Quarterly 2 · 2006

Transcription

Quarterly 2 · 2006

German Films
Quarterly 2 · 2006
AT CANNES
Directors' Fortnight
SOMMER '04 AN DER SCHLEI
by Stefan Krohmer
Critics' Week
PINGPONG by Matthias Luthardt
Cinéfondation
MR. SCHWARTZ, MR. HAZEN & MR. HORLOCKER
by Stefan Mueller
PORTRAITS
Bernd Neumann, Valeska Grisebach,
Philip Groening, Nadja Uhl, Razor Film,
Atrix Film, The Match Factory
SPECIAL REPORT
Location Germany
German Films and Co-Productions
IN THE OFFICIAL PROGRAM
In Competition
In Competition
In Competition
Lights in the Dusk
Summer Palace
by Aki Kaurismaeki
by Lou Ye
The Wind that
Shakes the Barley
by Ken Loach
German Co-Producer: Pandora Film/Cologne
World Sales: The Match Factory/Cologne
German Co-Producer: Flying Moon Film/Potsdam
World Sales: Wild Bunch/Paris
German Co-Producer: EMC Produktion/Berlin
World Sales: Pathé Pictures International/London
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Paris, je t’aime:
You Am I
by Oliver Schmitz &
To Get to
Heaven First
You Have to Die
True
by Djamshed Usmonov
Place des Fetes
by Tom Tykwer
by Kristijonas Vidlziunas
World Sales:
Victoires International/Paris
World Sales: Celluloid Dreams/Paris
World Sales: Studio Uljana Kim/Vilnius
Directors’ Fortnight
Sommer ’04 an
der Schlei Summer ’04
Day Night Day
Night
Princess
by Stefan Krohmer
by Julia Loktev
Producer: Oe Film/Berlin
World Sales: Bavaria Film International/Geiselgasteig
German Co-Producer: ZDF/Mainz
World Sales: FaceFilm/New York
by Anders Morgenthaler
German Co-Producer: Shotgun Pictures/Stuttgart
World Sales: Trust Film Sales/Hvidovre
OF THE
Cannes Film Festival 2006
Special Screening
Chambre 666
Room 666
by Wim Wenders
Special Screening
Un Certain Regard
The House is
Burning
Hamaca Paraguaya
by Paz Encina
by Holger Ernst
Producer: Wim Wenders Production/Berlin
World Sales: Hanway Films/London
Producer/World Sales:
Reverse Angle International/Berlin
German Co-Producer:
CMW Film Company/Berlin
World Sales: Scalpel Films/Paris
Cinéfondation
Cinéfondation
Cinéfondation
Firn
Jaba
by Axel Koenzen
by Andreas Bolm
Mr. Schwartz, Mr.
Hazen & Mr. Horlocker
by Stefan Mueller
Producer/World Sales: German Film &
Television Academy (dffb)/Berlin
Producer/World Sales: Weltfilm/Berlin
Producer/World Sales: Basementpictures/Elz
Critics’ Week
Critics’ Week
Tous les Cinémas du Monde
Kristall
PINGPONG
Straehl
by Christoph Girardet
& Matthias Mueller
by Matthias Luthardt
German Co-Producer: ZDF/Mainz
World Sales: Telepool/Zurich
Producers/World Sales:
Christoph Girardet & Matthias Mueller/Bielefeld
Producer: JUNIFILM/Berlin
World Sales: Media Luna Entertainment/Cologne
Love in Concrete
by Franco de Pena
German Co-Producers/World Sales:
Cameo Film/Cologne & ZDF/Mainz
Credits not contractual
by Manuel Flurin Hendry
german films quarterly
2/2006
6
focus on
LOCATION GERMANY
16
portrait Bernd Neumann
A FILM-FREAK IN THE CHANCELLOR’S OFFICES
18
20
directors’ portraits
BENEATH THE MAGNIFYING GLASS
A portrait of Valeska Grisebach
THE TEMPERAMENT OF IMAGES
A portrait of Philip Groening
22
producers’ portrait
AT THE CUTTING EDGE
A portrait of Razor Film
24
actress’ portrait
TAKING IT IN HER STRIDE
A portrait of Nadja Uhl
26
28
30
36
36
37
38
39
40
41
41
42
43
44
44
46
47
48
49
50
51
world sales portraits
MOVING PICTURES
A portrait of Atrix Films
PLAYING THE MATCHMAKER
A portrait of The Match Factory
news
in production
8 MILES HIGH
Achim Bornhak
ABSURDISTAN
Veit Helmer
THE AFRICAN TWINTOWERS
Christoph Schlingensief
DER FAELSCHER
Stefan Ruzowitzky
DIE FRAU VOM CHECKPOINT CHARLIE
Miguel Alexandre
JAGDHUNDE
Ann-Kristin Reyels
NICHTS ALS GESPENSTER
Martin Gypkens
OFFENE WUNDEN
Carsten Strauch
SCHWESTERHERZ
Ed Herzog
EINE STADT WIRD ERPRESST
Dominik Graf
VALERIE
Birgit Moeller
VIVERE
Angelina Maccarone
new german films
ALS DER FREMDE KAM STRANGER
Andreas Kleinert
DIE BESSERE SEITE THE BETTER SIDE
Janek Romero
BIS ZUM ANFANG DER WELT – SPURENSUCHE IN AFRIKA
TO WHERE THE WORLD BEGAN – SEARCH AND DISCOVERY IN AFRICA
Roman Teufel
BYE BYE HARRY
Robert Young
CAPRI, YOU LOVE?
Alexander Oppersdorff
EDEN
Michael Hofmann
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
FC VENUS – WOMEN WITH BALLS
Ute Wieland
FRANZOESISCH FUER ANFAENGER FRENCH FOR BEGINNERS
Christian Ditter
FUSSBALLGOETTINNEN GODDESSES OF SOCCER
Nina Erfle, Frédérique Veith
HAENSEL UND GRETEL HANSEL AND GRETEL
Anne Wild
HEDY LAMARR – SECRETS OF A HOLLYWOOD STAR
Donatello & Fosco Dubini, Barbara Obermaier
DIE HIMMELSWIESE. DIE KLEINEN WUNDER VON BAAN GERDA
HEAVEN’S MEADOW. THE SMALL WONDERS OF BAAN GERDA
Detlev F. Neufert
HISTORIAS DE ARRIBA Y ABAJO STORIES FROM ABOVE AND BELOW
Thomas Boeltken
IM SCHWITZKASTEN NO SWEAT
Eoin Moore
KNALLHART TOUGH ENOUGH
Detlev Buck
LAPISLAZULI – IM AUGE DES BAEREN LAPIS LAZULI
Wolfgang Murnberger
LITTLE SPOON
Régine Provvedi
MAÑANA AL MAR
Ines Thomsen
DIE MISSION – FREIWILLIGE HELFER BEIM UNHCR
THE MISSION – UNHCR REFUGEE AID WORKERS
Stefan Eberlein
MORE THAN 1000 WORDS
Solo Avital
MOTODROM MOTO DROME
Joerg Wagner
MR. SCHWARTZ, MR. HAZEN & MR. HORLOCKER
Stefan Mueller
MYTHOS HEILIGER GRAL THE GRAIL’S TRACES IN FRANCE
Erik Borner
NEUN SZENEN NINE TAKES
Dietrich Brueggemann
NUR EIN LAECHELN JUST A SMILE
Eva Demmler
OPEN
Charlotte Siebenrock
OUR MAN IN NIRVANA
Jan Koester
PINGPONG
Matthias Luthardt
PRINZESSIN PRINCESS
Birgit Grosskopf
ROTES HOLZ RED WOOD
Agnes Karow
SIEGFRIED
Sven Unterwaldt
SOMMER ’04 AN DER SCHLEI SUMMER ’04
Stefan Krohmer
SONJA
Kirsi Marie Liimatainen
DER UNBEKANNTE SOLDAT
THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER – WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, DAD?
Michael Verhoeven
VERFOLGT HOUNDED
Angelina Maccarone
VIER MINUTEN FOUR MINUTES
Chris Kraus
DIE WILDEN KERLE 3 THE WILD SOCCER BUNCH 3
Joachim Masannek
WINTERREISE WINTER JOURNEY
Hans Steinbichler
89
film exporters
91
foreign representatives · imprint
Entrance hall Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich
(photo courtesy of Film Commission Bavaria)
LOCATION GERMANY
When you think of Germany, images of fairytale castles, oompah
bands and mountains of sauerkraut might inevitably come to mind,
but there’s much more to the nation between Flensburg in the far
north and Mittenwald in the deep south on the border with Austria.
Since then, the AFCI has a total of seven members in Germany, including Film Commission Region Stuttgart, Hamburg Film
Commission, Film Commission Nordrhein-Westfalen, and the Film
Commission Cologne.
Indeed, as producers and filmmakers are increasingly discovering,
locations in Germany can stand in for places as far apart as Paris,
Naples, Las Vegas, Turkey, New York’s Bronx and Queens districts, or
even war-torn Kabul.
The development of this network of location offices was made easier
by the fact that Germany is structured federally and by the existence
of an ongoing competition between the Laender (States) to promote
their respective region as the best place to shoot a film. Usually, the
location offices were established as a subsidiary of one of the existing
public regional film funds such as Filmstiftung NRW,
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung or FilmFoerderung Hamburg.
And it’s the job of the film commissions and location offices dotted
around the country to spread this good news!
Based on the North American model of film commissions as organized under the umbrella of the Association of Film Commissioners
International (AFCI), a number of information offices or film commissions sprang up throughout Germany from the end of the 1980s, with
the Bavarian capital of Munich being the first in 1989 with its Film
Information Office as well as becoming the first German AFCI member.
2 · 2006
BUT WHAT DOES A
FILM COMMISSION ACTUALLY DO?
To begin with, they are non-profit organizations so the service costs
nothing, it is absolutely free. Unlike a funding body, they don’t have
money to give to productions, but their advice can often be worth its
focus on location germany
6
weight in gold to a production and can save valuable time in the preparation of a project.
“Film commissions are contact and information points for producers,
line producers and production managers as well for writers and directors,” explains Anja Metzger of the Film Commission Bavaria in
Munich. “This is where you can get information about the responsible
authorities, location scouts, studios, labs, rentals, etc. They are charged with improving the shooting conditions in the production location
and of simplifying permit procedures. We advise and inform about
the production possibilities in Bavaria and are the contact point for
questions during a project’s preparation and shoot.”
In fact, the Film Commission Bavaria established a unique instrument
two years ago – the Shooting in Munich Task Force (“AG Drehen in
Muenchen”) – to kick in when the going gets tough on a shoot.
“For example, you are in town for a shooting and problems arise with
the local authorities because it’s a huge project and you need more
parking space than they want to give you,” Anja Metzger describes a
possible worst case scenario. “Or there are changes to your shooting
dates because an international star is not able to show up, and so on.”
“Members of this small task group are representatives of the public
authorities like the police, production services and the film industry,”
she explains. “The task force deals with the problems before the
shooting starts thus preventing unnecessary conflicts – or comes in
when trouble shows up.”
Organizing workshops, seminars and even the very German institution of a monthly “Stammtisch” is one of the ways the film commisOn the set of “Cold Void” in Bavaria (photo courtesy of Film Commission Bavaria)
“We work very closely with the authorities, producers and often the
location managers as well as location providers to promote mutual
understanding of one another’s interests,” adds Christiane Raab of
the Film Commission Berlin Brandenburg. “It is about bringing people
into a dialogue and informing about the respective needs. A clerk in
an authority isn’t a filmmaker, so you can’t expect them to understand
why a commercial wants a permit at such short notice and says that
they want to shoot the day after tomorrow. At the same time, we are
also there to represent the interests of a location provider if a production company hasn’t behaved itself. We don’t want some black
sheep to spoil things for everyone else. It makes no difference to the
film commission whether it is a funded project, a commercial, a feature film or a documentary – everyone is helped in the same way,”
Raab says.
Most local location managers and production managers are likely to
know from experience who the responsible officials are in the different public and private institutions of their city or region and so do
not have to call on the services of the location office or film commission. But, at the same time, it is always reassuring to know that one
can call on the services of the film commissioners – who in Germany
are, interestingly, all women! – should the red tape become too
unwieldy or an unforeseen “emergency” crops up.
2 · 2006
7
On the set of “Tsunami” (photo courtesy of Nordmedia/Sybille Mollzahn)
cians, costume, production design,
sound studio to caravan rental), are
also research tools which are well used
on an international level – already at
the stage of scouting and during the
project preparation.”
Meanwhile, Hamburg has expanded its
services to include an online database
for set photos, film commissioner
Christiane Scholz explains. “This will
be a tool to support the marketing of
the shooting location of Hamburg,”
she says, pointing that a secondary,
more personal benefit will be that both
the photographer and production
company can be named on the site.
Both funded and non-funded films, TV,
and commercials productions can thus
enhance their own PR work by being
featured in the database.
SPREADING THE NEWS
Information is the name of game and the
film commissions are no exceptions
here. For instance, every film commission has compiled their own Production
Guide and Location Guide (Nordmedia
also has a database dedicated to actors
working in Lower Saxony and Bremen)
which can be accessed via the Internet
with constant updates of pictures and
information about new interesting locations, while the Film Commission Bavaria
published a Film Producer’s Checklist giving
information about local taxes, union and
working regulations, visas and work permits as well as information on shooting
and special permits and general facts and
figures about the region.
While the film commissions are pretty uniform in the range of services offered, there are some features particular to one operator: for
example, Hamburg scored a first five years ago when it launched its
Shooting Card scheme. Every production company shooting in
Hamburg who has supplied the Film Commission with its details is
eligible to apply for the Card for a specific project. This document
then certifies that the production company, crew, script and shooting
Olympia Stadium in Berlin (photo © BBFC/D. Nauck)
sions can foster a closer dialogue between the filmmakers, the local
public authorities and location providers. Moreover, many of the regions organize location tours to give producers, location managers
and production managers an insight into the potential of their respective region: Hamburg stages its popular harbor location tour at
the end of September during the Filmfest Hamburg, while the City of
Aachen organized a border-hopping tour in early April, visiting
locations in Holland’s Limburg region and Eastern Belgium as well as
Aachen and surroundings.
Moreover, some of the film commissions send out mailings with the updates on the availability of certain locations and changes to procedures for
permits or to the names of the officials
responsible for processing the applications.
As Marianne Gassner of Film Region
Stuttgart notes, “our constantly expanded and updated online databases, the
www.locationguide.de
and
the
www.productionguide.de with over 500
locations and around 800 addresses
(from blocking service through electrigerman films quarterly
2 · 2006
8
Water studio Stollen (photo courtesy of Nordmedia/Sybille Mollzahn)
companies such as central contact persons at no charge and relinquishing any shooting fees.”
Thanks to this Network, shooting has been made easier throughout
Bavaria, with production of such films as Die Wolke, Raeuber
Hotzenplotz, Bibi Blocksberg I and II and Das Sams. The degree to
which a film shoot can have a positive promotional effect for a region
is shown by the example of the popular SAT.1 series Der Bulle von
Toelz which was made in the small town of Bad Toelz south of
Munich. The backdrop of the town in the series was such a hit with
viewers at home that the number of tourists visiting the town increased by 40% after the series went on air.
Similarly, there is a network of regional advisory agencies in BadenWuerttemberg – in addition to Film Commission Region Stuttgart –
such as the Location Office Region Freiburg and Film Commission
Bodensee Oberschwaben which are coordinated out of the State’s
regional film fund MFG in Stuttgart.
Moreover, North Rhine-Westphalia has its Network of Film Cities
with currently 28 members including Aachen, Bonn, Gelsenkirchen,
Essen and Muenster, and the aim “to provide on-site advice and support for the production of films and television programs. The cooperation between the various local authorities also ensures that
shooting will in future not be restricted to a limited number of locations, but that all of North Rhine-Westphalia and its wide-ranging
motifs can be offered as a location.”
BANGING THE DRUM
ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE
schedule of the project are known to FilmFoerderung Hamburg and
the registration helps to improve the communication and security between the producers and the location provider.
Film Commission Mecklenburg-Vorpommern subsequently followed
Hamburg’s example and now offers producers the chance to apply for
its Film Pass MV which facilitates regional support from towns and
communities during production.
However, one shouldn’t get the impression that Germany’s film commissions are only in the business of promoting shoots in the big
conurbations and cities. True, a lot of shooting is concentrated in the
main production centers of Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne,
but there are many other locations waiting to be discovered in smaller towns and rural areas.
REGIONAL NETWORKS
This is where the various location office networks established in different parts of Germany come in.
“Location Network Bavaria is not just a declaration of intent,” argues
Anja Metzger. “On our initiative, cities, regions, counties and communities in Bavaria [such as Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bamberg, Bayreuth,
Nuremberg and Wuerzburg] have banded together. The goal is to
make the whole of Bavaria accessible for film shoots and to further
develop the quality of the film region as a location for national and
international productions. We have concluded contracts with these
partners, which have very attractive elements for the production
2 · 2006
Financial support for film and TV projects is, of course, the prerogative of the film funds with whom the film commissioners liaise
very closely since their input can often be crucial when an outside producer is making the decision of whether to base his production in a
particular region. Attracting a prestigious shoot can then have a
knock-on benefit for a region’s local infrastructure with an exchange
in know-how and so help that region to score points in the competition with rival production locations at home and abroad.
But, in order to put their limited budgets to best use, the film commissions banded together on an informal basis as the German Film
Commissions with a dedicated website www.location-germany.de to
give a higher profile to the location opportunities in the nation as a
whole. Having such a label at a trade fair like AFCI’s Locations –
Bavaria’s Anja Metzger and Berlin-Brandenburg’s Christiane Raab
were in Santa Monica at the beginning of April this year – makes more
sense cost-wise than for each film commission to want to have their
own stand and presence. At the same time, the informal platform allows the commissioners to have a constant exchange of information
about best practice and interesting projects which are intending to
shoot in Germany.
The film commissioners are thus also present at the Focus Germany
umbrella in Berlin and Cannes – together with their film funding colleagues – to answer queries ’on the spot’ about shooting conditions
in their respective regions.
Moreover, German Film Commissions as a national body actively followed the proposals for the creation of a European Film
Commissions Network and served as the hosts of a day-long conference on the eve of the 2005 Berlinale when the need for such a
body was the subject of much heated debate.
9
Harbor of Stuttgart with vineyards (photo © Film Commission Region Stuttgart)
While German locations and studios are probably first and foremost
catering to the projects of local filmmakers, Germany has also had its
fair share of international productions coming to set at least part of
their films at locations in Germany.
Frank Coraci’s $110 million-plus Around the World in 80 Days, starring
Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, showed, for
example, that Brandenburg, Berlin and Central Germany can offer
everything apart from a South Seas panorama!
“And the infrastructure with hotels, transport, restaurants and the
large range of leisure activities are practically unbeatable,” argued 80
Days’ German co-producer Henning Molfenter. “Pricewise, we can
definitely undercut cities like Paris, London or Rome and, as for the
East European competitors like Prague or Budapest, our competitiveness depends a lot on the respective project. And there the financial support of the regional funds – at whatever level – is a really
essential factor for the [project] acquisition, for these monies help to
compensate for disadvantages in competition on a European level and
bring money – much more than the subsidy itself – into Germany.”
In the case of 80 Days, the €500,000 backing for the film from the
Leipzig-based Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung was expected itself
to create an "economic effect" of 300% with €1.5m being spent by the
production in Goerlitz which was “standing in” for 19th century Paris
in the film. The picturesque little town on the border with Poland
made the most of the 350-man production’s stay: menus in restaurants were adapted to offer a wider range of international cuisine, the
shops’ opening hours were extended so that the cast and crew could
go shopping after the day’s shooting, and a specially produced postcard with the letters of Goerlitz arranged Hollywood-style went into
its fourth reprint.
2 · 2006
In total, half of the production budget – i.e. around €55m – was spent
in Germany, which compared favorably with another big budget production, Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Enemy at the Gates, which left around
€50m of its €90m budget in the Berlin-Brandenburg region in 2000,
with some €20m spent in the Babelsberg Studios alone.
Positive news about good experiences on foreign shoots travels fast
on the Hollywood grapevine and so it was not long before Frank
Marshall, producer of The Bourne Supremacy, heard about how
Walden Media fared with the Jackie Chan spectacular.
As producer Frank Marshall pointed out, Berlin is “the kind of city
with lots of exciting visual opportunities” and could even double up
for some Moscow scenes including one with Matt Damon in a hairraising chase sequence in the as-yet not opened Tiergartentunnel near
Potsdamer Platz. “In Paris on The Bourne Identity, we were used to
shooting in old warehouses with rats running around. Here the package was all-in-one with the production offices, post-production facilities, screening rooms and so on,” Marshall explains. “I always feel that
it is important that your home base be as close to as many locations
as possible. So, the fact that we can shoot in the city, at the airport
and use Potsdam for Moscow within easy distance of the studio was
a perfect fit.”
Moreover, around 80% of the production’s crew on The Bourne
Supremacy were drawn from the local industry. “That was a critical
element of the first movie that we had a European crew and a
European feel and sensibility,” Marshall said. “Our cameraman, Oliver
Wood, had worked with a French crew then and was happy to be
working with Germans here.” Only the production designer, editors
and costume designer were non-Germans.
10
UK producer Andy Paterson of Archer Street Productions made the
same experience on Kevin Spacey’s Beyond the Sea. “We had a good
mix of German and non-German crew,” he said. “There was no sense
in us having to have this English person or that English person. I think
that it is becoming the norm [to have international crews] as people
realize that there are top people to be found everywhere. The balance has to work, but if it is the right production, then it will come
together organically without having to impose anything.”
Similarly, there was a considerable German presence in front of the
camera on this film with local actors taking day player and weekly
roles. “I think again that Kevin was surprised by the depth of acting
talent we found in Germany.” Paterson observed. ”Obviously, he
doesn’t take long to know if it works or not. But I didn’t have to
impose a quota; I just said that he should look at the German actors
and see what he could find, and he was thrilled by what he found.”
“The extraordinary thing about Berlin is that you can find the sixties
and seventies here without having to strip back layers of eighties and
nineties. We kept walking into places and finding the most remarkable locations.” Add to that the back-lot street of Babelsberg [which
had been used for The Pianist and Rosenstrasse and recently stood in
for the Bronx] and the whole of the Sanssouci palace because we had
an Italian location to find and, suddenly, instead of saying to Kevin ’We
have to do it in Berlin for tax reasons’, the production side and Kevin
were getting wildly excited about what we were finding. It started out
as one of the options and came on merit to be the place where we
wanted to shoot.”
Then again, the Berlin region also came up trumps for the production
team of the sci-fi fantasy film Aeon Flux after the Paramount Pictures
production originally considered locations in Los Angeles, Brasilia,
“We were impressed by the range of locations which would enable us
to create the world of Bregna without having to resort to CGI
effects,” producer Gale Ann Hurd recalled. “The modern architecture in the region is as spectacular as anything else we have seen.”
“There were a number of deciding factors: we needed sound stages,
a qualified crew, an equipment base and the technical know-how to
put a very complicated movie together,” she noted, pointing out that
Berlin was on par with her best experiences on past international
shoots in Canada, the US, South Africa and Australia. “There is a great
mood on the set and an excitement and dedication which is heartwarming for a producer and the cast,” she said, noting that “the
culture of stereotype, of how we perceive (German) people in the
United States is not true. There is a great deal of humor and not the
demeanor we are led to expect. One always hears of German
efficiency but rarely about their enthusiasm, humor and generosity.”
Similarly, there have been satisfied foreign customers in other parts of
Germany: Jodie Foster visited Leipzig airport and parts of Berlin for
Robert Schwentke’s box office hit Flight Plan, while Christopher
Lambert traveled to Schloss Braunfels in Hessen and TambachDietharz in Thuringia for the German-Hungarian-UK co-production
of the mystery thriller Metamorphosis. UK horror director
Christopher Smith came to Cologne for part of the shooting of his
chiller Creep with Franka Potente in the lead, while Australian Gregor
Jordan took over a former US barracks in Baden-Wuerttemberg for
the shooting of his comedy Buffalo Soldiers, starring Joaquin Phoenix
and Scott Glen; and Sir Roger Moore and Cuba Gooding Jr. could be
sighted on the Rhine near Bonn for the US comedy Boat Trip.
Charlotte Rampling and Kim Rossi Stuart starred in Gianni Amelio’s
The Keys to the House which was shot on location in Berlin and
Munich; and Hamburg was given a great promotional boost with the
scenes of Keira Knightley and her football team mates enjoying the
The old town of Stuttgart (photo © Film Commission Region Stuttgart)
AG DOK’s Board of Directors
Originally, Paterson had considered Luxembourg for the shoot of
Beyond the Sea as he had already worked there on Girl with a Pearl
Earring, but it didn’t have the depth of architecture they needed.
Canada and Australia for the screen adaptation of the MTV animation
series.
2 · 2006
11
city sights in Bend It Like Beckham (James Bond had already been in the
Hansestadt for The World is Not Enough).
million. In that field, we are only competing against other European
studios.”
Moreover, US independent filmmaking icon Hal Hartley has become
so enamored with the production climate in Germany that he decided
to re-locate his life to Berlin after spending a time in the capital as a
fellow at the American Academy. Early this year, Hartley was shooting
his latest feature Fay Grim – a sequel to his cult film Henry Fool with
locations around Berlin doubling up for JFK airport, part of the
Queens district and even an interrogation center in Kabul – provided
not surprisingly by the former Stasi headquarters in the
Normannenstrasse.
“Of course competition is there – we try to meet this challenge by
pointing out that we have a very creative environment for filmmaking
here, and the skills we have here in Berlin-Brandenburg are much better than people realize before they come here. It also counts that we
offer full service which has been boosted by the cooperative agreement for post-production with Elektrofilm. Moreover, we can bring
subsidies to the table on a continuous basis.”
A FINANCING INSTRUMENT
TO BOOST LOCATION GERMANY
CUTTING COSTS
Of course, the question of the cost of production will always raise its
ugly head when considering whether to come to Germany or go to
another location.
”At the Hollywood Lectures during the Berlinale, an American
lawyer said that if the cost level for the talent pool in the UK,
America, France and Canada is 100, then it is 80 in Germany.” Studio
Babelsberg board chairman Carl Woebcken recalls: “the disadvantages – as far as I can see any – [of shooting in Germany] are
that we have a cost disadvantage in the area of set construction compared to East European studios in Budapest and Prague." Woebcken
suggests, “If you are budgeting a film below the area of €20 million, I
think Romania and Bulgaria are very competitive for these price-sensitive films. But if you want to produce big films with a high budget, it
is still very difficult to realize them there because they don’t have the
facilities yet.”
The situation became even more absurd as German producers and
studios saw the Hollywood studios and US independent producers
benefiting from the fervor of private German individuals to avoid paying tax by investing in a plethora of media funds.
As Michael Paul of the Berlin-based media consultants Paul und
Collegen notes, “up to €2.5 billion was raised each year and a maximum of €50-90 million arrived again in Germany.”
“Many German producers hardly ever got their hands on the funds’
monies because they could not guarantee the demanded prospected
return on capital and their projects were too small,” adds the consultancy’s analyst Roland Schmidt. “But the German studios or production service companies also couldn’t profit that much from the international projects. The international caravan of ’runaway films’ was
attracted to the places where support of the production location is
coming from the state or the wage costs were simply more reasonable.”
Cabbage field on the set of “Unveiled” (photo © Film Commission Region Stuttgart)
As far as competition from other studios on a national level,
Woebcken argues that “there is no other studio with very large stages in Germany. Bavaria Film had them and used them for feature
films regularly up until 15 years ago and occasionally still does for films
like Downfall and Perfume. Then it is only competition for lower
budget films and we are aiming rather at films with budgets of $30-50
However attractive locations may be, if the sums don’t add up, then
a film producer will look elsewhere for the best deal going with labor
credits or other tax incentives to bring the costs down. With time,
Germany has been finding itself left out in the competition for international projects as other countries in Europe have established their
own incentive programs.
2 · 2006
12
Berlin panorama (photo © BBFC/D. Nauck)
As a stop-gap measure, the administration under former Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder agreed to the setting up of a €90 million risk capital fund which, former State Minister for Culture and the Media
Christina Weiss argued, would be an instrument to “both strengthen
the competitiveness of the film producers and also ensure for more
business in the German studios.”
According to the guidelines which have now been made public, the
fund would be able to grant conditionally repayable loans of up to
20% of the budget for a German national film or German co-production so long as certain pre-requisites are fulfilled.
For example, a “German spend” element has been incorporated into
the fund by requiring that at least 500% of the loan must be spent in
Germany. Moreover, a producer will have to furnish a legally binding
distribution contract where the distributor commits to distribute the
film with at least 30 prints (7 prints for documentaries), with a positive distribution forecast for Germany and a corresponding distribution guarantee.
Individual loans will not exceed €1.5 million and in
the case of international co-productions will not be
more than 50% of the German co-producer financing share. The minimum amount paid out to feature films will be €100,000 and €30,000 for documentaries.
In the guidelines, the fund also specified its recoupment position vis-a-vis other financiers of supported films and aimed to create a revolving fund to
supplement the initial €90 million of financing which
would be limited to the next three years.
With the federal general election last September
and the appointment of Bernd Neumann as Weiss’
successor to the post of State Minister for Culture
and the Media, the concept of the risk capital fund
was however put onto the back burner. Some
observers suggested that there had never been any
money reserved for this initiative in the national
budget anyway, while others argue that the fund
may now be revived in the discussions Neumann is
having in spring 2006 about the options for financial
incentives.
2 · 2006
In any case, the CDU-CSU-SPD grand coalition made it surprisingly
clear in its Coalition Agreement last November that they wanted “to
improve the general parameters for the German film industry in order
to secure its international competitiveness.” They declared that fiscal
measures similar to those existing in other EU member states would
be made known by 1 July 2006 “at the latest”, “in order to mobilize
