Talent Agencies in Germany

1/2001
At Berlin in Competition
MY SWEET HOME
by Filippos Tsitos
Special Report
TALENT MADE
IN GERMANY
BETWEEN THE PRIVATE
AND THE POLITICAL
Portrait of
Margarethe von Trotta
Scene from “MY SWEET HOME“
Kino
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www.german-cinema.de · email: export-union@german-cinema.de
2001
K I N O
6
1/ 2 0 01
33 Suck My Dick
Talent Made In Germany
Oskar Roehler
34 Der Tanz mit dem Teufel –
Die Entführung des Richard Oetker
Talent Agencies in Germany
13
On People And The Times
Peter Keglevic
Portrait of directors Barbara and Winfried Junge
34 A Woman And A Half – Hildegard Knef
Clarissa Ruge
14 Between The Private And
The Political
Portrait of director Margarethe von Trotta
17
Personal Contacts Count
World Sales Portrait: Exportfilm Bischoff
18
”MEDIA LUNA, That’s My Passion!“
World Sales Portrait: Media Luna, Ida Martins
36
German Classics
36 Lissy
Konrad Wolf
37 Metropolis
20
ODEON FILM: The Makings Of
An International Player
Fritz Lang
38 Tag der Idioten
DAY O F T H E I D I OT S
Producer’s Portrait: Odeon Film
Werner Schroeter
22
KINO news
26
In Production
40
40 100 Pro
26 Anam – Meine Mutter
Simon Verhoeven
Buket Alakus
41 Als Großvater Rita Hayworth liebte
26 Auf den Flüssen
W H E N G R A N D PA LOV E D R I TA H AY WO RT H
Gordian Maugg
27 Auf Herz und Nieren
Iva Švarcová
42 BERLIN – Du Fremde, Du Schöne
Thomas Jahn
28 Caroline
Ein Zyklus in sieben Filmen 1995-2001
B E R L I N – YO U S T R A N G E R , YO U B E AU T Y
Hannu Salonen
29 Flüchtige Bekannte
A Cycle In Seven Films 1995-2001
Manfred Wilhelms
Michael Baumann
30 Heaven
Tom Tykwer
30 Jud Süß – Ein Film als Verbrechen?
Horst Königstein
31 Love The Hard Way
Peter Sehr
32 Ramstein –
Das durchstoßene Herz
32 Rave Macbeth
Klaus Knoesel
New German Films
RLI N
AT B E
RAMA
PA N O
I LM
I NG F
OPE N
N)
RLI N
TITIO
E
P
AT B E
M
O
OF C
(OUT
43 Berlin is in Germany
Hannes Stöhr
44 D u e l l – Enemy At The Gates
Jean-Jacques Annaud
H
C O N T E N T S
60 Nancy und Frank
NA N CY A N D F R A N K
Wolf Gremm
RLI N
AT B E
M
FORU
45 Eisenstein
61 Pinky und der Millionenmops
P I N KY A N D T H E M I L L I O N - P U G
Renny Bartlett
46 Emil und die Detektive
E M I L A N D T H E D E T E CT I V E S
Stefan Lukschy
62 planet alex
Uli M Schüppel
Franziska Buch
47 Erotic Tales: Angela
63 Der schöne Tag
Amos Kollek
A F I N E DAY
Erotic Tales: Powers –
Magische Kräfte
Thomas Arslan
RLI N
AT B E
M
FORU
64 Stiller Sturm
P OW E R S
S I L E N T S TO R M
Petr Zelenka
Tomasz Thomson
48 Feindliche Übernahme –
althan.com
65 Tanz mit dem Tod –
Der Ufa-Star Sybille Schmitz
DA N C E W I T H D E AT H –
Carl Schenkel
49 Girl
T H E U FA S TA R S Y B I L L E S C H M I T Z
Piers Ashworth
Achim Podak
50 HAWAiiAN GARDENS
Percy Adlon
66 Venus Talking
N
RLI N
AT B E
I LM S
AN F
M
R
E
EW G
Rudolf Thome
51 Invincible
67 Weiser
Werner Herzog
Wojciech Marczewski
52 Jetzt oder Nie
RLI N
AT B E
ITION
M PET
O
C
N
I
68 Das weisse Rauschen
TH E WH ITE NOI S E
Lars Büchel
53 Julietta
Johann Weingartner
69 www.vermisst-auf-dem-Oktoberfest.de
Christoph Stark
54 Küss Mich Frosch
W W W. M I S S I N G - AT-T H E - O KTO B E R F E S T. D E
K I S S M E F RO G
Charly Weller
Dagmar Hirtz
55 Lieber Fidel –
Maritas Geschichte
D E A R F I D E L – M A R I TA’ S S TO RY
Wilfried Huismann
56 Mein langsames Leben
RLI N
AT B E
M
FORU
PA S S I N G S U M M E R
Angela Schanelec
57 Mit IKEA nach Moskau
TO M O S C OW W I T H I K E A
Michael Chauvistré
58 Mr. Boogie
Vesna Jovanoska
59 My Sweet Home
Filippos Tsitos
RLI N
AT B E
ITION
M PET
I N CO
70 Foreign Representatives
74 Film-Exporters
78 Imprint
A g e n c i e s
i n
G e r m a n y
xxxxxxx
T a l e n t
Heike Makatsch, Moritz Bleibtreu, Nina Hoss
Compared to other countries, the German talent agent scene as
it now exists is quite a young one, since until April 1994, the few
artists’ agencies which had survived from before the Second
World War had operated with a license on behalf of the Federal
Employment Office and they were the only ones allowed to
represent actors.
”The working conditions were very difficult“, recalls Sigrid
Narjes, who established her Above The Line agency initially
on an ”illegal“ basis at the end of the 1980s and then took legal
proceedings against the Federal Republic of Germany to bring
about a reform of the regulations. ”Everything from the agency
notepaper to the sign outside had to be approved by the employment authorities“.
However, 1994 then finally saw a reform which led to the 25-odd
agencies under license being joined by a whole new generation of
talent agents as companies sprung up all over Germany. According
to some sources, the number of agencies now exceeds 250 although nobody really knows how many talent agents are now in
business.
”There has been a real proliferation in agencies“, explains
Mechthild Holter whose Players has been based in Berlin
since 1996, ”there is no healthily evolved market structure. In a
healthy scene like London you have a handful of agents – the
6
Carla Rehm
TALENT
MADE IN
GERMANY
T a l e n t
A g e n c i e s
three main ones, some literary agencies and a few specialising in
theatre – and that’s it. Put in an exaggerated form: you need an
agent when the market needs you. But this healthy relationship
between the agency and the client doesn’t exist in Germany,
every person who says they are an actor gets an agent and
people are with an agent before anybody has even got to know
who they are“.
Agencies’ specialities
i n
G e r m a n y
decided to set up an operation with Eichborn outside of the
publishing house to emphasise their closeness to the audiovisual
world.
Indeed, other agencies have also changed their remit as they have
become more established in the market. As Munich-based agent
Marlis Heppeler observes, ”initially, I was exclusively handling
actors, but it very soon transpired that it definitely made sense to
use the existing network of contacts (to producers, distributors
and commissioning editors at the TV stations) to also act as a
mediator for the work of directors and screenwriters“.
”What is different from America“, Hoestermann says, ”is that
one still doesn’t have a producer being represented by an agent.
Hoestermann points out, ”they cater for writers, directors,
directors of photography, editors as well as actors and other
talents“.
In Germany, there is a very clear division - even when they are
so-called writer-producers – they see themselves as being ’on the
other side’ as a rule“.
An-Dorte Braker, Bernhard Hoestermann, Sabine Schroth
”Whereas in the past, agencies were classical actors’ ones, there
are now agencies based on the Anglo-Saxon model which target
all professional groups in the arts“, Berlin-based Bernhard
Hoestermann, for example, focuses on actors while Steffen
Weihe’s Pegasus specialises in screenwriters and directors and
Tina Brandner in Munich handles job placement for crew
members. Sigrid Narjes, on the other hand, covers the three
main groups – actors, directors and screenwriters – at Above
The Line.
Narjes has since added a new arm – ATL Books – to her
agency in collaboration with the Eichborn publishing house to
represent the film rights of novels and non-fiction material on
the books at Eichborn. ”We will be active nationally and internationally offering film rights of books and will also acquire
rights from third parties“, she declares, adding that unlike
Michael Töteberg at Rowohlt, Above The Line
Preparing the Package
At the same time, the idea of agents being involved in packaging
has increasingly become an issue in the German film landscape.
”We have a few agencies in Germany who try according to the
foreign model to sell so-called packages“, explains Carla Rehm,
whose Agentur Alexander can look back on over 40 years
of managing actors, ”i.e. to sell the screenplay, cast and director
as a overall concept“.
From the producers’ camp, though, ”this always results in
annoyance and resistance because in Germany this is always
understood as blackmail“, Bernhard Hoestermann says,
7
T a l e n t
A g e n c i e s
i n
G e r m a n y
”along the lines of ’If you want to
have my star, you’ll have to take
those others as well‘“.
”Packaging in the correct sense
of the word should be about
bringing people together“, he
continues.”about who can then
really get a project on the way,
who can help get a financing
together quicker. In that sense,
I don’t think any producer
would have anything to fear“.
Who wants to
be a star?
Despite the efforts of such young
talents as Franka Potente,
Til Schweiger, Moritz
Bleibtreu and Katja
Riemann, the German cinema does not boast a long line of
stars who are national household names in the same way as was
perhaps the case during the German film industry’s halcyon days
in the post war years.
”In the media, young talents don’t yet receive the necessary
support and attention“, Carla Rehm declares. ”The real stars
are rather sportsmen and show personalities. Germany’s film stars
have continually attained their popularity through TV films and
series, have thereby reached the largest audience and are only
then interesting for the public“.
Television is another matter as the incredible popularity of actors
in daily soaps and other long running series show. As Marlis
Heppeler points out, there are several elements working
together here. ”This could partly be connected with the fact that
the individual and, above all, private stations promote ”their
actors’“, she says, ”and it is certainly also due to the fact that
one can reach a very large audience figure with the medium of
television, and that the TV stations –
above all, the public ones – pursue a
certain continuity in their work with
actors as well“.
Béla Jarzyk, Mechthild Holter
Meanwhile, Marlis Heppeler pinpoints another tendency over
the past year ”that people like Zlatko (and other Big Brother
inhabitants) or figures, who do not exactly excel through acting
achievements, but draw attention to themselves through little
private scandals, are made into stars by the media“.
Jürgen Vogel, Franka Potente
For Bernhard Hoestermann, the way people treat achievement and prominence in Germany is difficult in any case: ”It is
not easy to cultivate a star. In the USA, one’s achievement is
acknowledged with great enthusiasm. In Germany, though, the
basic attitude is more of one scepticism; the journalists here
like to make people big and well-known, but they have even
more pleasure in tearing them to pieces again. That’s a particular
element which keeps the potential of becoming a star to a
minimum here“.
International
potential
On the international level, the number
of German actors and actresses coming
through and making a career for themselves outside of their native country
has been few and far between.
In the last 30 years or so, there were
the actors from the Fassbinder films
– such as Hanna Schygulla and
Gottfried John - The Boat star
Jürgen Prochnow, or Armin
Mueller-Stahl. But it is two
directors – Roland Emmerich and
Wolfgang Petersen – who are
probably the most well-known German
film figures internationally.
That’s not to say that nothing has
happening in recent years: after her
8
T a l e n t
A g e n c i e s
i n
G e r m a n y
Mechthild Holter, ”when there
are any, then it is because a home
country is internationally ‘presentable’. Films from people like Lars von
Trier, Pedro Almodovar or Ken
Loach or Mike Leigh have actors
play that we get to know, they are
seen at festivals, win prizes and the
films have an international release“.
success in Run Lola
Run, Franka
Potente graduated to
the international stage
last year with a series of
roles in American films:
she starred opposite
Johnny Depp in Ted
Demme’s New Line
production Blow and
then appeared with
Matt Damon in
Doug Liman’s The
Bourne Identity as
well as taking a role in
Todd Solondz’s asyet-untitled new feature,
while Til Schweiger’s
success at home attracted US producers to
cast him in films as
diverse as The
Replacement
Killers, Judas Kiss,
Punks and
Investigating Sex.
Schweiger’s co-star in
Der bewegte Mann,
Katja Riemann
travelled to Canada
to headline the film
Desire by Colleen
Murphy, while Maria
Schrader appeared
opposite Giancarlo
Esposito in Rajko
Grlic’s Josephine
and Thomas
Kretschmann has
worked with Dario
Argento and
Patrice Chereau in
Europe as well having
a part in the US blockbuster submarine
drama U-571.
As Marlis Heppeler points out,
”the stars are not least made
through their roles in the films and if
these films find little or no attention
worldwide, this will naturally be
reflected in the stars’ popularity“.
However, there are exceptions as
she found with one of her own
charges – Franka Potente – after
the resounding international success
of Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola
Run (Lola rennt). ”Here it was
important to use her popularity at
the right moment and to find suitable
projects and partners abroad“, she
recalls.
Sigrid Narjes (photo © Uwe Völkner)
Getting the
Accent Right
At the same time, Carla Rehm
notes that ”it is difficult to place
German actors in foreign films
because of their accent. It is much
easier there for directors and cinematographers“.
Furthermore, Moritz
Bleibtreu was picked
to play alongside
Harvey Keitel and
Stellan Skarsgard
in Istvan Szabo’s
latest feature Taking
Sides after the Oscarwinning Hungarian
director saw his performance in Bakhtiar
Khudoinazarov’s
Luna Papa, and
Peter Lohmeyer has
developed a nice sideline
in playing Germans or
Swedes in Cuban
comedies (Kleines
Tropicana, Playing
Swede)!
”In the main, there are
few international stars in
any country“, argues
Having a good international network
of contacts is essential if one wants
to propel one’s talent onto the world
stage: as Sigrid Narjes points out,
”it is important to know who is doing
what where, to know the producers
and the casting directors, and to
know other agents“.
The language issue is a crucial one
as Berlin-based casting director
Annette Borgmann knows
only too well having handled the
German actor casting for such
recent productions as JeanJacques Annaud’s Enemy At
The Gates (with Ed Harris,
Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes),
Peter Bogdanovich’s The
Cat’s Meouw (with Kirsten
Dunst and Eddie Izzard) and
Kurt Wimmer’s Librium (with
Christian Bale and Emily
Watson).
Uschi Keil
”It is very difficult to find good actors
who can speak an accent-free English
or an American English“, she reports,
”With the Annaud film, the
Russians and Germans could have an
accent as it is a historical film, but
with the Peter Bogdanovich film
9
T a l e n t
A g e n c i e s
i n
G e r m a n y
that the French director was shooting in Germany spread like
wildfire through the acting community with one actress saying
that she’d be happy just walk through the frame to be able to
work with him. In the event, Borgmann was able to bring more
and more German talent to the production to the point where
she could cast Eva Mattes for one of the supporting roles and
have around 40 parts taken by local actors instead of the initially
planned 10-15.
Export-Union Promoting
New Talent
One way, though, of introducing up-and-coming German acting
talent to a wider international forum is the ”Shooting Stars“
initiative which was launched by the pan-European promotional
body European Film Promotion (EFP) at the Berlin
International Film Festival in February 1998.
In the three editions so far, the Export-Union of German
Cinema as one EFP’s members selected six young actors and
actresses – Franka Potente, Jürgen Vogel, Moritz
Bleibtreu, Maria Schrader, August Diehl and Nina
Hoss - to be introduced with their counterparts from other
European countries to the assembled international film scene.
This year will see Heike Makatsch and Benno Fürmann
joining the lineup of the 4th ”Shooting Stars“ for 2001.
Sabine Lutter
which is set in 1924, this is another matter and in Librium the
audience is not even supposed to know that the film had been
shot in Berlin“.
In addition, the stars of new German films are regular features at
the Festivals of German Cinema organised by the Export-Union
around the globe: for example, at the first such event in Los
Angeles at the beginning of November, Christiane Paul was
there in person for Fatih Akin’s In July (Im Juli) and
Martin Eigler’s Friends (with Benno Fürmann) while
Hannelore Elsner attended the screenings of her awardwinning film No Place to Go (Die Unberührbare) for
which she won the German Film Award last June.
MB
The Annaud project was an interesting case as, originally, she
had only been called on to cast 10-15 day players. The news
August Diehl, Maria Schrader, Benno Fürmann
10
T a l e n t
A g e n c i e s
( a
s e l e c t i o n )
Above The Line
Players
Goethestr. 17 · D-80336 Munich
phone: +49-89-5 99 08 40 · fax: +49-89-5 50 38 55
email: mail@abovetheline.de · www.abovetheline.de
contact: Sigrid Narjes, Ulrike Weber,
Katerina Kolisch
Sophienstr. 21 · D-10178 Berlin
phone:+49-30-2 85 16 80 · fax: +49-30-2 85 16 86
email: mail@players.de · www.players.de
contact: Mechthild Holter, Béla Jarzyk
pmc – PromotionManagementConception
Above The Line Berlin
Oranienburger Str. 5 · D-10178 Berlin
phone: +49-30-2 88 77 30 · fax: +49-30-28 87 73 10
contact: Sabine Lutter, Uschi Keil
Alter Militärring 8 · D-50933 Cologne
phone: +49-2 21-49 97 80 · fax: +49-2 21-49 97 88
email: a.pmc@ndh.net · www.pmc-gmbh.com
contact: Ica Souvignier, Hinrich Sickenberger
Agentur Alexander – Carla Rehm
Carola Studlar – Internationale Agentur
Lamontstr. 9 · D-81679 Munich
phone: +49-89-47 60 81 · fax: +49-89-4 70 71 21
email: agentur.alexander@t-online.de
contact: Carla Rehm
Agnesstr. 47 · D-80798 Munich
phone: +49-89-1 22 35 10· fax: +49-89-12 00 18 18
email: info@studlar.de · www.studlar.de
contact: Carola Studlar
Agentur Doris Mattes
Szenario – Agentur für
Film und Fernsehen
Merzstr. 14 · D-81679 Munich
phone: +49-89-9 82 80 85 · fax: +49-89-98 15 18
email: mail@agenturdorismattes.de
contact: Doris Mattes
Schwere-Reiter-Str. 35 Geb. 2b · D-80797 Munich
phone: +49-89-34 02 09 27 · fax: +49-89-38 39 86 89
email: mail@agentur-szenario.de
www.agentur-szenario.de
contact: Inge Pudenz
Agentur Hoestermann
Gneisenaustr. 94 · D-10961 Berlin
phone: +49-30-69 50 18 81 · fax: +49-30-69 50 18 88
email: mail@hoestermann.de · www.hoestermann.de
contact: Bernhard Hoestermann
Management Erika Goldschmidt
Agentur Jovanovic
Damaschkestr. 33 · D-10711 Berlin
phone: +49-30-3 23 62 94 · fax: +49-30-3 23 93 99
email: management.goldschmidt@planet-interkom.de
www.managementgoldschmidt.de
contact: Renate Landkammer
Kathi-Kobus-Str. 24 · D-80797 Munich
phone: +49-89-18 40 91 · fax: +49-89-18 40 93
contact: Elfie Thuy
Uschi Drews Künstleragentur
Agentur Nicolai
(previously Agentur Mackeben)
Gosslerstr. 2 · D-12161 Berlin
phone: +49-30-8 24 40 48 · fax: +49-30-8 24 50 34
email: nicolaiagt@aol.com
www.agentur-nicolai.de
contact: Ute Nicolai
Schillerstr. 7 · D-10625 Berlin
phone: +49-30-3 27 71 50 · fax: +49-30-3 24 93 73
email: uschidrews@aol.com
www.agentur-drews.de
contact: Uschi Drews
ContrAct
Talent Agencies’ Trade Associations
Schwere-Reiter-Str. 35 Geb. 41 · D-80797 Munich
phone: +49-89-30 79 86 00 · fax: +49-89-30 79 86 02
email: agentur-contract@gmx.de
contact: Andrea Lambsdorff
Verband der Agenturen für Film,
Fernsehen und Theater e.V.
