She also participated in guest seminars<br />
in Theater Direction (with Juergen Flimm) and Editing (with Patrizia<br />
Rommel). Since 1988, she has been working as a freelance journalist,<br />
writer and director. Her films include: The Burning Village<br />
(Das brennende Dorf, documentary, 2004), I Like Chinese<br />
(short, 2006), The Search for Hong Long (Die Suche des<br />
Hong Long, 2006), Fairytale (documentary, 2006), and In<br />
the Year of the Dog (Im Jahr des Hundes, documentary,<br />
<strong>2008</strong>).<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Wasabi Film GmbH & Co. KG<br />
Bayerisches Filmzentrum <strong>·</strong> Bavariafilmplatz 7 <strong>·</strong> 82031 Gruenwald/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-64 98 14 00 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-64 98 13 00<br />
email: info@wasabifilm.com <strong>·</strong> www.wasabifilm.com <strong>·</strong> www.in-the-year-of-the-dog.com<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 54<br />
“In the Year of the Dog” (photo © Holger Sikau/Armin Dierolf)
Lauf um Dein Leben – Vom Junkie zum Ironman<br />
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE – FROM JUNKIE TO IRONMAN<br />
Andreas and his gang of friends are troublemakers – they<br />
get stoned on grass, go on shoplifting excursions and are<br />
continually running from the cops. Soon, Andreas moves<br />
up to stronger drugs – and is forced to start dealing to support<br />
his growing habit.<br />
He falls in love with the young Sabine, with whom he has<br />
a child, and from whom he’s able to keep his drug addiction<br />
hidden…until the day she discovers him unconscious<br />
in the bathroom with a needle sticking out of his arm …<br />
She takes their child and leaves him. Emotionally destroyed<br />
at the loss and wrecked from his drug abuse, Andreas<br />
takes up a degenerate life in the streets. One day, in a suicid<br />
al fit, he smashes a car into a tree – but survives.<br />
After a year of attempting to kick his drug habit, he has a<br />
life-changing experience while running. Suddenly inspired,<br />
Andreas begins running for his life – not away from it –<br />
and eventually runs all the way into the elite ranks of the<br />
world’s top athletes in the extremely difficult Triathlon discipline.<br />
He’s succeeded in making the amazing trans -<br />
formation from junkie to Ironman …<br />
World Sales<br />
Beta Cinema / Dept. of Beta Film GmbH <strong>·</strong> Andreas Rothbauer<br />
Gruenwalder Weg 28 d <strong>·</strong> 82041 Oberhaching/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88<br />
email: ARothbauer@betacinema.com <strong>·</strong> www.betacinema.com<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production 2007 Director Adnan G. Koese Screenplay<br />
Adnan G. Koese, Fritjof Hohagen Director of Photography<br />
James Jacobs Editor Alexander Dittner Music by Patrick<br />
Buttmann, Philipp F. Koelmel Production Design Oliver Hoese<br />
Producers Fritjof Hohagen, Clarens Grollmann Production<br />
Company enigma film/Unterfoehring, in co-production with<br />
Odeon Pictures/Unterfoehring, Neue Kinowelt Filmproduktion/<br />
Berlin, Lunaris Film/Unterfoehring Principal Cast Max Riemelt,<br />
Jasmin Schwiers, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Axel Stein, Robert Gwisdek,<br />
Ismail Deniz, Udo Schenk, Ingo Naujoks Casting Uwe Buenker<br />
Length 102 min, 2,957 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original<br />
Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Techno logy Dolby Digital 5.1 With backing from Film -<br />
stiftung NRW, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungs anstalt<br />
(FFA), <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF)<br />
Adnan G. Koese grew up in <strong>German</strong>y as the son of <strong>German</strong>-<br />
Turkish parents. Interested in all aspects of film at an early age, he is<br />
active as an actor, screenwriter and director. His films include: Go<br />
to Hell (Zur Hoelle mit Dir, short, 2003) and his feature<br />
debut Run for Your Life – From Junkie to Ironman<br />
(Lauf um Dein Leben – Vom Junkie zum Ironman,<br />
2007).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 55<br />
Scene from “Run for Your Life” (photo © enigma film/Kerstin Stelter)
Love, Peace & Beatbox<br />
Hiss, chirp, crackle, creak, squeak, gurgle, drum or simply<br />
plop – there isn’t a single sound that an accomplished<br />
human beatboxer can’t imitate with their mouth. After<br />
rapping, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti, beatboxing or<br />
mouth-drumming is widely regarded as the fifth element<br />
of hip hop. As in many other big cities, a rich and varied<br />
music scene has emerged in Berlin in recent years, one<br />
that includes one of <strong>German</strong>y’s most popular bands,<br />
4xsamples, who are the current team battle vice-world<br />
champions. Founded by DJ Mesia, BeeLow and Maxim,<br />
who was murdered in 2003, the beatbox championship<br />
has now been exported to countries as far away as<br />
Australia. As an art form that originated on the street and<br />
still feels most at home there, hip hop thrives on a mix ture<br />
of improvisation and virtuosity – and this is exactly what<br />
beatboxing is all about. In this way, beatboxing takes hip<br />
hop back to its roots.<br />
In 2006, documentarist Volker Meyer-Dabisch began film -<br />
ing the protagonists of Berlin’s beatbox community – at<br />
performances, in studios and during rehearsals. Love,<br />
Peace & Beatbox portrays the genre’s key proponents; in<br />
his film the filmmaker connects to their world of sounds,<br />
rhythms and noises, listens to their art, and opens a window<br />
on the world of beatbox.<br />
“You had to be there, during the final credits of this beatbox<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Karl Handke Filmproduktion<br />
Wiener Strasse 20 <strong>·</strong> 10999 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
mobile +49-1 77-7 88 59 11<br />
email: meyer-dabisch@gmx.de <strong>·</strong> www.karl-handke-filmproduktion.de<br />
documentary instructions were given and hundreds of viewers in<br />
the audience got involved in the sound. There’s hardly ever been<br />
that much rhythm in the cinema. No, the Berlinale didn’t rock,<br />
it scratched, sampled and mixed.” (Tagesspiegel)<br />
“During the whole film the audience claps, whistles and cheers.<br />
In my three years with The Young Journalists I have never seen<br />
anything like this, such an enthusiastic audience.” (Die jungen<br />
Journalisten)<br />
Genre Music, Society Category Documentary Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Volker Meyer-Dabisch Directors<br />
of Photography Andreas Gockel, Hendrik Lier, Ralf Netzer,<br />
Peter Sebera Editor Volker Meyer-Dabisch Producer Volker<br />
Meyer-Dabisch Production Company Karl Handke Film -<br />
produktion/Berlin Principal Cast Mando, Wetlipz, Chlorophil,<br />
Pirate MC, BeeLow, DJ Mesia, Zeero, Ro Beat, Steff La Chef<br />
Length 70 min Format DigiBeta, color, 16:9 Letterbox<br />
Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Tech nology Stereo Festival Screenings Berlin <strong>2008</strong><br />
(Generation 14+/Perspectives <strong>German</strong> Cinema)<br />
Volker Meyer-Dabisch was born in 1962 in Kamen. After train -<br />
ing as an actor, he had various theater engagements and appear ed<br />
in television and film productions, including Rudolf Thome’s Frau<br />
faehrt, Mann schlaeft. His films as a director include: Zwirbels<br />
Traum (2003), Kohleladen Oezdemir (2003), and Love,<br />
Peace & Beatbox (<strong>2008</strong>).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 56<br />
Scene from “Peace, Love & Beatbox” (photo © Karl Handke Filmproduktion)
Meine Muetter – Spurensuche in Riga<br />
TWO MOTHERS – THE SEARCH BEGAN IN RIGA<br />
Tracing my two mothers in Riga is my personal history.<br />
I was born Holger Mischwitzky in Riga/Latvia, on<br />
November 25th, 1942. In 2000, my then 94-year-old<br />
mother told me I was not her son and that she had found<br />
me in a children’s home in Riga during the <strong>German</strong> occupation.<br />
That was all she was prepared to say. She died in<br />
2003.<br />
Initially I didn’t want to start searching, she had been a<br />
loving mother to me. Two years later I did become<br />
curious, but not knowing my real family name, I thought<br />
searching would be futile. With the help of a Latvian journalist<br />