private capital for film productions in Germany.”
Speaking to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung earlier this year, Neumann
declared that the aim of proposals set down in the Coalition
Agreement “is to create a ’spend in Germany’ effect. Private capital
which is acquired in Germany through incentives, must also be spent
in Germany. Not necessarily for German films, but at least for
German studios, German creatives and German technicians.”
According to Studio Babelsberg’s CEO Carl L. Woebcken, the discussions in the working group with Minister Neumann have centered on
“two demands being made. To get a better financing situation for films
– specifically for German filmmakers – and, secondly, to achieve a
cost reduction in production costs.”
“Obviously, we as a studio would like to see a reduction in the cost
levels and thus prefer a rebate system as it exists in many other countries,” Woebcken explains. “This could also work together with a gap
On the set of “Sturmflut” in Hamburg’s harbor
(photo © 2006 RTL/teamWorx/Stefan Erhard)
AG DOK’s Board of Directors
“Heaven” set photo (photo courtesy of X Verleih)
A year ago, there was broad consensus among the political parties in
the German government that the media funds in their present form
should be axed and an alternative model developed to attract private
capital for the German film industry.
13
Orangerie in Park Sanssouci (photo © BBFC/D. Nauck)
finance tool. I don’t think that
the government is ready to just
put subsidies on top of what we
already have. It is basically more
about helping those producers
who have proven that they are
successful and can recoup their
film costs.”
“We could therefore have two
elements: there has to be a gap
finance of, say, 20% of the budget to make Germany attractive
and enable parts of the film to
be made here, and also a way to
reduce part of the costs through
some kind of rebate system.”
Nevertheless, one would need
to be a good crystal ball-gazer
to know what option Neumann
and his colleagues from the
Finance and Economics Ministries might finally agree to by 1 July 2006,
although there is a suggestion that the minister might give a “sneak
preview” of his intended course of action during the film festival in
Cannes.
In any case, any new legislation would not be likely to come into effect
until the beginning of 2007 as any bill would have to go through the
committee stage and then have readings in the Bundestag before
coming onto the statute books.
GERMAN PUBLIC FUNDING:
A VIABLE & ATTRACTIVE ALTERNATIVE
In the meantime, as Hamburg media lawyer Andreas Pense of
Unverzagt von Have law firm argues, international production partners should be reminded “that there is a mature system in Germany
of film funding measures which have been functioning well for many
years and are regularly used for international co-productions from The
Pianist to V for Vendetta and they will continue to be available for international co-productions with now over €200 million (total sum of
national and regional subsidies).”
“An international co-production with a German certificate of origin
can apply for project funding from the German Federal Film Board
(FFA) via its German co-producer,” Pense explains, but points out that
the conditionally repayable loan will only be granted for projects
where there is a German majority co-producer. In the case of a
German minority co-producer, one could board an international coproducer with so-called “reference” funding. An alternative would be
to apply to one of the regional funds such as Filmstiftung NRW and
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg where a “cultural test” to determine whether the project is a German film does not exist but rather
where the generation of a so-called “regional economic effect” is of
paramount importance.
On the set of “Der Mann im Strom” in Hamburg
(photo © 2006 Aspekt Telefilm Produktion)
According to Pense, Germany
thus continues to be “an attractive partner country land for
international co-productions”:
thanks to these national and
regional instruments. German
co-producers may invariably
have to console themselves with
the position of a minority partner on international projects at
the moment, but the future new
film financing instrument planned by the German government
might make it possible for the
German partner to raise the
majority share of the budget
from Germany.
Martin Blaney
2 · 2006
14
GERMANY’S REGIONAL LOCATION OFFICES
www.location-germany.de
Coordination Office Baden-Wuerttemberg
MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft mbH
Katja Walter
Breitscheidstrasse 4 · 70174 Stuttgart/Germany
phone +49-7 11-90 71 54 00 · fax +49-7 11-90 71 54 50
email: walter@mfg.de · www.film.mfg.de
Film Commission Bavaria
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH
Anja Metzger
Sonnenstrasse 21 · 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-54 46 02 16 · fax +49-89-54 46 02 23
email: location@fff-bayern.de · www.fff-bayern.de
www.film-commission-bayern.de
Film Commission Nordrhein-Westfalen
Filmstiftung Nordrhein Westfalen GmbH
Andrea Baaken
Kaistrasse 14 · 40221 Duesseldorf/Germany
phone +49-2 11-93 05 00 · fax +49-2 11-93 05 05
email: andreabaaken@filmstiftung.de · www.locationnrw.de
Film Commission Region Stuttgart
Marianne Gassner
Breitscheidstrasse 4 · 70174 Stuttgart/Germany
phone +49-7 11-25 94 43 0 · fax +49-7 11-25 94 43 33
email: marianne.gassner@region-stuttgart.de
www.locationguide.de · www.productionguide.de
Hamburg Film Commission
FilmFoerderung Hamburg GmbH
Christiane Scholz
Friedensallee 14-16 · 22765 Hamburg/Germany
phone +49-40-3 98 37 14 · fax +49-40-3 98 37 10
email: scholz@ffhh.de · www.lbhh.de · www.ffhh.de
Location Office Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Antje Nass
Buergermeister-Haupt-Strasse 51-53 · 23966 Wismar/Germany
phone +49-38 41-61 82 00 · fax +49-38 41-61 82 09
email: info@location-mv.de · www.location-mv.de
MDM Film Commission
Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung GmbH
Bea Woelfling
Hainstrasse 17-19 · 04109 Leipzig/Germany
phone +49-3 41-2 69 87 16 · fax +49-3 41-2 69 87 65
email: bea.woelfling@mdm-online.de · www.mdm-online.de
Nordmedia
Die Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH
Anette Unger, Sybille Mollzahn
Expo Plaza 1 · 30539 Hannover/Germany
phone +49-5 11-1 23 45 60 · fax +49-5 11-12 34 56 29
email: a.unger@nordmedia.de · s.mollzahn@nordmedia.de
www.nordmedia.de
Schleswig-Holstein Film Commission
Antje Reimer
Schildstrasse 12 · 23552 Luebeck/Germany
phone +49-4 51-7 90 76 65 · fax +49-4 51-7 19 78
email: ar@m-s-h.org · www.mshfoerderung.de
(photo courtesy of Film Commission Bavaria)
Berlin Brandenburg Film Commission
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH
Christiane Raab
August-Bebel-Strasse 26-53 · 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germany
phone +49-3 31-7 43 87 30 · fax +49-3 31-7 43 87 99
email: c.raab@medienboard.de · www.bbfc.de
Location Hessen
Hessische Filmfoerderung
Kathrin Ahrens
Am Steinernen Stock 1 · 60320 Frankfurt am Main/Germany
phone +49-69-13 88 66 50 · fax +49-69-1 55 45 14
email: contact@location-hessen.de · www.location-hessen.de
2 · 2006
15
P O RT R A I T
Bernd Neumann (photo © Seekamp/Bremen)
State Minister for Culture and the Media Bernd Neumann
emphasizes:
“German film is an outstanding ambassador for our culture.”
Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung fuer
Kultur und Medien (BKM)
Bundeskanzleramt
Willy-Brandt-Strasse 1 · 10557 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-18 88-6 81 38 37 · fax +49-18 88-6 81 38 21
www.kulturstaatsminister.de
A
FILM-FREAK IN THE
CHANCELLOR’S OFFICES
Bernd Neumann, the new State Minister for Culture and the
Media in the Chancellor’s Offices, has two passions: politics and the
cinema. As a schoolboy, he loved to go to the cinema. At his high
school in Bremen, he ran a film-club, and today he invites his
Bundestag-colleagues to film previews – recently to the film The Lives
of Others. Bernd Neumann held his first political office in 1967, the
year that color television was introduced in Germany. A year before,
2 · 2006
Volker Schloendorff – very highly regarded by Neumann – received
the International Film Critics’ Award in Cannes for his first film Young
Toerless.
The present Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the
Media, which is Neumann’s rather bulky official title, has been working in German politics for almost 40 years now. He began his political
portrait
16
career in Bremen in the Junge Union, became the State Chairman of
the CDU in Bremen, later a member of the Bundestag and Secretary
of State, and now he is State Minister for Culture and the Media
under Chancellor Angela Merkel. In all those years, he has been able
to combine his passion for film with political tasks: Neumann was a
member of a film promotion committee, in which capacity he read
over 1000 scripts in the course of the years: “That was no longer pure
enjoyment,” he muses today. He sat on the jury of the German Film
Award, on numerous different committees of the film business, and on
the radio broadcasting council at Radio Bremen. From 1998 to 2005,
he was the CDU/CSU faction’s Representative for Culture and
Media.
tity. In contexts where it aims to be more than entertainment, it plays
a special role in the dialogue of the cultures. Films are the best cultural ambassadors. Among the many foreign contributions at this year's
Berlinale, six films from Iran were also shown; and these were the
subject of extensive discussion between filmmakers, artists and the
public. With this approach we are on the right track.”
Joerg Hafkemeyer
Today, Bernd Neumann is responsible for the culture and media politics of the Federal Government, German television abroad – the
“Deutsche Welle” – and is a member of the supervisory board of the
public broadcaster ZDF. Neumann is almost astonished himself: “In all
those years, I have always been the youngest wherever I went; as
leader of the faction, then top-candidate and also as State Chairman.
Meanwhile, I am not the oldest person, but when it comes to years of
service, I am by far the most senior.”
These days, films like Elementary Particles, Requiem and Summer in
Berlin are shown in German cinemas, and new young directors and
actors are making their careers. In the meantime, Schloendorff is one
of the doyens of German film. In face of new-generation talents and
the convincing content of so many productions, Bernd Neumann
looks confidently towards the future of German film. However, the
film industry worries him – sinking admissions are causing problems
for the cinemas.
Bernd Neumann is a culture and media politician with keen intelligence, decades of experience and a reality-based approach to politics.
He expresses himself quickly and freely, and he appears quite content
with the artistic situation of German film: “German films convey a
realistic picture of our society and are of high quality; increasingly, this
is meeting with international approval. In 2004, a German film ran in
the competition at Cannes for the first time in many years, and there
were OSCAR-nominations again. At the Berlinale, three Silver Bears
were awarded to German actors.”
But he is also well-aware of the difficult international competition that
German film faces. Here, he has set a clear goal: “We must create
comparable regulations to other EU-countries with regard to film
funding.”
That won’t be easy, or so one hears from the film industry. But
Neumann stands up to criticism; he points to the over €30 million in
annual film support funds from the Federal Government – which he
sees as an investment, not as subsidies – and to the present positive
discussions between politics and the film business. He is convinced by
the French model, for instance, according to which quite different
instruments manage the economic conditions for the diverse French
production scene. This could also be a desirable approach in
Germany, says the State Minister.
Bernd Neumann likes to talk, and he loves stories. Perhaps that is why
he likes films so much. And now he will be taking part in the Cannes
International Film Festival for the first time as State Minister for
Culture and the Media. He is looking forward to it. Neumann credits
film with considerable significance and force when he says: “The
medium film has immense potential as an impressive image of social
reality, but it can also offer orientation and contribute to cultural idengerman films quarterly
2 · 2006
portrait
17
D I R E C TO R ’ S P O RT R A I T
Valeska Grisebach (photo courtesy of Peter Rommel Productions)
Valeska Grisebach was born in Bremen in 1968. She
grew up in Berlin, first studying Philosophy and German
before moving to Munich and finally to Vienna, where she
began a course of Direction at the Vienna Film Academy
in 1993. Her film project Sprechen und
Nichtsprechen formed part of an exhibition at the
Museum of Applied Art in Vienna in 1995. Her first short
In der Wueste Gobi (1997) documents the intellectual games of two friends; their expectations of life,
fortune, love and work. Her second short documentary
Berlino (1999) is about a troop of Italian construction
workers on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Grisebach’s graduation film – her first full-length feature Mein Stern
(2000), co-produced by the “Konrad Wolf ” Academy of
Film & Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg, ZDF and 3sat –
met with immediate international recognition. It tells the
story of a boy and a girl, both about 15, both played by
inexperienced actors, who go through the canon and
rituals of a first relationship, exploring each other’s
bodies and experimenting with meaningful words. It is a
marvelous interwoven picture of uncertain longing and
the desire for adulthood. Mein Stern ran at festivals in
Berlin, Locarno, Toronto, Chicago, London, Istanbul and
Rotterdam in 2001, winning numerous prizes.
Grisebach’s most recent film to date – Longing
(Sehnsucht, 2006) – is a village melodrama, also with
an ensemble of amateur actors, which even made it to
the Competition block at this year’s Berlinale and recently won the Special Jury Award in Buenos Aires.
Contact:
Valeska Grisebach
phone +49-30-28 09 48 68
email: mail@grisebachfilm.de
BENEATH THE
MAGNIFYING GLASS
A portrait of Valeska Grisebach
A voluntary fire brigade uniform hangs shapelessly from Markus’
shoulders, and his starched white shirt can no longer give him stability,
either. His eyes closed, he is smooching to “I wanna feel real love” by
Robbie Williams, swaying to and fro in the party room; he is far, far
away, and it is moving to watch him. Perhaps it was dissolved in the
alcohol he drank, or perhaps the intensity of the music pressed a
hidden switch; whatever the case, it is there now – this huge and
powerful longing, much greater than Markus the metalworker and his
insignificant life – and it will soon lead him to play the central role in a
tragedy.
2 · 2006
Valeska Grisebach’s village melodrama Longing is as fragile as it
is objective, telling the story of a quiet young man from the
Brandenburg village of Zuehlen, who genuinely loves his wife and yet
wakes up with a thumping head in the bed of a waitress one day. It is
the start of a double life, until his wife leaves him and he tries to shoot
himself through the heart. Longing is a film of astonishing simplicity.
All that it consists of is the magic of precise observation and the timid
pathos that only amateur actors can bring to the cinema screen.
“From the very beginning, when I was making Longing, I had the
feeling that this film in particular would gain precision from collabor-
director’s portrait
18
ation with amateur actors, whose experience, knowledge and physical presence could be brought into a fictive, melodramatic story,” the
director says in her quiet, deep voice, searching carefully for her next
words during a pause for thought. “The fact that someone that we
would not normally see in the cinema appears before the camera
increases our feeling that any person can actually be the melodramatic hero of a story.”
The project began with detailed research. She carried out more than
200 interviews with men and women around 30, asking them how
they had expected their lives to turn out when they were children,
which expectations have been abandoned as a compromise with
everyday life, and which are still there waiting for fulfillment. “In those
conversations I got the impression that love stories in particular were
often the setting for our longings. It was there that people wanted
their desires to be fulfilled, for exciting things to happen, making them
feel alive. It was there that it was possible to become a dramatic
character, showing one’s true face,” Grisebach recalls, and briefly
contemplates the question mark of hair that has slipped in front of
her eyes.
Slowly, a story emerged from this collection of people’s plans for life
and love. And also from episodes she found in her own memory:
“Some years ago, I was in a small village in France, in Bourgogne. I was
staying with friends who lived on the village main street, and opposite
to us was a smart house where a builder lived. And then one day
someone told me that this married man had met another woman
when he was on a business trip and had fallen in love. By chance, his
wife found out and nothing was as it had been after that: his wife left
him, and the man shot himself in the heart with a shotgun, although
he survived.” She takes a sip of coffee. “Unfortunately, I could never
find out any more, but the story moved me very much. I also liked the
laconic touch, the sardonic wink in that story; the fact that he was able
to go on living after all. In addition, I was moved to hear that in a village where everyone is so aloof and close, someone had been able to
stage his fate so powerfully and show his face so openly. In my imagination, that made him into a romantic hero.”
Valeska Grisebach’s cinema is a slow kind of film, in which observation and narration merge into one. Her art is the ability to
examine an average life and its outlines beneath the magnifying
glass of her film camera. To sound it out, finding the uncertainties and
disruption, revealing its tragic potential. This is a cinema that fits in –
in an exciting way – with films by a young generation of German directors, acclaimed as the “Berlin School” abroad, particularly in France,
where they are known as the “Nouvelle Vague Allemande”.
“As far as we – those who are involved – are concerned, the ’Berlin
School’ is a term that comes from the outside. It doesn’t describe
shared aesthetics so much as a friendly, pragmatic union. Perhaps the
connection, as far as the content of our films is concerned, is the
attempt to find an approach to reality, and thus to our own identities.
And certainly the attempt, as an author, to be individual and recognizable,” Grisebach sums up. After a short, thoughtful pause she
adds: “And I think it is a good thing that the name ’Berlin School’ ensures that we are perceived together abroad, where we would
perhaps be overlooked as individuals.”
Birgit Glombitza, freelance writer for Die Zeit, epd Film and
Die Tageszeitung, spoke with Valeska Grisebach
In search of her own romantic hero, the director spent six months
touring Brandenburg’s villages, its shopping precincts and events
organized by the voluntary fire brigade. Two months were spent
rehearsing. She wanted the actors to feel at home in the story and not
to learn their lines word for word. “That just ties your brain in knots
and switches off common sense,” Grisebach explains. After all, she is
interested in the exact moment when reality and fiction collide and an
ordered picture erupts into chaos.
The 38-year-old filmmaker had already worked with inexperienced
actors for her first film Mein Stern, in which young people work
out the complex rituals of a love affair with an enchanting honesty.
That film was set in Berlin-Mitte. Since then, the capital city and
Brandenburg have been her preferred backdrops, and that is although
she studied in Vienna for eight years. “There came a point when I felt
that I had to ’go back home’ and that I ought to ask myself exactly
what is meant by the concept of ’home’. Berlin, which is where I grew
up, is a moving city. It has this gruff quality and at the same time it has
a damaged psyche. That is incredibly exciting. The same thing applies
to Brandenburg, where different eras seem to run parallel to one another. The old eastern side and the new western side – I find that very
stimulating. And if you look at all the towns and villages that are
slowly being deserted because of migration – places where the landscape is taking something back – Brandenburg can also be a fairy-tale
forest.”
2 · 2006
19
D I R E C TO R ’ S P O RT R A I T
Philip Groening was born in Duesseldorf in 1959.
After traveling the South American continent, at the age
of 19 he began to work for film and television productions in various capacities. Parallel to this, he studied
Medicine and Psychology in Munich for three years,
1979-1981, before beginning a study of Direction at the
Academy of Television and Film in Munich in 1982.
Groening received a grant from the Munich Scriptwriting
Workshop in 1991. Since then, he has made the following
films: Summer (1986, Main Prize Bergamo),
Stachoviak! (1988, Silver Hugo Chicago), The
Terrorists! (1992, Bronze Leopard Locarno), Victims.
Witnesses
(1993), L’Amour,
L’Argent,
L’Amour (2000, Bronze Leopard Locarno, Swiss Film
Award, Silver Camera Bitola), and most recently, the
highly-acclaimed Into Great Silence (Die Grosse
Stille, 2005, Bavarian Film Award, German Film Critics
Award, Special Jury Award Mexico City).
Contact:
Philip Groening Filmproduktion
Lohauser Dorfstrasse 40e
40474 Duesseldorf/Germany
phone +49-2 11-4 70 91 23
email: info@groening-film.de · www.groening-film.de
Philip Groening
Berlin Office:
Swinemuenderstrasse 7 · 10435 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-26 55 09 20 · fax +49-30-26 55 09 21
TEMPERAMENT
OF IMAGES
THE
A portrait of Philip Groening
Stories always emerge suddenly. “In a single evening, overnight, the
topic is suddenly there, the characters are there, and so are all the key
scenes.” There are few German filmmakers as unconventional as
Philip Groening. Looking at the six films that Groening has made
over the last 20 years, one is quite amazed at the diversity and range
of this director’s interests: The father-son story Summer, the quiet,
concentrated style of which reminded many viewers of the works of
Bresson; the 35-minute Stachoviak! – whose label “documentary”
can only be understood ironically – an introspective view of an
2 · 2006
amok-runner captured in extremely subjective, fragmentary images;
The Terrorists!, a heated film about group-dynamics and the suppressed bourgeois tendencies of a group of radical leftists planning a
political assassination; the cool romance L’Amour, L’Argent,
L’Amour; and finally Into Great Silence, a documentary essay
about life in a Carthusian monastery, at the same time a philosophical
meditation on the sensuality of escapism.
Sometimes Groening uses a hand-camera, sometimes he films in
20
Cinemascope; for Into Great Silence, coarse-grained Super 8
and high-resolution HD digital images alternate with each other, developing their own rhythm. Groening’s images can be faded and experimental, or crystal-clear. But despite this variety, his style and specific
standpoint are unmistakable: “The temperament of the images and
the temperament of the story have to match.” Groening works his
way into the material, doing considerable research, writing page after
page of scene- and working-material, and in this way he always tries
to find the form that is entirely appropriate to the film. “The characters you are presenting to your viewers move in the film. And in formal terms, I believe that a film must have exactly the same movement.
That determines the style and the approach.”
The same thing happens once again when it comes to editing – “you
have never shot the film that you wanted to shoot. Or I never have.”
Instead, it is about developing the voice of the material. Groening
definitely sees himself as an author filmmaker, as one who generates
a certain vision of life, of the world and of the cinema in his films, and
who attempts to realize it with remarkable consistency. It is no coincidence that in French, a director is called a “realisateur”, someone
who realizes things.
Groening describes himself as “a studio-director in principle.” What
annoys him is “that my working method is not acknowledged in a certain way. The results are valued, but the method is often questioned.”
Groening does not like scripts, and he gets annoyed over the conditions for film support in Germany, which restrict his spontaneity and
force him to work on a project for years before it can be shot: “For
me, the exposé is the valid work form. I think it’s a catastrophe that
we are forced to have scripts. I don’t believe that films become any
better that way.” His way of working – Groening is usually his own
cameraman, editor and producer – makes many things possible. “But
one is too isolated. One needs a discussion partner.”
Philip Groening, who once wanted to become a psychiatrist, knows
that cinema is only interesting when it alters our perception. Even
after his fourth full-length film, he is still young. Groening has the
potential to become one of the greats.
Ruediger Suchsland, German correspondent for
Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique and film critic for the
Frankfurter Rundschau and Filmdienst
among others, spoke with Philip Groening
GmbH
From the beginning, people abroad also acknowledged this:
Summer was a great hit – Groening made a name for himself internationally with this film – which was widely discussed and praised.
There was political dispute about The Terrorists! because the
German Chancellor at the time felt personally attacked, and – unsuccessfully – tried to damage the film. L’Amour, L’Argent,
L’Amour received its first award in Locarno, and then won the Max
Ophuels Prize in Saarbruecken. The film was a sign of hope on the
German film scene: unconventional, surprising, dream-like and
wonderful; the meeting of two disabled people in Berlin and their trip
to Normandy – a touch of Seberg and Belmondo in German cinema.
Here, as always with Groening, it is not so much the stories that are
crucial, but the images and the feelings that they trigger. Love as a
journey into the unknown, simultaneously sorrowful and beautiful.
Here, and also in Into Great Silence, his characters are outsiders,
“people who live in their own universe and have conflicts with the
outside world.”
worldwide transport solutions
Int. Medienspedition
FILMTRANSPORTS . FIRST CLASS SERVICE !
AIRFREIGHT WORLDWIDE:
EXPORT . IMPORT . WAREHOUSE
INTERNATIONAL COURIERSERVICE:
WORLDWIDE „DOOR TO DOOR“
TRUCKING SERVICE . OVERNIGHT
FESTIVALS . FILMPRODUCTION-HANDLING
www.multi-logistics.de
Airport Offices:
München
Frankfurt
Berlin
Hamburg
089/97 58 07-0
Fax 089/97 59 52 82
muc@multi-logistics.de
069/69 52 36-0
Fax 069/69 52 36 15
fra@multi-logistics.de
030/412 20 34
Fax 030/412 20 94
ber@multi-logistics.de
040/50 75 15 73
Fax 040/50 75 25 36
ham@multi-logistics.de
Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul
P R O D U C E R S ’ P O RT R A I T
Berlin-based Razor Film Produktion was founded in October
2002 by Gerhard Meixner und Roman Paul. Previous to
setting up shop on their own, Meixner and Paul had both worked at
Senator Entertainment AG as a producer and head of international
acquisitions, respectively. The focus of activities at Razor is on the
production of high quality feature films in the arthouse and crossover
segments for the national and international cinema market. The
Dutch-German-French-Israeli co-production Paradise Now by
AT THE
Hany Abu-Assad was the young company’s first project to go before the camera and was launched on a
glittering international career with its invitation to the
Berlinale’s Competition in 2005 and culminating in the
awarding of a Golden Globe, the Independent Spirit
Award and a nomination for an Academy Award for
Best Foreign Language Film. The film about two
young Palestinian suicide bombers preparing for an
attack in Tel Aviv received the AGICOA’s Blue Angel
Award for Best European Film, the Amnesty
International Film Prize and the Berliner Morgenpost
Reader’s Prize. Since then, the film has been shown at
over 50 film festivals and received more than 13 prizes, including the European Film Award for Best
Screenplay in December 2005. Razor Film’s
second feature project was Running On Empty
(Der Lebensversicherer) by Buelent Akinci,
which had its premiere at the Berlinale 2006’s
Perspektive Deutsches Kino and won the section’s main
prize, the Dialogue en Perspective Award. Other projects in production or development are Cutting
Edge (Offene Wunden, dir: Carsten Strauch,
shooting April/May 2006), Where the Grass is
Greener (Wen der Berg ruft, dir: Tamara
Staudt, shooting summer 2006), The Way to the
Cats (dir: Jorge Gurevitch, shooting late autumn
2006), Circofolie (dir: Randa Chahoud, shooting in
2007), and new projects by Hany Abu-Assad and Benedek Fliegauf.
Contact: Razor Film Produktion GmbH
Wassergasse 4 · 10179 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-6 14 58 65 · fax +49-30-61 20 18 63
email: info@razor-film.de · www.razor-film.de
CUTTING EDGE
A portrait of Razor Film
Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner were far from absolute
beginners when they decided to set up shop as Razor Film
Produktion in October 2002.
After initially working at Prokino in film acquisitions, Roman had served as head of international acquisitions at Senator Entertainment
from 1999-2002, while Gerhard worked for four years for the same
Berlin-based producer-distributor as a producer on national productions and international co-productions such as Lammbock, Jetzt oder
Nie, and The Hollywood Sign.
“We asked ourselves what our personal goals were and what kind of
films we wanted to make, so we decided it was time to try something
else,” Gerhard recalls. “We found that our respective contacts and
possibilities complemented one another very well. Roman has a very
2 · 2006
good international network of contacts and I have a good grounding
in the German scene.”
“I believe that we have very good creative talents in Germany – I’d
seen this when acquiring shorts for Senator – and I’d often asked myself why one didn’t do anything with these people,” Gerhard continues. “There are really talented writers and directors out there
whom one should give a chance to make a feature film.”
As Roman and Gerhard point out, the choice of the company’s name
was made consciously to give people a clear idea of the kind of cinema the two are wanting to support. “To begin with, the name refers
to Bunuel’s The Andalusian Dog where the knife cuts through the eye,
but it is also about us being at the cutting edge,” Roman suggests. “The
thing is, you can be on one side of the razor blade – or on the other!
22
We don’t want to be serving up easily consumable fare, but rather
making films where one has to take a position, whether this be on the
content or the aesthetics. That has always been the standard we have
set ourselves because this is what cinema is all about for us.”
what other cultures manage to do should also be possible here, i.e.
that we should be able to contribute towards an interesting international film culture out of Germany. Of course, this needs time because you have to work at building the directors up.”
FINDING PARADISE
While Paradise Now began its triumphal journey around the international festival circuit and on regular theatrical runs, Razor Film
went into production on its first home-grown project, the tragicomic
road movie Running On Empty by Buelent Akinci which had its
world premiere at the Berlinale 2006’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino
sidebar and won the Dialogue en Perspective Award from a jury of
young German and French cineastes headed by director Dominik
Moll. Negotiations are now underway for a German theatrical release
for the co-production with ZDF’s Das kleine Fernsehspiel.
While the young company began developing a raft of German language projects from the outset, including Buelent Akinci’s Running
On Empty and Carsten Strauch’s Cutting Edge which went into
production in April, the first project to be realized and presented to
the public was an international co-production – Hany Abu-Assad’s
Paradise Now.
“I have been friends for some time with the Israeli film producer Amir
Harel,” Roman explains. “When we founded Razor Film, we discussed possible projects with Amir and he told me about Paradise
Now whose subject and story I found very interesting.”
During the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, Roman saw Abu-Assad’s Ford
Transit and met the director in Park City. A month later, Roman had
brought Celluloid Dreams onboard as world sales agent as well as
Hengameh Panahi’s production arm Lumen Films and structured the
film as a German-Dutch-French co-production.
“We always said we want to make a film that has crossover potential,” Roman says, “i.e. not a small film that is only for the festivals and
micro distributors, but a film which ’intervenes’ insofar as a film is able
to do this in this difficult peace process by contributing to an intelligent debate. It was clear for everyone that this film should be on a
larger scale than Hany’s Rana’s Wedding or Ford Transit. That is why
