Quarterly 2 · 2008 - German Films

Dr. Alemán
Seeking to escape suburban boredom, 26-year-old med
student Marc travels to Cali/Colombia on an exchange.
No sooner has he arrived at the hospital than he is thrust
into the operating room, as if in a war zone. The beautiful
cartel capital of Cali is a battleground, which his conservative
host family tries to keep Marc well away from. But
Marc finds himself drawn to the dangerous life in the
favela of Siloé, a picturesque neighborhood of teenage
hired assassins. There, he meets kiosk owner Wanda, a
charming alcoholic, and little Pavito, a boy who supplies
him with coke. Soon Marc is being pulled into the fast and
furious life of the favelas, which brings him into conflict
with his hospital and host family. He gets thrown out and
takes up residence in Wanda's kiosk, already heavily in
love with the beautiful owner. When gang leader El Juez,
the “Judge”, wants Marc to become his personal doctor,
Marc has to make a choice. Juez is on a bloody crusade for
control of the town, and Marc decides he has to try and
stop him.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2008 Director Tom Schreiber Screenplay Oliver
Keidel, Tom Schreiber Director of Photography Olaf
Hirschberg Editor Andreas Wodraschke Music by Josef Suchy
World Sales
TELEPOOL GmbH · Anja Uecker
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
email: cinepool@telepool.de · www.telepool.de
Production Design Juan Carlos Acevedo, Tim Pannen
Producers Harry Floeter, Joerg Siepmann, Arne Ludwig
Production Company 2 Pilots Filmproduction/Cologne
Principal Cast August Diehl, Marleyda Soto, Hernán Méndez,
Victor Villegas Casting Anja Dihrberg, Teatroas/Babel Length
104 min, 2,757 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version
Spanish Dubbed Version German Subtitled Versions
English, German Sound Techno logy Dolby Digital With
backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),
BKM, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), MEDIA Plus, éQuinoxe
German Distri butor ZORRO Filmverleih/Munich
Tom Schreiber was born in 1969 in Freising. He worked as a
camera assistant in still life photography and documentary film
before studying Film at the Academy of Media Arts (KHM) in
Cologne. During an 8-month scholarship at the Escuela de Cine y
Televisión in Cuba, he shot the short film Viene del Cielo
(together with Christian Becker). He finished his studies in Cologne
with the award-winning short film Vita Reducta. After his work
as an assistant director for various feature films and as a director of
several TV documentaries, he shot his first feature film Fools
(Narren), which had its premiere at the Berlinale 2002. Dr.
Alemán is his second feature.
german films quarterly new german films
2 · 2008 46
Scene from “Dr. Alemán” (photo © Tom Trambow/2 Pilots Filmproduction GmbH)