Titel Kino 1/2002 - German Cinema

Giovanni Ribisi, Cate Blanchett (photo © X Filme Creative Pool GmbH) 

Kino 

EXPORT-UNION 

OF GERMAN CINEMA 

1/2002 

AT BERLIN 

opening film in competition 

HEAVEN 

by Tom Tykwer 

ACCEPT DIVERSITY 

Interview with Dieter Kosslick 

GERMAN BOX 

OFFICE RECORD 

Michael ”Bully“ Herbig’s 

MANITOU’S SHOE 

SPECIAL REPORT 

Film Funding in Germany: 

The Big Six 

GERMAN 

CINEMA

The Broadway to Business. 

European Film Market · debis Haus · Mercedes-Benz Showroom 

phone 0 30-2 53 58-3 72/-3 73 · fax 0 30-2 53 58-3 74 

Export-Union des Deutschen Films · Munich · phone: +49-89-5 99 78 70 · Filmförderungsanstalt · Berlin · phone: +49-30-27 57 70 

Illustration: Angela Hawkins Foto/AD: Werner Schauer

© Eastman Kodak 2002 

WELCOME 

thereʼs more to the story 

KODAK GMBH · Geschäftsbereich Entertainment Imaging 

70324 Stuttgart · www.kodak.de/go/motion 

BERLINALE 2002 

Willkommen auf der Berlinale 2002 – 

zu dem Event der Filmbranche. Erleben 

Sie Stars und Sternchen, tauchen 

Sie ein in die schillernde Szene und 

genießen Sie die Faszination Film. 

KODAK Meeting Point 

Treffen Sie Kodak im 

Meyerbeer Coffee-Shop, 

im Gebäude der Berliner Volksbank, 

Eichhornstraße 1, direkt neben dem 

European Film Market. 

Welcome to the Berlinale 2002 – 

a very special event for the film 

industry. Experience stars and 

starlets. Enjoy the glamorous scene 

and the fascination of film. 

KODAK Meeting Point 

Come join the KODAK 

team at Meyerbeer- 

Coffee-Shop, in the Volksbank Berlin 

building, Eichhornstr. 1, right next to 

the European Film Market.

K I N O 1/2002 

6 Regional Film Funding in Germany 

The ”Big Six“ 

12 ”Accept Diversity“ 

Interview with Dieter Kosslick, Director of the 

Berlin International Film Festival 

14 The Realist 

Director’s Portrait Dominik Graf 

15 No Superfluous Sentences, 

No Lack of Emotion 

Director’s Portrait Hermine Huntgeburth 

18 ”Bringing German Films Back 

to the Forefront“ 

World Sales Portrait ARRI Media Worldsales 

20 Company with an 

Unmistakeable Identity 

Producers’ Portrait zero film 

22 KINO news 

28 In Production 

28 Bibi Blocksberg 

Hermine Huntgeburth 

28 Gott ist tot 

Kadir Sözen 

29 Harte Brötchen 

Tim Trageser 

30 Heimat 3 

Edgar Reitz 

30 Junimond 

Hanno Hackfort 

31 Die Madonna von Vlatodon 

Mirjam Kubescha 

32 Nackt 

Doris Dörrie 

AT BERLIN 

PERSPECTIVE 

GERMAN CINEMA 

AT BERLIN 

IN COMPETITION 

32 Das Netz 

Lutz Dammbeck 

33 Poem 

Ralf Schmerberg 

34 Usedomer Maler 

Heinz Brinkmann 

34 Weihnachten 

Marc-Andreas Bochert 

35 Zersetzung der Seele 

Nina Toussaint, Massimo Iannetta 

36 The 100 Most 

Significant German Films (Part 4) 

36 Unter den Brücken 

UNDER THE BRIDGES 

Helmut Käutner 

37 Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Teil 1) 

NIBELUNGEN: SIEGFRIED (PART 1) 

Fritz Lang 

38 Die Nibelungen: 

Kriemhilds Rache (Teil 2) 

NIBELUNGEN: KRIEMHILD’S 

REVENGE (PART 2) 

Fritz Lang 

39 Der letzte Mann 

THE LAST MAN 

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau 

40 Der müde Tod 

DESTINY 

Fritz Lang 

42 New German Films 

42 Absolut Warhola 

Stanislaw Mucha 

43 Am Rande der Zeit – 

Männerwelten im Kaukasus 

ON THE EDGE OF TIME – MALE 

DOMAINS IN THE CAUCASUS 

Stefan Tolz 

44 Baader 

Christopher Roth 

45 Babij Jar 

Jeff Kanew

AT BERLIN 

SPECIAL 

PRESENTATION 

AT BERLIN 


AT BERLIN 

PERSPECTIVE 

GERMAN CINEMA 

AT BERLIN 


AT BERLIN 

OPENING FILM/ 


AT BERLIN 

CHILDREN’S FILM FEST 

AT BERLIN 

GERMAN CINEMA 

AT BERLIN 

FORUM 

C O N T E N T S 

61 Klassenfahrt 

AT BERLIN 

FORUM 

46 BELLARIA – so lange wir leben! 

SCHOOL TRIP 

Henner Winckler 

62 Knallharte Jungs 

MORE ANTS IN THE PANTS 

Granz Henman 

63 Königskinder 

BELLARIA – AS LONG AS WE LIVE! 

Anne Wild 

Douglas Wolfsperger 

64 Der Mann von nebenan 

47 Der Brief des Kosmonauten 

THE MAN NEXT DOOR 

THE COSMONAUT’S LETTER 

Dror Zahavi 

Vladimir Torbica 

65 Missing Allen – Wo ist Allen Ross? 

48 Es geschah im August – 

MISSING ALLEN - THE MAN WHO 

Der Bau der Berliner Mauer 

BECAME A CAMERA 

BUILDING THE BERLIN WALL – 

Christian Bauer 

ANATOMY OF A POLITICAL CRISIS 66 Nicht Fisch, nicht Fleisch 

Ullrich Kasten 

NEITHER FISH, NOR FOWL 

49 Der Felsen 

Matthias Keilich 

A MAP OF THE HEART 

67 Nicole und Jean 

Dominik Graf 

NICOLE AND JEAN 

50 Feuer, Eis und Dosenbier 

Juliette Cazanave 

Matthias Dinter 

68 Nirgendwo in Afrika 

51 Fickende Fische 

NOWHERE IN AFRICA 

DO FISH DO IT? 

Caroline Link 

Almut Getto 

69 Der Schuh des Manitu 

52 Germanikus 

MANITOU’S SHOE 

Hanns Christian Müller 

Michael ”Bully“ Herbig 

53 Die grüne Wolke 

70 Semana Santa 

THE LAST MAN ALIVE 

Pepe Danquart 

Claus Strigel 

71 Starbuck – Holger Meins 

54 Halbe Treppe 

Gerd Conradt 

GRILL POINT 

72 Tattoo 

Andreas Dresen 

Robert Schwentke 

55 Heaven 

73 Unterwegs in die nächste Dimension 

Tom Tykwer 

NEXT DIMENSION: MIND OVER MATTER 

56 Herz 

Clemens Kuby 

Horst J. Sczerba 

74 Viel passiert – Der BAP Film 

57 Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge! 

ODE TO COLOGNE 

HELP, I’M A BOY 

Wim Wenders 

Oliver Dommenget 

58 Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt 

FINAL HOPE 

Marc Rothemund 

59 Hundsköpfe 

DOG HEADS 

Karsten Laske 

60 Jochen – Ein Golzower 

aus Philadelphia 

JOCHEN – A GOLZOWER FROM 

PHILADELPHIA 

Barbara & Winfried Junge 

77 Film Exporters 

79 Foreign Representatives 

79 Imprint 

GERMAN BOX 

OFFICE RECORD 

OVER 10 MILLION 

ADMISSIONS 

AT BERLIN 

OUT OF COMPETITION

REGIONAL 

FILM 

FUNDING IN 

GERMANY 

German filmmakers are the envy of their colleagues around 

Europe because of the plethora of film subsidy programs at 

national and regional level. 

In fact, in 2000, some Euro 190 million was at the public funds’ 

disposal to invest in all aspects of the film and television industry – 

from the development of screenplays through production and 

distribution to cinema modernization programs and the promotion 

of German cinema and television abroad as well as running 

location offices to promote their respective locations and local 

infrastructures. The location offices offer a variety of information 

on shooting in the area, including the organization of location 

tours in the region. 

In short, German cinema couldn’t survive without these film subsidy 

programs which channeled some Euro 108 million of their 

Euro 190 million total budget into production support. The essential 

role played by the public funds becomes even more apparent 

when one realizes that the production volume of the domestic 

film production in Germany has been between Euro 179 million 

and Euro 205 million - meaning that around two thirds of the 

budgets for German feature films have come from the various film 

subsidy programs. 

Although this article will be focusing on the six major 

economically-oriented regional funds – Filmboard Berlin 

Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Film- 

Förderung Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, MFG 

Baden-Württemberg, and Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung 

– one shouldn’t ignore the other players in this 

complex funding landscape, whose support programs complement 

and supplement those of the ”Big Six“ to provide financing 

for domestic features and international co-productions. 

The Berlin-based German Federal Film Board (Filmförderungsanstalt/FFA), 

for example, is particularly popular 

with producers since its production support is not tied to any 

regional ”effect“. With an annual budget of around Euro 61 

million, the FFA also awards retroactive ”reference“ funding 

to producers whose films reach certain thresholds on their 

theatrical release. 

Moreover, State Minister of Culture Julian Nida-Rümelin, 

whose ministry also finances the annual German Film Awards (with 

Euro 2.8 million) and the German Short Film Awards (with Euro 

150,000), has an additional Euro 3.6 million for backing culturally 

innovative film projects and also makes a financial contribution to 

the Council of Europe’s pan-European co-production fund 

EURIMAGES, while the Kuratorium junger deutscher 

Film, a public foundation funded by the states, places particular 

emphasis on the backing of newcomer filmmakers and children’s 

films. 

In addition, first-time filmmakers, short films and more experimental 

works are catered for by a network of regionally organized, 

culturally-oriented film funds such as Filmbüro NW, 

Filmbüro Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Kino & 

Filmbüro Hessen. 

Admittedly, Germany’s federal structure has both advantages and 

disadvantages. On the one hand, a German filmmaker can travel 

from Schleswig-Holstein in the far north of the country to Baden- 

Württemberg in the deep south-west and stop off at all of the 

various regional film funds in between to scrape his budget 

together. 

On the other hand, critics argue, the result can often be a hotchpotch 

of compromises, a German road movie in the worst sense 

of the word, the plot making sudden and unexplained relocations 

just in order to meet a particular fund’s requirements. 

Such aberrations, though, have become more of the exception 

since the heads of the ”Big Six“ have taken various moves to 

harmonize their guidelines and funding application forms as well 

halting the spread of artificial road movies by coming to so-called 

”bartering agreements“ in which the demand for proof of an 

”economic effect“ in each region can be waived if there is 

reciprocity between the funds. 

The ”Big Six“ have also shown that cooperation makes sense 

through their joint presence at the Berlin and Cannes Film 

Festivals with FOCUS Germany providing a central meeting 

point for foreign producers wanting to meet their German 

6 Kino 1/2002

THE ”BIG SIX“ 

Prof. Klaus Keil 

counterparts as well as a promotional platform for the funds and 

the production location of Germany. 

Similarly, the "Big Six" have stumped up Euro 255,000 each year to 

support the activities of the Export-Union of German 

Cinema, in particular, the staging of Festivals of German Cinema 

around the globe in such cities as Buenos Aires, London, Los 

Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, New York, Paris and Rome. 

FILMBOARD BERLIN- 

BRANDENBURG 

With its offices located on the studio lot at Babelsberg, Filmboard 

Berlin-Brandenburg was founded by the two 

”states“ of Berlin and Brandenburg, with co-operating partners 

ProSieben, SAT.1 and ZDF. One difference from other 

funders is that there is no selection committee, as CEO Klaus 

Keil is very autonomous in his decisions. Only producers can 

submit the applications for production support and a distribution 

contract is usually required. The ”regional effect“ (that is, the 

percent of the money received which must be spent in the area) 

here is 100%, and on international co-productions, the foreign 

company must work together with a German producer. The 

Filmboard has placed great emphasis on the promotion of 

screenplays and story development within the Master Drehbuch 

initiative and launched a program of business plan seminars 

Kino 1/2002 

geared to raising the professional level of the producers in the 

region. At the same time, thanks to the Internet, the Berlin- 

Brandenburg Film Commission runs a data system HELP 

via www.bbfc.de which provides information about locations 

in the region as well as a comprehensive address system. Local 

industry events such as the European Film Awards, the Babelsberg 

international film and television conferences, ScriptForum and 

the Cartoon Movie are regularly supported by the fund. The 

Filmboard is also active internationally, whether by participating 

in co-production conferences in Brazil, France or Canada, or 

supporting closer links with the Canadian film and TV production 

scene through to the CONTACT or Immersion Europe events. 

Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH 

August-Bebel-Str. 26-53 · D-14482 Potsdam 

phone +49-3 31-74 38 70 · fax +49-3 31-7 43 87 99 

www.filmboard.de · email: filmboard@filmboard.de 

Contact Prof. Klaus Keil (CEO) Personnel Brigitta Manthey, Michael 

Schmetz (international co-productions), Sigrid Herrenbrück (press) 

Established in 1994 Funds available Euro 16 million Co-productions 

supported The Legend of Pinocchio, Luna Papa, 

27 Missing Kisses, Moloch, Enemy at the Gates, Lovely 

Rita, Taking Sides, El Acordéon del Diablo 

FILMFERNSEHFONDS 

BAYERN (FFF) 

The fund is an exemplary structure in the German film funding 

landscape since its shareholders come from both the public and 

private sectors: the State of Bavaria, broadcasters BR, ZDF, 

ProSieben, SAT.1, RTL, KirchMedia, Tele München 

and the media watchdog BLM (Regulatory Authority for 

Commercial Broadcasting in Bavaria). At least 150% of the 

production support must be spent in Bavaria, and feature films 

can be supported with up to Euro 1.3 million so long as the 

producer or co-producer is based in Germany. Foreign 

producers can only access FFF cash by submitting an application 

through a local partner but, as one production expert points out, 

”FFF Bayern is extremely interested in getting more international 

partners into Bavaria because it has a long-term perspective 

of creating more jobs in the media sector and seeing the economy 

and tourism grow“. Indeed, the FFF’s location office, headed by 

Anja Metzger, attends the ShowBiz Expo and locations trade 

fairs to promote the region, and she is always looking - like her 

location office colleagues at the other funds – to make her region 

even more film-friendly. 

Apart from supporting local events such as the Munich Media 

Days, the Bavarian Film Center Geiselgasteig and the 

First Movie Program, FFF Bayern has helped foster 

closer links between Bavarian producers and their foreign 

counterparts through involvement in the Cartoon Forum 

and Cartoon Movie markets as well as the Co-Production 

Exchange organized with the British Columbia Film Commission. 

In addition, the fund has staged a number of ”Made in 

Bavaria“ film showcases particularly in Eastern Europe, but 

also at festivals in Shanghai and Cairo. 

7

Dr. Klaus Schaefer 

REGIONAL FILM FUNDING IN GERMANY 

and Cairo. 

FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH 

Sonnenstr. 21 · D-80331 Munich 

phone +49-89-5 44 60 20 · fax +49-89-54 46 02 21 

www.fff-bayern.de · email: filmfoerderung@fff-bayern.de 

Contacts Dr. Dr. Klaus Schaefer (CEO), Gabriele Pfennigsdorf (deputy 

managing director) Personnel Nikolaus Prediger (production/feature 

film, project development/feature film, distribution and sales), Gabriele 

Pfennigsdorf (production/TV film, project development/TV, newcomer 

filmmakers), Dr. Michaela Haberlander (screenplay, cinema premiums, 

cinema investment programs), Birgit Bähr (extra print support), Lothar 

Just (press), Anja Metzger (location office) Established in 1996 Funds 

available approx. Euro 30 million Co-productions supported 

Asterix & Obelix vs. Caesar, Enemy at the Gates, 

Obsession, Sunshine, Help I’m a Fish, The Pianist, 2001 – 

A Space Travesty 

FILMFÖRDERUNG 

HAMBURG (FFH) 

Backed by the City of Hamburg, NDR and ZDF, Film- 

Förderung Hamburg places particular emphasis on supporting 

projects by the up-and-coming generation of local filmmakers 

– from Fatih Akin to Miguel Alexandre – as well as spotlighting 

the thriving animation scene through its ”Toon Town“ 

initiative. The fund also has a long tradition of backing children’s 

8 

films from Scandinavia and has been a regular partner on international 

co-productions. One thing all producers have to keep in 

mind is that the fund will expect 150% of its support to be spent 

in Hamburg, the so-called ”Hamburg effect“. The service aspect is 

writ especially large in all of FFH’s activities as shown by the 

Shooting Pass introduced in 2000 by its location office for 

production companies wanting to shoot in the city. The pass does 

not replace the need to apply for shooting permits, but shows the 

authorities that a company is a bona fide production outfit. The 

fund has organized conferences and seminars on private film 

financing and co-production, and benefited from its proximity 

to the German MEDIA Desk and the pan-European cinema 

marketing body European Film Promotion. In addition, 

FFH is a partner of the pan-European script training program 

North By Northwest. 

Eva Hubert 

FilmFörderung Hamburg GmbH 

Friedensallee 14-16 · D-22765 Hamburg 

phone +49-40-39 83 70 · fax +49-40-3 98 37 10 

www.ffhh.de · email: filmfoerderung@ffhh.de 

Contact Eva Hubert (CEO) Personnel Marieanne Bergmann 

(funding and co-productions), Helen Peetzen (press), Reinhard Hinrichs 

(power-of-attorney), Marcella Däwers (contracts/production funding, 

development and screenplay funding), Reiner Rosner (contracts/distribution 

and sales funding) Established in 1995 Funds available Euro 

Euro 10 million Co-productions supported Nora, Bear’s Kiss, 

Bend It Like Beckham, Falcons 

Kino 1/2002

Michael Schmid-Ospach 


FILMSTIFTUNG NRW 

The first public fund in Germany to combine cultural and economic 

objectives, its goal is ”creating jobs through great filmmaking“. 

Launched by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and 

public broadcaster WDR, the Filmstiftung welcomed ZDF 

to the ranks in 1997, and RTL is set to follow suit in 2002. The 

heart of the production support is the so-called ”NRW effect“: 

i.e. for every Euro granted in the form of a non-recourse interestfree 

loan, the producer must spend Euro 1.5 in the region in the 

course of production. The amount requested should not exceed 

50% of the producer’s contribution to the budget, and 5% of the 

production budget is considered the minimum amount to be invested 

by the producer. In theory, any foreign producer can apply 

directly with a project, but it is usually recommended to work 

together with a local NRW production house. At the same 

time, advising and monitoring the productions are as much a part 

of the fund’s day-to-day activities as the financial support. Building 

up a training infrastructure in the region for the audiovisual media 

has been one of the fund’s key goals over the past years as well 

as fostering closer links with funding institutions and producers 

from outside Germany, whether it be with Dutch neighbors or 

colleagues in France, Italy, UK, Scandinavia or the USA. Most 

recently, the Filmstiftung forged a new cooperation with the 

filmmaking scene in Poland. 


Filmstiftung NRW GmbH 

Kaistr. 14 · D-40221 Düsseldorf 

phone +49-2 11-93 05 00 · fax +49-2 11-93 05 05 

www.filmstiftung.de · email: info@filmstiftung.de 

Contact Michael Schmid-Ospach (CEO) Personnel Claudia Droste- 

Deselaers (head of production), Christina Bentlage (deputy head of production), 

Isabel Krolla (production support), Tanja Güß (press), Martin 

Schneider (head of administration and finances), Susanna Felgener (script 

support), Britta Lengowski (cinema, distribution & world sales support), 

Sibylle Bettray (radio play support), Andrea Baaken (film commissioner), 

Heike Meyer-Döhring (MEDIA Antenna Düsseldorf), Sandra von Lingen 

(training and further education), Katharina Blum (research officer) 

Established in 1991 Funds available Euro 30 million Co-productions 

supported Amélie from Montmartre, Gloomy 

Sunday, My Best Fiend, My Name is Joe, Farinelli, Dead 

Man, Dancer in the Dark, Black Cat White Cat, Invincible, 

Heaven 

MFG FILMFÖRDERUNG 

BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG 

With the state of Baden-Württemberg and regional broadcaster 

SWR serving as shareholders, MFG regards itself as ”the competence 

and advice center for the region’s film and cinema landscape“. 

The fund grants its support according to the quality of the 

project and a cultural or other connection to Baden-Württemberg 

and if a regional ”effect“ of at least 120% is planned in the course 

of production. The region was thrust into the international spot- 

Gabriele Röthemeyer 

9


light with the shooting of the Euro 17.9 million Buffalo 

Soldiers on location near Karlsruhe last year. MFG also enjoys 

very close connections with partners in neighboring Alsace, 

Switzerland and Austria, and has encouraged co-productions, the 

so-called ”twinning initiatives“ in these areas. In addition, the fund 

has made great efforts to keep the young talents graduating from 

the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg 

by attracting production companies such as teamWorx and 

Peter Rommel Productions to the region and by launching 

the First Film program to finance debut features with international 

potential. Other activities with MFG backing include the 

annual Drehbuchcamp and the Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart 

Film Festival which focuses on European cinema. 

MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft 

Baden-Württemberg mbH 

Breitscheidstr. 4 (Bosch-Areal) · D-70174 Stuttgart 

phone +49-7 11-90 71 54 00 · fax +49-7 11-90 71 54 50 

www.film.mfg.de · email: filmfoerderung@mfg.de 

Contact Gabriele Röthemeyer (CEO) Personnel Dieter Krauß 

(deputy managing director/distribution-sales, special projects), Karin Frey 

(screenplay), Uschi Freynick (exhibition support, events), Anne Marburger 

(production/documentary, distribution/sales, press), Katja Walter 

(production/fiction), Claudine Sulyok (office) Established in 1995 

Funds available approx. Euro 11 million Co-productions supported 

Buffalo Soldiers, Northern Skirts, Devil’s Island, 

Jew-Boy Levi, Tango Lesson, All For Love, Full Moon, 

Tabu – Die letzte Reise 

MITTELDEUTSCHE 

MEDIENFÖRDERUNG (MDM) 

Although the youngest, Leipzig-based MDM is also the fourth 

largest of the ”Big Six“, catering to the media scene in the states 

of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, who are all shareholders 

along with broadcasters MDR and ZDF. MDM has focused its 

funding activities on children’s films, documentaries, multimedia 

and up-and-coming filmmakers, and supported over 250 projects 

with some Euro 40.1 million in its first three years. Key criteria 

for a successful application is a project’s quality and the promise 

of a regional ”effect“ of over 100%. The fund has also earmarked 

resources to help young production companies like 

L.E.Vision, motion works and Kinderfilm GmbH 

establish themselves in the region and has promoted the export 

of German cinema through its support of German Film Days 

in St. Petersburg. Furthermore, the local production scene has 

been given a boost by MDM’s involvement in such industry 

events as the Connecting Cottbus initiative at the Film 

Festival Cottbus, Babelsberg’s Cartoon Movie, the d-motion 

DVD conference in Halle and the Discovery Campus 

Master School for documentary filmmakers. Training workshops 

of the MEDIA initiatives EAVE, Vertical Strategies and 

Cartoon Masters have also been held in the area. 

10 

Manfred Schmidt 

Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH 

Hainstr. 17-19 · D-04109 Leipzig 

phone +49-3 41-26 98 70 · fax +49-3 41-2 69 87 65 

www.mdm-foerderung.de · email: info@mdm-foerderung.de 

Contact Manfred Schmidt (CEO) Personnel Alrun Ziemendorf 

(production, documentary, children’s film, animation), Britta Marciniak 

(production, TV movies and series, distribution & world sales), Roland 

Fleckenstein (production & international co-productions), Mario Fischer 

(production, script, short films, newcomer filmmakers, multimedia), 

Thomas Große (press) Established in 1998 Funds available 

approx. Euro 13 million Co-productions supported Taking 

Sides, Der kleine Eisbär, Waterloo, My Sweet Home, 

Till Eulenspiegel, Globi der gestohlene Schatten 


www. 

germancinema. 

de/ 

GERMAN 

CINEMA 

INFORMATION ON GERMAN FILMS. 

Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH 

Sonnenstrasse 21 · D-80331 Munich · phone +49-89-5 99 78 7 0 · fax +49-89-59 97 87 30 · email: export-union@german-cinema.de

Dieter Kosslick 

Interview with Dieter Kosslick Director of the Berlin International Film Festival 

What has been the biggest change for you personally between 

your work as executive director of the Filmstiftung NRW 

and as director of the Berlinale? 

The biggest change is that I am now seeing completed films rather 

than having to read scripts. It’s really quite a different business. 

The second big difference is that film funding was done during the 

whole year whereas here I am spending a whole year to prepare 

for a twelve-day event. In fact, it’s a historic chance because in 

2002 I will have the great fortune to be able to show films like 

Heaven which I financed while I was still at the Filmstiftung. 

At the same time, there are many things in common: it is a highly 

communicative job and it’s one where you should have a certain 

degree of diplomatic skills. 

Was your work at the Filmstiftung NRW good preparation 

for what you are now doing in Berlin? 

If one can speak at all of preparation, yes, my previous work in 

Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and at the European Film 

Distribution Office and my connections with different sections of 

the industry was an important background. Most of the festival 

directors are born to do this. With me, this happened after twenty 

years of preparation (smiling)! 

12 

You are not completely new to the festival game as you were 

involved in the Low Budget Film Forum at the end of the 1980s? 

Yes, I got a hint of the passion of making festivals at the Low 

Budget Film Forum, of how great it can be to put together 

a certain program with a particular statement. In Hamburg, we 

had to focus only on low budget and Europe, whereas at the 

Berlinale one has to take much more into consideration. I think 

my motto here would be to say: ”accept diversity“. 

What, in your opinion, should a festival offer its audience – to the 

professionals and the general public? 

“ACCEPT 

This is one of the few festivals with such a large participation by 

the general public – 400,000 tickets were sold at the Berlinale 

last year. The balancing act between addressing the normal 

cinemagoers and the professional visitors is enormous. But the 

people who often take a week or so off work to come to the 

festival are not ”normal cinemagoers“, they want to see something 

different, unusual, something that they wouldn’t normally be able 

to see in the cinema. 


Interview with Dieter Kosslick Director of the Berlin International Film Festival 

What should be the ”unique selling point“ for the Berlinale? 

I think that the Berlinale has developed into a very modern film 

festival with this structure. The Gregors and Moritz de 

Hadeln – and Wolf Donner and Alfred Bauer before 

them – did a pretty good job. You have the Official Competition, 

the commercial independents in the Panorama, the more 

complicated things in the Forum (which can be just as entertaining 

and enjoyable), the Children’s Film Festival, the Retrospective, the 

Market and the Perspectives for German Cinema – all of this very 

unique to Berlin. What is perhaps still missing is the special section 

for young talents which we will now do in 2003 – we want to take 

their ideas seriously and offer them a platform where they can 

come together with the best of the industry and discuss new 

projects. 

What has your approach been for this first year as director? 

Change everything? Or have you wanted to make some alterations 

and give your own personal stamp? 

My biggest problem was that I have had to do everything at such 

a speed without a practice round. On the one hand, one wants to 

do some new things, but, on the other, you don’t want to complicate 

things because there is such a giant machinery where people 

have certain methods of working. You can’t simply reach inside 

and tamper. The expectations are naturally very high that things 

will be different. And so we have done those things which were 

possible. Moreover, the improved cooperation between the 

Forum, Panorama and Competition has been very important for 

the professionals around the world. I have realized on my trips 

abroad that this was an incredibly important point because now 

you take away the psychological pressure people had suffered 

when filling out the application forms. They can just send the 

forms off without having to worry about which section should be 

ticked. 

The German cinema will be given a greater prominence at the 

festival under your direction. Can you see this having an influence 

on German producers’ timing of when they finish their films (i.e. in 

the past, films were often produced with a premiere in Munich or 

Hof in mind). Could this new emphasis on German production 

have a negative ”knock on“ effect for other German festivals? 

Until now, we have worked in an exemplary fashion with the other 

German festivals such as Hof. Heinz Badewitz is still part of 

the team as organizer of the German Cinema program [for accredited 

market participants only] and there is close cooperation. 

There have been those cases where one asks ”should we go to 

Hof or wait for the Berlinale?“. I would have loved to have had 

the new Christian Petzold film [Toter Mann], but it was 

right for it to go to Hof. Nevertheless, I will try to see if we can 

show it in Berlin in the new Perspectives sidebar as well so that 

Christian has the chance to have his film also shown to an international 

audience. However, we won’t become like a big hoover 

pulling the films away from the smaller festivals. It’s true that 

festivals are highly competitive and this competition is becoming 

tougher, but if we all have a common interest in German cinema, 

then I’m sure we’ll manage to come to agreements here as well. 