we shot on 35 mm and ensured that the film had an appropriately
sized budget.”
In the post-production phase, the film was one of the first recipients
of financial support from the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund which
was established in the autumn of 2004 and was subsequently invited
to compete in the festival’s Competition last year.
“Our goal was definitely to come to the Berlinale with the film, but
we never thought of getting an OSCAR nomination or winning a
Golden Globe or the Independent Spirit Award!,” the producer duo
admits and they are now regularly called on to relive the film’s production history for case study presentations such as at the Berlinale
Co-Production Market, the Masterclass of the German-French Film
Academy, and the dffb.
A GOOD TIME TO GO IT ALONE
Looking back over the last three-and-a-half years, they are both convinced that they chose the right time to take the plunge into independent production. “Back in 2002, the whole German industry was in
the dumps after the Neuer Markt stockmarket bubble had burst,”
Gerhard recalls. “There wasn’t any money. We thought that this was
really a good time to start because when things then started improving again, we would be there ready and waiting. Our goal was always
to either have our productions co-produced internationally or have
them appear at international festivals because we don’t want to
restrict ourselves to Germany alone.”
NEW PROJECTS
Away from all of the excitement of the Golden Globe Award and the
OSCAR nomination for Paradise Now, Roman and Gerhard were
in the final stages of pre-production for their third feature project,
Cutting Edge by Carsten Strauch, which was shooting at locations
in Erfurt, Sitges/Spain, Hessen and Berlin in April and May.
This summer should also see the shooting of the first international coproduction initiated by Razor Film itself: dffb-graduate Tamara
Staudt’s Where the Grass is Greener in co-production with
Zurich-based Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion and with German
star Anna Loos in the female lead. The romantic comedy focuses on
an unemployed young mother from eastern Germany who ends up in
a summer job in the Swiss Alps. Once there, she has to cope not only
with stubborn cows, but also with a love-smitten dairyman and illegal
workers from the Balkans who have their eyes on a German passport.
The project was developed with German screenwriting legend
Wolfgang Kohlhaase (Best Scriptwriter at San Sebastian 2005 for
Summer in Berlin) and the Moonstone Writer’s Lab.
Towards the end of 2006, Razor expects to work again with
Paradise Now’s Israeli partner Amir Harel of Lama Films on Jorge
Gurevitch’s The Way to the Cats, which Roman describes as “a
love story between two old people in a rehabilitation clinic in Tel
Aviv”. Maximilian Schell has already been cast in one of the leads for
the Israeli-German co-production which will be shot largely in
Germany with some exterior scenes in Israel.
Meanwhile, the duo are currently discussing with various French production houses about becoming a co-production partner on another
project they have developed in-house, dffb-graduate Randa
Chahoud’s Circofolie. The modern fairytale follows a Frenchman
who has been living and working in Germany for some time as he
returns home to his native town in the south of France to take up an
inheritance. Principal photography is planned for 2007 for the film
that will be a mix of traditional narrative and numbers from the New
French Circus movement overseen by French circus star Philippe
Decouflé.
Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner spoke with Martin Blaney
“When we started as Razor, the German cinema didn’t have such a
high profile as it does now at festivals,” Roman adds. “We felt that
2 · 2006
23
A C T R E S S ’ P O RT R A I T
Nadja Uhl (photo © Joachim Gern)
Born in Stralsund in 1972, Nadja Uhl trained at Leipzig’s “Felix
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” Academy of Music and Theater and began
her acting career at Potsdam’s Hans-Otto-Theater in 1994, where she
appeared in such roles as Viola in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Polly in
Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera and as Gretchen in Goethe’s Faust. She
came to international attention in 2000 when Volker Schloendorff ’s
The Legends of Rita (Die Stille nach dem Schuss) was
shown In Competition at the Berlinale and she received a Silver Bear
for her performance ex aequo with fellow actress Bibiana Beglau. She
was also nominated in the category of Best Supporting Actress for the
2000 German Film Award and received the Latvian Film Prize in the
category of Best Actress for her role in Schloendorff ’s drama. In
2002, Nadja played one of the leads in Dutch filmmaker Ben
Sombogaart’s Twin Sisters which was nominated for the Academy
Award as Best Foreign Language Film. In the cinema, she has worked
with such directors as Chris Kraus, Mennan Yapo and Andreas
Dresen and also made regular appearances in TV productions. She
received the Bambi and Adolf Grimme Award for her performance in
Kaspar Heidelbach’s TV two-parter Das Wunder von Lengede
(2003) and could be seen on TV screens at the end of February 2006
in another two-parter, Die Sturmflut, by Jorgo Papavassilou. Most
recently, Nadja worked on Elmar Fischer’s psychological thriller
Dornroeschen erwacht and Jo Baier’s literary adaptation of
Michael Degen’s autobiographical novel Nicht alle waren
Moerder. A selection of her other films includes: Schnee in der
Neujahrsnacht (dir: Thorsten Schmidt, 1999), My Sweet
Home (dir: Philipos Tsitos, 2000), What To Do In Case of
Fire? (Was tun, wenn’s brennt?, dir: Gregor Schnitzler, 2000),
Shattered Glass (Scherbentanz, dir: Chris Kraus, 2001), La
volpe a tre zampe (dir: Sando Dionisio, 2001), Soundless
(Lautlos, dir: Mennan Yapo, 2004), Summer in Berlin
(Sommer vorm Balkon, dir: Andreas Dresen, 2005), and Four
Minutes (Vier Minuten, dir: Chris Kraus, 2006).
Agent:
Above the Line GmbH
Goethestrasse 17 · 80336 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-59 90 84 23 · fax +49-89-5 50 38 55
email: mail@abovetheline.de · www.abovetheline.de
TAKING IT
IN HER STRIDE
A portrait of Nadja Uhl
Unlike many of her colleagues, Nadja Uhl hadn’t been given the
acting bug in her genes from her parents and the life of an actor was
not her greatest childhood dream.
“The background to me becoming an actress is really a pragmatic
one,” Nadja recalls. “When I was six and starting school, we moved
to a new town and it was a new environment for me as a little girl.
2 · 2006
I was quite reserved and shy and a teacher asked whether I might like
to join a children’s amateur drama group. That became my new home
and helped me to overcome my shyness. I stayed in this group until I
was a young teenager and we performed Christmas fairytales and
other children’s plays. We played in old people’s homes and often on
large stages.”
actress’ portrait
24
By her teenage years, Nadja had well and truly caught the acting bug
and didn’t need much persuading when the head of the children’s
drama group asked if she could imagine making acting her profession.
“I have since found out that the adults had already spoken about this
and decided that I should be helped in reaching this goal,” Nadja
explains. “In fact, there is a common thread running through my life:
at points where I least believed in myself, there were others who
were on hand to give support. And this continues through to the present day.”
Living in Berlin, Nadja naturally applied to study at the Ernst Busch
Drama Academy in East Berlin, which was regarded as the top
address in the former East Germany, but was subsequently accepted
by Leipzig’s “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” Academy of Music and
Theater. “I immediately saw that this was the right place for me. I
never regretted going there and it provided me with the basis for my
craft as an actor,” Nadja recalls. “More importantly, we learned the
techniques for playing on big stages and how to work with classical
texts, something that is fundamental when you are appearing on the
stage night after night. Moreover, I had very charismatic teachers,
people who made demands on us to develop our character and take
our own decisions. That left its mark on me.”
lead in the TV two-parter Die Sturmflut – “the water was so icy”
– but the part of Michael Degen’s mother in Jo Baier’s adaptation of
the actor’s autobiography Nicht alle waren Moerder was an
unexpected challenge: “It was mentally straining which was something
I hadn’t known before – of playing the situation of being persecuted
every day.”
Moreover, the role of Nike in Andreas Dresen’s Summer in
Berlin also proved a challenge in its own way “because I wasn’t sure
whether the kind of person Nike is was someone I could relate to.
She wasn’t as hard [to play] as Anna Degen but you had to look elsewhere for the blackest depths; they were really tucked away behind
this Berlin facade of brashness and lightfootedness. At first one thinks
that nothing can touch Nike, but the fragility is there, hidden deep
down.”
After the success of Summer in Berlin at last year’s San Sebastian
Film Festival and at the German box office early this year as well as
her headlining performance in the TV two-parter Die Sturmflut,
Nadja has been suddenly catapulted on to the front pages of magazines and hailed as one of the great new hopes of the German
cinema.
As she points out, her time in the theater, including the four years at
the Hans-Otto-Theater in Potsdam, played an important role in her
preparation for working later in the cinema and on television. “It was
very significant that as a young person I was able to take personal responsibility for my work in the theater and have the courage to bring
my own personality into the characters,” Nadja explains. “My training
helped me to develop the strength I need to perform, to turn fear
into strength. This background was then useful for my film work
because you are left more to your own devices in cinema. In the theater, you have months to develop a part, but in the cinema you have
more freedom to work on the characters. In a short time, you give
everything and then are able to withdraw completely.”
However, while enjoying the public attention and professional recognition of her work in the recent productions, she isn’t letting her way
of life be dictated by the current buzz. “I have taken things slowly
over the years and that makes me all the stronger today,” she
explains. “I have always worked on quality films and fine small productions. Now I have Summer in Berlin, Dornroeschen
erwacht and Die Sturmflut and there is a large interest from the
press which wasn’t there before. I get questions like ’How do you
cope with the success?’, but I can observe all of this with great composure because, in principle, I haven’t changed anything in my way of
working. It is less threatening for me than for someone who wasn’t
able to slowly grow into things.”
In her film and television work Nadja has worked with a broad spectrum of directors, from new faces like Elmar Fischer and Chris Kraus
through to more established names like Andreas Dresen and such
“old hands” as Jo Baier and Volker Schloendorff.
Consequently, Nadja is taking her time in choosing the next roles.
“Both Jo Baier and Peter Rommel said that I should have the courage
to pause and take my next steps only after careful consideration,” she
says. “People have said to me: Nadja, take care that you don’t waste
yourself.”
“I always see the differences in the personality rather than in the age,”
Nadja remarks on her experiences with the different generations of
directors: “Jo Baier, for example, is a steadfast person and personality
in the same way as Andreas Dresen where I have the feeling that I
have at long last found a master craftsman again. I can and must learn
from them because they have something to say to me. Then you have
a director like Chris Kraus who is relatively new in his profession, but
showed in Shattered Glass that he has an incredible creative
potential. He might not have had as much experience as Juergen
Vogel or me, but he was always prepared to be open to our suggestions and made for a very creative atmosphere which has stayed with
me in my memory.”
“Meanwhile, Andreas knows every second what he is wanting to do
and I have seldom experienced someone who is so well prepared,”
she notes. “The same goes for Jo Baier – he even paints little storyboards of each scene. It is great when a director has a strong personality and doesn’t feel threatened or taken too seriously by the actors.
You need to have a mixture of respect, authority and freedom.”
While it would be "a dream" to work internationally after her first
forays into foreign productions with the Italian children’s film La
volpe a tre zampe and the OSCAR-nominated Dutch film Twin
Sisters, she isn’t packing her bags and jetting off to Hollywood to
try her luck in Tinseltown at all costs. “I was often asked in Germany
after the OSCAR nomination if I wanted to go to Hollywood, but I
think that’s a ridiculous thing to contemplate," Nadja argues. "But if
someone in Hollywood sees something in me that they would like to
have there, then I am someone who would give my all. However, I
wouldn’t do this for any price as I would want to be able to remain
true to my personality.”
Nadja Uhl spoke with Martin Blaney
Looking back at the film and TV roles she has played to date, Nadja
agrees that the most physically challenging was doubtless the female
2 · 2006
actress’ portrait
25
WO R L D S A L E S P O RT R A I T
Atrix Films GmbH
Nymphenburger Strasse 79 · 80636 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-64 28 26 11 · fax +49-89-64 95 73 49
email: atrixfilms@gmx.net · www.atrix-films.com
Owner and managing director: Beatrix Wesle
Founded: 2001
Catalogue includes:
Beatrix Wesle
Blind Spot – Hitler’s Secretary (2002) by André
Heller & Othmar Schmieder, Kandahar (2002) by Mohsen
Makmalbaf, September 11 (2003) by 11 directors including Sean Penn, Samira Makhmalbaf, Since Otar Left …
(2003) by Julie Bertucelli, The Story of the Weeping
Camel (2003) by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni,
The Return (2003) by Andrej Swjaginzew, It Is Easier
for a Camel … (2003) by Valeria Bruno-Tedeschi, The
Forest for the Trees (2003) by Maren Ade, Silentium
(2004) by Wolfgang Murnberger, Antares Three Sides
of Love (2004) by Goetz Spielmann, Fog of War (2004)
by Errol Morris, Arktos – Mike Horn – Le Voyage
Interieur (2005) by Raphael Blanc, Hitler Cantata
(2005) by Jutta Brueckner, Shadow of the Sword (aka
The Headsman, 2005) by Simon Aeby, The Cave of
the Yellow Dog (2005) by Byambasuren Davaa,
Winners and Losers (2006) by Kjell Sundvall, Valo
(2006) by Kaija Juurikkala, Lotte from Gadgetville
(2006) by Janno Poldma & Heiki Ernits
MOVING PICTURES
A portrait of Atrix Films
Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, Beatrix Wesle’s Munichbased company focused its activities from the outset on four key areas
– consulting and strategies, world sales, packaging and film financing,
and national distribution – for high quality feature films, arthouse titles
and documentaries.
“Our interest is in being involved in films that move us emotionally,
regardless of whether the film is in English or not,” is how Wesle
describes her company’s philosophy. “I may be based in Germany, but
this does not mean that I want to restrict myself only to German projects as I want to be open to quality films regardless of their nationality.”
“I see myself as being someone who is very director-driven in my
choice of projects,” Wesle adds, pointing out that she has enjoyed
working on films from such countries ranging from Argentina to Iran
2 · 2006
“because they are so moving and full humanity. Naturally, it has also
helped when these films were submitted for the OSCAR by their own
countries because that gives them a greater international awareness
which one could use in the marketing.”
Before setting up shop as Atrix Films, Wesle worked as head of
business communications at the publicly listed media company
Advanced Medien AG where she worked on film financing and licensing deals as well as collaborative ventures with the US production
companies U.F.O. Film Productions and Wolfgang Petersen’s Red Cliff
Productions. Prior to that, she served as head of theatrical acquisitions for Tobis Filmkunst, concluding deals for such films as The Fifth
Element, In & Out, and American Buffalo.
Since going independent, Wesle worked as a non-exclusive European
representative for a US sales agent to sell such films as Juan Jose
world sales portrait
26
Campanella’s OSCAR-nominated Son of the Bride, Bahman
Ghobadi’s Marooned in Iraq, and the Austrian documentary
Blind Spot – Hitler’s Secretary to various European territories and also acquired films like Mika Kaurismaeki’s music documentary Moro no Brasil, and Rolf Schuebel’s love triangle Gloomy
Sunday for the sales agent’s North American theatrical arm.
In addition, Wesle’s strong personal interest in films addressing political or ethical issues has led her in the past to acquire the German
theatrical rights to such films as Mohsen Makhmalbaf ’s Kandahar,
the omnibus film September 11, Mahsen Makhmalbaf ’s Afghan
Alphabet or Udi Aloni’s Local Angel – Theological
Political Fragments for release in Germany.
WORKING WITH GERMAN FILMMAKERS
Two years ago, Wesle was responsible for the sales and distribution
on behalf of Munich’s Academy of Television & Film (HFF) for its production of Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni’s OSCAR-nominated
box office hit The Story of the Weeping Camel (Die
Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel) which was sold to more
than 60 territories and took more than $10 million worldwide.
In 2004, she collaborated again with Davaa on her next film, The
Cave of the Yellow Dog (Die Hoehle des gelben
Hundes), by sealing a distribution deal with a partner in Switzerland
and consulting on deals for the UK, France, and the Benelux countries
ahead of the start of principal photography.
“I think the German cinema is experiencing a real upswing in its fortunes at the moment,“ Wesle notes. “You see films like Good Bye,
Lenin! and Downfall having success and making money abroad as well
as at home. What’s more, I believe that German Films’ Distribution
Support program has made a real difference for foreign distributors
when they are releasing German films.”
Apart from working with Byambasuren Davaa, Wesle also brokered
a sales agent deal for Maren Ade’s The Forest for the Trees
(Der Wald vor lauter Baeumen) with Sola Media.
Atrix’s own sales lineup includes such films as Raphael Blanc’s documentary Arktos - The Adventures of Mike Horn and
Hitler Cantata (Hitlerkantate) by Jutta Brueckner, but
Wesle’s sales activities are supplemented by her collaboration with
Solveig Langeland’s Stuttgart-based sales outfit Sola Media to handle
fare as varied as the Goetz Spielmann’s Antares, Simon Aeby’s
historical adventure Shadow of the Sword, the Estonian children’s animation film Lotte from Gadgetville, and Rick Elgood
and Don Letts’ romantic drama One Love.
Martin Blaney
2 · 2006
27
WO R L D S A L E S P O RT R A I T
The Match Factory GmbH
Sudermanplatz 2 · 50670 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-2 92 10 20 · fax +49-2 21-29 21 02 10
email: info@matchfactory.de · www.the-match-factory.com
Owner and managing director: Michael Weber
Founded: 2006
Catalogue includes:
Michael Weber
Eden (2005) by Michael Hofmann, Madeinusa (2005) by
Claudia Llosa, El Custodio (2006) by Rodrigo Moreno,
Lucky Emma (WT, 2006) by Sven Taddicken, Grbavica
(2006) by Jasmila Zbanic, Lights in the Dusk (2006) by
Aki Kaurismaeki 2006, Madonnas (2006) by Maria Speth,
The Great Match (2006) by Gerardo Olivares, Tough
Enough (2006) by Detlev Buck
PLAYING THE
MATCHMAKER
A portrait of The Match Factory
Michael Weber couldn’t have had a better start for his new
Cologne-based sales outfit The Match Factory, whose lineup
made its first market appearance at the European Film Market in Berlin
in February 2006.
To begin right at the top, first-time Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic
won the Golden Bear for her hard-hitting drama Grbavica as well as
the Peace Film Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Award. Another competition film, El Custodio, by Argentine director Rodrigo Moreno
received the Alfred Bauer Award, while Detlev Buck’s Panorama entry
2 · 2006
Tough Enough (Knallhart) was awarded the FIPRESCI Award and
the Europa Cinemas label.
“This first lineup [which also includes Gerardo Olivares’ The Great
Match, Claudia Llosa’s Madeinusa, and Rotterdam pickup Eden
by Michael Hofmann] reflects what we are wanting to do with the mix
of debut films and more established filmmakers, with films from
Germany, Eastern Europe and Latin America,” Weber explains.
After spending almost ten years transforming Bavaria Film
28
International into one of the leading players in the international sales
arena, Weber felt the time had come last year to take the plunge and
set up his own outfit. “It was part of a personal development because I wanted to be closer to the filmmakers again,” says Weber
who brought Pandora Film producers Karl ’Baumi’ Baumgartner and
Reinhard Brundig onboard as shareholders in the new company.
The Match Factory has also taken on Maria Speth’s latest film
Madonnas (Madonnen), starring Silver Bear-winner Sandra
Hueller (Requiem); Sven Taddicken’s (WT) Lucky Emma
(Emmas Glueck); Stanislav Mucha’s first fiction film Hope, which
began shooting in April; and Jaime Rosales’ La Soledad which goes
into production this summer.
Naturally, the company’s name was a reverential nod in the direction
of Aki Kaurismaeki [whose latest feature Lights in the Dusk is
being sold by The Match Factory ], “but it also refers to our intended
role as a matchmaker,” Weber argues. “We want to be a link between the producers and distributors and want people to see us as
their partner.”
Martin Blaney
“The structure with ’Baumi’ and Reinhard Brundig is such that there is
no output deal with Pandora, but I will have a ’first look’ arrangement,” he notes, pointing that The Match Factory and Pandora
will scout together to discover and nurture new talent.
Baumgartner and Brundig, who had had a previous foray into world
sales in 2000 with Orfeo Films, seemed the ideal partners for Weber’s
new venture as they had worked well together over the past four to
five years on such films as Kim Ki-Duk’s Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
… Spring or Juan Rebella and Pablo Stoll’s Whisky. “That showed we
have a similar taste in films,” Weber says.
According to Weber, the films on his books will “distinguish themselves through story and statement, originality and style”, while the
emphasis will be on arthouse although with the potential for crossover. “We want to remain small and flexible with a maximum of
around 12 titles being handled each year,” Weber says, suggesting that
The Match Factory’s structure makes it quite unique in the
German world sales landscape.
“The reaction to me going it alone with this new company has been
surprisingly very good in the industry,” Weber recalls. “I often had the
feeling that people were behaving as if the company had been around
for a while, even though it had just been launched.” But this probably
came from the fact that Weber had built up an enviable track record
through the international distribution of such titles as Run Lola Run
(Lola rennt), Good Bye, Lenin!, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … Spring
and The Man Without a Past during his time at Bavaria Film
International. Moreover, his sales team – among others – consists of
Tobias Pausinger, Martina Knabe, Brigitte Suarez and Kathrin
Bergmann: all old hands at the international sales business.
While this year’s Berlinale and the European Film Market proved to
be the perfect launchpad for The Match Factory – with over a
dozen sales sealed for Golden Bear-winner Grbavica in the first
week after the festival – Weber and his team are not resting on their
laurels and waiting for producers to knock on their door.
The Match Factory has already added a number of forthcoming
films from both young and established directors to its sales lineup.
For example Aki Kaurismaeki’s latest feature Lights in the Dusk,
which is In Competition this year at Cannes. The third part of
Kaurismaeki’s ’unemployment trilogy’ opened theatrically in Finland at
the beginning of February and is, in addition to it’s Grande Lumière
screening in Cannes, already scheduled to have a Piazza Grande
screening at August’s Locarno Film Festival as part of this year’s retrospective dedicated to the Finnish director.
2 · 2006
29
2/2006
Industry Tigers 2006 (photo © Norbert Kesten)
NEWS
FFA’S INDUSTRY TIGERS 2006
The German Federal Film Board (FFA) awarded the
most successful producers and distributors of German
films – the so-called Industry Tigers – a total of €19.7
million in reference support funds. Like never before, the new festival and awards points, which
were introduced into the film funding law three
years ago, made a big difference: 20% of the
funding support (that’s €3.1 million) was achieved solely through this new criteria. In this
category, the most successful producers were
X Filme Creative Pool with its films Alles auf
Zucker! and Agnes und ihre Brueder, and the Erfurtbased Kinderfilm with Die Blindgaenger. In addition to
festival points, the number of tickets sold also played a
large role. For the third time, Constantin Film was awarded the Golden Industry Tiger in both categories: production and
2 · 2006
distribution. The successful Munich-based team (with
films like Die weisse Massai, Vom Suchen und Finden
der Liebe and Napola) received a total of €3.5
million in reference funding. Reference funding is
based on the legal claims of producers and
distribution companies as outlined in the film
funding law, which provides for financial
support for new cinema productions and
marketing campaigns based on the audience
and festival success of their films. The funds
are available with no binding pre-requisites to
location and television broadcasters and can be
used without having to obtain further consent
from support committees.
news
30
Nicole Guillemet, Andrea Dittgen, Oliver Mahrdt,
Beki Probst, Wim Wenders (photo courtesy of Miami
International Film Festival)
GERMAN FILMS’ DISTRIBUTION
SUPPORT IN BERLIN
Christian Dorsch (German Films), Ephraim Gilad,
Christiane Paul & Joerg Schweizer (BMW)
During the Berlin Film Festival in February, German Films and the
Association of German Film Exporters invited international distributors to a “Distributor’s Cocktail” in the Restaurant Essenza located
in the heart of the festival center. It was the ideal meeting place for the
distributors and their German world sales contacts, directors and producers. A highlight of the event was the raffle of an exclusive BMW
mountain bike donated by the sponsor BMW. German actress
Christiane Paul made Ephraim Gilad, president of the Israeli distribution company Nachshon Films, the lucky winner of the evening.
WIM WENDERS: A TRIBUTE IN MIAMI
Prior to the screening of his latest film Don’t Come Knocking, veteran
director Wim Wenders received the Career Achievement Tribute at the
Gusman Center during the 2006 Miami International Film Festival.
Wenders has been a major force on the international film scene since
his debut as one of the leaders of the New German Cinema of the
1970s and continues to impress international audiences and festival
with his distinctive signature.
W-FILMS’ NIGHT OF THE SHORTS
IN HUNGARY
Miguel Angel Perez,
Byambasuren Davaa & César Clemente
The cocktail was also an occasion to highlight German Films’ new
funding program Distribution Support which came into effect in
2005. Many representatives of distribution companies that had already benefited from the program were present at the cocktail,
among them Miguel Angel Perez and César Clemente from Karma
Films/Spain. Karma Films has already received Distribution Support
twice, once for the very successful release of Luther and recently for
the forthcoming release of Byambasuren Davaa’s The Cave of the
Yellow Dog.
With its “Night of the Shorts”, W-film offers cinemagoers the possibility to discover new worlds, whether in theme nights or country
specific programs. For the last five years, W-film Distributors takes its
audiences to faraway film worlds and brings short films to the silver
screen. After the successful start of Night of the Shorts in Hungary in
2005, now comes the second edition of the internationally active
short film label’s program to Hungarian cinemas. Last year the Night
of the Shorts and the European Film Award-winning short films
enthused some 3,500 cinemagoers alone in this small country. And
since 7 March 2006, W-film has invited Hungarian audiences to dive
into the creative world of German shorts with “German Short
Pieces”. Seven German short film productions are on a three-month
tour of Hungary’s most popular cinemas. And the short film “jewels”
bring some of Germany’s most popular actors to the screen: Jasmin
Tabatabai, Franka Potente and Walter Giller. Subtitling support has
been provided by the German Short Film Association and German
Films. Further information is available at www.kurzfilmkino.de.
PREMIERE PRESENTATION OF
SHORT FILM STUDY
The German Short Film Association presented its Short Film
Study during this year’s Oberhausen International Short Film Festival.
After a year of preparation and research, the authors Reinhard W.
Wolf, Michael Jahn and Christina Kaminski offered their comprehensive work to the public. The study presents up-to-date information and figures about the German short film scene, the circumstances
under which it functions, and its place within the German film industry
as a whole. More information about the study can be found at
www.ag-kurzfilm.de.
2 · 2006
news
31
Scene from “Roll That Stone”
(photo © Unteres Mittelmass)
GERMANS CELEBRATE IN VILLA AURORA
Traditional Villa Aurora group photo
(photo © Malcolm Lesavoy)
The traditional annual German Films Academy Award
Nominee Reception on Saturday 4 March 2006 at the Villa
Aurora in Los Angeles was a great success. Despite heavy rain in the
days before, the sun came out just in time for the reception, allowing
the guests to mix and mingle in the beautiful garden of the former
Feuchtwanger Mansion overlooking the Pacific ocean. Some 500
guests attended to celebrate their fellow countrymen, including
OSCAR-alumni Volker Engel, as well as Juergen Prochnow, Ralph
Moeller and Sir Brian Cox.
GERMAN SHORT FILMS IN CANNES
Joseph Wittenstein, Marc Rothemund
(photo © Bert Spangemacher)
The German filmmakers of nominations in various categories were:
Marc Rothemund (director, Sophie Scholl, Best Foreign Language Film),
Ulrike Grote (director, Ausreisser, Best Live Action Short Film), Roman
Paul and Gerhard Meixner (co-producers, Razor Film, Paradise Now,
Best Foreign Language Film), Benjamin Herrmann and Christopher
Borgman (co-Producers, Senator Film, Merry Christmas, Best Foreign
Language Film) and Michael Ohoven (one of the three producers of
Capote, Best Motion Picture). Thanks to the efforts of the German
Consul General, Dr. Stocks, the 87-year-old professor Dr. Joseph
Wittenstein, member of The White Rose, also attended the event as
a surprise guest and was introduced by Marc Rothemund. After a 20hour odyssey caused by snow storms in Munich, lead actress Julia
Jentsch also made it to the reception and was presented to the local
media and press. The event was hosted by German Films in partnership with the German Consulate Los Angeles and Villa Aurora,
Foundation for European American Relations.
The German Short Film Association (AG Kurzfilm) is once
again present this year in Cannes: within the framework of the Short
Film Corner, the association is offering, with support from German
Films, a podium for German shorts and the possibility to further
expand its network with international buyers. A total of 16 current
German short films have been selected, including: Daniel Nocke’s
new animation No Room for Gerold (Kein Platz fuer Gerold), the documentary Moto Drome (Motodrom) by Joerg Wagner, the music video
Roll That Stone by Boris Kanzow, Kai Kullack and Frank Herbort, as
well as the short feature Tanguero by Daniel Seideneder and
Hernando Tascón. With its presence at the Short Film Corner, the AG
Kurzfilm hopes to further increase the international awareness of
German short films, which already enjoy great success at festivals
around the world.
Cannes is also the kick-off for German Films’ own NEXT
GENERATION program. This year’s selection of 10 of the best
shorts from German film schools will be premiered on 21 May at
20:00 h in Cannes’ Star 2 cinema.
INTERNATIONAL FILM CONGRESS 2006
IN COLOGNE
In order to avoid an organizational conflict with the 2006 FIFA World
Cup™, this year’s medienforum.nrw will be taking place in May,
overlapping with the Cannes Film Festival. As a result, the
Filmstiftung NRW will be hosting its International Film Congress,
albeit on a smaller scale, as usual within the framework of the medienforum.nrw from 20 – 22 May. The program will consist of discussions
about the relationship of film to other art forms and promising
festival strategies for filmmakers as well as discussion rounds on short
and documentary films, the latter in cooperation with the Producers’