Heppeler Internationale Agentur
für Film-TV-Theater
Steinstr. 54 · D-81667 Munich
phone: +49-89-4 48 84 84 · fax: +49-89-4 47 09 95
email: mail@heppeler-agency.com
www.agentur-heppeler.de
contact: Dr. Marlis Heppeler
Pegasus – A Literary and Talent Agency
Neue Promenade 6 · D-10178 Berlin
phone: +49-30-2 84 97 60 · fax: +49-30-28 49 76 76
email: pegasus.agency@snafu.de
contact: Steffen Weihe
Kurfürstenstr. 33 · D-10785 Berlin
phone: +49-30-2 30 81 90 · fax: +49-30-23 08 19 19
email: vda@fnw.de · www.vda.fnw.de
contact: Bernhard Hoestermann, Dr. Marlis Heppeler,
Marie-Luise Schmidt
Verband Deutscher
Schauspieler-Agenturen
Isabellastr. 20 · D-80798 Munich
phone: +49-89-27 29 35 13 · fax: +49-89-27 29 36 36
email: rechtsanwaelte@strate-zauleck.de
www.schauspieler-agenturen.de
contact: Carla Rehm, Renate Landhammer,
Jochem Strate
11
C a s t i n g
D i r e c t o r s
Annette Borgmann
Lützowufer 11 · D-10785 Berlin
phone: +49-30-85 60 05 15
fax: +49-30-85 60 05 16
email: annetteborgmann@t-online.de
( a
s e l e c t i o n )
Horst D. Scheel
Besetzungsberatung
Hansaring 35 · D-50670 Cologne
phone: +49-2 21-1 30 19 44
fax: +49-2 21-1 30 19 45
email: horstdscheel@aol.com
Robert Drews
Schillerstr. 7 · D-10625 Berlin
phone: +49-30-3 23 35 22
fax: +49-30-3 24 3094
email: castingdrews@aol.com
Sabine Schroth & Risa Kes
Nessie Nesslauer
Rita Serra-Roll
Herzog-Wilhelm-Str. 9 · D-80331 Munich
phone: +49-89-26 81 28
fax: +49-89-26 02 55 71
email: nesslauer@aol.com
Plinganserstr. 15 · D-81369 Munich
phone: +49-89-57 86 83 83
fax: +49-89-57 86 83 82
email: serra-roll@t-online.de
Mauerkircher Str. 16 · D-81679 Munich
phone: +49-89-98 10 50 50
fax: +49-89-98 10 50 99
Outcast
Ebertplatz 21-23 · D-50668 Cologne
phone: +49-2 21-97 32 60 · fax: +49-2 21-9 73 26 26
email: outcast@outcast.de · www.outcast.de
contact: Clemens Erbach, Thomas Diehl
Meet us during
the Berlinale at the
European Film Market,
German Boulevard.
Phone 030 - 25 35 8 372
2001
new edition available now
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12
D i re c t o r s ´ Po r t ra i t
Barbara and Winfried Junge
Barbara Junge, born 1943 in Neunhofen. Study at the University of Leipzig. Diploma as an interpreter
for English and Russian. From 1969 onwards, work in the DEFA studio for documentary films, initially
responsible for foreign language versions of DEFA documentaries. From 1978 onwards, she supervised
the archive documentation of the Golzow-cycle. From 1983, editing of all films by Winfried Junge. Codirector since 1992.
Winfried Junge, born 1935 in Berlin. 1953, study of German at the Berlin Humboldt-University, 1954
transfer to the German Academy of Film Potsdam-Babelsberg. 1958, diploma in Dramaturgy. From 1961
onwards, work in the DEFA studio for documentary films, Berlin. Began the Golzow series with When I
first go to school (Wenn ich erst zur Schule geh’). A total of 49 documentary films for cinema
and television. In 1967 he produced Der tapfere Schulschwänzer, a feature film for children. From
1991 onwards, he worked as a director for JOURNAL Film Klaus Volkenborn KG, and after 1994 at the
à jour film and television production company, where he continued the Golzow series.
The Golzow cycle consists of six short films made before 1975, including Observations in a First
Class (Nach einem Jahr, 1962) and Eleven Years Old (Elf Jahre alt, 1966), (Silver Dove at the
Leipzig Documentary Film Week), as well as the later works Anmut sparet nicht noch Mühe
(1979), Lebensläufe – Die Geschichte der Kinder von Golzow in einzelnen Porträts
(1980, FIPRESCI prize Berlinale), Diese Golzower – Umstandsbestimmung eines Ortes (1984),
Drehbuch: Die Zeiten (1992), The Life of Jürgen from Golzow (Das Leben des Jürgen
von Golzow, 1994) The Story of Uncle Willy from Golzow (Die Geschichte des Onkel
Willy aus Golzow, 1995), Was geht euch mein Leben an. Elke (1997), Da habt ihr mein
Leben, Marieluise (1997), Brigitte and Marcel (1998), Ein Mensch wie Dieter (1999).
For forty years, Winfried
Junge has been making one
huge film. At that time, in the
late summer of 1961, DEFA
sent him to the village Golzow
in the Oderbruch, directly beside the German-Polish border.
He was to observe a group of
six-year-old children, their last
moments in the sandpit, their
introduction to school, the first
lessons. The small, only 12minute-film was called When I
first go to school and was
so well-received that Junge
returned to the Oderbruch with
his camera during the following
summer. He has remained true
to ”his“ Golzow villagers up
until the present day, has followed their professional careers
and their love stories, seen
them set out and seen them fail,
been a party to their hopes and
dreams. Winfried Junge:
”We have constant, relaxed contact with the villagers of Golzow.
When a young woman was once asked what our relationship was
like, she answered: it’s like having relatives. We have known each
other a long time, and neither of us can fool the other for long.“
Sixteen films have been made to date. Winfried Junge and his
wife Barbara, who supervises the archive of material and has
been his co-director since 1992, have so created a life’s work –
(photo © Winfried Junge) Barbara and Winfried Junge
ON PEOPLE
AND THE TIMES
alongside over thirty other films – which even gained them entry
to the Guinness Book of Records in 1985. Their ”Golzow“ series
is the oldest long-term documentation in international cinema. It is
readily passed from one festival to another, from Vancouver in
Canada to Yamagata in Japan. Now the documentation is looked
upon as the picture of an entire generation. Winfried Junge:
”Originally, it was to be about the first generation of GDR citizens
who grew up into Communism. But during the 80s at the latest, it
13
D i re c t o r ´ s Po r t ra i t
Barbara and Winfried Junge
became clear that this idea was an illusion.“ Rather, the films
reflect ”normal“ reality, they dare to take a precise look at social
conditions. Again and again, the political led to the private, and the
Golzow project advanced to become a fascinating document of
the times, a source of discoveries for cinema enthusiasts, historians and sociologists alike.
Winfried Junge’s real international success began after
Lebensläufe (1980), a more than four-hour compendium of the
material shot since 1961. After its showing during the Berlinale,
Variety referred to the film as ”a unique milestone in film
history“and Der Spiegel wrote: ”They show faces which it is
impossible to forget.“ The Junges then struck a new chord with
Drehbuch: Die Zeiten (1992), which could also be viewed
during the ”international forum of young cinema“ at the Berlinale.
Here the directors introduced themselves as active participants,
reflecting on the role of the censor and that of self-censorship in
the GDR. And they considered the moral questions raised by their
work. Barbara Junge: ”Where were the limits whilst filming?
The people whom we brought to the screen had to be able to go
on living within their home circle after the film. If anyone could be
injured because a particular scene had been shown publicly, we
couldn’t go on making it.“
Dieter, the technical drawer Elke and others. The story of the
poultry breeder Brigitte in Brigitte and Marcel (1998), was
the first biography to come to a natural end: the twenty-nine year
old died of heart disease. The fall of the Wall and German
unification played a role in all the individual portraits. The social
changes proved to be a particular aid to dramaturgy: the life of the
Golzow villagers, which had followed well-worn tracks until 1989,
suddenly became exciting again.
And so what will the future bring? At present the Junges are
working on their seventeenth Golzow film, in which they tell the
tale of Jochen the dairyman. Winfried Junge: ”There could
be a further six portraits after that. Nine-tenths of the material is
already there.“ But there is no knowing whether film promoters
and television stations will provide the financial support that would
be necessary. Things are as open and uncertain as they have been
for each of the recent Golzow films.
Ralf Schenk spoke to Barbara and Winfried Junge
Since Drehbuch: Die Zeiten, the Junges have presented six
individual portraits of ”their“ Golzow villagers; of the joiner
D i re c t o r ´ s Po r t ra i t
Margarethe von Trotta
Between the PRIVATE
and the POLITICAL
”First I had to create my own prison before I was able to comprehend what had happened to me.“ Margarethe von Trotta’s
first piece of independent direction, The Second Awakening
of Christa Klages (Das zweite Erwachen der Christa
Klages), begins with this sentence, which ultimately contains the
entire programme of her films. All her works describe different
attempts to escape from the prisons of life; they are about
wanting to break out, about fighting one’s way to freedom,
escaping from a state of standstill.
It is not by chance that she names Bergman, Hitchcock and
the French directors of the 60s as the most important, lasting
influences on her work. Breaking through narrowing limitations,
both socially imposed regulations and barriers within a person’s
soul – this is the subject matter of stories by this valiant and committed author filmmaker. The private and the political; the shaping
of the individual by social connotations, the shaping of roles, in
particular those of women, within our modern socialisation. And
the shedding of this role by means of so-called ”feminist“, or rather: of emancipatory or even of completely individual female
thought and feelings. These are subjects in Margarethe von
Trotta’s work. Over the years – her time as a réalisateur, as an
auteur encompasses the years 1977 to 2000 –, from one film to
14
the next, and these are now 14 in number, the subjects become
more refined; more precise and subtle in their outlines, more
mature and complex in their themes.
It would be wrong to categorise Margarethe von Trotta,
who certainly played a pioneer role in the public process of
women’s emancipation during the 70s, as a feminist, woman
filmmaker, at the same time viewing her films – in which she often
portrays politically motivated women – as purely political works.
”For me the universal and the individual have always been very
close together. At that time the women’s movement helped me to
realise that I was not alone.“ Her so-called political films, that is
The German Sisters (Die bleierne Zeit), Rosa
Luxemburg, Zeit des Zorns and The Promise (Das
Versprechen), concern private and political aspects to an equal
extent, so that personal story and history become one, impossible
to separate. And even in her more private, personal stories, that is
Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness (Schwestern
oder die Balance des Glücks), Friends and Husbands
(Heller Wahn), Fearing and Loving (Fürchten und
Lieben) and L’Africana (Die Rückkehr), the overriding
social motif is also an essential note; the fact of social integration
into a whole.
D i re c t o r ´ s Po r t ra i t
Margarethe von Trotta
(photo © T.W.) Margarethe von Trotta
Margarethe von Trotta was born in Berlin in 1942, the daughter of a Baltic Russian emigrant, Elisabeth von Trotta, and the German painter Alfred Roloff. She lived in Berlin for only a few years, completing
her school graduation in Dusseldorf and finally moving to Paris in 1960. There she graduated from her
own school of vision – in the Cinémathèque Française and in the streets of Paris, where the filmmakers of
the Nouvelle Vague were shooting in every nook and cranny. A private school of acting in Munich was followed by theatre performances and work for over 30 cinema and television films, including three works by
both Fassbinder and Achternbusch. This was one of von Trotta’s many facets. When she met her future
husband Volker Schlöndorff, she began to work as a co-author (Der plötzliche Reichtum der
armen Leute von Kombach, 1970; Strohfeuer, 1972), as a director’s assistant (Die Moral
der Ruth Halbfass, 1971) and finally as a co-director The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
(Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum, 1975). The determination to direct films on her own at
some later date, which developed and matured over the years, finally came to fruition in 1977. And in the
first film which she directed alone, The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (Das zweite
Erwachen der Christa Klages), the basic foundation for all her future work is already laid; the complete, fertile ground for von Trotta’s work. After what was perhaps the most private of all her films,
Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness (Schwestern oder die Balance des Glücks, 1979),
she made her international breakthrough with the vivid portrait of Ensslin, The German
Sisters (Die bleierne Zeit, 1981). This was followed by Friends and Husbands (Heller
Wahn, 1983), Rosa Luxembourg (1986) and three works made in Italy. She opened the Berlinale in
1995 with the dramatic German-German love story, Das Versprechen, and between 1997 and 2000
Margarethe von Trotta made four television films, the last of which was the tetralogy Jahrestage (ARD).
Margarethe von Trotta, the former actress, a maker of author films for almost the past twenty-five years; after leaving
Munich she lived in Rome from 1987 to 1994, and since then her
permanent address has been in Paris. A wanderer between worlds
in Schubert’s sense, one of the homeless: ”As a stranger I came to
you, as a stranger I leave“. This notion runs through her life like a
leitmotif. For her television films – Winterkind, Dunkle
Tage, Jahrestage - she came to Germany and filmed here.
But she is still – and this she shares with names like Wenders,
Herzog, Fassbinder and Schlöndorff – regarded more
highly abroad than in her home country.
”I am not alone in this. Hanna Schygulla lives in Paris today.
Romy Schneider came here, too. There is something about
the Germans. There is a history to it all, you just have to put up
with it.“ There are von Trotta retrospectives in Cuba and San
Francisco, in Peru and Uruguay, in Hungary and in Portugal. It is
only in Germany that the first complete retrospective has yet to
take place.
Abroad – particularly at A-festivals like Cannes and Venice – she is
internationally acclaimed, receives awards (Golden Lion for The
German Sisters) and positive criticism. Particularly in Italy and
France, if you mention her name, the response is an admiring ”La
Trotta“. At the same time, she is probably the only woman in her
profession to enjoy this lasting reputation.
Thilo Wydra
The film journalist Thilo Wydra has recently published the book
”Margarethe von Trotta – Filmen, um zu überleben“ (Filming to Survive)
(Henschel Verlag, Berlin 2000, 288 pages, 48,- DM)
15
www.
germancinema.
de/
INFORMATION ON GERMAN FILMS.
GERMAN
CINEMA
Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH
Tuerkenstrasse 93 · D-80799 Munich · phone +49-89-39 00 9 5 · fax +49-89-39 52 2 3 · email: export-union@german-cinema.de
Wo rl d S a l e s Po r t ra i t
Exportfilm Bischoff
Year of foundation 1949 Offices/representatives abroad Barcelona President Jochem
Strate Managing Director Mechthild Evenkamp Head of Sales Philip Evenkamp Main fields of
activity world-wide distribution of feature films, documentaries and shorts. Regular participation
at the following international TV and film fairs International Film Festival Berlin, film festivals
of Cannes, Venice, San Sebastian and Thessaloniki Number of titles on offer around 6000
Percentage of German titles on offer around 60%
Address Exportfilm Bischoff & Co GbmH · Isabellastraße 20 · D-80798 Munich
phone +49-89-2 72 93 60 fax +49-89-27 29 36 36 · email: philipevenkamp@csi.com
Philip Evenkamp
Jochem Strate
PERSONAL
CONTACTS
COUNT
”Aurel Bischoff founded the firm as an independent subsidiary of
the old Constantin Film in 1949. At that time Exportfilm
Bischoff – according to the documents I have – was the biggest
German export firm with a large number of employees, of whom
several later founded their own export firms or are still working
for other firms in this field of business today“, says president
Jochem Strate, ”I myself joined them much later“.
”In any case, at that time Exportfilm Bischoff“, continues
Strate, ”had a large selection of films on offer, because each year
the firm automatically received the whole batch for export from
the old Constantin distributors“. Business flourished until the
bankruptcy of old Constantin, which Exportfilm Bischoff, as
an independent firm, was not directly involved in.“
Strate, who was working as a solicitor in Münster at that time,
was brought to Exportfilm by the shareholders in 1979. ”Actually,
at that time I was only contracted to keep the firm going until as
much money as possible had run into it from the bankruptcy“.
But Jochem Strate saw things differently: ”I said then – I’m
not interested in administrating something until it breathes its last
breath. I only wanted the job if they allowed me to put the firm
back on its feet and get it going again. And in the time that followed, that is what I did“.
Basically, the new beginning meant completely reconstructing
the firm, with new contacts and new products. Strate aimed for
specific niches in the market. A first great success was Frank
17
Wo rl d S a l e s Po r t ra i t
Exportfilm Bischoff
Ripploh’s Taxi zum Klo (1981). Exportfilm Bischoff
sold films by directors such as Rosa von Praunheim,
Ulrike Ottinger, Herbert Achternbusch or Helke
Sander.
”These new niche-films were difficult, but I found that exciting“,
says Strate. ”And as I learnt with Taxi zum Klo: if a film
meets with interest, picks up on the signs of the times, then it is
possible to distribute it everywhere at any time. But if a film is
difficult, then you need excellent personal contacts“.
And how do you establish these contacts? ”With the goods we
sell, personal relations count. I have always thought it better to
visit my business partners in their offices and to get to know
them privately – festivals without the pressure of sales fairs are
particularly suitable for that. You get to know the buyers and
their preferences, and you don’t bother them with films that
they are not going to be interested in“.
But all the specialist knowledge in the world counts for nothing
in face of changing trends. ”When the AIDS hysteria began, the
interest in Gay and Lesbian films died out from one day to the
next“. Exportfilm moved on to the sale of children’s and young
people’s films for the cinema. ”But unfortunately, not enough films
of this nature were made for the cinema. In addition, the sales
statistics were not really sufficient to secure a future for us (and
for the producers)“.
Wo rl d S a l e s Po r t ra i t
In the 90s, the competition with other firms also searching for new
goods increased, too. ”It might be roughly compared with today’s
situation in the cinemas; the big multiplexes are also beginning to
show film art, and are therefore taking these specialist wares
away from the smaller concerns“.
Strate began to seek new niches, and ”in 1991 I took over the
distribution of Greek films from the Greek Film Center“. Whilst
the Greek episode is already a thing of the past for Exportfilm
(in the meantime the Greek Film Center has founded its
own export firm), Strate now organises ”the export and import
of Spanish films through a representative in Spain“.
How does Strate – who has taken on more work in the solicitor’s office Strate and Zauleck in recent years, and is also a
committed manager of film productions – see the future for
Exportfilm? ”Today the firm is facing another new beginning.
In 1985, my partner – a Swiss bank – left the firm, and I was able
to take over the remaining shares“, Strate says.
”A firm like ours“, he says, ”must be able, so to speak, to make,
to measure or to attract the goods which it wishes to distribute
successfully“. Philip Evenkamp, the company owner’s son,
has now come aboard. He has completed his studies at the
Munich Academy of TV and Film and is working successfully in film
production. The long-term aim is to produce the films which they
want to export themselves. Strate: ”These are tasks for the
future, which Philip will be taking over more and more“.
Hans Ernst
Media Luna, Ida Martins
”MEDIA LUNA,
That’s My Passion!“
Ida Martins speaks from the heart. Indeed, without this
passion events would have probably taken a different turn.
”When I first came to Germany”, she says, ”I had a job for life at
Deutsche Welle. But after three years I realised this was not what
I wanted to do, that I could achieve far more. So I started a
company to promote film culture.“
She was, in fact, the first person to bring, among others, selfproclaimed screenwriting guru and screenplay-agent Robert
McKee and screenplay-agent Julien Friedman to Germany.
Martins soon identified a market opportunity for a company
that could sell films by giving personalised attention to both the
product and the artist. In 1993 Media Luna was born.
Eight years on, Martins says, ”we’re now a very nice company
and doing better and better!“
She’s settled in Cologne, the capital of the State of North-Rhine
Westphalia, and waves the city’s flag proudly.
18
”I like the fact you can be a little bit crazy in Cologne!“ she says.
”It’s such a diverse city, has so many nationalities, it offered me the
opportunity to feel at home. I wouldn’t live in any other place in
Germany!“
And few people in the industry are as multicultural as Martins
herself. Born in Brazil to Portuguese and Italian parents, she not
only lived in all three countries but has studied in the United States
and Belgium.
”People like me don’t have a nationality,“ she states, ”we are the
sum of many experiences and that makes us world citizens.“
And that’s a trump card she proudly plays ”because I can watch a
film from many aspects, something a person who has never lived
anywhere else can. I can imagine a film being watched by North
Americans or Latin Americans or Europeans. I can see things in
that film and see what would make other audiences appreciate it
or not.“
In August of last year the company changed name, to Media
Wo rl d S a l e s Po r t ra i t
Media Luna, Ida Martins
Established in 1993 as Media Luna, from August 2000 Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG
Managing Director Ida Martins Head of Sales Ida Martins Additional contact Monere Renoir
Simpkins (Asst Sales Manager), Barbara Mientus (Controlling), Frederick Czernik (Accounts), Olaf Schaefer
(Legal & Business Affairs), Daniel Marin (festival strategy) Main fields of activity World-wide distribution
of all rights for films and TV programmes and formats (series, documentaries, entertainment) Regular
attendance of the following film markets AFM, ATF, MIFED, MIP ASIA, MIPCOM, NATPE, EFM, MiF
Number of titles on offer 30 features, 13 documentaries /several formats Percentage of German
titles on offer 60% Buyers include First Run Features, N.Y., HBO Asia, HBO US, Longride (Japan), RTP,
WDR, ZDF Most well-known current titles on offer Boy’s Choir (Ogata Akira), Gangster
(Volker Einrauch), The Dream Catcher (Ed Radtke) Best-selling titles currently on sale Nico
Icon (Susane Ofteringer), Der Einstein des Sex (Rosa von Praunheim), The Dream Catcher
(Ed Radtke) Address Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Hochstadenstr. 1-3 · D-50674 Cologne
phone: +49-2 21-1 39 22 22 · fax: +49-2 21-1 39 22 24 · email: idamartins@compuserve.com
Luna Entertainment, and took on several new production
partners in order, says Martins, ”to grow horizontally, not vertically. Our key activity remains theatrical features but we are now
involved in new sectors such as TV-movies, documentaries, talkshows and entertainment formats.“
Media Luna Entertainment is now in a stage of transition.
