Quarterly 4 · 2006 - German Cinema

Die Anruferin
DoP Jutta Pohlmann, director Felix Randau
(photo © Thekla Ehling)
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Melodrama,
Tragicomedy Production Company Wueste Film
West/Cologne, in co-production with ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz,
ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from Filmstiftung
NRW, Nordmedia Producers Stefan Schubert, Ralph Schwingel,
Hejo Emons Director Felix Randau Screenplay Vera Kissel
Director of Photography Jutta Pohlmann Commissioning
Editors Lucas Schmidt (ZDF), Barbara Haebe (ARTE) Editor
Gergana Voigt Music by Thies Mynther Production Design
Peter Menne Principal Cast Valerie Koch, Esther Schweins,
Franziska Ponitz, Marita Breuer, Stefanie Muehlhan, Ivan Shvedoff,
Heinz Strunk Casting Deborah Congia Format Super 16, blow-up
to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Surround Ex Shooting Language
German Shooting in Cologne and surroundings, Bonn, Bremen,
August - September 2006
World Sales
Bavaria Film International
Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH · Thorsten Schaumann
Bavariafilmplatz 8 · 82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20
email: international@bavaria-film.de
www.bavaria-film-international.com
After a series of recents hits, Emmas Glueck, FC Venus, Eine andere
Liga, and Kebab Connection, Wueste Film’s Stefan Schubert
and Ralph Schwingel are back in action!
Once again changing genres with the assurance of Michael
Schumacher taking a curve, yet remaining true to their belief that
steady growth comes only from getting the quality right, this time they
have teamed up with pubcaster ZDF’s showcase for emerging talent,
Das kleine Fernsehspiel.
Irm Krischka leads a double life. In her early 30s, she jobs in a laundrette
while looking after her bed-ridden mother. As a child, Irm
experienced the death of her younger sister and the collapse of her
parents’ marriage. She was then left alone to care for an alcoholic
mother whose dead child was more important than the living one.
“But now Irm has the upper hand,” says Schubert, “and lets the
mother know it. It would be a miserable existence if it weren’t for her
double life: she puts on a child’s voice and calls strangers, drawing
them into an invented life. Then she pretends to be the mother and
visits them, just to see if it’s okay for the “child” to visit. But shortly
afterwards the “child” dies and then Irm watches her victim’s shock
when they arrive at the cemetery!“
“But the game spins out of control,” says Schwingel, picking up the
thread, “when she meets her latest victim, Sina. She thinks Irm is
actually Elenore, a teacher and mother of Lea Paulina, but Sina’s
recently lost her husband in a car accident and breaks down in front
of her. Irm comforts her but then breaks off contact.”
The two women later meet by accident and a genuine friendship
develops. Irm ends her telephone antics and even reconciles with her
dying mother. But the new friendship is put to the test when Sina says
she’s leaving town. In desperation, Irm sees only one possibility, to tell
the truth.
“Now if all this sounds horribly weird and depressing, be rest assured
that Die Anruferin is anything but,” says Bjoern Vosgerau,
associate producer and new member of the Wueste-team, who
acquired the project, developed the script and brought director
Felix Randau aboard. “The film strikes a perfect balance between
the tragic and comic. It’s her friendship with Sina that turns Irm from
a damaged individual to a human being. It’s a very positive film, full of
hope with a wonderfully upbeat resolution.”
Die Anruferin is director Randau’s second project with Wueste
Film and ZDF after his 2003 film Northern Star, which also won him
the Studio Hamburg Newcomer Award for Best Script.
Aufbruch der Filmemacher
Type of Project Documentary Production Company
Kinowelt Filmproduktion/Munich, in co-production with Filmverlag
der Autoren/Leipzig, BR/Munich With backing from
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) Producer
Rainer Koelmel Production Manager Wasiliki Trampuratzi
Commissioning Editors Thomas Sessner, Monika Lobkowicz
Directors Dominik Wessely, Laurens Straub Screenplay Rainer
Koelmel, Laurens Straub, Dominik Wessely Director of
Photography Knut Schmitz Editor Anja Pohl Format HDTV,
blow-up to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting Language
German Shooting in Munich, Berlin, Paris, Los Angeles, February -
November 2006 German Distributor Kinowelt Filmverleih/Leipzig
german films quarterly in production
4 · 2006 25
SK
“Veterans of German cinema”
(photo courtesy of Kinowelt)