Association NRW.
The congress will be opened with a big film premiere and the threeday event will offer not only a lot to talk about, but also a lot to see.
Together with the Cologne Conference, the Filmstiftung will stage a
series for international up-and-coming films: the Spectrum Young Film.
Information about the International Film Congress is available at
www.filmstiftung.de.
2 · 2006
news
32
Laurence Kardish with his Berlinale Camera
phones or on IP-TV. With the unique combination of rights clearance,
encoding and digital delivery services, reelport makes films accessible
at all times to buyers from all around the world. The Online Film
Catalogue thus offers to the buyer and rights owner a time saving digital allround service. So no more complicated ordering of preview
copies, time consuming search for film copies and endless negotiations
of rights. Costs for transport and subtitling are reduced. The new
Online Film Catalogue is a digital market place, where film files and
rights will be easily accessible. More information is available at
www.reelport.com.
FRESH IMPETUS FOR LOCATION HAMBURG
On the set of “When Darkness Falls”
(photo courtesy of FFHH)
Since January, more than 35 productions are either in their preparatory phase or currently being shot in the Hanseatic City. These include
numerous crime series, TV movies and funded cinema films such as
Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald by Nicolette Krebitz and the production
Nichts als Gespenster by Martin Gypkens, based on stories by Judith
Hermann.
BERLINALE CAMERA FOR
LAURENCE KARDISH
Within the framework of the 56th International Film Festival Berlin,
various personalities were recognized for their services to the film
world and awarded Berlinale Cameras. In addition to the German DoP
Michael Ballhaus and the German director Juergen Boettcher,
Laurence Kardish – senior curator of the Film & Media Department at
the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York – was honored.
For over 30 years, the MoMA has been presenting German films every
autumn in its program KINO! New German Films. The event was first
staged in 1972 as Laurence Kardish, together with the local GoetheInstitut, invited young German filmmakers to the Big Apple. Since
then, Kardish has been presenting, in close cooperation with German
Films, a selection of films every year. One of the most successful
events was the Fassbinder Retrospective, held on the occasion of the
10th anniversary of the director’s death.
Five feature films, 18 TV movies, crime series and romantic series, as
well as three short films have been registered in an internal Film
Commission set of statistics for the period January – May. Alexandra
Luetkens and Christiane Scholz were in contact with all of the production companies and were able to support the filmmakers with
advice and extensive services. Since May these have grown to include
a databank of set-photos. Popular shooting locations include the
harbor, traditional Hanseatic motifs, villas and parks, as well as streets
and spaces with harbor ambience. A stunt for the German-Swedish
co-production When Darkness Falls required major roadblocks in
agreement with the police.
REELPORT: ONLINE FILM CATALOGUE
DOKVILLE 2006
Search and view
films all around
the world, acquire film rights
and copies –
online! With its new Online Film Catalogue, reelport offers a service for
rightsowners on the one hand and buyers on the other hand: In the
Online Film Catalogue buyers can not only search, view and acquire film
rights, they can also obtain the digital film file in the quality that is
required for exhibition in cinemas, VoD-services, schools, on mobile
2 · 2006
After its great success last year, the MFG-funded documentary sector
meeting Dokville 2006 will take place this year for the second time
from 1 – 2 June 2006 in Ludwigsburg. By working with case studies,
this event goes into the matters of copyright and rights pertaining to
documentary productions. Entitled Walking the Narrow Path –
Copyrights and Rights, it gives a current review and takes into account
the filmmakers’ situation and their rights to quotations as well as the
demands of archives and music companies. Is there a documentary
original quote? Can filmmakers make money out of their own
news
33
Heading the 2nd Indo-German Film Festival: Bavaria’s
Minister of Economy Erwin Huber, Maureen Gonsalves
(Goethe Institut Bangalore) and Dr. Klaus Schaefer (FFF)
Scene from MFG-funded “Workingman’s Death”
(photo courtesy of MFG)
footages? Dokville 2006 is organized by the Documentary Film Center
in cooperation with MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, the City of
Ludwigsburg and the Film- and Mediafestival Company. The
participation fee is €30; the reduced fee, e.g. for students, is €20 Euro
and a single day pass €20. Further information is available at:
www.dokville.de or www.mfg.de/film.
SUPPORT, AWARDS AND PROMOTION
From the beginning of June on, the newly created Television Museum
completed the Filmhaus on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin to become a
“House of Moving Images”. The permanent exhibit will present television programing to the visitors as a photo album, in which they,
according to their own age and biography, will be able to recognize
parts of their own history. In five rooms on two floors, the new museum intends to solidify the public image of the historical and cultural
value of the audiovisual medium.
ZIEGLER RETROSPECTIVE AT THE MOMA
Call of the Toad (Unkenrufe) by Robert Glinski, based on the novel of
the same name by Guenter Grass, opened a retrospective at the
beginning of April in New York dedicated to the Berlin-based producer Regina Ziegler.
Inside the Television Museum Berlin
In the center of Berlin, a new and lively forum for the history and presence of German television will emerge, highlighting the magic
moments of programming history. Not only will the different developments in East and West German television past be presented, but
also debates about current media policy. From 5 May – 30 July, a special exhibit entitled “Goal! Football and Television” will be on display
as an Official Element of the Artistic and Cultural Program of the
Federal Government to the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in cooperation
with 2006 FIFA World Cup Organising.
But the Bavarian film fund not only supports, it also promotes films:
The FFF-reception at this year’s Berlinale served as the opening platform for the 2nd Indo-German Film Festival in Chennai and Bangalore.
The event will be attended by Bavaria’s Minister of Economy Erwin
Huber. It will take place in November 2006 and again bring together
some of the most prolific filmmakers from Bavaria and South India.
Regina Ziegler
(photo © Erik Hackenschmidt)
TELEVISION’S MAGIC MOMENTS
Shortly before its 10th anniversary, several films supported by
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern made impressive appearances at
German and international festivals and award shows. Sophie Scholl –
The Last Days by Marc Rothemund was nominated for an Academy
Award and won the Bavarian Film Award for Best Production. Family
film Robber Hotzenplotz by Gernot Roll was presented at the
Berlinale’s Children’s Film Festival, whereas Florian Henckel von
Donnersmarck’s extraordinary debut feature The Lives of Others, winner of four Bavarian Film Awards, also heads the nomination list for the
German Film Award 2006 aspiring 11 “Lolas”.
Laurence Kardish, the MoMA’s senior film curator, is an aficionado of
German filmmaking and presents a program of select new German
films in the MoMA each autumn in cooperation with German Films. By
2 · 2006
news
34
Scene from “Wattlaufer”
(photo courtesy of BV Kommunale Filmarbeit)
deciding this year to also dedicate a retrospective to a German
woman producer, he shows the high esteem held for the work of the
Berlin producer who has realized a broad spectrum of productions
over the past 25 years.
Although Regina Ziegler has received many awards during her career
as a producer, the honor in the MoMA is something quite special.
“Among the distinctions a producer dreams of, this one on the
American East Coast is the greatest. I see this retrospective also as a
sign that there is greater attention being paid to the German cinema
in the USA.“
Nordmedia’s Media/Production Guide
Apart from the opening film, the retrospective also included: the Erotic
Tales-episode The Waiting Room by Jos Stelling, Cloud Door by Mani
Kaul and An Erotic Tale by Dito Tsintsadze, the documentary Rodina
heisst Heimat by Helge Reidemeister, Malou by Jeanine Meerapfel,
Fabian by Wolf Gremm, Summer Guests by Peter Stein as well as the
TV two-parter Der Verleger by Bernd Boehlich.
GERMAN SHORT FILM AWARD 2005
ON TOUR
Scene from “female/male”
(photo courtesy of BV Kommunale Filmarbeit)
The nominees for the German Short Film Award 2005 and Gerhard
Friedl’s documentary feature Hat Wolff von Amerongen Konkursdelikte
begangen? are on a nation-wide tour of German communal cinemas.
All of the films exhibit high cinematic quality and originality. And this
year’s program addresses social and existential topics, showing many
of the protagonists at turning points in their lives: five of the films deal
with the postive and tragic aspects of getting older. Taboos such as
sexuality and Alzheimer’s Disease are shown in an extraordinary manner. The two feature-length programs are titled Wendepunkte
(“Turning Points”) featuring Vorletzter Abschied by Heiko Hahn, Jam
Session by Izabela Plucinska, Wattlaeufer by Dennis Jacobsen, Chaim by
Jonathan Greenfield as well as Goodbye by Steve Hudson, and
Fixpunkte (“Checkpoints”) featuring Christina ohne Kaufmann by Sonja
Heiss, female/male by Daniel Lang, Mast Qalandar by Till Passow,
Cousin Cousine by Maria Mohr and Heim by Marc Brummund.
NORDMEDIA UPDATES
INDUSTRY DIRECTORY
Nordmedia has revised and updated its directory and published a
new Media/Production Guide. The industry directory is available online at www.nordmedia.de as well as in handbook form. The guide is
geared toward the needs of the film and media industries and helps
make the search for information involved in production preparation
much easier for all involved. With over 1,000 addresses, the bilingual
reference guide offers an overview of the media landscape in Lower
Saxony and Bremen. In addition to its Location and Actors guides, the
new Media/Production Guide is yet another important service
Nordmedia makes available to all film and media makers.
The tour is an initiative of and supported by the Federal Government
Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Event organizers include
3Rosen, Script House and the Association of Communal Cinemas.
Tour dates and further information is available at www.kommunalekinos.de and www.kurzfilmpreisunterwegs.org.
2 · 2006
news
35
Scene from “8 Miles High”
(photo © Neue Bioskop)
IN PRODUCTION
8 Miles High
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama, Love Story
Production Company Neue Bioskop Film Erste Produktionsgesellschaft/Munich, in co-production with Neue Bioskop Film/
Munich, Hofmann & Voges/Munich, Senator Film Produktion/Berlin,
TV60 Film/Munich, Kinowelt Filmproduktion/Leipzig, Babelsberg
Film/Potsdam, Studio Babelsberg/Potsdam With backing from
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM, MEDIA Producers Eberhard
Junkersdorf, Dietmar Guentsche Director Achim Bornhak
Screenplay Olaf Kraemer, Achim Bornhak, based on a draft by C.P.
Hant, Dagmar Benke, Olaf Kraemer Director of Photography
Benjamin Dernbecher Editor Sebastian Schulz Production
Design Eduard Krajewski Principal Cast Natalia Avelon, Matthias
Schweighoefer, David Scheller, Alexander Scheer, Victor Noren
Casting Marquardt & Koch Format 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby SR
Shooting Language German Shooting in Munich, Berlin
(Studio Babelsberg), India, December 2005 – May 2006 German
Distributor Warner Bros. Entertainment/Hamburg
loved. Freedom meant for her the nomadic life.”
Although the key moments in Obermaier’s turbulent life provide the
common thread running through 8 Miles High, the production has
allowed itself some artistic freedoms in the screenplay “but only insofar as it was dramaturgically necessary,” as Junkersdorf notes, while a
physical similarity with the historical figures played an essential role in
the choice of actors for the main parts such as Obermaier (the first
major feature film role for 26-year-old Natalia Avelon), the
adventurer and bar-owner Dieter Bockhorn (David Scheller) and
the communard Rainer Langhans (Matthias Schweighoefer).
Obermaier was on hand to give Avelon advice about preparing herself for the role and was overwhelmed on their first meeting: “It was
incredible,” she recalls. “My friends reacted in surprise: ’We never
knew that you have a daughter’. That’s how much we look alike!”
Meanwhile, Schweighoefer was a must to play Langhans for director
Bornhak, a graduate of the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg, who
is making his feature film directorial debut with 8 Miles High.
“[Matthias] brings the talent not only to convince as Friedrich Schiller,
but also to slip into the skin of the 68ers – he masters every role,” says
Junkersdorf.
Since the film also shows that Obermaier was just as much at home in
the world of pop music with such superstars as Jimi Hendrix or the
Rolling Stones as friends, Junkersdorf and producer/partner
Dietmar Guentsche wanted to have the rock musicians appearing in the story be cast with people with the necessary musical talent.
“That’s why we got the up-and-coming Swedish star Victor Norén,
the lead singer of the hot band Sugarplum Fairy, for our film. Not only
can he hold his guitar, he can also play on it!”
“Achim Bornhak is still at the beginning of his career and compensates for the lack of experience with intensive commitment to the
story, to our project,” Junkersdorf notes. “Also the way he works with
the actors has so convinced us that we have complete faith in him.”
MB
Location motif for “Absurdistan”
(photo © Yesim Zolan)
Contact
Neue Bioskop Film GmbH
Koeniginstrasse 11 Rgb. · 80539 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-4 09 09 20 · fax +49-89-40 90 92 20
email: info@bisokop.de · www.bioskop.de
“We were not looking to make a biopic,” says producer Eberhard
Junkersdorf about his latest production 8 Miles High which is
based on the life of the legendary top model Uschi Obermaier, the sex
symbol of the 1968 generation of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. “Rather,
our film is a gripping love story and the story of a strong woman:
Uschi Obermaier didn’t just dream of a free life then, she was also
very focused in making these dreams reality – she took freedoms
which were simply unimaginable in the society of those days.”
As Junkersdorf explains, Munich-born Obermaier – who will celebrate
her 60th birthday in September – consciously deployed her aura,
physical presence and charisma, and the men worshipped her. But she
never let herself be blinded by the trappings of wealth or any kind of
promises. “She always remained independent and true to her own
dreams,” he argues. “She did her ’own thing’ and, in the 1970s, that
was an around-the-world trip for several years with the man she
2 · 2006
Absurdistan
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Romantic Comedy
Production Company Veit Helmer-Filmproduktion/Berlin, in
cooperation with SWR/Baden-Baden, BR/Munich, ARTE/Strasbourg
in production
36
Contact
Veit Helmer-Filmproduktion
Wormser Strasse 4 · 10789 Berlin/Germany
phone/fax +49-30-2 17 77 77
email: veit.helmer@arcor.de · www.veithelmer.com
Director Veit Helmer hit on the idea for his third feature film
Absurdistan after reading a short article in Berlin’s Der Tagesspiegel
daily newspaper in 2001 about the women in a Turkish village going
on strike, refusing sex until their men repaired the water pipe.
the last count – I have hired to organize casting calls around the
world,” he says.
The last two years have seen the director traveling to casting calls around Europe and further afield thanks to support from MEDIA’s
“New Talent” program. Moscow, Casablanca, Budapest, Madrid,
Lisbon, Paris, Los Angeles are just a handful of stops on his marathon
itinerary and he even booked his airline tickets to make visits to
Teheran and Cuba as well!
Such a complicated pre-producton would make a film in itself and
Helmer admits that he has kept a video diary of sorts off and on. “I
don’t believe in weblogs, but would occasionally turn on my video
camera and then chat about developments. I am planning to have a
’making of ’ documentary entitled The Long Journey to Absurdistan and
will have two young Berlin filmmakers, Jakob Preuss and Felix
Korfmann, come to follow the shoot when we begin filming in July.”
MB
Scene from “The African Twintowers”
(photo © Filmgalerie 451)
With backing from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MEDIA
“New Talent” Program, Mediterranean Film Institute, Sources 2,
BMW Group Producer Veit Helmer Commissioning Editors
Thomas Martin, Bettina Ricklefs, Andreas Schreitmueller Director
Veit Helmer Screenplay Veit Helmer, Gordan Mihic, Zaza Buadze
Director of Photography George Beridze Editor Vincent
Assmann Production Design Vaja Djalagania Casting Zora
DeHorter, casting directors in 28 countries Format 35 mm, color,
1:1.85, Dolby Digital Shooting in Azerbaijan, July – September
2006
“I visited the actual village in Turkey and knew that this story would
have to be told in a magical, fantastic way like a fairy tale for adults,”
recalls Helmer who then traveled through Central Asia, the Crimea
and the Balkans to find an Oriental-looking village to be the setting for
his film. “I found the perfect location in Azerbaijan. We can film there
without having to construct any big sets – everything is ’ready to
shoot’!”
During the past two years, Helmer has been busy setting up a production infrastructure for his film as nothing has been shot in the region since the end of the Soviet Union, and the Berlin-based filmmaker got a taste of production conditions on the ground in
Azerbaijan when he shot three commercials for the local mobile
phone provider Azercell. “I am bringing technicians in from Georgia,
including my DoP George Beridze and the caterers will also be
from Georgia because I always think that catering is very important on
a shoot.”
Absurdistan was selected as one of the three finalists for the
Sundance/NHK Award 2006. The screenplay, co-written with
Gordan Mihic and Zaza Buadze, was developed with support
from the Mediterranean Film Institute and the Sources 2 script program.
The romantic comedy centers on two childhood sweethearts who
are destined for one another. But when the women of their isolated
small village somewhere between Europe and Asia go on a sex strike,
their first night of love is in danger. “Stylistically, the humor is more in
the direction of my short Surprise,” Helmer explains. “Tuvalu was
darker, while this is a much brighter film. And I am trying once more
to find a universal language: the actors will not be speaking any lines
of dialogue – instead, the story will be recounted by two narrators off
camera who will be recorded later according to the respective language version.”
If scouting for the ideal location and creating an appropriate production infrastructure weren’t big enough challenges in themselves,
Helmer has gone one step further with a veritable casting marathon
to find the right actors. “I think the film will be a candidate for the
Guiness Book of Records with the number of casting directors – 29 at
2 · 2006
The African Twintowers
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Experimental,
Melodrama Production Company Filmgalerie 451/StuttgartBerlin, in co-production with ZDF/Mainz With backing from
Filmstiftung NRW, MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, Medienboard BerlinBrandenburg Producer Frieder Schlaich Director Christoph
Schlingensief Screenplay Christoph Schlingensief Directors of
Photography Meika Dresenkamp, Patrick Waldmann Editor
Robert Kummer Music by Richard Wagner Production Design
Aino Laberenz Principal Cast Irm Hermann, Robert Stadlober,
Klaus Beyer, Karin Witt, Norbert Losch, Dirk Rohde, Patti Smith
Format HDV, blow-up to 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital
Shooting Language German and English Shooting in
Luederitz/Namibia, October 2005
Contact
Filmgalerie 451 Filmproduktion OHG
Saarbruecker Strasse 24 · 10405 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-33 98 28 00 · fax +49-30-33 98 28 10
email: info@filmgalerie451.de · www.filmgalerie451.de
Last October, Christoph Schlingensief traveled to south-west
Africa to the town of Luederitz in Namibia to shoot The African
Twintowers – his first feature film in eight years.
in production
37
Scene from “Der Faelscher”
(photo courtesy of Beta Cinema)
Some of the shooting was done in the corrugate-iron “Area 7” township on the edge of Luederitz where Schlingensief had a so-called
animatograph constructed to pursue his experimentation in “threedimensional cinema” and “social sculpture” which began with his
staging of Wagner’s Parsifal in Bayreuth in 2004.
Since then, he has been developing a series of installations which not
only dispel with traditional concepts of theater but also leave behind
the familar actionist theater. For Schlingensief, the animatograph’s
revolving stage is “like a living organism on which the spectator
travels, lives and becomes a part.”
Described as “a shortened form of the Ring of the Nibelungen, interwoven with September 11, 2001, i.e. the quest for lost capital,
passion and love”, The African Twintowers also touches on
such issues as German colonial guilt and the mythology surrounding
the legend of the Holy Grail. Schlingensief suggests though that the
film “is less about September 11 than about Africa. We talk about
3,500 people who were murdered on September 11. In Africa,
35,000 die each day.”
The experiences with the animatograph in the African slum were then
adapted by Schlingensief in a further installation erected at Vienna’s
Burgtheater this January under the title of AREA 7 – St Matthew’s
Expedition which also featured many of the actors from the film such
as Robert Stadlober, Irm Hermann, Klaus Beyer, Dirk
Rohde, Karin Witt and the American rock poetess Patti
Smith.
For Frieder Schlaich, there was no hurdle to taking up the reins
as producer for Schlingensief ’s latest enterprise. “With Filmgalerie
451, I have been releasing Christoph’s films on video and DVD for
more than ten years so we know and trust one another,” he remarks.
“Three years ago, I then produced a feature film version of
Schlingensief ’s VIVA TV series Freakstars 3000.”
Schlaich explains that The African Twintowers “does not
follow on from Christoph’s last films, but is rather the attempt to
transfer something from his fantastic stage works to the screen. If we
succeed in doing this, that will be something quite new for the cinema.”
Apart from the challenges of filming “at the end of the world” in the
Area 7 township, Schlaich also didn’t have an easy ride on the film’s
financing “fighting against Christoph Schlingensief ’s image as a trash
filmmaker and provocateur because his art and theater work haven’t
yet necessarily made an impression on film people.”
MB
Der Faelscher
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama, History
Production Companies Magnolia Filmproduktion/Hamburg,
Aichholzer Film/Vienna, in co-production with Babelsberg
Film/Potsdam, Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures/Potsdam,
ZDF/Mainz, ORF/Vienna With backing from Medienboard
Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFoerderung
Hamburg, Oesterreichisches Filminstitut, Filmfonds Wien,
Filmfoerderung Oberoesterreich, Filmfoerderung Niederoesterreich
Producers Nina Bohlmann, Babette Schroeder, Josef Aichholzer
Director Stefan Ruzowitzky Screenplay Stefan Ruzowitzky
Director of Photography Benedict Neuenfels Editor Britta
Nahler Production Design Isi Wimmer Principal Cast Karl
Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, August Zirner, Martin
Brambach Casting Heta Mantscheff Format Super 16 mm, color,
1:1.85, Dolby Digital Shooting Language German Shooting in
Vienna, Potsdam-Babelsberg, Monte Carlo, March – May 2006
German Distributor Falcom Media Group/Berlin
World Sales
Beta Cinema · Dept. of Beta Film GmbH
Andreas Rothbauer
Gruenwalder Weg 28 d · 82041 Oberhaching/Germany
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88
email: ARothbauer@betacinema.com
www.betacinema.com
The dark chapter in German history between 1993 and 1945 provides constant inspiration for producers and filmmakers alike as
shown by such recent films as Downfall, Napola, Nowhere in Africa and
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days.
Now Hamburg-based production house Magnolia Film has turned its attention to the case of a Nazi operation code-named
“Operation Bernhard” from 1942 at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Millions of counterfeit Bank of England pound notes
were produced on a printing press in the camp by 142 inmates – including the Slovakian Jew Adolf Burger – with the aim of wreaking
havoc on the British economy.
According to Burger, the forgers also successfully copied the US $100
bill and were to start printing the first million dollars in February 1945,
but an order from the Reich Security main office ordered the work to
stop and the machinery to be dismantled. When Sachsenhausen was
evacuated in April 1945, the Operation Bernhard team was trans-
2 · 2006
in production
38
Director Miguel Alexandre
(photo © Christine Schroeder)
ferred to Ebensee in Austria where they were liberated by the US
Army on 5 May 1945.
Magnolia’s Nina Bohlmann says they had always wanted to work
with director Stefan Ruzowitzky, but didn’t have a concrete
story idea for him. “When we decided to develop Der Faelscher,
it was really immediately clear that he is the right one for the story,”
she recalls. “We sent him the book The Devil’s Workshop (Des Teufels
Werkstatt) by Adolf Burger and he found the story just as gripping as
we did.”
By coincidence, the Austrian producer Josef Aichholzer had approached Ruzowitzky with a similar idea, but they subsequently decided to pool forces and develop the project together as a GermanAustrian co-production.
In the painstaking preparation of his screenplay, Ruzowitzky met with
another contemporary witness from Sachsenhausen in addition to
Adolf Burger himself. “The whole script development was accompanied by a historian – and Adolf Burger was also involved in the
script development and kept on making comments about the different versions,” Bohlmann adds. “Both of them are now also there
during the project development.”
“Ruzowitzky showed with Siebtelbauern and Anatomy that he has a
sure feeling in arthouse as well as mainstream cinema,” Bohlmann
says. “After Stefan had occupied himself with the subject matter and
met with Adolf Burger, we sat together and discussed how this story
could be realized as a film.” To the producers’ delight, the director
had identified the same elements from the story that they had found
interesting. “In the counterfeiter workshop, this grotesque holiday
camp version of a concentration camp, it is suddenly no longer a
question of saving life and limb, but one’s own soul – and how much
more difficult (and important) that is, is something that our principal
character also has to see in the end.”
Shooting for the €4.2 million production was on locations in Vienna
and Monte Carlo with the concentration camp interiors recreated on
sound stages at Studio Babelsberg. The cast of German and Austrian
actors is headed by Karl Markovics (Hinterholz 8), August
Diehl (The Ninth Day), Devid Striesow (Distant Lights), August
Zirner (Taking Sides), and Martin Brambach (Klimt).
MB
Die Frau vom
Checkpoint Charlie
Type of Project TV Movie (2 parts) Genre Drama Production Company UFA Fernsehproduktion/Leipzig, in co-production with MDR/Leipzig, ARD Degeto Film/Frankfurt, BR/Munich,
RBB/Potsdam-Babelsberg, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing
from Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung Producers Norbert
Sauer, Cornelia Wecker Director Miguel Alexandre Screenplay
Annette Hess Director of Photography Joerg Widmer
Commissioning Editor Jana Brandt Editor Andreas Herzog
Music by Dominic Roth Production Design Lothar Holler
Principal Cast Veronica Ferres, Peter Kremer, Filip Peeters, Goetz
Schubert, Julia Jaeger, Michael Schenk, Charlotte Schwab, Elisa
Schlott, Maria Ehrich Casting Cornelia Wecker, L.E.Vision/Leipzig
Special Effects Roland Tropp Format Super 16 mm, color, 16:9,
Dolby Shooting Language German Shooting in Leipzig, Berlin,
Helsinki, Bucharest, April - July 2006
Contact
UFA Fernsehproduktion GmbH · Cornelia Wecker
Diana Strasse 21 · 14482 Babelsberg/Germany
phone +49-3 31-7 06 01 27 · fax +49-3 31-7 06 01 09
email: cornelia.wecker@ufa.de · www.ufa.de
In this true story, German superstar Veronica Ferres plays Jutta
Gallus, a Dresden woman who was sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to leave East Germany. West Germany purchased
her freedom but her two daughters were denied exit visas. Gallus
waged a one-woman campaign for natural justice, highlighting the
arbitrary and inhumane nature of the East German dictatorship.
Known around the world as “The Woman from Checkpoint Charlie”
for her daring and courageous protests, it was 1988 and after four
long years before she was finally able to embrace her children again.
“Checkpoint Charlie was the international symbol for a divided
Germany, but to date there haven’t been so many films on the subject,” says UFA Fernsehproduktion managing director and the
film’s producer Norbert Sauer. “We read Gallus’ biography by
Ines Veith and were touched by her fate.”
As always, the proof of the pudding is in the ingredients and, as Sauer
says, “the main character carries the film. I’ve known Veronica for
years, offered her the role and she said yes immediately.”
2 · 2006
in production
39
Soon to be seen alongside John Malkovich in Klimt, Ferres’ extensive
credits include Schtonk!, Das Superweib, Rossini, Les Miserables and Kein
Himmel ueber Afrika, among others.
The choice for director fell on Miguel Alexandre because “he’s
very into real details,” says Sauer. “He goes for reality and is very
much an actor’s director. Veronica is always keen to work with him.
And we chose Annette Hess to write because, credit where credit is due, supervising editor Jana Brandt recommended her to us.
It was a very, very good tip.”
Anyone who has been to Berlin recently will know that the real
Checkpoint Charlie has long since been consigned to property developers, which is why, says Sauer, “we’re building it again! To its original scale but in Leipzig where we found a street that looks just like
the then Friedrichstrasse. We have the same architect who built the
Berlin Wall for Sonnenallee!”
Recent German history is currently the big draw for local eventmovies, as evidenced by UFA subsidiary teamWorx’s Die Luftbruecke,
Dresden (which broke viewing records for ZDF) and the upcoming
Flucht und Vertreibung.
UFA, Germany’s largest production company, is also currently preparing a two-parter on the sinking by a Russian submarine of the liner
Wilhelm Gustloff in the final months of the war, while transporting
refugees from the advancing Red Army. More than 9,000 people died,
the greatest loss of life at sea.
“It’s a story ideal for a mammoth project,” says Sauer. “Josef Vilsmaier
(The Comedian Harmonists, Stalingrad) is directing. The script is ready
to go.”
Scene from “Jagdhunde” (photo © credofilm)
SK
Jagdhunde
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama, Family
Production Company credofilm/Berlin, in co-production with
Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf ’/PotsdamBabelsberg, ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz With backing
from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmfoerderung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Producers Joerg Trentmann, Susann Schimk
Director Ann-Kristin Reyels Screenplay Marek Helsner, AnnKristin Reyels Director of Photography Florian Foest
Commissioning Editor Christian Cloos Editor Halina Daugird
2 · 2006
Music by Henry Reyels Production Design Grit Wendicke
Principal Cast Constantin von Jascheroff, Josef Hader, Luise
Berndt, Sven Lehmann, Judith Engel, Ulrike Krumbiegel Casting
Ulrike Mueller Format Super 16 mm, blow-up to 35 mm, color,
1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting Language German Shooting in
Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, February - March 2006
Contact
credofilm GmbH · Susann Schimk
Schiffbauerdamm 13 · 10117 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-2 57 62 40 · fax +49-30-25 76 24 22
email: info@credofilm.de · www.credofilm.de
Sixteen-year-old Lars lives with his father Henrik in a small village in
the Uckermark, one of the loneliest parts of the country, having
moved there from Berlin after his parents separated. The locals ignore
them to the extent that nobody even comes to their Christmas party.
Lars’ life suddenly improves when he meets the deaf, eighteen-yearold Marie. But then his Aunt Jana arrives and it’s clear she and his
father are having a relationship and she’s planning to stay. Lars seeks
refuge with Marie who shows him her world and that it’s possible to