What have you done to make Berlin’s European Film Market a real 

”must“ in everyone’s business calendar? 

You will always have the problem of some people going off to 

the AFM in the second week – that’s nothing new – but we have 

decided to give the market new impetus this year by staging a 

number of film industry panels to foster more debate about issues 

DIVERSITY” 


of concern to the industry. And we have also looked at ways of 

creating more synergies at our market with the one in Rotterdam. 

We are so near to each other time-wise that we could complement 

one another – I see a real chance here if we cooperate rather 

than compete with each other. 

State Minister of Culture Nida-Rümelin has proposed a 

”closer working cooperation“ in the future between the Export- 

Union, the Berlinale and the Goethe-Institutes. How do 

you see this cooperation being developed? 

I think it is about time to stop picking on the Export-Union – 

we know what structural and financial problems there are. Now it 

is time to think about who, overall, is actually working to promote 

German cinema: in the representation of films abroad as well as at 

home. I welcome Nida-Rümelin’s approach to bring all of 

those people around a table so that they can work on an adequate 

concept. The Berlinale also plays a role here because it now has 

this greater commitment to German films. In fact, I could see a 

situation where interfaces develop between the festival and the 

Export-Union’s activities abroad so that we could concentrate 

resources and have joint showcases. We can reach our goal to 

promote German cinema much better together. 

Dieter Kosslick spoke to Martin Blaney 

13


Anyone wishing to learn what is meant by 

routine and professionalism within the 

German media scene must work in 

television. Dominik Graf realized 

this very early on, and that is why his 

career has been characterized by flexible 

alternation between the large and the 

small screens. He left the world of 

German Autorenfilm behind long ago, and 

after his first works he gave up writing his 

own screenplays – he still broadens his 

creative sphere as a director, however, 

by often composing his own film music. 

From the beginning, Graf was fascinated 

by genre cinema, by the police film in 

particular, and he has also repeatedly 

experimented with open narrative forms 

such as those to be encountered in 

Tiger, Löwe, Panther (1989) or 

Spieler. These two aspects of his work 

are united by an interest in the staging of 

group processes. ”As a film director, you 

inevitably understand a great deal about 

groups, because you work in a group – 

within a hierarchically structured 

apparatus – in a creative and friendly way. 

I have always seen established groups – 

of friends, of professionals or best of all, 

of both – as ideal pools from which 

stories and dramas emerge as if of their 

own accord. I believe that I shall continue 

to tell stories – for the cinema and for TV 

– in which people are closely bound up 

with one other, emotionally, professionally 

or by some chance encounter, and in 

which they either grow with each other, 

or fail together.“ 

Dominik Graf was born in Munich on 6 September 1952, the son of the acting couple, 

Robert and Selma Graf. After his school graduation, he began to study German and 

Musical Sciences, but transferred to the Academy of Television & Film/Munich in 1974. 

Parallel to his studies, Graf wrote screenplays and was involved in the production of 

various feature films. He received the Bavarian Film Award for his graduation film Der 

kostbare Gast (1979). As a director, Graf played a decisive role in developing the 

profile of the TV series Der Fahnder, he made an episode of Tatort in 1986, and 

generally speaking, he has alternated regularly between film and TV productions. In 1988, 

he received a German Film Award for his thriller Die Katze. His story concerning the 

eternal triangle, Spieler (1990), was shown at the Venice Film Festival in 1990. The 

Invincibles (Die Sieger, 1994) – an ambitious, 12 million mark film about a special 

police task force – did not live up to expectations at the box offices. Since then, Graf has 

worked exclusively for television and has won numerous awards. His work includes, 

among others, the Tatort-episode Frau Bu lacht (1995), Der Skorpion (1996), 

the satire Doktor Knock (1996), Deine besten Jahre (1998), Bittere 

Unschuld (1999), the documentary Munich – Secrets of a City (München – 

Geheimnisse einer Stadt, 2000) and many more. In 2001, Graf realized a new 

feature film, A Map of the Heart (Der Felsen), which will be presented in 

competition at this year´s Berlinale. 

THE REALIST 

Dominik Graf (photo © Caroline Link) 



This changing between genres and forms may also be found in 

Graf’s films from the nineties, an example being when he 

combined a woman’s process of finding herself with elements of 

the psychological thriller in Deine besten Jahre. The fact that 

it has become more difficult to develop material for the cinema, 

apart from comedy, has led Graf to occupy offensively those 

niches which television broadcasters – at least those at the public 

stations – still offer to directors with his reputation. A narrator 

with an analytical viewpoint, one who has efficiently mastered his 

craft, he repeatedly succeeds in experiments which do not fit into 

the common narrative patterns of television. An episode of Tatort 

such as Frau Bu lacht, or another series episode such as 

Sperling und der brennende Arm (1999), both respect 

the framework conditions of the series such as the constellation 

of investigators and the basic dramatic structure, but they set this 

framework into unexpected motion. The employment of music, 

the rhythm and the surprising twists in the montage are immediately 

obvious, even to a casual observer. Graf’s films are great 

moments in television, holding up a mirror to the medium itself 

and demonstrating the casual way it throws away its potential in 

everyday practice. No wonder not only the critics maintain that 


Humor, heartache and the ability to tell us a great deal about 

Germany within a very short time are all components of 

Hermine Huntgeburth’s films. 

When Hermine Huntgeburth is sitting at a table, her elbows 

are sure to be resting on it, and her head will be held in her hands. 

This is the way she prefers to talk – with no commas or full-stops, 

but with a thousand ”ums and ers“, leaping from one idea to the 

next, and then – as if completely out of the blue – arriving at 

precise answers. Why does Hermine Huntgeburth often 

have strong actors play such weak characters? ”I find contrasts 

interesting. What I want to show is human wit in devastation, 

humor in despair.“ What is a star? ”Those are people who begin 

to blossom before the cameras,“ says the director, and then rapidly 

explains that thoroughbred actors actually understand her associative 

leaps of thought immediately. 

There can be no doubt that a feel for correct casting is the key to 

Hermine Huntgeburth’s films. She has made films with 

Götz George and Corinna Harfouch, ”with stars who have 

an aura“, as the 44-year-old puts it very fittingly after several "ers". 

She has always produced films in which there are no good or evil 

people, but a sense of right and wrong. The right people have a 

works like Deine besten Jahre or even a Tatort-episode such 

as Frau Bu lacht would be better suited to the cinema. 

In A Map of the Heart (Der Felsen), Graf returns to the 

constellations of his early films, to young people’s involvements 

and entanglements, without abandoning his concept of realistic 

narration. The director – who has repeatedly criticized the 

widespread disappearance of reality on television – still has 

definite pretensions, and he wishes to produce a film about which 

it is possible to maintain: ”This is the ultimate expression of this 

material, this story can only be told in this way and no other.“ 

Cinema remains the medium for him ”in which it is possible to 

experience the most gripping deep-sea diving expeditions into the 

human soul. But up until now, I have not succeeded in finding and 

establishing a permanent home in Germany for those cinema 

genres I love most – the police thriller, the psycho-thriller and the 

horror film.“ 

Dominik Graf spoke to Peter Körte, 

feature editor for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Berlin. 

NO SUPERFLUOUS 

SENTENCES, NO 

LACK OF EMOTION 


heart of gold and an inner greatness, they are close to each other, 

but not good for each other. They live in caravans or the corner 

pub, and they eat curried sausage rather than sushi. A full array 

of possible relationships are available to the director – one might 

also say that a Huntgeburth film is always about the madness 

of love: love turns slowly fading women into murderers (Der 

Hahn ist tot), or it makes enemies out of brothers (Die 

Stunde des Wolfs). Sometimes, if the love has already lasted 

for 17 years and the children are grown up, it may suddenly go 

up in smoke: "puff". And then there is nothing left to a marriage, 

as in Huntgeburth’s latest TV-film Das verflixte 17. Jahr. 

The escalating emotions, the excesses of fate in these films are 

countered by a much reduced method of staging and narrating. 

There are no superfluous sentences, and no lack of images. 

Direction, as Hermine Huntgeburth sees it, is based on the 

art of leaving things out. Perhaps the best example of a style which 

is capable of cutting screenplays and yet concentrating them into 

truly gripping films is her TV-movie Romeo, which relates the 

division between eastern and western Germany as a combination 

of spy film and love story. ”Abroad, people are interested in authentically 

German stories“, Huntgeburth says, "many productions 

fail because they think it is international to avoid anything 

typically German." 

15

Hermine Huntgeburth (photo © Stefan Falke) 


Hermine Huntgeburth was born in the very Catholic city of Paderborn in 1957. 

After initial experience in the wardrobe department of the Paderborn Theater, she 

enrolled in a course studying Film at the Hamburg College of Arts in 1977. In 1983, 

with a fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in hand, she 

moved to study Film in Sydney. During her studies, Huntgeburth worked as a 

scriptwriter, camera woman, technician and assistant director at the theater in 

Esslingen (Germany), and made her main mark in documentary film. In 1992, her 

feature film debut Im Kreise der Lieben received the German Film Award in Gold 

for the Best New Director, the Promotional Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia, and an 

award from the Confédération International des Cinémas D’Art et d’Essai. Since 1987, she 

has been part of Josefine-Film, together with director and scriptwriter Volker 

Einrauch and scriptwriter Lothar Kurzawa – ”a production company consisting of three 

creative people“ – and she has been making a name for herself as a first-class TVmovie 

director. Her unmistakable works, whose stylistic certainty enables them to 

maintain a balance between the everyday and the grotesque, have been presented with 

many of the most important German television awards. She realized her first majorcompany 

cinema project in 1997 with Das Trio. Her film Bibi Blocksberg will be 

coming to the cinemas in 2002, and an international co-production thriller – with the 

working title Weiss – is currently in development. 

In this sense, her films are studies of milieu, 

Heimatfilme if you like. They have nothing in common 

with folklore, but relate universal longings 

which one may also encounter in the German 

provinces – feelings which certainly warrant the 

wide-screen format. In 1997, therefore, Huntgeburth 

realized her first big-budget cinema film 

Das Trio; a socially aware pickpocket drama 

about love and disappointment. The production 

cost 5 million marks and was distributed by the US 

major Warner Bros. Of course she values the 

advantages of a generous budget, in particular the 

time it makes available for filming. But only the 

artistic idea makes money into a good film: 

”Individual directors like Steven Soderbergh or 

Lars von Trier show the importance of creativity", 

she says, "their films are the ones that remain in 

our memories, no matter how successful 

Hollywood’s blockbusters might be." 

She is now making her first children's film for the 

cinema, Bibi Blocksberg (cf. p. 28), with a 

budget of eleven million marks. The next plan is 

for a thriller, to be made in English and outside of 

Germany for the first time. This is new ground, so 

to speak, and if one looks at Hermine 

Huntgeburth’s filmography, it seems that she 

has actually entered new ground with every film: 

”I would like to surprise people again and again, I 

am bored by routine,“ she says. Then she explains 

once again how important the casting is for a film. 

Afterwards, she repeats three times: ”That’s the 

way it is“, and then she is silent. 

Hermine Huntgeburth spoke to Christa Thelen, 

editor for the Financial Times Deutschland 



”My aim, the company goal, is to bring the German film back to 

the forefront,“ says Antonio Exacoustos, head of sales at 

ARRI Media Worldsales. 

If the name’s familiar, that’s because Exacoustos has been in the 

business some fifteen years, ten of them as head of sales with 

Filmverlag der Autoren, one of Germany’s most successful 

sales companies. He’s also active in many German cinematic institutions, 

such as the Export-Union and the Filmförderungsanstalt 

(FFA). 

If the other name’s familiar, that’s because the company is part of 

the worldwide ARRI group. As you’re reading this, someone 

somewhere is shooting with ARRI cameras, using ARRI facilities 

and ARRI people. Yes, THAT ARRI! 

Take Exacoustos’ experience, add the backing of the parent 

company and you know something? He could very well be the 

man to put the German film back into a cinema, or on a TV 

screen, near you. 

A new company (”I wanted to start something from scratch“), 

ARRI Media Worldsales, like its parent, ”supports young 

talent now so they can make successful films in the future. If you 

don’t do this,“ says Exacoustos, ”if you don’t try, then there 

will never ever be a world-wide success for German films. Not 

even a one-off success. Just maybe short-term successes.“ 

Established in 2000 Head of Sales Antonio Exacoustos Additional contact Sylvia 

Edelmann (Sales Assistant) Main fields of activity acquisition, world-wide distribution 

and co-production of theatrical features, TV-series, TV-movies Regular attendance of 

the following film and TV markets Berlin, Cannes, MIFED, MIPCOM, MIP-TV, Venice 

Number of titles on offer c. 200 films and TV-series Percentage of German 

titles on offer 95% Buyers include distributors and TV channels in Australia, France, 

Italy, Japan, Scandinavia Best-selling titles currently on sale Heimat, Heimat 2 

and Heimat 3, My Sweet Home 

ARRI Media Worldsales 

Türkenstr. 89 · D-80799 Munich · phone +49-89-38 09 12 88 · fax +49-89-38 09 16 19 

www.arri-mediaworldsales.de · email: aexacoustos@arri.de 

”BRINGING 

GERMAN FILMS 

BACK TO THE 

FOREFRONT“ 

He recognizes his is a mission which will take time but, citing New 

German Cinema, believes previous success was no coincidence: 

”What happened before can, will, happen again.“ 

”If we have any hits now they are one-offs. And we have little to 

follow it up with. But if we could bring the next film on the heels 

of a successful one then we could create a continuity for German 

films abroad. Not in the US, but certainly in Europe and other 

territories." 

Although not short of titles in the catalogue, Exacoustos believes 

”it will again be single, qualitatively good, films which will 

break through; films you have to handle with love and attention, 

which can be sold with specialized marketing.“ 

For this reason, co-production is an essential plank in the strategy. 

As he says: ”By getting involved early, the earlier the better, you 

can have an influence and, if necessary, change things during the 

production stage. Such as to suit overseas markets.“ 

And ARRI Media Worldsales can offer what very few 

companies, anywhere, can; ”the resources and experience of the 

ARRI group. We can offer our services world-wide. We can 

work via ARRI London or ARRI Italia or New York or Los 

Angeles, wherever. We can put our facilities at their disposal. The 

resources are enormous. For producers, wherever they are, it’s an 

interesting offer.“ 


Antonio Exacoustos 


The past year has seen three co-productions: Stefan 

Ruzowitzky’s comedy All The Queen’s Men, Hanns 

Christian Müller’s comedy Germanikus and Robert 

Schwentke’s thriller Tattoo. And currently in production is 

the third part of Edgar Reitz’s epic family drama, Heimat. 

”We don’t want to become some huge store with so many films 

that we can’t handle them properly“, says Exacoustos. "Each 

film is different and demands its own treatment. That’s the way we 

want to stay. I think three productions a year will enable us to 

maintain this.“ 

At the moment, ninety-five percent of the catalogue consists of 

German titles. Despite the co-production activities and the 

ongoing acquisition of rights, the core offerings will remain mostly 

German. Which is not to say there’s any lack of variety. 


”We have a broad and varied program“, 

says Exacoustos, ”from 

Edgar Reitz’s Heimat films, 

which are arthouse, through to 

straightforward TV-series. We have 

everything possible. We don’t specialize 

in any particular genre. When 

it comes to theatrical features, 

because this is the way things are in 

Germany, it will certainly be the case 

that what lends itself to world-wide 

sales is arthouse. That’s my personal 

strength because I know the 

customers very well.“ 

Early days yet, but ”the market has 

reacted very well to us. There aren’t 

so many German world sales 

companies, and when you have a 

dynamic company which can react 

quickly and through its technical services 

support the producers, that’s 

certainly of interest for producers.“ 

As regards the internet and new 

media, Exacoustos is waiting and 

watching. He cites rights issues, legal 

confusion and general uncertainty as 

the main stumbling blocks. But with 

more and more TV channels starting 

up, he’s got no reason to worry. 

”Every film will find its viewer“, he 

says. ”New technology will make 

the procedure easier and we might 

one day watch films on our mobile 

phones but you will still need quality 

product.“ 

ARRI Media Worldsales, and 

Antonio Exacoustos, has it. 

Simon Kingsley spoke 

with Antonio Exacoustos 

19

Martin Hagemann (photo © zero film/Sabine Sauer) 


Great ideas are often hatched during film shoots and so it was 

during the filming of Leningrad, November in the autumn of 

1989 when the idea for zero film was born. 

In the breaks between shooting at Lenfilm Studios, zero film’s 

later owners Martin Hagemann and Thomas Kufus 

dreamt of a new generation of low-budget films: independent 

cinema, documentary and feature films with their own language – 

but professionally produced by a company financing and selling 

its films on the international market. 

”Neither of us attended a film school, we both came in through 

the back door“, recalls Hagemann, ”When we started in the 

20 

Founded in 1990 by Martin Hagemann and Thomas Kufus, zero film initially concentrated on documentaries 

until 1993, although it was also involved in line producing Jan Schütte’s Goodbye America (Auf 

Wiedersehen Amerika, 1994). In 1994, the company moved premises and expanded its infrastructure, 

investing in its own post-production equipment, the development of its own projects and in the fostering of international 

contacts. zero film’s productions have received premieres at festivals in Cannes, Berlin and Venice and 

have become regulars on the international festival circuit with such films as Stefan Schwietert’s Swiss-German 

co-production A Tickle In The Heart, Aleksandr Sokurov’s Mother and Son (Mutter und Sohn) 

and Barbara Albert’s Austrian-German co-production Northern Skirts (Nordrand). The company has 

become one of the few to successfully produce and market feature-length documentaries for the theatrical and 

TV market and was a pioneer in the production of docu-soaps for the German TV audience. A subsidiary, zero 

südwest, was set up in Baden-Baden with production manager Hartwig König to handle productions being 

shot in this region. In 2001, zero film’s production of Andres Veiel’s documentary Black Box Germany 

(Black Box BRD) received the European Documentary Award 2001 – Prix Arte at the 2001 European Film 

Awards. 

zero film GmbH · Lehrter Str. 57 · D-10557 Berlin, phone +49-30-3 90 66 30 · fax +49-30-3 94 58 34, 

www.zerofilm.de · email: office@zerofilm.de 

COMPANY WITH 

AN UNMISTAKE 

industry, the schools were very director-oriented. At the beginning 

of the eighties, there was no way of studying production, you just 

did it on the job“. 

After getting to know each other on Leningrad, November, 

Hagemann and Kufus discovered the archives of the documentary 

film studios in St. Petersburg – which resulted in Kufus’ 

documentary Blockade and formed the basis for zero 

film when it was set up in 1990. 

”From the outset, international co-productions were a focus, with 

a particular emphasis on Russia“, Hagemann explains, pointing 

out that ”there isn’t a strict division of labor between Thomas and 

myself. It is true that Thomas concentrates on the documentaries 

although he also handles the projects by Aleksandr Sokurov. 

And I mainly work on the fiction projects, but have also handled 

documentary titles too". 

Apart from producing their own projects, zero film also built up 

a respectable reputation as a line producer on international productions, 

beginning in New York with Jan Schütte’s Goodbye 

America (Auf Wiedersehen Amerika) and followed over 

the years by the Berlin shoots of Good Machine’s Flirt by 

Hal Hartley and several visiting Russian productions through to 

Peter Bogdanovich’s The Cat’s Meow at the end of 2000. 

”I had real fun on the Bogdanovich project“, Hagemann 

says, ”it was different for a change to not have to worry about the 

financing as the money was on the table and then it was all go. 

At the same time, it was a real challenge to have to recreate the 

Hollywood of the 1920s and to work with a European team with 

only six weeks of preparation“. 

However, that is not the focus of zero film’s business, he stresses. 

”With the line producing, we basically worked with companies 

whom we could then call upon when we are wanting to shoot in 

the US or England in the future. Our goal, though, as a company is 

to produce German-language and international independent features“. 

Hagemann and Kufus’ experience so far is that those films 

which are ”absolutely unmistakable“ or ”particularly extreme“ like 

the ones they have produced with Aleksandr Sokurov – 



Verborgene Seiten (1994), Mother and Son (Mutter 

und Sohn, 1997) and Moloch (1999) – have sold very well and 

definitely have an international appeal. ”Whatever the plot or 

genre is, there is an audience for these films; it may not be large, 

but it is there. They sell to 20 countries and you even get to see 

money flowing back from certain territories“. 

According to Hagemann, it is more difficult with German 

projects to get them into the international market, although they 

were successful with the co-productions of Didi Danquart’s 

Jew Boy Levi (Viehjud Levi) and Barbara Albert’s 

Northern Skirts (Nordrand) – both the result of ”twinning 

initiatives“ between Baden-Württemberg, Switzerland and Austria 

– and now have a project with Connie Walther, Schattenwelt, 

whose screenplay was written by Ulrich Herrmann and 

has been developed with former RAF terrorist Peter-Jürgen 

ABLE IDENTITY 

Thomas Kufus (photo © zero film/Sabine Sauer) 

Boock. In addition, zero film is currently working with Max 

Färberböck and five writers on a feature film project with the 

working title of September, which will recount the consequences 

of the 11th of September in Germany in an episodic structure. 

”We have worked a lot with directors who write as well“, he 

notes, ”the films we make are clearly Autorenfilme, stubbornly 

individual, but they are also very professionally produced and 

marketed“. To speak of a zero film ”family“ of directors might 

be too much of an exaggeration, although there are clearly close 

links to such filmmakers as Aleksandr Sokurov, Barbara 


Albert, Didi Danquart and Stefan Schwietert. ”Our goal 

is definitely to work with people on more than just one film“, 

Hagemann agrees, ”at the same time, we are open for new 

people and continue to produce debut films“. 

Furthermore, working for television has opened up all kinds of 

synergistic potential for zero film’s cinema activities. ”The good 

thing about the TV activities is that we often make the feature 

documentaries with the same people we have used on the television 

projects; that means that the teams and the editors and so 

on can work on a regular basis and then come together to tackle 

a larger, more difficult project. That complementarity is perhaps 

easier in the field of documentary than in fiction so that the 

experiences you make with the docu-soaps can be used for the 

dramaturgy of feature-length documentaries. And you can try 

things out“. 

Last year, the Baden-Baden-based subsidiary zero südwest 

spent ten weeks shooting the docu-soap Schwarzwaldhaus1902.de 

which sent a modern Berlin family on a journey 

back in time to live in a farmhouse in the Black Forest in 1902. 

Commissioned by SWR, the four-parter, which was modeled on 

the UK’s The Victorian House series, will be seen in ARD’s 

prime-time schedule in autumn 2002. In addition, zero is developing 

another series with ARTE – Ein Jahr danach – which 

would revisit political events a year later to see what has happened 

in the intervening period. 

But as Martin Hagemann points out, raising the financing for 

their projects hasn’t become any easier with time or due to their 

heightened profile thanks to a number of national and international 

prizes. 

”One crux is the fact that funding is regionally organized here in 

Germany and through committees, so basically you start afresh 

with each new project. Now that doesn’t reflect what you have 

done in the last twelve years“, he declares. 

”Another problem is that the German film funding system doesn’t 

acknowledge the significance of international sales and festival 

participation. Apart from Road Movies, we are the only 

German production company to be represented at three ”A“ 

festivals in quick succession with films, but then I see what my coproducers 

receive for reference support for new projects just for 

the participation at a festival – Erich Lackner of Lotus Film, 

for example, received 350,000 Euro for Northern Skirts being 

shown at Venice in competition – so I think incentives should be 

created which kick in automatically and are not decided upon by 

committees. At the moment, the ”reference“ funding is just supporting 

films which are already commercially successful“. 

As it happens, Hagemann’s wish may be granted in the not too 

distant future since State Minister for Culture Julian Nida- 

Rümelin in fact proposed in his recent film policy document 

that the ”reference“ funding should be extended to honor festival 

invitations and sales performance of films. 

Martin Blaney spoke with Martin Hagemann and Thomas Kufus 

21

Julian Nida-Rümelin & the nominees 

(photo © Christoph Assmann) 

Eva Marel Jura, left 


Kino news 

22 

German Short Film Award 2001 

The German Short Film Award 2001 in Gold and Silver 

was presented by State Minister Julian Nida-Rümelin on 

10 November 2001 at the ”Filmkunsthaus Babylon“ in Berlin. 

The television presenter and singer Kim Fisher moderated 

the event. The Film Prizes in Gold are each endowed with 

DM 60,000 and the Film Prizes in Silver with DM 40,000 each. 

Eva Marel Jura was awarded the Film Prize in Gold in the 

category of Short Films Under Seven Minutes for her film Cut 

Away, made in cooperation with the Academy of Television 

& Film Munich (HFF/M). The Film Prize in Gold in the category 

of Short Films 

Between Seven & 

Fifteen Minutes went 

to Idil Üner for 

the film Die 

Liebenden vom 

Hotel Osman, a 

Peter Stockhaus 

Film production. 

The Film Prize in 

Silver for Short Films 

Under Seven 

Minutes was awarded 

to Wahlverwandtschaften, 

a 

Nils Loof Film 

production, while 

the Film Prize in 

Silver for Short Films Between Seven & Fifteen minutes went 

to Su Turhan for Gone Underground, a Gone 

Underground and Getpix Film production. 

Idil Üner 


A total of eight films were nominated for the German 

Short Film Award 2001. All nominated filmmakers received 

a monetary prize of DM 25,000 for the preparation, development 

and realization of a new film. Also nominated 

were: Gleisarbeiter, a Patrick Lambertz production in 

cooperation with the ”Konrad Wolf“ Academy of Film & 

Television; Nass, a Lounge Entertainment production 

in cooperation with the HFF/M; Schneckentraum, a 

Wiedemann & Berg Film production in cooperation 

with the HFF/M; and Taschenorgan, a Carsten 

Strauch production in cooperation with the Academy of 

Art & Design in Offenbach. 

After the awards ceremony, all eight nominated short films 

went on a tour of over 100 cinemas throughout Germany. 

Further information about the tour dates may be found at: 

www.kurzfilmpreisunterwegs.org. 

Information about the German Short Film Award 

is available at: www.deutscherkurzfilmpreis.de or 

www.filmfoerderung-bkm.de. 

NRW and Poland 

Tom Tykwer opens the Berlin International Film 

Festival this year – with a film from Krzysztof 

Kieslowski. The script for Heaven originated from the 

Polish director and actor, who died in 1996. The film, coproduced 

by X Filme and Miramax and funded by the 

Filmstiftung NRW, was shot in, among other places, 

North Rhine-Westphalia. The relations between North 

Rhine-Westphalia and Poland are just as varied as the stories 

from Kieslowski and Tykwer. And to intensify this 

relationship, Filmstiftung NRW managing director 

Michael Schmid-Ospach traveled to Poland in the fall 

of 2001. Following an invitation from festival director Stefan 

Laudyn, he not only visited the ”German Day“ at the 

Warsaw Film Festival, but also met with Polish filmmakers, 

like Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi. "The 

Polish producers were amazed at the possibilities there are for 

international co-productions in North Rhine-Westphalia, and 

as a result, we were able to bring home a few projects, including 

a Günter Grass-adaptation" said Schmid-Ospach, 

satisfied with the trip’s results. There are also plans in the area 

of schooling and training. Schmid-Ospach discussed the 

possibility of a cooperation between the International Film 

School Cologne and Wajda’s soon-to-be-opened new film 

school in Warsaw. 


Scene from ”Die Reise“, 

Johanna Wokalek, Agnieszka Piwowarska

That the spirit of cooperation between North Rhine- 

Westphalia and Poland is already functioning is proven by 

director Pierre Koralnik’s new film Die Reise. The 

WDR and Tag/Traum Cologne production, supported 

by the Filmstiftung NRW, was filmed in Warsaw, Lublin, 

Cologne as well as in the industrial Ruhr area of Germany, and 

tells the authentic story of two Jewish sisters, sent by their father 

to Germany as forced laborers in order to spare them 

from the Holocaust. 

International Film Music 

Biennale Bonn 2002 

The International Film Music Bienniale Bonn 

(IFMB) is coming closer. From 23 – 30 June 2002, the Art 

and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in 

Bonn will again host the IFMB. Organized together with the 

Filmstiftung NRW, an international forum and working 

atmosphere will be provided for film producers, sound designers, 

composers, music producers and film music & sound 

design students. Open-air-concerts, film retrospectives and 

club nights will complete the range of events. The full program 

will be available in April 2002 on the website: 

www.bundeskunsthalle.de. 

Until 16 April 2002, feature films, TV-films and short films 

may be submitted for the various prize categories. The jury 

members of the International Prize for Film and Media Music 

(IPFM) in the category Recent Feature Film are Leo 

Brouwer (Cuba), Ulrich Gregor (Germany), Shubha 

Mudgal (India), Andrzej Wajda (Poland) and Shirley 

Walker (USA). Several other juries will also award prizes, 

including the European Endowed Prize, the Endowed Prize of 

the European Film Institute and the Endowed Prize of the Franz 

Grothe Foundation. 