With a reputation for being “klein aber fein” (small and good) the
challenge is to grow while keeping “fein.”
Martins sees the key to success in maintaining the personalised
approach.
(photo © Jörg Oswald) Ida Martins
Those partners are ZieglerFilm Cologne, D&D Filmund Fernsehproduktion
GmbH and Prima
Productions. The idea being
that while Martins travels the
world, doing what she does
best, distribution, she can pass
interesting projects to her partners to do what they do best,
produce. Those projects will
then find their way back to
Martins.
”We like to work with producers at the script phase so we
can advise on where the subject
material can best find a market“,
says Martins. ”Sometimes we
can bring an input that makes it
easier to sell. Then we like to
watch the rough cut and discuss
marketing strategies with the
producers; decide where to premiere and which festivals to
screen it in.“
The personal approach is at the
core of Media Luna Entertainment’s activities as the
company develops and implements marketing strategies tailormade for each project. ”When we have a product to work with
we want it to have its own personality. We are not just licensing,
we really take care of the marketing of each product“, she states.
As for the new media, “we cannot ignore its power. We always
try to find the right media for the product and as the market
changes so must we. We are moving as fast as the market, in that
respect.”
Because she comes from an advertising background Martins
loves to develop promotional strategies which are different to the
usual postcards and flyers.
She has already signed up to the MIP Interactive on-line dealing
platform, already done some Internet deals and, like many, is
waiting until the on-line distribution technology has developed to
the stage where “we can guarantee the film will download just in
the territory where you are selling the rights.”
”For Requiem for a Romantic Woman, where we had the
premiere in Cannes, instead of just doing a postcard with screening invitations we made fake snowballs with glitter and photos
with the invitation on the back. All buyers received it in a box at
their hotel“, she says proudly. ”This is the kind of promotion we
really love and if the film allows us to develop this kind of communication that’s great.“
“I try and I’ve been trying all my life not to be conservative but
to be open for new ideas. Only with an open mind and market
knowledge can we cuccessfully face the challenges,”, says Martins.
SK
19
P ro d u c e r ´ s Po r t ra i t
Odeon Film
Listed on Germany’s Neuer Markt since April 1999, Odeon Film AG is active in three areas: TV production, feature
film production and the Internet. The company leads the commissioned TV market in the crime-thriller segment with
such series as Ein Fall für zwei, Wolffs Revier and SK Kölsch. In addition to involvement in such domestic
productions as Franziska Buch’s Emil und die Detektive and Joseph Vilsmaier’s Leo & Claire,
Odeon Film has been focussing over the last year on establishing itself as a key player in the European production
scene. Production cooperations have already been forged with companies in France and the UK and have resulted in
co-production of such internationally promising projects as Mortel Transfert, Triumph Of Love and Buffalo
Soldiers. On the Internet front, Odeon was behind the launch of the web portal Filmstadt.de in September 1999 and
has now gathered all of its web-related activities into the holding Odeon New Vision GmbH.
Odeon Film AG Bavariafilmplatz 7 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig
phone: +49-89-64 99 30 70 · fax: +49-89-64 99 30 40 · email: mail@odeonfilm.de
It’s almost two years ago that Odeon Film
AG became the first film and television
production company to go public on Germany’s
NASDAQ-style Neuer Markt stock exchange
and heralded a new chapter in the history of
the Bavaria Film Group in Munich.
Ahead of its flotation, Odeon had acquired the
TV production house Monaco Film – one of
Germany’s top producers of TV detective
series with such programmes as Ein Fall für
Zwei, Wolffs Revier, SK Kölsch and Die
Kommissarin to its credit – thereby establishing a key presence in the most important production centres throughout Germany.
Furthermore, in a previous incarnation as
Bavaria Entertainment, Odeon had served as
German co-producer on Claude Zidi’s liveaction Asterix & Obelix Against Caesar
which was a top box-office film in France and
Germany in 1999.
On the feature film front, Odeon’s plans
over the past two years have been to expand
both through acquisitions and by establishing
a platform system with outside producers.
”The capital from the IPO was the basis to create a broader corporate structure with additionally acquired companies“ explains Reinhard
Klooss, Odeon’s management board member responsible for the feature film division.
“We had acquired the Monaco Film Group
before the flotation, but we didn’t acquire
20
(photo © Janine Guldener) Reinhard Klooss
ODEON FILM:
The Makings Of An
International Player
P ro d u c e r ´ s Po r t ra i t
Odeon Film
anything this past year because the prices the companies were
asking were just so high because of the overheating of the Neuer
Markt“. However, now that things have cooled down, there is a
likelihood that Odeon will make some announcements in 2001
about taking stakes in other companies.
Long-term cooperative agreements
At the same time, Odeon’s strategy of sealing long-term cooperative agreements with producers was launched in November
1999 with news of a collaboration with Munich-based producer
Thomas Schühly to develop and produce large-scale European
co-productions.
Schühly and Klooss beat off stiff competition to acquire the
rights to controversial filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s memoirs
for a film about her life. Odeon Pictures has since produced a
documentary with her and director Ray Müller as part of the
painstaking preparation of the feature project.
”The development has taken somewhat longer than we had
imagined“, Klooss admits, ”but we are aware of the high
responsibility and the fact that the project attracts a lot of
attention. We don’t see it simply as a biopic, it is more of a
treatment of the issues of art and politics and power and the
role of women. We have to undertake a trapeze act to bring
these points of tension together in a sensible manner. Moreover,
we want to give a more general, European view on these issues
than a purely German one“.
As for Schühly’s other project, an adaptation of Ernst Jünger’s
World War I diaries In Stahlgewittern, Klooss says this is now
being approached as a large-scale feature documentary.
Co-distribution mechanisms
As part of its strategy of internationalisaiton, Odeon has also
embarked on the setting up of co-distribution mechanisms with,
initially, UK producer Jeremy Thomas’ Recorded Picture
Company (RPC) and the world sales outfit Hanway as well
as with the British documentary company October Films.
”The relationship with Jeremy Thomas goes back to the time
in Babelsberg [where RPC shot Victory] when my management
partners Kai May, Oliver Huzly and I were heading the
feature film production of Studio Babelsberg“, notes
Klooss about his decision to become involved in Clare
Peploe’s latest film Triumph Of Love, which is produced
by RPC with Bernardo Bertolucci’s Fiction Film and stars
Ben Kingsley and Mira Sorvino. ”Odeon came onboard
the international sales activity of Hanway with equity in return
for rights to the film because we want to become active in the
field of distribution“.
In addition, Odeon acquired the German speaking rights for
another film being handled by Hanway – Australian director
Philip Noyce’s latest picture Follow the Rabbit-Proof
Fence – although it will have the actual licensing handled by
Hanway.
Indeed, Odeon’s ambitions to become more intensively involved
in the marketing of its products led it to found the inhouse
theatrical distribution arm Odeon Filmverleih GmbH
although Klooss is quick to point out that this subsidiary ” won’t
establish its own mechanism, but will work with partners already
existing in the market“.
Made in Germany
International partnerships
After the successful collaboration with Claude Berri on
Asterix, Klooss was keen to take Odeon further into the
international arena. The first fruits of this strategy were
production partnerships with French film director Jean-Jacques
Beineix’s Cargo Films and London-based Rainer Grupe’s
Gorilla Entertainment.
Odeon Pictures, Odeon Film AG’s feature film subsidiary
served as co-producer on Beineix’s new feature Mortel
Transfert, which was partly shot at the Bavaria Film
Studios in spring 2000, and holds the license rights to worldwide
sales via its new label Odeon Pictures International in cooperation with Bavaria Film International.
Meanwhile, financing on the DM 33 million Buffalo Soldiers,
directed by Gregor Jordan and based on Robert
O’Connor’s best-selling novel, was put together by Odeon and
Gorilla Entertainment in no more than six months during
last year along with Channel 4’s Paul Webster, Good
Machine’s James Schamus, financier Grosvenor Park.
”We attracted a world-class cast for the shoot in Karlsruhe ranging
from Joaquin Phoenix and Ed Harris through Scott
Glenn and Anna Paquin to Elizabeth McGovern”,
Klooss enthuses.
On the domestic front, Odeon’s soon-to-be-acquired subsidiary
Lunaris Film has planned to follow the success of its Kästner
adaptations of Charlie & Louise and Pünktchen & Anton
with an update of Emil und die Detektive, shot in Berlin
with Jürgen Vogel and Maria Schrader last summer and set
to be released by Constantin Film in spring 2001; and
Odeon Pictures partnered Bavarian powerhouse Joseph
Vilsmaier to direct the DM 10 million pic The Jew and
the Girl based on Christiane Kohl’s internationally acclaimed
documentary.
”This past year, the emphasis has been on the group’s internationalisation and on projects of the magnitude of Mortel
Transfert, Buffalo Soldiers or The Jew and the Girl“,
notes Klooss, ”so much of our time and energies were tied
up with these larger projects that we could not devote our
attention to the smaller ones. However, this year we plan to
be involved in a series of German projects alongside the international ones, to enforce our partnership with European
companies and to build up our distribution“.
MB
21
Kino n e w s
FFF Bayern: Change-over
at the Top
The end of 2000 saw FilmFernsehFonds Bayern’s first
managing director Dr. Herbert Huber pass the baton of
responsibility over to his deputy, Dr. Klaus Schaefer.
Dr. Klaus Schaefer, Gabriele Pfennigsdorf
Dr. Huber will now begin a well-deserved retirement after
almost three decades of shaping Bavarian media policy. Thus,
continuity will be guaranteed since Schaefer has worked with
Huber for many years within the Bavarian government before they launched FFF Bayern in March 1996 and soon
established the fund as one of the key public funding players
in the German film landscape. Schaefer will now be joined
by Gabriele Pfennigsdorf, managing director of the
Bayerisches Filmzentrum Geiselgasteig since 1992, as deputy
managing director. Since 1996, she has served as a consultant
to the FFF for newcomers, project development and TV
funding categories and will now be responsible for these
areas as funding executive as well as carrying out her duties
as deputy to Klaus Schaefer.
operates with partners such as the Export-Union des
Deutschen Films, with whom there are hopes for even closer
cooperation in the future.
Since 1996 ”German Documentaries“ has been publishing a
Catalogue which proves more and more important. This year
around 80 new films have been added to the already existing
remarkable selection of documentaries, including all the documentary films from the programmes of the Berlin Film Festival
2001. The catalogue will be available at the ag
dok/German Documentaries stand on the German
Boulevard of the Berlinale, but it can also be ordered free
of charge from the following address:
ag dokumentarfilm
Schweizer Strasse 6, D-60594 Frankfurt
phone: +49-69-62 37 00, fax: +49-61 42-96 64 24
email: agdok@agdok.de
Of course those in a real hurry can also find the film descriptions, scene photos and contact addresses on the Internet
under www.agdok.de/germandocumentaries
Cinema from Germany at
the centre of the Brussels
Film Festival
Three German films in competition
Retrospective: ”Young German Directors of the
Nineties“. Volker Schlöndorff receives ”Golden
Iris“ for his life’s work.
Cinema from Germany was at the centre of the 28th Brussels
Film Festival (18.-27.01.2001). No less than 39 German films
or films produced with German partners could be seen in the
festival's various sections.
Three German films – England! by Achim von Borries;
Sun Alley (Sonnenallee) by Leander Haußmann
and the co-production 27 Missing Kisses by Nana
Djordjadze – took part in the official competition which is
reserved for European productions and includes attractive
marketing measures in the Belgian market for the winner.
”German Documentaries“ – New
catalogue available now
”German Documentaries“, a label that had been created by
”ag dok“, the professional organization of about 600 independent German film makers and documentary producers, has
blossomed into a much demanded address for directors, programme buyers, distributors and festival organisers. Since the
mid-nineties, the ag dokumentarfilm has been working
systematically to help direct more attention on the international stage towards independently produced German documentary films.
”German Documentaries“ is present at MIPDOC, at MIP-TV
and at the documentary film fair ”Sunny Side of the Docs“
in Marseilles. Elsewhere, ”German Documentaries“ now co-
22
Also screening in the competition, but ”out of competition“,
were The Legends Of Rita (Die Stille nach dem
Schuss) by Volker Schlöndorff, The Princess And The
Warrior (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin) by Tom
Tykwer and Falling Rocks by Peter Keglevic.
The ”Young German Directors of the Nineties“
retrospective featured Tom Tykwer with Deadly Maria
(Die tödliche Maria), Wintersleepers (Winterschläfer), Run Lola Run (Lola rennt) and the short
Epilog, Fred Kelemen with Fate (Verhängnis), Frost
and Nightfall (Abendland), Fatih Akin with In July
(Im Juli) and the shorts Getürkt and Sensin – Du bist
es, Veit Helmer with Tuvalu and the shorts Surprise!
and Der Fensterputzer, Yilmaz Arslan with Langer
Gang and Yara, Hans-Christian Schmid with It’s A
Jungle Out There (Nach fünf im Urwald) and 23,
Kino n e w s
Petra Katharina Wagner with Oskar And Leni and
the short Hungry Hearts, Wolfgang Becker with Life
Is All You Get (Das Leben ist eine Baustelle),
Andreas Dresen with Nightshapes (Nachtgestalten), Andreas Kleinert with Paths In The Night
(Wege In Die Nacht), Dani Levy with Silent Night
(Stille Nacht), Oskar Roehler with No Place To Go
(Die Unberührbare) and Sebastian Schipper with
Gigantic (Absolute Giganten).
The ”short film“ night presented a special programme of
Erotic Tales featuring seven of the 24 international shorts
produced so far by Regina Ziegler, including the German
shorts Elephants Never Forget by Detlev Buck and
Die Nachtschwester by Bernd Heiber.
A Volker Schlöndorff retrospective was presented at
the Brussels Film Museum within the framework of the festival
since the director was honoured with the ”Golden Iris“ for his
life’s work. Previous recipients include Andrzej Wajda,
Bertrand Tavernier and Oliver Stone.
”It’s full of energy“ – Philip
Gröning in Sundance for
the second time
Two German-international co-productions in the
”World Cinema“ section
The internationally renowned Sundance Film Festival 2001
(18. - 28.1.2001) presented Philip Gröning’s third feature
L’amour, l’argent, l’amour in its sidebar called
”Frontier“. The work, ”a road movie, a love story, a film
about the coldness of machines, the coldness of prostitution,
the coldness of love searching for warmth“, was first seen in
the competition section of the Locarno Film Festival in August
on the Piazza Grande; Sabine Timoteo was awarded a
Bronze Leopard for the best female lead for her performance.
For Philip Gröning (born in 1959) this was the second prestigious invitation to Sundance: he was there in 1993 to present his second feature Die Terroristen, which had also
been awarded a Bronze Leopard previously in Locarno.
Curious About German Cinema
– over 4,000 visitors at the 3rd
Festival of German Cinema in London
The 3rd Festival of German Cinema in London
attracted more than 4,000 cinema-goers into the Curzon
Soho with its lineup of 17 films. This means that the attendance figures have increased in the last two years by 40% – a
result with which the Export-Union and its partners are very
satisfied.
Eleven directors presented their films in person to the London
audiences from 30th November to 7th December, ”I always
had the feeling that the British audience could like Sun
Alley. The fact that the film met with such curiosity and
enthusiasm pleased me very much“, says Leander Haußmann whose film Sun Alley (Sonnenallee) opened the
festival. It was not only the predominantly young audience
who found much to enjoy in the varied festival programme,
British journalists and distributors also showed interest in the
new cinema from Germany.
In addition to Sun Alley (Sonnenallee), the programme
featured Enlightenment Guaranteed (Erleuchtung
Garantiert/Doris Dörrie), Friends (Freunde/
Martin Eigler), The Policewoman (Die Polizistin/
Andreas Dresen), No Place To Go (Die Unberührbare) and In With The New (Silvester Countdown
/Oskar Roehler), Forget America (Vergiss
Amerika/Vanessa Jopp) and Zoe (Maren-Kea
Freese). Joseph Vilsmaier’s film Marlene and
Maximilian Schell’s documentary Marlene were presented as part of a Marlene special. In July (Im Juli/Fatih
Akin) was shown as the surprise film, and the third edition
of the NEXT GENERATION short film programme
initiated by the Export-Union could also be seen.
In addition, the film series entitled ”Zeitgeist“ and programmed by the Goethe Institut London presented five
current documentary film productions from Germany:
December 1-31 (Dezember, 1-31/Jan Peters),
Home Game (Heimspiel/Pepe Danquart), After
The Fall (Nach dem Fall/Frauke Sandig and
Eric Black), Night Service Station (Nachttanke,
Samir Nasr) and Wash And Set (Waschen und
Legen/Alice Agneskirchner).
Gröning on his second appearance in Sundance: ”Sundance is
so important because it is the American festival which has the
most energy, the festival where the best American independents can be seen. To be invited to go there is like being numbered as one of the top European independents – and I think
that’s great!“
For the first time, a part of the festival programme was also
shown in Scotland under the banner of ”German Film Festival
on Tour“. In cooperation with the Export-Union, the
Goethe Institut Glasgow presented a total of nine
feature films and documentaries in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Two films produced by German companies with international
partners were screened in the ”World Cinema“ section:
Angels Of The Universe by Fridrik Thor
Fridriksson (German co-producer: Rommel Film, Berlin)
and Princesa by Henrique Goldman (German co-producer: Road Movies, Berlin).
Partners for the overall event were: the Federal Government
Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media, the German
Federal Film Board (FFA), the six main regional film funds, the
Goethe Institutes in London and Glasgow as
well as Inter Nationes. The festival was supported by Wines
of Germany, Erdinger Weissbräu und Arri.
Germany has often been represented in Sundance in recent
times – this year saw screenings of Gigantic (Absolute
Giganten) by Sebastian Schipper and Oi! Warning
by Benjamin and Dominik Reding.
23
Michael Schmid-Ospach (photo © WDR)
Kino n e w s
New nation-wide
cinema campaign planned
”Summer Hit: Cinema“ and ”Cinema is the
greatest“ – since 1996, under these two campaigns, there
has been intensive advertising for cinema-goers in Germany.
And now the industry is planning a new concept. ”This time
we’ll concentrate on target groups rather than the broad
spectrum,“ says Rolf Bähr, president of the German
Federal Film Board (Filmförderungsanstalt, FFA).
On the basis of an extensive cinema poll by the GfK-Panel
Services Consumer Research GmbH (under the commission
of the FFA), the frequency of cinema attendance from 19931999 will be evaluated in relation to its effect on cinema attendance through the year 2010. As with the other campaigns,
the FFA will assume the financial and organizational responsibility – again in close cooperation with the Association of
Film Distributors in Germany and the Association
of Film Theaters in Germany.
”In the future, chips instead of celluloid … e-cinema instead
of c-cinema“ – this was the conclusion of the symposium
”The Digital Future – A Challenge for the Film
Industry“, organized by the German Federal Film
Board (Filmförderungsanstalt, FFA) in the fall of
2000 in Berlin. The Digital Future was the main topic for two
days for about 180 representatives from the areas of film
promotion, production, distribution, cinema, TV and politics
as well as twelve national and international experts from the
field. The main focal points were the dimensions of the digital
future, particularly in reference to digital means of transport
and transfer, and the industry specific effects on the areas of
production, distribution and cinema. Legal aspects of copyrights with regards to digital applications, protection of the
young and the combat against pirating were also discussed at
great length. A continuation of this event for the near future
was welcomed by all.
Reports about this topic as well as information about the
participating delegates can be found on the FFA’s website
under www.ffa.de.
24
Rolf Bähr, Eberhard Junkersdorf and other participants of ”The Digital Future“
The film industry is in agreement – digitalization is
spreading in all areas
Michael Schmid-Ospach:
New Managing Director of
the Filmstiftung NRW
Michael Schmid-Ospach will assume the positon of new
Managing Director of the Filmstiftung NRW in the spring
of 2001. He succeeds Dieter Kosslick, who is taking over
the direction of the Berlinale. As Advisory Board Director of
the Filmstiftung and Director of Culture at WDR, he is well
acquainted with the Film Promotion in Düsseldorf. Born in
Heidelberg in 1945, he studied Theater, Germanics and
Psychology in Cologne and worked as an editor for the
Westdeutsche Rundschau and the epd/Kirche und Rundfunk.