say a great deal without words. But her father is unhappy at the teenagers’ relationship, fearing he’ll lose his daughter.
The festive season takes a turn for the worse when Lars’ mother,
complete with her new and much younger boyfriend turns up.
Christmas becomes a disaster as the retreat to the countryside turns
into the battlefield for a family that has never learned to talk with each
other. Lars seeks refuge with Marie and enjoys the happiest Christmas
of his life. But fate hasn’t finished with them.
Jagdhunde marks the feature debut of Ann-Kristin Reyels,
who studied at Potsdam-Babelsberg’s renowned “Konrad Wolf ” film
school. Her short film, dim, featured in German Films’ NEXT
GENERATION 2005 program.
For those of you who remember their Latin, the root of credofilm’s
name says it all. For those who don’t, credo means “I believe” and
there is a fundamental faith underlying its activities.
The company was founded in 2001 by Susann Schimk and Joerg
Trentmann to produce features and documentaries and, in the
words of Schimk, “remains loyal to individual storytellers: personal
and always unique! We support good ideas, motivated filmmakers
and quality work.”
“We believe filmmaking is a very emotional affair,” says Schimk’s partner and company co-founder Trentmann. “We want to fascinate
people cinematically and convince them, as a team. That is our commitment for eternity.”
Among credofilm’s previous credits are Mirko Borscht’s Kombat
Sechzehn (nominated for the First Steps Award 2005) and several productions for Germany’s public broadcasters, including for the renowned ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel.
SK
in production
40
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama
Production Company box! film/Hamburg, in co-production
with Senator Film Produktion/Berlin, Marco Polo High Definition/
Halle, RBB/Potsdam, ARTE/Strasbourg With backing from
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutche Medienfoerderung,
FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), MEDIA Plus
Producer Andreas Eicher Director Martin Gypkens
Screenplay Martin Gypkens Director of Photography Eeva
Fleig Editor Karin Jacobs Production Design Joerg Prinz
Principal Cast August Diehl, Maria Simon, Brigitte Hobmeier,
Jeanette Hain, Janek Rieke, Wotan Wilke Moehring, Stipe Erceg, Fritzi
Haberlandt, Ina Weisse Casting Annette Borgmann Format HD,
blow-up to 35 mm, color, cs, Dolby Shooting Language German
Shooting in Iceland, Germany, Venice, USA and Jamaica, March July 2006 German Distributor Senator Filmverleih/Berlin
World Sales
Beta Cinema · Dept. of Beta Film GmbH
Andreas Rothbauer
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88
www.betacinema.com
As Gypkens notes, “the subjects dealt with by Judith Hermann in her
stories are a logically consistent continuation of my first film Wir.
What were the parties in Wir are now the journeys in Nichts als
Gespenster. A possibility of escape from oneself, from unpleasant
obligations, from the boring reality. The only thing is the characters
have now become older, quieter; they have come to terms with their
fears, they have tended to bring them under control, but their dreams
have also become more modest and stepped into the background.
What one couldn’t find at home in one’s circle of friends, at work or
in a relationship, is now looked for in faraway places. Traveling here
always represents a double symbol for me: one of longing and of
speechlessness.”
After one-and-a-half years of casting, Eicher and Gypkens put an
impressive cast of young, hot German actors together, including
August Diehl (The Ninth Day), Maria Simon (Good Bye, Lenin!),
Wotan Wilke Moehring (Antibodies), Stipe Erceg (The
Edukators), and Fritzi Haberlandt (Peas at 5:30).
The film will be shot on high definition video with practically every
scene from a hand-held camera because “the idea is to be really close
up to the characters,” Eicher explains. “That is the special thing about
Judith Hermann which readers like: the characters are all so familiar,
just like you and me, they aren’t stylized artificial people from the
world of film.”
“It is a very unconventional project with five separate stories that are
interwoven and playing on different continents,” adds Eicher who is
aiming for a world premiere of the film at next year’s Berlinale. “I
think it is a film that could travel because, although it is a German film,
not so much is actually located in Germany. Indeed, the spirit of this
project is that we are breaking new ground.”
MB
Carsten Strauch (photo courtesy of Razor Film)
Scene from “Nichts als Gespenster”
(photo courtesy of box! film)
Nichts als Gespenster
also saw the casting tapes.”
Martin Gypkens’ globetrotting second feature Nichts als Gespenster (translation: “Nothing But Ghosts”) began its marathon
shoot on Iceland at the beginning of March and will have continued its
progress around the globe to the Nevada Desert, Venice and
Germany before wrapping on the Caribbean island of Jamaica in July.
The story of five different journeys in five different countries has been
adapted by Gypkens from Judith Hermann’s best-selling collection of
short stories of the same name and from a story in her first book The
Summer House, Later, which appeared in 1999 and has since been
translated into over 20 languages.
The film’s producer Andreas Eicher of box! Film Hamburg
first became aware of Gypkens during his work as a selector for the
Max Ophuels Festival in Saarbruecken where his debut feature
Wir won the Director Support Award in 2003. “That summer, Martin
showed me Judith Hermann’s book and asked if that would be something we could work on together,” Eicher recalls. “It was our great
fortune that they immediately found a level to work on. Judith was
always following the project: she and Martin met regularly, and she
2 · 2006
Offene Wunden
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Comedy
Production Company Razor Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-production with 3L Filmproduktion/Dortmund With backing from
Hessische Filmfoerderung, MEDIA Plus, Medienboard BerlinBrandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, BKM, Kuratorium
junger deutscher Film, Hessen Invest, MTV Films Europe/London
Producers Roman Paul, Gerhard Meixner Director Carsten
in production
41
Scene from “Schwesterherz”
(photo © Egoli Tossell Film)
Strauch Screenplay Carsten Strauch, Nina Werth, Rainer Ewerrien
Director of Photography Nina Werth Production Design
Daniele Drobny Principal Cast Carsten Strauch, Rainer Ewerrien,
Cosma Shiva Hagen, Christoph Maria Herbst, Burghart Klaussner
Casting Tina Boeckenhauer Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby
Digital SR Shooting Language German Shooting in Erfurt and
Benidorm/Spain, April – May 2005 German Distributor 3L
Filmverleih/Dortmund
Contact
Razor Filmproduktion GmbH
Wassergasse 4 · 10179 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-6 14 58 65 · fax +49-30-61 20 18 63
email: info@razor-film.de · www.razor-film.de
Carsten Strauch had seemingly been one of German cinema’s
best kept secrets until Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner of
Razor Film became aware of him.
“We saw the short Das Taschenorgan [which featured in German
Films’ NEXT GENERATION 2001 program] and died laughing!,”
recalls Paul about their first encounter with multitalent Strauch. “We
found his contact details via Google and were surprised that nobody
else had been in touch as he already had so much experience and
success. Such a thing would never be conceivable in the USA, that can
only happen in Germany.”
Indeed, Strauch has made a name for himself over the past ten years
writing, acting and directing in such shorts as the 1996 animation film
Futter, which won the German Short Film Award in Gold and awards at
festivals in Dresden and Oberhausen, the 1999 parody Nachbarn, and
2001’s Das Taschenorgan which was nominated for the German Short
Film Award and won the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Short Film Award and
the Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival.
“It is also a peculiarity of the German market that he doesn’t come
from Munich or Berlin, but from Offenbach,” Paul adds. Indeed,
Strauch stayed in his home town to study Visual Communication at
the local College for Design (HfG) and graduated as a qualified designer in 2001.
Razor Film worked with Strauch on the idea of a black comedy
about two hospitals using every means available to fight for survival in
the new economic climate. “There was the question whether this
would still be topical and in the zeitgeist when the film came to be
made,” Paul recalls. “While the film is not primarily about the changes
to the health reform, it is a subject that’s out there. Some of the
things we thought up for the story seemed a step further on from reality, but then have become real! That rather shocked us a bit, but it
also confirmed that we were on the right way.”
The producers also landed something of a coup by bringing MTV
Films Europe onboard as an investor for the film. “The English executives at MTV in London had seen Carsten’s shorts and said that
these were the first German comedies they really found funny,” Paul
explains. “The film is macabre and black; everyone can understand
and empathize with the situations here because it is not specifically
about the German health system.”
MB
Schwesterherz
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama Production Company Egoli Tossell Film/Cologne, in co-production
with ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz, ARTE/Strasbourg, GFP
Medienfonds/Berlin With backing from Filmstiftung NRW
Producer Judy Tossell Co-Producer David Groenewold
Director Ed Herzog Screenplay Heike Makatsch, Johanna
Adorján Director of Photography Sebastian Edschmid Commissioning Editors Lucas Schmidt, Andreas Schreitmueller, Anne
Even Editor Uta Schmidt Music by Max Martin Schroeder
Production Design Brigitte Schloegel, Emanuel Schleiermacher
Principal Cast Heike Makatsch, Anna Maria Muehe, Marc
Hosemann, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Ludwig Trepte, Denis Moschitto,
Grischa Huber Casting Bernhard Karl, Anja Dihrberg Format
HDTV, color, cs, blow-up to 35 mm, 1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting
Language German Shooting in Duesseldorf, Cologne,
Benidorm/Spain, December 2005 – February 2006 German
Distributor Timebandits Films/Potsdam
Contact
Egoli Tossell Film AG · Judy Tossell
Torstrasse 164 · 10115 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-24 65 65 0 · fax +49-30-24 65 65 24
email: contact@egolitossell.com
www.egolitossell.com
Anne’s life appears perfect. She is young, beautiful and has a highpowered job in the music industry. But a holiday with her much
younger sister forces her to rethink her priorities and values. What is
more important, Prada or God?
“I wrote this script with Johanna Adorján,” says Heike
Makatsch, “because we believe that Anne’s story is an honest
depiction of the problem facing a new generation: a generation that
avoids any kind of further development because the preservation of
youth is treated as its most valued commodity.”
Makatsch, one of the hottest actresses working in today’s German
and international cinema (her credits include Love Actually, Das
Wunder von Lengede, Anatomie 2, Resident Evil and Nackt) is aware of
the irony. After all, today’s industry and cinema values youth ’ueber
alles’.
“I can tell you,” Makatsch avers, “that I and many girlfriends of mine
recognize ourselves in the character of Anne and have so greatly
2 · 2006
in production
42
wished the film industry would tackle this subject – the lack of
identity for women after they are no longer girls.”
Schwesterherz marks her second collaboration with director Ed
Herzog, after Almost Heaven, and is the first theatrical feature from
journalist Johanna Adorján.
“I’m fascinated by the role age plays for women,” says Adorján.
“Today, 13-year-olds wear the same clothes as their mother and listen
to the same music. What is there for adult women? What IS an adult
woman? What is there for a woman to aspire to in becoming older?
Especially when advertising, the media, film stars all say it’s downhill
from thirty onwards and she should think seriously about Botox, face
lifts and liposuction.”
Producer Judy Tossell was born in England, moved to Berlin to
study German and started her career as an assistant, later producer,
at Regina Ziegler Filmproduktion. She founded Tossell Pictures in
1996 and merged with Egoli Films in 2001 to form Egoli Tossell Film.
Scene from “Eine Stadt wird erpresst”
(photo © Julia von Vietinghoff )
Recent credits include Big Girls Don’t Cry (2002) and Mouth to Mouth
(2004). The latter premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival 2005
and took the Best Feature & Jury Prizes at the Brooklyn International
Film Festival the same year: the Toronto Globe and Mail called it “exquisite … fresh and alive.” Look for more of the same from
Schwesterherz.
SK
Eine Stadt wird erpresst
Type of Project TV Movie Genre Thriller Production
Companies BurkertBareiss Development/Munich, TV60
Film/Munich, for ZDF/Mainz Producers Andreas Bareiss, Gloria
Burkert, Bernd Burgemeister Director Dominik Graf Screenplay
Rolf Basedow, Dominik Graf Director of Photography
Alexander Fischerkoesen Commissioning Editor Caroline von
Senden Editor Hana Muellner Music by Sven Rossenbach,
Florian van Volxem Production Design Claus-Juergen Pfeiffer
Principal Cast Uwe Kockisch, Misel Maticevic, Julia Blankenburg
Casting An Dorthe Braker Special Effects Nefzer/Babelsberg,
Rolf Hanke Format 16 mm, color, 1:1.78, Stereo Shooting
Language German Shooting in Leipzig, Berlin, February – March
2006
2 · 2006
World Sales
ZDF Enterprises GmbH
Lise-Meitner-Strasse 9 · 55129 Mainz/Germany
phone +49-61 31-99 10 · fax+49-61 31-99 12 60
www.zdf-enterprises.de
A thriller must be a thick and juicy steak you can bite into. So if you
are going to blackmail someone or something, why not an entire city?
That’s exactly what happens in Eine Stadt wird erpresst (translation: “A City is Blackmailed”).
Here it is, the eastern German city of Leipzig. A bomb explodes; the
criminals demand a ransom in diamonds and, having planned with perfect precision, escape with the booty. The search leads Hauptkommissar Kalinke (Uwe Kockisch) and his two colleagues
Kommissar Banderes (Misel Maticevic) and Kommissarin Maria
Rogalla (Julia Blankenburg) to a village at the edge of the brown
coal mining-region. While Kalinke is forced to confront his own past
and entanglements, the villagers pose their own puzzles. Nothing and
nobody is what and who he seems. It ends in a life-risking showdown
in a luxury hotel.
“This is a real police thriller with action,” says producer Andreas
Bareiss. “It has tension, a deep reaching story, a great deal of humanity, characters with edges and angles and a good portion of action. It
will also work in the cinema and in terms of production values we are
so close to the line between a TV movie and a feature film I stopped
counting each time we crossed it!”
Eine Stadt wird erpresst also marks Bareiss’ ninth collaboration
with director Dominik Graf. “It’s always fun to work with him,”
says Bareiss. “It’s always a challenge, it’s always hard work and at the
end we always have a great film. He is the master of the German
thriller.”
Graf, fresh off his Berlinale 2006 success Der Rote Kakadu, has piled
up a number of awards for his prolific theatrical and TV work, including four Adolf Grimme Awards, three VFF TV Movie Awards and the
German Film Award.
Co-author Rolf Basedow worked with Graf on Sperling, which culminated in their joint nomination for Best Script in the 1999 German
Television Awards. Basedow also worked with director Doris Doerrie
and Ruth Stadler on Bin ich schoen?, which won the 1998 Bavarian Film
Award.
Kockisch, with more than twenty features and forty TV productions
under his belt, is an old hand at the police game and since 2003 has
made the role of Commissario Brunetti in pubcaster ARD’s versions
of the Donna Leon thrillers his.
Blankenburg worked with Graf on his 2002 TV movie Hotte im
Paradies, as did Maticevic, who went on to feature in Graf ’s 2003
melodrama, Kalter Fruehling.
SK
in production
43
Scene from “Valerie”
(photo © credofilm)
she has opted for an insightful and detailed study of what happens to
an individual when everything they have previously taken for granted
loses its validity, when everything that has, up to now, defined that
person and their existence is not only called into question, but fundamentally challenged.
“It’s the human condition at its most basic,” says Moeller. ”There is
not only that element of ’there but for the grace of God go I’ but also
the nagging fear and doubt that, I believe, is at the root of all human
existence.”
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama
Production Company credofilm/Berlin, in co-production with
Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie (dffb)/Berlin, ZDF Das kleine
Fernsehspiel/Mainz With backing from Medienboard BerlinBrandenburg Producers Susann Schimk, Joerg Trentmann
Director Birgit Moeller Screenplay Ruth Mehmet, Ilja Haller,
Milena Baisch, Birgit Moeller, Elke Sudmann Director of
Photography Kolja Raschke Commissioning Editor Lucas
Schmidt Editor Piet Schmelz Production Design Dorothee von
Bodelschwing Principal Cast Agata Buzek, Devid Striesow,
Guntbert Warns, Birol Uenel, Anne Sarah Hartung Casting Troeber
Casting/Berlin Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby SR Shooting
Language German Shooting in Berlin, December 2005 February 2006
Contact
credofilm GmbH · Susann Schimk
Schiffbauerdamm 13 · 10117 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-2 57 62 40 · fax +49-30-25 76 24 22
email: info@credofilm.de · www.credofilm.de
It no longer counts for anything how beautiful, desirable and desired
you are if you find yourself stranded without a penny to your name.
That’s as in not just short of cash for the moment, lacking some ready
change, being less than liquid, but meaning you do not have any means
to pay for anything.
That’s exactly the situation Valerie (Agata Buzek), the title figure
of Birgit Moeller’s dffb graduation film, finds herself in. She is a
photo model, used to the finest things in life and so unprepared for
the high speed curve-ball life has just thrown in her face.
Fans of Schadenfreude can start salivating here because, compounding Valerie’s financial predicament, she is currently without work, has
no prospects of getting any, it’s Christmas Eve and she’s stuck in the
underground carpark of the luxury Hotel Hyatt in Berlin! Unable to
cope and forced to sleep in her car, Valerie finds herself embarking on
a double life from which she is able to extract herself only through her
developing friendship with Andre (Devid Striesow), the parking
attendant.
Award-winning commercials and video director Moeller (her spots
for Nike won her Gold at the Spotlight Festival 2003 and the First
Steps Commercial Award 2003) could have crafted a comedy. Instead,
2 · 2006
Hannelore Elsner in “Vivere”
(photo © Thekla Ehling)
Valerie
If Valerie sounds tailor-made for misogynists then prepare to be
disappointed, because, as Moeller says, “the film stands and falls on
your perception of the title figure. There is much about Valerie that is
unattractive, but nobody wants to spend ninety minutes in the company of a character they don’t care about. As the layers of her previous life are stripped away, she emerges anew. She is, if you like, a
constant work in progress. At the end of the film she is a totally different person to the woman we meet at the beginning. There is
redemption and newly-born hope.”
SK
Vivere
Type of Project Feature Film Cinema Genre Drama,
Melodrama, Road Movie Production Company elsani
Film/Cologne, in co-production with Screenart/Berlin, Revolver
Film/Rotterdam With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt
(FFA), Filmstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,
Rotterdam Film Fund Producer Anita Elsani Director Angelina
Maccarone Screenplay Angelina Maccarone Director of
Photography Judith Kaufmann Editor Bettina Boehler Music
by Jakob Hansonis, Hartmut Ewert Production Design Peter
Menne Principal Cast Hannelore Elsner, Esther Zimmering, Kim
Schnitzer, Egbert-Jan Weeber, Tygo Gernandt Casting elsani
film/Cologne Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85, Dolby Stereo
Shooting Language German Shooting in Cologne,
Rotterdam, March - April 2006
World Sales
Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG
Ida Martins
Hochstadenstrasse 1-3 · 50674 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-8 01 49 80 · fax +49-2 21-80 14 98 21
email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de
www.medialuna-entertainment.de
in production
44
Three women on the run, saving each other, saving themselves –
that’s the strapline for Vivere. If that’s not enough to get buyers
heading for Media Luna Entertainment’s pitch at the Cannes Marché
du Film 2006 here’s the plot: On Christmas Eve, Francesca’s little
sister, Antonietta, is running away to Rotterdam with her musician
boyfriend. On the way to Rotterdam, Francesca picks up Gerlinde, a
suicidally lovesick woman: now she has two lives to save. With the
paths of three lost souls criss-crossing in Amsterdam, it soon is hard
to tell who is saving whom …
Writer-director Angelina Maccarone is a filmmaker who is very
much an actor’s director, not frightened to challenge stereotypes or
push envelopes.
Maccarone says, “I like the themes of absurdity, the absurdity of
norms, and of crossing boarders, of overstepping the line.” This was
evidenced by her film Unveiled (Fremde Haut) – the story of an Iranian
asylum seeker forced to assume the identity of a dead man – and, as
Vivere shows, she hasn’t finished yet.
Of the cast, Hannelore Elsner (Gerlinde) is one of the stalwarts
of modern German cinema. If you’re looking for lightweight, look
elsewhere. For penetrating and searing performances that leap off the
screen with an intensity that comes from the depths of the soul (and
this woman digs deep) then check out Elsner in No Place to Go (Die
Unberuehrbare, 2000, dir: Oskar Roehler).
elsani film was founded in June 2003 by Anita Elsani. The company specializes in international arthouse; the first production, the
German-Albanian Magic Eye (dir: Kujtim Cashkus), was finished in
August 2005. Elsani studied Professional Producing at UCLA then
completed the international producing class at the Cologne ifs international film school in 2002. Since 1994 she has worked for several
German film production companies, most recently for Wueste Film
West in Cologne, as a producer.
Elsani is currently developing the tragicomedy Overslept (script Katja
Kittendorf and Arzu Carkin, dir: Buket Alakus). The film tells the
story of a Turkish entrepreneur who fails at, well, everything due to
his complete inability to get up early! He finally saves the day, and his
family, with one last, desperate venture: a slumber salon offering nap
opportunities to busy vendors and customers of the bazaar and, of
course, to the owner himself!
SK
2 · 2006
in production
45
Als der Fremde kam
Scene from “Stranger” (photo © Colonia Media)
STRANGER
Anne and Mathias Wernicke have been married for
twenty years and lead a calm and eventless life in a small
village that could be nearly everywhere in Germany.
Mathias and son Uli are both factory workers; Anne works
as a cook in the same company. The family finds out that
the factory will be dismissing most of the employees, even
though the company is doing financially well.
Compensations and social welfare packages are promised
in order to help moderate the company’s decisions. Dr.
Robert Stubenrauch, a trade unionist, arrives on the scene
to help support the employees. While staying at the
Wernicke’s house, he falls in love with Anne. He tries to
ignore his feelings, particularly since he has also become
close friends with Mathias and Uli. But his feelings for
Anne give him the strength and motivation to really make
things happen like he did 30 years ago. He advises the
workers to go on strike: a decision that has serious consequences. Anne too begins to fall in love with Robert and
leaves Mathias. But not only Mathias, the other workers
also feel left by the wayside …
Genre Drama Category TV Movie Year of Production
2005 Director Andreas Kleinert Screenplay Hans Werner
Honert, Andreas Kleinert Director of Photography Johann
Feindt Editor Gisela Zick Music by Andreas Hoge Production
Design Stefan Schoenberg Producer Sonja Goslicki Pro-
duction Company Colonia Media Filmproduktion/Cologne
Principal Cast Goetz George, Dagmar Manzel, Gudrun Ritter,
Christian Redl, Aljoscha Stadelmann Casting Anja Dihrberg
Length 90 min Format Super 16 mm, color, 16:9 Original
Version German Sound Technology Stereo Festival
Screenings Baden-Baden 2005
Andreas Kleinert was born in Berlin in 1962. He worked as a
props assistant and intern at the DEFA feature film studios and was
also an assistant director to filmmakers like Rainer Simon and
Hermann Zschoche. He studied Directing at the Academy of Film
& Television (HFF/M) in Babelsberg from 1984-1989 and made
several shorts and documentaries. He graduated with Farewell,
Joseph (Lebewohl, Joseph, 1989), which was nominated for a
Student OSCAR, and has since directed Lost Landscape
(Verlorene Landschaft, 1992), Outside Time (Neben
der Zeit, 1995), In the Name of Innocence (Im Namen
der Unschuld, 1997), Paths in the Night (Wege in die
Nacht, 1999), Klemperer – Ein Leben in Deutschland
(TV, 1999/2000), Kelly Bastian – Geschichte einer
Hoffnung (TV, 2001), Coming Home (Mein Vater, TV,
2002), Mensch Einstein (TV, 2005), and Stranger (Als der
Fremde kam, 2005), as well as several episodes of the series
Polizeiruf 110 and Schimanski.
World Sales (please contact)
Colonia Media Filmproduktions GmbH · Sonja Goslicki
Moltkestrasse 131 · 50674 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-9 51 40 40 · fax +49-2 21-9 51 40 44
email: coloniamedia@coloniamedia.de · www.coloniamedia.de
2 · 2006
new german films
46
Die bessere Seite
Scene from “The Better Side” (photo courtesy of Andreas Perzl)
THE BETTER SIDE
The boy sitting at the railway station, wistfully observing
passing trains, is called Joci. His village, Nyirmihálydi, is a
Roma settlement in the east of Hungary. Nyirmihálydi is a
place where people live according to their own traditions,
dance to their own music and speak their own language.
It is a place where growing up means getting ready to
follow in your father’s footsteps. Joci, however, dreams of
a life beyond the railway tracks. What awaits him, if he
opposes his father and leaves his village? The Better Side
accompanies Joci in his everyday life, trying to find his
roots, and his journey to Budapest, a world unknown and
filled with promise.
Janek Romero was born in 1979 in Starnberg. After working for
“Publicis”, a company producing commercials located in Munich, he
began to study Audiovisual Design at the University of Applied
Sciences in Mainz. Since 2002 he has been studying at the Film
Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg, with the main focus on directing
documentary films. In 2006 he worked for the Goethe-Institut in
Barcelona and as a commissioning editor for the cultural news on
Barcelona Televisió. His films include: Kanakmaen (2000),
Open Your Eyes (2003), Ciao Warschau (2003), Fremd
(2004), and The Better Side (Die bessere Seite, 2006).
Genre Coming-of-Age Story, Family, Music Category Semi
Fictional Documentary Year of Production 2006 Director
Janek Romero Screenplay Janek Romero Director of
Photography Frank Lamm Editor Katja Fischer Music by
Friedemann von Rechenberg Producer Andreas Perzl
Production Company Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg/
Ludwigsburg Length 43 min Format DV, color, 1:1.85 Original
Version Hungarian Subtitled Versions English, German
Sound Technology Stereo With backing from Landesbank
Baden-Wuerttemberg
Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg · Eva Steegmayer
Mathildenstrasse 20 · 71638 Ludwigsburg/Germany
phone +49-71 41-96 91 03 · fax +49-71 41-96 95 51 03
email: eva.steegmayer@filmakademie.de · www.filmakademie.de
2 · 2006
new german films
47
Bis zum Anfang der Welt – Spurensuche in Afrika
Scene from “To Where the World Began” (photo © RTV-Studio)
TO WHERE THE WORLD BEGAN – SEARCH AND DISCOVERY IN AFRICA
The camera accompanies an artist and painter on his inspiring travels through West Africa, back to the roots of
human civilization – into the heart of the Sahara desert.
Two related but very different media meet and complement one another – painting and cinematic art.
With a scant commentary in the form of a diary monologue, the film conveys the breath of Africa, and lets the
pictures and atmosphere speak for themselves. The fascinating music of West Africa lends the film a special, distinctive rhythm. The viewer experiences the black continent in a unique manner through the eyes of a traveling
painter, or of a painting traveler – on the trail to himself
and the roots of the world.
Roman Teufel embarked on his filmmaking career in the late
1970s as a freelancer for television. He took part in the production
of international nature documentaries and successful TV series
about Africa. In the early 1980s he founded a media production
company, producing documentaries characterized by extraordinarily high aesthetic standards. His films include: Adventure
Africa (1981-1986, a series of 7 films about the culture of Africa),
Castaways (1991), The Royal Art (1997), Around the
World in 24 Hours (2000), Footsteps (2002), and To
Where the World Began (2005).
Genre Art, Road Movie Category Documentary TV Year of
Production 2005 Director Roman Teufel Screenplay
Roman Teufel Director of Photography Roman Teufel
Editor Gaby Scheewe-Pfeil Producer Roman Teufel Production Company RTV-Studio/Aichhalden Principal Cast
Richard W. Allgaier Narrator Erik Hansen Length 50 min
Format HD 1080, color, 16:9 Original Version German
Dubbed Versions English, French Sound Technology Dolby
Surround
RTV-Studio Roman Teufel
Reisser 23 · 78733 Aichhalden/Germany
phone +49-74 22-56 01 70 · fax +49-74 22-56 01 71
email: rtv-studio@t-online.de · www.rtv-studio.de
2 · 2006
new german films
48
Scene from "Bye Bye Harry" (photo © NFP/Detlef Overmann)
Bye Bye Harry
Emma and Ian used to be together, and if only Emma
hadn’t been so impulsive, and Ian hadn’t always come up
with crazy get-rich-quick schemes, who knows, they’d probably still be a couple! For the moment they’re back
together since Ian claims to have a buyer for the classic
Jaguar that Emma has poured all her savings into. Ian is
convinced that if he strikes it rich, he’ll win Emma back.
On the way to the mystery buyer, Ian plans to visit his
brother Stuart and sister-in-law Sophie at their country
chalet. Ian wants to show his brother, who’s always
mocked his harebrained schemes, that he’s finally going to
make it. Unfortunately, he only makes it into a tree, since
he lost control of the Jaguar and flipped over. To get the
car back onto the road and running again, Stuart calls on
two Moldavian goons. The good news: they get the car
down from the tree. The bad news: they totally wreck it
in the process. Ian has to come up with another idea to
make money. How about kidnapping the corpse of famed
comedian Harry Hackett, who just died, and demanding a
ransom? No sooner said than done. The only thing is,
Stuart does it first, with the help of the Moldavians, whom
he tries to double-cross. Before anyone can say “Bye Bye
Harry” for good, confused cops give chase to bumbling
body snatchers, while romantic escapades provide respite
for the stressed plotters. In the end, Ian still isn’t rich – but
at least he’s won back the heart of his beloved Emma …
Genre Action Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2006 Director Robert Young Screenplay
Graham Alborough Director of Photography Hannes
Hubach Editor Jeremy Strachan Music by James Barker, Tim
Despic/Veneration Music Production Design André Fonsny,
Viera Dandova Producers Patrik Pass, Jean-Luc Van Damme,
Ruth Baumgarten, Eliza Mellor, Gabriela Pfaendner, Alexander Thies
Production Company NFP teleart/Halle, in co-production
with No Snow Productions/London, Banana Films/Brussels, Trigon
Productions/Bratislava Principal Cast Iddo Goldberg, Joanna
Page, Veronica Ferres, Tim Dutton, Bela B. Felsenheimer, Til
Schweiger Casting Irene Lamb Length 92 min, 2,505 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version English Sound
Technology Dolby Digital 5.1 With backing from Eurimages,
Motion Investment Group/CinePartners Belgium One, Hessen
Invest, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, Medienboard BerlinBrandenboard, Hessische Filmfoerderung, MEDIA Plus, Ministry of
Culture of the Slovak Republic German Distributor NFP
marketing & distribution*/Berlin
Robert Young studied Acting and Theater in London. He went
to the U.S. with the Old Vic Company and worked as a stage director from 1963 to 1967. He began directing for 20th Century Fox in
1967. His feature film credits include Captain Jack (1998),
Fierce Creatures with John Cleese, Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee
Curtis (1995), and the Eric Idle comedy Splitting Heirs (1993).
A prolific TV director, his many small-screen productions include
LWT’s Jane Eyre (1996), episodes of The Infinite Worlds of H.G.
World Sales
Wells (2000) and the Inspector Lynley (2001) detective series.