I met Agnese who discovered intriguing things in the<br />
national archive.<br />
Amazingly enough, I eventually found my real birth certificate<br />
in Berlin which stated that I had been born in Riga<br />
in the central prison in 1942.<br />
I start searching for my mother. Will I find her or her family?<br />
Will I be able to find out something about my father?<br />
After 63 years, I decide to fly to Riga and start searching<br />
for my two mothers’ traces.<br />
World Sales<br />
Kinowelt International GmbH <strong>·</strong> Stelios Ziannis<br />
Karl-Tauchnitz-Strasse 10 <strong>·</strong> 04107 Leipzig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-3 41-35 59 60 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-3 41-35 59 64 19<br />
email: filmverlag@kinowelt.de <strong>·</strong> wwww.kinowelt-international.de<br />
Genre Biopic, History Category Documentary Cinema Year<br />
of Production 2007 Director Rosa von Praunheim Screen -<br />
play Rosa von Praunheim Directors of Photography Elfi<br />
Mikesch, Thomas Ladenburger, Markus Tiarks Editor Mike<br />
Shephard Music by Andreas Wolter Producer Rosa von<br />
Praunheim Production Company Rosa von Praunheim Film -<br />
produktion/Berlin, in co-production with RBB/Potsdam-Babels -<br />
berg, HR/Frankfurt Length 87 min Format DigiBeta, color,<br />
1:1.85 Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English<br />
Sound Technology Stereo Festival Screenings Hof 2007,<br />
Rotterdam <strong>2008</strong>, Goeteborg <strong>2008</strong>, Tribeca <strong>2008</strong>, Buenos Aires<br />
<strong>2008</strong> With backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,<br />
mabb Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg <strong>German</strong> Distributor<br />
Basis-Film Verleih/Berlin<br />
Rosa von Praunheim was born in Riga/Latvia in 1942. He<br />
studied painting in Berlin and took on his artist’s name of Rosa von<br />
Praunheim in 1964, in reference to the pink triangle homo sexuals<br />
were forced to wear in Nazi concentration camps. He has made<br />
over 50 films as the enfant terrible of the New <strong>German</strong> Cinema.<br />
Some of his best-known films are: It’s Not The Homosexual<br />
Who Is Perverse, But The Situation In Which He<br />
Lives (1970), Army of Lovers (1971-1976), A Virus Knows<br />
No Morals (1985), I Am My Own Woman (1992),<br />
Transsexual Menace (1996), Gay Courage (1998), The<br />
Einstein of Sex (1999), Fassbinder’s Women (2001),<br />
Queens Don’t Lie (2001), Cows Knocked-Up by Fog<br />
(2002), and Two Mothers – The Search Began in Riga<br />
(2007), among others.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 57<br />
Scene from “Two Mothers – The Search Began in Riga”<br />
(photo © Rosa von Praunheim)
Mein Traum oder Die Einsamkeit ist nie allein<br />
MY DREAM OR LONELINESS NEVER WALKS ALONE<br />
A man flees from the constant reoccurances of his life;<br />
from the expectations, from the responsibility forced upon<br />
him by a ‘normal life’. On a disused industrial estate he<br />
meets Godot, a woman who collects rubbish, lives in an<br />
old caravan and spends her time on a ‘paradise island’ – a<br />
rubber boat with inflatable palm tree – drifting along the<br />
city's sewers, searching for signs of human existence.<br />
Together with Godot, the man tries to get to the bottom<br />
of human existence and that between the sexes, looking<br />
for himself and the goal to his planless flight. In memories,<br />
the man reviews his own life. In his visions he meets the<br />
main characters of his life: the wife whom he has left, his<br />
girlfriend, his mother, his father, his grandfather, and a<br />
friend.<br />
His confused thoughts offer the material for a media spectacle<br />
that excludes not a single genre of the contemporary<br />
media landscape, with intellectual discourses and fantastic<br />
images, crazy and grotesque scenes that twist fairytales and<br />
satirize the political past. In impressively real and amazingly<br />
surreal images full of comedy, the man zaps through<br />
his thoughts like through a television program.<br />
Genre Dramedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production 2007 Director Roland Reber Screenplay Roland<br />
Reber Directors of Photography Juergen Kendzior, Bene<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
wtp international GmbH <strong>·</strong> Marina Anna Eich<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 7 <strong>·</strong> 82031 Geiselgasteig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-64 98 11 12 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-64 98 13 12<br />
email: wtpfilm@wtpfilm.de <strong>·</strong> www.wtpfilm.com<br />
Zirnbauer, Mira Gittner Editor Mira Gittner Music by Wolfram<br />
Kunkel Producers Patricia Koch, Marina Anna Eich, Roland Reber<br />
Production Company wtp international/Geiselgasteig<br />
Principal Cast Wolfgang Seidenberg, Mira Gittner, Marina Anna<br />
Eich, Antonio Exacoustos, Wolfram Kunkel, Sven Thiemann,<br />
Andreas Heinzel, Sabrina Brencher, Barbara Schmidt, Torsten<br />
Muenchow Length 100 min, 2,987 m Format DV Cam Blowup<br />
35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled<br />
Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival<br />
Screenings Fantasporto <strong>2008</strong>, Sitges <strong>2008</strong> <strong>German</strong> Distri -<br />
butor wtp inter national/Geiselgasteig<br />
Roland Reber has worked as a director and actor in theaters<br />
around the world after finishing his Acting studies in Bochum in the<br />
70s. He has written numerous plays and scripts as well as texts and<br />
lyrics. In 1989, he founded the Welt Theater Projekt and worked as<br />
a director, writer and head of WTP in India, Moscow, Cairo, Mexico<br />
City and in the Caribbean. He also has been a cultural advisor to different<br />
countries and institutes and taught Acting and Directing in<br />
Moscow and the Caribbean. For The Room (Das Zimmer,<br />
2001) he received the Emerging Filmmaker Award 2001 in<br />
Hollywood and the President’s Award 2000 in Ajijic/Mexico, among<br />
others. His other films include: Ihr habt meine Seele gebogen<br />
wie einen schoenen Taenzer (1979), Manuel (short,<br />
1998), Der Fernseh auftritt (short, 1998), Der Koffer<br />
(short, 1999), Zwang (short, 2000), Sind Maedchen<br />
Werwoelfe? (short, 2002), Pentamagica (2003), The Dark<br />
Side of Our Inner Space (2003), 24/7 The Passion of<br />
Life (2005), and My Dream or Loneliness Never Walks<br />
Alone (Mein Traum oder Die Einsamkeit ist nie allein,<br />
2007).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 58<br />
Scene from “My Dream or Loneliness Never Walks Alone” (photo courtesy of wtp)
Memory Books<br />
In Uganda, AIDS-infected mothers have begun writing<br />
what they call Memory Books for their children.<br />
Every evening Dennis and Chrissi brush their teeth in the<br />
dim glow of the oil lamp. The 10-year-old watches his<br />
little sister conscientiously as they get ready for bed. Since<br />
their mother died of AIDS two years ago they are both<br />
orphans, two of more than two million of their kind in<br />
Uganda. But a unique project has emerged from the catas<br />
trophic conditions in this east African country: Memory<br />
Books, a chance for infected parents and their children to<br />
write openly, honestly and compassionately about their<br />
painful situation and help the children to gradually understand<br />
that they will soon be looking after themselves.<br />
Through the process of remembering and writing, both<br />
parents and children discover a sense of strength and so -<br />
lace that they could never have foreseen while creating<br />
what will quite likely become the most important road<br />
map that these orphans will have in life.<br />
Genre Society Category Documentary Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Christa Graf Screenplay Christa<br />
Graf Director of Photography Roland Wagner Editor<br />
Carmen Kirchweger Music by Gert Wilden Jr. Producer Joerg<br />
Bundschuh Production Company Kick Film/Munich, in co-production<br />
with ZDF/Mainz, ARTE/Strasbourg, snakefilm/Zurich,<br />
SF/Zurich Length 90 min Format HD Blow-up 35 mm, color,<br />
1:1.66 Original Version English Dubbed Versions French,<br />
<strong>German</strong> Sound Technology Stereo Festival Screenings<br />
FIPA Biarritz <strong>2008</strong> (In Competition), Hot Docs Toronto <strong>2008</strong> (In<br />