From 1977 to 1990 he headed up press and public relations at
WDR, where he moderated the Kulturweltspiegel for ARD and
was the ARTE-commissioner for WDR. Schmid-Ospach has
also authored several books, including books about Else
Lasker-Schüler and about the film Blaubart by Krzysztof
Zanussi, based on the novel by Max Frisch.
2nd German
Editing Prize awarded:
Bettina Böhler wins DM15,000
On 18 November 2000, the Filmstiftung NRW and the
film magazine Schnitt awarded the 2nd German Editing Prize at
the Film Fest Lünen. Bettina Böhler, editor of Christian
Petzold’s The State I Am In, was selected by a jury of
experts (Martina Gedeck, Claudia Wolscht, Dominik Graf,
Dieter Kosslick, Benedict Neuenfels) from 12 nominated
works at the editing party in Lünen. The DM 15,000 prize
money was given by the Filmstiftung NRW in order to ”support this commitment so that the nice words about the meaningfulness of film editing do not remain merely lip-service“,
according to the Filmstiftung’s managing director Dieter
Kosslick. Almost all nominated editors were present as Bettina
Böhler thanked the jury ”that the award went to a film where
Dieter Kosslick (Filmstiftung NRW), Nikolaj Nikitin (”Der Schnitt“), editor
Claudia Wolscht, actress Martina Gedeck, award-winner Bettina Böhler, director
Dominik Graf, DoP Benedict Neuenfels and Oliver Baumgarten (”Der Schnitt“)
(photo © Shamrock photo/Norbert Kesten)
Kino n e w s
relatively few camera perspectives and cuts were obviously still
able to captivate the viewers. This gives hope in times of the
popularity of pictures and the impatience of viewing.“ Before
the jury announced the winner, Dominik Graf reminded of
editing’s importance in the filmmaking process, and considers it
the only true original film function, noting that ”actors and
directors have their origins in theater, writers in literature and
camera direction in photography.“
The jury emphasized the basis of its decision upon the unseen
that is made visable by the montage, the permanent tension
of the main characters, the eeriness of the past that pervades
across the German countryside like a veil. ”Editing shows: the
only thing that the figures of this film never find is their inner
security.“
The Editing Award is organized by the Bochum film magazine
Schnitt, which also celebrated its fifth birthday within the
framework of this gala event.
Hamburg & Berlin-Brandenburg
at the Location Global Expo
Kerstin Peters
Kerstin Peters, Director of the Location Office of the
FilmFörderung Hamburg since May 2000, will represent the
Location Office Hamburg as well as the Film Commission
Berlin-Brandenburg at this year’s Location Global Expo in
Los Angeles (23 – 24 February 2001). Her aim is to market
film locations in northern Germany, Hamburg and BerlinBrandenburg on an international level. ”We are continuing the
tradition of cooperation with Berlin again this year in Los
Angeles. Our ’common double‘ creates synergy, punching
power and cuts costs on both sides“, says Eva Hubert,
managing director of the FilmFörderung Hamburg.
Plenty of Television from
Germany in Biarritz
German TV formats represented in all of FIPA's
competitive sections
Germany was represented in all of the six competitive sections
at the 14th Festival International de Programmes
Audiovisuels (FIPA, 16. – 21.01.2001) in Biarritz.
Michael Verhoeven took part in the feature film competition with his new film Enthüllung einer Ehe (SWR) which
was already broadcast in Germany with great success.
Furthermore, invitations were extended to such
international co-productions with German partners as The
Bookfair Murders by Wolfgang Panzer and Das
Mädchen aus der Fremde by Peter Reichenbach.
The competition for series saw Margarethe von Trotta
present her highly regarded four-parter Jahrestage (WDR).
The competition for reportages presented Der Tag, der in
der Handtasche verschwand (WDR) by Marion
Kainz. The American-German co-production The
Turandot Project by Allan Miller was in the competition for music programmes and performances.
No less than three German entries were selected for the competition for short films: Alles mit Besteck by Franziska
Meletzky, BSSS by Felix Gönnert
and Tagebuch by Vuk Jevremovic.
The selective TV market ”Fipatel“ – where one can only see
works which have been invited by the festival director –
presented no less than 23 German productions, including
the series Deutschlandspiel (ZDF/ARTE) by H. C.
Blumenberg, the documentary Hitler und die Frauen
(BR) by Thomas Hausner, the portrait John Lee
Hooker (BR) by Jörg Bundschuh, the live reportage
Körper by Brigitte Kramer and the literary adaptation
Donna Leon: Vendetta (ARD/DEGETO/BR) by
Christian von Castelberg.
Location
Baden-Württemberg!
Shooting Star Baden-Baden
On November 25th, the first MFG ”Shooting Star“, a
DM 100,000 prize for young directors, was given to Nicole
Weegmann, former student of the Filmakademie BadenWürttemberg, for her TV movie Wolfsheim which was
produced by SWR. The young director from Karlsruhe received the award from MFG director Gabriele Röthemeyer and director Detlev W. Buck (Liebesluder).
The ceremony took place during the Fernsehfilm-Festival
Baden-Baden in November 2000.
One of the biggest cinema productions in Germany at the
moment has just been shot in Baden-Württemberg: until
January 2001 military barracks in Karlsruhe were the setting for
the international co-production Buffalo Soldiers with a
budget of some DM 30 million. Starring in the film directed by
the Australian Gregor Jordan (Two Hands) are
Joaquin Phoenix (Gladiator), Ed Harris (Apollo 13,
The Truman Show), Scott Glenn (The Player, The
Silence of the Lambs) and Anna Paquin (The
Piano, X-Men).
The script is based on the best-selling novel with the same title
by Robert O’Connor. MFG supported the film which was
exclusively shot in the Rhine/Neckar area with its maximum
amount of support of DM 2 million.
25
Scene from ”Anam – Meine Mutter” © Wolfgang Lehmann
For them, Alakus, whose 1996 short Schlüssel (Keys) won
prizes at festivals in Belgium and Italy, ”is a visual filmmaker who,
if in doubt, prefers the image to a thousand words. Moreover, she
relies on the closeness to her characters: she doesn’t know any
apprehension about showing the feelings of her heroines. On the
contrary: she is always with them, she never betrays them and she
lets the audience participate in the inner life of the people she is
depicting“.
They add that ”it’s been exciting and appealing to juxtapose the
buddies from Fatih Akin’s Short, Sharp, Shock [which
Wüste Film produced in 1998] with a clique of cleaning women
who one wouldn’t immediately see as being a gang. And it is a
great human satisfaction to see – as filmmakers and cinemagoers –
that heroics cannot once and for all be reduced to the little boys
who have armed their toy guns before stepping out onto the
street with a grim expression“.
Following the experience with Lars Becker’s Schattenboxer
(1992) and Akin’s film, Schwingel and Schubert are expecting
that Anam will also be picked up for theatrical release.
MB
A uf den Flüssen
Anam –
Meine Mutter
Original Title Anam – Meine Mutter Type of Project
Feature Film Genre Melodrama Production Company
Wüste Filmproduktion, Hamburg in co-production with ZDF
– Das Kleine Fernsehspiel, Mainz, and Wüste Film West, Cologne
With backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg, Filmbüro NW
and Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film Producers Ralph
Schwingel, Stefan Schubert Director Buket Alakus Screenplay
Buket Alakus Director of Photography Marcus Lambrecht
Principal Cast Nursel Köse, Saskia Vester, Audrey Motaung,
Navid Akhavan Format Super 16 mm/35 mm, colour, Dolby SR
Shooting Language German and Turkish Shooting in
Hamburg from October 30 to December 6, 2000
Contact:
Wüste Filmproduktion
Schulterblatt 58, D-20357 Hamburg
phone +49-40-4 31 70 60 · fax +49-40-4 30 00 12
email: wueste@wuestefilm.de
Shooting wrapped last autumn on Anam – Meine Mutter,
the first feature by Turkish-born Buket Alakus who studied
Film Directing at the University of Hamburg’s Institute for Theatre,
Musical Theatre and Film.
Produced by Wüste Film’s Ralph Schwingel and Stefan Schmidt,
this ”small, big film“ centres on the life of the Turkish cleaning
woman Anam who gets her colleagues to join in the struggle to
free her son Deniz from the world of drugs.
As producers Schwingel and Schubert point out, ”at first glance,
there may seem to be something joyless about these women, their
past, present and future. One expects the usual little complaints
and wearying daily routine. It’s no surprise that cleaning women
have hardly got a look-in to date as the protagonists in a feature
film. A new subject is overdue“.
26
Original Title Auf den Flüssen Type of Project TV-movie
Genre Roadmovie Production Company ö Filmproduktion,
Berlin With backing from ZDF, Mainz Producers Frank
Löprich & Katrin Schlösser Director Gordian Maugg
Screenplay Gordian Maugg, Sabine Weber Director of
Photography Andreas Giesecke Editor Monika Schindler
Principal Cast Renate Krössner, Cesary Pazura, Ullrich
Anschütz, Michael A. Grimm, Jutta Wachowiak, Dieter Montag,
Karol Wroblewski Format 35 mm, colour, b & w, 1:1.66
Shooting Language German, Polish Shooting in Berlin,
Potsdam, Spreewald, Rügen German Distributor Pegasos
Filmverleih, Cologne
Contact:
Pegasos Filmverleih
Ebertplatz 21, D-50668 Cologne
phone: +49-2 21-9 72 66 16 / +49-2 21-9 72 66 52
fax: +49 2 21 9 72 66 17
www.pegasosfilm.de
email: pegasos@pegasosfilm.de
“The search for the perfect sojanka,” is how writer-director
Gordian Maugg describes his latest project. Auf den Flüssen
(literally, On the Rivers) is a poetic roadmovie (or should that
be boatmovie?!) featuring a German-Polish love-triangle, set in
post-fall-of-the-Wall Germany and Poland, dealing with the eternal
themes of love, dreams and death. And sojanka, of course.
Once tasted (and for many it’s a never to be forgotten experience) sojanka is a soup-come-stew. A traditional eastern German
and Polish speciality, the name covers a multitude of culinary sins,
all the way from swill to something your grandmother would have
been proud to lovingly ladle.
Maugg’s latest film is set in the eastern German state of
Brandenburg, ten years after the Berlin Wall came down. Old
values have vanished but sojanka remains.
in p r o d u c t i o n
Scene from „Auf den Flüssen“
Contact:
Senator Film Verleih GmbH · Christoph Ott
Kurfürstendamm 65, D-10707 Berlin
phone +49-30-8 80 91 70-0
fax +49-30-8 80 91 77 23
www.senatorfilm.de · email: verleih@senatorfilm.de
Each of them has battled their way through the preliminaries to
win a place in the finals of the Dinner-Cup, and a crack at the
DM 25,000 prize. But more importantly, to prove to the other
who can cook the best.
Erik, who fled to the west in 1977, shines due to his reputation
and experience gained working in some of the finest international
restaurants and hotels. He’s moneyed, he’s successful, he drives a
shiny new Jaguar.
While he was safely abroad, Jutta resisted the Communist dictatorship in her own way, individually, and at great personal risk,
interpreting Brandenburg’s regional cuisine. Her mode of transport is the complete opposite of Erik’s; a battered, run down
boat. Together with her Polish colleague Janek she travels the
waterways (the Spree and Havel rivers and canal systems).
Their first joint project, the 1996 hit Knockin’ on Heaven’s
Door, sold over three million tickets in Germany. And now they
are continuing the teamwork with Auf Herz und Nieren (a
German phrase which means to test or examine something as
thoroughly as possible. Literally, to the heart and kidneys).
Once again, Schweiger and Jahn have stuck their characters in
situations as absurd as they are funny as they are exciting. After all,
what do the Pope, a suitcase full of baking powder, four not-so
intelligent friends and the Mafia-like trade in human organs got to
do with one another? In Auf Herz und Nieren they’re the
key elements of a macabre and grotesque story, one with plenty
of heart and black humour, as Ricco, Sigi, Dave and Glotze dream
of hitting the big time. Instead, they fall foul of a drug baron and
sinister organ dealers. Their one chance to emerge intact is to play
their opponents at their own game.
(photo © Senator Film) Thierry van Werveke, Xavier Naidoo
Renate Krössner plays Jutta Störmer, Ulrich Anschütz is
the career-minded Erik Bundschuh. Both are top chefs from the
days of the DDR. Their lives have taken different turns but they
share an old, and failed, love for one another. Twenty years on
and their paths cross again during a cooking competition.
Reunited, love brings them together and quickly makes them
competitors.
They’re back! The dream team of Til Schweiger and
Thomas Jahn!
As she, Erik and Janek make their way, by car and by boat,
metaphorically and literally, towards the Grand Final in Potsdam,
they are on a journey that will change their lives.
Auf den Flüssen is another in the celebrated and prestigious
series of ZDF Kleines Fernsehspiel dramas (see Flüchtige Bekannte).
SK
A uf Herz
und Nieren
Original Title Auf Herz und Nieren Type of Project
Feature Genre Comedy Production Company Mr. Brown
Entertainment Filmproduction GmbH With backing from
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFörderung Hamburg, FFA, BKM
Producer Til Schweiger Director Thomas Jahn Screenplay
Jürg Brändli Director of Photography Peter von Haller
Editor Thomas Jahn Music by Fetisch Bergmann Principal
Cast Steffen Wink, Niels Bruno Schmidt, Martin Glade, Thierry
van Werveke, Xavier Naidoo Format 35mm, cs Shooting
Language German Shooting in Hamburg, Munich, Rome
German Distributor Senator Film Verleih GmbH
This time Til Schweiger, one of Germany’s top film names, is
acting as the film’s producer. As an actor, known equally for his
rugged good looks, three-day beard and willingness to remove his
shirt should the plot call for it, he has starred in such comedy-dramatic hits as Men’s Flophouse (Männerpension,1995, directed
by Detlev Buck), The Super-Wife (Das Superweib, 1995,
Sönke Wortmann) and the comedy of sexual confusion, Maybe,
27
Maybe Not (Der Bewegte Mann, 1994, director Sönke
Wortmann).
Schweiger’s latest theatrical outing is the recently released grannies-go-gangster caper comedy Jetzt oder Nie (director Lars
Büchel) and he can shortly be seen in playing alongside Nick Nolte
and Neve Campbell in Alan Rudolph’s Investigating Sex and
with Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds in Renny Harlin’s
Driven.
Twelve-year-old Caroline lives with her parents on a run down
suburban housing estate. Her parents are themselves still young
and their relationship is far from happy. Not so long ago they were
both still seventeen with their dreams ahead of them; dreams that
were incompatible with the needs of a child. Now their lives have
become dull and routine, for which they subconsciously blame
Caroline. She longs for nothing more than for her parents to make
up and stop fighting. Her one escape is the fantasy family world of
her favourite daily soap opera, Reiterhof.
Thomas Jahn, Auf Herz und Nieren’s director, made a
dramatic screen entry as the writer and director of Knockin’
On Heaven’s Door. (That film was made by Schweiger’s own
production company, Mr. Brown Entertainment, as is Auf Herz
und Nieren.) In 1997 Jahn followed up his earlier success with
Kai Rabe vs. The Vatican Killers (Kai Rabe gegen die
Vatikankiller), in which the film business is shown to be murder. Literally!
SK
But when her mother is killed in a tragic accident Caroline is all
but torn apart. Her father is completely devastated and feels responsible for his wife’s death. Unable to help his daughter he leaves
her alone with her grief. Caroline increasingly takes refuge in her
fantasy world and decides to cut herself off from the adult world
altogether. There, in her own reality, in Reiterhof, she finds the
warmth and affection she so desperately seeks. Before long she
cannot, does not want to, distinguish between fantasy and reality.
The borders have become blurred and nobody can bring her back.
Caroline
Original Title Caroline English Title Caroline Type of
Project TV-Movie Genre Drama Production Company
ndf - neue deutsche Filmgesellschaft, Munich, for RTL, Cologne
Producer Susanne Freyer Director Hannu Salonen
Screenplay Peter Petersen Director of Photography eska
Editor Usch Born Music by Ina Siefert Principal Cast
Yasmin Asadie, Oliver Korittke, Julia Richter, Johannes Klaussner,
Jophi Ries, Ellen ten Damme, Henrike Fehrs Format 16 mm,
colour, 24 frames/sec Shooting Language German
Shooting in Hamburg
His first feature, Downhill City (1999), tells the story of six
people who are in the process of radically altering their lives and
whose paths cross and become absorbed in the big city - Berlin.
Among the cast was Franke Potente, the heroine and title
character of writer-director Tom Tykwer’s recent breathtaking
hit, Run Lola Run. Downhill City enjoyed a theatrical release in Germany, Finland, France and Spain.
Of the cast of Caroline perhaps the best known is German
actor Oliver Korritke whose screen credits include playing the
less-than-hygienic cop, Dretzke, in Cologne’s Finest (Die
Musterknaben, director Ralf Huettner,1997) which also
starred Ellen ten Damme, and its sequel, Cologne’s
Finest 2 (Die Musterknaben 2, director Ralf Huettner,
1998). Both films were also produced by ndf - neue deutsche
Filmgesellschaft.SK
SK
Yasmin Asadie, Oliver Korittke
PR Contact: ndF Presse & Kommunikation, Munich
Susanne von Kessel
phone +49-89-9 58 26 - 1 53
fax +49-89-9 58 19 38
email: vonKessel@ndF.de
Award-wining director Hannu Salonen was born in Finland in 1972
and made several shorts, documentaries and a music video before
he had even collected his high-school graduation certificate! In
1993 he enrolled at the German Film & Television Academy (dffb).
28
Jonas Jägermeyr, Labina Mitevska
in p r o d u c t i o n
Flüc htige Bekannte
Original Title Flüchtige Bekannte (working title) English
Title Fleeting Acquaintances (working title) Type of Project
Feature Film Genre Road-Movie Production Company
Flying Moon Filmproduktion GmbH, Berlin, in co-production with
ZDF, Mainz With backing from Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg
Producers Helge Albers, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad, Konstantin
Kröning Director Michael Baumann Screenplay Michael
Baumann, Derek Meister Director of Photography Volker
Gehrling Editor Florian Köhler Music by Paul Lemp Principal
Cast Jonas Jägermeyr, Labina Mitevska, Paul Fassnacht, Michael
Kind, Robert Viktor Minnich Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1.85
Shooting Language German Shooting in Berlin, Rudnice
(Czech Republic), Dresden, Leipzig, Döbeln
PR Contact: Helge Albers
Flying Moon Filmproduktion GmbH
Burgstrasse 27 · D-10178 Berlin
phone +49-30-2 40 70 30 · fax +49-30-24 07 03 11
email: fmf@snafu.de
In Fleeting Acquaintances, his graduation film from
Potsdam’s Film & Television Academy (HFF/B), Michael
Baumann (director and co-writer) tells the simple yet involving
story of the seventeen-year-old Matthias (Jonas Jägermeyr),
a reserved young man, who accidentally meets the young waitress,
Iva (Labina Mitevska), in a small border town in the Czech
Republic.
On the spur of the moment she decides to take him with her to
Berlin. It’s a journey, by train and thumbing rides, which constantly
lands the two of them in strange situations.
But what really makes Fleeting Acquaintances special is
that it has been commissioned by the German national public
broadcaster ZDF as part of the Das kleine Fernsehspiel series.
Translated literally, Das kleine Fernsehspiel is “small theatre”. But
behind the small title is, quite simply, the oldest (not far short of
four decades), most intelligent, highest-quality and internationally
best-known series of productions (documentaries and TV-movies)
in Germany.
Das kleine Fernsehspiel first aired on the 4th April, 1963 and if
there is a common ancestor of the German TV-movie, of TVmovies in Germany, this is it.
For someone just embarking, Baumann couldn’t have gained a
greater a vote of confidence. And the man behind Fleeting
Acquaintances is joining some very auspicious company.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film, Händler der vier
Jahreszeiten, was produced as a kleines Fernsehspiel. So, too,
was Heinrich Böll’s satire, Nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit (directed by Wojtech Jasny). Robert Wilson directed
his first video project under ZDF’s auspices. Rosa von
Praunheim is yet another filmmaker who made his debut in
the “small theatre”.
All these years Das kleine Fernsehspiel has continued to hold its
own against the pressure of ratings and large-scale productions.
There is a German phrase, “klein aber fein”. It translates as “small
but good”. In this particular case that should be “small and very,
very good”.
SK
Matthias and Iva, simultaneously torn between their fascination for
each other and their mutual dislike, and in keeping with the spirit
of the road-movie genre, experience a transition both geographical and emotional. It’s a journey during which they will separate
and find each other more than once as they travel the road to
adulthood.