Beta Cinema / Dept. of Beta Film GmbH · Andreas Rothbauer
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88
email: ARothbauer@betacinema.com · www.betacinema.com
2 · 2006
new german films
49
Scene from “Capri, You Love?“ (photo © 2006 OFF-Produktion)
Capri, You Love?
A cinematic chamber-piece, set on the mystical isle of
Capri.
Over the course of one weekend, in an idyllic villa close
by the Blue Grotto, two men and two women meet. As
the hours pass, they find themselves entangled in a
humorous clash of attraction and ego.
Alexander Oppersdorff was born in 1965 in Frankfurt and
studied at the London Film School. He has also lived in Rome and
worked for the Spoleto Festival. His first documentary was about
the legendary opera composer Gian Carlo Menotti. In 2003, he
founded OFF-Produktion in Berlin. Capri, You Love? (2006) is
his feature debut.
We follow the ebb and flow of their stories as their lives tilt
and spin by sometimes small and other times significant
degrees.
Genre Comedy, Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year
of Production 2006 Director Alexander Oppersdorff
Screenplay Alexander Oppersdorff Director of Photography Ian Blumers Editor Anne Fabini Music by Jacopo Fiastri
Producer Alexander Oppersdorff Production Company
OFF-Produktion/Berlin, in co-production with Wasabi Film/
Munich, DRIFE PRODUCTIONS/Munich Principal Cast Arndt
Schwering-Sohnrey, Chiara Schoras, Markus Meyer, Kathrin Angerer
Casting Uwe Buenker Length 86 min Format HD Cam, color,
16:9 Original Version German Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby SR
OFF-Produktion
Neue Gruenstrasse 23 · 10179 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-27 58 28 45 · fax +49-30-27 58 28 46
email: info@off-produktion.com · www.off-produktion.com
2 · 2006
new german films
50
Charlotte Roche in “Eden” (photo © Gambit & C-Films)
Eden
Eden, a married woman, falls under the spell of the
“Cucina Erotica” of eccentric master chef Gregor. Their
platonic gourmet meetings jolt both Eden and Gregor out
of their humdrum everyday lives; Eden’s marriage blossoms as a result. But they live in a small town in which
nothing remains secret for long, and after Eden’s husband
Xaver experiences the erotic cuisine for himself, he is forced to take action or else lose his wife.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2005 Director Michael Hofmann Screenplay
Michael Hofmann Director of Photography Jutta Pohlmann
Editors Bernhard Wiessner, Isabel Meier Music by Christoph
Kaiser, Julian Maas Production Design Joerg Prinz Producers
Michael Jungfleisch, Robby Geisler Production Company
Gambit Film/Ludwigsburg, in co-production with C-Films/Zurich,
SWR/Baden-Baden, BR/Munich, Cine Plus Media/Berlin, SF
DRS/Zurich, Teleclub Switzerland/Zurich Principal Cast
Charlotte Roche, Josef Ostendorf, Devid Striesow, Leonie Stepp,
Max Ruedlinger, Roeland Wiesnekker Casting Sigrid Emmerich
Length 98 min, 2,695 m Format HD Blow-up 35 mm, color,
1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby Digital Festival Screenings
Rotterdam 2006, Berlin 2006 (German Cinema) Awards Tiscali
Audience Award & Lion’s Award Rotterdam 2006 With backing
from MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA),
Swiss Federal Office for Culture (EDI) German Distributor
Pandora Film Verleih/Aschaffenburg
Michael Hofmann was born in 1961. He worked as a designer
and director for the LINTAS ad agency from 1988-1990 before
becoming a freelance writer and director in 1991. He received a
grant to attend the Munich Script Workshop in 1994 and made his
feature film debut in 1998 with Trouville Beach (Der Strand
von Trouville) after directing several shorts and penning a number of screenplays. His other films include: Kleine Fische (short,
1988), An ganz normalen Tagen geschehen Dinge wie
diese (short, 1991), The Tale of the Girl and the Bear
(short, 1992), Lunapark (short, 1993), Fleischgerichte,
buergerlich (short, 1993), Big Eyes (documentary, 1993), Sex
& Drugs (short, 1994), Sophiiiie! (2002), and Eden (2005).
World Sales
The Match Factory · Michael Weber
phone +49-2 21-2 92 10 20 · fax +49-2 21-29 21 02 10
2 · 2006
new german films
51
Scene from “FC Venus – Women with Balls” (photo © Wueste Film/Britta Krehel)
FC Venus - Women with Balls
Paul and Anna live a happy life together in Berlin. Then
Paul gets a call from his hometown Imma. His old friend
Steffen, captain and co-founder with Paul of the local soccer club, Eintracht Imma 95, needs him to fulfill a promise: Paul has to come back and help out his old friends.
Eintracht Imma is about to lose its standing. But Paul’s
plans to move back home seriously jeopardize his relationship to Anna, who hates soccer and loves Berlin. Only
a lie can get her to go back to Imma with him. For Anna,
it is a step into soccer hell. Soon Paul outs himself as a soccer junkie, who only has thoughts for Eintracht Imma. And
his buddies terrorize their wives and girlfriends with all the
things that soccer junkies terrorize their women with:
Astro Turf in the bedroom, team bed sheets and weekends at the soccer grounds. When Anna realizes that he
only returned to Imma for his beloved team, she rounds
up her fellow sufferers and challenges Paul and his friends
to the ultimate duel: the women vs. the men, on the field.
If the women win, bye bye soccer forever and Paul has to
move back to Berlin with Anna. If the men win, the
women have to stop complaining. Problem is though that
none of the women can play soccer and their team, FC
Venus, is under (wo-)manned. And the only way to become a member of FC Venus is to have had sex with one
of the members of Eintracht Imma within the last year!
The heat is on to get both teams up to par …
Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2006 Director Ute Wieland Screenplay Jan
Berger Director of Photography Peter Przybylski Editor
Martina Matuschewski Music by Oliver Biehler Production
Design Thilo Mengler Producers Ralph Schwingel, Stefan
Schubert Production Company Wueste Film/Hamburg, in coproduction with Egoli Tossell Film/Berlin, SevenPictures Film/
Unterfoehring, in cooperation with SAT.1/ Berlin, GFP Medienfonds/Berlin Principal Cast Nora Tschirner, Christian Ulmen,
Florian Lukas, Anneke Kim Sarnau, Heinz Hoenig Casting Heta
Mantscheff Special Effects Peter Wiemker, Frank Schlegel
Length 99 min, 2,709 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original
Version German Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Dolby Digital With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Medienboard
Berlin-Brandenburg German Distributor NFP marketing &
distribution*/Berlin, 20th Century Fox (Germany)/Frankfurt
Ute Wieland’s award-winning films include: Im Jahr der
Schildkroete (1988), Polizeiruf 110 – Hetzjagd (TV,
1997), Wie angelt man sich seinen Chef? (TV, 1999),
Morgen gehoert der Himmel mir (TV, 1999), Dich
schickt der Himmel (TV, 2000), Die Mutter meines
Mannes (TV, 2001), Eiskalte Freunde (TV, 2002), Italiener
und andere Suessigkeiten (TV, 2003), Miss Texas (TV,
2004), and FC Venus - Women with Balls (2006).
World Sales
TELEPOOL GmbH · Wolfram Skowronnek
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
email: cinepool@telepool.de · www.telepool.de
2 · 2006
new german films
52
Franzoesisch fuer Anfaenger
Scene from “French for Beginners” (photo © Constantin Film, Muenchen)
FRENCH FOR BEGINNERS
Henrik thinks France is really uncool, in particular his
finicky French teacher Monsieur Nouvelleville, who is
always hassling him. But when Henrik meets Valerie, it’s
love at first sight. He is so in love with her that he can
hardly speak when she is around. And as if that weren’t
enough, it comes out that Henrik doesn’t like France. And
Valerie is half French. Oh no! His chances for a date are
not looking good, and then along comes the GermanFrench exchange program. Not much later, Henrik finds
himself with his best friend Johannes, Valerie and a group
of weird chanson-singing and guitar-playing nerds in a bus
on the way to France. Upon arrival, Henrik gets bitten by
the savoir-vivre bug: wild parties, a crazy host family, nighttime outings, the ups and downs of his first big love and
his lack of knowledge of the French language make what
first looked like an undesired holiday suddenly the most
unforgettable summer in his life.
Genre Romantic Comedy, Coming-of-Age Story Category
Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2006 Director
Christian Ditter Screenplay Christian Ditter Director of
Photography Christian Rein Editor Patricia Rommel Music
by Philipp F. Koelmel Production Design Eva Maria Stiebler
Producer Christoph Menardi Co-Producers Christian Becker,
Anita Schneider, Julien Auger-Ottavi, Marc-André Brunet, Gérard
Despouy, David Groenewold Line Producer Frank Siegmund
Production Company NEOS Film/Munich, in co-production
with Rat Pack Filmproduktion/Munich, Hector Films/Paris, Zweite
Medienfonds German Filmproductions/Berlin, Rhône-Alps
Cinéma/Lyon, Open Arts Productions/Paris Principal Cast
Francois Goeske, Paula Schramm, Elodie Bollée, Lennard Bertzbach
Casting Daniela Tolkien Length 92 min, 2,700 m Format 35
mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German/French/English
Subtitled Versions French, English Sound Technology
Dolby Digital With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Eurimages, Rhône-Alps-Cinema,
CNC German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich
Christian Ditter was born in 1977 and studied at the Academy
of Television & Film (HFF/M) in Munich. His films include:
Verzaubert (short, 1999), the cinema commercials Individualist and Mission (both 2002), Grounded (short,
2003), four episodes of the television series Schulmaedchen (2004),
and French for Beginners (Franzoesisch fuer
Anfaenger, 2006).
NEOS Film GmbH & Co. KG
Bavariafilmplatz 7 · 82031 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-64 98 12 25 · fax +49-89-64 98 19 99
email: post@neosfilm.de · www.neosfilm.de
2 · 2006
new german films
53
Fussballgoettinnen
Scene from “Goddesses of Soccer” (photo © unique productions)
GODDESSES OF SOCCER
Goddesses of Soccer submerges us into the everyday life
of women and their passion for soccer. The film goes far
beyond the game, giving an exceptional portrait of four
women and their surroundings.
Trautchen has given her best years to her soccer club. Her
emancipation went hand in hand with her work on and
around the soccer field. Here she began to blossom and
learned to stand her ground. The retired Berliner keeps
her role as a big mouth and boss on the renowned midcity soccer field. Life just won’t let her slow down. Beatrix
needs strong nerves, she is one of Germany’s youngest
soccer referees. She’ll take up any challenge. The 16-yearold seems to have almost everything under control, if it
wasn’t for her adolescence. Devoted fan Bettina draws all
her energy from a packed stadium. She couldn’t imagine
life without her soccer club. Her run-of-the-mill life as an
insurance agent is compensated through thriving emotions
as a soccer fan. Viola has been playing soccer since she
was a child. Today she is a soccer world champion. But
being a top-notch player means being under constant pressure and being completely dedicated. She also studies
Sports at the university and hopes that her female successors have it easier one day in the male dominated world
of soccer.
Genre Society, Sports Category Documentary Cinema Year of
Production 2006 Directors Nina Erfle, Frédérique Veith
Directors of Photography Klaus Hennrich, Mark Liedtke,
Guillermo Atocha Arias, Kai Ehlers, Henning Bruemmer, Fariba
Nilchian Editors Anja Neraal, Neliah Ibeh Music by Eike
Hosenfeld, Moritz Denis Producer Jenni Kriegel Production
Company unique productions/Berlin Length 92 min Format
HD, color, 16:9 Original Version German Subtitled Version
English Sound Technology Stereo With backing from
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Saarland Medien, Kulturelle
Filmfoerderung Schleswig-Holstein, Filmstiftung NRW German
Distributor Edition Salzgeber/Berlin
Nina Erfle was born in 1971 in Munich and studied Cultural
Studies, Art History and Film in Berlin. Since graduating in 1999, she
has been working as a researcher and production manager for
various cultural documentaries (ZDF, ARTE, Deutsche Welle TV,
NHK and Fuji TV).
Frédérique Veith was born in 1972 in Munich and studied
German & French Studies in Metz, Strasbourg and Saarbruecken.
Since 1999 she has been lecturing for radio workshops of a
German-French youth project in Paris and also works as an editor
for France 3 and the Saarland broadcasting station and has created
over 400 short to mid-length television features for various television broadcasters.
Goddesses of Soccer (Fussballgoettinnen, 2006) is their
first full-length documentary since finishing the one-year Producer
unique productions GmbH
Program at the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin.
Erkelenzdamm 59, Portal 1 · 10999 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-69 04 13 02 · fax +49-30-69 04 13 03
email: info@uniqueproductions.de · www.uniqueproductions.de · www.fussballgoettinnen.de
2 · 2006
new german films
54
Haensel und Gretel
Scene from “Hansel and Gretel” (photo © Kinderfilm GmbH)
HANSEL AND GRETEL
Money is scarce and there are too many mouths to feed.
To solve the problem, Hansel and Gretel’s stepmother convinces their father to abandon them, in the deepest forest.
Left to their own devices, the siblings don’t know how to
find their way back home. They have no food and they are
very hungry. Lured by the delicious goodies on the outside
walls of a small cottage, they accept an old lady’s invitation
to eat and spend the night. She promises, after all, not to
eat them …
The next morning the children find out they are trapped:
Hansel is locked up in a cage and the evil old lady makes
Gretel slave away for her. Will they be able to out-wit the
evil old witch?
Genre Family Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2006 Director Anne Wild Screenplay Peter
Schwindt, based on the Grimm Brother’s fairy tale Director of
Photography Wojciech Szepel Editor Dagmar Lichius Music
by Mari Boine Production Design Martina Brunner
Producers Ingelore Koenig, Ernst Geyer, Juergen Haase
Production Companies Kinderfilm/Erfurt, Moviepool/
Munich, ZDF/Mainz Principal Cast Sybille Canonica, Johann
Storm, Nastassja Hahn, Henning Peker, Claudia Geisler, Christian
Habicht Casting Annekathrin Huebner Length 78 min, 1,009 m
Format Super 16 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original Version German
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Stereo
Festival Screenings Berlin 2006 (Kinderfilmfest) With
backing from Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung
Anne Wild was born in 1967 in Bielefeld. She studied German
Literature, Philosophy and Art History at the University of Freiburg
from 1986-1988, followed by Acting from 1988-1992 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. In 1999, together with Stefan
Daehnert, she received the first Baden-Wuerttemberg Script Prize for
What to do in case of fire? (Was tun, wenn’s brennt, 2001). Her other
films include Nachmittag in Siedlisko (2000), Ballet Was
Canceled (Ballett ist ausgefallen, 2001), her feature debut
My First Miracle (Mein erstes Wunder, 2001), and
Hansel and Gretel (Haensel und Gretel, 2006).
World Sales
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
2 · 2006
new german films
55
Scene from “Hedy Lamarr - Secrets of a Hollywood Star”
(photo © C Produktion)
Hedy Lamarr – Secrets of a Hollywood Star
MGM-tycoon Louis B. Mayer called Hedy Lamarr “the
most beautiful girl of the century.” A psychological portrait
of glamour star Hedy Lamarr who became scandalously
famous in 1933 as the first nude on the screen with her
appearance in the Austrian/Czech film Ecstasy. She then
had an extraordinary career in more than 25 Hollywood
films. Don’t forget her historic patent for a torpedo guided
system from 1942 which serves today as the basis for
mobile phones. The documentary contains interviews with
Mickey Rooney, Lupita Kohner, Kenneth Anger and many
other personal friends of Hedy. With clips from Ecstasy by
Gustav Machaty and Hedy by Andy Warhol.
Genre Biopic, History Category Documentary Cinema Year
of Production 2006 Directors Donatello & Fosco Dubini,
Barbara Obermaier Screenplay Donatello & Fosco Dubini,
Barbara Obermaier Director of Photography Donatello
Dubini Editors Donatello & Fosco Dubini Producers Cardo
Dubini, Donatello Dubini, Fosco Dubini, Barbara Obermaier,
Monique Indra Production Company Tre Valli Filmproduktion/Zurich, in co-production with Dubini Filmproduktion/Cologne, Obermaier Film/Cologne, MI Films/Vancouver
Length 84 min Format Betacam SP, color/b&w, 16:9 Original
Version German/English Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings FIPATEL Biarritz
2006, Solothurn 2006, Kiev 2006 (In Competition), Documenta
Madrid 2006, Cracow 2006 With backing from Eurimages,
EDI, City of Zurich, Succès Cinéma, Filmstiftung NRW German
Distributor Real Fiction Filmverleih/Cologne
Donatello and Fosco Dubini were born in 1955 and 1954,
respectively, in Zurich. Together, their films include: Blindgaenger (1983), Ueber mir der Himmel, unter mir ein
schwarzes Loch (1984), The Disappearance of Ettore
Majorana (Das Verschwinden des Ettore Majorana,
1986), Klaus Fuchs – Atom Spy (Klaus Fuchs – Atomspion, documentary, 1989), J.K. – Experience in Dealing
with One’s Own Ego (J.K. – Erfahrungen im Umgang
mit dem eigenen Ich, documentary, 1991), Ludwig 1881
(1993), Jean Seberg – American Actress (documentary,
1995), The Journey to Kafiristan (Die Reise nach
Kafiristan, 2001), Thomas Pynchon – A Journey into
the Mind of P. (documentary, 2001), and Hedy Lamarr –
Secrets of a Hollywood Star (2006).
Barbara Obermaier was born in 1965 in Bad Reichenhall and
studied Modern Literature, Art History and Media Sciences in
Salzburg, Vienna, Paris, Orléans, and Constance. She has been in
film production since 1995 and became a PR agent in 1997 for
various filmmakers and production companies. Hedy Lamarr –
Secrets of a Hollywood Star marks her directorial debut.
Obermaier Filmproduction · Barbara Obermaier
Kalker Hauptstrasse 178 · 51103 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-3 46 39 60 · fax +49-2 21-3 46 39 59
email: info@movierelations.de · www.movierelations.de
2 · 2006
new german films
56
Die Himmelswiese .
Die kleinen Wunder von Baan Gerda
Scene from “Heaven's Meadow. The Small Wonders of Baan Gerda”
(photo © GTMA)
HEAVEN’S MEADOW. THE SMALL WONDERS OF BAAN GERDA
“Death is never a welcome guest. It can be cruel, a release,
or as tender as a child’s kiss. Death has its place in God’s
universal order. But that doesn't mean we have to accept
its every whim.”
How can a film about AIDS orphans uplift your spirit?
There will be 24 millions AIDS orphans by 2010. Their life
expectancy will be less then 12 years. Baan Gerda, a special purpose village in Thailand, provides a unique alternative that shows what true care and real love can achieve.
Watch lives being transformed in Heaven’s Meadow.
A moving story about AIDS orphans who were supposed
to die. A film that places HIV/AIDS firmly within the
wheel of life.
Original Version Thai/English/German Dubbed Versions
Thai, English, German, French, Bhutanese, Djermain, Haussa
Subtitled Version Chinese Sound Technology Stereo
Festival Screenings Guangzhou 2005 German Distributor
GTMA German Thai Media Association/Berlin
Detlev F. Neufert studied German Language, Philosophy,
Theology and Drama and lives and works today in Berlin and
Bangkok. He started his first documentaries for German television
and made short films about pop stars, including Bob Dylan, Frank
Zappa and Patti Smith. His feature Take Away the Night
(1982) was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard.
He is also a lecturer in the USA, China and Africa, an author, and
contributes to various international travel magazines. His films include Family Life (short, 1979) and Heaven’s Meadow.
The Small Wonders of Baan Gerda (2005).
Genre Culture, Education Category Documentary Cinema
Year of Production 2005 Director Detlev F. Neufert
Screenplay Detlev F. Neufert Director of Photography
Inigo Westmeier Editor Jana Teuchert Music by Andy Groll
Producers Detlev F. Neufert, Paleologos Koukouvelis Production Company GTMA German Thai Media Association/
Berlin Studio Shooting Sun Light Studio/Bangkok,
Waveline/Berlin Length 92 min Format Beta, color, 16:9
GTMA German Thai Media Association · John McLuskie
P.O. Box 31 · Patpong Post Office · Bangkok 10506/Thailand
phone/fax +66-67 66 07 77
email: gtma.berlin@web.de; gtma.th@gmail.com · www.heavensmeadow.com
2 · 2006
new german films
57
Historias de Arriba y Abajo
Scene from “Stories from Above and Below” (photo © Christian Stollwerk)
STORIES FROM ABOVE AND BELOW
Roberto had always wanted to run his own hotel in the
city of La Paz/Bolivia. Now it's four floors high and expanding. Viviana still dreams of owning her own grocery
store. The miniatures in her shrine are wishes that Ekheko,
the God of abundance, will turn into reality, just as he did
for Roberto.
Marisol the Shepherd leaves behind her llamas. She grows
wings so she can soar with the Condor, with whom she
falls in love. The Flower Bird's house is so tiny that the girl
he seduced with his melodies will not fit inside. And the
travelers, shaken by the bus, stare down into the abyss,
hoping to soothe the demons who lurk by the sides of the
steep Andean roads.
Stories from Above and Below transports us to the
vibrant world of Andean fairy tales, which lies at the very
heart of day-to-day Bolivian life. From the ice-capped
peaks of the Cordillera, through the winding city of La
Paz, to the jungle below, we experience a syncretism of
history, fiction and modern life in a region striving for a
reawakening of its roots.
Genre Culture, Fairy Tale, Society Category Documentary
Cinema Year of Production 2006 Director Thomas Boeltken
Screenplay Thomas Boeltken Director of Photography
Christian Stollwerk Editor Thomas Boeltken Music by Fidel Vies,
Erwin Caimani, Macario Chita Producer Christian Stollwerk
Production Company Neue Monopolfilm/Leipzig Principal
Cast Clemente Mamani, Marisol Quispe, Roberto Bozo Bollati,
Viviana Ticona, Mario Larico Huanca Length 87 min Format DV,
color, 1:1.85 Original Versions English & Spanish Subtitled
Version English Sound Technology Dolby Stereo
Thomas Boeltken was born in Duesseldorf in 1971 and spent
most of his childhood in Ivory Coast. Having finished his M.A. in
Film Studies he played the drums for the German-American band
Kool Ade Acid Test and is currently working on his first feature film
Freie Fahrt fuer Freie Buerger!.
Neue Monopolfilm · Christian Stollwerk
Bernhard-Goering-Strasse 159 · 04277 Leipzig/Germany
phone +49-1 78-5 36 29 40
email: info@neuemonopolfilm.de · www.historias-de-arriba-y-abajo.com
2 · 2006
new german films
58
Im Schwitzkasten
Scene from “No Sweat” (photo © Moneypenny/Alex Trebus)
NO SWEAT
The recession’s got people in a headlock. They’re grappling, struggling, sweating, but there’s no escape. And while
they are sweating, why not really sweat? So Toni, Karin,
Dani, Monika and Norbert meet every Thursday in the
Berlin sauna “Schwitzkasten” (Sweatbox), run by the sister
and brother team Nadine and Jost, to brood over the situation in the country and life in general while wallowing in
mud pack and massage. Toni, long-term jobless and impotent, has lost all confidence to return to his old profession.
Karin, who has opened her own business, makes a nuisance of herself by trying to sell useless things to anyone
who crosses her path. Stewardess Dani, who thinks the
best is just about good enough for her, finds out that the
world runs on different time when she’s out of work.
Monika, incorrigible do-gooder, has enjoyed an academic
education with the result that she goes on social welfare
until she decides whether to marry and have kids or teach
sewing to women in Rwanda. And finally there’s Norbert,
the Goethe expert who writes speeches for his wife, a
liberal member of parliament. The microcosm of the
sauna opens his eyes to the world as it really is. Will he at
least have the courage to do something about it?
Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2005 Director Eoin Moore Screenplay Eoin
Moore, Jens Koester, Sven Poser Director of Photography
Bernd Loehr Editors Antje Zynga, Eoin Moore Music by Kai-
Uwe Kohlschmidt, Warner Poland Production Design Annette
Lofy Producers Anne Leppin, Sigrid Hoerner Production
Company Moneypenny Film/Berlin, in co-production with ZDF
Das kleine Fernsehspiel/Mainz, Workshop Leppin Moore
Hoerner/Berlin Principal Cast Christiane Paul, Charly Huebner,
Andreas Schmidt, Esther Zimmering, Steffi Kuehnert, Laura Tonke,
Edgar Selge Casting Eoin Moore Length 97 min, 2,654 m
Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SRD
Festival Screenings Hof 2005, Luenen 2005, Goteborg 2006,
Berlin 2006, Dublin 2006 With backing from Medienboard
Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM German Distributor Alamode
Film/Munich
Eoin Moore was born in 1968 in Dublin/Ireland. He studied at
the German Film & Television Academy Berlin and has worked as a
soundman and cameraman. He graduated in 1998 with Break
Even (Plus-Minus Null), which won four awards at international festivals and was shown at over 40 festivals in 25 countries.
His other films include: Spiel mir das Lied vom toten
Trabbi (short, 1991), So oder so (short, 1992), Children of
Light (documentary, 1992), Digital Video Ballet (short,
1993), Driver (short, 1993), Loops of Infinity (short, 1994),
Der Duft des Mannes (short, 1994), Storm Rising (short,
1995), Neuneinhalb Minuten (short, 1996), Conamara
(2000), Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?
(Verkehrsinsel, 2001), Pigs Will Fly (2002), and No Sweat
(Im Schwitzkasten, 2005).
World Sales
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88
2 · 2006
new german films
59
Knallhart
Scene from “Tough Enough” (photo © Boje Buck Produktion GmbH)
TOUGH ENOUGH
Fifteen-year-old Michael Polischka is thrown into the gritty
urban world of a rough ethnic neighborhood, far from the
posh suburbs he’s used to. Beatings and extortion by a
gang of violent bullies makes public high school miserable
for Michael. Life at home isn’t much better since he has to
put up with the guys his pretty young mom entertains in
her desperate search for a new man. Michael’s life turns
around when urbane crime lord Hamal takes him under
his wing. Michael’s honest face makes him the perfect guy
for drug deliveries to local dealers. The teenager handles
the tension of these dangerous missions like a pro. Michael
proves he’s tough enough, but eventually finds out he’s
actually in way over his head.
Production 2006 Director Detlev Buck Screenplay Zoran
Drvenkar, Gregor Tessnow Director of Photography Kolja
Brandt Editor Dirk Grau Production Design Udo Kramer
Producer Claus Boje Production Company Boje Buck/
Berlin, in co-production with WDR/Cologne, ARTE/Strasbourg
Principal Cast David Kross, Jenny Elvers-Elbertzhagen, Erhan
Emre, Inanc Oktay Oezdemir, Kida Khodr Ramadan, Arnel Taci, Kai
Michael Mueller, Hans Loew Casting Astrid Rosenfed Length 98
min, 2,695 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version
German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology
Dolby SRD Festival Screenings Berlin 2006 (Panorama)
Awards FIPRESCI Award, Label Europa Cinemas Award Berlin 2006
With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), BKM,
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg German Distributor Delphi
Filmverleih/Berlin
Detlev Buck was born in Bad Segeberg in 1962 and grew up on
his parents’ farm in Schleswig-Holstein. He studied at the German
Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin from 1985-1989. He
made a number of short films during his studies, including Normal
Bitte (1986), Eine Rolle Duschen (1987), and Was drin ist
(1988), and graduated in 1989 with the 55-minute film Hopnick.
His feature-length films include: Erst die Arbeit und dann
(1984), Little Rabbit (Karniggels, 1991), No More Mr
Nice Guy (Wir koennen auch anders, 1993), Jailbirds
(Maennerpension, 1996), Love Your Neighbor! (Liebe
Deine Naechste!, 1998) Liebesluder (2001), and Tough
Enough (Knallhart, 2006). He has also made acting appearances in several of his own films, as well as in films by other directors
such as Leander Haussmann, Max Faerberboeck, and Bernd
Eichinger.
World Sales
The Match Factory · Michael Weber
phone +49-2 21-2 92 10 20 · fax +49-2 21-29 21 02 10
2 · 2006
new german films
60
Lapislazuli – Im Auge des Baeren
Scene from “Lapis Lazuli” (photo © Dor Film/Petro Domenigg)
LAPIS LAZULI
Right in the middle of the Alpine wilderness, a fiery
meteorite crashes into a glacier and brings a frozen
Neanderthal boy to life. This boy, Bataa, meets Sophie, a
young girl who has run away from a holiday cottage in the
mountains. At the beginning, they seem to be separated
by language and time, but soon they discover some similarities: Sophie lost her mother and cannot seem to get
along with her new patchwork family. Bataa too feels lost
and longs for his family. They both need each other and
experience a special friendship which suddenly becomes
endangered when scientists start to track them down and
try to capture Bataa like a wild animal. Sophie helps him
to escape. They hide in an old cave, a sacred site for the
Neanderthals, and Bataa dyes his hair the color of lapis
lazuli. When Bataa falls ill, Sophie convinces him to go
with her into the valley. But the closer they get to modern
civilization, the worse Bataa’s illness becomes. Sophie
realizes that Bataa cannot survive in today’s world and a
race against time begins.
Genre Children and Youth, Family Category Feature Film
Cinema Year of Production 2006 Director Wolfgang
Murnberger Screenplay Volker Krappen, Wolfgang Murnberger
Director of Photography Fabian Eder Editor Britta Nahler
Music by Mischa Krausz Production Design Christoph Kanter
Producers Danny Krausz, Kurt Stocker Co-Producers Gerd
Huber, Claudia Krebs, Volker Krappen, Jani Thiltges Production
Company Dor Film/Vienna, in co-production with Dor Film
West/Munich, Cobra Film/Munich, Krebs & Krappen/Hamburg,
Samsa Film/Luxembourg Principal Cast Clarence John Ryan,
Julia Krombach, Hans-Werner Meyer, Lena Stolze, Paula Nocker,
Christoph Waltz, Gregor Bloéb, Vadim Glowna Casting Markus
Schleinzer, Faith Martin Length 106 min, 3,042 m Format 35
mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version
English Sound Technology Dolby Digital SR Festival
Screenings Berlin 2006 (Kinderfilmfest) With backing from
MEDIA, EAVE, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, Oesterreichisches Filminstitut, ORF, Film Fonds Wien, Eurimages, BKM,
FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Film Fund
Luxembourg, Cine Tirol German Distributor 20th Century
Fox (Germany)/Frankfurt
Wolfgang Murnberger was born in 1960 in Wiener Neustadt.
He studied Scriptwriting, Directing and Editing at the Academy of
Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. His films include: Himmel
oder Hoelle (1990), Ich gelobe (1994), Attwengerfilm
(1995), Komm suesser Tod (2000), Silentium (2004), and
Lapis Lazuli (2006) as well as numerous TV movies and episodes
for various television series.
Dor Film
Bergsteiggasse 36 · 1170 Vienna/Austria
phone +43-1-4 27 10 11 · fax +43-1-4 27 10 50
email: office@dor-film.at · www.dor-film.at
2 · 2006
new german films
61
Scene from “Little Spoon” (photo © bluefilm)
Little Spoon
The loneliness of an old man, trapped in his daily rituals
and routines, trying to keep at least one foot on the
ground. However, slowly but surely, he loses touch with
reality.
Genre Drama Category Short Year of Production 2005
Director Régine Provvedi Screenplay Régine Provvedi
Director of Photography Isabelle Casez Editor Volkmar
Umlauft Production Design Hanna Solms Producers Sven
Paul, Régine Provvedi Production Company bluefilm/Berlin
Principal Cast Otto Sander Length 15 min, 428 m Format
35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version no dialogue Sound
Technology Dolby Digital Festival Screenings Dresden 2005
(In Competition), Interfilm Berlin 2005, exground Wiesbaden 2005
(In Competition), Vendome 2005 (In Competition), Wuerzburg
2006 (In Competition) With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA)
Régine Provvedi was born in France and moved to Berlin to
study Art Direction and Fine Arts at the HDK Art Academy. She has
worked as a production manager on various international film projects and directed a number of short films, including: Leben aus
2ter Hand (1984), Vehlefanz (1992), Requin (1993), Die
Arche/Lurch (1999), and Little Spoon (2005).
bluefilm GmbH · Sven Paul, Régine Provvedi
Oranienstrasse 22 · 10999 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-61 65 80 05 · fax +49-30-61 65 80 04
email: blue@bluefilm.de · www.bluefilm.de
2 · 2006
new german films
62
Scene from “Mañana al mar” (photo © Ines Thomsen)
Mañana al mar
Imagine the beach of Barcelona in winter, a deserted
place, sometimes blustery, on the edge of the vibrant city,
open to the sea. Waves are coming and going. So too are
some few citizens, perhaps called upon by the waves. Or
do they simply render visible something timeless and
eternal in this fluid flux and reflux?
There is José, nearly ninety, jogging through the sand and
there is Paulina, an elderly lady, singing Cuban boleros