Competition), Montreal PANAFRICA <strong>2008</strong> (In Competition),<br />
Solothurn <strong>2008</strong>, DOK Fest Munich <strong>2008</strong> Awards Main Jury Prize<br />
Jeunes Europeens FIPA Biarritz <strong>2008</strong> With backing from BKM,<br />
MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF),<br />
Volkart Stiftung <strong>German</strong> Distributor Stardust Filmver leih/<br />
Munich<br />
Christa Graf was born in 1947 in Munich. Until 1978 she work -<br />
ed as a laboratory technician in the biochemistry research department<br />
of the Max Planck Institute. Since 1994, she has been a freelance<br />
author and producer for various TV sta tions and has created<br />
more than 50 reportages and documentaries for renowned stations<br />
including ZDF, 3sat, BR and ARTE. A selection of her films includes:<br />
Die Sheldrick Elefanten (2001), Der Maskenmann<br />
(2001), Modelkarrieren (2002), Verlust der Kindheit<br />
(2002), Hollywood in Babelsberg (2003), Der Frust mit<br />
der Lust (2003), Ruanda – Zurueck ins Leben (2004), and<br />
Memory Books (<strong>2008</strong>).<br />
World Sales<br />
Accent <strong>Films</strong> International <strong>·</strong> Carol Spycher<br />
Rue de la Gare 46 <strong>·</strong> 1820 Montreux/Switzerland<br />
phone +41-21-9 63 93 00 <strong>·</strong> fax +41-21-9 63 93 05<br />
email: cspycher@accent-films.com <strong>·</strong> www.accent-films.com <strong>·</strong> www.memorybooks-film.com<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 59<br />
Scene from “Memory Books” (photo © Kick Film GmbH)
Novemberkind<br />
NOVEMBER CHILD<br />
Malchow, GDR, 1980. 20-year-old Anne is hiding Juri, a<br />
deserter of the Red Army. The two fall in love with each<br />
other. But their love is threatened: there is an arrest<br />
warrant and possibly a death sentence waiting for Juri. The<br />
two leave the country and flee to the West, leaving Anne’s<br />
six-month-old daughter Inga behind.<br />
Inga grows up with her grandparents, thinking that her<br />
mother died during a swimming accident. 25 years later<br />
she meets the literature professor Robert, who sends her<br />
on the trail of her past. He met Inga’s mother Anne during<br />
one of his seminars.<br />
At first Inga is resistant, but then she asks for Robert’s help.<br />
Together they take off on a journey through <strong>German</strong>y, in<br />
search of Inga’s mother Anne …<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Christian Schwochow Screen -<br />
play Christian Schwochow, Heide Schwochow Director of<br />
Photog raphy Frank Lamm Editor Christoph Wermke Music<br />
by Daniel Sus Production Design Natascha Tagwerk<br />
Producers Jochen Laube, Matthias Adler Production<br />
Company Sommerhaus Filmproduktion/Ludwigsburg, in co-production<br />
with SWR/Baden-Baden, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttem -<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
Sommerhaus Filmproduktion <strong>·</strong> Jochen Laube<br />
Alleenstrasse 2 <strong>·</strong> 71638 Ludwigsburg/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-71 41-2 99 18 60 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-71 41-9 74 39 58<br />
email: jochen.laube@gmx.de <strong>·</strong> www.novemberkind.net<br />
berg/Ludwigsburg, Cine+ Suedwest/Ludwigsburg, Filmemacher<br />
Produktion/Berlin Principal Cast Anna Maria Muehe, Ulrich<br />
Matthes, Juliane Koehler, Thorsten Merten, Hermann Beyer,<br />
Christine Schorn, Steffi Kuehnert, Christina Drechsler, Adrian Topol<br />
Length 94 min Format HD/Super 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm,<br />
color, cs Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version<br />
English Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings<br />
Ophuels Festival Saarbruecken <strong>2008</strong> (In Competition) Awards<br />
Audience Award Saarbruecken <strong>2008</strong> With backing from MFG<br />
Baden-Wuerttemberg, Filmfoerderung Mecklenburg Vorpommern<br />
<strong>German</strong> Distri butor Schwarz-Weiss Filmverleih/Cologne<br />
Christian Schwochow was born in 1978 in Bergen on the<br />
island of Ruegen. As a child, he was involved in numerous radio<br />
plays and was the young publisher and editor-in-chief of the youth<br />
magazine SHOT!. After finishing school he worked as an author,<br />
speaker and reporter for various television and radio broadcasters,<br />
followed by studies from 2002-<strong>2008</strong> in Film Directing at the Baden-<br />
Wuerttemberg Film Academy. His films include: Suelze (short,<br />
2000), Schneewittchen ist tot (short, 2001), Strassen -<br />
schlacht (short, 2002), Soapstar (documentary, 2003), Der<br />
grosse Franz (short, 2004), Tantalus (short, 2005), Marta<br />
und der fliegende Grossvater (2006), Jaeger verlorener<br />
Schaetze (documentary series, 2007), and November Child<br />
(Novemberkind, <strong>2008</strong>).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 60<br />
Scene from “November Child” (photo © Frank Lamm/Sommerhaus Filmproduktion)
Die Oesterreichische Methode<br />
THE AUSTRIAN METHOD<br />
Julia suddenly discovers her desire to plunge to the depths<br />
of her soul. A night-time odyssey leads her to an indoor<br />
ski hall, where she looks further into the “Austrian<br />
method” …<br />
The psychologist Roman Fischer and his wife Carmen<br />
have an unexpected guest who showed up for dinner and<br />
doesn’t want to leave …<br />
Clara must come to terms with a brain tumor diagnosis<br />
and is wrestling between suppression and suicide …<br />
The singer Maleen tries to liven up her relationship with<br />
the pianist Sascha with a poisoned Ecstacy pill …<br />
Hans and Mona, who is tied to the bed, experience an<br />
amour fou in which the boundaries between perpetrator<br />
and victim are blurred …<br />
The Austrian Method is a collective project in which five<br />
young directors present the stories of five, by no means<br />
weak, women … 24 hours later some of them will have<br />
survived, and some not.<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
SPIRIT Filmverleih <strong>·</strong> Tobby Holzinger<br />
An der Schanz 14 <strong>·</strong> 52064 Aachen/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-2 41-94 36 09 36 <strong>·</strong> www.dieoesterreichischemethode.de<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production 2006 Directors Florian Mischa Boeder, Peter<br />
Boesenberg, Gerrit Lucas, Erica von Moeller, Alexander Tavakoli<br />
Screenplay Florian Mischa Boeder, Peter Boesenberg, Gerrit<br />
Lucas, Erica von Moeller, Alexander Tavakoli Director of<br />
Photog raphy Matthias Schellenberg Editor Andreas Menn<br />
Music by Andreas Wodraschke Production Design<br />
Christiane Krumwiede, Irene Piel, Petra Bossmann, Jutta Freyer,<br />
Thomas Schmid, Ruth Wilbert Producers Tobby Holzinger,<br />
Thomas Woebke, Jakob Claussen, Uli Putz Production<br />
Company Tobby Holzinger Pro duktion/Aachen, in co-production<br />
with Claussen+Woebke+Putz Film/Munich Principal Cast Maja<br />
Beckmann, Julie Braeuning, Susanne Buchenberger, Lilia Lehner,<br />
Cathérine Seifert, Michael Abendroth, Johann von Buelow, Arno<br />
Frisch, Carlo Ljubek, Susanne Lothar Length 93 min Format HD<br />
Cam Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version <strong>German</strong><br />
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Stereo<br />
Festival Screenings Hof 2006, Luenen 2007, Sofia 2007,<br />
Turkey-<strong>German</strong>y Festival Nurem berg 2007, Festival of <strong>German</strong><br />
<strong>Films</strong> Ludwigshafen 2007, Ausgezeichneter Sommer Festival Berlin<br />
2007 With backing from <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW <strong>German</strong><br />
Distributor SPIRIT Filmverleih/Aachen<br />
The five directors Florian Mischa Boeder, Peter<br />
Boesenberg, Gerrit Lucas, Erica von Moeller and<br />
Alexander Tavakoli all studied at the Academy of Media Arts<br />
(KHM) in Cologne.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 61<br />
Scene from “The Austrian Method” (photo © SPIRIT Filmverleih)
Plattln in Umtata<br />
SHOESLAPPING IN AFRICA<br />
Shoeslapping in Africa follows the Biermoesl Blosn, a<br />
Bavarian folklore band, to Africa. Meeting musicians and<br />
artists of South Africa’s and Namibia’s old and new folklore<br />
and armed with a harp, a viola, alpenhorns and a<br />
barrel organ, the three musicians celebrate a cultural dialogue<br />