29
Hea ven
Original Title Heaven Type of Project Feature Film
Genre Romantic drama Production Company X Filme
creative pool, Berlin, and Miramax Films in co-operation
with Noe Productions, Paris, Mirage Productions, Los Angeles,
Miramax, New York With backing from Filmförderungsanstalt
(FFA), Filmstiftung NRW Producers Maria Köpf, Stefan Arndt,
Bill Horberg, Frédérique Dumas-Zajdela Director Tom Tykwer
Screenplay Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Director of Photography Frank Griebe Principal Cast
Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Mattia Sbragia, Alberto di Stasio,
Remo Girone Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1.85 Shooting
Language English and Italian Shooting in Turin, Bottrop,
Naples and Montepulciano from July 13 to September 9, 2000
German Distributor X Verleih AG, Berlin
(photo © X Filme creative pool GmbH) Giovanni Ribisi, Cate Blanchett
World Sales:
Miramax Films
c/o Cedric Jeanson
99 Hudson Street, 5th Floor,
USA-New York, NY 10013
phone: +1-2 12-9 41 38 00 · fax: +1-2 12-9 41 38 36
www.miramax.com
email: cedric.jeanson@miramax.com
After his four features Deadly Maria, Wintersleepers,
Run Lola Run and The Princess & The Warrior, leading
German director Tom Tykwer has now made his first foray
into the international arena with Heaven which also marks his
first film shot in the English and Italian languages.
Based on the last screenplay by the late Polish filmmaker
Krzysztof Kieslowski and his long-standing co-author
Krzysztof Piesiewicz as part of an intended trilogy, Heaven is
an exciting melange of a thriller, love story and moral drama
about fate, guilt, atonement and the all-enveloping power of love.
The story centres on the young English teacher Filippa (played by
Cate Blanchett) who is arrested after four innocent people are the
victim of a bomb attack. She doesn’t deny the act, but is devastated as the bomb had been intended for a ruthless drugs dealer
who has her husband and several of her pupils on his conscience.
The police suspect a political motive, except for the young officer
Philippo (Ribisi) who secretly believes that they were made for
each other …
”It is a story which immediately grabbed me“, Tykwer declared
during the shoot last summer, ”a screenplay which already had left
30
me bathed in perspiration after only three pages and one which
immediately jumped out at me. That was the first time that I had
such an experience: to read a screenplay by someone else and
have the feeling that it had somehow been waiting for me“.
Naturally, it could be daunting for Tykwer to presume to step
into Kieslowski’s shoes on this project, but he states that he is
“really trying to be as free as possible. I am really thinking of the
script and am trying to take the screenplay as Kieslowski’s
work and the film we are making of it as our work which must
naturally speak our language and speak from our soul“.
MB
Jud Süß –
Ein Film als
Verbrec hen?
Original Title Jud Süß – Ein Film als Verbrechen? Type of
Project TV-Movie Genre Docu-drama Production
Company Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), Hamburg
Producers orddeutscher Rundfunk (in-house production)
Director Horst Königstein Screenplay Horst Königstein,
Joachim Lang Director of Photography Udo Franz
Principal Cast Axel Milberg, Florian Martens, Esther
Hausmann, Johannes Silberschneider, Alexandra Henkel, Siegfried
Kernen, Wolf-Dietrich Berg Format 16 mm Digi Beta 16:9
Shooting Language German Shooting in Hamburg from
October 9 to November 2
World sales:
Fernsehallianz Studio Hamburg GmbH,
c/o Ms Lamas-Torres,
Jenfelder Allee 80, D-22039 Hamburg,
phone: +49-40-66 88 51 25 · fax: +49-40-66 88 53 99
www.fernsehallianz.de
e-mail: fernsehallianz@studio-hamburg.de
A star of the Third Reich, film director Veit Harlan, is at the centre
of writer-director Horst Königstein’s latest docu-drama Jud
Süß – Ein Film als Verbrechen? when he defended himself
in 1949 from claims of committing a crime against humanity with
the anti-Semitic film Jud Süß.
No stranger to the period under National Socialism having made
such films as Das Beil von Wandsbek (1981) and
Reichshauptstadt – Privat (1987), Königstein uses the
trial and the production history of Jud Süß to reveal ”a mosaic
of contradictory perspectives and opinions, a many-faceted study
on the flexibility of the backbone, on moral schizophrenia, selfconstructed half-truths and the bankrupt games of the assignment
of guilt“.
Since there are no records of the trial’s actual proceedings,
authors Königstein and Joachim Lang relied heavily on
newspaper reports for their melange of film extracts, interviews
and re-enacted scenes. ”We have tried to remain as authentic as
possible with the texts“, Königstein declares. ”But one has to
mould it, one has to find the inherent drama – and so it is also a
docu-drama in the true sense of the word“.
Extensive research in the German national archives, the Document
Center and Hamburg’s public prosecutor’s office as well interviews in summer 2000 with such contemporary witnesses as Veit
Harlan’s widow Maria Körber-Harlan, actress Marianne
Hoppe and writer Ralph Giordano preceded principal photography in Hamburg during the autumn.
in p r o d u c t i o n
Hea ven
Shooting wrapped shortly before Christmas on location in New
York on Love The Hard Way, the latest film by director
Peter Sehr.
Starring Adrien Brody (Bread and Roses), Charlotte
Ayanna (Dancing At The Blue Iguana), Jon Seda
(Primal Fear), August Diehl (Cool Is The Evening
Breeze) and Pam Grier (Jackie Brown), the contemporary
film noir is based on the Chinese novel Yi ban shi huo yan, yi ban
shi hai shui by Wang Shuo and focuses on an unlikely love story
between an innocent college co-ed and a hardboiled con man.
Scene from ”Jud Süß – Ein Film als Verbrechen?“
The response from actors – ranging from Axel Milberg as
Harlan and Florian Martens as his defence lawyer Kramer
through to Johannes Silberschneider as Joseph Goebbels –
wanting to appear in the staged sequences was overwhelming,
according to Königstein: ”wonderful colleagues expressed interest to be involved, right through to the smallest part, because
everyone feels that the Third Reich – of which one believed it was
further than ever away – is in fact coming nearer again“.
MB
Love The
Hard Wa y
Brody plays Jack, the scam artist, who with his loyal partner
Charlie (Seda) and two actresses, runs a seamless and profitable
extortion racket victimizing foreign businessmen in midtown
hotels. A true cad, Jack is careful not to let anyone get too close,
until he meets Claire (Ayanna), a brilliant graduate student.
Claire is smart enough to know that Jack is no good, but she is
intrigued by Jack’s style, his surly demeanour and the obvious danger that surrounds him. Jack, in turn, is taken by Claire’s innocence
and curiosity about life. While he tries to ignore her, he cannot rid
himself of her so easily and soon she becomes as dangerous to
him as the sharp New York City detective Linda Meir (Grier)
who is a step behind Jack and Charlie at every con and gaining
fast … Peter Sehr is perhaps best known to international audiences as the director of the accaliamed 1994 film Kaspar
Hauser: Crime Against a Man’s Soul, starring André
Eisermann, which was distributed in Germany by Wolfram
Tichy’s distribution outfit TiMe Filmverleih. Sehr followed this
historical drama with the contemporary love triangle Obsession,
starring Daniel Craig, Heike Makatsch and Charles
Berling, – also distributed by TiMe – which was shot on location
in Berlin and Niagara Falls and screened at the Sundance Film
Festival in 1997.
MB
Original Title Love The Hard Way Type of Project Feature
Film Genre Contemporary film noir Production Company
Vif Filmproduktion 3. KG, Potsdam in co-production with
P’Artisan Filmproduktion, Munich, Daybreak Pictures, New York,
Open City Films, New York Executive Producer Wolfram
Tichy Co-Executive Producers Grant Bradley, Craig Nodder
Producers Wolfram Tichy, Peter Sehr, Jason Kliot and Joana
Vicente Director Peter Sehr Screenplay Marie Noelle, Peter
Sehr, based on the novel Yi ban shi huo yan, yi ban shi hai
shui by Wang Shuo Director of Photography Guy Dufaux
Principal Cast Adrien Brody, Charlotte Ayanna, Jon Seda, Pam
Grier, August Diehl Format 35 mm, colour Shooting
Language English Shooting in New York from October 31 to
December 19, 2000
Contact:
Vif Filmproduktion
Virchowstraße 23, D-14882 Potsdam-Babelsberg,
phone: +49-3 31-7 21 55 29, fax: +49-3 31-7 21 55 39
email: vif@vif-group.de
World sales:
Storm Entertainment
225 Santa Monica Blvd., # 601
USA-Santa Monica, CA 90401
phone: +1-3 10-6 56 25 00 · fax: +1-3 10-6 56 25 10
email: storment95@aol.com
August Diehl, Adrien Brody (photo: Abbot Genser)
31
Roland, who has just gone to buy ice cream for his children, watches helplessly as, just a few metres away, his wife and children are
cut down by flying wreckage. For Roland Wenzel the 28th August
is the day his family was wiped out in front of his eyes.
Ramstein 1988
Based on actual events Ramstein - The Broken Heart tells
the story of those people whose lives were dramatically affected
by what took place that day, people who lost relatives or friends.
Ramstein –
Das durc hstoßene
Herz
Original Title Ramstein - Das durchstoßene Herz English
Title Ramstein - The Broken Heart Type of Project TVMovie (90 minutes) Genre Drama Production Company
JANUS Film GmbH, Berlin With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern Producers Ivo Beck, Mirko Schulze Screenplay
Holger Karsten Schmidt Editor Olli Lanvermann Music by
Martin Todsharow Format 16 mm, colour Shooting
Language German Shooting in Munich, Berlin and
Rheinland-Pfalz
World sales: Kirch Media GmbH + Co.Kga
Andreas Richter
Robert-Bürkle-Str. 2 · D-85737 Ismaning
phone +49-89-99 56 27 56
fax +49-89-99 56 27 72
www.kirchgruppe.de
email: andreas_richter@kirchgruppe.de
The 28th August 1988 is a beautiful day.
It’s an ideal day for going to the zoo or having a picnic. But today
most people are heading to see something really spectacular. The
Ramstein airbase is having another open day and, once again, has
organised a display which, for the locals and guests from all over
Germany, promises to be one of the year’s highlights.
300,000 visitors are expected and even by early morning all roads
to Ramstein are already blocked. Among those on their way are
Roland Wenzel, his wife and their children, Rebecca and Sven. It’s
a special treat for all of them. Roland works hard but earns little
and there’s a mortgage that has to be paid. But today they’ve put
that behind them and, picnic at the ready, are going to enjoy themselves.
Air Day at Ramstein. There’s a carnival atmosphere, ice cream and
hamburgers to be eaten. The children are having a great time,
especially Sven who, like most boys his age, is crazy about aircraft
and the aerobatic and formation flying taking place above their
heads.
The climax is a display by the crack Italian team, Frecce Tricolori.
Their ten planes are performing a spectacular manoeuvre – the
Broken Heart – when the unimaginable happens. Three machines
collide in mid-air, one crashes in flames into the crowd.
32
With its episodic structure the film revolves around a therapy
group which, even today, allows victims of the disaster to meet
and discuss how their lives have changed, while a fictional crash
investigator provides a cool and technical perspective to guide
viewers through the actual events.
Ramstein is not a film about the pros and cons of airshows.
Instead, it tackles the problems posed by cruel blows of fate and
coming to terms with them. And because no other air disaster
has been so well documented as that at Ramstein it will be
possible to merge fiction and documentary material to create a
truly impressive film.
SK
Ra ve Macbeth
Original Title Rave Macbeth English Title Rave Macbeth
Type of Project Feature Genre Music / Drama Production Companies Frame Werk Filmproduktion, Silhouette
Media Group Producers Stefan Jonas, Hans Peter Mack, Silvio
Astarita, Seijin Ki Director Klaus Knoesel Screenplay Harry Ki
Director of Photography Arturo Smith Editor Birgit Klingl
Music by Tom Novy, Phil Fuldner, Tomcraft (Tom Batoy / Mona
Davis) Principal Cast Michael O. Rosenbaum, Nicki Aycox,
Kirk Baltz, Jamie Elman, Marguerite Moreau Format SONY
Digital 24P (progressive) video Shooting Language English
Shooting in Munich German Distributor Ambergate
Contact: Eddie Kalish
Phone +1 3 10-2 64 39 70
Email ekalish@ambergate.net
World Sales: 310 entertainment
1801 Century Park East, Suite 2300,
USA-Los Angeles, CA 90067
phone +1-3 10-5 57 29 90 · fax +1-3 10-5 57 29 89
www.310entertainment.com
email: 310@310entertainment.com
in p r o d u c t i o n
Rave Macbeth is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s
Macbeth, this time set in a rave. It’s the story of Marcus and
Lidia (Macbeth and Lady Macbeth), consumed by ambition. Their
grasp for power brings about the downfall of Dean (the king),
their friends Troy and Helena and finally themselves.
Oskar Roehler, director of the award-winning and critically
praised No Place To Go (Die Unberührbare), has come up
with something completely different for his latest feature going
under the salacious working title Suck My Dick which is
described as a modern version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic
parable of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The story opens with the murder of drug boss Deans’ right hand
man TC after Marcus and Troy give him the word TC has been
dealing behind his back. The two friends are promoted to Dean’s
seconds-in-command. That night, they celebrate with their girlfriends Lidia and Helena.
Edgar Selge - known to many cinemagoers as one of the naively
enthusiastic bankers in Helmut Dietl’s Rossini – plays the bestseller writer Dr. Jekyll who recounts an incredible story to his
psychiatrist (portrayed by fashion designer Wolfgang Joop in
his first major film role): he is afraid that the character from his
novel and alter ego Mr. Hyde (Ralf Richter) is going to escape
from his brain and take everything away that is dear to him. Just
at the very point when he was trying to have his way with the
attractive Jeanny (Katja Flint).
The more ambitious of the two, Lidia, forces Marcus to question
his friendship with his best friend, Troy, firstly by suggesting he’s
hitting on her and then implying he’s secretly plotting with Dean.
As the party drugs take effect Marcus becomes confused and
when Lidia deliberately tells him the wrong time he arrives late to
meet Dean, and is disconcerted to see him already in conversation
with Troy. Lidia’s lies begin to take effect and she then engineers a
cloakroom encounter with Troy, knowing Marcus will see them
kissing.
Wolfgang Joop
But things take a mysterious twist when Marcus and Lidia encounter the Petry Girls (the witches or Weird Sisters).
In a fit of jealous rage Marcus stabs his best friend to death. At
that point Troy’s drugged-up girlfriend walks in on the bloody
mayhem. Marcus and Lidia now have no choice. He will kill Dean,
she will kill Helena with an overdose of Ecstasy.
Marcus makes his move against Dean outside the club, one-onone, and in the ensuing confrontation Marcus stabs him.
Marcus and Lidia are now this close to taking power when it
comes to a stand-off between them and Macduff, Dean’s chief
bodyguard. Lidia is shot. Marcus flees the club carrying Lidia and
he too is shot. The tragic couple die in each other’s arms.
Written by Canadian Harry Ki, Rave Macbeth is a modern
musical drama set in the techno and house scene. The
film’s leading characters, strongly paralleling those in Shakespeare’s
original, run the gamut of envy, hate, love and intrigue – driving
the story and suspense in the raw rave milieu. Age-old human
behaviour is accompanied by a strong soundtrack and special
effects, all captured using the unique capabilities of Sony’s latest
film-quality digital video system.
SK
Suc k My Dic k
Original Title Suck My Dick Type of Project Feature Film
Genre Comedy Production Company Helkon Media
Filmproduktion GmbH, Munich Producer Werner Koenig
Director Oskar Roehler Screenplay Oskar Roehler
Director of Photography Charlie Koschnik
Principal Cast Edgar Selge, Katja Flint, Ralf Richter Wolfgang
Joop, Natalia Wörner, Eva Mattes, Hannelore Elsner, Sonja
Kerskes, Dieter Laser, Nina Bagusat, Vadim Glowna
Format 35 mm, colour Shooting Language German
Shooting in Berlin from 24 October to 8 December 2000
German Distributor Helkon Filmverleih, Munich
World sales:
Helkon Media AG,
Rauchstraße 9-11, D-81679 Munich
phone: +49-89-99 80 51 00
fax: +49-89-99 80 51 11
www.helkon.de · email: info@helkon.de
The shrink diagnoses an extreme case of midlife crisis but, the
very next night, Dr. Jekyll dreams that he has lost his manhood’s
pride and joy to the rival Hyde. Imagine his shock when he wakes
up in the morning to discover that the nightmare was for real …
Boasting an impressive cast which also includes No Place To
Go stars Hannelore Elsner and Vadim Glowna as well as
Natalia Wörner, Dieter Laser and Eva Mattes, Suck
My Dick is – on a superficial level – about a man’s fears of loss
during his midlife crisis.
In fact, Roehler is more concerned here with sketching an exaggerated picture of modern society where individuals increasingly
have doubts about the purpose of their existence and find themselves in ever more abstruse situations that hark back to the
comic moments of the early Woody Allen.
MB
33
Tobias Moretti
Following its production of the East-West drama Der Tunnel
early in 2000, TeamWorx embarked on another ”TV event“ for
private broadcaster SAT.1 in the autumn with a two-parter - Der
Tanz mit dem Teufel – Die Entführung des Richard
Oetker - based on the real-life story of the kidnapping of industrialist son Richard Oetker in 1976.
As producer Nico Hofmann points out, ”there are too few stories
which look concretely at the psychology of the victims and the
work of the criminal investigation“, but this was different with
Rainer Berg’s screenplay which he describes as ”an extraordinarily
passionate crime story“.
In fact, the realisation of the DM 11 million production had been a
very personal matter for producer Ludwig zu Salm who had been
developing the project during his time as head of Columbia
TriStar Film und Fernseh Produktions GmbH.
”I had already known Richard Oetker before his kidnapping and
always asked myself how he was able to mentally overcome this
lifelong great misfortune“, zu Salm recalls. ”So I proposed after the
ransom money was found that he tell his kidnap story as a crime
film, but not from the usual perspective of the perpetrator or the
police, but rather from the viewpoint of the victim“.
Zu Salm succeeded in getting his ”dream team“ of writer Rainer
Berg, director Peter Keglevic, and actor Sebastian Koch
(as Oetker) onboard the project which received the seal of approval from Oetker who acted as consultant to the project as did the
detective Ludwig Bauer who had investigated the case.
The film, however, adds some other narrative strands to the central theme of the kidnapping and Oetker’s brutal incarceration.
”The film is not a 1:1 narration. It is about Richard Oetker’s point
of view“, says director Keglevic, ”and therefore the film is also
biased“.
Der Tanz mit dem
Teufel – Die
Entführung des
Richard Oetker
Original Title Der Tanz mit dem Teufel – Die Entführung des
Richard Oetker Type of Project TV two-parter Genre
Drama Production Company TeamWorx Produktion für
Kino und Fernsehen GmbH, Berlin/Munich, in collaboration with
Ludwig zu Salm, developed with Columbia TriStar Film und
Fernseh Produktions GmbH With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern Producers Nico Hofmann, Ludwig zu Salm,
Ariane Krampe Director Peter Keglevic Screenplay Dr. Rainer
Berg Director of Photography Hans-Günther Bücking
Principal Cast Tobias Moretti, Sebastian Koch, Christoph Walz,
Günther Maria Halmer, Sophie von Kessel Format 16 mm,
colour Shooting Language German Shooting in Munich
and surroundings and London from September 19 to December
12, 2000 German Broadcaster SAT.1
World sales: Kirch Media GmbH + Co.Kga
Andreas Richter
Robert-Bürkle-Str. 2 · D-85737 Ismaning
phone +49-89-99 56 27 56 · fax +49-89-99 56 27 72
www.kirchgruppe.de
email: andreas_richter@kirchgruppe.de
34
The small screen premiere is scheduled for autumn 2001 over a
Sunday and Monday night, and producer Ariane Krampe expects a
”strong international interest“ in the story, especially since Tobias
Moretti who plays detective Bauer is very popular in France and
Italy.