Students and experts from over 20 European universities are 

expected to attend the IFMB, including: Henryk Kuzniak, 

The National Film, Television & Theater School, Lódz; Klas 

Dykhoff, Dramatiska Institutet University College, Stockholm; 

Sergij Jorda, Institut Universitari de l’Audiovisual, 

Barcelona; Stephen Deutsch, Bournemouth Media School, 

London; Ian Gardiner, Institute for Performing Arts, 

Liverpool; and Prof. Dr. Enjott Schneider, Hochschule 

für Musik & Theater, Munich. 


Michael Schmid-Ospach/Filmstiftung NRW 


Wenzel Jacob/Bundeskunsthalle 

(photo © Manfred Leve) 

Panel discussions and performances are planned with national 

and international experts like Andrea Willson of Deutsche 

Columbia Pictures; Gary Rydstrom and 

Walter Murch, sound designers from Los Angeles; 

Heinz Canibol and Andreas von Imhoff of EMI; 

as well as the director Zhang Yimou and the composer 

Zhao Jiping from China. 

One of the highlights will be the festive gala event on 28 June 

2002 with Mikis Theodorakis, who will receive the Erich- 

Wolfgang-Korngold-Prize for his lifetime achievement. To honor 

his work, the gala will be followed by an open-air concert with 

the National Youth Orchestra of Germany and the State 

Youth Choir of North Rhine-Westphalia as well as a Chamber 

Music Evening. 

Application forms for the various competitions are available at: 

www.bundeskunsthalle.de. 

For further information please contact: 

International Film Music Biennale Bonn 2002 

c/o Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der 

Bundesrepublik Deutschland 

Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 4 · D-53113 Bonn 

phone +49-2 28-9 17 12 61 · fax +49-2 28-9 17 12 33 

e-mail: filmmusik@kah-bonn.de or 

majer-wallat@kah-bonn.de or 

Filmstiftung NRW 

phone +49-2 11-93 05 00 · fax +49-2 11-9 30 50 85 

email: info@filmstiftung.de 

Baden-Württemberg’s 

Best Script 

Whoever wants to make good films, needs good scripts. In an 

effort to promote high quality scripts from Baden-Württemberg, 

the MFG Baden-Württemberg will present for the 

fourth time the Script Prize Baden-Württemberg to a 

talented writer for a story taking place in Baden-Württemberg. 

Three scripts will be nominated and invited to the Berlinale 

2002, where the award in the sum of Euro 25,000 will be 

presented during a reception hosted by the state of Baden- 

Württemberg. 

23

Scene from ”As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me“ 


24 

MDM Development Phase 

Successfully Completed 

Since its foundation, the MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung 

has supported over 250 projects with more than 

Euro 40 million. As a result, film productions such as The 

Legends of Rita (Die Stille nach dem Schuss) by 

Volker Schlöndorff, Forget America (Vergiss 

Amerika) by Vanessa Jopp and Cold is the Evening 

Breeze (Kalt ist der Abendhauch) from Rainer 

Kaufmann were shot in the states Sachsen-Anhalt, 

Thuringia, and Saxony. Even the international co-production 

Taking Sides under the direction of István Szabó 

with the Hollywood star Harvey Keitel in the leading role 

was filmed in the area. 

The MDM was instrumental in the development of an infrastructure 

in the media branch in Thuringia, Saxony and Sachsen- 

Anhalt. In addition to monetary support, initiatives for continuing 

education, workshops, meetings and the marketing of film 

locations in the region (www.mdm-locationguide.de) 

were established. 

The goals for MDM’s next level of active support include 

increasing the synergy effects in the region, continuing to 

promote new business establishment, strengthening the media 

network, as well as building up a practice-oriented educational 

program in the area. More information about the MDM can 

be found under www.mdm-foerderung.de. 

THE TUNNEL Wins ARRI Film 

& TV Audience Award at 

Second Festival of German 

Cinema in Los Angeles 

The Second Festival of German Cinema was held 

from 9 - 15 November 2001 in the Laemmle Music Hall 

Theater in Beverly Hills and met with an inquisitive audience 

and a positive echo from buyers and the press. In spite of the 

difficult political and economic situation and the changed habits 

following the terrorist attacks, the event saw a clear increase in 

admissions. Eight feature films were in the running for the 

ARRI Film & TV Audience Award, which went to 

Roland Suso Richter’s opening film The Tunnel. The 

Audience Award includes post-production funding in the sum of 

$10,000 for the director. 

The program also presented the short film sidebars NEXT 

GENERATION 2001 and SHORT TIGER 2001 with a 

total of 17 shorts. The main program featured: Anna 

Wunder by Ulla Wagner, Crazy by Hans-Christian 

Schmid, The Experiment by Oliver Hirschbiegel, 

Gripsholm by Xavier Koller, Girls on Top 

(Mädchen Mädchen) by Dennis Gansel, Passing 

Summer (Mein langsames Leben) by Angela 

Schanelec, As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me (So 

weit die Füsse tragen) by Hardy Martins, and The 

Tunnel by Roland Suso Richter. In addition, there was 

a special screening of the film Zoom by Otto Alexander 

Jahreiss. 

The German guests included: Roland Suso Richter, 

Heino Ferch, Hardy Martins, Oliver Hirschbiegel, 

Otto Alexander Jahrreiss, Xavier Koller, Irina 

Pantaeva (lead actress in As Far As My Feet Will 

Carry Me), Harald Kloser (film score composer for 

The Tunnel), Oana Solomon (lead actress in Zoom), 

Zoom producer Michael Schwarz, Sonja Rom 

(director of photography for Crazy), and Girls on 

Top producers Matthias Ehmke and Thomas 

Augsberger. 

Three feature films are currently the subject of sales negotiations. 

The sales agent for the The Tunnel is in concrete 

negotiations with two leading US distributors. ”We are very 

pleased about the positive response of the American public – 

an additional screening was scheduled spontaneously because 

of the great demand. We are now hoping for the successful 

conclusion of a deal“, declared Dirk Schürhoff, head of 

sales at Beta. Zoom’s producer Michael Schwarz was 

also able to sell the remake rights to Key Entertainment 

in Los Angeles. 

The event’s partners were the Federal Government 

Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media, the German 

Federal Film Board (FFA) as well as the six major regional film 

funds. The festival was supported by: ARRI Film & TV, Beta 

Film, Bitburger Bier, Erdinger Weißbier, the German Consul- 

General Los Angeles, the German Information Center New 

York, german-world.com, the Laemmle Music Hall Theater, 

Ledl Filmservice, Lufthansa AG, Pack Air Airfreight, Das Werk, 

and Porsche North America. 


Franz Kraus & Thomas Nickel (ARRI Film & TV), 

Corina Danckwerts (photo © Amy Tierney)

Bernard Edler von Planitz, Dr. Günther Koenig, 

Jeanine Meerapfel, Roland Suso Richter 

Successful Presentation of 

German Films at MoMA, 

New York 

For the 23rd time, the Museum of Modern Art 

(MoMA) in New York showed a wide range of new feature 

and documentary films from Germany under the banner 

”Germany 2001: New Films“. The program, which was 

presented in the museum’s two cinemas from 1 – 15 November 

2001 and included two shorts for the first time, met with 

an enthusiastic audience. Over 9,000 spectators in a total of 

34 screenings sat in mostly sold-out performances. A highlight 

of the event was the opening film The Tunnel which was 

warmly received by the audience and provoked a stimulating 

discussion with director Roland Suso Richter and 

producer Nico Hofmann. Jeanine Meerapfel (Anna’s 

Summer), Mirjam Kubescha (Ecce Homo) and 

Wilfried Huisman (Dear Fidel – Marita’s Story/ 

Lieber Fidel – Maritas Geschichte) also introduced 

their films in person. 

”The program“, declared Laurence Kardish, Senior 

Curator at the Department of Film and Media in the Museum 

of Modern Art, ”numbers as one of the highlights of our 

international country focuses. The large number of German 

directors and producers, burdened by the weight of modern 

history and acutely sensitive to contemporary social issues, 

make deeply interesting films, not easy ones. The German 

cinema is and remains an inexhaustible supply of serious young 

filmmakers that deserve international recognition. Apart from 

the opening film, Anna’s Summer as well as the documentaries 

Dear Fidel – Marita’s Story, To Moscow with 

IKEA (Mit IKEA nach Moskau) by Michael 

Chauvistré, Lale Andersen – The Voice of Lili 

Marleen (Lale Andersen – Die Stimme der Lili 

Marleen) by Irene Langemann and The Himmler 

Project (Das Himmler-Projekt) by Romuald 

Karmakar attracted special attention. We have taken on 

the latter film for our film archive.“ 

The event was held in collaboration with the Export-Union of 

German Cinema, the German Federal Film Board (FFA), the 

Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and 

the Media, as well as the six major economic film funds. 

Support was also forthcoming for the event from the German 

Information Center New York as well as Goethe-Institut Inter 

Nationes. 



FilmFörderung Hamburg: 

New Location Data Bank 

Premiere in Berlin: The FilmFörderung Hamburg is 

presenting its new Location Data Bank during the 

Berlinale 2002. The new digital Location Guide contains 

200 locations and typical Hamburg settings. In addition to 

photos, users can find information and contact addresses for 

the individual locations. And the newly installed Production 

Guide provides the addresses of freelance filmmakers, 

production companies, services industries and film technical 

companies. These two new guides complete the Film- 

Förderung Hamburg’s extensive service offer for the 

region’s film industry. The forms for the internship pool, the 

shooting pass and the location questionnaire can be accessed 

from www.ffhh.de. The FilmFörderung Hamburg 

and its Location Office can once again be found at the 

FOCUS Germany stand at Berlin’s European Film 

Market. 

Filmboard Director Supports 

Amended Film Funding Criteria 

In the debate over a film funding reform, Filmboard 

Berlin-Brandenburg managing director Prof. Klaus 

Keil has suggested an amendment to film funding criteria, 

supporting the State Minister of Culture Julian Nida- 

Rümelin’s proposed ”criteria-based reference funding“. ”We 

define the success of a film in two ways – as an economic 

success at the box offices and as an artistic success through 

the awarding of prizes, special ratings and festival invitations“, 

says Keil. 

The Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg intends to financially 

reward artistically successful films and filmmakers already 

in 2002, thus establishing the first equivalent to pure economic 

reference funding. The Filmboard has recommended 

including this ”success controlling“ in the catalogue of criteria 

to be evaluated for future film funding. According to Keil, 

”The artistic reference is based on awards, competitions and 

admissions and will be evaluated on a points system. One 

point will be given for each award, each competition invitation, 

and every 100,000 viewers. The total points form the 

reference for financial recognition of the film’s artistic achievement", 

whereas modifications may be made depending on the 

importance of the festival and a bonus factor may be calculated 

for children’s films, documentaries and newcomers’ films. 

Prof. Keil is supportive of Julian Nida-Rümelin’s proposals 

in the ”Film Policy Concept 2001“ and says ”A 

radical thought would be the fusion of all the regional filmfunding 

bodies into one institution with individual ’state 

antennas’, like the Brussels Media Program. But that is not 

up for debate. Nida-Rümelin’s concept is a proposal 

everyone can work with, not just a few interest groups.“ 

25


26 

FFF Bayern Continues Promotion 

Activities in Eastern Europe 

For the past five years, the FFF Bayern has been active in 

promoting German films in Eastern Europe. ”German 

Cinema Made in Bavaria“ served as the headline for film 

events in Poland, Russia, the Ukraine, Slovenia, Romania and 

Slovakia. A particular highlight was the 1999 film week in 

Prague, whose slogan ”Film and Beer from Bavaria“ 

attracted a young audience. FFF’s international activities are 

characterized by their continuity: most of the film weeks in 

Eastern Europe have become a tradition and have generated 

strong cultural contacts between the participating countries. In 

2001, the ”Tydzien Filmu Bawarskiego“ in Cracow, organized 

by the cultural institution ”Nürnberger Haus“, celebrated its 

fifth anniversary. Moscow staged Bavarian films for the second 

time, where 765 viewers enthusiastically received the opening 

film The Experiment by Oliver Hirschbiegel. As a 

response to the FFF’s film week in Ljubljana in 2000, a 

Slovenian film presentation took place in Munich. But there is 

also room for new projects: next year, in cooperation with 

the Bavarian State Chancellery, the FFF Bayern is going to 

present German films in Budapest and Zagreb. 

Deutsche Welle Presents Young 

German Directors 

Since December 2001, Deutsche Welle’s culture report 

has been presenting the new league of young German filmmakers. 

A series of ten portraits introduced to radio listeners 

abroad prove that German cinema is alive and well, and much 

better than its reputation. The culture report began with an 

interview with Dieter Kosslick, the new director of the 

Berlin International Film Festival, followed by a portrait of 

Tom Tykwer to kick off the series. The culture report, 

broadcast every Sunday, will continue with portraits of 

Caroline Link, Wolfgang Becker, Andreas 

Kleinert, Andreas Dresen, Christian Petzold, 

Vanessa Jopp, Hans-Christian Schmid, Fatih Akin 

and Oskar Roehler. Each portrait is five minutes long and 

authored by such film journalists as Josef Schnelle and 

Knut Elstermann. For further information please contact 

the series’ creator and editor Jochen Kuerten at 

jochen.kuerten@dw-world.de. 

FFA Publishes Arthouse Studies 

Every tenth screen in Germany belongs to an arthouse cinema 

and twenty-two percent of all screens show arthouse films on 

a regular basis. What are the socio-demographic differences 

between arthouse and mainstream audiences? To what extent 

have cinema owners profited from the successful film year 

2001? Answers to these questions and more can be found in 

the two new FFA-studies Programmkinos – Auslastung, 

Bestand, Besuch und Eintrittpreise and 

Das Programmkino-Publikum im 1. Halbjahr 

2001. Published in December 2001, both studies can be 

downloaded at www.ffa.de under ”Publikationen“. 

Maria Speth Named MFG- 

Star 2001 

Maria Speth was awarded the newcomer directing award 

MFG-Star at the Baden-Baden Festival of TV Films 

for her feature debut the days between (in den tag 

hinein). Juror Esther Gronenborn (alaska.de) selected 

the production from four films in competition. The MFG- 

Star, which was awarded for the second time to help in the 

further development newcomer talent, includes a ”carte 

blanche“ for a training seminar of the winner’s choice. 

FFA Coordinates Film Funding 

Law Amendment Suggestions 

The German Federal Film Board (FFA) has taken on 

the lead in the coordination of the workgroup which has been 

dealing with the pending amendments to the film funding law, 

currently in effect through the end of 2003. The workgroup is 

comprised of leading representatives from German film associations 

and organizations (the Association of German 

Film Theaters, Cineropa, the Association of 

Arthouse Cinemas, the Association of German 

Feature Film Producers, the Association of New 

Feature Film Producers, the Distributors’ 

Association, the National Video Association, the 

Association of Private Broadcasters, the public 

broadcasters ARD and ZDF, the State Film 

Committees, FilmFörderung Hamburg and 

FilmFernsehFonds Bayern representing the six main 

economic film funds, the State Chancellery of North 

Rhine-Westphalia, the Federal Government 

Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media 

and the FFA) and expounds upon detailed information and 

statistics regarding the current situation of German cinema. 

The workgroup’s thesis paper Filmwirtschaftliche 

Meinungsbildung zum Novellierungsbedarf des 

FFG is available from the FFA’s website at www.ffa.de 

under ”Publikationen“. 


Scene from "the days between" by Maria Speth

Fourth Annual Festival of 

German Cinema in London 

The fourth annual Festival of German Cinema in 

London (29 November – 6 December 2001) was once again 

met with great response at the London arthouse cinema, the 

Curzon Soho. Organized by the Export-Union in cooperation 

with the Goethe-Institute London, the program, including features, 

documentaries, the Next Generation 2001 shorts 

and a retrospective, presented a total of 30 German films to 

an enthusiastic British audience of young cinemagoers, journalists, 

buyers and distributors. 

Eight directors were on hand to personally present their films, 

including: Andres Veiel (Black Box Germany/Black 

Box BRD), Christian Petzold (The State I Am 

In/Die Innere Sicherheit), Esther Gronenborn 

(alaska.de), Branwen Okpako (Dirt for Dinner/ 

Dreckfresser), Jürgen Böttcher (A Place in 

Berlin/Konzert im Freien), Achim von Borries 

(England!), Hannes Stöhr (Berlin is in Germany) 

and Christoph Schuch (The Dream is Gone/Der 

Traum ist aus – Die Erben der Scherben). 

The program included: opening film The State I Am In, 

alaska.de, Berlin is in Germany, Franziska Buch’s 

Emil and the Detectives, the closing film England!, 



Oliver Hirschbiegel’s The Experiment, Heidi M. 

from Michael Klier, Girls on Top (Mädchen 

Mädchen) from Dennis Gansel, A Fine Day (Der 

schöne Tag) by Thomas Arslan, Sumo Bruno by 

Lenard Fritz Krawinkel, the documentaries Black Box 

Germany, Dear Fidel – Marita’s Story (Lieber 

Fidel – Maritas Geschichte) by Wilfried Huismann, 

Dirt for Dinner, A Place in Berlin, The Dream is 

Gone, the retrospective films Germany in Autumn 

(Deutschland im Herbst, a directorial collective by Alf 

Brustellin, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker 

Schlöndorff, Maximiliane Mainka, Edgar Reitz, 

Alexander Kluge, Katja Rupé, Bernhard Sinkel 

and others), Reinhard Hauff’s Stammheim and The 

Legends of Rita by Volker Schlöndorff, as well as the 

12 shorts in the Next Generation 2001 sidebar. 

After the festival in London, a selection of the program was 

shown in Edinburgh and Glasgow under the banner 

”German Films on Tour“. 

The event’s partners were the Federal Government 

Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media, the German 

Federal Film Board (FFA) as well as the six major regional film 

funds and the Goethe-Intstitute Inter Nationes. The 

festival was also sponsored in part by Erdinger Weißbier. 

www. 

german- 

cinema.de/ 


GERMAN 

CINEMA 


Sonnenstrasse 21 · D-80331 Munich · phone +49-89-5 99 78 7 0 · fax +49-89-59 97 87 30 · email: export-union@german-cinema.de 

27

Bibi Blocksberg 

Original Title Bibi Blocksberg Type of Project Feature Film 

Cinema Genre Children’s Film, Fantasy, Adventure Production 

Company Bavaria Filmverleih & Produktion, Munich, Kiddinx 

Filmproduktion, Berlin, in co-production with Gustav Ehmck 

Filmproduktion, Gräfelfing With backing from FilmFernseh- 

Fonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) Producers Uschi 

Reich, Karl Blatz Director Hermine Huntgeburth Screenplay 

Elfie Donnelly Director of Photography Martin Langer 

Editor Hansjörg Weißbrich Principal Cast Sidonie von 

Krosigk, Maximilian Befort, Katja Riemann, Corinna Harfouch, 

Ulrich Noethen Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Shooting 

Language German Shooting in Munich, Starnberg, Landshut, 

Deggendorf from October to December 2001 

Contact: 

Bavaria Filmverleih & Produktions GmbH 

Uschi Reich 

Bavariafilmplatz 7 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig 

phone +49-89-64 99 28 73 · fax +49-89-64 99 31 43 

email: filmverleih@bavaria-film.de 

Celebrations in Neustadt: young Bibi Blocksberg’s spontaneous 

outburst of witchcraft caused a sudden rainstorm and saved two 

children from a fiery death. Mother Barbara, a witch to the very 

core, is as proud of her daughter as any mother could be. But 

overworked, and stressed out, father Bernhard is less than 

impressed by his offspring’s supernatural escapades. 

Bibi then receives news from Chief Witch Walpurgia that for her 

services above and beyond the call of duty she’s been awarded 

the Crystal Ball, which will make her a full-fledged witch. Proudly, 

Bibi flies on her broomstick to the Blocksberg mountain. But Rabia 

(Corinna Harfouch), a particularly mean and nasty witch, is 

unwilling to see Bibi gain the honors. She swears not to rest 

until she has relieved Bibi of the precious jewel. 

The cheeky young witch Bibi Blocksberg has been taking 

German children’s bedrooms by storm for the past fifteen years. 

To date, her adventures have sold 33,152,880 audiotapes and 

1,578,039 animated videos. And at the end of October 2001, 

shooting began on the first live version. 

It was the popularity of producer Uschi Reich’s adaptations of 

Erich Kästner’s novels Annaluise and Anton and Emil and the 

28 

Sidonie von Krosigk (photo © 2001 Bavaria Film) 

Götz George, Kadir Sözen, Barbara-Magdalena Ahren 

(photo © Mark-Steffen Göwecke) 

Detectives that convinced rights holder Kiddinx that it is possible 

to produce successful children’s films in Germany. ”They didn’t 

believe at first that you could do a live version,“ says Reich. 

”I was hesitant at first“, says Kiddinx owner and chairman of the 

supervisory board, Karl Blatz, ”but then I saw the first results 

and they were magical.“ 

”The film is also incredibly well cast“, says Bibi’s creator and the 

film’s writer, Elfie Donnelly. ”The adults and children are just 

fantastic. There are also very many special effects, which is new 

for a German children’s film.“ 

Just twelve years old, Sidonie von Krosigk (Bibi Blocksberg) 

is already an acting veteran, while award-winning actress Katja 

Riemann (Barbara Blocksberg) is a star of German stage, 

television and cinema, as is Corinna Harfouch (Rabia), herself 

the recipient of numerous awards. 

For director Hermine Huntgeburth (cf. p. 15), Bibi 

Blocksberg was a step into the unknown which she found 

”incredibly interesting and exciting because you have to think in 

completely new ways for a children’s film. I’m so happy to be able 

to make a film for this audience.“ 

SK 

Gott ist tot 

Original Title Gott ist tot Type of Project Feature Film 

Cinema Genre Social Drama Production Company 

Filmfabrik, Cologne With backing from BKM, Filmstiftung 

NRW Producer/Director/Screenplay Kadir Sözen 

Director of Photography Axel Block Editor Mevlüt Kocak 

Music by Uwe Buschkötter Principal Cast Götz George, 

Markus Knüfken, Bastian Trost, Andreas Guenther, Barbara- 

Magdalena Ahren Format 35 mm, color, cs Shooting 

Language German Shooting in Cologne, October- 

November 2001 

Contact : 

Filmfabrik Fernsehproduktion GmbH 

Stella Yesiltac 

Greesbergstr. 5 · D-50668 Cologne 

phone +49-2 21-9 34 76 70 · fax +49-2 21-9 34 76 71 

email: info@filmfabrik.net 


Some films are driven by effects, others by action. Kadir 

Sözen’s Gott ist tot (translation ”God is Dead“) is character 

driven. 

Götz George plays the unemployed Heinrich Lutter, who lives 

with his sons, ex-convict Mike (Markus Knüfken) and handicapped-from-birth 

Günni (Bastian Trost). 

Heinrich’s pride and joy is his motor-home. It symbolizes his 

hopes for freedom and a better life in Italy; hopes which receive a 

major blow when it’s impounded by the authorities. Undeterred, 

Heinrich is determined to stand up for his rights and fulfill his 

ambitions, the honest way. 

Mike sees things completely differently and his criminal schemes 

only serve to put the tentative attempts at reconciliation between 

father and son to a hard test. 

”The film shows the protagonists’ poverty,“ says writer-producerdirector 

Sözen. ”I don’t mean their financial poverty, but more 

their emotional poverty. Underscoring and emphasizing this are 

moments of wild amusement and scenes of triumphant selfproclamation. 

The film is intended to provoke social criticism.“ 

Gott ist tot is a story about home (as in where the heart is) 

and lack of orientation, social coldness and emotion. 

Visually, Sözen has opted for a documentary-style narrative 

(”The camera works close up to the protagonists but still allows 

them room to breathe,“ he says) but not at the expense of what 

he calls ”poetical pictures.“ 

Götz George’s filmography embraces the best of late twentieth 

century German filmmaking. His credits include Schtonk! (1992, 

Helmut Dietl), The Deathmaker (Der Totmacher, 

1995, Romuald Karmakar), Rossini (1997, Helmut 

Dietl), Solo for Clarinet (Solo für Klarinette, 1998, 

Nico Hofmann), and After The Truth (Roland Suso 

Richter). 

Markus Knüfken has featured in Knockin’ on Heaven’s 

Door (1996, Thomas Jahn), Bang Boom Bang – A Sure 

Thing (1998, Peter Thorwarth) while Bastian Trost’s 

credits include Aimée & Jaguar (1997, Max Färberböck) 

and After The Truth (also with Götz George). 

Kadir Sözen was born in Turkey in 1964 and came to Germany 

in 1969. He later studied Economics and worked as a freelance 

journalist. His debut film, Freezing Nights, won five of the 

eight awards at the Adana Film Festival in 1995. His second film, 

Winterflower (1996), has played in festivals around the world, 

winning awards in Spain, Turkey and Portugal. 

Harte Brötchen 

Original Title Harte Brötchen Type of Project TV-movie 

Genre Romantic Comedy Production Company teamWorx 

Produktion für Kino und Fernsehen, Munich, for Bayerischer 

Rundfunk, Munich With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, 

FilmFernsehFonds Bayern Producer Bettina Reitz Director 

Tim Trageser Screenplay Sylvia Leuker Director of 

Photography Eckhard Jansen Editor Anja Pohl Principal 

Cast Katharina Thalbach, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Herbert Knaup, 

Anna Thalbach Format Super 16 mm, color, 1:1.66 Shooting 

Language German Shooting in Oberhausen and surrounding 

area in October and November 2001 


SK 

Katharina Thalbach, Herbert Knaup (photo © teamWorx) 

in production 

Contact: 

teamWorx Produktion für Kino und 

Fernsehen GmbH · Christine Gadocha 

Widenmayerstr. 16 · D-80538 Munich 

phone +49-89-2 42 87 81 26 · fax +49-89-2 42 87 81 10 

www.teamworx.de 

email: christine.gadocha@teamworx.de 

A small shop, a secret recipe for meatballs and an angel trying to 

earn his wings; the perfect ingredients for a star-studded romantic 

comedy. 

Slap in the middle of a rundown industrial area stands the rundown 

shop belonging to Christa (Katharina Thalbach) and 

husband Theo (Uwe Ochsenknecht). For them and their few 

regular customers, especially Theo’s buddies, it’s a home away 

from home. Business is bad. Not that it was ever any better. 

Everybody’s broke and Theo has been more than very generous 

in extending his friends credit. 

When Theo suddenly dies, Christa’s left with a mountain of 

debts, her tyrannical mother and two daughters, Sonja (Anna 

Thalbach) and Dany (Regine Zimmermann), who really 

don’t want to know; one’s busy flying around the world, the other 

just wants an unpaid babysitter. And if that wasn’t enough, no 

sooner is Theo safely six feet under than he’s back – as an angel 

without his wings! They’ll grow only if he can make Christa happy. 

That’s a tall order because he certainly failed while he was alive. 

But Theo has an idea – the recipe for the best meatballs in the 

district should bring the customers flocking and the money pouring 

in. The perfect plan, if Christa wasn’t a committed vegetarian. 

And when she falls in love with teacher and pigeon-fancier Jörg 

(Herbert Knaup), it looks like the deal’s over. 

A humorous and affectionate hommage to the people and the 

area of the Ruhr, Germany’s industrial heartland, Harte 

Brötchen (translates as ”Stale Rolls“) features Katharina 

Thalbach (from Sun Alley and The Manns) and Uwe 

Ochsenknecht, who won a German Television Award 2001 for 

his performance in the TV two-part society scandal-murder story, 

Vera Brühne. Also appearing is Anna Thalbach, who has 

also won a German Television Award 2001 for an episode of the 

famed crime series Tatort. 

Sylvia Leuker wrote the script as part of the Bavarian Film 

Center’s First Movie Program, while director Tim 

Trageser is a second-place winner of the 2001 Studio Hamburg 

Newcomer’s Award for his debut film, Clowns. Director of photography 

Eckhard Jansen’s previous credits include Clowns and 

Peter Thorwarth’s Bang Boom Bang – A Sure Thing. 

Harte Brötchen is a co-production of teamWorx and 

Bayerischer Rundfunk (resp. Dr. Gabriela Sperl, 

Brigitte Schroedter) for the public broadcaster ARD. 

29 

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Heimat 3 

Original Title Heimat 3 Type of Project TV-series 

Genre Family Saga Production Company ERF Edgar Reitz 

Filmproduktion, Munich, in co-production with ARD/SWR, 

Baden-Baden, Arri Cine Technik, Munich Producer Robert 

Busch Director Edgar Reitz Screenplay Edgar Reitz, Thomas 

Brussig Director of Photography Thomas Mauch 

Principal Cast Henry Arnold, Salome Kammer, Matthias 

Kniesbeck, Michael Kausch Length 6 x 89 min Format 35 mm, 

color and b&w, Dolby Stereo Shooting Language German 

Shooting in Rhineland-Pfalz, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, 

Cologne, Heidelberg, Rome, Amsterdam in 2002-2003 

(18 calendar months) 

World Sales: 

ARRI Media Worldsales · Antonio Exacoustos jun. 