through music and dance. While Bavarians<br />
Harfengstanzel’n (harp dance music), Schuhplattler (shoe<br />
slappers) and South Africans Gumboot Dance, Munich<br />
and Soweto collide with each other, the satirical artists<br />
from conservative Bavaria get to know the world of<br />
Africa’s people in a melting pot of cultures in a far away<br />
land. The “Plattler“ of the black miners tells the Biermoesl<br />
Blosn about the history of South Africa and Namibia:<br />
stories of racial segregation, apartheid and colonial veal<br />
sausages under the equator – or how the Schuhplattler<br />
came to Africa …<br />
Genre Culture, Music Category Documentary Cinema Year of<br />
Production 2007 Director Peter Heller Screenplay Peter<br />
Heller Director of Photography Otmar Schmid Editors<br />
Thomas Balkenhol, Heiko Feld Music by Biermoesl Blosn,<br />
Gerhard Polt, Corroboration Gumboot Dancers, Conscious<br />
Marimba, and others Producer Peter Heller Production<br />
World Sales<br />
Kinowelt International GmbH <strong>·</strong> Stelios Ziannis<br />
Karl-Tauchnitz-Strasse 10 <strong>·</strong> 04107 Leipzig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-3 41-35 59 60 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-3 41-35 59 64 19<br />
email: filmverlag@kinowelt.de <strong>·</strong> wwww.kinowelt-international.de<br />
Company Filmkraft Filmproduktion/Munich, in co-production<br />
with BR/Munich, WDR/Cologne, in cooperation with Goethe-<br />
Institut/Johannesburg Length 92 min Format DigiBeta, color,<br />
1:1.78 Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English<br />
Sound Technology Stereo With backing from FilmFernsehFonds<br />
Bayern <strong>German</strong> Distributor Kinowelt Filmverleih/Leipzig<br />
Peter Heller has conducted many film seminars under the<br />
auspices of the Goethe-Institut in East and West Africa, Finland,<br />
USA, India and Italy. He has worked as a lecturer at universities, and<br />
is the author and co-author of numerous books, a founding<br />
member of the <strong>German</strong> Media Advisory Council for Political<br />
Development, of the Distribution Coop of Filmmakers and the<br />
international film network “Zebra”. A selection of his films includes:<br />
Das Geschaeft mit der Party (1975), Usambara (1980)<br />
The Forgotten Fuhrer (1982), Jungleburgers (1985),<br />
African Lady (1988), The Death of Ares (1995), General<br />
Mama (1997), Cottonmoney & The Global Jeans (2001),<br />
Woven Earth (2003), Moschee Hassan II (2005), and<br />
Shoeslapping in Africa (Plattln in Umtata, 2007), among<br />
others.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 62<br />
Scene from “Shoeslapping in Africa” (photo © Filmkraft Filmproduktion/Munich)
Sommer<br />
SUMMER<br />
The path of true love never runs smooth, especially not for<br />
teenagers, as Tim discovers in Summer.<br />
15-year-old Tim is an Air Force kid whose single dad has<br />
to go to Somalia, so Tim is sent to live with his grandmother<br />
on an island in the North Sea. The introverted<br />
loner feels totally out of place among the island’s bronzed<br />
surfer clique, whose leader Lars immediately takes a dislike<br />
to the newcomer.<br />
And then Tim falls for Vic, the prettiest girl on the island,<br />
who just so happens to be Lars’ girlfriend. He finds a soul<br />
mate in Vic and resolves to do everything to win her heart,<br />
even learning how to ride. But Lars doesn’t give up that<br />
easily and challenges Tim to a swimming duel. In a<br />
dramatic showdown Tim has to overcome his fear of the<br />
water and fight for the love of his life.<br />
World Sales<br />
TELEPOOL GmbH <strong>·</strong> Anja Uecker<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21 <strong>·</strong> 80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-55 87 60 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-55 87 62 29<br />
email: cinepool@telepool.de <strong>·</strong> www.telepool.de<br />
Genre Teenage Romantic Comedy Category Feature Film<br />
Cinema Year of Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Mike Marzuk<br />
Screenplay Sebastian Wehlings, Peer Klehmet Director of<br />
Photography Ian Blumers Editor Tobias Haas Music by<br />
Bernhard Drax Production Design Klaus R. Weinreich Producers<br />
Ewa Karlstroem, Andreas Ulmke-Smeaton Production<br />
Company SamFilm/Munich Principal Cast Jimi Blue<br />
Ochsenknecht, Sonja Gerhardt, Jannis Niewoehner Casting Uta<br />
Seibicke Length 103 min, 2,818 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85<br />
Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled Version English Sound<br />
Technology Dolby Digital With backing from Filmfoerderung<br />
Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF)<br />
<strong>German</strong> Distributor Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures<br />
<strong>German</strong>y/Munich<br />
Mike Marzuk was born in 1969 in Landsberg am Lech. Since<br />
1995 he has been working as an editor, musician, writer and director<br />
for short and feature films as well as video clips. His features<br />
include: WWGW* – Weisst was geil waer...?! (2007), and<br />
Summer (Sommer, <strong>2008</strong>).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 63<br />
Scene from “Summer” (photo © SamFilm/Georges Pauly)
Sommersonntag<br />
SUMMER SUNDAY<br />
Summer Sunday is the dramatic story of Bruno Hansen,<br />
a bridge guard of a huge lift bridge in Hamburg. As his 7year-old<br />
deaf-mute son climbs down into the restricted<br />
area of the lifting equipment while a train is approaching,<br />
he has to decide whether to sacrifice his son or to let the<br />
fully occupied train drown in the river.<br />
Genre Drama Category Short Year of Production <strong>2008</strong><br />
Directors Sigi Kamml, Fred Breinersdorfer Screenplay Fred<br />
Breinersdorfer, Sigi Kamml Director of Photography Anton<br />
Klima Editor Tanja Petry Music by Gert Wilden Producers<br />
Fred Breinersdorfer, Sigi Kamml Production Company Caros<br />
<strong>Films</strong> F. Breinersdorfer & S. Kamml/Berlin, in co-production with<br />
ARTE/Strasbourg Principal Cast Axel Prahl, Janos Giuranna,<br />
Stephan A. Toelle Casting Sabine Wildemann Length 10 min,<br />
267 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version <strong>German</strong> &<br />
Sign Language Subtitled Version English Sound Technology<br />
Dolby Digital Awards Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Short Film<br />
Award <strong>2008</strong> With backing from BKM, Medienboard Berlin-<br />
Brandenburg<br />
World Sales<br />
Interfilm Berlin Management GmbH <strong>·</strong> Tillmann Allmer<br />
Tempelhofer Ufer 1a <strong>·</strong> 10961 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-25 94 29 04 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-30-6 93 29 59<br />
email: distribution@interfilm.de <strong>·</strong> www.interfilm.de <strong>·</strong> www.sommersonntag.com<br />
Sigi Kamml studied Communications and Media Sciences and<br />
worked as a producer, director and author for a multitude of TV<br />
and film productions, live shows, and commercial productions. Since<br />
2007 he has been working as an independent producer for different<br />
companies. His films as a director include: Murder by<br />
Numbers, Blackout Journey, and Summer Sunday.<br />
Fred Breinersdorfer worked as a lawyer for seventeen years<br />
before his first crime novel, Abel, was published in 1980. Since then<br />
he has written numerous novels, short stories and plays as well as<br />
scripts and became a prolific writer of Tatort and Abel Anwalt TV<br />
movies. Since 2003, has been producing, with various partners, films<br />
he has written including Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage. His films as<br />
a director include: Summer Sunday and Between<br />
Tomorrow and Today (currently in post-production).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 64<br />
Scene from “Summer Sunday” (photo © Sanny Wildemann)
Trouble – Teatime in Heiligendamm<br />
The 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm/<strong>German</strong>y – A<br />
summer fairytale, a blooming corn poppy, a brilliant blue<br />
sky. An unbelievably large and menacing fence cuts<br />
through the picturesque landscape. Police caravans, journalists,<br />
and activists face off for days in these fields like<br />
medieval armies.<br />
Elsewhere, artists despair over a public that confuses pop<br />
with protest. Bob Geldof, Bono and Herbert<br />