MB
A Woman And
A Half –
Hildegard Knef
Original Title A Woman And A Half – Hildegard Knef
English Title A Woman and a Half – Hildegard Knef
Type of Project Documentary Genre Biography
Production Company Lounge Entertainment AG, Munich
Producer Marieke Schroeder Executive Producers Stefan
Cantz, Roman Kuhn Director Clarissa Ruge Screenplay
Clarissa Ruge, Matthias Zuber Director of Photography
Martin Farkas Editor Edith Eisenstecken, Andreas Herzog
Music by Till Brönner Principal Cast Hildegard Knef
Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.66 Shooting Language German
Shooting in Atlantic Ocean aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2,
New York, Los Angeles, Berlin
World Sales: Lounge Entertainment AG
Contact Marieke Schroeder
phone +49-89-99 81 83 00
fax +49-89-99 81 88 29
www.lounge.de
email: marieke.schroeder@lounge.de
Hildegard Knef. Legendary German film diva. An actress
whose personality is as complex as the characters she has
played, Knef is by turns irritable, impatient, charming,
humorous, fascinating and enchanting. But behind the many
masks is the temperamental woman, the Hildegard Knef
who has weathered many of life’s blows; failure in
Hollywood, cancer, lost loves, the enmity of the press and,
finally, the horror of ageing. A Woman And A Half –
Hildegard Knef is a portrait of the Knef who has become cynical and unpredictable in order to protect herself, but
also the Knef full of warmth, humour and spirit.
Scenes in which she appears as the grand old Diva are intercut with the realities of everyday life. Aboard the luxury
liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, she travels with her husband,
biographer, manager and the jazz musician Till Brönner from
Southampton to New York. A few hours later she stands
among the homeless and tourists, at night, in Times Square.
Surrounded by the glittering lights her eyes begin to shine.
Forty-five years ago she stood on this very spot, on the evening of her great Broadway premiere, gazing proudly at the
neon sign which read ”Hildegarde Neff and Don Ameche in
Cole Porter’s ’Silk Stockings‘ “.
(photo © Lounge Entertainment AG) Hildegard Knef
in p r o d u c t i o n
This is a film about the one, true, international star
Germany has ever had. It is a journey into her past and the
portrait of a great and pugnacious woman.
Hildegard Knef ’s first made her name in Wolfgang
Staudte’s 1946 classic, (The) Murderers Are
Among Us (Die Mörder sind unter uns).
The first film to be made in the Soviet-controlled sector of
Berlin, in what was to become East Germany, the film is
deeply and masterly immersed in the aesthetic traditions of
German expressionism and/or film noir. It stands out for its
unusual angles, extreme lighting, twisted stairs, bombed-out
buildings, a haunted and tormented protagonist, stark black
and white atmosphere and shadows.
(The) Murderers Are Among Us was shot in the
rubble of the capital of Hitler’s vaunted thousand year Third
Reich and deals with the issue of German guilt, focusing less
on the people who gave the orders and more on the many
Germans who followed them blindly or with little protest.
Clarissa Ruge’s film is an exciting kaleidoscope of the
past five decades in the life of the extraordinary Hildegard
Knef, who remains active before the camera to this very
day.
SK
NEW ADDRESS
as of march 2001
Sonnenstrasse 21 · D-80331 Munich
phone +49-89-59 97 870
Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH
www.german-cinema.de · email: export-union@german-cinema.de
35
Lissy
Vending machine restaurants on the streets, working-class housing in Wedding with the organ-grinder in
the courtyard, and the fascist SA pub on the corner capture the authentic historical setting and mood
of 1932 Berlin. Also the destiny of someone like Lissy – an eager girl from a working-class family who
has a thirst for life and who marries a Nazi – was commonplace in Berlin in 1932 and belongs to the
years which witnessed the rise of the National Socialist regime. However, Lissy soon realizes that financial security is not the sole basis of a decent and respectable life.
Hans-Peter Minetti, Sonja Sutter
The story of the German petty bourgeoisie in uncertain and troubled times, Lissy is a young woman
caught up in the political turmoil of the early 1930s.
G E RMAN C LASS IC MOVI E
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 1957 Director Konrad Wolf
Screenplay Alex Wedding, Konrad Wolf, adapted
from the novel by F.C. Weiskopf Director of
Photography Werner Bergmann Editor Lena
Neumann Music by Joachim Werzlau Set Design
Gerhard Helwig Production Company DEFAStudio für Spielfilme, Babelsberg Principal Cast
Sonja Sutter, Horst Drinda, Hans-Peter Minetti
Length 89 min, 2425 m Format 35 mm, b&w,
1:1.37 Original Version German Subtitled
Version English Sound Technology Mono
International Festival Screenings Karlovy Vary
1957 International Awards Third Prize, Karlovy
Vary 1957 German Distributor Progress FilmVerleih GmbH, Berlin
Konrad Wolf, son of the writer Friedrich Wolf, was
born in Hechingen in 1925 and died in Berlin in 1982. In
1933, the family emigrated, arriving in the Soviet Union
in 1934. At the age of eighteen, Wolf joined the Red
Army and came to Germany as a lieutenant in 1945. He
studied Directing at the Moscow Film School in 1949
and was assistant director to Kurt Maetzig at the DEFA
Studios in 1953. His first film was Einmal ist keinmal (1955). He then became director at the DEFA
Feature Films Studios. From 1965 onwards, he was the
president of the GDR’s Academy of Arts. His major
films include: Genesung (1956), Sonnensucher
(1958), Sterne (1959), Der geteilte Himmel
(1964), Ich war 19 (1968), Goya (1971), Der
nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz (1974),
Mama ich lebe (1977), Solo Sunny (1980),
Busch singt (1982), a six-part television series for
GDR-Television.
World Sales:
Progress Film-Verleih GmbH · Christel Jansen
Burgstr. 27 · D-10178 Berlin
phone +49-30-24 00 32 25 · fax +49-30-24 00 32 22
www.progress-film.de · email: c.jansen@progress-film.de
36
Metropolis
For decades, the film archives of many different countries have attempted to restore and reconstruct
this film, without having found all the missing parts of the film or the original picture quality of the
pieces that were found. Again, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation and the Federal Archives, in
cooperation with the members of the Cinematic Association, have initiated another attempt to reconstruct the film as closely as possible to the original work.
Brigitte Helm
Sometime in the future. Johann Fredersen is mastermind of Metropolis, a gigantic high-tech city, under
whose surface masses of workers lead an archaic slave existence. His son, Freder, is witness to the
inhumane working conditions and rebels against his despotic father, discovering a spiritual community
in the catacombs of the city: Maria, a young woman, preaches the virtues of love and reconciliation.
But Fredersen discovers Maria as well and conjures up a sinister plan. He commissions the scientist
Rotwang to develop a robot form of Maria, which he will use to gain influence over the workers.
The plan works, but Freder and Maria are able to hinder the catastrophe in the last minute. The mass
hysteria turns and directs its rage toward the robot Maria, who is burned at the stake. Freder and Maria
form a new brotherly community among the classes – Fredersen offers his hand in reconciliation, true
to the motto of the film: ”the mediator between the hand and the brain must be the heart“.
Fritz Lang, born in 1890 in Vienna, was more than
just a great director. He was a man who staged himself
and his life, who created the legend of his person, who
wanted his private life to remain invisible in order to
further launch his desired public image. He celebrated
his first success during the Weimar Republic, reacting to
the massive political and social changes and integrating
them into his work. He left Germany in 1933, emigrating via France to the United States in 1934, where he
continued to tie political aspects into his work. His best
known films from his work in Germany include: Die
Spinnen (1919), Die Pest in Florenz (1919),
Harakiri (1919), Das wandernde Bild (1920),
Kämpfende Herzen (1920/21), Der müde Tod
(1921), Das indische Grabmal (1921), Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1921/22), Die Nibelungen
(1922-24), Spione (1927/28), Frau im Mond
(1928/29) and many more.
G E RMAN C LASS IC MOVI E
Genre Fantasy/Science-Fiction Category Feature
Film Cinema Year of Production 1925/26
Director Fritz Lang Screenplay Thea von Harbou
Director of Photography Karl Freund, Günther
Rittau Editor Fritz Lang Music by Bernd Schultheis
(new composition 2001) Set Design Otto Hunte,
Erich Kettelhut, Karl Vollbrecht Production
Company Universum-Film (Ufa), Berlin Principal
Cast Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich,
Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theodor Loos, Erwin
Biswanger, Heinrich George Special Effects Eugen
Schüfftan Length 146.3 min (20 B/sec), 3341 m
Format 35 mm, silent, 1:1.33 Sound Technology
Mono/Stereo International Festival Screenings
Berlin 2001 International Awards UNESCO
nomination Memory of the World German
Distributor Transit Film GmbH, Munich
World Sales:
Transit Film GmbH · Loy W. Arnold
Dachauer Str. 35 · D-80335 Munich
phone: +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax: +49-89-59 98 85 20
www.transitfilm.de · email: transitfilm@compuserve.com
37
Tag der Idioten
DAY O F T H E I D I OT S
Carol is an attractive but somewhat eccentric 20-year-old. Coming from a well-to-do family, she
doesn’t have any financial concerns and could lead an easy life. But it is this daily indifference that
dissatisfies her, makes her restless, and rouses in her ideas, fantasies, longings – all beyond the
accepted norms. Carol demands a lot from her environment and herself. Because it is her life that
is of concern, and no one else’s, she wants everything and she wants it immediately.
But what could be the reason for a woman to
do things which are radical and monstrous?
Where does she get this totalitarianism that
even destroys a love affair? Why does she
ruin other people’s lives? Just because she
does not succeed in living her own?
What is it that Carol needs? Love? Devotion?
Affirmation? Why doesn’t anyone give it to
her, why must she find it all by herself?
Why does she think she cannot live like
others do? What causes her to enter the
world of psychiatry and to look for the
sincerity in life in this world of illusion?
Isn’t her obsession partly self-destruction?
Couldn’t her desire for an extreme life in
fact be the extreme longing for death?
G E RMAN C LASS IC MOVI E
Carole Bouquet
Day of the Idiots asks all these questions
and many others. And it also gives answers –
answers which will astonish, surprise, and
even frighten.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 1981 Director Werner
Schroeter Screenplay Dana Horaková, Werner
Schroeter Director of Photography Ivan Slapeta
Editor Catherine Brasier Music by Peer Raben
Set Design Czbynek Hlock Production
Company OKO-Film Karel Dirka, Munich Principal
Cast Carole Bouquet, Ida di Benedetto, Ingrid Caven,
Christine Kaufmann, Tamara Kafka Length 110 min,
3007 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original
Version German Subtitled Version English
Dubbed Version Spanish Sound Technology
Mono
Werner Schroeter was born in Thuringia in 1945.
He worked in the theater and staged his first opera
(”Lohengrin“) in Kassel in 1979. He made his first feature film Eika Katappa in 1969 and followed it with,
among others: The Death of Maria Malibran
(Der Tod der Maria Malibran, 1971), Golden
Flakes (Goldflocken, 1976), Kingdom of
Naples (Neapolitansiche Geschwister, 1978),
Palermo or Wolfsburg (Palermo oder
Wolfsburg, 1980), The Rose King (Der
Rosenkönig, 1985), Malina (1990), Love’s
Debris (Abfallprodukte der Liebe, 1996), and
Die Königin – Marianne Hoppe (2000).
World Sales:
Cine-International Filmvertrieb GmbH & Co. KG · Lilli Tyc-Holm, Susanne Groh
Leopoldstr. 18 · D-80802 Munich
phone +49-89-39 10 25 · fax +49-89-33 10 89
www.cine-international.de · email: email@cine-international.de
38
Service Production
Studio Babelsberg
hat eine lange, erfolgreiche
Tradition in der Filmproduktion und ist nach wie vor
eines der besten Service-Center für Film und Fernsehen
in Europa.
Eröffnungsfilm der Berlinale 2001:
Enemy at the Gates
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Art Department
Dekorationsbau
Kostümstudio
Requisitenfundus
Studio Service
Studios für Film + TV
Taking Sides
Director: István Szabó
Lichttechnik
Aussendekoration
The Pianist
Director: Roman Polanski
Postproduction
Filmkopierwerk
Videobearbeitung
Tonbearbeitung
Synchronproduktion
Rainer Schaper
CEO Studio Babelsberg
Produktion
Telefon +49 331 72 13151
Telefax +49 331 72 12525
produktion@studiobabelsberg.com
Gerhard Bergfried
CEO Studio Babelsberg
Service
Telefon +49 331 72 12031
Telefax +49 331 72 12024
postproduktion@studiobabelsberg.com
August-Bebel-Strasse 26-53
14482 Potsdam
www.studiobabelsberg.com
100 Pro
100 Pro tells the story of an unbelievable summer day, a more unbelievable summer night
and an even more unbelievable summer morning in the lives of two young men, the nineteenyear-old womanizer and go-cart champion Floh and his best friend, the community service
worker, Marcel.
Floh has convinced Marcel to forsake his anniversary night with his girlfriend for a night out in
the town’s noble disco with two underwear models. The only problem is that there is no way
the bouncer is letting either of them in and their attempts to change this fate lead to a series of
hysterical and sometimes heart-wrenching events. To make matters worse, Marcel’s girlfriend
arrives in the arms of another man and then all hell breaks loose.
Luca Verhoeven, Ken Duken
Morning finds both men in the middle of nowhere in a stalled Mustang, Marcel with a broken
heart, Floh with a broken nose, and their friendship about to face the ultimate test.
Genre Drama, Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Simon
Verhoeven Screenplay Simon Verhoeven Director of
Photography Jo Heim Editor Nicholas Goodwin Set
Design Patrick Müller Producer Christine Ruppert
Production Company TATFILM Filmproduktion,
Munich, in co-production with Sentana Filmproduktion,
Munich, 7 Pictures, Munich Principal Cast Ken Duken,
Luca Verhoeven, Mavie Hörbiger, Max von Thun, Gisela
Schneeberger Length 92 min, 2806 m Format Super
35 mm, color, 1:1.87 Original Version German Sound
Technology Dolby SRD With backing from
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA)
German Distributor Zephir Film GmbH, Cologne
World Sales: please contact
TATFILM GmbH · Christine Ruppert
Schubertstr. 2 · D-80336 Munich
phone +49-89-53 07 95 30 · fax +49-89-53 07 95 33
e-mail: tatfilm.muenchen@t-online.de
40
Simon Verhoeven was born in 1972 in Munich.
He studied Performing Arts at the Lee Strasberg
Theater Institute in New York, Film Music at
Berkley College of Music in Boston and Film
Directing at the Tisch School of the Arts in New
York. He has appeared in numerous television and
feature films, including: Partygirl (1993), Mutters
Courage (1994) – for which he wrote various compositions, Vasilisa (1998), Star Star Star (1999),
Abgedreht (1999), Vino Santo (1999) and Bride of
the Wind (2000). He has directed several music
videos and short films, including: Water (1997),
Phone (1997) and Nice Meeting You (1999),
all three of which were Showcase Winners at NYU
Film Festivals. 100 Pro is his first feature film.
Als Großvater Rita
Hayworth liebte
W H E N G R A N D PA LOV E D R I TA H AY WO RT H
1969. The first winter after the violent end of the Spring of Prague. Just as three astronauts are flying
to the moon, thirteen-year-old Hannah and her crazy, young parents land in the German economic
wonderland. A rough landing, as though on a completely different planet. Kuba, the father, feels satisfaction in finding confirmation of his prejudices against the Germans, while Lida, the mother, loses
herself in consumerism, and her little sister loses her ability to speak. Hannah wants nothing more
than to return to her grandfather, Zikmund. But when Zikmund dies and Neil Armstrong sets the first
foot on the moon, Hannah realizes that she too will have to make her own first great step …
Ewa Gawryluk, Karen Fisher, Veronika Albrechtová, Vladimír Hajdu
A melancholy comedy about being a stranger and growing up in the year of the first moon landing.
Genre Tragicomedy Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Iva Švarcová
Screenplay Iva Švarcová Director of Photography
Hille Sagel Editor Georg Janett Music by Annette Focks
Set Design Anne Schlaich, Thilo Mengler Producer
Malte Ludin Executive Producer Renée Gundelach
Production Company Svarc. Film, Berlin, in co-production with ZDF, Mainz, in association with Bernard Lang AG,
Zurich Principal Cast Vlastimil Brodský, Karen Fisher,
Ewa Gawryluk, Vladimír Hajdu, Charles Brauer, Dagmar
Manzel, Veronika Albrechtová Casting Svarc. Film
Length 90 min, 2462 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version Czech/German Subtitled Version
German/Czech Sound Technology Dolby SR International Festival Screenings Cottbus 2000, OphülsFestival Saarbrücken 2001 Awards First Prize for Children’s
& Youth Films, Cottbus 2000 With backing from
Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MFG Baden-Württemberg,
Filmstiftung NRW, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, BKM
German Distributor Basis Film Verleih, Berlin
Iva Švarcová was born in the Czech Republic
and emigrated to Germany. After language studies
in Munich and Madrid, she studied at the German
Film & Television Academy in Berlin (dffb) under
Istvan Szabo and Wim Wenders. Active as a writer
and director, a selection of her films include: Viola
(1986) which opened the Video Screenings at
Berlin in 1987, With love Rita (1988) – opening
film and winner of the VHS Prize at Mannheim/
Heidelberg in 1988, Die Frau seines Lebens
(1990) – her graduation film from the dffb and winner of a German Short Film Award in 1991, Mulo
(1992/1993) – winner of the Prix Futura in 1993,
and Blick durchs Fenster (1994) – winner of
the Golden Gate Award at San Francisco in 1995.
Als Großvater Rita Hayworth liebte is
her first feature film.
World Sales: please contact
Svarc. Film GbR · Malte Ludin
Schillerpromenade 30 · D-12049 Berlin
phone +49-30-6 21 77 49 · fax +49-30-6 21 46 76
e-mail: svarcfilm@aol.com
41
BERLIN –
Du Fremde, Du Schöne
Ein Zyklus in sieben Filmen 1995-2001
B E R L I N – YO U S T R A N G E R , YO U B E AU T Y
A CYC L E I N S EV E N F I L M S 19 9 5 - 2 0 01
Berlin – You Stranger, You Beauty portraits, in seven films, the city of Berlin from 1995–2001, a city in the
midst of great change, like no other city in the world. Heinrich Zille, Berlin’s great artist and photographer,
wouldn’t recognize ”his Berlin“ anymore, it simply doesn’t exist. Seen from seven different perspectives, the
films show old remnants of the city, how the most famous square in the world then became Europe’s largest
construction site, music and street culture and the ever changing cultural and artistic face of the city.
(photo © 2001 by Manfred Wilhelms, Berlin) Scenes from ”BERLIN – You Stranger, You Beauty“
The author doesn’t describe the exotic beauty of distant islands, but rather the surrounding view of the city
as seen through the eye of the camera, which – broken through history, stories, and the many construction
sites – suddenly appears as a strange beauty.
Genre Art, Educational, History, Music
Category (Semi-)Fictional Documentary
Year of Production 1995-2001
Director Manfred Wilhelms Screenplay Manfred Wilhelms Director of
Photography Manfred Wilhelms
Editor Manfred Wilhelms Producer
Manfred Wilhelms Production
Company Lassoband-Filmproduktion,
Berlin Length 770 min Format 16 mm
Blow up 35 mm, color, 1:1.37 Original
Version German Sound Technology
Mono/Stereo
Manfred Wilhelms was originally a painter and photographer
before undergoing a complete metamorphosis into a self-taught
filmmaker and cinematographer. As a part-time student, he took
part in seminars given by Helmut Färber on the films of Griffith,
Ozu and Renior. He has made short TV features – a minimal concession to his professional career. Wilhelms lives in Berlin and has
made the following films: Licht singt tausendfache Lieder
(1985), Die Loreley (1988), Menschenrechte (TV, 1989),
Rostige Bilder (1990-92), Route des Crêtes (1993), Die
Rennstrecke (1994), and Laufen um zu leben (1995).
His Berlin – You Stranger, You Beauty (1995-2001)
includes the following films: Berlin – Pictures of a City,
A Tale of Two Cities, The Legend of Potsdamer
Platz, Nightwalk, Street of Culture, Pictures Of A
Veiling, and Where is the Flair.
World Sales: please contact
Lassoband-Filmproduktion · Manfred Wilhelms
Fürbringerstr. 11 · D-10961 Berlin
phone +49-30-6 93 84 42 · fax +49-30-6 92 53 22
42
Berlin is in Germany
RLI N
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Jörg Schüttauf, Julia Jäger
Brandenburg penitentiary 2001: Martin Schulz is released after 11 years of imprisonment. As a
former citizen of the German Democratic Republic, he experienced the fall of the wall from his
prison cell. Upon release, he receives the items in his possesion at the time of his arrest: a blue
East German identification card, an East German driver’s license, and a wallet full of East German
money. Martin is full of hope when he returns home, but hardly recognizes East Berlin again. The
”New Berlin“ has already taken over and the ”Old East Berlin“ clings desperately to its last remaining traits. The eleven-year absence is like a time machine and Martin runs into one difficulty after
another while finding his place in this ”new“ world.