Türkenstr. 89 · D-80799 Munich 

phone +49-89-38 09 12 88 · fax +49-89-38 09 16 19 

www.arri-mediaworldsales.de · www.heimat3.de 

email: aexacoustos@arri.de 

The two film cycles, Heimat and Heimat 2, are recognized 

milestones in the history of television. This is largely due to the 

literary character of their narratives and their concentration on 

people. The characters in this epic story of a total of 42 hours 

duration are more than mere cinematic fictions. Their realism and 

involvement in historical events have led them to being compared 

with the great characters of world literature. 

Italy’s Corriere della Sera ranked Heimat and Heimat 2 among 

the greatest achievements of European cinema. The New York 

Times included them among the best of world television. To enter 

into their inner world and become caught up in the current of 

their narrative is to become addicted. 

30 

Edgar Reitz 

The Heimat-cycles have been shown in every part of the world 

and have given people a new sense of the links between their 

lives and the course of history. The German word Heimat has 

become familiar throughout the world. Rarely has a film so firmly 

secured its landscape and people in the hearts of its audience. 

The Hunsrück and the valleys of the Rhine, Moselle and Nahe 

have become symbols of heritage, change and return. The film’s 

locations continue to lure tourists from different lands who want 

to see where the Simon family lived, who often feel they are as 

real as members of their own families. 

Heimat 3 is not only the third part of the Heimat-trilogy, but 

also a narrative inventory of the century in its final decade. Its 

inner theme is one of endings and beginnings. It is a tragicomic 

film, telling of the spirit of renewal of the early 1990s, recording 

how what began as German dreams became less and less 

German, losing themselves instead in global immensity. 

Says co-author Thomas Brussig, ”The Heimat-cycle aims to 

be close to people without becoming patronizing. It is artistic without 

cutting itself off in an elitist way from the general public.“ 

For co-author and director Edgar Reitz, ”storytelling has its 

origins in personal recollection. The way to people’s hearts is 

through my own soul.“ And the Heimat-cycle reaches both 

heart and soul. 

Junimond 

Original Title Junimond Type of Project Feature film 

Genre Tragicomedy, Love Story Production Company Road 

Movies Filmproduktion, Berlin, in co-production with WDR, 

Cologne With backing from Filmstiftung NRW Producers 

Ulrich Felsberg, Ute Schneider Patron Wim Wenders 

Director/Screenplay Hanno Hackfort Director of 

Photography Frank Grunert Principal Cast Laura Tonke, 

Oliver Mommsen, Teresa Harder, Stephan Kampwirth Format 

24p Sony Cinealta, color, 16:9 Shooting Language German 

Shooting in Paderborn and surroundings in November & 

December 2001 

Contact: 

Road Movies Filmproduktion GmbH 

Clausewitzstr. 4 · D-10623 Berlin 

phone +49-30-8 80 48 60 · fax +49-30-88 04 86 11 

www.road-movies.de · email: office@road-movies.de 

A year after launching its ”Radikal digital“ initiative together 

with WDR and Filmstiftung NRW, Road Movies began 

shooting the first of the selected projects this winter in and 

around the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Paderborn. 

”The special character of this initiative is that it is a package of five 

films which are all being shot with digital camera systems“, explains 

Road Movies head of development Ute Schneider, ”in the 

case of Junimond, we are working with the Sony 24p Cinealta 

camera. This film is a very intimate, tragicomic love story which is 

very suited to being produced with digital cameras”. 

Junimond will be director Hanno Hackfort’s feature debut 

after he made a couple of shorts and worked in the theater and as 

a sound engineer; it is also his first hands-on experience with 

state-of-the-art digital technology. ”The cameraman Frank 

Grunert has had some experience with the HD camera, but the 


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idea of ”Radikal digital” is that the young creative talents are 

acquainted for the first time with this technology”, Schneider 

declares. 

Junimond centers on Paul who is constantly trying to escape his 

past and some traumatic experiences he had as a KFOR soldier in 

Kosovo. He arrives in the small town of Paderborn from Berlin 

and becomes acquainted at a distance with a young woman, Nele, 

in his street. Gradually, something like trust and friendship develops 

between the two and they begin to open up to each other 

more and more. But a relationship is out of the question for both 

of them as they believe that the beginning of a love affair is always 

the beginning of a painful ending. However, it is obvious to any 

outside observer that they are in love with one another. It is only 

when Paul is diagnosed with a terminal illness that the two at last 

admit to their feelings for one another. 

Die Madonna 

von Vlatodon 

Original Title Die Madonna von Vlatodon (working title) 

English Title The Madonna of Vlatodon (working title) 

Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama 

Production Company Confine Film, Munich, in co-production 

with ARRI, Munich, Cinecam, Munich, Academy of Television & 

Film (HFF/M), Munich With backing from FilmFernsehFonds 

Bayern, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film Producer/ 

Director/Screenplay/Editor Mirjam Kubescha Directors 

of Photography Pawel Sobcyk, Eric van den Brulle Principal 

Cast Monika Bleibtreu, Maria Cordoni, Martin Glade Casting 

Franziska Aigner Kuhn, C.A.T., Munich Format Super 35 mm, 

color, cs, Dolby Digital Shooting Language Greek, German 

Shooting in Munich, Simbach and Greece in August and 

September 2001 

Contact: 

Confine Film · Mirjam Kubescha 

Bayerisches Filmzentrum Geiselgasteig 


phone +49-89-64 98 10 · fax +49-89-64 98 11 00 

email: Bavaria-International@bavaria-film.de 


Laura Tonke, Oliver Mommsen (photo © Road Movies) 

MB 

Mirjam Kubescha (photo © Eric van den Brulle) in 

production 

The idea for Mirjam Kubescha’s fourth film The Madonna 

of Vlatodon came to her when she was standing in front of one 

of Andrei Rublev’s icons in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. 

Originally, she had planned the film to be a short exercise during 

her studies at the Academy of Television & Film in Munich, but 

then the project was put on the back burner when another two 

films took precedent. However, Kubescha doesn’t regret the 

delay because it gave the film ”time for the story to mature and 

formally to profit from subsequent experiences“. 

The film follows the day in the life of an elderly museum guide and 

travels back in time through flashbacks to see her as a young 

Greek woman falling in love with a handsome German seaman 

and then following him back to his homeland. 

As Kubescha recalls, the production was not without its own 

little dramas: shooting had to be brought forward a month because 

of other commitments of lead actress Monika Bleibtreu, 

and then her cameraman Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein – 

with whom she had worked on Ecce Homo – was involved in a 

helicopter crash just ten days before principal photography was 

supposed to start. 

With just six days to go and still no replacement, she decided to 

fulfill a long-held desire to work with an East European director of 

photography and made contact with the 28-year-old Pole Pawel 

Sobcyk via film students in Moscow and Warsaw. ”It was spot 

on because Pawel was in a similar period of his development as 

far as content was concerned. He wanted to put aesthetic demands 

into the background in favor of more honesty“, she says. 

Together with the New York photographer and independent 

filmmaker Eric van den Brulle, whom Kubescha had met at 

the Munich Film Festival, Sobcyk formed ”a great East-West 

team“, the young director explains. ”They complemented each 

other and me in such a way that this shooting certainly represents 

the most exciting and perhaps also most fruitful experience to 

date“. 

MB 

31

Nackt 

Original Title Nackt (working title) English Title Happy 

Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama 

Production Company Constantin Film Produktion, Munich, 

Fanes Film, Munich, in co-production with Megaherz Film & 

Fernsehen, Munich With backing from Filmförderungsanstalt 

(FFA), FilmFernsehFonds Bayern Producer Norbert Preuss 

Director/Screenplay Doris Dörrie, based on her novel 

Happy – Ein Drama Director of Photography Frank Griebe 

Editor Inez Regnier Principal Cast Heike Makatsch, Benno 

Fürmann, Alexandra Maria Lara, Jürgen Vogel, Nina Hoss, Mehmet 

Kurtulus Format Super 35 Triple Perf, color, Dolby SR/SRD, cs 

Shooting Language German Shooting in Munich and Berlin 

from October to December 2001 German Distributor 

Constantin Film Verleih GmbH, Munich 

Contact: 

Fanes Film GmbH · Norbert Preuss 

Elizabethstr. 50 · D-80796 Munich 

phone +49-89-2 72 56 11 · fax +49-89-2 72 22 62 

www.fanes-film.fnw.de · email: fanesfilm@csi.com 

Would you be able to recognize your partner with eyes blindfolded 

just by the sense of touch? Are you really sure that you 

would pick ”the right one“? Or would there be a nasty surprise? 

In Doris Dörrie’s latest feature film Nackt (working title), 

what begins as a party game between three couples at a dinner 

party takes on a whole new dimension as façades are gradually 

torn down, real feelings come to fore, and none of the relationships 

will ever be the same again. 

The Euro 3.4 million co-production between Constantin Film, 

Fanes Film and Megaherz is based on Dörrie’s latest novel 

Happy – Ein Drama, which appeared last autumn, and features 

some of the most exciting young acting talent to come out of 

Germany for a while. 

Heike Makatsch (who appeared in Late Night Shopping 

at the Berlinale last year) and Benno Fürmann (The 

32 

Scene from the set of ”Nackt“ (photo © Constantin Film) 

Princess and The Warrior/Der Krieger und die 

Kaiserin) play Emilia and Felix who recently split up and are still 

coming to terms with the new situation, while Alexandra 

Maria Lara (from Crazy) and Jürgen Vogel (from Sass) 

are cast as Annette and Boris who are taking great pains to hold 

on to their happiness together … although a bit more money 

coming in would not go amiss. 

Finally, the round is completed by party hosts Charlotte and Dylan 

(played by Nina Hoss from Toter Mann and Mehmet 

Kurtulus from The Tunnel) who may be the most attractive 

and successful couple on the block, but are not without their own 

little crises. 

As usual with Dörrie, one can expect to be treated to witty and 

achingly true-to-life dialogues as the couples discuss their relationships, 

daily lives, and personal ideas about love, happiness and sex. 

And Nackt promises to be a real ensemble piece where the 

actors’ performances are very much to the fore. 

Das Netz 

Original Title Das Netz English Title The Net Type of 

Project Feature Film Cinema, with TV-version Genre 

Documentary Production Company LUTZ DAMMBECK 

FILMPRODUKTION, Hamburg, in co-production with SWR 

(Martina Zöllner), Baden-Baden, ARTE, Strasbourg With 

backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg, Filmboard Berlin- 

Brandenburg, Filmförderung Sachsen, Filmförderung Mecklenburg- 

Vorpommern, Filmbüro NW, MFG Baden-Württemberg 

Producer/Director/Screenplay Lutz Dammbeck 

Directors of Photography Thomas Plenert, Eberhard Geick 

Editor Margot Neubert Music by J.U. Lensing Principal 

Cast Nam June Paik, Stewart Brand, Marvin Minsky, Heinz von 

Foerster, John Perry Barlow, Hans Haacke, Bob Taylor, John 

Brockmann & others Format Super 16 mm & DigiBeta, color, 

blow up to 35 mm Shooting Language German, English 

Shooting in Hamburg, Berlin, Karlsruhe, Vienna, San Francisco, 

Pescadero, Los Angeles, San Jose, Boston, New Haven, New York 

from March through June 2002 

Contact: 

LUTZ DAMMBECK FILMPRODUKTION 

Lutz Dammbeck 

Lornsenplatz 11 · D-22767 Hamburg 

phone +49-40-4 39 73 45 · fax +49-40-4 30 27 14 

email: lutz.dammbeck@hamburg.de 

At any given second, millions of people are making their way 

through cyberspace, navigating the paths of the Internet without a 

second thought, walking the virtual corridors of knowledge and 

information with consummate ease. 

From its origins in the 1960s, its birthright the ethos of hippies, 

anti-Vietnam War protest and Free Love then permeating the 

laboratories of Stanford and MIT, and Cold War contracts from 

the Department of Defense, how did it all now come together? 

”The film is an investigation and reflection on the history of the 

Net,“ says Lutz Dammbeck, the man behind the project. 

”It looks at current developments in this digital and scientific 

revolution, computer development, data processing and the 

communications media, where images of a new world are being 

drawn.“ 


MB

Dammbeck also looks at the biographies, experiences and 

aims of the Net’s important agents, the cyber elite. His particular 

interest is ”the role of the spirit of the ’60s, in the run-up to the 

realization of the first technical networks like the Arpanet.“ 

Also under examination is the significance of modern art of the 

1960s and its concepts of interactivity and networking. The Net 

investigates the role and significance of philosophy, and, says 

Dammbeck, ”the walk between art, science and defense.“ 

His choice is personal, his inspiration that of cultural criticism, not 

journalism. 

”I’m particularly interested in the latest developments in the field 

of computer-business and ideas concerning new economic forms, 

the free flow of ideas in the Net,“ he says, ”and the previous 

notions of intellectual property, copyright, value, ownership which 

are being thrown into question by the Internet.“ 

How can the invisible aspects of these processes be made visible? 

What is the Net? Is it possible to touch it, see it, switch it on and 

off at will? Who operates it? Who does it belong to? Where is it, 

or its individual components, situated? 

In order to find out, award-winning documentary maker 

Dammbeck escapes the advertising world of virtuality and 

employs concepts and images from the pre-net period. Located 

between those who commercialize the Net and the intellectuals’ 

euphoria or cultural pessimism stands the silent power of the 

engineers. Their voice is also heard. 

SK 

Poem 

Original Title Poem Type of Project Feature Film Cinema 

Genre Drama Production Company trigger happy productions, 

Berlin, in co-production with @radical media, New York 

Producers Eva Meier-Schönung, Ralf Schmerberg, Ray Cooper, 

Jon Kamen Director Ralf Schmerberg Screenplay Ralf 

Schmerberg, Antonia Keinz Directors of Photography 

Darius Khondji, Robby Müller, Franz Lustig, Ali Gözkaya, Nicola 

Pecorini, Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein, Daniel Gottschalk, Jo Molitoris, 

Ralf Schmerberg Editors Rick Waller, Elena Bromund Principal 

Cast Klaus Maria Brandauer, Luise Rainer, Meret Becker, Jürgen 

Vogel, David Bennent, Hermann van Veen, Smudo Format 

35 mm, color, 1.1:85 Shooting Language German Shooting 

in Germany, Spain, USA, Vietnam, Nepal and Iceland from April 

2000 to December 2001 


First draft of a decentralized computer net by Paul Baran, 1963 

(Source: Computer Museum History Center) 

in production 

Contact: 

ZOOM MEDIENFABRIK · Julia Kainz 

Schillerstr. 94 · D-10625 Berlin 

phone +49-30-31 50 68 68 · fax +49-30-31 50 68 58 

www.zoommedienfabrik.de 

email: office@zoommedienfabrik.de 

Production wrapped at the end of 2001 on Ralf Schmerberg’s 

Poem, an unusually ambitious film project which had traveled all 

over the globe during the last two years to find appropriate settings 

for the visual realization of 24 poems by such writers as 

diverse as Paul Celan, Heinrich Heine, Hermann Hesse, Hans Arp 

and Heiner Müller. 

David Bennent, who came to international recognition over 

20 years ago as ”Oskar Matzerath“ in The Tin Drum, was chosen 

to recite Georg Trakl’s Das Morgenlied, while Hermann van 

Veen traveled to the East German island of Usedom for Sophie 

by Hans Arp, and Meret Becker gave a performance of 

Mascha Kaléko’s Sozusagen grundlos vergnügt in Berlin’s Hebbel 

Theater. 

For another episode, director Schmerberg succeeded in persuading 

Luise Rainer, the ”grande dame“ of German cinema 

from the 1930s, to come to Berlin for a recital of Goethe’s Gesang 

der Geister über den Wassern, while Austrian actor-director Klaus 

Maria Brandauer was picked for Heine’s Der Schiffbrüchige. 

Other poems were transferred to the screen with the aid of 

artists from the worlds of dance and music as well as non-professionals. 

The eclectic choice of poems was also reflected in the film’s 

locations – from the Himalayas through Brazil and the Easter processions 

in Spain to Germany’s new capital - as well as in the technical 

formats deployed, whether it be Super 8, 16 mm, 35 mm or 

digital video. Moreover, Schmerberg’s project attracted such 

international cinematographers ranging from Darius Khondji 

(Seven) through Robby Müller (Breaking The Waves) 

to Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein (Woyzeck) taking on individual 

episodes. 

Before beginning work on Poem, director Ralf Schmerberg, 

who discovered the medium of film in 1994 after having initially 

worked as a photographer, had made an international name for 

himself as a director of commercials for such companies as Nike, 

Mastercard, Afri Cola and HypoVereinsbank as well as music 

videos for artists like Die Toten Hosen, Die Fantastischen Vier and 

Chaka Khan. 

MB 

Meret Becker (photo © Stephan Vens/trigger happy productions) 

33

Usedomer Maler 

Original Title Usedomer Maler (working title) Type of 

Project Feature Film Cinema, plus TV-version Genre 

Documentary Production Company Kruschke Film- und 

Fernsehproduktion, Berlin, in co-production with artia nova, 

Hanover, in cooperation with NDR, Hamburg, SWR, Stuttgart 

With backing from Filmförderung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 

Producer Herbert Kruschke Director/Screenplay Heinz 

Brinkmann Director of Photography Hartmut Schulz 

Editor Karin Schöning Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.33 

Shooting Language German Shooting in Usedom, Berlin, 

February through December 2002 German Distributor 

Progress Film-Verleih GmbH, Berlin 

Contact: 

Kuschke Film- und Fernsehproduktion 

Herbert Kruschke 

Burgstr. 27 · D-10178 Berlin 

Phone +49-30-24 72 03 03 · fax +49-30-24 72 03 04 

email: KruschkeFilm@t-online.de 

The Baltic Sea island of Usedom exercises a physical and metaphysical 

attraction for Germans like few other parts of the country. 

With its unique stretches of unspoiled beaches, its extensive 

tracts of forests and rolling fields, not to say thriving communities 

based around the various inlets, it has been, and still is, an irresistible 

magnet for artists, exercising an appeal on the soul. 

In the 1920s, the island was known as the ”Badewanne von Berlin“ 

(”The Bathtub of Berlin“) after the Kaiser decided it was the perfect 

place to unpack the imperial swimming trunks and enjoy the, 

sometimes bracing, onshore breeze. Today, it is still an extremely 

popular holiday and weekend destination. 

Usedomer Maler (literally, “Usedom Artists”, as in painters) is 

a film by Heinz Brinkmann (script, direction), who was born 

on the island and still resides there. The central theme of his film 

is an examination of the question why so many artists have fallen 

under the island’s spell and become so attached to it. 

Otto Niemeyer-Holstein and Lyonel Feininger are perhaps the 

most important representatives of an illustrious, provocative and 

politically very mixed group of painters and artists who, since the 

1930s, have become inseparable from the island of Usedom. The 

film shows how they, and others, both captivated and horrified 

the locals with their art and antics. 

34 

Heinz Brinkmann 

Among other famous personalities who made Usedom home 

away from home are Heinrich Mann, Victor Klemperer, Maxim 

Gorki and Hans W. Richter. Contemporary residents include Wolf 

Biermann, Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler and the documentarist and 

painter Jürgen Böttcher, also known as ”Strawalde“. 

”Generally speaking, it is not easy for an artistically ambitious 

documentary to gain theatrical distribution or a broadcast slot," 

says award-winning producer Herbert Kruschke (among 

several, German Film Award for Verrieglte Zeit, 1991, director 

Sybelle Schönemann). "This is a genre which is often neglected 

and shouldn’t be. 

”The author (Heinz Brinkmann) has a special relationship 

with the landscape and the art it inspires and I was immediately 

interested in the project. "We are aiming the film at a small, specialized, 

audience which appreciates quality content and narrative.“ 

Weihnachten 

Original Title Weihnachten Type of Project Feature Film 

Cinema Genre Drama Production Company BojeBuck 

Produktion, Berlin, in co-production with Langfilm, Zurich, and 

WDR, Cologne With backing from Filmstiftung NRW 

Producers Claus Boje, Detlev W. Buck, Bernhard Lang 

Director Marc-Andreas Bochert Screenplay Michael 

Lewinsky Director of Photography Eva Fleig Editor 

Antonia Bergmiller-Fenn Music by Michael Schenk 

Principal Cast Fabian Busch, Eva Mende, Traute Hoess, Eva 

Hassmann, Katharina Schüttler, Harald Koch Format Super 

16 mm, color Shooting Language German Shooting in 

Cologne in November and December 2001 

Contact: 

BojeBuck Produktion GmbH 

Kurfürstendamm 225 · D-10117 Berlin 

phone +49-30-8 85 97 40 · fax +49-30-88 59 74 15 

www.bojebuck.de · email: info@bojebuck.de 

Shooting wrapped appropriately just before Christmas on Marc- 

Andreas Bochert’s first feature-length film Weihnachten, 

which was originally developed by screenwriter Michael 

Lewinsky for Swiss producer Bernhard Lang. 

”They then participated in the script development program "Step 

by Step" and looked for a German co-producer – which is where 

we came in and then brought on WDR and Marc-Andreas“, 

recalls Claus Boje of the Berlin-based production outfit 

Boje Buck Produktion, whose credits include Jailbirds 

(Männerpension), Sun Alley (Sonnenallee) and 

Conamara. 

”While developing the project we didn’t plan from the outset that 

the film would be a cinema release but aimed it budget-wise more 

in the realm of television“, he continues. ”Our Swiss partner 

Bernhard Lang will definitely release the film in the cinemas 

since the markets in Switzerland and Germany are quite different 

as far as the distribution of quality films are concerned. Here we 

have an option and the Filmstiftung NRW and WDR are 

both prepared to let the film be released theatrically if it looks to 

make sense“. 

”Weihnachten is about Christmas, about the way of celebrating 

Christmas Eve“, Boje explains. ”In the Western world, it is 

really the only day to which one must react in some kind of way, 

where you can’t simply say: let’s take the day off or organize a 


SK

party. That day always has something to do with the family, being 

one of reflection, where do I come from, what kind of importance 

do I have, what importance do I have for others?" 

In this tale, which was shot in "studio" conditions in a newly 

renovated house in Cologne, the action centers on five different 

apartment dwellers or couples and shows how their lives are 

interwoven. 

Bochert came to wider international recognition last year with 

his graduation film, Small Change (Kleingeld), from the 

”Konrad Wolf“ Academy for Film & Television in Babelsberg, 

which won the Foreign Student Oscar in 1999 and was nominated in 

the live-action short film category for the Academy Awards in 2000. 

Zersetzung 

der Seele 

Original Title Zersetzung der Seele English Title The 

Decomposition of the Soul Type of Project Feature Film 

Cinema Genre Documentary Production Company 

Lichtfilm, Cologne, in co-production with Image Creation, 

Brussels, RTBF, Brussels, CAB, Brussels, NDR, Hamburg, ARTE, 

Strasbourg With backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg, 

Communauté Française Producers Wolfgang Bergmann, 

Martine Barbé Directors/Screenplay Nina Toussaint, 

Massimo Iannetta Director of Photography Raymond 

Froment Editor Sandrine Deegen Format Super 16 mm, 

80 min Shooting Language German Shooting in Berlin, 

Magdeburg and Nuremberg from January 2002 

Contact: 

Lichtfilm · Wolfgang Bergmann 

Kasparstr. 26 · D-50670 Cologne 

phone +49-2 21-9 72 65 17 · fax +49-2 21-9 72 65 18 

www.lichtfilm.de · email: info@lichtfilm.de 

”The operative’s psychology is to be besieged using procedural 

processes, interrogation and prior intelligence, so as to penetrate 


Eva Hassmann (photo © BojeBuck) 

MB 

Scene from "The Decomposition of the Soul" (photo © Lichtfilm) 

in production 

the enemy’s inner workings. In this way, knowledge is gained 

regarding the thoughts, feelings, behavior patterns and psychological 

traits of the adversary, which may provide precious keys in his 

dismantling and liquidation, in gaining influence over him, and in his 

decomposition and recruitment …“ – a brief extract from the chillingly 

brutal working guidelines for the staff who worked at the 

central preventive prison for political prisoners of the Ministry for 

State Security (the STASI) in Berlin’s Hohenschönhausen district 

under the former repressive East German regime. 

However, this prison – the subject of Nina Toussaint and 

Massimo Iannetta’s documentary The Decomposition 

of the Soul – was no ordinary detention center. The building – 

which never figured on maps of East Berlin and which, today, still 

bears the marks of Germany’s recent past (Nazism, the Soviet 

occupation and the Communist dictatorship) – has the sinister 

distinction of possessing as many interrogation rooms as detention 

cells. Its topology and organization betray its true function – a 

huge interrogation center, a veritable laboratory of psychological 

destruction. It is a symbol of the ex-German Democratic Republic 

(GDR)’s general system of repression: a place dedicated and 

devoted to the art of ”operative decomposition“. 

As the filmmakers explain, the arrest of a suspected enemy of the 

state was ”of course, part of the procedural process. It may be 

limited to intimidation, or lead to an ”investigation“ with graver 

consequences: permanent preventative detention, repeated interrogations, 

total isolation, the semblance of a trial, heavy sentences, 

the impossibility of social and professional reinsertion, harm 

inflicted upon loved ones, stripping of nationality and expulsion 

from the country, incitement to suicide, or even thinly disguised 

murder“. 

Part of the detention center’s buildings have now been taken over 

by offices and shops, but a STASI museum was opened there to 

inform about the inhumanity of the GDR’s state security system, 

and in October 2001, the Free Democratic Party tabled a motion 

to the Bundestag calling for the Hohenschönhausen detention 

center to be preserved as a permanent memory to the second 

dictatorship under the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)’s 

regime alongside the STASI headquarters in Normannenstrassee 

and the Berlin Wall memorial at Bernauer Strasse. 

MB 

35

THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 18 

Unter den Brücken 

UNDER THE BRIDGES 

Hendrik and Willi are the owners and crew of a canal barge. They travel up and down the Havel River, have 

girlfriends here and there, and dream of a ”solid“ life. One evening they observe a young girl, Anna, who is 

apparently about to jump off a bridge. They both run to save her, but are ”disappointed“ to find out that she 

only threw a ten mark note into the river in hopes of ridding herself of a bad memory. Anna is persuaded to 

travel back to Berlin as a ”passenger“ with them, and the two friends soon fall in love with her. After an 

insulting comment from Willi, Anna leaves the boat, and the two men make an agreement with one another: 

whoever wins Anna back must forfeit his claim to the barge. Feeling sure of himself, Willi goes on land and 

looks after her. However, he soon realizes that she is in love with Hendrik, and is honest enough to confess 

this realization to his friend. But his friendship with Hendrik is more important to him than their agreement, 

and so the three start a new life on board the barge, all together. 

Genre Drama, Love Story Category Feature 

Film Cinema Year of Production 1944/45 

Director Helmut Käutner Screenplay Walter 

Ulbrich, Helmut Käutner Director of Photography 

Igor Oberberg Editor Wolfgang Wehrum 

Music by Bernhard Eichhorn Production 

Design Anton Weber, Herbert Kirchhoff 

Producer Walter Ulbrich Production 

Company Ufa-Filmkunst, Berlin Principal Cast 

Hannelore Schroth, Carl Raddatz, Gustav Knuth, 

Ursula Grabley, Margarete Haagen, Hildegard Knef, 

Erich Dunskus, Walter Groß Length 92 min, 

2517 m Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37 Original 

Version German Subtitled Versions Arabic, 

English, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, 

Portuguese, Spanish Sound Technology Mono 

German Distributor Friedrich-Wilhelm- 

Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden 

World Sales: 

Transit Film GmbH · Loy W. Arnold, Mark Grünthal 

Dachauer Str. 35 · D-80335 Munich 

phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax +49-89-59 98 85 20 

email: transitfilm@compuserve.com 

Helmut Käutner was born in 1908 in Düsseldorf and died in 1980 

in Italy. He studied German, Art History, Philosophy, Psychology and 

Theater Studies. He was one of the founding members of the cabaret 

group ”Die vier Nachrichter“, which was banned in 1935. Originally 

working in the theater as an actor and director, he began his film work 

as a scriptwriter. His directorial debut was with the film Kitty and 

the World Conference (Kitty und die Weltkonferenz, 

1939), but the film was withdrawn due to its ”pro-English tendencies“. 

His other films include: Kleider machen Leute (1940), Auf 

Wiedersehen, Franziska! (1941), Anuschka (1942), 

Romance in a Minor Key (Romanze in Moll, 1943), Great 

Freedom No. 7 (Große Freiheit Nr. 7, 1944), The Original 

Sin (Der Apfel is ab, 1948), The Last Bridge (Die letzte 

Brücke, 1953) – winner of a German Film Award in 1954, Sky 

Without Stars (Himmel ohne Sterne, 1955), The Devil’s 

General (Des Teufels General, 1955), The Captain of 

Köpenik (Der Hauptmann von Köpenik, 1956) - winner of 

two German Film Awards in 1957, The Affairs of Julie (Die 

Zürcher Verlobung, 1957), The Restless Years (Zu jung, 

1958), Stranger in My Arms (Ein Fremder in meinen 

Armen, 1959), Lausbubengeschichten (1964), Die 

Feuerzangenbowle (1970) and many, many more. 