Groenemeyer preach on the “Your Voice Against Poverty”<br />
stage, while Rostock locals would obviously rather be<br />
eating a bratwurst. Left-wing anarchists try to set everything<br />
on fire, though they only manage to get to one car<br />
and a few trash bins.<br />
Interviews with the likes of Muhammad Yunus (winner of<br />
the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize), filmmaker Wim Wenders,<br />
Susan George (former vice-president of ATTAC France),<br />
U2 frontman Bono, and Campino (singer of Die Toten<br />
Hosen) are mixed in with questions and commentary<br />
from police, activists, and locals.<br />
A regional documentary pop film that critically and playfully<br />
explores the egoism of a confused protest generation.<br />
World Sales<br />
BOGEYDOM Licensing <strong>·</strong> George Ayoub<br />
P.O. Box 523, St. Q <strong>·</strong> Toronto, Ontario M4T 2M5/Canada<br />
phone +1-416-618 8748<br />
email: george@bogeydomlicensing.com <strong>·</strong> www.bogeydomlicensing.com<br />
Genre Experimental, Society Category Documentary Cinema<br />
Year of Production <strong>2008</strong> Direction Mind Pirates<br />
Summercamp Community Cinematography Mind Pirates<br />
Summercamp Community Editor Robert Kummer Music by<br />
Rudolf Moser Producers Ralf Schmerberg, Eva Maier-Schoenung<br />
Production Company Trigger Happy Productions/Berlin<br />
Length 82 min Format Mini DV, color, 16:9 Original Version<br />
<strong>German</strong>/English Subtitled Version English/<strong>German</strong> Sound<br />
Technology Stereo Awards Cinema for Peace Award (The<br />
Most Valuable Documentary of the Year) <strong>2008</strong><br />
Mind Pirates is an initiative that takes on various projects as part<br />
of its ongoing efforts to communicate social issues, linking the<br />
possibilities of film to the participatory structure of the Internet.<br />
Since its foundation in 2002, the non-profit association has created<br />
websites, films, interactive magazines, and interviews.<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 65<br />
Scene from “Trouble” (photo © Martin Embacher)
Der Weisse mit dem Schwarzbrot<br />
WHITE MAN WITH BLACK BREAD<br />
Christof Wackernagel, best known in <strong>German</strong>y as an actor<br />
and former member of the Red Army Faction (“RAF”)<br />
lives in Mali. In his compelling portrait, Jonas Grosch<br />
shows a man who simply cannot stand still if he senses<br />
injustice. The courage to stand up for one’s beliefs coupled<br />
with vanity? However one chooses to look at it, it is<br />
easy to imagine what made him connect with the “RAF”.<br />
With his irrepressible will for freedom, Christof<br />
Wackernagel gets entangled in the horrors of day-to-day<br />
life in Africa.<br />
“The only film about the RAF in which a human being really<br />
comes over for me. A human being who can’t even understand<br />
himself, doesn’t take himself too seriously and who has a lot of<br />
other Utopias up his sleeve. Someone who ‘hands-on’ carves<br />
out his life like an open-access piece of work.<br />
It’s a film you just have to have seen if you want to understand<br />
exactly why there always were anarchists – and why there<br />
always will be.” (Volker Schloendorff)<br />
World Sales (please contact)<br />
MMM Filmproduktion Zimmermann & Co. GmbH <strong>·</strong> Ulrike Zimmermann<br />
Hohenesch 82 <strong>·</strong> 22765 Hamburg/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-40-24 64 57 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-40-24 53 69<br />
email: info@mmmfilm.de <strong>·</strong> www.der-weisse-mit-dem-schwarzbrot.de<br />
Genre Portrait, Politics, Recent History Category Documentary<br />
Cinema Year of Production 2007 Director Jonas Grosch<br />
Screenplay Jonas Grosch Director of Photography Miriam<br />
Troeschner Editor Antje Lass Music by Mamadou Coulibaly<br />
Producer Jonas Grosch Production Company Doni Doni<br />
Film/Kassel, in co-production with MMM Film/Hamburg<br />
Principal Cast Christof Wackernagel Length 73 min Format<br />
Digital, color, 16:9 Original Version <strong>German</strong>/French/Bambara<br />
Subtitled Versions English, French, <strong>German</strong> Sound<br />
Technology Mono Awards New Berlin Award/Zitty Reader's<br />
Award 2007, Berndt-Media-Award 2007 <strong>German</strong> Distributor<br />
MMM Film Verleih/Hamburg<br />
Jonas Grosch was born in 1981 in Freiburg and studied Comparative<br />
Literature and Philosophy at the University of Giessen.<br />
Since 2004, he has been a student at the Film & Television Academy<br />
“Konrad Wolf ” in Potsdam-Babelsberg. His films include: La vie<br />
est dure sans confiture (short, 2005), Bonnie & Veit<br />
(short, 2005), White Man with Black Bread (Der Weisse<br />
mit dem Schwarzbrot, 2007), and Am Anfang war das<br />
Licht (2007).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 66<br />
Scene from “White Man with Black Bread” (photo © MMM Film Verleih)
Wolke 9<br />
CLOUD 9<br />
She didn’t ask for it. It just happened. There were stealing<br />
glances, attraction. But this was never supposed to happen.<br />
Inge is in her mid-60s. She has been married for 30<br />
years and loves her husband. But Inge is drawn to this<br />
older man Karl, already 76. It’s passion. It’s sex. And she<br />
suddenly feels like a young girl again …<br />
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of<br />
Production <strong>2008</strong> Director Andreas Dresen Story Development<br />
Andreas Dresen, Cooky Ziesche, Laila Stieler, Joerg<br />
Hauschild Director of Photography Michael Hammon<br />
Editor Joerg Hauschild Production Design Susanne Hopf<br />
Costume Design Sabine Greunig Producer Peter Rommel<br />
Production Company Rommel Film/Berlin, in co-production<br />
with RBB/Potsdam-Babelsberg, in cooperation with ARTE/Strasbourg<br />
Principal Cast Ursula Werner, Horst Rehberg, Horst<br />
Westphal, Steffi Kuehnert Length 98 min Format HDV FAZ 35<br />
mm, color, 1:1:85 Original Version <strong>German</strong> Subtitled<br />
Versions English, French Festival Screenings Cannes <strong>2008</strong><br />
(Un Certain Regard) With backing from Medienboard Berlin-<br />
Brandenburg, BKM, <strong>German</strong> Federal Film Fund (DFFF),<br />
Filmkunstpreis 2006 Festival des Deutschen <strong>Films</strong> <strong>German</strong><br />
Distributor Senator Film Verleih/Berlin<br />
World Sales<br />
The Match Factory GmbH <strong>·</strong> Michael Weber<br />
Balthasarstrasse 79-81 <strong>·</strong> 50670 Cologne/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-2 21-5 39 70 90 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-2 21-5 39 70 910<br />
email: info@matchfactory.de <strong>·</strong> www.the-match-factory.com<br />
Andreas Dresen was born in 1963 and started shooting<br />
amateur films in 1979. From 1984 to 1985 he worked as a sound<br />
technician at the theater in Schwerin, and then apprenticed at the<br />
DEFA studios, working as an assistant director with Guenter Reisch.<br />
He then studied Direction at the “Konrad Wolf" Academy of Film &<br />
Television in Potsdam. Since 1992, he has been working as a writer<br />
and director for television, cinema, and theater. A selection of his<br />
award-winning films includes: Silent Country (Stilles Land,<br />
1992), Night Shapes (Nachtgestalten, 1998), The Policewoman<br />
(Die Polizistin, 2000), Grill Point (Halbe<br />
Treppe, 2001), Vote for Henryk! (Herr Wichmann von<br />
der CDU, 2003), Willenbrock (2004), Summer in Berlin<br />
(Sommer vorm Balkon, 2005), and Cloud 9 (Wolke 9,<br />
<strong>2008</strong>).<br />
german films quarterly new german films<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 67<br />
Scene from “Cloud 9” (photo © RF <strong>2008</strong>)
VGF INFORMATION<br />
REMUNERATION IN GERMANY<br />
FOR<br />
PRIVATE COPYING – RENTAL OF VIDEOGRAMS – CABLE RETRANSMISSION<br />
VGF, a collecting society under <strong>German</strong> law, was founded in 1981 when private homecopying of TV-programs (in<br />
particular feature films) by means of videorecording equipment started to become commercially important.<br />
Since 1982 VGF collects video levy monies due to <strong>German</strong> and foreign film producers under Art. 54 of the <strong>German</strong> Copyright<br />
Act (for blank cassettes and VCR’s) and distributes them to the respective rightsowners. The <strong>German</strong><br />
Collecting Societies Act obliges VGF to make sure that all authors/rightsowners and owners of neighbouring rights of<br />