Genre Tragicomedy Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2001 Director Hannes Stöhr
Screenplay Hannes Stöhr Director of Photography
Florian Hoffmeister Editor Anne Fabini Music by Florian
Appl Set Design Anke Bisten, Natalja Meier Producer
Gudrun Ruzickovà-Steiner Production Company Luna
Film, Berlin, in cooperation with ZDF, Mainz, ORB, Potsdam
Principal Cast Jörg Schüttauf, Julia Jäger, Tom Jahn,
Valentin Platereno, Robin Becker Casting Karen Wendland
Length 95 min, 2600 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version German Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from
Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg International Festival
Screenings Berlin 2001 (Panorama)
Hannes Stöhr was born in 1970 in HechingenSickingen. After studying European Law in Passau,
he was awarded an Erasmus scholarship in Spain.
He then studied Scriptwriting and Directing at the
German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin.
He has worked as a journalist, actor, projectionist,
lighting technician, editor, and assistant director for
film, television, varieté, theater and circus. His films
include: Biete Argentinien, suche Europa
(1995), Maultaschen (1996), and the documentaries Lieber Cuba libre (1997), and Gosh,
Zirkusporträt (1998).
World Sales:
Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co.KG · Ida Martins
Hochstadenstr. 1-3 · D-50674 Cologne
phone +49-2 21-1 39 22 22 · fax +49-2 21-1 39 22 24
email: idamartins@compuserve.com
43
Duell – Enemy at the Gates
Jude Law © 2000 MP Film Mgmt. DOS Prods. Distributed by Constantin Film
While the German and Russian armies hurl rank after rank of soldiers at each other and the world
fearfully awaits the outcome of the battle of Stalingrad, the celebrated Russian sniper, Vassili
Zaitsev quietly stalks his enemies one man at a time. His fame, however, soon thrusts him into a
duel with Germany’s best sharpshooter, Major Konig, and the two find themselves waging an
intense personal war while the most momentous battle of the age rages around them. Unassuming
and self-contained, Vassili is just an ordinary man who performs his duty with extraordinary skill.
Realizing his value, Danilov, a Soviet political officer, builds Vassili into a much-needed national
hero. After a string of defeats to the Germans, the Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse, and
the loss of Stalingrad could ensure final victory for the Germans in Europe. Kruschev himself has
been sent by Stalin to oversee the city’s defense. Vassili’s fierce example boosts the defenders’ will
to go on fighting despite the overwhelming odds. Danilov, however, soon becomes jealous of the
man he created, when, in the midst of war, they both fall in love with Tania, one of the many
courageous women soldiers fighting alongside the men. The Germans send Major Konig to track
down and kill Vassili. With exquisite patience and skill, each man stalks the other, fighting his war
of solitude while countless men are dying all around them in the rubble of Stalingrad.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2000 Director Jean-Jacques Annaud Screenplay
Alain Godard & Jean-Jacques Annaud Director of Photography
Robert Fraisse Editors Noelle Boisson, Humphrey Dixon Music
composed by James Horner Production Designer Wolf
Kroeger Producers Jean-Jacques Annaud, John D. Schofield
Executive Producers Roland Pellegrino, Jörg Reichl, Alain
Godard, Alisa Tager Production Services Company Mandalay
Pictures, in association with KC Medien and MP Film Management, in
co-production with MP Film Management DOS Productions GmbH &
Co. KG, Swanford Films Ltd., Little Bird Ltd. Principal Cast Jude
Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Bob Hoskins and Ed Harris
Casting John & Ros Hubbard Special Effects Supervisor
Peter Chiang Length 128 min, 3502 m Format 35 mm, color, cs
Original Version English Subtitled Version German Sound
Technology Dolby Digital International Festival Screenings Berlin 2001 (opening film) With backing from Filmboard
Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt
(FFA), Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg German
Distributor Constantin Film Verleih GmbH, Munich
Jean-Jacques Annaud won an Academy
Award in 1977 for Best Foreign Film with his debut
feature Black and White in Color (La
Victoire En Chantant). His next feature was
Coup de tête, followed by Quest for Fire,
which earned him a Cesar Award as Best Director.
He then directed The Name of the Rose,
starring Sean Connery, which received a Cesar
Award for Best Foreign Film. Annaud also co-wrote
the screenplays for the latter two films with his
longtime collaborator, Alain Godard. In 1989,
Annaud received international acclaim and another
Cesar Award for The Bear. Annaud’s most recent
films include: The Lover, Wings of Courage,
the first feature film made in IMAX 3-D, and
Seven Years in Tibet, starring Brad Pitt.
M
G FIL
ENIN
N)
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I
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T
AT B
OM PE
OF C
(OUT
World Sales:
Production Services Company
Mandalay Pictures
5555 Melrose Avenue · USA-Hollywood, California 90038-3197
www.enemyatthegatesmovie.com
44
Eisenstein
Eisenstein is the irreverent story of a man whose genius was too great to be
controlled by any tyrant, even Stalin. The rise, fall and fatal redemption of
Russian revolutionary filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein is an epic and moving story
of wry humor and visionary images. Eisenstein goes beyond biography to
become a modern fable about the struggle between Art and Power.
(photo © Vif Filmproduktion/S. Overchenko) Simon McBurney
Shot entirely on original locations in Russia, Ukraine and Mexico, Eisenstein is
a visual treat.
Genre Drama, Biopic Category Feature Film
Cinema Year of Production 2000 Director
Renny Bartlett Screenplay Renny Bartlett
Director of Photography Alexei Rodionov
Editor Wiebke von Carolsfeld Music by
Alexander Balanescu Set Design Susanne
Dieringer Producers Regine Schmid, Martin
Paul-Hus Executive Producer Wolfram Tichy
Production Companies Vif Filmproduktion,
Potsdam, Amérique Film, Montreal, in association
with TiMe Film- und TV Produktion, Potsdam
Principal Cast Simon McBurney, Raymond
Coulthard, Jacqueline McKenzie, Jonathan Hyde
Casting Sarah Bird Length 96 min, 2783 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original
Version English Subtitled Version German
Sound Technology Dolby SR International
Festival Screenings Toronto 2000, Berlin 2001
(Forum)
Renny Bartlett was born and raised in Ottawa,
Canada. He was a sculptor before studying Film at
St. Martin’s School of Art and representing
Canadian film and television at the Canadian High
Commission in London. He began filmmaking
with two experimental short films, Between
Heaven and Earth and Dula. He then developed a unique hybrid of archive film and storytelling in his film essay Arktikos, shot in Russia,
Canada and Italy. He has also had a distinguished
career as a documentary filmmaker for Britain’s
Channel Four Television. Both his two-part series
The Cold War Game, made with Noam
Chomsky, and his 10-part series on photography
Moving Stills, were nominated as Best
Documentary Series for the British Film Insitute’s
Greirson Award. He has also worked with Sally
Potter on the double Academy Award-nominated
feature Orlando, run the Praxis Screenwriting
Centre in Vancouver and developed feature films
with both British Screen and the European Script
Fund.
World Sales:
Fortissimo Film Sales · Wouter Barendrecht
Cruquiusweg 40 · NL-1019 AI Amsterdam
phone +31-20-6 27 32 15 · fax +31-20-6 26 11 55
www.fortissimo.nl · email: info@fortissimo.nl
RLI N
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M
FORU
45
Emil und die Detektive
E M I L A N D T H E D E T E CT I V E S
(photo © Bavaria Film/Lunaris/v. d. Heydt) Tobias Retzlaff, Anja Sommavilla
When 11-year-old Emil travels to Berlin, his money is stolen by the crook Max Grundeis. While
following the thief, Emil runs into Pony, the female leader of a gang of children, who offers to
help him. Since Emil is supposed to be staying with a local pastor, the gang smuggles one of
their members, Gypsy, into his place. While Gypsy is busy turning the pastor's house upside
down, the hunt for Grundeis is on. What follows is a rip-roaring adventure. When Pony falls into
the clutches of the evil Grundeis, and just as everything seems lost, the kids come up with a
daring plan.
Genre Family, Children’s Film, Literature Category
Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2000/2001
Director Franziska Buch Screenplay Franziska Buch,
adapted from the novel by Erich Kästner Director of
Photography Hannes Hubach Editor Patricia Rommel
Music by Biber Gullatz, Eckes Malz Set Design
Albrecht Konrad Producers Uschi Reich, Peter Zenk
Production Companies Lunaris Film, Munich, Bavaria
Filmverleih- & Produktions GmbH, Munich Principal
Cast Tobias Retzlaff, Anja Sommavilla, Jürgen Vogel, Maria
Schrader, Kai Wiesinger, Maximilian Befort, David Klock,
Maurice Kumar, Tim Hansen, Sergei Moya, Tobias Unkauf
Casting Jaqueline Rietz Length 110 min, 3500 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version
German Sound Technology Dolby Digital With
backing from Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg,
Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,
BKM German Distributor Constantin Filmverleih
GmbH, Munich
Franziska Buch studied Philosophy and Literature in
Stuttgart and Rome before studying at the Academy for
Television & Film (HFF) in Munich, where she received a
scholarship for screenplay-writing. Since 1991, she has been
working as a freelance writer and director; in 1996 she began
instructing screenplay-writing at the Film Academy in
Ludwigsburg. Her films, for which she was responsible for
both screenplay and directing, include: Die Ordnung der
Dinge (1987) which won the European Short Film Prize at
Berlin in 1987, Tod eines Idioten (1988), Die ungewisse Lage des Paradieses (1993), Mein Herz –
Niemandem (1994) and Verschwinde von hier
(1999) which won the Max-Ophüls Prize and Director’s Prize
for the best feature film production at the Ophüls-Festival
Saarbrücken 2000.
World Sales: please contact
Bavaria Filmverleih- & Produktions GmbH · Uschi Reich
Bavariafilmplatz 7 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig
phone +49-89-64 99 28 73 · fax +49-89-64 99 31 43
e-mail: uschi.reich@bavaria-film.de
46
E ro t i c Ta l e s :
Angela
Manhattan – as it is every day of the week, year in, year out. Life is pretty routine for Bob, about to
turn 70, yet aching for one last fling. Maybe his shrink is right: he should place an ad in the paper
and just go out and look for someone. Someone like Angela. Because: This is New York …
Anything can happen … The sky’s the limit …
Amos Kollek, born in 1947, studied
Psychology and Philosophy at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. Active in both writing
and directing, he has written several novels and
short-fiction and writes for Ms’ariv, La’Isha, The
Jerusalem Post, The New York Times, and Die Zeit.
His films include: the documentary Teddy
Kollek (1996), and the features Worlds
Apart (1979), Goodbye New York (1984),
Forever, Lulu (1987), High Stakes (1989),
Double Edge (1992), Whore 2 (Bad
Girls) (1994), Sue (1997), Fiona (1999),
Fast Food, Fast Woman (2000).
(photo © ZIEGLER FILM GmbH & Co. KG) Valerie Geffner, Victor Argo
Genre Erotic Category Short film Year of Production
2000 Director Amos Kollek Screenplay Amos Kollek
Director of Photography Ed Talavera Editor Sheri
Bylander Music by David Carbonara Costume Design
Catherine George Producer Regina Ziegler Production
Company Ziegler Film GmbH & Co KG, Berlin, in co-production with WDR, Cologne Principal Cast Victor Argo,
Austin Pendleton, Valerie Geffner, Mark Margolis, Matthew
Powers Casting Caroline Sinclair Length 28 min, 763 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version English
Dubbed Version German (only Digi Beta) Sound
Technology Dolby SR International Festival
Screenings Mannheim-Heidelberg 2000
E ro t i c Ta l e s :
Powers
– Mag ische Kräfte
P OW E R S
Peter has a dream job. He’s a popular magician in a posh Prague nightclub, whose act draws more applause
than the strippers. He’s got an eye-catching assistant who is ready and willing to cuddle his frayed nerves
whenever necessary. But he’s also got Sylvia on his neck: a pert, scatterbrained sister who forgets that a toss
in the hay may just be worth a wedding ring. Things take a turn for the better – or worse? – when he discovers that he possesses extra – let’s say, supernatural – powers that enable him to see into the future, hear
music by rubbing his fingers over a CD, and God knows what. The problem? Peter can’t control anything
anymore like he used to – neither his magic act, nor his love life, nor his sister’s latest erotic fantasy.
Genre Erotic Category Short film Year of Production 2000 Director Petr Zelenka Screenplay Petr Zelenka Director of Photography
Miro Gabor Editor Vladimir Barak Music by Here,
Našrot, Slut, Freak Parade and others Producer
Regina Ziegler Production Company Ziegler Film
GmbH & Co KG, Berlin, in co-production with WDR,
Cologne Principal Cast Ivan Trojan, Tomas
Pavelka, Nela Boudova Length 29 min, 817 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version
Czech Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Dolby SR International Festival
Screenings Cottbus 2000, Mannheim-Heidelberg
2000, Rotterdam 2001
Petr Zelenka, born in 1967, studied Script-writing from 1986 1991 at the Prague Film School, FAMU. Between June 1990 and
March 1991, he worked as a script editor at the Barrandov Film
Studios and for BBC-London on the 50-minute program Czech
Mate. From 1990 - 1996, four of his original television screenplays
were produced by Czech Television. His feature director’s debut
Mnága-Happy End (1996) won an award at the Cottbus Film
Festival in 1996 and The Golden Kingfisher at the Pilsen Film Festival
and was shown in cinemas in Germany and Holland. Buttoners
(1997), his second feature, has become a major Czech cult film of
the decade, winning many local and international awards. Loners
(2000), for which he contributed idea and script, is a box office hit
in the Czech Republic and was recently awarded with the FIPRESCI
Prize as well as the Ecumenical Jury Prize at Mannheim-Heidelberg.
World Sales:
Atlas International Film GmbH
Dieter Menz, Stefan Menz, Christl Blum
Rumfordstr. 29-31 · D-80469 Munich
phone: +49-89-2 10 97 50 · fax: +49-89-22 43 32
www.erotictales.de · www.atlasfilm.com · email: mail@atlasfilm.com
47
feindliche übernahme –
althan.com
Florian Martens, Thomas Kretschmann, Désirée Nosbusch
The security and computer company Althan AG, headed by Robert Fernau, is being
blackmailed. Right-wing terrorists have already taken one of Fernau’s colleagues and a
friend hostage. The fanatics want to prevent the start up of new power stations.
The real mastermind behind the plan is the stock market speculator Granitz, whose goal
is a hostile takeover of Althan AG. To achieve this, Granitz installs a ”computer bomb“
in the main computer at Althan AG that is supposed to blow up all foreign power
stations. The terrorists force Fernau to allow them access to the high-security central
computer. In a dramatic life and death situation, Fernau tries to prevent the infernal
catastrophe.
Genre Action/Adventure Category TVMovie (fiction) Year of Production
1999/2000 Director Carl Schenkel
Screenplay Niki Müllerschön Director of
Photography Egon Werdin Editor Horst
Reiter Music by Harald Kloser Set Design
Ari Hantke Producer Susanne Porsche
Production Company mps mediaproductions, Unterföhring Principal Cast Thomas
Kretschmann, Désirée Nosbusch, Klaus
Löwitsch, Florian Martens Special Effects
CA Scanline Production Length 96 min,
2500 m Format Super 35 mm, color, cs
Original Version German Sound
Technology Dolby SRD With backing
from Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFernseh
Fonds Bayern, Landesförderungsanstalt München, Bayerischer Bankenfonds
Carl Schenkel, born 1948 in Bern, studied
Sociology in Frankfurt. During his studies, he wrote
short stories, reports and film critiques for various
newspapers. His cross-over into the film industry
came after he directed an advertising spot for the
city of Frankfurt. Thereafter, he worked from 19751979 as an assistant director for such filmmakers as
Wolfgang Staudte and Hans W. Geissendörfer. He
then collaborated on screenplays with Roland Klick,
among others. His films include: Kalt wie Eis
(1981), Out of Order (Abwärts, 1984), Bay
Coven (1987), Silence Like Glass (Zwei
Frauen, 1989), The Mighty Quinn (1989),
Knight Moves (aka Face To Face, 1992),
Exquisite Tenderness (1994), Beyond
Betrayal (TV, 1994), In the Lake of the
Woods (TV, 1996), Kalte Küsse (TV, 1997),
and Tarzan … And the Lost City (1998).
World Sales:
Columbia TriStar Film GmbH · Jürgen Schau
Kemperplatz 1 · D-10785 Berlin
phone +49-30-25 75 58 00 · fax +49-30-25 75 58 09
www.columbiatristar.de · email: juergen_schau@spe.sony.com
48
Girl
Katja Riemann, Oliver Petszokat
Chris is a macho, in the true sense of the word: he loves fast cars, football, women, and
above all, himself. When he has to be admitted to the hospital for a knee operation, he
takes it stoically, like a real man. Shortly after his admission, he comes across Melody
L’amoure, a captivatingly beautiful woman, who he would love to conquer. But Melody
doesn’t even notice him. When Chris wakes up after the operation and sees the very
serious look on Dr. Fahlmann’s face, he is devastated. Rather than a swollen knee, he
seems to have ”swollen“ body parts – extremely feminine ones! Mr. Macho realizes: he is a
woman! He tries everything he can to reverse the effects of the operation, but that is easier
said than done …
Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Piers
Ashworth Screenplay Piers Ashworth, David
Thomas Director of Photography PeterJoachim Krause Editor Nana Meyer Music by
Detlef Petersen Set Design Maximilian
Johannsmann Producer Susanne Dembsky CoProducer Christoph Ott Production
Company Sternbild Filmproduktion, Hamburg
Principal Cast Oliver Petszokat, Katja Riemann,
Oliver Wnuk, Martin Semmelroge, Dietrich
Mattausch Casting Gitta Uhlig Special Effects
Spans & Partner Length 86 min, 2353 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original
Version German Sound Technology Dolby
SP With backing from FilmFörderung
Hamburg, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg,
Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German
Distributor Senator Film Verleih GmbH, Berlin
Piers Ashworth was born in 1957 in London
and studied Modern History at Oxford University.
He started work in publishing as an editor and
went on to journalism as a freelance features writer
and then into television as a researcher and assistant producer for independent drama and documentary programs. In 1985 he began work in music
videos – producing, writing and directing dozens of
clips for bands including Black Sabbath, Madness,
Bon Jovi and Janet Jackson. He subsequently
worked as a writer, rewriter and script doctor for
Paramount, Universal, Tristar and MGM for such
films as Mission Impossible (1992) and Lawnmower
Man (1994). He has also worked on such feature
films as Nostradamus (1995) and Pinocchio (1996) as
well as on the television films The Metaphysical
Policeman (1996), 5NY (1997) and The Big One
(1997). Girl is his first feature film as a director.
World Sales: please contact
Sternbild Film Produktion GmbH · Susanne Dembsky
Sierichstr. 149 · D-22299 Hamburg
phone +49-40-46 07 07 10 · fax +49-40-46 07 07 11
email: sternbildfilm@t-online.de
49
HAWAiiAN GARDENS
In a strip mall somewhere in the glaring dust of Los Angeles county, a 17-year-old student
finds her heart caught between a young German Internet gangster and her jealous old mentor.
Baldi wants Shulzov. Rosa wants Baldi. Shulzov is jealous.
Baldi is thirty. Rosa is seventeen. Schulzov is seventy.
Rosa is a student. Baldi is a copyright pirate. Shulzov is a famous writer.
Rosa’s passion is books. Baldi’s passion is money. Shulzov’s passion is Rosa.
Rosa would rather sleep with Baldi.
Shulzov would rather kill Baldi.
Baldi would rather die for Rosa.
Is Baldi a monster? Is Rosa a bitch? Is Shulzov an enigma?
André Eisermann, Valeria Hernandez
HAWAiiAN GARDENS is a triangled love and detective story about big time copyright
fraud and a bigger time crush.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Year
of Production 2001 Director Percy Adlon
Screenplay Percy & Eleonore Adlon Director
of Photography Rudolpho Paul Editor
Jochen Künstler Music by Bob Telson Set
Design Bernt Amadeus Capra, Camilla Nagler
Producer Eleonore Adlon Production
Company pelemele Film, Munich, in coproduction with Leora Films, Los Angeles,
Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich Principal
Cast André Eisermann, Valeria Hernandez,
Richard Bradford Casting Paul Weber, Zora
Dehorter, Risa Kes Length 107 min Format
DV PAL, 16:9 Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version English/German Sound
Technology Dolby Stereo
Percy Adlon, born in 1935 in Munich, studied Art, Theater and
German Literature at the Ludwigs-Maximilian-University in Munich.