36 Kino 1/2002 

Scene from ”Under the Bridges“ (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek)

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Teil 1) 

SIEGFRIED (PART 1) 

Scene from "Siegfried" (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek) 

Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of the Nibelungen, is apprenticed to a blacksmith, who helps him forge a 

special sword. He then sets off to the court of King Gunther of Worms, seeking the hand of Gunther’s 

beautiful young sister, Princess Kriemhild. On the way to Worms, Siegfried encounters and slays a dragon 

and bathes in its blood. He also defeats Alberich, the dwarf Lord Treasurer to the Nibelungen dynasty, and 

captures the Nibelungen treasure. 

Upon arrival at the castle of King Gunther, Siegfried is opposed by Gunther’s half-brother Hagan, who is 

jealous of the young and handsome Siegfried. In order to win Kriemhild’s hand in marriage, Siegfried must 

help Gunther in likewise winning the hand of Brunhild. Later, during an encounter with Kriemhild, 

Brunhild learns how Siegfried and Gunther had deceived her and orders for Siegfried to be killed. Hagan 

kills the young hero and Kriemhild vows revenge … 

Genre Drama, Fantasy Category Feature Film Cinema 

Year of Production 1922-24 Director Fritz Lang 

Screenplay Thea von Harbou Directors of 

Photography Carl Hoffmann, Günther Rittau Music 

by Gottfried Huppertz (1924), Konrad Elfers (1965) 

Production Design Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, Karl 

Vollbrecht Producer Erich Pommer Production 

Company Decla-Bioscop, Berlin Principal Cast Paul 

Richter, Margarethe Schön, Hanna Ralph, Theodor Loos, 

Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Bernhard Goetzke, Erwin 

Biswanger, Georg John, Gertrud Arnold, Hans Carl 

Müller, Hardy von François, Frida Richard Special 

Effects Walther Ruttmann Studio Shooting Ufa 

Atelier, Neubabelsberg Length 143 min, 3210 m 

Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37 Original Version silent 

with German intertitles Intertitled Version English 

German Distributor Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau- 

Foundation, Wiesbaden 

World Sales: 



phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax +49-89-59 98 85 20 



Fritz Lang, born in 1890 in Vienna, was more than just a 

great director. He was a man who staged himself and his life, 

who created the legend of his person, who wanted his private 

life to remain invisible in order to further launch his desired 

public image. He celebrated his first success during the 

Weimar Republic, reacting to the massive political and social 

changes of the time and integrating them into his work. He left 

Germany in 1933, emigrating via France to the United States in 

1934, where he continued to tie political aspects into his work. 

His best known films from his work in Germany include: 

Spiders (Die Spinnen, 1919), Plague in Florence 

(Die Pest in Florenz, 1919), Madame Butterfly 

(Harakiri, 1919), The Wandering Image (Das wandernde 

Bild, 1920), Kämpfende Herzen (1920/21), 

Destiny (Der müde Tod, 1921), The Indian Tomb 

(Das indische Grabmal, 1921), Dr. Mabuse, The 

Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, 1922), Metropolis 

(1925/26), Spies (Spione, 1927/28), Woman in 

the Moon (Frau im Mond, 1928/29) and many more. 

37 

THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 19


Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (Teil 2) 

KRIEMHILD’S REVENGE (PART 2) 

As part of her scheme of revenge, Kriemhild travels to the land of the Huns to marry 

King Etzel. Upon the birth of their son, she invites Gunther and Hagan to Etzel’s court 

for a celebration. As Hagan holds the baby in his arms, he hears the news that the 

Huns have killed some of his fellow Nibelungen warriors. Enraged, Hagan then kills the 

baby. In the ensuing fight, Kriemhild stabs and kills Hagan with Siegfried’s sword. She 

too is then killed, but is finally at peace. 

Genre Drama, Fantasy Category Feature Film Cinema 

Year of Production 1922-24 Director Fritz Lang 

Screenplay Thea von Harbou Directors of 

Photography Carl Hoffmann, Günther Rittau 

Music by Gottfried Huppertz (1924), Konrad Elfers 

(1965) Production Design Otto Hunte, Erich 

Kettelhut, Karl Vollbrecht Producer Erich Pommer 

Production Company Decla-Bioscop, Berlin 

Principal Cast Margarethe Schön, Paul Richter, Rudolf 

Klein-Rogge, Theodor Loos, Hans Adalbert Schlettow, 

Bernhard Goetzke, Erwin Biswanger, Georg John, 

Gertrud Arnold, Hans Carl Müller, Hardy von François, 

Frida Richard, Hubert Heinrich, Rudolf Rittner 

Special Effects Walther Ruttmann Studio 

Shooting Ufa Atelier, Neubabelsberg Length 

144 min, 3358 m Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37 

Original Version silent with German intertitles 

Intertitled Version English German Distributor 

Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden 

World Sales: 



phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax +49-89-59 98 85 20 






public image. He celebrated his first success during the 

Weimar Republic, reacting to the massive political and social 

changes of the time and integrating them into his work. He left 

Germany in 1933, emigrating via France to the United States in 

1934, where he continued to tie political aspects into his work. 

His best known films from his work in Germany include: 

Spiders (Die Spinnen, 1919), Plague in Florence 

(Die Pest in Florenz, 1919), Madame Butterfly 

(Harakiri, 1919), The Wandering Image (Das wandernde 

Bild, 1920), Kämpfende Herzen (1920/21), 

Destiny (Der müde Tod, 1921), The Indian Tomb 


Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, 1922), Metropolis 

(1925/26), Spies (Spione, 1927/28), Woman in 

the Moon (Frau im Mond, 1928/29) and many more. 


Scene from ”Kriemhild’s Revenge“ (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek)

Der letzte Mann 

Scene from "The Last Man" (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek) 

The porter of the grand hotel is old and feeble and, although he does his job well, he is 

stripped of his identity and pride when the hotel director demotes him to a restroom 

attendant. On the very day of his demotion, his niece celebrates her wedding. He secretly 

wears his old uniform so that he too can shine among the guests at the wedding. But his 

few moments of regained pride turn out to be a harsh awakening when he is recognized 

by an envious colleague. The poor old man seems doomed to spend his remaining years 

cleaning up the hotel restrooms, until a wealthy young man dies in his restroom one day, 

and leaves his estate to the person in whose arms he dies. 

Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema 

Year of Production 1924 Director F.W. Murnau 

Screenplay Carl Mayer Director of Photography 

Karl Freund Music by Giuseppe Becce (1924), 

Peter Schirmann (1964), Werner Schmidt-Boelcke (1984) 

Production Design Robert Herlth, Walter Röhrig 

Producer Erich Pommer Production Company 

Union-Film der Universum-Film (Ufa), Berlin Principal 

Cast Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, Emilie 

Kurz, Hans Unterkircher, Olaf Storm, Hermann Vallentin, 

Georg John, Emmy Wyda, Erich Schönfelder Special 

Effects Ernst Kunstmann Studio Shooting Ufa 

Atelier, Berlin-Tempelhof Length 75 min, 2010 m 

Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37 Original Version silent 

with German intertitles Intertitled Versions English, 

French German Distributor Friedrich-Wilhelm- 

Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden 

World Sales: 



phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax +49-89-59 98 85 20 



Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau was born Friedrich 

Wilhelm Plumpe in Bielefeld in 1888 and died in Santa 

Barbara, California in 1931. He studied Philology in Berlin 

and Art History and Literature in Heidelberg, and then 

broke off his studies to attend the Max Reinhardt Drama 

School in Vienna, becoming a regular member of the 

ensemble in 1913. He directed such films as Nosferatu 

(1922), Faust – A German Folk Tale (Faust – 

eine deutsche Volkssage, 1925/26) and Tartüff 

(1926), among others. In 1925 he received a four-year 

contract from Hollywood and made the masterpiece 

Sunrise (1927). He then severed his contract to make 

Tabu in the South Seas, but was killed in a car accident a 

week before Tabu’s premiere in 1931. 

THE LAST MAN 

39 

THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 20


Der müde Tod 

DESTINY 

A young girl must face Death to plead for the life of her deceased lover. Death confronts the young 

girl with a condition which she must fulfill if she wishes to be reunited with her lover. He tells her 

three stories set in exotic locales, all involving circumstances similar to her own. She must save the life 

of at least one of the characters in the stories in order to be with her lover again. As she realizes that 

she cannot save any of them, she pleads with Death to sacrifice her own life instead. Not until she dies 

while trying to save a child’s life from a fire is she reunited with her lover. 

Genre Drama, Fiction Category Feature Film 

Cinema Year of Production 1921 Director 

Fritz Lang Screenplay Fritz Lang, Thea von 

Harbou Directors of Photography Fritz 

Arno Wagner, Erich Nitzschmann, Hermann 

Saalfrank Editor Fritz Lang Music by Giuseppe 

Becce (1921), Peter Schirmann (1966), Wilfried 

Schröpfer (1983), Karl-Ernst Sasse (1996) 

Production Design Walter Röhrig, Hermann 

Warm, Robert Herlth Producer Erich Pommer 

Production Company Decla-Bioscop, Berlin 

Principal Cast Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen, Max 

Adalbert, Bernhard Goetzke, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, 

Wilhelm Diegelmann, Hans Sternberg, Eduard von 

Winterstein, Erika Unruh, Lewis Brody, Lothar 

Müthel, Ernst Rückert, Erich Pabst, Karl Platen, Paul 

Biensfeldt Studio Shooting Decla-Bioscop 

Atelier, Berlin Length 82 min, 2156 m Format 

35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37 Original Version silent 

with German intertitles Subtitled Versions 

French, Japanese German Distributor 

Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden 

World Sales: 



phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax +49-89-59 98 85 20 






public image. He celebrated his first success during the Weimar 

Republic, reacting to the massive political and social changes of 

the time and integrating them into his work. He left Germany in 

1933, emigrating via France to the United States in 1934, where 

he continued to tie political aspects into his work. His best 

known films from his work in Germany include: Spiders (Die 

Spinnen, 1919), Plague in Florence (Die Pest in 

Florenz, 1919), Madame Butterfly (Harakiri, 1919), 

The Wandering Image (Das wandernde Bild, 1920), 

Kämpfende Herzen (1920/21), The Indian Tomb 


Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, 1922), Die 

Nibelungen (1922-24), Metropolis (1925/26), Spies 

(Spione, 1927/28), Woman in the Moon (Frau im 

Mond, 1928/29) and many more. 


Scene from ”Destiny“ (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek)

www. 

germancinema. 

de/ 

GERMAN 

CINEMA 




42 

Absolut Warhola 

Genre Art, Comedy Category Documentary Cinema & TV 

Year of Production 2001 Director/Screenplay/Editor 

Stanislaw Mucha Director of Photography Susanne Schüle 

Music by Drislak, Pierre Brand Producer Dieter Reifarth 

Production Company strandfilm productions, Frankfurt, in 

co-production with Pandora Film, Cologne, in cooperation with 

HR, Frankfurt, WDR, Cologne, ZDF, Mainz, 3sat, Mainz 

Principal Cast Maria Warhola, Michal Warhola, Helena 

Bezeková, Ingrid Bosnovicová, Eva Prextová, Janko Zavacky´, 

Dr. Milchal Bycko, Janko Flaska, Fero Lakata Length 80 min 

(TV version 60 min), 2199 m Format Super 16 mm Blow up 

35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original Version Ruthenian, Slovakian 

Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR 

Festival Screenings Leipzig 2001 (in competition), Duisburg 

Documentary Film Festival 2001 (opening film), Mannheim 2001 

(in competition), Kassel 2001 (opening film), Berlin 2002 

(Perspective German Cinema) Awards Best Photography, Don 

Quijote Award & Audience Award Leipzig 2001, Audience Award 

Duisburg 2001, Audience Award Mannheim 2001, Best Upcoming 

Director & Best Upcoming Cinematographer from the DEFA 

Foundation Berlin 2001 With backing from FilmFörderung 

Hamburg, Hessische Filmförderung, Kuratorium junger deutscher 

Film German Distributor Pegasos Filmverleih & Produktion 

GmbH, Frankfurt 

(photo © M. Görowski) 

Located somewhere in the middle of nowhere, 

in the "Ruthenian Bermuda Triangle" between 

Slovakia, Poland and the Ukraine, is Europe’s 

only Pop Art Museum. Stanislaw Mucha’s 

light-hearted documentary traces the roots of 

America’s pop-icon Andy Warhol, whose 

family heritage can be tracked down to the 

town of Medzilaborce and the neighboring 

village of Miková. His clan has always lived 

here, and they always will. His aunts and 

cousins have lots of time, they have schnapps, 

they are out of work, and they have each 

other, but everyone of them also has a vague 

idea of Warhol: His name has become a 

legend, a vision, a tangible link to a world they 

cannot comprehend, a world so big and so 

incredibly far away. 

Stanislaw Mucha was born in 1970 in 

Nowy Targ/Poland. He studied Acting at 

the Ludwik Solski Drama School in Cracow, 

graduating with an M.A. in 1993. He then 

joined Cracow’s Old Theatre. In 1995, he 

decided to go to Berlin and studied Film 

Directing at the ”Konrad Wolf“ Academy 

of Film and Television, which he concluded 

in 2000. Absolut Warhola is after 

Polish Passion (Polnische Passion, 

documentary, 1996/97) and Back Home 

to the Reich with Bubi (Mit Bubi 

heim ins Reich, documentary, 2000) his 

third feature-length documentary. 

World Sales: 

Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins 

Hochstadenstr. 1-3 · D-50674 Cologne 

phone +49-2 21-1 39 22 22 · fax +49-2 21-1 39 22 24 

www.medialuna-entertainment.de · email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de 

AT BERLIN 

PERSPECTIVE GERMAN CINEMA 


Am Rande der Zeit – 

Männerwelten im Kaukasus 

ON THE EDGE OF TIME – MALE DOMAINS IN THE CAUCASUS 

A journey through everyday life in far off, tough 

male domains, which at the same time is an excursion 

into Caucasian history. 

In Moscow the people of the Caucasus are often 

called ”the Blacks“ and are thought of as having a 

dark and mysterious soul. Nevertheless, it’s the 

”soft center“ of these ”hard men“ which gradually 

gains the upper hand in this film. Broken dreams, 

a lack of future prospects. And, of course, it’s not 

just the men who have to assert themselves in this 

rough post-Soviet world. 

Whether in the almost mediaeval village of 

Ushguli in Svaneti, on oil rigs in the Caspian Sea, 

in the Koran school of a village in the northern 

Caucasus or in a home for the blind on Georgia’s 

Black Sea coast – everywhere we find traces of 

the bygone Soviet days. 

On the Edge of Time takes us to a wonderfully 

wild landscape. A poetic journey to a far-off land 

of adventure. 

Genre Action/Adventure, Educational, Family 

Category Documentary Cinema Year of 

Production 2001 Director Stefan Tolz Directors 

of Photography Thomas Riedelsheimer, Holger 

Schüppel, Dieter Stürmer, Nugsar Nozadze Editors 

Cordula Krämer, Thomas Riedelsheimer Music by 

Sean Hara, Gija Kantcheli, Temur Babluani Producer 

Stefan Tolz Production Company Applaus Film 

Media, Munich, co-production with SWR, Baden- 

Baden, MDR, Leipzig, WDR, Cologne, in co-operation 

with ARTE, Strasbourg Length 90 min, 2700 m 

Format Super 16 mm Blow up 35 mm, color, 

1:1.66 Original Version Russian/Georgian/Svanish/ 

Awarish Dubbed Versions English, French, German 

Subtitled Versions English, German Sound 

Technology Dolby SR International Festival 

Screenings Amsterdam 2001 (in competition) 

Stefan Tolz was born in 1966. He studied from 1986-1993 at 

the Academy of Television & Film in Munich and at the Cinema 

Faculty of the Georgian State Theater Institute in Tbilisi and was 

a guest student at New York University and the Beijing Film 

Academy. From 1993-99, he worked as a freelance writer, director 

and producer in Cologne for various television series. Since 1998, 

he has had teaching appointments in the fields of Documentary 

Film and Television Publicity in Germany and Austria. His other 

films include: Power Lies Elsewhere (Die Macht liegt 

woanders, 1989), Applause Appreciated (Wir bitten 

um freundlichen Applaus, 1990), Caucasian Banquet 

(Kaukasisches Gastmahl, 1991), Beijing Courtyard 

(Viereckhof Peking, 1993), Schwan’s Way (Mein lieber 

Schwan, 1994), Golden Wedding (Goldhochzeit – 50 

Jahre Ehe in Deutschland, 1995), Kinzig Valley 

(Kinzigtal – zwischen Bollenhut und Aids-Hospiz, 

1996), Faroe Islands (Färöer, 1997), The Merzbach 

Kiosk (Merzbachs Büdchen, 1998), and Bosporus (1999). 

World Sales: please contact 

Applaus Film Media GmbH · Stefan Tolz 

Viktoriastr. 34 · D-80803 Munich 

phone +49-89-38 32 98 19 · fax +49-89-39 35 94 

www.on-the-edge-of-time.de · www.applausfilm.de · email: kaukasus@applausfilm.de 


Scenes from ”On the Edge of Time – Male Domains in the Caucasus“ (photo © Applaus Film) 

43

Baader 

This is the story of Andreas Baader. A car thief who, within a few years, became 

a revolutionary theorist of the armed left. 

The film describes the time from 1967, when Baader was yet again serving a 

sentence in Traunstein for driving without a license and for car theft, until 1972 

and the memorable time in Frankfurt, when the state and the RAF (Red Army 

Faction) faced each other in Hofeckweg. Hundreds of police, some in plainclothes 

and protected by builders’ helmets, and on the other side Baader, 

Meins and Raspe, the hard core, with sunglasses and leather jackets, laughing 

and shouting. 

Genre Biopic, History, Thriller Category Feature 

Film Cinema Year of Production 2000-02 

Director Christopher Roth Screenplay Moritz 

von Uslar, Christopher Roth Directors of 

Photography Jutta Pohlmann, Bella Halben 

Editors Christopher Roth, Barbara Gies Music by 

Trans Am, Suicide, Can, Beethoven Production 

Design Attila Saygel, Oliver Krönke, Tobias Nolte 

Producers Mark Gläser, Stephan Fruth, Christopher 

Roth Production Company 72film, Berlin in coproduction 

Spiel.Film, Munich, Leading Edge, Barcelona 

Principal Cast Frank Giering, Laura Tonke, Vadim 

Glowna, Birge Schade, Jana Pallaske, Michael Sideris 

Length 209 min, 1458 m Format 16 mm Blow 

up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German 

Subtitled Version English Sound Technology 

Dolby Digital International Festival Screenings 

Berlin 2002 (in competition) 


72film GmbH & Co KG 

Grossbeerenstr. 71 · D-10963 Berlin 

phone +49-30-47 37 27 41 · fax +49-30-47 37 27 55 

www.baader-derfilm.com · email: mail@72film.com 

Christopher Roth was born and raised in Munich, 

and studied at Munich’s Academy of Television & Film 

(HFF/M) from 1983-89. He is the author of the book 

220D, published by Belleville and was editor-in-chief of 

the magazine Elaste from 1984-86. He has edited films 

by Andy Engel, Klaus Lemke, Isaac Julien and Amadu 

Seck. As an artist, he has had exhibitions with Franz 

Stauffenberg in Berlin, Zurich, Rio and New York and 

participated in the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1991, the 

Venice Biennale in 1993 and the Berlin Biennale in 

2001. His other films include the shorts Happier 

Days and Hawaii ’96, over 100 advertising spots, 

the feature Looosers (1995) and the TV-movie 

Candy (1998). 

AT BERLIN 



Laura Tonke, Frank Giering

Babij Jar 

Autumn 1941. The Russian army flees Kiev, chaos reigns, soldiers attempt to trade their 

uniforms for civilian clothes in order to escape unnoticed. The war and pending capture of 

Kiev by the Germans is the only topic of discussion. Everyone has heard of the horrible 

things that have happened in other areas, where Jews were brutally and inhumanely murdered. 

Indecision and despair spread like wildfire among the population. As the German 

army marches in, fear and horror take over. 

Babij Jar is the tragic story of two families’ desperate attempt to survive the death and 

destruction of the Holocaust. 

Katrin Sass (photo © CCC-Filmkunst) 


Year of Production 2001 Director Jeff Kanew 

Screenplay Stephen Glantz, based on a story by 

Art Bernd Directors of Photography Alexander 

Rud, Tatyna Loginova Editors Keff Kanew, Art Bernd 

Music by Walter Werzowa Production Design 

Igor Topilin Producer Artur Brauner Production 

Companies CCC-Filmkunst, Berlin, Gran Film, 

Moscow Principal Cast Michael Degen, Katrin Sass, 

Axel Milberg, Barbara de Rossi and others Special 

Effects Vyatcheslaw Zemnokho Length 118 min, 

3200 m Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.66 Original 

Version Russian/German Dubbed Version 

German Sound Technology Dolby With 

backing from Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg 

German Distributor X Verleih AG, Berlin 


CCC-Filmkunst GmbH · Fela Brauner-Rozen 

Verlängerte Daumstr. 16 · D-13599 Berlin 

phone +49-30-3 34 20 01 · fax +49-30-3 34 04 18 


From 1966-1978, Jeff Kanew was the creator of 

trailers for such films as The Graduate, The Lion in 

Winter, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Midnight 

Cowboy, Rocky, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Annie 

Hall and over 500 others. He has also directed the 

films: Black Rodeo (documentary, 1972), Natural 

Enemies (1978), Eddie Macon’s Run (1982), 

Revenge of the Nerds (1984), Gotcha! (1985), 

an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV, 1985), 

Tough Guys (1986), Troop Beverly Hills 

(1989), V.I. Warshawski (1991), as well as several 

episodes of the TV-series Touched by an Angel (1994). 

45

BELLARIA – so lange wir leben! 

BELLARIA – AS LONG AS WE LIVE! 

There is a small, inconspicuous cinema in a small side-street in Vienna that seems 

to have stood still with time. A group of old Ufa film fans meet there on a regular 

basis, where for a few Schilling they are whisked back to their youth as though in a 

time machine. The documentary is a discovery trip to a place with morbid charm 

and portraits the colorful life stories of its comical and eccentric regular guests. 

Little by little, the film uncovers their true desires: to stop the wheel of time for 

just a few moments, to hold on to their lost youth and to spit in the face of death 

one more time – with a lot of heart and Viennese charm. 

Genre Art Category Documentary Cinema 

Year of Production 2001 Director/Screenplay 

Douglas Wolfsperger Director of Photography 

Helmut Wimmer Editor Götz Schuberth 

Music by Hans Jürgen Buchner/Haindling 

Producers Douglas Wolfsperger, Martin Dietrich, 

Dieter Pochlatko Production Company Douglas 

Wolfsperger Filmproduktion, Cologne, in co-production 

with epo-Film, Vienna, in cooperation with ARTE, 

Strasbourg Principal Cast Karl Schönböck, Lady 

Lips von Lipstrill, the Tenbuß Twins, Ernst Weizmann 

and others Length 100 min, 2900 m Format Digi- 

Beta Blow up 35 mm, color and b&w, 1:1.85 

Original Version German Subtitled Version 

English Sound Technology Dolby SR 

International Festival Screenings Ophüls- 

Festival Saarbrücken 2002 (opening documentary), 

Berlin 2002 (special presentation), Diagonale 2002 

Graz With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmförderungsanstalt 

(FFA), BKM, Wiener Film Fonds, 

Bundeskanzleramt/Kunstsektion 

World Sales: 

peppermint gmbh · Katja Neufingerl 

Rauchstr. 9-11 · D-81679 Munich 

phone +49-89-9 82 47 08 83 · fax +49-89-9 82 47 08 13 

www.seepeppermint.com · email: mail@seepeppermint.com 

Douglas Wolfsperger was born in 1958 in 

Zurich and grew up in Friedrichshafen and 

Constance. After freelance work at SWF and 

WDR in Cologne, he lives and works today as a 

writer and director in Cologne and on Lake 

Constance. His films include: the features Lebe 

Kreuz und Sterbe Quer (1985), Kies 

(1986), Probefahrt ins Paradies (1992), 

and Heirate mir! (1999), the shorts Die 

Begegnung der Jungfrau Maria mit 

John Travolta und deren Folgen (1978), 

Selig sind die Toten (1981), Pelzjagd 

(1982), In dulci jubilo und so (1983), and 

the documentaries Leben vom Brot (1991), 

Windeln, Wehen und Kaffeekannen 

(1995), Haarige Geschäfte (1996), Die 

unvollständige Frau (1997), Karamba, 

Karacho, ein Kännchen! (1998) and Die 

Erben vom Prickingshof (1999). 

Regular guests of Vienna's Bellaria Cinema (photo © D. Wolfsperger Filmproduktion/Helene Waldner) 

AT BERLIN 

SPECIAL PRESENTATION 


Der Brief des Kosmonauten 

THE COSMONAUT’S LETTER 

Life itself is one of the most exciting and difficult journeys. The Cosmonaut’s Letter 

is the sensitive and entertaining story of Ruslan, a Russian jack-of-all-trades, and 

Heinrich, a 10-year-old runaway. Each of them has a dream. Heinrich wants to become 

a cosmonaut and does everything he can to make his wish come true. Ruslan has the 

equally difficult-to-realize dream of traveling to the United States with three Russian 

friends. 

The Cosmonaut’s Letter shows that the real adventure in life lies somewhere between 

a newborn dream and its realization. 

Luk Piyes, Frederick Lau (photo © Kick Film) 

Genre Tragicomedy Category Feature Film 

Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director/ 

Screenplay Vladimir Torbica Director of 

Photography Andreas Höfer Editor Peter 

Przygodda Music by Vladimir Genin Production 

Design Heidi Lüdi Producer Markus Zimmer 

Production Company Clasart Filmproduktion, 

Munich Principal Cast Luk Piyes, Frederick Lau, 

Oliver Bässler, Katja Medvedeva Casting Risa Kes 

Special Effects Vis.E, ARRI Digital, Munich 

Studio Shooting ARRI, Munich, Filmcontract 

Wroclaw/Poland Length 99 min, 2698 m Format 

35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German, 

some Russian Sound Technology Dolby Digital 6K 

With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, 

Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor 

Concorde Filmverleih GmbH, Munich 

World Sales: 

Tele München Fernseh GmbH & Co KG 

Kaufingerstr. 24 · D-80331 Munich 

phone +49-89-29 09 30 · fax +49-89-29 09 31 09 

www.telemuenchen.de 


Vladimir Torbica was born in 1956 in Belgrade. 

He studied in Belgrade and Munich and gained his 

first experiences in film as an assistant director to 

Fritz Umgelter, as well as to Franz-Peter Wirth, 

Hans-Werner Geissendörfer, and Cyril Frankel on 

numerous television and film productions. He assisted 

Goran Paskaljevic on the film Someone Else’s 

America (1995), winner of the Jury Award at Cannes. 

He worked with Norbert Kückelmann on Und alle 

haben geschwiegen (TV, 1996), with Christoph Kühn 

on Jack O’Lanterns (Irrlichter, TV 1998), with Gabriel 

Barylli on On the Wings of Love (Wer liebt, dem 

wachsen Flügel, 1999), with Douglas Wolfsperger 

on Heirate mir! (1999), and with Michael Karen on 

Flashback – A Murderous Vacation (Flashback – mörderische 

Ferien, 2000). Also active in documentaries, 

The Cosmonaut’s Letter is his feature film 

debut. 

47

48 

Es geschah im August – 

Der Bau der Berliner Mauer 

BUILDING THE BERLIN WALL – 

ANATOMY OF A POLITICAL CRISIS 

In the night from the 12th to the 13th of August 1961, Socialist Unity Party Secretary General 

and President of the National Defense Council Walter Ulbricht gave the order to physically separate 

the different sectors of Berlin. On the morning of the 13th of August, armed border guards 

began ripping up the streets and barricading the area with barbed wire. A few days later, during 

the night from the 17th to the 18th of August, troops began replacing the barbed wire with 

cement blocks. 

Building the Berlin Wall – Anatomy of a Political Crisis portrays the bitter events surrounding 

the separation and division of Berlin. Twelve years after the fall of the Wall and the opening 

of the archives, the film offers, in a series of historical flashbacks, a representative and suspensefilled 

panorama of the greatest crisis in post-war Germany and international politics. 