motion pictures, including foreign rightsowners who enjoy national treatment under the international copyright<br />
conventions, receive an equitable share of the monies collected for all rightsowners of programs broadcasted by<br />
<strong>German</strong> TV-Stations. Since it is virtually impossible for the individual rightsowners to control the use of the property<br />
and to make claims individually, Art. 54 provides that the respective rights must be administered collectively and<br />
claims can be made through a collecting society only.<br />
VGF now administers a great number of film rights of important film and TV producers from USA, Great Britain,<br />
<strong>German</strong>y and other countries who have joined VGF as members. Since VGF’s activities come under the supervision of<br />
the <strong>German</strong> Patent Office, it is safeguarded that a fair devision of monies among all rightsowners concerned takes place<br />
and that producers receive an equitable share of the video levy revenues in <strong>German</strong>y.<br />
The following rights/claims, which can only be brought forward through a collecting society, presently<br />
administered by VGF are:<br />
Art. 54 <strong>German</strong> Copyright Act – Video Levy<br />
Art. 54 of the <strong>German</strong> Copyright Act provides a remuneration for private copying of TV programs. As the rightowner<br />
cannot prevent private copying, manufacturers and importers of blank cassettes and VCR’s are charged with a levy.<br />
The claim can be made by a collecting society only (Art. 54 Sec. 6.1 <strong>German</strong> Copyright Act). VGF as a trustee<br />
administers the rights for film and TV producers and distributes the respective amounts to the rightsowners.<br />
Licensing of television rights does not imply transfer of the above mentioned right.<br />
Art. 27 <strong>German</strong> Copyright Act – Rental Levy<br />
Art. 27 of the <strong>German</strong> Copyright Act entitles rightsowners to a supplementary remuneration for the rental and lending<br />
of videograms by video-retailers. The money must be paid by the video-retailer. It is provided by law (Art. 27 Sec.3)<br />
that claims can be made by collecting societies only.<br />
Art. 20 b <strong>German</strong> Copyright Act – Cable Retransmission Fee<br />
Rightowners whose programs are broadcast by <strong>German</strong> TV stations and retransmitted via cable are also entitled to a<br />
remuneration for such cable retransmission. VGF is also active in collecting this fee. Administration of the above<br />
mentioned fees by VGF incurrs no costs for the rightsowners. If your company is interested in collecting these remunerations,<br />
please contact VGF for more detailed information.<br />
VGF Verwertungsgesellschaft für Nutzungsrechte an Filmwerken mbH<br />
Neue Schönhauser Straße 10 <strong>·</strong> D-10178 Berlin<br />
Phone: 0049-30-2 79 07 39-46 <strong>·</strong> Fax: 0049-30-2 79 07 39 48<br />
post@vgf.de<br />
Beichstraße 8 <strong>·</strong> D-80802 München<br />
Phone: 0049-89-1 89 37 84-0 <strong>·</strong> Fax: 0049-89-1 89 37 84-29<br />
info@vgf.de
GERMAN FILMS<br />
SHAREHOLDERS & SUPPORTERS<br />
Arbeitsgemeinschaft<br />
Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V.<br />
Association of New Feature Film Producers<br />
Muenchner Freiheit 20, 80802 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-2 71 74 30, fax +49-89-2 71 97 28<br />
email: mail@ag-spielfilm.de, www.ag-spielfilm.de<br />
Filmfoerderungsanstalt<br />
<strong>German</strong> Federal Film Board<br />
Grosse Praesidentenstrasse 9, 10178 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-27 57 70, fax +49-30-27 57 71 11<br />
email: presse@ffa.de, www.ffa.de<br />
Verband Deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE)<br />
Association of <strong>German</strong> Film Exporters<br />
Tegernseer Landstrasse 75, 81539 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49- 89-6 42 49 70, fax +49-89-6 92 09 10<br />
email: mail@vdfe.de, www.vdfe.de<br />
Verband Deutscher Filmproduzenten e.V.<br />
Association of <strong>German</strong> Feature Film Producers<br />
Beichstrasse 8, 80802 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-39 11 23, fax +49-89-33 74 32<br />
www.filmproduzentenverband.de<br />
Bundesverband Deutscher Fernsehproduzenten e.V.<br />
Association of <strong>German</strong> Television Producers<br />
Brienner Strasse 26, 80333 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-28 62 83 85, fax +49-89-28 62 82 47<br />
email: post@tv-produzenten.de, www.tv-produzenten.de<br />
Deutsche Kinemathek<br />
Museum fuer Film und Fernsehen<br />
Potsdamer Strasse 2, 10785 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-30 09 03-0, fax +49-30-30 09 03-13<br />
email: info@deutsche-kinemathek.de, www.deutsche-kinemathek.de<br />
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm e.V.<br />
<strong>German</strong> Documentary Association<br />
Schweizer Strasse 6, 60594 Frankfurt am Main/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-69-62 37 00, fax +49-61 42-96 64 24<br />
email: agdok@agdok.de, www.agdok.de<br />
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kurzfilm e.V.<br />
<strong>German</strong> Short Film Association<br />
Kamenzer Strasse 60, 01099 Dresden/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-3 51-4 04 55 75, fax +49-3 51-4 04 55 76<br />
email: info@ag-kurzfilm.de, www.ag-kurzfilm.de<br />
Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung<br />
fuer Kultur und Medien<br />
Referat K 35, Europahaus, Stresemannstrasse 94,<br />
10963 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-18 88-6 81 49 29, fax +49-18 88-68 15 49 29<br />
email: K35@bkm.bmi.bund.de<br />
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH<br />
Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Medien<br />
in Bayern<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21, 80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-54 46 02-0, fax +49-89-54 46 02 21<br />
email: filmfoerderung@fff-bayern.de, www.fff-bayern.de<br />
Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein GmbH<br />
Friedensallee 14–16, 22765 Hamburg/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-40-398 37-0 fax +49-40-398 37-10<br />
email: info@ffhsh.de, www.ffhsh.de<br />
<strong>Films</strong>tiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen GmbH<br />
Kaistrasse 14, 40221 Duesseldorf/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-2 11-93 05 00, fax +49-2 11-93 05 05<br />
email: info@filmstiftung.de, www.filmstiftung.de<br />
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH<br />
August-Bebel-Strasse 26-53, 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-3 31-74 38 70, fax +49-3 31-7 43 87 99<br />
email: info@medienboard.de, www.medienboard.de<br />
MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft<br />
Baden-Wuerttemberg mbH<br />
Breitscheidstrasse 4, 70174 Stuttgart/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-7 11-90 71 54 00, fax +49-7 11-90 71 54 50<br />
email: filmfoerderung@mfg.de, www.mfg-filmfoerderung.de<br />
Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung GmbH<br />
Hainstrasse 17-19, 04109 Leipzig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-3 41-26 98 70, fax +49-3 41-2 69 87 65<br />
email: info@mdm-online.de, www.mdm-online.de<br />
nordmedia – Die Mediengesellschaft<br />
Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH<br />
Expo Plaza 1, 30539 Hanover/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-5 11-1 23 45 60, fax +49-5 11-12 34 56 29<br />
email: info@nordmedia.de, www.nordmedia.de<br />
german films quarterly shareholders & supporters<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 69
4 – 9 June <strong>2008</strong><br />
24. TH HAMBURG<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
SHORT FILM<br />
FESTIVAL<br />
Organizer<br />
KURZ FILM AGENTUR HAMBURG e.V. ° www.shortfi lm.com
ASSOCIATION OF GERMAN FILM EXPORTERS<br />
Verband deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE) <strong>·</strong> please contact Lothar Wedel<br />
Tegernseer Landstrasse 75 <strong>·</strong> 81539 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-6 42 49 70 <strong>·</strong> fax +49-89-6 92 09 10 <strong>·</strong> email: mail@vdfe.de <strong>·</strong> www.vdfe.de<br />
Action Concept Film- &<br />
Stuntproduktion GmbH<br />
please contact Wolfgang Wilke<br />
An der Hasenkaule 1-7<br />