from her youth while she swims in the icy sea, her crutch
waiting on the sand. Then we encounter Antonio, around
eighty, scrutinizing the ocean from his home-made cement
throne on the coast's jagged rocks. The three of them,
towards the end of life, are part of an elderly community,
whose passion draws them every morning to the sea.
The film follows these vivid, humorous and lovely individualists and becomes an accomplice to their loves and
lives, as they challenge wind, weather and time. The camera never leaves the beach, which appears to be their natural environment, a stage for an almost ritual encounter
with the sea, whose rhythm determines the film.
Jury of the Film Festival Max Ophuels Prize:
“We fell in love with the wonderful beach-philosophers in
this witty, entertaining and serene movie. We very much
hope that these stories find their way into cinemas.”
Genre Culture, Society Category Documentary Cinema Year
of Production 2006 Director Ines Thomsen Screenplay
Ines Thomsen Director of Photography Ines Thomsen
Editor Lars Spaeth Producers Christin Meyer, Anke Jungfleisch,
Bettina Walter, Carles Brugueras Production Companies
gop03/Berlin, Polar Star Films/Barcelona, in co-production with
ZDF/Mainz, in collaboration with ARTE/Strasbourg, Televisió de
Catalunya/Barcelona, Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad
Wolf ’ (HFF/B)/Potsdam-Babelsberg Principal Cast Paulina
Ubiedo Pardo, José Boadas, Antonio Martín Lengths 83 & 55 min
Format S 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original
Version Spanish/Catalan Subtitled Versions English, German
Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings Ophuels
Festival Saarbruecken 2006 (In Competition), Documenta Madrid
2006 (In Competition) Awards Best Documentary Saarbruecken
2006 With backing from Kulturelle Filmfoerderung SchleswigHolstein, Institut Català de les Industries Culturales German
Distributor gop03/Berlin
Ines Thomsen was born in 1975 in Pinneberg. After working in
Paris, she worked as a 1st and 2nd camera assistant in New Zealand
and Germany. During her studies at the “Konrad Wolf ” Academy of
Film & Television in Potsdam, she spent a year at the ESCAC film
school in Barcelona. Her award-winning films include: sportfrei
(short, 2000), Cantando La Vida (short, 2002), Spielgefaehrten (short, 2004), Een Land. Twee Meere (short,
2004), and Mañana al mar (2006). She has also served as DoP
on over 15 other films.
gop03 GmbH · Christin Meyer, Anke Jungfleisch
Choriner Strasse 23 · 10435 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-44 04 38 53 · fax +49-30-44 04 38 11
email: mail@gop03.de · www.gop03.de
2 · 2006
new german films
63
Die Mission – Freiwillige Helfer beim UNHCR
Scene from "“Die Mission - Freiwillige Helfer beim UNHCR”
(photo courtesy of EIKON Sued)
THE MISSION – UNHCR REFUGEE AID WORKERS
“What motivates a person to put their organized life and
their secure job temporarily on hold, to throw themselves
into a crisis area in some corner of the world and help the
refugees there in their daily struggle for survival?”
The 5-part documentary series The Mission – UNHCR
Refugee Aid Workers attempts to answer this question.
Every year, the UNHCR trains voluntary aid workers.
People from a secure environment, who are prepared to
risk their lives in a crisis area to help others. The film follows two refugee aid workers: Claas (31) from Germany,
and Anita (43) from Austria, from their 10-day training
through to their dangerous mission and the return home.
Will this frontier experience change their lives?
Stefan Eberlein was born in 1967 in Laupheim. He studied
Communication Sciences, Sociology and History in Munich. In
1994/1995 he served as a production assistant on Romuald
Karmakar’s Der Totmacher. A selelction of his documentary films
includes: Keine Schonzeit fuer Fuechse (1998), Der
Katzenfreund (1999), and The Mission – UNHCR Refugee Aid Workers (Die Mission – Freiwillige Helfer
beim UNHCR, 2005). He is currently in preparation on his next
film Gelber Himmel, Gruenes Meer.
Genre Society Category Documentary TV Year of
Production 2005 Director Stefan Eberlein Screenplay
Stefan Eberlein Director of Photography Aldo Gugolz
Editor Mark Haenecke Producer Susanne Petz Production
Company EIKON Sued/Munich Length 5 x 26 min, 1 x 52 min
Format DV Cam, color, 16:9 Original Version
German/English Sound Technology Dolby
EIKON Sued GmbH · Susanne Petz
Birkerstrasse 22 · 80636 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-12 17 21 90 · fax +49-89-12 17 22 26
email: petz@eikon-sued.de · www.eikon-sued.de
2 · 2006
new german films
64
Scene from “More Than 1000 Words” (photo courtesy of TELEPOOL)
More Than 1000 Words
Ziv Koren’s photographs have become instantly recognizable icons that have helped to shape our perception of the
conflict in the Middle East. In More Than 1000 Words
director Solo Avital followed internationally awarded Ziv
over a two-year period, shooting in the heart of riots, terror attack scenes, secret meetings with wanted militants,
all the way to Israel’s pullout from Gaza.
This movie, however, is not about the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict; it’s a movie about a married man’s struggle with
the history of a fierce war in which he is involved on a
daily basis, and the place he finds for himself in it. The
movie does not seek history through the photographer’s
lens – it seeks the photographer through the lens of
history and the universal through the most intimate personal.
Length 77 min Format DigiBeta, color, cs Original Version
Hebrew/English Subtitled Versions English, German Sound
Technology Stereo With backing from The New Israeli
Foundation for Cinema & TV
Solo Avital founded Happy Zoda in 1999 as a facility to produce
his films and record his music. He has been a musician since age 11,
and at 15 he directed, filmed and edited his first short documentary.
As an expert in 3D character animation he was invited to
Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam where he was employed as a special
effects supervisor for digital composing. For 5 years he directed
various high budget commercials and made special effects for several blockbuster films (The Legend of the Pianist by Giuseppe
Tornatore and Lost in Space by Stephen Hopkins, among others).
Since 2002 he has completed several documentaries, More Than
1000 Words is his latest work.
Genre Contemporary Politics Category Documentary TV Year
of Production 2006 Director Solo Avital Screenplay Solo
Avital Director of Photography Solo Avital Editor Solo
Avital Music by Danni Reichental, Tomer Biran Producer Oliver
Berben Production Company MOOVIE-the art of entertainment/Berlin, in co-production with GFP Medienfonds/Berlin
World Sales
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
2 · 2006
new german films
65
Motodrom
Scene from “Moto Drome” (photo © Olaf Tamm)
MOTO DROME
The world of the hell-riders in their wooden barrel: men
and motorbikes, speed and stunts, gasoline and adrenaline.
A dying fairground attraction, portrayed in a thrilling
homage with 5000 rounds per minute.
Genre Art, Experimental Category Documentary Short Year
of Production 2006 Director Joerg Wagner Screenplay
Joerg Wagner Director of Photography Peter Drittenpreis,
Ayhan Salar, Patrick Orth Editor Andrew Bird Producer Dirk
Manthey Production Company HKP 9/Hamburg Principal
Cast Hugo Dabbert, Jagath Perera, Tomasz Wyszormirski
Length 9 min, 250 m Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.66 Original
Version no dialogue Sound Technology Dolby Digital
Festival Screenings Tampere 2006 (In Competition),
IndieLisbo 2006 (In Competition), Oberhausen 2006 (In
Competition), Soest 2006 (In Competition) With backing from
FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Kulturelle Filmfoerderung SchleswigHolstein, BKM
Joerg Wagner was born in 1967 in Stuttgart and studied
Audiovisual Media. He has worked as a projectionist and presented
various short film events and live comedy shows. He also writes
scripts for film and television productions. His films include: the
shorts Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job
(2001), Pop Musik (2002), and Moto Drome (2006).
World Sales
Kurzfilmagentur Hamburg e.V.
Friedensallee 7 · 22765 Hamburg/Germany
phone +49-40-3 91 06 30 · fax fax +49-40-39 10 63 20
email: sales@shortfilm.com · www.shortfilm.com
2 · 2006
new german films
66
Scene from “Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Hazen & Mr. Horlocker”
(photo © Stefan Mueller)
Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Hazen & Mr. Horlocker
Disturbed by loud music from one of his neighbors, Mr.
Schwartz calls the police. But initially the officer cannot
ascertain anything. Then the film starts again from the
view of every tenant and allows the spectator to see what
really happened in each apartment: The history of a
butterfly effect.
Stefan Mueller was born in 1974 in Limburg and studied
Communication Design at the University of Applied Sciences
Wiesbaden and the Universidad Complutense Madrid. His films
include: the shorts Stauproblem geloest (2005) and Mr.
Schwartz, Mr. Hazen & Mr. Horlocker (2006).
Genre Comedy Category Computer Animated Short Year of
Production 2006 Director Stefan Mueller Screenplay Stefan
Mueller Director of Photography Stefan Mueller Editor
Stefan Mueller Music by Stefan Mueller, Steffen Winkler, Frank
Nachtigall, Educated Idiot Sessions Production Design Stefan
Mueller Producer Stefan Mueller Production Company
Basementpictures/Elz Length 7 min 28 sec, 208 m Format 35
mm, color, cs Original Version no dialogue Sound Technology Stereo Festival Screenings exground Wiesbaden 2005,
Dresden 2006 (In Competition), Cannes 2006 (Cinéfondation),
Annecy 2006 Awards First Place Wiesbaden 2005, Golden
Horseman: Best Animation & Best Sound Dresden 2006 With
backing from Hessische Filmfoerderung German Distributor Basementpictures/Elz
Basementpictures · Stefan Mueller
Walderdorffstrasse 1 · 65604 Elz/Germany
phone +49-1 63-3 93 95 76
email: info@basementpictures.com · www.basementpictures.com
2 · 2006
new german films
67
Mythos Heiliger Gral
Scene from “The Grail’s Traces in France” (photo © Tellus Film)
THE GRAIL’S TRACES IN FRANCE
Dan Brown found one of the most important sources for
his book The Da Vinci Code in French research about the
Holy Grail. This documentary follows a group of researchers on their quest to find the Holy Grail in France and
charts the most important historical stages. The result is
surprising: Is the grave of Joseph of Arimathea, the first
keeper of the grail, located in the South of France? And is
that where he also left the grail? The filmmakers set out to
follow the grail’s traces in the South of France, from
antiquity to the present day. As one of the first camera
teams, they visit the grail caves near Vicdessos and show
fascinating footage of the castle of Montsegur where the
community of the Cathars found its gruesome end. You
will find out why the Nazis under Heinrich Himmler tried
to exterminate a whole village to carry out a building project of unbelievable scale: a new ’Grail Castle’ in the heart
of Germany. However, the center of attention is a village
in the Southern French Pyrenees: Rennes-le-Château.
Hundreds of researchers have been puzzled by its mystery
to this day. In 1900, village priest Abbe Saunière is alleged
to have found the grail. A model of the local landscape, a
so-called ’Maquette’, which supposedly shows the location
of the grave, was found in his estate. For the first time it is
revealed how the Maquette is meant to be read and
where the marks in the landscape can be found. Can
Joseph of Arimathea’s grave be located and is this where
the legend of the Holy Grail comes full circle?
Genre History Category Documentary TV Year of
Production 2005 Director Erik Borner Screenplay Stefan
Friedrich Director of Photography Oliver Pabst Editors
Rafael Metz, Lodur Tettenborn Music by Kraans De Lutin Producer Stefan Friedrich Production Company Tellus
Film/Vaihingen Length 54 min Format BetaSP, color, 4:3
(Letterbox) Original Version German Dubbed Versions
English, French Sound Technology Dolby Digital 2.0 German
Distributor Tellus Film/Vaihingen
Erik Borner has been working as a director since 1987. He started with short fiction films and won the Main Prize at the 8th
Frankfurt Youth Film Festival with one of his first films Schlag
neun (1994). He then started directing industry films and commercials. After directing a pilot for the TV series Nur fliegen ist
schoener (2002), he co-founded Tellus Film in 2005 and directed his
first documentary The Grail’s Traces in France (Mythos
Heiliger Gral, 2005).
Tellus Film GmbH · Harry Roeder
Duererstrasse 11 · 71665 Vaihingen/Germany
phone +49-41 01-85 71 91 · fax +49-41 01-85 71 92
email: info@tellus-film.com · www.tellus-film.com
2 · 2006
new german films
68
Neun Szenen
Scene from “Nine Takes” (photo © HFF Potsdam-Babelsberg)
NINE TAKES
Nine sad, funny and absurd situations about 20-year-olds,
who know where they want to go, but have no idea how
to get there. At the same time, it is also a film about
parents.
Genre Tragicomedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2006 Director Dietrich Brueggemann Screenplay Anna Brueggemann, Dietrich Brueggemann Director of
Photography Alexander Sass Editor Vincent Assmann Music
by Ferienlager Wedding Production Design J. Michael Birn
Producers Gesine Reicherstorfer, Sven Boeck Production
Company Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf ’
(HFF/B)/Potsdam-Babelsberg, in co-production with KOPPFILM/Berlin Principal Cast Anna Brueggemann, Christian Ehrich,
Richard Kropf, Leslie Malton, Heio von Stetten, Hans-Heinrich
Hardt, Julia Heinemann, Klaus Manchen, Hildegard Kuhlenberg,
Alexander Hoerbe, Lena Lessing, Joerg Bundschuh Special
Effects KOPPFILM/Berlin Length 105 min Format HD Cam,
color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version
English Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings
Berlin 2006 (Perspectives German Cinema)
Dietrich Brueggemann was born in 1976 and studied at the
"Konrad Wolf" Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam. His films
include: the shorts Heavy Rotation (2001), Mehr Licht
(2003), Warum laeuft Herr V. Amok (2003), Katja kann
fast alles (2004), numerous music videos, and his graduation
feature Nine Takes (Neun Szenen, 2006).
Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf’ (HFF/B) · Cristina Marx
Marlene-Dietrich-Allee 11 · 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germany
phone +49-3 31-6 20 25 64 · fax +49-3 31-6 20 25 69
email: distribution@hff-potsdam.de · www.hff-potsdam.de
2 · 2006
new german films
69
Nur ein Laecheln
Scene from “Just a Smile” (photo © 2005 Risiko Film)
JUST A SMILE
You look at me smiling, Eleonore, and you look at yourself and
smile again. (J. W. Goethe)
When Giuseppe the shy pizza baker is kneading his dough
for the day, he looks out of the window of his small, shabby pizzeria. While outside life is going on, he spends most
of his time on his own. One day he looks at the lovely
smile of the most beautiful woman he ever set his eyes on.
At first completely paralyzed, he manages to smile back
timidly. Work is much easier afterwards. From this day on,
Giuseppe waits for the beautiful woman every day at the
same time. He waits for a smile which is only for him. But
one day he has to find out that this smile is a very special
one.
Genre Comedy, Love Story Category Short Year of Production 2005 Director Eva Demmler Screenplay Eva
Demmler Director of Photography Simon Bahlsen Editor
Lars Pienkoss Music by Matthias Schwab Production Design
Gaby Bahlsen Producers Simon Bahlsen, Gaby Bahlsen
Production Company Risiko Film art&entertainment/Gstadt
Principal Cast Mike Zaka Sommerfeldt, Stefanie Poljakoff
Casting Gaby Bahlsen, Eva Demmler Length 10 min, 290 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original Version no dialogue
Sound Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings Montreal
World 2005, LA Shorts 2005 (In Competition), Palm Springs 2005
(In Competition), Kiev 2005 (In Competition), Evora 2005 (In
Competition), Clermont-Ferrand 2006, Tiburon 2006 (In Competition) With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Wfilm/
Cologne
Eva Demmler was born in 1966 and studied Italian, Spanish and
Dutch at the Free University in Berlin. After spending two years
abroad in the USA and Italy, she started working as a producer, journalist and director for numerous television productions. A selection
of her work includes the television reports Zerstoerer aus
Leidenschaft – Sprengmeister in Aktion (2000), Einseifen, wischen, abkassieren – Polnische Akkordarbeit im Ampeltakt (2001), Berlins Unterwelt (2002),
Risiko Bus – Polizeikontrollen vor der Klassenfahrt
(2003), Rettung in tierischer Not (2004), and Elefant,
Tiger & Co. (2005), among others, and the short Just a Smile
(Nur ein Laecheln, 2005).
Risiko Film art&entertainment GbR · Simon Bahlsen
Am Fuchspass 17 · 14169 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-84 71 64 65 · fax +49-30-84 71 64 67
email: office@risiko-film.com
2 · 2006
new german films
70
Scene from "Open" (photo © Preussen-Film Medien)
Open
Open is a short film about a long story: about the possibilities of love, three women, chances and the omnipotence of fear and threat.
Genre Psycho Thriller, Tragicomedy Category Short Year of
Production 2005 Director Charlotte Siebenrock Screenplay
Charlotte Siebenrock Director of Photography Peter Nix
Editor Peter Nix Music by Rainer Oleak Production Design
Anita Moeller Producer Renée Gundelach Production
Company Preussen-Film Medien/Teltow Principal Cast Judith
Sehrbrock, Karin Ugowski, Katharina Zapatka Casting Charlotte
Siebenrock Studio Shooting GrundyUFA TV Production/Berlin
Length 7 min, 190 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original
Version no dialogue Sound Technology Dolby DRS Festival
Screenings FICA 2006 (In Competition) With backing from
BKM
Charlotte Siebenrock was born in 1962 and studied Acting in
Berlin. Since 1984 she has worked both in front of and behind the
camera for Christoph Eichhorn, Christel Buschmann and Christoph
Schlingensief, who took her with him to the Volksbuehne in Berlin
as a guest actress. Between 1997 and 2000 she wrote and directed
fictional television shorts. In 2000 she became head of the casting
department at GrundyUFA TV Production. Open (2005) is her
first short film for the cinema.
Preussen-Film Medien GmbH · Renée Gundelach
Adolf-Martens-Strasse 2a · 12205 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-8 31 40 71 · fax +49-30-8 31 53 75
email: mail@preussenfilm.de · www.gundelach.de
2 · 2006
new german films
71
Scene from “Our Man in Nirvana” (photo © Jan Koester)
Our Man in Nirvana
John, a rock star, is playing a concert with his band. He
dies accidentally and gets to Nirvana. There he has to face
his wishes and deeds …
Jan Koester was born in 1978 in Berlin and studied at the
“Konrad Wolf ” Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam. His
films include: Veag (2001), Puls (2001), Muesli (2002), and his
graduation film Our Man in Nirvana (2006).
Genre Animation Category Short Year of Production 2006
Director Jan Koester Screenplay Jan Koester Director of
Photography Jan Koester Editor Jan Koester Music by
Benjamin Dickmann, Eat Static Production Design Jan Koester
Producers Holger Lochau, Ole Nicolaisen Production
Company Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen 'Konrad Wolf'
(HFF/B)/Potsdam-Babelsberg Length 11 min, 290 m Format 35
mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version no dialogue Sound
Technology Dolby Digital SR Festival Screenings Berlin
2006 (Short Competition), Dresden 2006 Awards Silver Bear
Berlin 2006, Golden Horseman: Best Animation & Minister of Art
Promotion Prize Dresden 2006 German Distributor Hochschule
fuer Film und Fernsehen 'Konrad Wolf' (HFF/B)/PotsdamBabelsberg
Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen 'Konrad Wolf' (HFF/B) · Cristina Marx
phone +49-3 31-6 20 25 64 · fax +49-3 31-6 20 25 69
2 · 2006
new german films
72
Scene from “PINGPONG” (photo © JUNIFILM GmbH)
PINGPONG
Paul, 16-years-old, turns up uninvited to visit his relatives.
Having recently lost his father, Paul is searching for an
ideal world, and he intrudes upon the seemingly ideal
family.
Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital Festival
Screenings Cannes 2006 (Critics’ Week) With backing
from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung
After rejecting him at first, Aunt Anna slowly drags him
onto her side. Paul is attracted to her. Only too late he
realizes that he has been drawn under control, and is now
at her mercy.
Matthias Luthardt was born in 1972 in Leiden/The
Netherlands and grew up in Germany. After his civil service, he
spent six months in Lyon, followed by studies in German, French
and Journalism in Tuebingen, Paris and Hamburg. From 1998-2005,
he studied at the ’Konrad Wolf ’ Academy of Film and Television in
Potsdam-Babelsberg. In 1999, he co-founded the production company “risingstar”. From 2001-2002, he participated in the
Masterclass of the German-French Film Academy in Ludwigsburg
and Paris. A selection of his films includes: Blindgaenger (short,
2001), von wegen wir (short, 2001), Abgefahren! (documentary, 2002), Menschen brauchen Hobbies (documentary, 2004), and PINGPONG (2006).
Paul’s hurt drives him into an act of desperation.
Production 2006 Director Matthias Luthardt Screenplay
Meike Hauck, Matthias Luthardt Director of Photography
Christian Marohl Editor Florian Miosge Music by Matthias
Petsche Production Design Friederike Hagen Producer
Niklas Baeumer Production Company JUNIFILM/Berlin, in coproduction with Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad
Wolf ’ (HFF/B)/Potsdam-Babelsberg, MDR/Leipzig, KOPPMEDIA/Halle Principal Cast Sebastian Urzendowsky, Marion
Mitterhammer, Clemens Berg, Falk Rockstroh Casting Karen
Wendland Length 89 min, 2,536 m Format HD Cam Blow-up
35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled
World Sales
Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins
phone +49-2 21-8 01 49 80 · fax +49-2 21-80 14 98 21
email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de · www.medialuna-entertainment.de
2 · 2006
new german films
73
Prinzessin
Scene from “Princess” (photo © Colonia Media)
PRINCESS
It's between Christmas and New Year's Eve in a typical
West German suburb: Christmas lights still adorn the dull
apartment blocks, cheap motels and discount markets as
premature fireworks echo throughout this industrial wasteland. Eighteen-year-old Katharina, who has re-settled from
Russia to Germany, spends her time with Yvonne and the
rest of the gang. Katharina and the other girls – desperate
Yvonne, freaky Jenny who is obsessed with all kinds of
sexual perversions, and 11-year-old overly sexualized
Mandy – roam around out in the cold. Tomorrow,
Yvonne, the gang's leader, has to go to prison for nearly
beating a young woman to death. The friends try to make
the best out of their last day together. But their efforts to
have fun fail amongst their bleak surroundings. At a police
station, Katharina takes the blame for Yvonne, who has
yet again beaten up another girl in a suburban train; it is
her last gift to Yvonne before she has to leave them. But
when Yvonne decides that she is not going to go to prison
after all, things start to fall apart. Their fagile system of
friendship breaks up – leaving everyone naked and
wounded. Just yesterday they would stand up for each
other, no matter what. When Katharina decides to try to
get close again to her strict and over-protective RussianGerman background, the others feel lost without her. In an
absurd effort, Yvonne steals her stepfather's gun to rob a
tanning studio. Running away from the police, she falls
into the arms of a rival gang and is terribly humiliated and
wounded. Yvonne pulls out the revolver and shoots one
of the other gang members. Katharina tries everything to
save her but she cannot protect Yvonne from what she
has done. Confronted by the police, Yvonne then threatens to shoot Katharina, her only friend, her love …
Genre Drama Category TV Movie Year of Production
2006 Director Birgit Grosskopf Screenplay Birgit Grosskopf,
Daniela Hilchenbach Director of Photography Kolja Raschke
Editor Lawrence Tooley Production Design Naomi Schenck
Producer Anke Scheib-Krause Production Company
Colonia Media Filmproduktion (Label 131)/Cologne Principal
Cast Irina Potapenko, Henriette Mueller, Desirée Jaeger, Amina
Schichterich Casting Susanne Ritter Length 81 min, 2,390 m
Format Super 16 mm Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original
Version German Subtitled Version English (Beta SP) Sound
Technology Dolby SR Festival Screenings Ophuels Festival
Saarbruecken 2006 Awards Award of the Saarland Minister
President 2006 With backing from Filmstiftung NRW
Birgit Grosskopf was born in 1972 in Cologne. After studying
Archaeology, she took up studies in Applied Theater and Film
Sciences in Reading/England, followed by further studies at the
German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. Since 1998, she has
been working as a script editor and translator for various film production companies. Her films include: Babys in Taschen (short,
1998), Der Pilot (short, 2000), Jungs zum Anfassen (short,
2001), Tabula Rasa (short, 2003) and Princess (Prinzessin,
2006).
Colonia Media Filmproduktions GmbH · Sonja Goslicki
Moltkestrasse 131 · 50674 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-9 51 40 40 · fax +49-2 21-9 51 40 44
email: coloniamedia@coloniamedia.de · www.coloniamedia.de
2 · 2006
new german films
74
Rotes Holz
Scene from “Red Wood” (photo © J. Juerges/Noirfilm)
RED WOOD
Emma receives a call from the police: her husband Edgar
has been in a horrible car accident and is in a coma. Emma
claims that the injured man cannot be her husband, even
though the doctors have identified him without a doubt.
Officer LeCouture tries to get to the bottom of Emma’s
secret.
Agnes Karow was born in 1974. She studied Media Arts from
1996-2006 at the Academy of Design in Karlsruhe. A selection of
her films includes: the shorts Ich bin klein (1998), fahles Blau
(1999), rot (2000), moment 4 (2001), Dantebad (2002), and
Red Wood (Rotes Holz, 2006).
Genre Drama Category Short Year of Production 2006
Director Agnes Karow Screenplay Agnes Karow Director
of Photography Juergen Juerges Editor Karl Riedl Production Design Annabel Lange, Katja Severin Producer Boris
Michalski Production Company Noirfilm/Karlsruhe, in co-production with SWR/Baden-Baden, ARTE/Strasbourg Principal
Cast Susanne Schaefer, Hannes Hellmann Length 12 min, 340 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology DTS With
backing from MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg German
Distributor Noirfilm/Karlsruhe
Noirfilm Filmproduktion Gmbh & Co. KG · Boris Michalski
Augartenstrasse 79 · 76137 Karlsruhe/Germany
phone +49-7 21-3 52 89 25 · fax +49-7 21-3 52 89 27
email: info@noirfilm.de · www.noirfilm.de
2 · 2006
new german films
75
Scene from ”Siegfried“ (photo © Constantin Film)
Siegfried
It was a dark time, when the river Rhine was red from the
blood of the innocent, a time of death, a time of endless
battles for the legendary treasure of the Nibelungen … a
time long forgotten.
But it was also a time of noble knights and true heroes.
The river Rhine has seen them all, back then and still
today legends tell us of their bravery, but one of them was
the bravest of them all …
He, whose return the oppressed long for and who is feared by all dark forces. The bravest of the fearless, the hero
of all heroes, Siegfried!
After centuries full of lies, it is time to finally tell his true
story …
Cast Tom Gerhardt, Dorkas Kiefer, Volker Buedts, Axel Neumann,
Jan Sosniok, Daniela Wutte, Michael Brandner, Mirko Nontschew,
Markus Maria Profitlich, Janine Kunze-Budach, Mirja Boes, Diana
Frank Casting Rita Serra-Roll, Sabine Schwedhelm Format 35
mm, color, cs Length 89 min, 2,438 m Original Version
German Dubbed Version English Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby SRD With backing from
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich
Sven Unterwaldt’s other films include Antrag vom Ex (TV,
1999), the TV series Switch (1997-1997), Anke (1999-2001),
Alles Atze (2002), and Berlin, Berlin, as well as the features
Wie die Karnickel (2002), Seven Dwarves (Sieben
Zwerge – Maenner allein im Wald, 2004), and Siegfried
(2005).
Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2005 Director Sven Unterwaldt Screenplay Tom
Gerhardt, Herman Weigel Director of Photography Peter
von Haller Editor Norbert Herzner Music by Karim Sebastian
Elias Production Design Thomas Freudenthal Producer
Herman Weigel Production Company Constantin Film/
Munich, in co-production with B.A. Produktion/Munich Principal
World Sales
Atlas International Film GmbH · Dieter Menz, Philipp Menz, Stefan Menz
Candidplatz 11 · 81543 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-2 10 97 50 · fax +49-89-22 43 32
email: mail@atlasfilm.com · www.atlasfilm.com
2 · 2006
new german films
76
Sommer ’04 an der Schlei
Scene from “Summer ’04”
(photo © Oe Filmproduktion GmbH/Romano Ruhnau)
SUMMER ’04
At 40, Miriam radiates serene beauty and tranquility, a
confidence and self-assurance as vast as the sea close to
her summer home. There are no taboos in the life she
shares with her partner André and their 15-year-old son
Nils; there is understanding. And if Nils invites his 12-yearold girlfriend Livia to spend the holidays with them, fine.
But when the brazenly sensual Livia begins flirting with an
older man, Bill, Miriam feels it is her responsibility to stop
the questionable relationship. But as she does so, it is she
herself who falls for the shy and charmingly insecure Bill.
Miriam forges ahead, seducing him, seeing him secretly.
But it is Livia that Bill loves, not Miriam. And suddenly the
endless horizons of her life vanish in a fog of jealousy and
rejection that leads to a tragic mistake with fatal consequences …
Starring Martina Gedeck (Mostly Martha, Elementary
Particles) and directed by two-time Grimme Award winner
Stefan Krohmer (They’ve Got Knut) comes a powerful
drama about the limits of guilt and love, a confrontation
with one’s personal moral conceptions.
Production 2006 Director Stefan Krohmer Screenplay
Daniel Nocke Director of Photography Patrick Orth Editor
Gisela Zick Production Design Silke Fischer Producer Katrin
Schloesser Production Company Oe Film/Berlin, in co-production with SWR/Baden-Baden, BR/Munich, WDR/Cologne,
ARTE/Strasbourg Principal Cast Martina Gedeck, Robert
Seeliger, Peter Davor, Svea Lohde, Lucas Kotaranin Casting Nina
Haun Length 97 min, 2,700 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Dolby DTS Festival Screenings Cannes 2006
(Directors’ Fortnight) With backing from MEDIA,
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM, FilmFoerderung Hamburg,
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Alamode
Film/Munich
Stefan Krohmer was born in 1971 in Balingen. He studied
Theater, Film and Television in Erlangen, followed by studies in
Directing at the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg in
Ludwigsburg. His films include: Blackfast (1992), Chubab
(1994), K.O. (documentary, 1995), Macht man eigentlich
anders (TV, 1998), his graduation film Barracuda Dancing
(1999), End of the Season (Ende der Saison, 2001),
Familienkreise (TV, 2003), They’ve Got Knut (Sie haben
Knut, 2003), and Summer ’04 (Sommer ’04 an der
Schlei, 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: bavaria.international@bavaria-film.de · www.bavaria-film-international.de
2 · 2006
new german films
77
Scene from “Sonja” (photo © Yoliswa Gaertig)
Sonja
It’s the time when everything is very fragile, unique and
can easily be wounded. Together with her girlfriends,
Sonja talks about sex like everyone else, but she tells her
best friend Julia that she has never slept with a boy – not
even with her boyfriend Anton. Sonja notices her new
feelings toward Julia, but thinks: you can’t be in love with
your best girlfriend. Sonja spends a weekend at her
father’s place at the Baltic Sea and after that nothing is like
it used to be. The summer is over.
Genre Coming-of-Age Story, Drama, Love Story Category
Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2006 Director Kirsi
Marie Liimatainen Screenplay Kirsi Marie Liimatainen Director
of Photography Yoliswa Gaertig Editor Ronny Bischoff
Music by Friedemann Matzeit Production Design Jenny
Roesler Producer Renate Ruemmler Production Company
Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf ’ (HFF/B)/
Potsdam-Babelsberg, in co-production with MDR/Leipzig
Principal Cast Sabrina Kruschwitz, Julia Kaufmann, Christian
Kirste, Nadja Engel, Joachim Laetsch, Jakob Kraze Casting Kirsi
Marie Liimatainen Length 73 min, 2,007 m Format 35 mm,
color, 1:1.66 Original Version German Subtitled Version
English Sound Technology Dolby Digital Festival
Screenings Ophuels Festival Saarbruecken 2006, Grenzland
Filmtage 2006, Filmkunstfest Schwerin 2006 (In Competition)
With backing from Jugend- und Familienstiftung des Landes
Berlin
Kirsi Marie Liimatainen was born in Finland in 1968 and has
a Masters Degree in Theater and Drama from the University of
Tampere. From 1991 to 1999 she worked as an actress in films, television and theater in Finland. From 1999-2006 she studied Directing
at the “Konrad Wolf ” Academy of Film and Television. In 2003/