Genre History Category Documentary TV 

Year of Production 2001 Director Ullrich 

Kasten Screenplay Ullrich Kasten, Hans- 

Hermann Hertle Director of Photography 

Wolfgang Lindig Editors Alex Görwitz, Miklós 

Palós Music by Jürgen Ecke Production 

Company TNM, Berlin, in co-production with 

doculand, Hamburg Length 90 min Format 

Digi-Beta, color and b&w, 16:9 Original 

Version German Sound Technology Stereo 

International Festival Screenings Prix 

Europa Berlin 2001 


Doculand Produktions GmbH · Dirk Hardekopf 

Deichstr. 25 · D-20459 Hamburg 

phone +49-40-3 80 81 60 · fax +49-40-38 08 16 20 

www.doculand.de · email: info@doculand.de 

Ullrich Kasten was born in 1938. After studies in German and 

Art History, he began writing in 1962, followed by writing and directing 

for East German Television from 1965 on. In 1992, he became an 

editor for the broadcaster ORB. A selection of his films include: 

Malik – Meine Liebe (1990), John Heartfield – Er sprach 

vom Wichtigsten (1990), Goebbels – Der Schirmherr 

(1992), Ihre Uhr ist kaputt oder die Zeit selber (1997), 

Eigentlich ist nichts geschehen (1998), Mein Leben ist 

so sündhaft lang: Victor Klemperer, Ein Chronist des 

Jahrhunderts (1999), Ich liebe – mein Gott – ich liebe: 

Das kurze Leben der Brigitte Reimann (1999), Über 

den Abgrund geneigt: Leben und Sterben des 

Johannes R. Becher (TV, 2001), and many more. 

Scene from ”Building the Berlin Wall” 


Der Felsen 

Things could hardly turn out worse for Katrin. In Corsica, her boss and lover of many 

years tells her that his wife is pregnant. In one abrupt instant, all hopes for a life together 

are dashed. Her plans for her future unraveled, her heart broken, Katrin breaks up with 

him. But all her attempts to start a new life simply toss her deeper into a maelstrom of 

aimlessness and pain. 

She then happens to meet Malte, an adventure-hungry young man who lives on the 

edge and strictly for the moment. He overwhelms her with the honesty and clarity of his 

feelings – and suddenly, from one minute to the next, her life becomes a dangerous 

tightrope walk. 

Antonio Wannek, Karoline Eichhorn (photo © Bavaria Film International) 


Year of Production 2001 Director Dominik 

Graf Screenplay Markus Busch, Dominik Graf 

Director of Photography Benedict Neuenfels 

Editor Hana Müllner Music by Dieter Schleip, 

Dominik Graf Production Design Claus Jürgen 

Pfeiffer Producer Gloria Burkert Production 

Company MTM Medien & Television München, 

Munich, in co-production with Kinowelt, Munich, 

Bavaria Film, Munich, in association with ZDF, Mainz 

Principal Cast Karoline Eichhorn, Antonio 

Wannek, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Peter Lohmeyer, 

Ralph Herforth Casting An Dorthe Braker 

Length 116 min, 3190 m Format 35 mm, color, 

1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled 

Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR 

International Festival Screenings Berlin 

2002 (in competition) With backing from 

FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt 

(FFA) 

World Sales: 

Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH 

Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann 


phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 

www.bavaria-film-international.de · email: Bavaria.International@bavaria-film.de 


A MAP OF THE HEART 

Dominik Graf was born in 1952 in Munich. He studied 

German and Musical Sciences, and transferred to the Academy 

of Television & Film in Munich in 1974. Parallel to his studies, 

Graf wrote screenplays and was involved in the production of 

various feature films. He received the Bavarian Film Award for 

his graduation film Der kostbare Gast (1979). As a director, 

he played a decisive role in developing the profile of the 

TV series Der Fahnder and has alternated regularly between 

film and TV productions. In 1988, he received a German Film 

Award for his thriller Die Katze. His film Spieler (1990) 

was shown at Venice in 1990. His other films include: Tiger, 

Löwe, Panther (1989), The Invincibles (Die Sieger, 

1994), the Tatort-episode Frau Bu lacht (1995), Der 

Skorpion (1996), Doktor Knock (1996), Deine 

besten Jahre (TV, 1998), Bittere Unschuld (1999), 

Sperling und der brennende Arm (TV, 1999), the 

documentary Munich – Secrets of a City (München – 

Geheimnisse einer Stadt, 2000) and many more. 

Critically acclaimed for his precise, intelligent and dense characterizations 

and his extraordinary visual craft, A Map of 

the Heart is probably his most personal film to date. 

AT BERLIN 


49

Feuer, Eis und Dosenbier 

The two friends Türlich and Josch are really proud to be the laziest community service workers 

around. But when they create yet another catastrophe, their boss fires them and threatens to send 

them off to the army. At first, they laugh about the threat, but soon enough, the military police 

come to get them. In an attempt to flee the army, they hide out in the orphanage where Türlich 

grew up. One coincidence after another leads to the realization that Türlich is in fact the great, 

great, great grandson of the famous ”Alm-Öhi“, well-known from the old Heidi stories and films. 

So the two take off for the mountains to find a wonderful world of beautiful Heidis, hot après-ski 

parties and lots of cold beer … and that’s just where all the wacky fun begins! 

Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema 

Year of Production 2001 Director Matthias 

Dinter Screenplay Matthias Dinter, Martin 

Ritzenhoff Director of Photography Stephan 

Schuh Editor Alexander Dittner Music by Ralf 

Wengenmayr Production Design Peter Menne 

Producers Philip Voges, Mischa Hofmann 

Production Company Hofmann & Voges 

Entertainment, Munich, in co-production with Warner 

Bros. Film, Hamburg Principal Cast Axel Stein, Rick 

Kavanian, Eva Habermann, Christoph M. Ohrt, 

Herbert Fux, Thorsten Feller, Andreas Elsholz 

Casting Rita Serra-Roll Special Effects CA 

Scanline, Geiselgasteig Length 81 min, 2216 m 

Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version 

German Sound Technology Dolby Digital With 

backing from Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), 

Filmstiftung NRW German Distributor Warner 

Bros. Filmproduktion GmbH, Hamburg 


Hofmann & Voges Entertainment GmbH 

Arnulfstr. 297 · D-80639 Munich 

phone +49-89-17 87 70 · fax +49-89-17 87 74 10 

www.hofmannvoges.com · email: info@hofmannvoges.com 

Matthias Dinter was born in 1968 in Singen on 

Lake Constance. He studied at the Film Academy 

Baden-Württemberg from 1991-94, graduating with 

the film Hausschlachtung. He has written the 

screenplay for the films Rohe Ostern (TV, 1993), an 

episode of the TV-series Der Fahnder – Fuß in der Tür 

(1994), Das Biest im Bodensee I & II and First-Love – im 

Schweif des Kometen (TV, 1998), Die Bademeister I, II 

and III (TV, 1999), Fußball is unser Leben (1999), 

Schwarz & McMurphy (TV, 1999), Was nicht passt wird 

passend gemacht and Der letzt Lude (2000), among 

others. In addition to his extensive work as a script 

doctor and scriptwriter, he has directed the shorts 

Fleckich and Entomorhea (1992), Klabusterboren 

and Lasse rein bong! (2000). 


Scene from ”Feuer, Eis und Dosenbier“ (photo © JAT PHOTO/OLCZYK)

Fickende Fische 

"What does your paradise look like, then?" - "Dark. Quiet. Wet. And full of fish." 

Tino Mewes, Sophie Rogall (photo © ICON FILM/Sascha Kreklau) 

World Sales: 

ottfilm GmbH · Christoph Ott 

Kurfürstendamm 175-176 · D-10707 Berlin 

phone +49-30-88 71 88 80 · fax +49-30-8 87 18 88 99 

www.fickende-fische.de · www.ottfilm.de · email: info@ottfilm.de 

DO FISH DO IT? 

Jan likes Shakespeare, water and fish. Nina likes roller-skates, cars and brightly dyed hair. Jan 

loves Nina. Nina loves Jan, but... 

Do Fish Do It? is a film about first love, the problems of growing up, the vital question if fish 

have sex, and the threat this love is exposed to. 

Genre Coming-of-Age Story, Drama, Love Story 

Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 

2001/02 Director/Screenplay Almut Getto Director of 

Photography Andreas Höfer Editor Ingo Ehrlich Music 

by Tom Deininger, Sten Servaes Production Design Peter 

Menne Producer Herbert Schwering Production 

Company ICON FILM, Cologne, in co-production with 

WDR, Cologne Principal Cast Sophie Rogall, Tino Mewes, 

Annette Uhlen, Hans-Martin Stier, Ferdinand Dux, Angelika 

Milster, Jürgen Tonkel, Uwe Rohde, Ellen ten Damme and 

others Casting Agentur Maria Schwarz, Cologne, Susanne 

Ritter, Cologne, Eick & Eick, Bottrop-Kirchhellen Special 

Effects anima res, Bonn, Plan_b media, Cologne Length 

104 min, 2818 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original 

Version German Subtitled Version English Sound 

Technology Dolby Digital International Festival 

Screenings Ophüls-Festival Saarbrücken 2002 (in competition), 

Berlin 2002 (Perspective German Cinema) With 

backing from BKM, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, 

Filmstiftung NRW German Distributor ottfilm GmbH, 

Berlin 


Almut Getto was born in 1964 in Kandel/Pfalz. 

After studies in Political Science, Communication 

Science and Sociology in Munich, she began working 

as a television writer for various German public and 

private broadcasters. In 1995, she began studying Film 

& Television at the Academy of Media Arts KHM 

in Cologne, graduating with the film Spots & 

Stripes (1998/99), which won the Special Jury Prizes 

at St. Petersburg and Giffoni, the Audience Award 

Short Cuts at Cologne and the Best Family Prize at 

Seoul. Her other films include Marlis Goes to 

Rock (short, 1996), I Don’t Like the Sun 

Anymore (Mit der Sonne habe ich es eh 

nicht, short, 1996), as well numerous television 

essays and reports. 

AT BERLIN 

PERSPECTIVE GERMAN CINEMA 

51

Germanikus 

It is the 3rd century A.D. A lazy swamp-Germanian named Hermann finds himself suddenly captured by 

Roman slave hunters. Dragged off to Rome, he is sold to Tusnelda. An ex-Germanian herself, she is the 

rich proprietress of a training school for gladiators. She mistakenly sees in Hermann the new star in the 

colosseum, and a likely husband for herself. Stressed by Tusnelda’s womanly advances, Hermann, now 

re-named by Tusnelda as ”Germanikus“, flees from his captor, but lands in the imperial court in a very risky 

job: he’s the official Royal Taster for the Emperor. When the Emperor ”mysteriously“ dies, Germanikus is 

the prime suspect. Once again on the run, this time he is caught and condemned to certain death – in the 

colosseum! With the help of a slave-girl named Saba, he wins in single combat with a tiger, is declared the 

new Emperor against his will, and as such, brings about the fall of the Roman Empire! 

He has to flee again, now back home to mama! But with Saba as his empress, a whole new set of prospects 

awaits him in Germania … 

Genre Comedy, History Category Feature Film Cinema 

Year of Production 2001 Director Hanns Christian 

Müller Screenplay Gerhard Polt, Franco Ferrini, Hans Weth, 

and Hanns Christian Müller Director of Photography 

Fred Schuler Editor Gerd Berner Music by Wolfgang 

Hammerschmid Production Design Tonio Zera, Eleonora 

Ponzoni, Daniela Voccia Producer Hans Weth Production 

Company Vision Film, Munich, in co-production with BA- 

Film, Munich Principal Cast Gerhard Polt, Gisela Schneeberger, 

Rufus Beck, Sylviane Aissatou Thiam, Nadja Rinaldi and 

Tom Gerhard, as well as Moritz Bleibtreu as the Emperor 

”Titus“ Casting Shaila Rubin, Gaby Auer Special Effects 

Fredy Unger, ARRI Digital, Munich Studio Shooting 

Cinecittá, Rome Length 87 min, 2380 m Format 35 mm, 

color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Sound Technology 

Dolby Digital With backing from FilmFernseh- 

Fonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), BKM German 

Distributor Constantin Film Verleih GmbH, Munich 

World Sales: 

Vision Film GmbH · Hans Weth 

Kurfürstenplatz 4 · D-80796 Munich 

phone +49-89-39 00 29· fax +49-89-39 55 69 

email: filmproduktion@t-online.de 


Scene from ”Germanikus“ (photo © Constantin Film Verleih GmbH) 

Hanns Christian Müller was born in 1949 

in Munich. He has worked in various theaters, 

including the Münchner Kammerspiele, since 

1974. He began working in television in 1978 

and moved into cinema with the cult-films 

Kehraus (1983) and man spricht deutsh 

(1987). His other films include: Longer 

Saturday (Langer Samstag, 1992), the 

Tatort-episode … und die Musi spielt 

dazu (TV, 1994), and Willkommen in 

Kronstadt (TV, 1996).

Die grüne Wolke 

Based on A.S. Neill’s best-selling novel of the 

same name, The Last Man Alive is a delightful 

romp between fantasy and reality. 

Set in a small and cozy boarding school nestled 

in the woods, the story begins when a group of 

eight children gather around their favorite teacher, 

Professor Birnenstiel. A colorful storyteller, 

Birnenstiel launches into an incredible tale in 

which he and the children are the protagonists. 

Their fantasy adventures take them into outer 

space, from where they see a green cloud 

envelop the earth. Upon their return, they discover 

that all human beings have been turned 

into stone. Along with a good-natured billionaire 

and a ditsy French beauty queen, they stumble 

from one adventure to another. Whether fleeing 

from killer tomatoes or from black-and-white TV 

characters who suddenly emerge from the television 

screen, the children and their adult friends 

tackle one predicament after the next with 

energy, cleverness and solidarity. Or at least that’s 

how the ”real life“ children would like to have it! 

Whenever Professor Birnenstiel fails to make his 

characters heroic enough, the children chime in 

and demand a change in the story. In Birnenstiel’s 

tale, he himself is supposed to be the ”last man 

alive“. But will the children agree to be simply 

eliminated from the story? 

Genre Children’s Film, Fantasy/Science Fiction Category 

Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 

Director Claus Strigel Screenplay Claus Strigel, Martin 

Östreicher, based on the novel by A.S. Neill Director of 

Photography Sönke Hansen Editor Uwe Klimmeck 

Music by Wolfgang Neumann Production Design 

Yvonne Kurth Producers Bertram Verhaag, Bernd Vorjans 

Production Company DENKmal Film, Munich, in coproduction 

with Tellux, Dresden, Octopus Media, Berlin, 

Constantin Film, Munich Principal Cast Jan-Gerd Buss, 

Heinz Werner Kraehkamp, Jule Ronstedt, Jana v. Klier, Patrick 

McGehee Special Effects Tyron Montgomery Length 

97 min, 2654 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original 

Version German Subtitled Version English Sound 


Screenings Gera 2001 With backing from Mitteldeutsche 

Medienförderung, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, BKM, 

Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFörderung Hamburg, 

Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, MEDIA II German 

Distributor Constantin Film Verleih GmbH, Munich 

World Sales: 

Bavaria Media Television · Carlos Hertel 


phone +49-89-64 99 36 66 · fax +49-89-64 99 22 40 

email: tvinfo@bavaria-film.de 


Scene from ”The Last Man Alive“ (photo © Marcus Gruber) 

THE LAST MAN ALIVE 

Claus Strigel was born in 1955 in Munich. 

Before finally changing to filmmaking as a 

producer, writer and director, he studied 

Communications and Psychology. Since 1976, 

he has co-directed and written together with 

Bertram Verhaag over 50 award-winning 

documentaries and feature films including: 

Was heißt’n hier Liebe (1978), Too 

Much Man! (echt tu matsch, 1983), 

Nuclear Split (Spaltprozesse, documentary, 

1987), An Act of God 

(Restrisiko oder die Arroganz der 

Macht, documentary, 1989), The Eighth 

Commandment (Das Achte 

Gebot, documentary, 1990), Runaway 

(1992), Blue Eyed (documentary, 1996), 

Grenzgänger – Hans-Peter Dürr (TV, 

1997), Der Agrarrebell (TV, 2000), Tote 

Ernte (TV, 2001), Al Barnum (TV, 2001), 

and many more. 

53

Halbe Treppe 

GRILL POINT 

The people: two friendly couples in their late thirties; the place: the not exactly happening city of 

Frankfurt/Oder, East Germany. They’re set in their ways, with nowhere to go … Radio host Chris 

and his second wife Katrin don’t have much to say to each other anymore, in or out of bed. Uwe, 

his friend, slaves away day and night in his own hot-dog stand, but forgets his wife and kids. Small 

surprise, then, that Ellen and Chris - who is urgently looking for change – come closer. But they’re 

caught in the act, and as a consequence everyone is shaken from their stupor. Their bogged-down 

existence gets a jump-start, they question their position in life, and suddenly it becomes clear that 

small miracles are possible even in a place like Frankfurt/Oder – if only you believe in them! 



Andreas Dresen Director of Photography Michael 

Hammon Editor Jörg Hauschild Music by 17 Hippies 

Production Design Susanne Hopf Producer Peter 

Rommel Production Company Peter Rommel 

Productions, Berlin Principal Cast Steffi Kühnert, 

Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Axel Prahl, Thorsten Merten 

Length 105 min, 2888 m Format 35 mm, color, 



International Festival Screenings Berlin 2002 

(in competition) With backing from Filmboard 

Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM 

Andreas Dresen was born in Gera in 1963. He was 

an intern at the DEFA Feature Film Studio from 1985-86 

and studied at the ”Konrad Wolf“ Academy of Film & 

Television in Babelsberg from 1986-1992. His first feature 

Stilles Land (1992) was awarded the Hesse Film 

Prize and the German Critics’ Award in 1992. He directed 

Goethe’s Urfaust at the Staatstheater in Cottbus in 1996 

and made his second feature Night Shapes (Nachtgestalten) 

in 1998, which won the German Film Award 

in Silver in 1999 and the Pilar Miró Award for the Best 

New Director at Valladolid in 1999. His other films include: 

Der kleine Clown (short, 1985), Schritte 

des anderen (short, 1986/87), Jenseits von 

Klein-Wanzleben (documentary, 1989), Zug in 

die Ferne (short, 1989/90), Mein unbekannter 

Ehemann (1995), Raus aus der Haut (TV, 1997) 

and The Policewoman (Die Polizistin, 2000). 

World Sales: 




phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 



Thorsten Merten, Gabriela Maria Schmeide (photo © Bavaria Film International) 

AT BERLIN 

IN COMPETITION

Heaven 

Turin. Four innocent people fall victim to an assassination. The English teacher Philippa is arrested. 

She doesn’t deny anything – and is shattered. She had a different goal, namely a drug dealer responsible 

for the death of her husband and four of her pupils. The police however insist that there 

was a political motive. Only a young rookie policeman believes her, for he secretly thinks that 

they were meant for one another. But he must prove his love to her, unconditionally … 

Giovanni Ribisi, Cate Blanchett (photo © X Filme Creative Pool GmbH) 

Genre Drama, Love Story, Thriller Category 


Director Tom Tykwer Screenplay Krzysztof 

Kieslowski Director of Photography Frank 

Griebe Editor Mathilde Bonnefoy Music by Arvo 

Pärt Production Design Uli Hanisch Producers 

Anthony Minghella, Maria Köpf, William Horberg, 

Stefan Arndt, Frédérique Dumas Production 

Companies X-Filme Creative Pool, Berlin, Miramax 

Films, New York Principal Cast Cate Blanchett, 

Giovanni Ribisi Casting Shaila Rubin Special 

Effects Buff Compagnie, Paris Studio Shooting 

Warner Studios, Bottrop Length 95 min, 2599 m 

Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version 

English/Italian Subtitled Version German Sound 

Technology Dolby SRD International Festival 

Screenings Berlin 2002 (opening film, in competition) 

With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmförderungsanstalt 

(FFA), Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg 

German Distributor X Verleih AG, Berlin 

World Sales: 

Miramax International 

99 Hudson Street, 5th Floor · USA-New York, New York 10013 

phone +1-2 12-9 41 39 95 · fax +1-2 12-9 41 38 36 

www.miramax.com 


Tom Tykwer was born in Wuppertal in 1965. He 

worked on various productions as a production assistant, 

script reader and assistant director. His first feature 

Deadly Maria (Die tödliche Maria, 1993) was 

named Best Film by the German Film Critics’ Association 

in 1994, and won the Eastman Promotional Award at Hof 

and the Bavarian Film Award for Best Newcomer/ 

Direction. He was also co-author on Wolfgang Becker’s 

1997 Berlinale competition entry Life is All You Get (Das 

Leben ist eine Baustelle). In 1998, Tykwer was awarded a 

German Film Award in Silver in the category Best Feature 

Film for Wintersleepers (Winterschläfer, 1997). 

His film Run Lola Run (Lola rennt, 1998) won two 

German Film Awards in Gold in 1999 for Best Director 

and Best Feature Film, and was submitted as the German 

entry for the 1999 Foreign Language OSCAR. His other 

films include: Because (short, 1990), Epilog (short, 

1991) and The Princess and the Warrior (Der 

Krieger und die Kaiserin, 2000). 

AT BERLIN 

OPENING FILM/IN COMPETITION 

55

Herz 

“Tropical Dive” is the name of a small diving school in a suburb of 

Cologne. A group of friends meets there on a regular basis to forget their 

day-to-day troubles in the weightlessness of the underwater world. Cem’s 

heart beats for Lale, who is standing trial. Georg is having trouble coming 

to grips with the fact that his wife Gisela is losing interest in him. Martin 

the doctor can’t get the fragile Natalie, who is in his care after a suicide 

attempt, out of his mind. And then there’s Marlis, who betrays Günther 

with the diving instructor Marcel … 

Genre Drama Category Feature Film 

Cinema Year of Production 2001 

Director/Screenplay Horst J. Sczerba 

Director of Photography Carl-Friedrich 

Koschnick Editor Marcel Peragine Music by 

Dirk Rauf Production Design Volker 

Schläfer Producers Manuela Stehr, Stefan 

Arndt Production Company X-Filme, 

Berlin Principal Cast Florian Fitz, Martin 

Roll, Mehmet Kurtulus, Pamel Knaak, Uwe 

Bohm Casting Anja Dihrberg, Dirk Fehrecke 

Special Effects Das Werk, Dirk Burrekoven 

Length 100 min, 2750 m Format 35 mm, 

color, cs Original Version German 

Subtitled Version English Sound 

Technology Dolby SR With backing 

from Filmstiftung NRW German 

Distributor X Verleih AG, Berlin 

Horst J. Sczerba was born in Krefeld and 

studied Medicine and worked as a doctor for 

many years before he turned to radio, film and 

television. In 1991, he wrote his first screenplay 

for the Tatort-episode Blutwurstwalzer, directed 

by Wolfgang Becker. A year later, he and Becker 

edited the screenplay into the award-winning 

television film Kinderspiele (1992), followed 

by his highly-acclaimed directorial debut Die 

Schamlosen (1994), with Jürgen Vogel and 

Meret Becker in the leading roles. His other films 

include: Eine unmögliche Hochzeit 

(1996), Die Unschuld der Krähen (1997) 

– winner of the German Television Award, and the 

road movie Halt mich fest (TV, 1999). 

World Sales: 




phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 



Scene from ”Herz“ (photo © Bavaria Film International)

Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge! HELP, I’M A BOY! 

Eleven-year-old Emma doesn’t have it easy. Her mother expects her to always outperform the others, her 

classmates think she’s pushy, and her mean swim coach wants to make an Olympic swimmer out of her, no 

matter what. 

After being harassed yet again by her schoolmate Mickey, Emma wants nothing more than to become a 

different person. As though by magic, her wish is fulfilled – but not exactly as she wanted: Emma turns into 

Mickey. And somewhere on the other side of town, Mickey turns into Emma... 

Sarah Hannemann, Nick Seidensticker (photo © Studio Hamburg Produktion GmbH) 

Genre Children’s Film, Family Category Feature Film 

Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Oliver 

Dommenget Screenplay Astrid Ströher Director of 

Photography Georgij Pestov Editor Monika Schuchard 

Music by Jens Langbein, Robert Schulte Hemming 

Production Design Sonja Strömer Producer Dirk R. 

Düwel Production Company Studio Hamburg Produktion, 

Hamburg, in co-production with NDR, Hamburg, BR, Munich, 

VCC Perfect Pictures, Hamburg Principal Cast Sarah 

Hannemann, Nick Seidensticker, Philipp Blank, Pinkas Braun, 

Nina Petri, Dominique Horwitz Casting Studio Hamburg, 

Kaija Helweg Special Effects VCC Perfect Pictures, 

Hamburg Length 90 min, 1029 m Format Super 16 mm 

Blow up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German 

Sound Technology Optical sound International 

Festival Screenings Berlin 2002 (Children’s Film Fest) 

With backing from BKM, FilmFörderung Hamburg, 

Kuratorium junger deutscher Film German Distributor 

MFA Münchner Film Agentur, Munich 

Oliver Dommenget was born in 1966 in Berlin. 

After internships at Studio Hamburg and in the 

Kamerawerkstatt Theo Rose, he served as a camera 

assistant for various film and television productions. 

Since 1991, he has been a freelance cameraman and 

director of numerous music videos and advertisements. 

In 1997, he began writing his own scripts and 

making short films, followed by Film Studies at the 

University of Hamburg from 1998-2000. His films 

include: the shorts November (1997), Zugroulette 

(1998), Verrat (1999) – winner of the 

German Film School Award in Bronze, Martas 

Töchter (1999), 3 Tage 44 (2000) – winner of 

the Studio Hamburg Promotion Prize, and 

the feature Wilder Hafen Ehe (2000). 

World Sales: 

CINEPOOL – Dept. of Telepool Europäisches Fernsehprogrammkontor GmbH 

Dr. Cathy Rohnke, Wolfram Skowronnek 


phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 61 88 

www.telepool.de · email: rohnke@telepool.de, skowronnek@telepool.de 


AT B E R L I N 

CHILDREN’S FILM FEST 

57

Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt 

FINAL HOPE 

Genre Drama Category TV-movie (fiction) 

Year of Production 2001 Director Marc 

Rothemund Screenplay Fred Breinersdorfer 

Director of Photography Martin Langer 

Editor Hans Funck Production Design Isolde 

Rüter Producer Sven Burgemeister Production 

Company TV60 Film, Munich, in cooperation with 

NDR, Hamburg Principal Cast Anneke Kim 

Sarnau, Axel Prahl, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Barbara 

Philipp, Frank Sieckel Casting Lore Blössl, Walter 

Speidel Length 89 min, 2435 m Format Super 

16 mm Blow up 35 mm, color, 1:1.78 Original 

Version German Subtitled Version English 

Sound Technology Dolby Stereo 

International Festival Screenings Hof 2001, 

Berlin 2002 (German Cinema) German 

Distributor NDR International, Hamburg 

World Sales: 

NDR International · Doris Heinze 

Hugh-Green-Weg 1 · D-22529 Hamburg 

phone +49-40-41 56 57 81 · fax +49-40-41 56 64 48 

a policewoman. After two years of training, she starts 

her new job in Hamburg with great enthusiasm 

and turns her back on her small hometown and her 

boyfriend Max, who is just as much against her new 

profession as her parents are. 

The shift work is hard but Corinna gives it her best 

and doesn’t want to lose face in front of her boss, 

Eddy Garbitsch. But when Garbitsch comes a bit too 

close one day, her situation with him and her colleagues 

becomes critical. And on top of it all, she 

finds out that her best friend Tanja is pregnant from 

Max. 

Garbitsch’s insulted ego brings him into a vicious 

circle of harassment toward Corinna. Although she 

manages to keep her cool, she doesn’t have a chance 

among her colleagues. Jens is the only one to tries to 

keep Garbitsch off her back, but his help comes too 

late. In her desperation, her only way out is to take 

her own life. 

Anneke Kim Sarnau (photo © NDR/Gordon Timpen) The 25-year-old Corinna Safranski wants to become 

Marc Rothemund began working as an assistant 

director in 1990 on commercials for such directors as 

Gabriel Barylli, Nikolai Karo and Helmut Dietl as well 

as on TV productions as varied as Bernd Eichinger’s Das 

Mädchen Rosemarie, Vivian Naefe’s Nervenkrieg and 

Dominik Graf ’s Sperling. In 1995, he served as the 

German assistant director for Gérard Corbiau’s OSCARnominated 

Farinelli and followed this a year later with 

Dietl’s Rossini. He then made his directorial debut with 

SAT.1’s Wilde Jungs and two episodes of the ZDF 

series Anwalt Abel. His first film as a director for the 

cinema was Love Scenes from Planet Earth (Das 

merkwürdige Verhalten geschlechtsreifer 

Großstädter zur Paarungszeit, 1998) followed by 

Just The Two Of Us (Harte Jungs) in 1999. 

AT BERLIN 

GERMAN CINEMA 


Hundsköpfe 

The Dog Heads are four old army friends whose job it is to search farmland for buried 

mines and munitions. They use their detectors to locate and then uncover not just the 

tools of death and injury but also their own past. 

Sylvia is worried about her husband, Christoph, who has taken a dangerous job. He hasn’t 

seen his old pals in years, not since their time together as border guards. Now he wants to 

go mine hunting with them. Stefan, Konrad and Mirko are ready to go. But the Dog Heads 

are not complete – Alexander is missing. Once the love of Sylvia’s life, he drowned trying 

to swim the Elbe River from East Germany to the West. But the mysterious circumstances 

surrounding Alexander’s death have never really been clarified, nor forgotten. Suspicious of 

the friends’ reunion, Sylvia investigates the past and stumbles upon contradictions indicating 

that perhaps Alexander’s death was no accident at all... 