50354 Huerth/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-22 33-50 81 00<br />
fax +49-22 33-50 81 80<br />
email: wolfgang.wilke@actionconcept.com<br />
www.actionconcept.com<br />
ARRI Media Worldsales<br />
please contact Antonio Exacoustos<br />
Tuerkenstrasse 89<br />
80799 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-38 09 12 88<br />
fax +49-89-38 09 16 19<br />
email: aexacoustos@arri.de<br />
www.arri-mediaworldsales.de<br />
Atlas International Film GmbH<br />
please contact<br />
Philipp Menz, Susanne Groh, Dieter Menz<br />
Candidplatz 11<br />
81543 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-21 09 75-0<br />
fax +49-89-21 09 75 81<br />
email: mail@atlasfilm.com<br />
www.atlasfilm.com<br />
ATRIX <strong>Films</strong> GmbH<br />
please contact Beatrix Wesle,<br />
Solveig Langeland<br />
Aggensteinstrasse 13a<br />
81545 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-64 28 26 11<br />
fax +49-89-64 95 73 49<br />
email: atrixfilms@gmx.net<br />
www.atrix-films.com<br />
Bavaria Film International<br />
Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH<br />
please contact Thorsten Ritter<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 7<br />
82031 Geiselgasteig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86<br />
fax +49-89-64 99 37 20<br />
email: international@bavaria-film.de<br />
www.bavaria-film-international.com<br />
Beta Cinema<br />
Dept. of Beta Film GmbH<br />
please contact Andreas Rothbauer<br />
Gruenwalder Weg 28d<br />
82041 Oberhaching/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80<br />
fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88<br />
email: ARothbauer@betacinema.com<br />
www.betacinema.com<br />
cine aktuell Filmgesellschaft mbH<br />
please contact Ralf Faust, Axel Schaarschmidt<br />
Werdenfelsstrasse 81<br />
81377 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-7 41 34 30<br />
fax +49-89-74 13 43 16<br />
email: mail@cine-aktuell.de<br />
www.cine-aktuell.de<br />
EEAP Eastern European<br />
Acquisition Pool GmbH<br />
please contact Alexander van Duelmen<br />
Alexanderstrasse 7<br />
10178 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-25 76 23 30<br />
fax +49-30-25 76 23 59<br />
email: info@eeap.de<br />
www.eeap.eu<br />
Exportfilm Bischoff & Co. GmbH<br />
please contact Jochem Strate,<br />
Philip Evenkamp<br />
Isabellastrasse 20, 80798 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-2 72 93 60<br />
fax +49-89-27 29 36 36<br />
email: exportfilms@exportfilm.de<br />
www.exportfilm.de<br />
german united distributors<br />
Programmvertrieb GmbH<br />
please contact Silke Spahr<br />
Breite Strasse 48-50<br />
50667 Cologne/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-2 21-92 06 90<br />
fax +49-2 21-9 20 69 69<br />
email: silke.spahr@germanunited.com<br />
www.germanunited.com<br />
Kinowelt International GmbH<br />
Futura Film Weltvertrieb<br />
im Filmverlag der Autoren GmbH<br />
please contact Stelios Ziannis<br />
Karl-Tauchnitz-Strasse 10<br />
04107 Leipzig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-3 41-35 59 60<br />
fax +49-3 41-35 59 64 19<br />
email: sziannis@kinowelt.de<br />
www.kinowelt-international.de<br />
Media Luna Entertainment<br />
GmbH & Co.KG<br />
please contact Ida Martins<br />
Aachener Strasse 26<br />
50674 Cologne/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-2 21-8 01 49 80<br />
fax +49-2 21-80 14 98 21<br />
email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de<br />
www.medialuna-entertainment.de<br />
Progress Film-Verleih GmbH<br />
please contact Christel Jansen<br />
Immanuelkirchstrasse 14b<br />
10405 Berlin/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-30-24 00 32 25<br />
fax +49-30-24 00 32 22<br />
email: c.jansen@progress-film.de<br />
www.progress-film.de<br />
SOLA Media GmbH<br />
please contact Solveig Langeland<br />
Osumstrasse 17, 70599 Stuttgart/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-7 11-4 79 36 66<br />
fax +49-7 11-4 79 26 58<br />
email: post@sola-media.net<br />
www.sola-media.net<br />
TELEPOOL GmbH<br />
please contact Wolfram Skowronnek<br />
Sonnenstrasse 21, 80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-55 87 60<br />
fax +49-89-55 87 62 29<br />
email: cinepool@telepool.de<br />
www.telepool.de<br />
Transit Film GmbH<br />
please contact Loy W. Arnold, Mark Gruenthal<br />
Dachauer Strasse 35<br />
80335 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-59 98 85-0<br />
fax +49-89-59 98 85-20<br />
email: loy.arnold@transitfilm.de,<br />
mark.gruenthal@transitfilm.de<br />
www.transitfilm.de<br />
uni media film gmbh<br />
please contact Irene Vogt, Michael Waldleitner<br />
Bavariafilmplatz 7<br />
82031 Geiselgasteig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-59 58 46<br />
fax +49-89-54 50 70 52<br />
email: info@unimediafilm.com<br />
www.unimediafilm.com<br />
german films quarterly association of german film exporters<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 71
MEET THE<br />
GERMAN<br />
FILM SCENE<br />
IN CANNES!<br />
GERMAN PAVILION <strong>·</strong> #125 <strong>·</strong> INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE<br />
GERMAN FILMS <strong>·</strong> phone +33-(0)4-92 59 02 52 <strong>·</strong> fax +33-(0)4-92 59 02 53 <strong>·</strong> www.german-films.de<br />
FOCUS GERMANY <strong>·</strong> phone +33-(0)4-92 59 02 50 <strong>·</strong> fax +33-(0)4-92 59 02 51 <strong>·</strong> www.focusgermany.de
GERMAN FILMS: A PROFILE<br />
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> Service + Marketing is the national information<br />
and advisory center for the promotion of <strong>German</strong> films worldwide.<br />
It was established in 1954 under the name Export-Union of<br />
<strong>German</strong> Cinema as the umbrella association for the Association of<br />
<strong>German</strong> Feature Film Producers, since 1966 the Association of New<br />
<strong>German</strong> Feature Film Producers and the Association of <strong>German</strong> Film<br />
Exporters, and operates today in the legal form of a limited company.<br />
In 2004, new shareholders came on board the Export-Union which<br />
from then on continues operations under its present name: <strong>German</strong><br />
<strong>Films</strong> Service + Marketing GmbH.<br />
Shareholders are the Association of <strong>German</strong> Feature Film<br />
Producers, the Association of New <strong>German</strong> Feature Film Producers,<br />
the Association of <strong>German</strong> Film Exporters, the <strong>German</strong> Federal Film<br />
Board (FFA), the Association of <strong>German</strong> Television Producers, the<br />
Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, the <strong>German</strong> Documentary<br />
Association, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern and <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW representing<br />
the seven main regional film funds, and the <strong>German</strong> Short<br />
Film Association.<br />
Members of the advisory board are: Alfred Huermer (chairman),<br />
Peter Dinges, Antonio Exacoustos, Dr. Klaus Schaefer, Ulrike Schauz,<br />
and Michael Weber.<br />
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> itself has 13 members of staff:<br />
Christian Dorsch, managing director<br />
Mariette Rissenbeek, public relations/deputy managing director<br />
Petra Bader, office manager<br />
Kim Behrendt, PR assistant/festival coordinator<br />
Sandra Buchta, project coordinator/documentary film<br />
Simon Goehler, trainee<br />
Christine Harrasser, managing director’s assistant/project coordinator<br />
Angela Hawkins, publications & website editor<br />
Barbie Heusinger, project coordinator/distribution support<br />
Nicole Kaufmann, project coordinator<br />
Michaela Kowal, accounts<br />
Martin Scheuring, project coordinator/short film<br />
Konstanze Welz, project coordinator/television<br />
In addition, <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> has 10 foreign representatives in nine<br />
countries.<br />
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong>’ budget of presently €5.4 million comes from film<br />
export levies, the office of the Federal Government Commissioner<br />
for Culture and the Media, and the FFA. The seven main regional film<br />
funds (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-<br />
Holstein, <strong>Films</strong>tiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MFG<br />
Baden-Wuerttemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, and Nordmedia)<br />