2004 she participated the program “Résidence du Festival Cannes”
in Paris. Her films include: Modlicha ( 2001), The Time of the
Spring (Fruehlingshymne, 2002), and Sonja (2006).
Hochschule fuer Film und Fernsehen ’Konrad Wolf’ (HFF/B) · Cristina Marx
phone +49-3 31-6 20 25 64 · fax +49-3 31-6 20 25 69
2 · 2006
new german films
78
Der unbekannte Soldat
Scene from “The Unknown Soldier” (photo courtesy of Kinowelt)
THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER – WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, DAD?
The Wehrmacht-Exhibition, which was shown in eleven
major cities between 1999 and 2004 and was visited by
more than 500,000 attendants, challenged an established
social taboo. Up to that point, the image of the ’morally
proper’ German forces had been kept up in the public
debate in Germany. Suddenly, there were photos of
Wehrmacht officers killing civilians. The nation was severely shaken. Any participation of the German forces in
Nazi crimes was unbearable to the people in post-war
Germany, so it continued to be publicly denied.
Michael Verhoeven has traced some of the crimes the
Wehrmacht is alleged to have committed. And filmed in
the places of terror in the Ukraine and White Russia.
Genre History Category Documentary Cinema Year of
Production 2006 Director Michael Verhoeven Screenplay
Michael Verhoeven Directors of Photography Stefan
Schindler, Valentin Kurz, Knut Muhsik (BVK) Editor Gabriele
Kroeber (BFS) Music by Martin Grubinger, Mike Herting Producer Michael Verhoeven Production Company Sentana
Film/Munich, in co-production with EIKON Media/Berlin Length
97 min, 2,765 m Format DigiBeta Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version German/English/Ukrainian Subtitled
Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR With
backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, BKM, Filmstiftung
NRW German Distributor Kinowelt Filmverleih/Leipzig
Michael Verhoeven was born in Berlin in 1938 and studied
Medicine in Berlin and Munich. He completed the state medical
examination in 1966 and qualified as a doctor in 1969. He appeared
as an actor on the stage and screen from the early 1950s to the early
60s and has worked as a screenwriter, producer and director since
1967, having set up his own company, Sentana Filmproduktion, with
wife Senta Berger in 1965. He has received domestic and international awards for films like O.K. (1970), A Terrific Exit (Sonja
schafft die Wirklichkeit ab oder Ein ziemlich starker
Abgang, 1973), Sunday Children (Sonntagskinder, 1979),
and The White Rose (Die weisse Rose, 1982). His 1989 film
The Nasty Girl (Das schreckliche Maedchen) was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe and won a Silver
Bear in Berlin in 1990 as well as a BAFTA Award in 1992. After that,
he made My Mother’s Courage (Mutters Courage, 1995),
Zimmer mit Fruehstueck (TV, 1999), Enthuellung einer
Ehe (TV, 2000) which won two awards at the FIPA Biarritz in 2001,
and The Unknown Soldier – What Did You Do in the
War, Dad? (Der unbekannte Soldat, 2006).
World Sales
Kinowelt International GmbH · Stelios Ziannis
Karl-Tauchnitz-Strasse 10 · 04107 Leipzig/Germany
phone +49-3 41-35 59 60 · fax +49-3 41-35 59 61 19
email: sziannis@kinowelt.de · www.kinowelt-international.de
2 · 2006
new german films
79
Verfolgt
Scene from “Hounded” (photo © MMM Film Zimmermann/Stefan Falke)
HOUNDED
In an obsessive sexual encounter with a sixteen-year-old
boy, Elsa is exposed to the relentless revelation of her own
desires.
She lives with Raimar, the father of their daughter Daniela
in her daily routine until the day in which she meets Jan
and abandons herself to a sadomasochistic affair.
Production 2006 Director Angelina Maccarone Screenplay
Susanne Billig Director of Photography Bernd Meiners
Editor Bettina Boehler Music by Jakob Hansonis, Hartmut Ewert
Production Design Bernard Homann Producer Ulrike
Zimmermann Production Company MMM Film/Hamburg
Principal Cast Maren Kroymann, Kostja Ullmann, Markus
Voellenklee Length 85 min, 2,400 m Format 35 mm, b&w,
1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from
FilmFoerderung Hamburg, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film,
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA)
Angelina Maccarone was born in Cologne in 1965 and studied
German and American Literature and Film at the University of
Hamburg. She made her directorial debut in 1994 with the comingout comedy Kommt Mausi raus? (script/co-direction) and followed this with Everything Will Be Fine (Alles wird gut,
1997), which received Audience Awards in New York, Toronto and
Los Angeles, An Angel’s Revenge (Ein Engel schlaegt
zurueck, 1997), Unveiled (Fremde Haut, 2005) which
received numerous awards including the Hessischer Filmpreis for
Best Feature, Jury Grand Prize at the International LGBT Festival in
Montreal and the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature at the
Seattle L & G Film Festival, and her latest feature Hounded
(Verfolgt, 2006).
World Sales
Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins
phone +49-2 21-8 01 49 80 · fax +49-2 21-80 14 98 21
email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de · www.medialuna-entertainment.de
2 · 2006
new german films
80
Vier Minuten
Scene from “Four Minutes” (photo © Kordes & Kordes Film)
FOUR MINUTES
Schubert, Mozart, Chopin and a bunch of killers. That’s life
for 80-year-old piano teacher Traude Krueger. The old
lady has been teaching music at the women’s prison for
ages. But she has never met an inmate like Jenny: a killer
who beats everything around her to a pulp just to amuse
herself. However, she used to be a great talent. A piano
prodigy even. And beneath her fierce façade, she still is.
With Traude’s help, she could manage to win a prestigious
piano contest. But a contest is no challenge to those who
want their lives to stand still.
Genre Drama, Music Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2006 Director Chris Kraus Screenplay Chris
Kraus Director of Photography Judith Kaufmann Editor Uta
Schmidt Music by Annette Focks Production Design Silke
Buhr Producers Meike Kordes, Alexandra Kordes Production
Company Kordes & Kordes Film/Berlin, in co-production with
Journal Film Klaus Volkenborn/Berlin Principal Cast Monica
Bleibtreu, Hannah Herzsprung, Sven Pippig, Richy Mueller, Jasmin
Tabatabai, Stefan Kurt, Vadim Glowna, Nadja Uhl, Peter Davor,
Dietrich Hollinderbaeumer Casting Nina Haun Length 112 min,
3,065 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version
German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology DTS
Stereo With backing from MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg, BKM,
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA)
Chris Kraus was born in 1963 in Goettingen. After employment
as a journalist and illustrator he went on to study at the German
Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin. As an author, he has
written numerous screenplays, e.g. for Rosa von Praunheim’s The
Einstein of Sex (Der Einstein des Sex), Detlev Buck’s A Bundle of Joy
(Liebesluder), and OSCAR-winner Pepe Danquart’s C(r)ook (Basta.
Rotwein oder tot sein). He also works as a novelist and teaches
Dramaturgy at various film academies. Shattered Glass
(Scherbentanz, 2002) marked his feature debut, winning ten
national and international awards, including two Bavarian Film
Awards, the Hypo-Bank Young Director’s Award, the German Camera
Award and a Golden Camera Award for lead actor Juergen Vogel.
Four Minutes (Vier Minuten, 2006) is his second feature film.
World Sales
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88
2 · 2006
new german films
81
Die Wilden Kerle 3
Scene from “The Wild Soccer Bunch 3” (photo © Erika Hauri/SamFilm)
THE WILD SOCCER BUNCH 3
“When the soccer match between the national team and
the Wild Soccer Bunch ends up rock bottom 25:1, the
dejected Wild Soccer Bunch splits up.
All of a sudden Fabi comes up with a new team: the
Beastly Beasts. And they contest the Bunch as the world’s
wildest soccer team ever. The Wild Soccer Bunch is up
against their greatest challenge so far, an opponent more
devious, more dangerous, more diabolical, more than
even they had ever imagined … girls!!! And if it weren’t
for Nerv, their greatest fan, the wildest of all showdowns
would not be happening. But watch out Beastly Beasts,
The Wild Soccer Bunch is back and you’d better believe it:
they’re wild, wild, wild!
Genre Family Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2006 Director Joachim Masannek Screenplay
Joachim Masannek Director of Photography Sonja Rom
Editor Dunja Campregher Music by Andrej Melita, Peter Horn
Production Design Manfred Doering, Maximilian Lange
Producers Ewa Karlstroem, Andreas Ulmke-Smeaton
Production Company SamFilm/Munich Principal Cast Jimi
Blue Ochsenknecht, Sarah Kim Gries, Constantin Gastmann, Raban
Bieling, Wilson Gonzalez Ochsenknecht, Nick Reimann, Marion
Wessel, Konrad Baumann, Kevin Iannotta, Leon Wessel-Masannek,
Claudia Michelsen, Uwe Ochsenknecht Length 95 min, 2,612 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German
Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital
With backing from Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), BKM,
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Bayerischer Bankenfonds German
Distributor Buena Vista International (Germany)/Munich
Joachim Masannek was born in 1960 in Hamm and studied
German, Philosophy, and Film in Munich. Since 1985, he has worked
as a production designer, lighting technician, cameraman and author.
After working on various animation projects, he wrote the children’s
book Die Wilden Fussballkerle based on the soccer team he founded
in Munich. His films include: Bomber (short, 1992), In Liebe,
Catherine (short, 1992), Der Baer (commercial, 1992), and
The Wild Soccer Bunch 1, 2, and 3 (Die Wilden Kerle 1,
2, and 3, 2004/2005/2006).
World Sales
phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
2 · 2006
new german films
82
Winterreise
Scene from "Winter Journey" (photo © d.i.e. film gmbh/Marco Nagel)
WINTER JOURNEY
Franz Brenninger (60) has gone far in his life. He runs his
own ironware-trade, lives in a nice home with his wife
Martha (60), has two grown kids. But the impulsive
Brenninger rubs everyone the wrong way: singing too loud
during church service. Going to the brothel. Neglecting his
sick and helpless wife. Squandering money although his
company is practically broke. Brenninger is manic-depressive, say the doctors. All doctors are assholes, says
Brenninger. He gets involved in a supposed lucrative deal
with Kenya. The correspondence from Africa is translated
by Leyla (18). Brenninger transfers his last money to an
African bank account instead of spending it for the cost of
his wife’s eye operation. After a while he recognizes that
the whole thing is a rip off, the money lost. The German
police are powerless. Absolutely determined to get his
money back, he and Leyla – as his interpreter – go to
Nairobi. In the shimmering, colorful world of Eastern
Africa we suddenly find a totally different, actually fascinating Brenninger. When he plays and sings Schubert’s
Winter Journey, full of devotion, we find out that
Brenninger actually wanted to become a singer. A secret
lifetime dream never fulfilled. But Brenninger has now
nothing left to lose. It’s obvious that he will not leave
Africa any more. His only aim is to have his family well
provided for at home. Together with Leyla, he sets out on
his last journey from which he will never return.
Production 2005 Director Hans Steinbichler Screenplay
Martin Rauhaus Director of Photography Bella Halben
Editor Anne Loewer Music by Antoni Lazarkiewicz
Producers Dieter Ulrich Aselmann, Robert Marciniak
Production Company d.i.e. film/Munich, in co-production
with WEGA-Film/Vienna, Dresbach-Schaefer-Quabeck/Munich,
BR/Munich, ARTE/Strasbourg Principal Cast Josef Bierbichler,
Sibel Kekilli, Hanna Schygulla Casting Nessie Nesslauer Length
95 min, 2,768 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version
German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology
Dolby SR With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,
Filmfoerderungsanstalt (FFA), Oesterreichisches Filminstitut, BKM
German Distributor X Verleih/Berlin
Hans Steinbichler was born in 1969 in Solothurn/Switzerland.
He studied Law in Passau and Film at the Academy of Television &
Film (HFF/M) in Munich. His films include: Abstieg (short, 1996),
Mono (short, 1998), Verspiegelte Zeit – Erinnerungen
von Angelika Schrobsdorff (documentary, 1999), Die
Germaniker – Roemisch-Deutsch Karrieren (documentary, 2000), Hierankl (2003), Der Moralist – Vittorio
Hoesle entdeckt Amerika (documentary, 2003), Inseln im
Chiemsee (documentary, 2003), and Winter Journey
(Winterreise, 2005).
World Sales
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80 · fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88
2 · 2006
new german films
83
&ACE4(%4(2%%).6%34)'!4/23
%ASTER
3()0n3TUDIO(AMBURG)NTERNATIONAL0RODUCTIONDEVELOPSPRODUCES
ANDlNANCES%NGLISHLANGUAGEFEATURElLMSFORTHEWORLDMARKET
7ITHlLMSLIKE',//-935.$!9-ARGARETHEVON4ROTTAS2/3%.
342!33%#HRISTOPH3CHREWES4(%#/.#,!6%AND4(%4(2%%
).6%34)'!4/23DIRECTEDBY/SCARNOMINATEDDIRECTOR&LORIAN"AX
MEYER3()0n3TUDIO(AMBURG)NTERNATIONAL0RODUCTIONISONE
OF'ERMANYSTOPSUPPLIERSOFINTERNATIONALFEATURElLMS
)NADDITIONlLMSLIKE2%3)$%.4%6),ANDTHE/SCARNOMINATED
-%229#(2)34-!3WERESHOTONOURlRSTCLASSSTAGESIN"ERLINAND
(AMBURG3()0ALSOPERFORMEDTHEPRODUCTIONSERVICESFORTHE*ODIE
&OSTERSTARRER&,)'(40,!.
#URRENTLYSELLINGIN#ANNESISTHEPAPALDRAMA4(%#/.#,!6%THE
ACOMPELLINGBEHINDTHESCENESDRAMAFOLLOWINGTHEEVENTSOFTHE
FAMOUSCONCLAVEFOLLOWINGTHEDEATHOFTHElRST"ORGIAPOPE
!LSOSELLINGIN#ANNESANDCURRENTLYINPOSTPRODUCTIONISTHElRST
INSTALMENTOFOURFAMILYENTERTAINMENTFRANCHISE4(%4(2%%
).6%34)'!4/23'ERMANSPEAKINGRIGHTSHAVEBEENSOLDTO
$ISNEYWORLDSALESAREHANDLEDBY"ETA#INEMA
3TUDIO(AMBURG)NTERNATIONAL0RODUCTION'MB(*ENFELDER!LLEE(AMBURG
4ELn%-AILPRODUKTION STUDIOHAMBURGDEWWWSTUDIOHAMBURGPRODUKTIONDE
*.#8VccZh;^ab;Zhi^kVa#
E>C<EDC<WnBVii]^VhAji]VgYi#
lll#egZhh#Wbl\gdje#Xdb
HeZX^VaXdbea^bZcihidi]ZiZVbd[?JC>;>AB[dgi]ZhXgZZc^c\d[
E>C<EDC<^ci]ZhZXi^dcÌHZbV^cZ>ciZgcVi^dcVaZYZaV8g^i^fjZ¼#
GERMAN FILMS
SHAREHOLDERS & SUPPORTERS
Arbeitsgemeinschaft
Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V.
Association of New Feature Film Producers
Muenchner Freiheit 20, 80802 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-2 71 74 30, fax +49-89-2 71 97 28
email: mail@ag-spielfilm.de, www.ag-spielfilm.de
Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung
fuer Kultur und Medien
Referat K 35, Europahaus, Stresemannstrasse 94,
10963 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-18 88-6 81 49 29, fax +49-18 88-68 15 49 29
email: Ulrike.Schauz@bkm.bmi.bund.de
Filmfoerderungsanstalt
German Federal Film Board
Grosse Praesidentenstrasse 9, 10178 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-27 57 70, fax +49-30-27 57 71 11
email: presse@ffa.de, www.ffa.de
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern
Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Medien
in Bayern mbH
Sonnenstrasse 21, 80331 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-54 46 02-0, fax +49-89-54 46 02 21
email: filmfoerderung@fff-bayern.de, www.fff-bayern.de
Verband Deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE)
Association of German Film Exporters
Tegernseer Landstrasse 75, 81539 Munich/Germany
phone +49- 89-6 42 49 70, fax +49-89-6 92 09 10
email: mail@vdfe.de, www.vdfe.de
FilmFoerderung Hamburg GmbH
Friedensallee 14–16, 22765 Hamburg/Germany
phone +49-40-39 83 70, fax +49-40-3 98 37 10
email: filmfoerderung@ffhh.de, www.ffhh.de
Verband Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V.
Association of German Feature Film Producers
Beichstrasse 8, 80802 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-39 11 23, fax +49-89-33 74 32
Filmstiftung NRW GmbH
Kaistrasse 14, 40221 Duesseldorf/Germany
phone +49-2 11-93 05 00, fax +49-2 11-93 05 05
email: info@filmstiftung.de, www.filmstiftung.de
Bundesverband Deutscher Fernsehproduzenten e.V.
Association of German Television Producers
Brienner Strasse 26, 80333 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-28 62 83 85, fax +49-89-28 62 82 47
email: post@tv-produzenten.de, www.tv-produzenten.de
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH
August-Bebel-Strasse 26-53, 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germany
phone +49-3 31-74 38 70, fax +49-3 31-7 43 87 99
email: info@medienboard.de, www.medienboard.de
Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek
Potsdamer Strasse 2, 10785 Berlin/Germany
phone +49-30-30 09 03-0, fax +49-30-30 09 03-13
email: info@filmmuseum-berlin.de, www.filmmuseum-berlin.de
Medien- und Filmgesellschaft
Baden-Wuerttemberg mbH
Breitscheidstrasse 4, 70174 Stuttgart/Germany
phone +49-7 11-90 71 54 00, fax +49-7 11-90 71 54 50
email: filmfoerderung@mfg.de, www.mfg.de/film
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm e.V.
German Documentary Association
Schweizer Strasse 6, 60594 Frankfurt am Main/Germany
phone +49-69-62 37 00, fax +49-61 42-96 64 24
email: agdok@agdok.de, www.agdok.de
Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung GmbH
Hainstrasse 17-19, 04109 Leipzig/Germany
phone +49-3 41-26 98 70, fax +49-3 41-2 69 87 65
email: info@mdm-online.de, www.mdm-online.de
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kurzfilm e.V.
German Short Film Association
Kamenzer Strasse 60, 01099 Dresden/Germany
phone +49-3 51-4 04 55 75, fax +49-3 51-4 04 55 76
email: info@ag-kurzfilm.de, www.ag-kurzfilm.de
nordmedia – Die Mediengesellschaft
Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH
Expo Plaza 1, 30539 Hanover/Germany
phone +49-5 11-1 23 45 60, fax +49-5 11-12 34 56 29
email: info@nordmedia.de, www.nordmedia.de
2 · 2006
shareholders & supporters
86
NEXT GENERATION 2006
A Selection of Short Films by Students of German Film Schools
VGF INFORMATION
REMUNERATION IN GERMANY
FOR
PRIVATE COPYING – RENTAL OF VIDEOGRAMS – CABLE RETRANSMISSION
VGF, a collecting society under German law, was founded in 1981 when private homecopying of TV-programs (in
particular feature films) by means of videorecording equipment started to become commercially important.
Since 1982 VGF collects video levy monies due to German and foreign film producers under Art. 54 of the German Copyright
Act (for blank cassettes and VCR’s) and distributes them to the respective rightsowners. The German
Collecting Societies Act obliges VGF to make sure that all authors/rightsowners and owners of neighbouring rights of
motion pictures, including foreign rightsowners who enjoy national treatment under the international copyright
conventions, receive an equitable share of the monies collected for all rightsowners of programs broadcasted by
German TV-Stations. Since it is virtually impossible for the individual rightsowners to control the use of the property
and to make claims individually, Art. 54 provides that the respective rights must be administered collectively and
claims can be made through a collecting society only.
VGF now administers a great number of film rights of important film and TV producers from USA, Great Britain,
Germany and other countries who have joined VGF as members. Since VGF’s activities come under the supervision of
the German Patent Office, it is safeguarded that a fair devision of monies among all rightsowners concerned takes place
and that producers receive an equitable share of the video levy revenues in Germany.
The following rights/claims, which can only be brought forward through a collecting society, presently
administered by VGF are:
Art. 54 German Copyright Act – Video Levy
Art. 54 of the German Copyright Act provides a remuneration for private copying of TV programs. As the rightowner
cannot prevent private copying, manufacturers and importers of blank cassettes and VCR’s are charged with a levy.
The claim can be made by a collecting society only (Art. 54 Sec. 6.1 German Copyright Act). VGF as a trustee
administers the rights for film and TV producers and distributes the respective amounts to the rightsowners.
Licensing of television rights does not imply transfer of the above mentioned right.
Art. 27 German Copyright Act – Rental Levy
Art. 27 of the German Copyright Act entitles rightsowners to a supplementary remuneration for the rental and lending
of videograms by video-retailers. The money must be paid by the video-retailer. It is provided by law (Art. 27 Sec.3)
that claims can be made by collecting societies only.
Art. 20 b German Copyright Act – Cable Retransmission Fee
Rightowners whose programs are broadcast by German TV stations and retransmitted via cable are also entitled to a
remuneration for such cable retransmission. VGF is also active in collecting this fee. Administration of the above
mentioned fees by VGF incurrs no costs for the rightsowners. If your company is interested in collecting these remunerations,
please contact VGF for more detailed information.
VGF Verwertungsgesellschaft für Nutzungsrechte an Filmwerken mbH
Neue Schönhauser Straße 10, D-10178 Berlin
Phone: 0049-30-2 79 07 39-46 Fax: 0049-30-2 79 07 39 48
post@vgf.de
Beichstraße 8, D-80802 München
Phone: 0049-89-39 14 25 Fax: 0049-89-3 40 12 91
ASSOCIATION OF GERMAN FILM EXPORTERS
Verband deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE) · please contact Lothar Wedel
Tegernseer Landstrasse 75 · 81539 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-6 42 49 70 · fax +49-89-6 92 09 10 · email: mail@vdfe.de · www.vdfe.de
ARRI Media Worldsales
Cine-International Filmvertrieb
GmbH & Co. KG
Road Sales GmbH
Mediadistribution
please contact Lilli Tyc-Holm, Susanne Groh
please contact Frank Graf
Leopoldstrasse 18
80802 Munich/Germany
phone +49-89-39 10 25
fax +49-89-33 10 89
email: email@cine-international.de
www.cine-international.de
Chausseestrasse 8
phone +49-30-28 52 79 34
fax +49-30-28 52 79 39
email: graf@road-movies.de
www.road-movies.de
Atlas International
Film GmbH
Exportfilm Bischoff & Co. GmbH
SOLA Media GmbH
please contact
Dieter Menz, Philipp Menz
please contact Jochem Strate,
Philip Evenkamp
please contact Solveig Langeland
Candidplatz 11
phone +49-89-21 09 75-0
fax +49-89-22 43 32
email: mail@atlasfilm.com
www.atlasfilm.com
Isabellastrasse 20
phone +49-89-2 72 93 60
fax +49-89-27 29 36 36
email: exportfilms@exportfilm.de
www.exportfilm.de
ATRIX Films GmbH
german united distributors
Programmvertrieb GmbH
please contact Antonio Exacoustos
Tuerkenstrasse 89
phone +49-89-38 09 12 88
fax +49-89-38 09 16 19
email: aexacoustos@arri.de
www.arri-mediaworldsales.de
Osumstrasse 17
70599 Stuttgart/Germany
phone +49-7 11-4 79 36 66
fax +49-7 11-4 79 26 58
email: post@sola-media.net
www.sola-media.net
TELEPOOL GmbH
please contact Beatrix Wesle,
Solveig Langeland
Nymphenburger Strasse 79
phone +49-89-64 28 26 11
fax +49-89-64 95 73 49
email: atrixfilms@gmx.net
www.atrix-films.com
please contact Wolfram Skowronnek
Sonnenstrasse 21
phone +49-89-55 87 60
fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
email: cinepool@telepool.de
www.telepool.de
please contact Silke Spahr
Breite Strasse 48-50
50667 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-92 06 90
fax +49-2 21-9 20 69 69
email: silke.spahr@germanunited.com
Transit Film GmbH
Bavaria Film International
Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH
Kinowelt International GmbH
Futura Film Weltvertrieb
im Filmverlag der Autoren GmbH
please contact Thorsten Schaumann
please contact Stelios Ziannis, Anja Uecker
Bavariafilmplatz 8
82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-64 99 26 86
fax +49-89-64 99 37 20
email: bavaria.international@bavaria-film.de
www.bavaria-film-international.de
Karl-Tauchnitz-Strasse 10
04107 Leipzig/Germany
phone +49-3 41-35 59 60
fax +49-3 41-35 59 61 19
email: sziannis@kinowelt.de,
auecker@kinowelt.de
www.kinowelt-international.de
Beta Cinema
Dept. of Beta Film GmbH
please contact Andreas Rothbauer
Gruenwalder Weg 28d
82041 Oberhaching/Germany
phone +49-89-67 34 69 80
fax +49-89-6 73 46 98 88
www.betacinema.com
cine aktuell
Filmgesellschaft mbH
please contact Loy W. Arnold, Mark Gruenthal
Dachauer Strasse 35
phone +49-89-59 98 85-0
fax +49-89-59 98 85-20
email: loy.arnold@transitfilm.de,
mark.gruenthal@transitfilm.de
www.transitfilm.de
uni media film gmbh
please contact Irene Vogt, Michael Waldleitner
Media Luna Entertainment
GmbH & Co.KG
please contact Ida Martins
Hochstadenstrasse 1-3
50674 Cologne/Germany
phone +49-2 21-8 01 49 80
fax +49-2 21-80 14 98 21
email: info@medialuna-entertainment.de
www.medialuna-entertainment.de
Bavariafilmplatz 7
82031 Geiselgasteig/Germany
phone +49-89-59 58 46
fax +49-89-54 50 70 52
email: info@unimediafilm.com
Progress Film-Verleih GmbH
please contact Ralf Faust, Axel Schaarschmidt please contact Christel Jansen
Werdenfelsstrasse 81
phone +49-89-7 41 34 30
fax +49-89-74 13 43 16
email: mail@cine-aktuell.de
www.cine-aktuell.de
2 · 2006
Immanuelkirchstrasse 14
phone +49-30-24 00 32 25
fax +49-30-24 00 32 22
email: c.jansen@progress-film.de
www.progress-film.de
association of german film exporters
89
GERMAN FILMS: A PROFILE
German Films Service + Marketing is the national information and advisory center for the promotion of German films worldwide. It was established in 1954 under the name Export-Union of
German Cinema as the umbrella association for the Association of
German Feature Film Producers, since 1966 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.
In 2004, new shareholders came on board the Export-Union which
from then on continued operations under its present name: German
Films Service + Marketing GmbH.
German Films’ range of activities includes:
Close cooperation with major international film festivals, including Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Locarno, San
Sebastian, Montreal, San Francisco, Karlovy Vary, Moscow,
Tribeca, Shanghai, Rotterdam, Sydney, Goteborg, Warsaw,
Thessaloniki, and Turin, among others
Organization of umbrella stands for German sales companies
and producers at international television and film markets
Shareholders are the Association of German Feature Film
Producers, the Association of New German Feature Film Producers,
the Association of German Film Exporters, the German Federal Film
Board (FFA), the Association of German Television Producers, the
Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, the German Documentary
Association, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern and Filmstiftung NRW representing the seven main regional film funds, and the German Short
Film Association.
Staging of ”Festivals of German Films“ worldwide (Madrid,
Paris, London, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Melbourne,
Buenos Aires, Budapest, Moscow, Copenhagen, Stockholm,
Tokyo)
Members of the advisory board are: Alfred Huermer (chairman),
Peter Dinges, Antonio Exacoustos, Ulrike Schauz, Michael SchmidOspach, and Michael Weber.
Providing advice and information for German filmmakers and
press on international festivals, conditions of participation, and
German films being shown
German Films itself has 13 permanent members of staff:
Christian Dorsch, managing director
Mariette Rissenbeek, public relations/deputy managing director
Petra Bader, office manager
Kim Behrendt, PR assistant
Sandra Buchta, project coordinator/documentary film
Myriam Gauff, project coordinator
Christine Harrasser, assistant to the managing director
Angela Hawkins, publications & website editor
Nicole Kaufmann, project coordinator
Michaela Kowal, accounts
Martin Scheuring, project coordinator/short film
Konstanze Welz, project coordinator/television
Stephanie Wimmer, project coordinator/distribution support
Organization of the annual NEXT GENERATION short film
program, which presents a selection of shorts by students of
German film schools and is premiered every year at Cannes
In addition, German Films has nine foreign representatives in eight
countries.
German Films’ budget of presently €5.5 million comes from film
export levies, the office of the Federal Government Commissioner
for Culture and the Media, and the FFA. The seven main regional film
funds (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFoerderung Hamburg,
Filmstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MFG BadenWuerttemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung, and Nordmedia)
make a financial contribution – currently amounting to €300,000 –
towards the work of German Films.
German Films is a founding member of the European Film Promotion,
a network of 26 European film organizations (including Unifrance,
Swiss Films, Austrian Film Commission, Holland Film, among others)
with similar responsibilities to those of German Films. The organization, with its headquarters in Hamburg, aims to develop and realize
joint projects for the presentation of European films on an international level.
2 · 2006
Providing advice and information for representatives of the
international press and buyers from the fields of cinema, video,
and television
Publication of informational literature about current German
films and the German film industry (German Films Quarterly and
German Films Yearbook), as well as international market analyses and special festival brochures
An Internet website (www.german-films.de) offering information about new German films, a film archive, as well as information and links to German and international film festivals
and institutions
Organization of the selection procedure for the German entry
for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film
Collaboration with Deutsche Welle’s DW-TV KINO program
which features the latest German film releases and international productions in Germany
Organization of the ”Munich Previews“ geared toward
European arthouse distributors and buyers of German films
Selective financial support for the foreign releases of German
films
On behalf of the association Rendez-vous franco-allemands du
cinéma, organization with Unifrance of the annual GermanFrench film meeting
In association and cooperation with its shareholders, German Films
works to promote feature, documentary, television and short films.
german films: a profile
90
FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES
Argentina
Gustav Wilhelmi
Ayacucho 495, 2º ”3“
C1026AAA Buenos Aires/Argentina
phone +54 -11- 49 52 15 37
phone/fax +54 -11- 49 51 19 10
email: wilhelmi@german-films.de
Eastern Europe
Simone Baumann
L.E. Vision Film- und
Fernsehproduktion GmbH
Koernerstrasse 56
04107 Leipzig/Germany
phone +49-3 41-96 36 80
fax +49-3 41-9 63 68 44
email: baumann@german-films.de
France
Cristina Hoffman
33, rue L. Gaillet
94250 Gentilly/France
phone +33-1-40 41 08 33
fax +33-1-49 86 44 18
email: hoffman@german-films.de
Italy
Alessia Ratzenberger
Angeli Movie Service
Piazza San Bernardo 108a
00187 Rome/Italy
phone +39-06-48 90 22 30
fax +39-06-4 88 57 97
email: ratzenberger@german-films.de
United Kingdom
Iris Ordonez
Top Floor
113-117 Charing Cross Road
London WC2H ODT/Great Britain
phone +44-20-74 37 20 47
email: ordonez@german-films.de
USA/East Coast & Canada
Oliver Mahrdt
c/o Hanns Wolters International Inc.
211 E 43rd Street, #505
New York, NY 10017/USA
phone +1-2 12-7 14 01 00
fax +1-2 12-6 43 14 12
email: mahrdt@german-films.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: suzuki@german-films.de
Spain
Stefan Schmitz
C/ Atocha 43, bajo 1a
28012 Madrid/Spain
phone +34-91-3 66 43 64
fax +34-91-3 65 93 01
email: schmitz@german-films.de
USA/West Coast
Corina Danckwerts
Capture Film International, LLC
1726 N. Whitley Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90028/USA
phone +1-3 23-9 62 67 10
fax +1-3 23-9 62 67 22
email: danckwerts@german-films.de
IMPRINT
Editor
published by:
German Films
Service + Marketing GmbH
Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse 16
phone +49-89-5 99 78 70
fax +49-89-59 97 87 30
email: info@german-films.de
www.german-films.de
Production Reports
Contributors for this issue
Translations
Angela Hawkins
Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley
Martin Blaney, Joerg Hafkemeyer, Birgit Glombitza,
Ruediger Suchsland
Lucinda Rennison
Design Group
triptychon corporate communications gmbh,
Munich/Germany
Art Direction
Werner Schauer
ISSN 1614-6387
Credits are not contractual for any
of the films mentioned in this publication.
© German Films Service + Marketing GmbH
Printing Office
Financed by
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
2 · 2006
the office of the Federal Government Commissioner
for Culture and the Media
Printed on ecological, unchlorinated paper.
Cover Photo
ESTA DRUCK GMBH,
Obermuehlstrasse 90, 82398 Polling/Germany
Scene from “Summer ’04”
(photo © Oe Filmproduktion GmbH)
All photos courtesy of the respective producers and
world sales agents. “Love in Concrete” photo courtesy
of ZDF/Cameo Film, “Straehl” photo courtesy of
ZDF/Alexander Kornhuber.
foreign representatives · imprint
91
CA
6
0
20
ES
N
N
GERMAN FILMS
AT C A N N E S 2 0 0 6
INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE · GERMAN PAVILION
GERMAN FILMS · PHONE 04-93 38 37 40 · FAX 04-93 38 00 02
FOCUS GERMANY · PHONE 04-92 59 02 23 · FAX 04-92 59 02 24

Quarterly 2 · 2006

Transcription

Similar documents

Naqsh Short Films

Film quiz 12 May 2011

THE CREATION OF MEANING - Press Kit

Bandyke Moving Pictures

Oct 2013 reg layout

Join us for a free screening of First Generation —

Who We Are: FILMCLUB is a free educational program that provides

Call for entries 2016

Page 19 - Films - Magazine for the Arts

impression of a war - Camilo Restrepo Films