Esther Esche (photo © Jost Hering Film) 

Genre Art, Drama, History Category Feature 

Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 

Director/Screenplay Karsten Laske Director 

of Photography The Chau Ngo Editor 

Cölestine Brandt Music by Paul Wuthe, Jens 

Meyer Production Design Jörg Landgraf 

Producer Jost Hering Production Company 

Propeller 7 Film, Bergfelde, in co-production with 

Koppfilm, Potsdam Principal Cast Arnd 

Klawitter, Simon Werner, Esther Esche, Axel Prahl, 

Marko Bräutigam Length 90 min, 2565 m 



Version English Sound Technology Dolby 

Stereo 


Jost Hering Filmproduktion · Jost Hering 

Winterfeldtstr. 31 · D-10781 Berlin 

phone +49-30-21 75 68 56 · fax +49-30-21 75 68 58 

www.josthering.de · email: josthering@aol.com 


Karsten Laske was born in 1965 in Brandenburg. 

He studied Acting at the Ernst Busch Academy in 

Berlin from 1986-1990, followed by an engagement 

at the Mecklenburg State Theater from 1990-94. 

Since then, he has been a freelance actor, writer and 

director. From 1997-98, he worked in the Directing 

Department of the ”Konrad Wolf“ Academy of Film 

& Television. He wrote the screenplays for the films 

Der sanfte Killer, Pelikan, Mogadishu, Apokalypse 1999, 

Der Virtuose and Sturmwarnung, and directed and 

wrote the screenplays for Stille Wasser (1992) 

and Edgar (1996). 

DOG HEADS 

59

Jochen – Ein Golzower 

aus Philadelphia 

JOCHEN – A GOLZOWER FROM PHILADELPHIA 

Jochen – A Golzower from Philadelphia is the seventeenth film of the Golzow-series. The son of an agriculture 

functionary, Jochen, who only attended school in Golzow for one year, allows glimpses into his personal 

life. He helped to establish the socialist order in Philadelphia, then in Golzow and last in Bernau near Berlin. 

The heavyweight with a special sense for practical things became a milker, was a border soldier, got married and 

lives with his wife and three children in Bernau. Just as disappointed with the German Democratic Republic then 

as well as its demise, he wants to have nothing to do with politics anymore. 

Genre Biopic, History Category Documentary 

Cinema Year of Production 2001 

Directors/Screenplay Barbara & Winfried 

Junge, based on an idea from Karl Gass 

Directors of Photography Hans-Eberhard 

Leupold, Harald Klix Editor Barbara Junge 

Music by Gerhard Rosenfeld Producer 

Klaus-Dieter Schmutzer Production 

Company à jour Film- und Fernsehproduktion, 

Berlin, in cooperation with ORB, Potsdam, DEFA 

Foundation, Berlin Length 119 min, 3415 m 

Format 35 mm, color/b&w, 1:1.37 Original 


Sound Technology Dolby SR International 

Festival Screenings Berlin 2002 

(Forum) With backing from BKM, Brandenburg 

Ministry of Science, Research & Culture, 

Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung, Sparkasse 

Märkisch-Oderland German Distributor 

Progress Film-Verleih GmbH, Berlin 

World Sales: 

Progress Film-Verleih GmbH · Christel Jansen 

Burgstr. 27 · D-10178 Berlin 

phone +49-30-24 00 32 25 · fax +49-30-24 00 32 99 

www.progress-film.de · email: c.jansen@progress-film.de 

Barbara Junge was born in 1943 in Neunhofen and studied English and Russian 

at the University of Leipzig. From 1969, she worked in the DEFA studios for documentary 

films. In 1978, she began the editorial supervision of the Golzow-series. 

Since 1983, she has edited all of Winfried Junge’s films and began co-directing with 

him in 1992. Winfried Junge was born in 1935 in Berlin. After studies in 

German at the Humboldt University in Berlin, he transferred to the German Film 

Academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg in 1954. Graduating in 1958, he began work at the 

DEFA studios. His films include: When I Finally Go to School (Wenn ich 

erst zur Schule geh’, 1961), Observations in a First Class (Nach 

einem Jahr, 1962), Eleven Years Old (Elf Jahre alt, 1966), Anmut sparet 

nicht noch Mühe (1979), Lebensläufe – Die Geschichte der 

Kinder von Golzow in einzelnen Portraits (1980) – winner of the FIPRES- 

CI Award Berlin, Diese Golzower – Umstandsbestimmung eines Ortes 

(1984), Drehbuch: Die Zeiten (1992), The Life of Jürgen from 

Golzow (Das Leben des Jürgens von Golzow, 1994), The Story of 

Uncle Willy from Golzow (Die Geschichte des Onkel Willy aus 

Golzow, 1995), Was geht euch mein Leben an, Elke (1996), Da habt 

ihr mein Leben, Marieluise (1997), Brigitte & Marcel (1998), A Guy 

Like Dieter – Native of Golzow (Ein Mensch wie Dieter – 

Golzower, 1999), and many more. Jochen – A Golzower from 

Philadelphia is the eighth Golzow film to participate in the Berlinale Forum. 

Scene from ”Jochen – A Golzower from Philadelphia“ (photo © Winfried Junge) 

AT BERLIN 

FORUM 


Klassenfahrt 

A school class takes a trip to the Polish Baltic Sea coast. The holiday resort isn’t exactly what the 

kids would call exciting, especially since it is off-season. Between table tennis matches, day trips 

and alcohol excesses, a cautious relationship develops between the 16-year-old Ronny and his 

fellow student Isa. At a disco one night, they meet a Polish boy named Marek. After spending a 

lot of time together, Ronny notices that Marek is more interested in Isa than he is in him. Ronny 

starts to challenge Marek, until his provocations end in a test of will with tragic consequences. 

Sophie Kempe, Steven Sperling (photo © Michael Weber) 

Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year 

of Production 2002 Director Henner Winckler 

Screenplay Henner Winckler, Stefan Kriekhaus 

Director of Photography Janne Busse Editor 

Bettina Böhler Music by Cem Oral Production 

Design Marcel Schörken Producers Florian Koerner 

von Gustorf, Michael Weber Production Company 

Schramm Film, Berlin, in co-production with ZDF, Mainz 

Principal Cast Steven Sperling, Sophie Kempe, Bartek 

Blaszczyk Special Effects Mike Bols Length 86 min, 

2353 m Format Super 16 mm Blow up 35 mm, color, 



International Festival Screenings Berlin 2002 

(Forum) With backing from Filmboard Berlin- 

Brandenburg German Distributor Peripher 

Filmverleih GmbH, Berlin 


Schramm Film Koerner + Weber 

Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber 

Bülowstr. 90 · D-10783 Berlin 

phone +49-30-2 61 51 40 · fax +49-30-2 61 51 39 

email: schrammfilm@snafu.de 


Henner Winckler was born in 1969 in Giessen. 

He studied at the Academy of Art & Design in 

Offenbach from 1990-93, followed by studies in 

Visual Communication and Film at the Academy of 

Fine Arts in Hamburg from 1994-98. Active in scriptwriting 

and behind the camera, he has also directed 

the shorts Lust (1995) and Tip Top (1998). 

AT BERLIN 

FORUM 

SCHOOL TRIP 

61

Knallharte Jungs 

MORE ANTS IN THE PANTS 

Florian is only weeks away from graduation. He also happens to be in a lot of trouble. His 

growing attraction towards the opposite sex keeps getting him into the most horrifyingly 

embarrassing situations imaginable to male-kind and he seems unable to resist. What makes 

matters worse is that Flo has fallen in love with Maja, the most amazing girl walking the face 

of the earth, but also one to whom Flo would be virtually invisible if it wasn’t for her witnessing 

several of his failed attempts at seducing the girls (or teachers) at school. 

After the school administration forces him into a session with a very attractive female sex 

therapist, Flo seeks the help of his friends Red Bull, Dirk and Schumi. They analyze Flo’s 

situation, but Schumi and Dirk see no hope at all for their friend to ever succeed in seducing 

the beautiful Maja. Red Bull, on the other hand, pushes them into a bet. For the girl of his 

dreams, Flo is ready to embark onto every adventure imaginable … 

Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema 


Granz Henman Director of Photography 

Gernot Roll Editor Ueli Christen Production 

Design Christoph Simons Producer Bernd 

Eichinger Production Company Constantin Film 

Produktion, Munich Principal Cast Tobias 

Schenke, Axel Stein, Diana Amft, Rebecca 

Mosselman, Tom Lass, Nicky Kantor Casting Rita 

Serra-Roll Special Effects CA Scanline, 

Geiselgasteig Studio Shooting Bavaria Studios, 

Geiselgasteig Length 92 min, 2524 m Format 

35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German 

Dubbed Version English Sound Technology 

Dolby SRD With backing from FilmFernseh- 

Fonds Bayern, Bayerischer Bankenfonds, Filmförderungsanstalt 

(FFA) German Distributor 


Granz Henman studied Creative Writing and 

English Literature at New York University (NYU) 

and Trinity College in Dublin. He received the 

Gregory Peck Scholarship from NYU and the 

University College of Dublin to participate in a 

Scriptwriting seminar in Ireland. In 1994, he completed 

an internship in the advertising department 

of Universal Pictures, followed by work as 

a production assistant on Christine Vachon and 

Gus Van Sant’s Kids. In 1995, he began writing 

screenplays for such films as A Dublin Fairy Tale, 

Venus Bound, and Marc Rothemund’s Ants in the 

Pants (Harte Jungs, 1999). He had his directorial 

debut with the short Mr. Preble Gets Rid 

of His Wife in 1997, followed by co-direction 

with Til Schweiger on The Polar Bear (Der 

Eisbär, 1998). 

World Sales: 

Atlas International Film GmbH · Dieter Menz, Stefan Menz, Christl Blum 

Rumfordstr. 29-31 · D-80469 Munich 

phone +49-89-2 10 97 50 · fax +49-89-22 43 32 

www.atlasfilm.com · email: mail@atlasfilm.com 


Diana Amft, Tobias Schenke (photo © Constantin Film Verleih GmbH)

Königskinder 

During holidays on the North Sea coast, Dole meets Hermann and they become very close 

friends. But this is no ordinary friendship. Dole is eleven years old and Hermann is more than 

thirty years her senior, married, with children. 

Back home, both live near Mannheim, they see each other quite often. One day though, Dole’s 

mother decides to move to France, but Dole has her own ideas. A short while later Hermann 

answers a knock at the door to find Dole standing on his front step – she’s decided to run away 

with him – and he goes with her. Pursued by Dole’s mother and Hermann’s wife, their journey 

becomes a wild goose chase and brings them full circle, ending where it all began, at the coast. 

But since their first encounter, a few things have changed: Dole has grown up, Hermann hasn’t. 

Henriette Confurius (photo © Jost Hering Film) 

Genre Coming-of-Age Story, Drama Category 


Director/Screenplay Anne Wild Director of 

Photography Wojciech Szepel Editor Dagmar 

Lichius Music by Maurus Ronner Production 

Design Martina Brünner Producer Jost Hering 

Production Company Jost Hering Film, Berlin 

Principal Cast Juliane Köhler, Leonard Lansink, 

Henriette Confurius, Gabriela Maria Schmeide 

Casting Andrew Hood Length 90 min, 2565 m 



Version English Sound Technology Dolby Stereo 

With backing from MFG Baden-Württemberg, 

Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Kuratorium junger 

deutscher Film, Filmförderung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 

German Distributor Movie Net Film 

GmbH, Munich 


Jost Hering Filmproduktion · Jost Hering 

Winterfeldtstr. 31 · D-10781 Berlin 

phone +49-30-21 75 68 56 · fax +49-30-21 75 68 58 

www.josthering.de · email: josthering@aol.com 


Anne Wild was born in 1967 in Offenburg. She studied 

German Literature, Philosophy and Art History at 

the University of Freiburg from 1986-88, followed by 

Acting studies from 1988-92 at the Academy of Music 

and Applied Arts in Stuttgart. In 1994, she worked in 

New York as a production assistant for advertisements, 

music videos and feature films. She has also done text 

writing for advertising agencies in Hamburg and Berlin, 

and has participated in numerous screenplay seminars 

including the Master School Seminar with Don Bohlinger 

and the éQuinoxe Program, as well as the European Film 

Academy’s directing seminar ”Ways of Seeing Actors“ 

and many more. Since 1997, she has been working as a 

freelance journalist for various newspapers, radio and 

television stations. In 1999, together with Stefan 

Dähnert, she received the first Baden-Württemberg Script 

Prize for What to do in case of fire? (Was tun, wenn’s 

brennt, 2001). Her other films include Nachmittag in 

Siedlisko (2000) and Ballett ist ausgefallen 

(2001). 

63

Der Mann von nebenan 

THE MAN NEXT DOOR 

Genre Comedy Category TV-movie (fiction) 

Year of Production 2001 Director Dror Zahavi 

Screenplay Peter Probst, based on the novel by 

Amelie Fried Director of Photography Martin 

Kukula Editor Fritz Busse Music by Paul Vincent 

Gunia, Oliver Gunia Production Design Andrea 

Douglas Producer Sven Burgemeister Production 

Company TV60 Film, Munich, in cooperation with 

SAT.1, Berlin Principal Cast Lisa Martinek, Axel 

Milberg, Andrea Sawatzki, Barbara Magdalena Ahren, 

Eva Hassmann, Stephan Kampwirth, Clemens Jakubetz 

Casting Lore Blössl Special Effects Pitt Effects, 

Pitt Rotter Length 100 min, 1097 m Format Super 


With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern 


TV60 Film · Sven Burgemeister, Bernd Burgemeister 

Wiltrudenstr. 5 · D-80805 Munich 

phone +49-89-3 60 49 10 · fax +49-89-36 04 91 30 

email: mail@tv60film.de 

Scene from ”The Man Next Door“ (photo © TV60 Film) 

Kate Moor and her son move away from the 

city, out into the country to make a new start 

of things. The former athlete left her husband 

and built up an existence for herself making 

wooden flutes. Her new neighbors are the at 

first very helpful pensioner Willi and his mysterious 

wife Gudrun, the strange Malise and her 

son Simon, the pretty, young Rita, who has a 

somewhat bizarre past, and the single Inge, 

who lives with her deranged father. Kate learns 

about all these circumstances because the rest 

of the community forms a pact against the 

bullying Willi. Kate becomes the main victim 

of his voyeurism, his advances and the lifethreatening 

situations he brings her and her son 

into. Then Inge's father is found dead at a 

construction site. Finally the rest of the group 

win over Kate’s support and together work out 

a plot to bring Willi's bullying to an end. 

Dror Zahavi studied Directing at the ”Konrad Wolf“ 

Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam and graduated 

in 1988 with the film Alexander Penn – 

Ich will sein in allem, which was nominated for 

the Student OSCAR in the same year. His other films 

include: Der Besucher (TV, 1992), the three 

Männer von K3 episodes Kurz nach Mitternacht 

(1995), Blutsverwandschaft (1997) and Liebestest 

(1998), the Doppelter Einsatz episodes Der 

Mörder mit der Maske (1997) and Die 

Todesfreundin (1998) – which won both the 

German Television Award and the Bavarian Television 

Award for Best Direction in 1999, as well as Mallorca 

– für eine Nacht (TV, 1999), Die Salsaprinzessin 

(TV, 2000), and many more. 


Missing Allen – Wo ist Allen Ross? 

MISSING ALLEN - THE MAN WHO BECAME A CAMERA 

Missing Allen is a detective film: a filmmaker sets off in search of his cameraman 

and friend who disappeared without a trace after shooting a film with him in 

autumn 1995. The investigation begins in Chicago’s art scene but soon leaves this 

sheltered world, following a trail to cultural backwater, to sects and people who 

believe in UFOs: to Waco, Texas and Oklahoma City, to the traumatic sites of 

recent American history. 

Christian Bauer and Allen Ross, Chicago 1991 (photo © Tangram) 

Genre Thriller Category Documentary Cinema 


Christian Bauer Director of Photography 

Michael Gööck Editor Julia Furch Music by Titus 

Vollmer Producer Christian Bauer Production 

Company Tangram Film, Munich, in cooperation 

with BR, Munich, SR, Saarbrücken, ARTE, Strasbourg 

Length 92 min, 2517 m Format Betacam SP 

Blow up 35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original Version 

English Subtitled Version German Sound 


Screenings Munich 2001, Locarno 2001, Leipzig 

2001, Festival New Cinema New Media Montreal 

2001 (in competition), Amsterdam 2001, Palm Springs 

2002, Hot Docs Toronto 2002 International 

Awards Best Documentary Montreal 2001 With 

backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern 

Christian Bauer was born in 1947 in Wartaweil/Germany. 

He studied German and English Literature, American Affairs and 

History and taught at the University of Munich. He then started a 

second career and wrote film reviews for major German newspapers. 

An independent filmmaker and producer since 1980, he has 

directed more than fifty documentaries. In 1993, he was awarded 

the Adolf Grimme Award for his film on the last days of an 

American army garrison in Bavaria, The Yankees Go Home 

(1992). His other films include: Farewell Celluloid (TV, 1983), 

Déjà Vu (TV, 1984), Night Without Morning (TV, 1985), 

As Simple As That (TV, 1986), Behind the Black 

Mirror (TV, 1987), Phoenix Rising: The History of the 

German Film Industry After WWII (TV, 1988), The 

Jungle – Upton Sinclair and the Chicago Stockyards 

(TV, 1990), Vilnius (TV, 1991), Along the Amber Coast 

(TV, 1993), Places in History: Hollywood (TV, 1994), 

Last Take ’45 (TV, 1995), Ol’ Man River: A Trip Down 

the Mississippi (TV, 1996), A Brief History of 

Synchronicities (TV, 1997), The True Kir Royal (TV, 

1998/99) and many more. 

World Sales: 

CINEPOOL · A Dept. of Telepool Europäisches Fernsehprogrammkontor GmbH 

Dr. Cathy Rohnke, Wolfram Skowronnek 


phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 61 88 

www.telepool.de · email: rohnke@telepool.de, skowronnek@telepool.de 


65

Nicht Fisch, nicht Fleisch 

NEITHER FISH, NOR FOWL 

Adopted as a baby in Korea and raised in a provincial German town, Michael has two 

identities. His friends accept him as he is, but the mirror reminds Michael everyday of the 

hole in his biography which nags at him like an open wound. Who am I? Where are my 

roots? The questions of a generation which has lost sight of its goals because it has also 

lost touch with its own points of reference. 

When his adoptive parents divorce, Michael suddenly feels lost and runs to his best friend 

in Berlin. His confrontation with the beautiful Jin Hi forces him to make a decision, for 

even in Berlin’s Korean community he is ”neither fish, nor fowl“. As a German with no 

knowledge of the Korean language and tradition, he is damned to live between two 

cultures. Michael’s journey as a stranger in his own land makes him come to the realization 

that ”home“ can have many faces. Even that of a loved one … 

Genre Coming-of-Age Story, Drama, Love Story 

Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 

2001 Director/Screenplay Matthias Keilich 

Director of Photography Henning Stirner Editor 

Gergana Voigt Music by Theo Krieger Production 

Design Martina Brünner Producers Stefan Raiser, Felix 

Zackor Production Company Dreamtool Entertainment, 

Geiselgasteig, in co-production with dffb, Berlin, 

ZDF, Mainz Principal Cast Ill-Young Kim, Ju-Youn Kim, 

Lisa Kreuzer, Jürgen Lehmann, Christian Steyer Casting 

Robert Drews Length 90 min, 2565 m Format S-16 

mm Blow up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version 

German Subtitled Version English Sound 


Screenings Rotterdam 2002, Ophüls-Festival 

Saarbrücken 2002 (in competition) With backing 

from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmboard Berlin- 

Brandenburg, BKM 


Dreamtool Entertainment · Stefan Raiser 


phone +49-89-64 98 14 24 · fax +49-89-64 98 13 24 

www.dreamtool.de · email: info@dreamtool.de 

Matthias Keilich was born in 1965 in 

Calw/Baden-Württemberg. After his 

schooling, he worked as a sculptor in Stuttgart 

and Freiburg. In 1993, he enrolled in 

the German Film & Television Academy 

(dffb) in Berlin where he studied Scriptwriting 

and Direction. During his studies, 

he made such films as Wer aussteigt 

hat verloren (1996), Tod in New 

York (1996) and Zu (1998), some of 

which were co-produced by the television 

broadcasters Sat1, SFB, 3Sat and ZDF. 

Neither Fish, Nor Fowl is his first 

feature-length film as well as his graduation 

film from the dffb. 


Ill-Young Kim, Ju-Youn Kim (photo © Dreamtool)

Nicole und Jean 

Nicole and Jean is a love story. A journey, over an entire summer, from Berlin to 

Paris, from Paris to the south. 

Nicole and Jean met, fell in love with each other, and consumed each other. Their 

story is one of two people who spent their lives looking for their place in life, but even 

together they could not find it. Nicole and Jean both died of cancer at a young age. 

Nicole and Jean is also the story of a daughter who takes on a journey to ask her 

parents all the questions that were deprived of her by their death. 

Nicole Cazanave 

Genre Family Category Documentary Cinema 


Juliette Cazanave Director of Photography 

Isabelle Razavet, Jean-Marc Bouzou Editor Agnés 

Bruckert, Andreas Menzel Music by Oblivion & 

Milonga en Re by Astor Piazzolla Producer Christian 

Baute Production Company Movimento, Paris, in 

co-production with dffb, Berlin, Alias Film, Cologne, in 

cooperation with ARTE France, Paris, BR, Munich 

Length 70 min Format Digi Beta/Super 8, color, 

16:9 Original Version French Dubbed Version 

German Subtitled Version German Sound 


Screenings Nyon 2001, Cinema du Réel Paris 2001, 

Ophüls-Festival Saarbrücken 2002 International 

Awards Bavarian Documentary Award 2001 With 

backing from Centre National de la Cinématographie, 

Commission Télévision de la PROCIREP, 

Media Rent 


dffb-Deutsche Film- & Fernsehakademie Berlin · Cristina Marx 

Potsdamer Str. 2 · D-10785 Berlin 

phone +49-30-25 75 91 52 · fax +49-30-25 75 91 62 

www.dffb.de · email: c.marx@dffb.de 


Juliette Cazanave was born in 1966 in Paris. 

She studied History in Madrid, followed by studies 

in Art History and Film History in Paris. She then 

transferred to the German Film & Television 

Academy (dffb) in Berlin. She has worked as a production 

assistant, editing assistant, news editor and 

director’s assistant. Her films include: Paris- 

Berlin (short, 1994), Sweets and Lipsticks 

(short, 1995), A propos des arbres (short, 

1995), The Green Room (Die grüne Bude, 

documentary, 1996), Toilet (Klo, short, 1997), 

and Ailleurs si j’y suis (documentary, 1998) – 

winner of the First Prize at the Filmfest Potsdam. 

Nicole and Jean is her graduation film from 

the dffb. 

NICOLE AND JEAN 

67

Nirgendwo in Afrika 

NOWHERE IN AFRICA 

Just before the outbreak of World War II, the German-Jewish Redrich family manages to 

escape the Nazi terror at the very last moment. 

Five year old Regina begins a new life with her parents, Jettel and Walter, on a small isolated 

farm in Kenya, where they lead an impoverished existence far removed from their roots in 

Germany. While Regina discovers the magic of Africa, a foreign continent full of strange 

people, her parents become desperate in the face of poverty and isolation. For Walter, his 

inability to cut Germany out of his heart tortures him far more than their economic plight. 

This remains so even when he becomes certain that the rest of his family in Germany have 

been murdered by the Nazis. 



Caroline Link, based on the novel by Stefanie Zweig 

Director of Photography Gernot Roll Editor 

Patricia Rommel Music by Niki Reiser Production 

Design Susann Bieling, Uwe Szielasko Producer Peter 

Herrmann Co-Producers Bernd Eichinger, Thilo 

Kleine, Michael Weber, Sven Ebeling Production 

Company MTM Medien & Television München, 

Munich, in co-production with Constantin Film, Munich, 

Bavaria Film, Munich and Media Cooperation One, 

Stuttgart Principal Cast Juliane Köhler, Merab 

Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo, Karoline 

Eckertz, Lea Kurka Casting An Dorthe Braker 

Length 141 min, 3853 m Format 35 mm, color, cs 

Original Version German Subtitled Version 

English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With 

backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt 

(FFA), BKM German Distributor 


Caroline Link was born in Bad Nauheim in 

1964. She attended the Academy of Television & 

Film in Munich from 1986-1991. Her graduation 

film Sommertage (1991) won the Kodak Award 

at the Hof Film Festival. In 1996, she made 

Beyond Silence (Jenseits der Stille), her 

feature debut, which was nominated in 1998 for 

the Foreign Language OSCAR and received the 

Bavarian Film Award, the German Film Award in 

Silver and the Guild Film Award in Gold, among 

other commendations. Her other films include: 

the Erich Kästner-adaptation Annaluise and 

Anton (Pünktchen und Anton, 1999), 

Kalle der Träumer (TV, 1992), Glück zum 

Anfassen (1989) and Bunte Blumen (1988). 

World Sales: 




phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 



Lea Kurka, Sidede Onyulo (photo © Bavaria Film International)

Der Schuh des Manitu MANITOU’S SHOE 

”It’s a social, critical, auteur, western road comedy musical dogma thriller drama with horses – and 

thus also a film for girls.“ 

Michael ”Bully“ Herbig, director, producer, co-writer and starring actor 

The Apache Chief Abahachi and his blood brother Ranger are responsible for keeping peace in the 

Wild West. The trouble all starts when Abahachi takes out a loan from the Shoshone Indians to buy a 

saloon for his tribe. It turns out that the real estate agent is no real estate agent at all – he’s a trickster 

and a really bad guy named Santa Maria. The saloon is only a façade and Santa Maria gets away with 

the money. To make matters worse, Abahachi and Ranger get blamed for the death of the Shoshone 

Chief’s son Funny Rabbit. They’ve got no choice – they have to find the treasure that Abahachi's 

grandfather Mad Cow bequeathed him many years ago, pay back the Shoshone and prove their 

innocence. Finding the treasure is not an easy matter, however, especially because Abahachi divided 

the treasure map into four parts and now can't remember who he gave the other three parts to. 

Scenes from ”Manitou's Shoe“ (© herbX film) 

Genre Western Spoof Category Feature Film Cinema Year of 

Production 2001 Director Michael ”Bully“ Herbig Screenplay 

Michael ”Bully“ Herbig, Alfons Biedermann, Rick Kavanian, Murmel 

Clausen Director of Photography Stephan Schuh Editor 

Alexander Dittner Music by Ralf Wengenmayr Production Design 

Claus Kottmann Producers Michael ”Bully“ Herbig, Michael Wolf 

Production Company herbX film Produktion, Munich, in co-production 

with Constantin Film, Munich, SevenPictures, Munich Principal 

Cast Michael ”Bully“ Herbig, Christian Tramitz, Sky du Mont, Marie 

Bäumer, Hilmi Sôzer, Rick Kavanian Casting Rita Serra-Roll Special 

Effects CA Scanline, Geiselgasteig Studio Shooting ARRI, Munich 

Length 87 min, 2225 m Format Super 35 mm, color, cs Original 

Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology 

Dolby Digital International Festival Screenings Berlin 2002 

(German Cinema) International Awards Bambi 2001, German 

Comedy Prize 2001 for Best Feature Film, Golden Screen with 2 Stars 

With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmstiftung NRW, 

Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Constantin Film 

Verleih GmbH, Munich 

World Sales: 

Beta Film GmbH · Dirk Schürhoff 

Robert-Buerkle-Str. 2 · D-85737 Ismaning 

phone +49-89-99 56 21 34 · fax +49-89-99 56 27 03 

www.betafilm.com · email: Dschuerhoff@betafilm.com 


Michael ”Bully“ Herbig studied Photography and is 

well known on the German comedy scene as a writer, 

director and producer. In addition to his morning radio 

show Langemann und die Morgencrew from 1992 - 1995, 

he also made 800 episodes of the comedy radio show 

Die Bayern Cops. He has appeared in various advertisements 

and TV specials, and is author, actor, director and 

producer of the Bullyparade, which is now in its fifth 

season on German television. His feature film directorial 

debut was the comedy Erkan & Stefan (1999), which 

was released in Germany in April 2000. Also in 2000, he 

founded the film production company herbX film, whose 

first project was Manitou’s Shoe. 

GERMAN BOX OFFICE RECORD 

OVER 10 MILLION ADMISSIONS 

69

Semana Santa 

It’s Saint’s week in Seville when detective Maria Delgado hits town. She’s running from the 

past, her new partner doesn’t like her either, and she’s just in time to investigate a bizarre 

double murder. 

As Maria joins forces with the shy Torillo and the resentful Quemeda, a third brutal death 

points to the presence of a serial killer. At first there are no clues, but when an old man tells 

Maria about the terrifying place called La Soledad, the truth begins to emerge. 

The three detectives begin a cat-and-mouse chase with an insane but ingenious killer, and at 

the same time they start to uncover a history that somebody wants very badly to conceal. 

