Quarterly 4 · 2006 - German Cinema

What is her present attitude to her own works, and which of them
does she consider the most important? And what is the place among
them of her most recent work, Ich wollte nicht toeten? “I see
my films critically; from a distance. And I am proud of the diversity of
their themes. The most important films for me are Moondance,
Schwiegermutter, Der Tod ist kein Beweis, Sie ist
meine Mutter and Ich wollte nicht toeten. In this last work,
one of the themes is identity, a subject that has always interested me.
Everyone knows the question “Who am I?” or “Where do I come
from?” – and this issue also defines my film Sie ist meine Mutter.
It is also important that the political background plays a decisive role
in both films.”
Hirtz’ Ich wollte nicht toeten is a film about the search for
truth, about the search for one’s own history. In this sense, it also
takes up the theme of the previous film Sie ist meine Mutter.
Whereas that film was concerned with a Nazi past initially hidden
from the members of a family, in her new work the history of the
GDR represents a universal background overshadowing the individual’s
life. The main character is a young, 30-year-old journalist – played
by Jessica Schwarz. She is tracking down a story that ultimately turns
out to be her own.
The personal story is defined by the historical. Ich wollte nicht
toeten was shot in Berlin and Neu-Brandenburg, and the screenplay
is by the author Frauke Hunfeld, who had already written the screenplay
for Der Tod ist kein Beweis. In Hirtz’ work – and she was
certainly influenced by the politically committed cinema of New
German Cinema in its day – the political is also a social issue, like the
mobbing of a policewoman (Der Tod ist kein Beweis), or a
family therapist’s search for her own origins and her mother’s ambivalent
embroilments during the era of National Socialism (Sie ist
meine Mutter, screenplay by Hannah Hollinger).
The Munich-based director’s eleven films to date have always been
shown at festivals at home and abroad. Her two cinema films were
screened at several international festivals; Unerreichbare Naehe
in Montreal, in Chicago, at the Hof International Film Festival, and at
the Women’s Film Festival in the French town of Creteil in 1984.
Moondance was also shown at Hof in 1994, at the Berlinale in the
sidebar New German Films in 1995, and in Creteil and Jakarta. “The
reactions abroad have always been very positive. Both the audiences
and the organizers were open-mined and unprejudiced towards
German films.”
Her television films have been shown primarily at German festivals,
for example Der Tod ist kein Beweis at the Munich Film Festival
in 2002, with a nomination for the TV Movie Award, or at the television
festival in Baden-Baden. The most successful was the children’s
film Kiss Me Frog, which received the award for Best Direction at
the Golden Sparrow Festival in Gera, and was nominated for the
International Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Children’s
and Young People’s Programming in 2001.
Asked to comment on the current production situation in German
cinema and on television, Hirtz says: “I think the development of
German film is extremely positive. There are various young talents,
and that leads to a similar diversity of films and themes. The films are
becoming more professional and more humor can be detected, as
well. The state’s reaction is evidence that we have now recalled the
value of German film as a cultural asset. Things look different in the
world of television. Even though the German TV program still has a
reputation as one of the best internationally, the quality is steadily
sinking and with it the audience’s and the makers’ standards. And the
’cultural and educational task of public broadcasting’ is losing more
and more ground. It is fatal to limit powerful expression and diversity
within the program in order to benefit quotas. I am still lucky enough
to find committed editors, for whom quality continues to be more
important.”
What projects does the director have planned for the immediate
future, when Ich wollte nicht toeten is complete? “Finding
niches for top-quality television films – as I have said – is not easy. We
are involved in the development of projects along with three authors,
but as yet we have no official commission – and so we just keep our
fingers crossed.” And we will do the same for her.
Dagmar Hirtz spoke to Thilo Wydra, independent
journalist (“Filmecho/Filmwoche”, “Der Tagesspiegel” etc.),
book author, and German correspondent for the Cannes Film Festival
german films quarterly director’s portrait
4 · 2006 9