make a financial contribution – currently amounting to<br />
€343,000 – towards the work of <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong>.<br />
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> is a founding member of the European Film Promotion,<br />
a network of 27 European film organizations (including Unifrance,<br />
Swiss <strong>Films</strong>, Austrian Film Commission, Holland Film, among others)<br />
with similar responsibilities to those of <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong>. The organization,<br />
with its headquarters in Hamburg, aims to develop and realize<br />
joint projects for the presentation of European films on an international<br />
level.<br />
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong>’ range of activities includes:<br />
Close cooperation with major international film festivals, including<br />
Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Locarno, San<br />
Sebastian, Montreal, Karlovy Vary, Moscow, Nyon, Shanghai,<br />
Rotterdam, San Francisco, Sydney, Goeteborg, Warsaw,<br />
Thessaloniki, Rome, and Turin, among others<br />
Organization of umbrella stands for <strong>German</strong> sales companies<br />
and producers at international television and film markets<br />
(Berlin, Cannes, AFM Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai)<br />
Staging of ”Festivals of <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong>“ worldwide (Madrid,<br />
Paris, London, New York, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Copenhagen,<br />
Stockholm, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne)<br />
Staging of the ”<strong>German</strong> Premieres“ industry screenings in New<br />
York, Los Angeles, Washington D. C., and Rome<br />
Providing advice and information for representatives of the<br />
international press and buyers from the fields of cinema, video,<br />
and television<br />
Providing advice and information for <strong>German</strong> filmmakers and<br />
press on international festivals, conditions of participation, and<br />
<strong>German</strong> films being shown<br />
Organization of the annual NEXT GENERATION short film<br />
program, which presents a selection of shorts by students of<br />
<strong>German</strong> film schools and is premiered every year at Cannes<br />
Publication of informational literature about current <strong>German</strong><br />
films and the <strong>German</strong> film industry (<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> <strong>Quarterly</strong>),<br />
as well as international market analyses and special festival<br />
brochures<br />
An Internet website (www.german-films.de) offering information<br />
about new <strong>German</strong> films, a film archive, as well as information<br />
and links to <strong>German</strong> and international film festivals<br />
and institutions<br />
Organization of the selection procedure for the <strong>German</strong> entry<br />
for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film<br />
Collaboration with Deutsche Welle’s DW-TV KINO program<br />
which features the latest <strong>German</strong> film releases and international<br />
productions in <strong>German</strong>y<br />
Organization of the ”<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> Previews“ geared toward<br />
European arthouse distributors and buyers of <strong>German</strong> films<br />
Selective financial Distribution Support for the foreign releases<br />
of <strong>German</strong> films<br />
On behalf of the association Rendez-vous franco-allemands du<br />
cinéma, organization with Unifrance of the annual <strong>German</strong>-<br />
French film meeting<br />
In association and cooperation with its shareholders, <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong><br />
works to promote feature, documentary, television and short films.<br />
german films quarterly german films: a profile<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 73
presents in cooperation with<br />
GERMAN<br />
FILMS<br />
PREVIEWS<br />
<strong>2008</strong><br />
10-13 July in Cologne<br />
For more Information contact Martin Scheuring, scheuring@german-films.de
FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES IMPRINT<br />
Argentina<br />
Gustav Wilhelmi<br />
Ayacucho 495, 2º ”3“<br />
C1026AAA Buenos Aires/Argentina<br />
phone +54-11-49 52 15 37<br />
phone/fax +54-11-49 51 19 10<br />
email: wilhelmi@german-films.de<br />
China<br />
Anke Redl<br />
CMM Intelligence<br />
B 621, Gehua Tower<br />
No. 1, Qinglong Hutong<br />
Dongcheng District<br />
Beijing 100007/China<br />
phone +86-10-64 07 05 62<br />
fax +86-10-64 07 05 64<br />
email: redl@german-films.de<br />
Eastern Europe<br />
Simone Baumann<br />
L.E. Vision Film- und<br />
Fernsehproduktion GmbH<br />
Koernerstrasse 56<br />
04107 Leipzig/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-3 41-96 36 80<br />
fax +49-3 41-9 63 68 44<br />
email: baumann@german-films.de<br />
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> <strong>Quarterly</strong> is published by:<br />
<strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong><br />
Service + Marketing GmbH<br />
Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse 16<br />
80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-5 99 78 70<br />
fax +49-89-59 97 87 30<br />
email: info@german-films.de<br />
www.german-films.de<br />
ISSN 1614-6387<br />
Credits are not contractual for any<br />
of the films mentioned in this publication.<br />
© <strong>German</strong> <strong>Films</strong> Service + Marketing GmbH<br />
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of<br />
this publication may be made without written permission.<br />
France (until 30 June <strong>2008</strong>)<br />
Cristina Hoffman<br />
33, rue L. Gaillet<br />
94250 Gentilly/France<br />
phone +33-1-40 4108 33<br />
fax +33-1-49 8644 18<br />
email: hoffman@german-films.de<br />
Italy<br />
Alessia Ratzenberger<br />
A-PICTURES<br />
Villa Pamphili<br />
Via di Forte Bravetta 4<br />
00164 Rome/Italy<br />
phone +39-06-48 90 70 75<br />
fax +39-06-4 88 57 97<br />
email: ratzenberger@german-films.de<br />
Japan<br />
Tomosuke Suzuki<br />
Nippon Cine TV Corporation<br />
Suite 123, Gaien House<br />
2-2-39 Jingumae, Shibuya-Ku<br />
150-0001 Tokyo/Japan<br />
phone +81-3-34 05 09 16<br />
fax +81-3-34 79 08 69<br />
email: suzuki@german-films.de<br />
Editor<br />
Production Reports<br />
Contributors for this issue<br />
Translations<br />
Design & Art Direction<br />
Printing Office<br />
Cover Photo<br />
Spain<br />
Stefan Schmitz<br />
Avalon Productions S.L.<br />
Pza. del Cordón, 2<br />
28005 Madrid/Spain<br />
phone +34-91-3 66 43 64<br />
fax +34-91-3 65 93 01<br />
email: schmitz@german-films.de<br />
United Kingdom<br />
Iris Ordonez<br />
37 Arnison Road<br />
East Molesey KT8 9JR/Great Britain<br />
phone +44-20-89 79 86 28<br />
email: ordonez@german-films.de<br />
USA/East Coast & Canada<br />
Oliver Mahrdt<br />
Hanns Wolters International Inc.<br />
211 E 43 rd Street, #505<br />
New York, NY 10017/USA<br />
phone +1-212-714 0100<br />
fax +1-212-643 1412<br />
email: mahrdt@german-films.de<br />
USA/West Coast<br />
Corina Danckwerts<br />
Capture Film International<br />
Hollywood Center Studios, Building 5/Upper Loft<br />
1040 N. Las Palmas Avenue<br />
Los Angeles, CA 90038/USA<br />
phone +1-323-962 6710<br />
fax +1-323-962 6722<br />
email: danckwerts@german-films.de<br />
Angela Hawkins<br />
Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley<br />
Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley<br />
Lucinda Rennison<br />
Werner Schauer, www.triptychon.biz<br />
ESTA DRUCK GMBH,<br />
Obermuehlstrasse 90, 82398 Polling/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
Printed on ecological, unchlorinated paper.<br />
Scene from “Cloud 9”<br />
(photo © RF <strong>2008</strong>)<br />
german films quarterly foreign representatives <strong>·</strong> imprint<br />
2 <strong>·</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 75
Enjoy the Highlights <strong>2008</strong><br />
Camera | Lighting | Grip | Remote Heads | Film Laboratory<br />
TV Postproduction | Visual Effects | Digital Intermediate<br />
Separation Master | Sound | Digital Cinema Mastering<br />
ARRI Film & TV www.arri.de/film_tv, ARRI Rental www.arri.com<br />
ARRI Schwarzfilm www.schwarzfilm.com, ARRI CSC www.arricsc.com<br />
ARRI Media London www.arrimedia.com, ARRI Worldsales www.arri-mediaworldsales.de
Change language