As the trail gets clearer, it becomes a great deal more dangerous. One thing is certain, more 

blood will be spilled before the end of Semana Santa. 

Genre Thriller, Psycho-Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema 

Year of Production 2002 Director Pepe Danquart 

Screenplay Roy Mitchell, based on the novel by David Hewson 

Director of Photography Ciro Cappelari Editor Peter R. 

Adam Music by Andrea Giuerra Production Design William 

Abello Producers Christoph Meyer-Wiel, Paul Berrow, Philippe 

Guez Production Company Schlemmer Film, Cologne, in coproduction 

with Wandering Star, London, Evidence Films, Paris, 

Senator Film Produktion, Berlin, Poetiche Cinematografiche, Rome, 

La Fiera Corrupia, Madrid, M & M Productions, Lyngby Principal 

Cast Mira Sorvino, Olivier Martinez, Alida Valli, Peter Berling 

Casting Penelope Snelling Special Effects Colin Arthur 

Studio Shooting Studio Bendestorf, Hamburg Length 94 min, 

2632 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version English 

Sound Technology Dolby Digital Surround EX With 

backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg, Eurimages, Filmförderungsanstalt 

(FFA) German Distributor Senator Film Verleih 

GmbH, Berlin 

World Sales: 

UGC International · Henri Ernst 

2, rue des Quatre-Fils · F-75003 Paris 

phone +33-1-40 29 89 00 · fax +33-1-40 29 89 10 

www.ugc.fr · email: serviceclient@ugc.fr 

Scene from ”Semana Santa“ (photo © Schlemmer Film 2002) 

Pepe Danquart was born in 1955 and studied 

Communications from 1975-1981. He 

received an Academy Award in 1994 for his 

widely acclaimed short Black Rider 

(Schwarzfahrer, 1993). Together with 

Mirjam Quinte, he co-directed Passt bloß 

auf … (1980) and Off Season (Nach 

Saison, 1996). His other films include: 

Dädalus (1991), Das 7. Jahr – Ansichten 

zur Lage der Nation (1997), Playboys 

(1998), Heimspiel (2000) – which won him 

the German Film Award in Gold for Best Director 

in 2000, and Mörderinnen (2001), among 

others. 


Starbuck – Holger Meins 

Twenty-five years after the death of Holger Meins, filmmaker and former student friend of the deceased 

Gerd Conradt takes an in-depth look at the helmsman of the Baader-Meinhof gang. Who was Holger 

Meins? What led him into the underground? What circumstances resulted in his death, a death which 

made him the declared symbol of the radical opposition in Germany? What remains of his legacy? 

Berlin 1967: A group of young film students start with their studies, among them Hamburg-born Holger 

Meins. Five years later, Meins is arrested as a member of the Baader-Meinhof-Group. The news images are 

broadcasted around the world. In 1974, the first prisoner from the Red Army Faction dies as the result of a 

hunger strike: Holger Meins. 

The decisive moments in Holger Meins’ biography represent the potentialities of the lives of a whole postwar 

generation, whereby each document has its own history. 

Scenes from ”Starbuck – Holger Meins“ (photo © Gerd Conradt) 

Genre Drama, History Category Documentary Cinema 

Year of Production 2001 Director Gerd Conradt 

Screenplay Gerd Conradt, Harmut Jahn Directors of 

Photography Armin Fausten, Hans Rombach, Phillip Virus 

Editor Neliah Ibeh Music by Lars Löhn Producer Hartmut 

Jahn Production Company Jahn Filmproduktion, 

Hanover/Berlin Principal Cast Suzanne Beyeler, Thomas 

Giefer, Manfred Blessmann, Enzio Edschmid, Harun Farocki, 

Rainer Langhans, Peter Lilienthal, Wilhelm Meins, Gretchen 

Dutschke, Michael Ballhaus, Wolfgang Petersen, Margrit Schiller, 

Alfred Klaus, Verena Reichhardt, Christian Brückner Length 

90 min (international version 52 min), 2462 m Format 35 mm, 

color and b&w, 1:1.66 Original Version German Subtitled 

Version English Sound Technology Stereo International 

Festival Screenings Leipzig 2001 (in competition), Rotterdam 

2002, Göteborg 2002 With backing from Filmboard Berlin- 

Brandenburg, NDR Filmförderung in Niedersachsen, NordMedia, 

MEDIA German Distributor Neue Vision Filmverleih, Berlin 

World Sales: 

Jahn Media · Hartmut Jahn 

Waldstr. 11 · D-30163 Hanover 

phone/fax +49-6 11-5 42 09 99 

www.starbuck-holger-meins.de · email: info@starbuck-holger-meins.de 


Gerd Conradt was born in 1941 in Thuringia. 

After studying Photography, he started his film 

career at the German Film & Television Academy 

(dffb) in Berlin in 1968. After lecturing for about 

seven years at different Berlin universities, he 

directed a series of German poems for the Berlin 

broadcaster SFB. Since this time he has been 

working as a director and author for documentary 

films for television. He his well known for his 

long-term documentaries: About Holger 

Meins (1982), The Video-Pioneer (1984), 

TV-Greetings from West to East (1985), 

Heavy User (1989), Hold Me – Love Me: 

Tempodrom in Berlin (1995), Dyngyldai 

(1996), Men and Stones (1998), and A 

Portrait of Marceline Loridan (1998). 

71

Tattoo 

In the basement of an unfinished building, bright spotlights and electrifying pills transport the young 

guests into another world. Marc, freshly graduated from the police academy, is among those who 

enjoy music and drugs – until police detective Minks and his people raid the place. Marc can escape, 

but his jacket is found. The pills he hid in it provide an opportunity for Minks, and his young 

colleague will face a tough decision: Marc will either work for Minks in homicide, or his career will 

be finished on drug possession charges. But why would this cynical detective, generally feared for his 

unconventional methods, want Marc at his side? Soon it becomes clear what Minks is expecting 

from the cooperation with his party-wise fellow detective. He wants to gain access to a world that is 

closed to him, a world which swallowed up his daughter Marie two years ago. Marc’s investigation 

leads him to the burnt corpse of a young woman, and several other leads direct him to a series of 

other murder cases, which all have one thing in common: the perpetrator seems to dissect his victims 

with a scalpel because all of them are missing large pieces of skin. During his investigation Marc 

comes across Maya, the beautiful if very cool girlfriend of one of the victims. She too will be sucked 

into the maelstrom of this case, from which there seems to be no escape … 

Genre Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema Year of 

Production 2001 Director/Screenplay Robert Schwentke 

Director of Photography Jan Fehse Editor Peter 

Pryzygodda Music by Christoph M. Kaiser Production 

Design Josef Sanktjohanser Producer Roman Kuhn, Jan Hinter 

Production Company Lounge Entertainment, Munich, in coproduction 

with StudioCanal Produktion, Berlin Principal Cast 

August Diehl, Christian Redl, Nadeshda Brennicke Casting Anja 

Dihrberg, Dirk Fehrecke Special Effects Henrik Scheib, Georg 

Korpas Studio Shooting Info Studio, Monheim-Baumberg 

Length 110 min, 3025 m Format 35 mm, color, cs 

Original Version German Subtitled Version English 

Sound Technology Dolby Digital SDR With backing 

from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, 

Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Tobis 

StudioCanal, Berlin 

Robert Schwentke studied at Columbia 

College and later at the American Film 

Institute. Prior to this, he studied Philosophy 

at the Karls-University in Tübingen. He is an 

experienced TV author, and yet Tattoo is 

his debut as a director on the big screen. An 

expert when it comes to suspense, his TV 

scripts are all prime examples of gripping 

stories. His Tatort thriller Bilderturm 

(TV, 1998) was nominated for the prestigious 

Adolf Grimme Award. 

World Sales: 




phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 



August Diehl (photo © Bavaria Film International)

Unterwegs in die 

nächste Dimension 

Genre Art Category Documentary Cinema 

Year of Production 2001 Director/ 

Screenplay Clemens Kuby Director of 

Photography Gerardo Milsztein Editors 

Clemens Kuby, Peter Gardner Music by Manfred 

Hochholzer Producers Clemens Kuby, Beat Curti, 

Walter Gunz Production Company Kuby Film 

TV, Munich, in co-production with BR, Munich 

Principal Cast Don Agustin Riva Vasques, Evgeni 

Bondarenko, Laurence Cacteng, Lhamo Dolkar, 

Sayagyi U Shine, Hi-Ah Park Special Effects Ivan 

Push, megaherz Length 84 min, 2200 m Format 


Subtitled Version English Sound Technology 

Dolby Stereo International Festival 

Screenings Munich 2001 With backing from 

FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt 

(FFA) German Distributor ottfilm GmbH, 

Berlin 


Kuby Film TV · Clemens Kuby 

Schleissheimerstr. 15 b · D-85748 Garching 

phone +49-89-3 29 15 32 · fax 49-89-3 20 67 97 

www.naechste-dimension.de · email: kubyfilm@t-online.de 

NEXT DIMENSION: MIND OVER MATTER 

Alchemists, spiritual healers, shamans. They are everywhere in the world. But do they really 

have special powers? What is real? What is magic? 

Clemens Kuby travels with his digital camera around the world and films phenomena which 

usually remain hidden. The film portraits people with unexplainable capabilities, how they live 

and the influence they have. The viewer delves into a magical world, in which incomprehensible 

powers and unbelievable possibilities become real. To travel into the next dimension 

means to give the unknown a chance. 

Don Agustin Rivas Vasques (photo © Ottfilm) 


Clemens Kuby was born in 1947 in Bavaria. 

He studied History, Law, Sociology and Economics 

at the Free University in Berlin, followed 

by studies in Directing at the German Film & 

Television Academy (dffb) from 1969-72. His 

debut film Lehrlinge won the First Prize at 

Oberhausen in 1972. From 1983-89, he was an 

instructor for Audiovisual Media in Munich. In 

1983, he directed and produced his first feature 

film, Schnappschuss, with Pina Bausch and 

Ariane Mnouchkine. His documentary Das 

Alte Ladakh won a German Film Award in 

1986. His other films include: Tibet – 

Widerstand des Geistes (1988), Living 

Buddha (1994) – winner of the Bavarian Film 

Award, Todas – Am Rande des Paradieses 

(1996), and many more. 

73

74 

Viel passiert – 

Der BAP Film 

ODE TO COLOGNE 

Genre Music Category Documentary 

TV/Cinema Year of Production 2000/01 

Director Wim Wenders Screenplay Wim 

Wenders Director of Photography Phedon 

Papamichael Editors Moritz Laube, Igor Patalas 

Music by BAP Producer Olaf Wicke 

Production Company Screenworks, Cologne, 

BAP Travelling Tunes Productions, Cologne, WDR, 

Cologne Principal Cast BAP, Marie Bäumer, 

Joachim Król, Willi Laschet, Anger 77, Wolf 

Biermann Studio Shooting Blue Space, Hürth 

Length 96 min, 2623 m Format Digital Betacam 

Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original 


Sound Technology Dolby Digital International 

Festival Screenings Berlin 2002 (out 

of competition) With backing from Filmstiftung 

NRW German Distributor ott film GmbH, 

Berlin 


Screenworks Köln GmbH · Kerstin Lackmann 

Hildeboldplatz 15-17 · D-50672 Cologne 

phone +49-2 21-57 96 80 · fax +49-2 21-5 79 68 20 

www.screenworks.tv · email: infokoeln@screenworks.tv 

Wim Wenders, Marie Bäumer, Wolfgang Niedecken (photo © Screenworks Köln GmbH) 

Wenders and Niedecken: the internationally renowned 

filmmaker and the successful rock musician got together 

to make a rock ’n’ roll film that breaks all conventions. 

A gripping collage of current concert recordings and 

rare archive photos, enhanced by Niedecken’s unique 

texts and commentaries, as well as guest appearances by 

Wolf Biermann, Marie Bäumer, Joachim Król and the 

rock band Anger 77 – a fascinating portrait of a band 

that even after 20 years of ”Cologne rock“ is still at the 

top. Ode to Cologne is a special kind of music film, 

one that will excite not only BAP fans. 

Wim Wenders was born in Düsseldorf in 1945. He attended 

the Academy of Television & Film (HFF/M) in Munich from 1967- 

1970. From 1968-72, he wrote articles for Filmkritik and the Süddeutsche 

Zeitung and was a founding member of the Filmverlag 

der Autoren. In 1975, he set up his own production company 

Road Movies. Wenders has received many international awards, 

including the Golden Lion (1982), Golden Palm (1984), and the Felix 

(1988). His films include: Summer in the City (1970), The 

Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty (1971), Alice in the 

Cities (1973), Wrong Move (1974), Kings of the Road 

(1975), The American Friend (1977), Hammett 

(1978/82), The State of Things (1982), Paris, Texas 

(1984), Wings of Desire (1986), Until the End of 

the World (1990), Faraway, So Close (1993), Lisbon 

Story (1994), The End of Violence (1997), Buena Vista 

Social Club (1998) and The Million Dollar Hotel 

(2000), among others. 

AT B E R L I N 

OUT OF COMPETITION 


www. 

germancinema. 

de/ 

GERMAN 

CINEMA 




Export-Union of German Cinema 

Shareholders and Supporters 

Verband Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V./ 

Association of German Feature Film Producers 

please contact Franz Seitz 

Beichstr. 8, D-80802 Munich 

phone +49-89-39 11 23, fax +49-89-33 74 32 

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten/ 

Association of New Feature Film Producers 

please contact Margarete Evers 

Agnesstr. 14, D-80798 Munich 

phone +49-89-2 71 74 30, fax +49-89-2 71 97 28 

email: ag-spielfilm@t-online.de 

Verband Deutscher Filmexporteure e.V./ 

Association of German Film Exporters 

please contact Lothar Wedel 

Tegernseer Landstr. 75, D-81539 Munich 

phone +49- 89-6 42 49 70, fax +49-89-6 92 09 10 

email: mail@vdfe.de 

Filmförderungsanstalt 

Große Präsidentenstr. 9, D-10178 Berlin 

phone +49-30-27 57 70, fax +49-30-27 57 71 11 

www.ffa.de, email: presse@ffa.de 

Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für 

Angelegenheiten der Kultur und der Medien 

Referat K 36, Graurheindorfer Str. 198, D-53117 Bonn 

phone +49-18 88-6 81 36 43, fax +49-18 88-6 81 38 53 

email: Hermann.Scharnhoop@bkm.bmi.bund.de 

Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH 

August-Bebel-Str. 26-53, D-14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg 

phone +49-3 31-7 43 87-0, fax +49-3 31-7 43 87-99 

www.filmboard.de 

email: filmboard@filmboard.de 

FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH 

Sonnenstr. 21, D-80331 Munich 

phone +49-89-5 44 60 20, fax +49-89-54 46 02 21 

www.fff-bayern.de 

email: filmfoerderung@fff-bayern.de 

FilmFörderung Hamburg GmbH 

Friedensallee 14–16, D-22765 Hamburg 

phone +49-40-3 98 37-0, fax +49-40-3 98 37-10 

www.ffhh.de 

email: filmfoerderung@ffhh.de or location@ffhh.de 

Filmstiftung NRW GmbH 

Kaistr. 14, D-40221 Düsseldorf 

phone +49-2 11-93 05 00, fax +49-2 11-93 05 05 

www.filmstiftung.de 

email: info@filmstiftung.de 

Medien- und Filmgesellschaft 

Baden-Württemberg mbH 

Filmförderung 

Breitscheidstr. 4, D-70174 Stuttgart 

phone +49-7 11-90 71 54 00, fax +49-7 11-90 71 54 50 

www.film.mfg.de 

email: filmfoerderung@mfg.de 

Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH 

Hainstr. 17-19, D-04109 Leipzig 

phone +49-3 41-26 98 70, fax +49-3 41-2 69 87 65 

www.mdm-foerderung.de 

email: info@mdm-foerderung.de

Film Exporters 

Members of the Association of German Film Exporters 

please contact Lothar Wedel · Tegernseer Landstr. 75 · D-81539 Munich 

phone +49-89-6 42 49 70 · fax +49-89-6 92 09 10 · email: mail@vdfe.de 

ARRI Media Worldsales 

please contact Antonio Exacoustos jun. 

Türkenstr. 89 

D-80799 Munich 

phone +49-89-38 09 12 88 

fax +49-89-38 09 16 19 

www.arri-mediaworldsales.de 

email: aexacoustos@arri.de 

Atlas International 

Film GmbH 

please contact 

Dieter Menz, Stefan Menz, Christl Blum 

Rumfordstr. 29-31 


phone +49-89-21 09 75-0 

fax +49-89-22 43 32 

www.atlasfilm.com 

email: mail@atlasfilm.com 

Bavaria Film International 

Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH 

please contact Michael Weber, 

Thorsten Schaumann 

Bavariafilmplatz 8 

D-82031 Geiselgasteig 

phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 

fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 

www.bavaria-film-international.de 

email: Bavaria.International@bavaria-film.de 

Beta Film GmbH 

please contact Dirk Schürhoff 

Robert-Buerkle-Str. 2 

D-85737 Ismaning 

phone +49-89-99 56 - 21 34 

fax +49-89-99 56 - 27 03 

www.betafilm.com 

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cine aktuell 

Filmgesellschaft mbH 

please contact Eugen Schaarschmidt, 

Ralf Faust, Axel Schaarschmidt 

Werdenfelsstr. 81 


phone +49-89-7 41 34 30 

fax +49-89-74 13 43 16 

email: cine_aktuell@compuserve.com 

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GmbH & Co. KG 

please contact Lilli Tyc-Holm, Susanne Groh 

Leopoldstr. 18 


phone +49-89-39 10 25 

fax +49-89-33 10 89 

www.cine-international.de 

email: email@cine-international.de 

CINEPOOL – Dept. of Telepool 

Europäisches Fernsehprogrammkontor 

GmbH 

please contact Dr. Cathy Rohnke, 

Wolfram Skowronnek 

Sonnenstr. 21 


phone +49-89-55 87 60 

fax +49-89-55 87 61 88 

www.telepool.de 

email: rohnke@telepool.de, 

skowronnek@telepool.de 

DWF 

Dieter Wahl Film 

please contact Dieter Wahl 

Postfach 71 10 26 


phone +49-89-53 27 21 

fax +49-89-53 12 97 

email: wahlfilm1@aol.com 

Exportfilm Bischoff & Co. GmbH 

please contact Jochem Strate, 

Philip Evenkamp 

Isabellastr. 20 


phone +49-89-2 72 93 60 

fax +49-89-27 29 36 36 

email: philipevenkamp@csi.com 

german united distributors 

Programmvertrieb GmbH 

please contact Silke Spahr 

Richartzstr. 6-8a 

D-50667 Cologne 

phone +49-2 21-92 06 90 

fax +49-2 21-9 20 69 69 

email: silke.spahr@germanunited.com 

and 

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please contact Rosemarie Dermühl 

Bavariafilmplatz 8 

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phone +49-89-64 99 36 66 

fax +49-89-64 99 22 40 

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Kinowelt Medien AG 

Kinowelt World Sales 

A Division of Kinowelt 

Lizenzverwertungs GmbH 

please contact Jochen Hesse, 

Stelios Ziannis 

Infanteriestr. 19/Geb. 6 


phone +49-89-30 79 66 

fax +49-89-3 07 96 70 67 

www.kinoweltworldsales.com 

email: worldsales@kinowelt.de 

Media Luna Entertainment 

GmbH & Co.KG 

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Hochstadenstr. 1-3 

D-50674 Cologne 

phone +49-2 21-1 39 22 22 

fax +49-2 21-1 39 22 24 

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email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de 

Progress Film-Verleih GmbH 

please contact Christel Jansen 

Burgstr. 27 

D-10178 Berlin 

phone +49-30-24 00 32 25 

fax +49-30-24 00 32 22 

www.progress-film.de 

email: c.jansen@progress-film.de 

Road Sales GmbH 

Media Distribution 

please contact Denise Booth 

Clausewitzstr. 4 

D-10629 Berlin 

phone +49-30-8 80 48 60 

fax +49-30-88 04 86 11 

www.das-werk.de 

email: office@road-movies.de 

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Filmlizenzen GmbH 

please contact Robert Rajber 

Sternwartstr. 2 


phone +49-89-2 11 16 60 

fax +49-89-21 11 66 11 

email: info@rrsentertainment.de 

Transit Film GmbH 

please contact Loy W. Arnold, Mark Grünthal 

Dachauer Str. 35 


phone +49-89-59 98 85-0 

fax +49-89-59 98 85-20 


Uni Media International 

Filmvertriebsgesellschaft mbH 

please contact Irene Vogt 

Bayerstr. 15 


phone +49-89-59 58 46 

fax +49-89-5 50 17 01 

email: UniMediaInt@t-online.de 

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Angela Waldleitner 

Münchhausenstr. 29 


phone +49-89-55 53 41 

fax +49-89-59 45 10 

email: media@waldleitner.com 

77

The Export-Union of German Cinema – A Profile 

The Export-Union of German Cinema is the national information 

and advisory center for the export of German films. It was established 

in 1954 as the ”umbrella“ association for the Association of 

German Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German 

Feature Film Producers and the Association of German Film 

Exporters, and operates today in the legal form of a limited company. 

Shareholders in the limited company are the Association of 

German Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German 

Feature Film Producers, the Association of German Film Exporters 

and the German Federal Film Board (FFA). 

The members of the board of the Export-Union of 

German Cinema are: Jochem Strate (chairman), Rolf Bähr, 

Antonio Exacoustos Jr. and Michael Weber. 

The Export-Union itself has nine permanent staff: 

• Christian Dorsch, managing director 

• Susanne Reinker, PR manager 

• Julia Basler, project manager 

• Angela Hawkins, publications editor 

• Andrea Rings, assistant to the managing director 

• Stephanie Weiss, PR assistant 

• Nicole Kaufmann, project coordinator 

• Petra Bader, office manager 

• Barbara Hirth, accounts 

In addition, the Export-Union shares foreign representatives 

in eight countries with the German Federal Film Board (FFA). 

(cf. page 79) 

The Export-Union’s budget of presently approx. Euro 3.1 

million (including projects, administration, foreign representatives) 

comes from the export levies, monies from the office of the Federal 

Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media and 

the FFA. In addition, the six main economic film funds 

(Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFörderung 

Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Medien- and Filmgesellschaft 

Baden-Württemberg and Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung) have 

made a financial contribution, currently amounting to Euro 0.25 

million, towards the work of the Export-Union. In 1997, the Export- 

Union and five large economic film funds founded an advisory 

committee whose goal is the ”concentration of efforts for the 

promotion of German film abroad“ (constitution). 

The Export-Union is a founding member of the ”European Film 

Promotion“, an amalgamation of twenty national film-PR 

agencies (UNIFRANCE, Swiss Films, Italia Cinema, Holland Film, 

among others) with similar responsibilities to those of the Export- 

Union. The organization, with its headquarters in Hamburg, aims to 

develop and realize joint projects for the presentation of European 

films on an international level. 

EXPORT-UNION’S RANGE OF ACTIVITIES: 

Close cooperation with the major international film 

festivals, e.g. Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Montreal, Toronto, 

San Sebastian, Tokyo, New York, Locarno, Karlovy Vary; 

Organization of umbrella stands for German sales companies 

and producers at international TV and film markets, e.g. 

MIP-TV, MIPCOM, NATPE, AFM; 

Staging of German Film Weeks in key cities of the international 

film industry (2001: Buenos Aires, London, Los Angeles, 

Madrid, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Rome); 

Providing advice and information for representatives of 

the international press and buyers from the fields of 

cinema, video, TV; 

Providing advice and information for German filmmakers and 

press on international festivals, conditions of participation 

and German films being shown, e.g. publication of a 

comprehensive guide to international film festivals as well as 

a German film festival guide; 

Publication of informational literature on the current 

German cinema: KINO-Magazine and KINO-Yearbook; 

An Internet website (http://www.german-cinema.de) 

offering information about new German films, a film 

archive, as well as information and links to German and 

international film festivals; 

Organization of the selection procedure for the German 

entry for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film. 

The focus of the work: feature films, documentaries with 

theatrical potential and shorts that have been invited to the main 

sections of major festivals.

Foreign Representatives 

Argentina 

Dipl. Ing. Gustav Wilhelmi 

Lavalle 1928 · 1º Piso 

C1051ABD Buenos Aires 

phone +54-11-49 52 15 37 

phone + fax +54-11-49 51 19 10 

email: gustav.wilhelmi@german-cinema.de 

China & South East Asia 

Lukas Schwarzacher 

Flat F, 18/F, Tonnochy Tower A 

272 Jaffe Road 

Wanchai 

Hong Kong SAR, China 

phone +8 52-97 30 55 75 

fax +1-2 40-255-7160 

email: lukas.schwarzacher@german-cinema.de 

France 

Cristina Hoffman 

33, rue L. Gaillet 

F-94250 Gentilly 

phone + fax +33-1-49 8644 18 

email: cristina.hoffman@german-cinema.de 

Imprint 

published by: 

Export-Union des 

Deutschen Films GmbH 

Sonnenstr. 21 


phone +49-89-5 99 78 70 

fax +49-89-59 97 87 30 

www.german-cinema.de 

email: export-union@german-cinema.de 

ISSN 0948-2547 

Credits are not contractual for any 

of the films mentioned in this publication. 

© Export-Union des Deutschen Films 

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or 

transmission of this publication may be made 

without written permission. 

Italy 

Alessia Ratzenberger 

Angeli Movie Service 

via Aureliana, 53 

I-00187 Rome 

phone +39-06-4 82 80 21 

fax +39-06-4 82 80 19 

email: alessia.ratzenberger@german-cinema.de 

Japan 

Tomosuke Suzuki 

Nippon Cine TV Corporation 

Suite 123, Gaien House 

2-2-39 Jingumae, Shibuya-Ku 

Tokyo, Japan 

phone +81-3-34 05 09 16 

fax +81-3-34 79-08 69 

email: tomosuke.suzuki@german-cinema.de 

Spain 

Stefan Schmitz 

Avalon Productions S.L. 

C/ Duque de Rivas, 2-2°D 

E-28012 Madrid 

phone +34-91-3 66 43 64 

fax +34-91-3 65 93 01 

email: stefan.schmitz@german-cinema.de 

Editors 

Production Reports 

Contributors for this issue 

Translations 

Design Group 

Art Direction 

Printing Office 

Financed by 

United Kingdom 

Iris Kehr 

Top Floor 

113-117 Charing Cross Road 

GB-London WC2H ODT 

phone +44-20-74 37 20 47 

fax +44-20-74 39 29 47 

email: iris.kehr@german-cinema.de 

USA/West Coast 

Corina Danckwerts 

Capture Film, Inc. 

2400 W. Silverlake Drive 

Los Angeles, CA 90039, USA 

phone +1-3 23-6 68-01 12 

fax +1-3 23-6 68-08 53 

email: corina.danckwerts@german-cinema.de 

The new USA/East Coast & Canada 

representative will be designated in 

March 2002. For up-to-date information 

please contact the Export-Union in 

Munich. 

phone +49-89-59 97 87 0, 

fax +49-89-59 97 87 30, 

email: export-union@german-cinema.de 

Angela Hawkins, Susanne Reinker 

Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley 

Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley, Peter Körte, 

Christa Thelen 

Lucinda Rennison 

triptychon · agentur für design 

und kulturkommunikation, Munich 

Werner Schauer 

ESTA Druck, 

Obermühlstr. 90, D-82398 Polling 

the office of the Federal Government 

Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media. 

Printed on ecological, unchlorinated paper.

Contact in Berlin: 

Bavaria Film International 

German Boulevard D10 

Fon +49-30-25291-572 

Fax +49-30-25291-576 

BAVARIA FILM INTERNATIONAL PRESENTS AN MTM MEDIEN & TELEVISION MÜNCHEN PRODUCTION IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH KINOWELT FILMPRODUKTION BAVARIA FILM IN ASSOCIATION WITH ZDF WITH SUPPORT FROM FILMFERNSEHFONDS BAYERN FFA „A MAP OF THE HEART” 

WITH KAROLINE EICHHORN ANTONIO WANNEK SEBASTIAN URZENDOWSKY RALPH HERFORTH PETER LOHMEYER SORAYA GOMAA 

CASTING AN DORTHE BRAKER MAKE-UP NANNI GEBHARDT-SEELE SOUND TOM WEBER (BVT) SOUNDMIX MARTIN STEYER COSTUME BARBARA GRUPP SET DESIGN CLAUS JÜRGEN PFEIFFER MUSIC DIETER SCHLEIP EDITOR HANA MÜLLNER DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY BENEDICT NEUENFELS (AAC/BVK) 

PRODUCTION MANAGER CHRISTINE CARBEN-STOTZ EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ANDREAS BAREISS CO-PRODUCER TV CAROLINE VON SENDEN CO-PRODUCERS ULRICH LIMMER MICHAEL WEBER ANDREAS BAREISS SCREENPLAY MARKUS BUSCH DOMINIK GRAF PRODUCER GLORIA BURKERT DIRECTOR DOMINIK GRAF

Titel Kino 1/2002 - German Cinema

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