Quarterly 2 · 2008 - German Films

Wilke Moehring, Jenny Schily Casting Lore Bloessel,
TV60 Filmproduktion Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital
Shooting Language German Shooting in Munich, November
– December 2007 German Distributor X Verleih/Berlin
World Sales
Bavaria Film International GmbH · Thorsten Ritter
Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20
email: international@bavaria-film.de
www.bavaria-film-international.com
“We wanted to make a small, but intensive and emotional film,” says
producer Sven Burgemeister of TV60 Filmproduktion
about Gegen den Strom, the feature debut by cinematographer
Jan Fehse, which is currently in post-production.
Before donning the director’s hat, Fehse had been working as a DoP
since 1997 on such titles as Vanessa Jopp’s alaska.de (2000), Robert
Schwentke’s Tattoo (2000) and three films with Dutch director Ben
Verbong – Sams in Gefahr (2003), Es ist ein Elch entsprungen (2005)
and Herr Bello (2006), as well as such TV productions as Urs Egger’s
Eva Blond (2002) and the Sony Pictures series Post Mortem
(2005/2006).
“Jan is someone who had always thought about the dramaturgy of the
films he was working on as well as the credibility of their characters,”
says Burgemeister, who had previously worked with him on three TV
movies, including two episodes of the Das Duo series by Rene Heisig
and Thomas Jauch. “He came to us with a story idea and then sat
down with a friend [Christian Lyra], who is also a first-time screen -
writer, to develop a story revolving around five characters whose lives
are fatefully interconnected with one another.”
Although it is an episodic film, there isn’t any attempt here to emu late
the example of the late Robert Altman’s Short Cuts. “The characters
are not linked in an arbitrary way because the connections are more
of a thematic nature,” Burgemeister explains. “The film has a definite
artistic quality that shows it is different from what is usually being produced.
I think this is something positive and nearer to the mainstream
because it will make the audience more curious about the story and
become more involved with the fates of the characters portray ed.”
Rather than trying to juggle both the director and DoP chores, Fehse
brought in his former assistant Philipp Kirsamer to light the film,
and Burgemeister is convinced that the drama “will have a real visual
power. Although we didn’t have an enormous budget, Jan has never -
theless made the most of what he could draw out of the production
design. He clearly had fun directing and was always in control.”
Gegen den Strom also attracted an impressive cast ranging from
Sebastian Koch and Barbara Auer through Ronald
Zehrfeld and Wotan Wilke Moehring to Mina Tander in
her first more substantial film part.
Apart from overseeing the post-production on Gegen den
Strom, Burgemeister – who was a co-producer of Luigi Falorni’s
Berlinale competition film Feuerherz – is expecting to work as a ser -
vice producer on two projects by Senator Film and Barefoot Films this
year and also has an adaptation of Sebastian Fitzek’s thriller novel
Amokspiel in development for shooting in 2009.
MB
George Taboris
Mein Kampf
Type of Project Drama, Theater Production Company
Schiwago Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-production with Dor Film/
Vienna, Hugofilm Productions/Zurich With backing from BKM,
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Mitteldeutsche Medien foerderung,
Investitionsbank Hessen, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,
Oesterreichisches Filminstitut (OFI), Bundesamt fuer Kultur (BAK),
Zuercher Filmstiftung, Aargauer Kuratorium, ZDFtheaterkanal, 3sat,
ARTE, ORF, SRG, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) Producers
Martin Lehwald, Michal Pokorny, Marcos Kantis, Danny Krausz,
Christof Neracher Director Urs Odermatt Screenplay Fedor
Mosnak Director of Photography Jo Molitoris Editor Lilo
Gerber Production Design Carola Gauster Principal Cast
Goetz George, Tom Schilling, Anna Unterberger, Roland Wiesnekker,
Karin Neuhaeuser Format Super 16 mm, color Shooting
Language German Shooting in Zittau and Vienna, April – June
2008
Contact
Schiwago Film GmbH · Martin Lehwald
Gneisenaustrasse 66 · 10961 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-6 95 39 80 · fax +49-30-69 53 98 50
email: info@schiwagofilm.de · www.schiwagofilm.de
After five years in development, shooting of a film adaptation of the
late George Tabori’s 1987 stage play Mein Kampf began at locations
in Vienna towards the end of April and then moved in May to Zittau
in Saxony under the direction of Urs Odermatt who is equally at
home in the theater, cinema and television.
Set in Vienna in 1910, the story of George Taboris Mein
Kampf sees the young Hitler down on his luck after being turned
down by the city’s Arts Academy and then befriended by an elderly
Jew, Schlomo Herzl, in a hostel for homeless men. Herzl supports him
like a father would a son and unconsciously helps Hitler find his way
into politics and triggers a fatal turn of events for world history. The
fact that the good-natured Schlomo is himself a Jew is one of the
ironic coincidences which show how the biggest disaster of recent
history was able to result out of almost nothing …
As producer Martin Lehwald of Berlin-based Schiwago Film
recalls, while there was no direct creative involvement by Tabori in
the development of the project, “he knew about it and gave his
approval of the screenplay’s first draft. Since then, we have kept
german films quarterly in production
2 · 2008 29
Urs Odermatt, Goetz George
(photo © Schiwago Film)