After three years as a stage actor, he worked as a narrator and
editor of a literature series for radio and television. In 1970, he
started his film work for television and made more than 150 documentaries about art and the human condition. His first feature film,
Céleste (1981), drew international attention. His film Bagdad
Café (Out of Rosenheim,1987) was a great success, winning
the Best Film Award at Rio de Janeiro and two Césars. Together with
his wife, Eleonore Adlon, he has written and produced numerous
films, including: Sugarbaby (1984), Rosalie Goes Shopping
(1989), Salmonberries (1991) winner of the Grand prix des
Amériques at Montreal, and the TV-movie The Glamorous
World of the Adlon Hotel (1997). A series of 22 short films
without words, Die Strausskiste (1999/2000), is among the
Adlons’ latest works. Percy and Eleonore Adlon live in Pacific
Palisades, California, and run the Munich-based pelemele Film and
the Santa Monica-based Leora Films. HAWAiiAN GARDENS,
their 10th feature film, continues their line of German-American
stories.
World Sales: please contact
LEORA FILMS · Eleonore Adlon
2601 Colorado Avenue · USA-Santa Monica, California 90404
phone +1-3 10-8 28 47 66 · fax +1-3 10-8 28 87 66
email: LeoraFilms@aol.com
50
Invincible
Tina Bordihn, Tim Roth
Invincible is the true story of a young Jewish blacksmith from East Poland,
Zishe Breitbart, who at the beginning of the 1930’s is lured to the world of
the varietés in Berlin. In the dubious House of the Occult run by Erik Jan
Hanussen, he plays the strongest man in the world, much to the displeasure of
the rising Nazi establishment. Zishe’s story ends tragically due to his strong
belief that he was sent as the new Samson and must protect his people.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Werner
Herzog Screenplay Werner Herzog Director
of Photography Peter Zeitlinger Editor Joe
Bini Set Design Ulrich Bergfelder Producers
Werner Herzog, Christine Ruppert, Gary Bart
Production Companies Werner Herzog
Filmproduktion, Munich, TATFILM Filmproduktion,
Cologne, LittleBird, Dublin Principal Cast
Jouko Ahola, Tim Roth, Anna Gourari, Udo Kier,
Max Raabe and his Palace Orchestra Length 135
min, 4117 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version English Dubbed Version
German Sound Technology Dolby SRD
With backing from Filmstiftung NRW,
Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), BKM German
Distributor Zephir Film GmbH, Cologne
Werner Herzog was born as W. H. Stipetic in
1942 in Munich. He grew up in a remote mountain
village in Bavaria and never saw any films, television
or telephones as a child. He started traveling on
foot at the age of 14. He made his first phone call
at the age of 17. During high-school, he worked
nights as a welder in a steel factory to finance the
production of his films and made his first film in
1961, at the age of 19. Since then, he has produced, written, and directed more than forty
films – such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God
(1972), Nosferatu (1978), Fitzcarraldo
(1981), Lessons of Darkness (1991), Little
Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), and My Best
Fiend – Klaus Kinski (1999). He has also
published more than a dozen books of prose and
has directed many operas.
World Sales:
Film Four Ltd. · Janine Gold
76-78 Charlotte Street · GB-London W1P 1LX
phone +44-2 07-8 68 77 00 · fax +44-2 07-8 68 77 66
www. filmfour.com · e-mail: jgold@Channel4.co.uk
51
Jetzt oder Nie
Eighty-year-old Carla, 76-year-old Lilli and 74-year-old Meta all live by very modest means:
Carla is in a retirement home, where alcohol and cigarettes are strictly forbidden; Lilli lives
with her daughter and three grandchildren in a dilapidated old house; Meta is terrorized by
her son. They find their solace in playing cards, where the kitty has the specific purpose of
fulfilling one last desire: a trip at sea!
But as the ladies go to deposit their savings in the bank, the bank is robbed and everything is
gone. The solution: rob a bank themselves! Easier said than done. The side effects of old age
are not exactly conducive to such adventurous endeavors.
Christel Peters, Elisabeth Scherer, Gudrun Okras
An endearing tragicomedy about getting older, life and late-blooming love.
Genre Tragicomedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of
Production 2000 Director Lars Büchel Screenplay Lars
Büchel, Ruth Toma Director of Photography Judith
Kaufmann Editor Betina Vogelsang Music by Max Berghaus,
Dirk Reichardt, Stefan Hansen, fetisch/meister Set Design Silke
Buhr Producers Helga Bähr, Til Schweiger Production
Companies Lichtblick Filmproduktion, Potsdam, Mr. Brown
Entertainment Filmproduction, Grünwald, in co-production with
Senator Film Produktion, Berlin Principal Cast Gudrun Okras,
Christel Peters, Elisabeth Scherer, Corinna Harfouch, Martin
Semmelrogge, Vladimir Weigl, Til Schweiger, Mark Keller Casting
Tina Böckenhauer Length 94 min, 2572 m Format Super 35
mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version
English Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from
FilmFörderung Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Filmförderungsanstalt
(FFA), MSH Gesellschaft zur Förderung audiovisueller Werke in
Schleswig-Holstein mbH, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film
German Distributor Senator Film Verleih GmbH, Berlin
World Sales: please contact
Lichtblick Filmproduktion GmbH · Helga Bähr
August-Bebel-Str. 72 · D-14482 Potsdam
phone +49-3 31-70 41 70 · fax +49-3 31-70 41 75
e-mail: Lfilmprodu@aol.com
52
Lars Büchel was born in 1966 in Ostholstein. He studied Theater and Philosophy
at the Free University in Berlin and at the
Academy of Media Arts in Cologne KHM,
where he was a student of Dominik Graf
and P. F. Bringmann. Active in both writing
and directing, his films include: Iglu der
Kapiten (1990), Triumph des Spiels
(1991), Fritz & Erna (1992), Rosen
lügen nicht (1993), Bilder für
Deutschland (1993) and 4 Geschichten über 5 Tote (1997) winner of the
Max-Ophüls Prize.
Julietta
A dramatic teenage love story set against the backdrop of Europe’s biggest party, the Berlin
Love Parade. Julietta loves Jiri, Max loves Julietta and suddenly the earth starts to tremble.
Julietta, a sheltered 18-year-old student from a wealthy family in Stuttgart heads to Berlin
with her boyfriend Jiri, a Berlin medical student. Swept away by the ecstatic masses, they
eventually lose sight of each other. Julietta wanders through the crowds trying to find Jiri
when she finally collapses from exhaustion and the influence of designer drugs. She is rescued by Max, a DJ, who is fascinated by the beautiful Julietta and, in a surreal state of mind,
makes love to her while she is still unconscious.
Six weeks later, Julietta discovers that she is pregnant and heads back to Berlin in search of
Jiri, but instead runs into Max, who has since become friends with Jiri and once again
appears to be Julietta’s guardian angel. Determined to ignore the growing attraction between
them, she finally finds Jiri, who is shocked at first but then joyfully accepts fatherhood.
Lavinia Wilson, Matthias Koeberlin
Max, however, can no longer stand to keep the truth from Julietta and reveals everything.
As a result, the three lovers are headed for a dramatic confrontation.
Genre Love story Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Christoph
Stark Screenplay Jochen Bitzer Director of
Photography Jochen Stäblein Editor Sandy
Saffeels Music by Fetisch Set Design Josef
Sanktjohanser Producers Nico Hofmann, Bettina
Reitz, Sascha Schwingel Production Company
teamWorx, Berlin, in co-production with ZDF,
Mainz, ARTE, Strasbourg Principal Cast Lavinia
Wilson, Barnaby Metschurat, Matthias Koeberlin
Casting Rita Serra-Roll Length 93 min, 1040 m
Format Super 35 mm, color, cs Original
Version German Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing
from Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), MFG
Baden-Württemberg German Distributor
teamWorx Produktion für Kino & Fernsehen GmbH,
Berlin
Christoph Stark was born in 1965 in Esslingen.
After working in London on various music videos
and advertising spots, he studied at the Academy
for Television & Film (HFF) in Munich. In addition
to directing, he is also active in screen-writing and
editing. He wrote two screenplays for the television series Die Feuerengel (1996/1997) as well as
for the feature film Der Bär ist los! (1998). Together
with Alex Berner, he edited the trailers for numerous documentary and feature films, including:
House of Spirits, Maybe – Maybe Not, Rossini, Die
Rote Laterne, Schlafes Bruder, Comedian Harmonists
and Die Apothekerin.
World Sales:
CLT-UFA International · David Rosenbauer
45 boulevard Pierre Frieden · L-1543 Luxembourg
phone +352- 4 21 42 39 23 · fax +352- 4 21 42 39 97
www.clt-ufa-international.com · e-mail: david_rosenbauer@clt-ufa.com
53
Küss Mich Frosch
K I S S M E F RO G
Anja Knauer
Lots of girls long for a fairy-tale prince to sweep them off their feet. Not Anna. She’d prefer to find her
own path in life first, before some guy turns up out of the blue and turns everything upside down. But
then her brother Raoul comes home one day with a frog. Before Raoul torments the little creature to
death, Anna manages to rescue it and remembers the old fairy-tale about the prince who had been
turned into a frog. In a light-hearted mood, she picks up the frog and actually kisses it … and something
incredible occurs – the frog is turned back into a prince – into Prince Dietbert von Tümpelberg. Once
Anna has recovered from the shock, she realizes that there are certain practical problems to be faced if
you are suddenly responsible for a Frog Prince a thousand years old. For Dietbert, though, far more
is at stake. He meets up again with the immortal wizard who put the spell on him, and learns something
about the curse that he didn’t know before; after 1000 years it is no longer possible for a kiss to turn the
frog back into a prince permanently. And in Dietbert’s case, those 1000 years are almost over. He can
only be saved if he finds a pure young girl who loves him with all her heart. At first it seems as though
Dietbert’s problems may be over; after all, Anna is the ideal candidate. But somehow it doesn’t work out
so easily …
Genre Children’s Film, Comedy Category
TV-Movie (fiction) Year of Production
2000 Director Dagmar Hirtz Screenplay
Thomas Brückner Director of Photography Florian Ballhaus Editor Nicola Undritz
Music by Annette Focks Set Design
Heidrun Brandt Producer Dagmar Rosenbauer Production Company MULTIMEDIA
Film- und Fernsehproduktion, Erfurt Principal
Cast Anja Knauer, Matthias Schweighöfer, Rita
Russek, Rufus Beck, Kevin Leisner, Karoline
Herfurth Casting Jacqueline Rietz Special
Effects Effectory Filmeffekte GmbH Length
80 min, 878 m Format Super 16 mm, color,
16:9/Digi Beta Original Version German
Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Stereo International Awards
Erich Kästner Television Award With backing
from Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung
Dagmar Hirtz was born in Aachen and studied Music in
Munich. After an apprenticeship in a film processing lab, she
worked as an assistant editor, assistant director and production
assistant before editing such films as: Maximilians Schell’s Erste
Liebe, Der Fussgänger, Der Richter und sein Henker, Geschichten aus
dem Wienerwald, and his documentary film Marlene, as well as
Margarethe von Trotta’s films Die bleierne Zeit, Heller Wahn and
Rosa Luxemburg. Other films include: Der Mädchenkrieg by Alf
Brustellin and Bernhard Sinkel, Trotta by Johannes Schaaf, Ödipussi
by Loriot, Georg Elser – Einer aus Deutschland by Klaus Maria
Brandauer, Homo Faber by Volker Schlöndorff, Salz auf unserer
Haut by Andrew Birkin and Das serbische Mädchen by Peter Sehr.
In 1984 she began directing, including the films: Unerreichbare Nähe (1984), Moondance (1993), Through Roses
(1996), as well as the TV-movies Die Konkurrentin (1997),
and Schwiegermutter (1999). In 1996 she was awarded the
Film Prize of the City of Munich for her extensive contribution to
German cinema. She was also awarded three German Film Awards
for Best Editing for her work on Trotta, Der Richter und sein
Henker, and Georg Elser – Einer aus Deutschland.
World Sales:
IGEL MEDIA AG · Marie-Line Petrequin
Palmaille 124b · D-22767 Hamburg
phone +49-40-30 68 96 20 · fax +49-40-30 68 96 22
www.igelmedia.com · email: mpetrequin@igelmedia.de
54
Lieber Fidel –
Maritas Geschichte
D E A R F I D E L – M A R I TA’ S S TO RY
In 1959, the 19-year-old Marita Lorenz fell madly
in love with Fidel Castro when the victor of the
revolution came on board the German cruise ship
”Berlin“. After eight months of love and happiness,
Fidel loses interest in her. Her happiness turns into
a nightmare when she loses her child because of
a forced abortion in the sixth month of her pregnancy. She lets herself be recruited by the CIA,
which wants to get her to kill the revolutionary
leader. But she betrays her mission – ”love was
stronger,“ says the now 61-year-old Marita. She
lands between the fronts of a dirty war. Working
for the CIA, she gets to know later Kennedy
assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. She spies for the
FBI, moves in high Mafia circles and constantly
changes fronts. Now she lives as an impoverished
pensioner in New York and wants to go back to
Fidel. But what will Fidel say, will she be able to
enter Cuba at all?
Dear Fidel – Marita’s Story is a political thriller
about a very personal, moving and bizarre journey
through the turmoil of the Cold War from Bremen
via New York and Miami to Havana.
Genre Drama, History Category Documentary Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Wilfried Huismann Screenplay Wilfried Huismann Director of
Photography Reinhard Gossmann Editors Margot
Löhlein, Kirsten Becker Music by Klaus Doldinger
Producers Yvonne Ruocco, Detlef Ziegert Production
Company SUR Films, Cologne/Bremen, in co-production
with WDR, Cologne, SWR, Baden-Baden, Canal +, Spain
Principal Cast Marita Lorenz, Harold Austin, Henry K.
Ell, Dave Townsend Length 91 min, 2700 m Format
Super 16 mm, Blow-up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original
Version German/English/Spanish Subtitled Versions
English, German Sound Technology Dolby SR (Digital)
International Festival Screenings Mannheim/Heidelberg 2000 With backing from Filmstiftung NRW,
Filmbüro Bremen, BIA-Bremer Innovations Agentur
German Distributor Pegasos Film, Cologne/Frankfurt
Wilfried Huismann, born in 1951 in Godensholt (Germany), studied
Social Science and History. In 1981 he began working as a freelance journalist, his first book was Chile Reports. After that, he authored further books
and numerous radio features. Since 1987, he has been working for German
television, specializing in background stories and critical reports. He is the
three-time winner of the Adolf-Grimme-Award, the most respected German
television award. His films include: Franca Magnani – A Portrait
(1988), The Hidden Camera (1990), Bremen-Baghdad – Deadly
Cargo (1991), Cold hearted? The President of the Treuhand –
Birgit Breuel (1992), winner of the Herbert Quandt Media Award in 1992
and the Friedrich-Vogel Award for economic journalism, Raymond – The
Boy with the Face of an Angel (1993), The Ship of the Dead
(1994), Opposition in Cuba, Gambling with Power – Friedrich
Hennemann and the Demise of the Vulkan in Bremen
(1998), Death of the Pharao – Anwar Sadat and the Holy
Warriors (1998), Biedermann’s Reich – The International
Tracing Service and the Nazi Victims (1999) as well as numerous
reports for the television series In search of … .
World Sales:
media profile & communikation · Detlef Ziegert
Elbestr. 10 · D-45768 Marl
phone +49-23 65-91 52 29 · fax +49-23 65-91 51 10
www.lieber-fidel.com · www.dear-fidel.com · email: mediaprofile@t-online.de
55
Mein langsames Leben
PA S S I N G S U M M E R
Ursina Lardi, Andreas Patton
An attempt to observe life from the outside – to gain distance, to not interfere, to just
observe. Two young women sitting in a café on a summer day, a family arriving at the
airport, an older woman sitting alone in a train, adult children standing in front of the
hospital where their father is dying. Situations found everyday, a thousand times over.
But what happens when you try to depict this normality?
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000/01 Director
Angela Schanelec Screenplay Angela Schanelec
Director of Photography Reinhold
Vorschneider Editors Bettina Böhler, Angela
Schanelec Set Design David Hoffmann
Producers Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael
Weber Production Company SCHRAMM
FILM Koerner & Weber, Berlin, in co-production
with ZDF, Mainz Principal Cast Ursina Lardi,
Andreas Patton, Wolfgang Michael, Anne Tismer
Casting Simone Bär Length 85 min, 2326 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original
Version German Subtitled Version English
Sound Technology Dolby SR International
Festival Screenings Berlin 2001 (Forum)
With backing from Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg German Distributor Peripher
Filmverleih, Berlin
Angela Schanelec, born in 1962, studied
Acting and trod the boards from 1984-91. From
1990-95, she studied at the German Film &
Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin. Active in writing, directing and producing, her films include:
Ich bin den Sommer über in Berlin
geblieben (1993), Das Glück meiner
Schwester (1995) – winner of the German
Critics’ Prize 1996, and Plätze in Städten
(Places in Cities, 1997/98) presented at
”un certain regard“ Cannes 1998.
RLI N
AT B E
M
FORU
World Sales: please contact
SCHRAMM FILM Koerner & Weber · Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber
Bülowstr. 90 · D-10783 Berlin
phone +49-30-2 61 51 40 · fax +49-30-2 61 51 39
email: schrammfilm@snafu.de
56
Mit IKEA nach Moskau
TO M O S C OW W I T H I K E A
There are over 150 IKEA branches all over the world. And now Russia has one of its own.
On 22 March 2000, Russia’s first IKEA opened its doors in the Moscow suburb of Khimki.
Manuela and Ulf, both loyal IKEA employees, meet and fall in love in an IKEA store in Berlin.
They leave their families and decide to go to Moscow. Lost in a world of heavy old furniture, they
feel like pioneers bringing Russia its first taste of ”brighter living“. Ulf’s and Manuela’s entire lives
are shaped by the world of IKEA – from the furniture in their apartment to their friends and
colleagues. However, their new beginning has its difficulties. Manuela’s son has problems adjusting
to his new life in Moscow; Ulf dreams of one day reuniting the family with the children who were
left behind in Germany.
(photo © Happy Endings Film) Manuela Geelhaar, Ulf Seemann
But for Manuela and Ulf, the big day has arrived. After an entire year of planning, 37,500 people
come to the grand opening – breaking all records in IKEA history. The film observes the chaos of
the first day and accompanies Muscovite families home with their purchases to watch the wellknown IKEA assembly procedure. The world of IKEA, it seems, is just what every Russian has
been waiting for.
Genre Family Category Documentary Cinema
Year of Production 2001 Director Michael
Chauvistré Screenplay Michael Chauvistré
Directors of Photography Michael Chauvistré,
Stefan Tolz Editors Dorothea Brühl, Felix Haß
Music by Georg Fischer, Christoph Seil Production Company KOPPFILM in Brandenburg,
Potsdam-Babelsberg, in co-production with
KOPPMEDIA, Halle (Saale), HAPPY ENDINGS
FILM, Munich, ORB, Potsdam-Babelsberg, ZDF/Das
Kleine Fernsehspiel, Mainz Principal Cast
Manuela Geelhaar, Ulf Seemann Length 94 min,
2572 m Format Digi Beta Blow up 35 mm,
color, 1:1.85 Original Version German/English/
Russian Subtitled Version German/English
Sound Technology Dolby SR International
Festival Screenings Ophüls-Festival Saarbrücken
2001 With backing from Mitteldeutsche
Medienförderung, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern
Michael Chauvistré was born in 1960 in Aachen.
He studied History and Philosophy in Aachen and
Constance and Film at the Academy for Television &
Film in Munich (HFF). In 1988, he founded the production company HAPPY ENDINGS FILM and began
producing and directing his own films, including: the
shorts Eine zufällige Begegnung (1989),
Amore (1990), and the documentaries Mal
sehen, was draus wird (1990), Die Zeit, die
läuft (1992), Wenn dich keiner sieht und
keiner hört (1993), Barbara und Fenja
(1993), Klein Hundorf (1993), and Schau mich
nicht so böse an (1997). He ended his studies at
the HFF with Pax (1999) – a short story episode in
the feature film Midsommar Stories.
World Sales: please contact
HAPPY ENDINGS FILM · Michael Chauvistré
Oefelestr. 4 · D-81543 Munich
phone +49-89-65 11 53 66 · fax +49-89-65 11 53 68
e-mail: happy-endings@t-online.de
57
Mr. Boogie
(photo © 2000 ENA-Filmproduktion) Sunnyi Melles, Zlatko Trpkovski
Ms. State Attorney Schumacher has a problem, a big problem. Her lover has a knife in his
back, and as if that were not enough, he’s lying on her kitchen table. She’s got to get rid of
the body, quickly and discreetly, so she hires a professional. But not just any professional, she
hires Mr. Boogie – a private detective of the rare sort, a specialist for particularly difficult
cases and a passionate dancer. But this case is more than meets the eye. Removing a body is
one thing, disposing of it is another. Then there are the other small details that make Mr.
Boogie’s life a living hell: Ms. Schumacher is expecting high-ranking guests in her home and
has a very curious housekeeper and cook, who have everything but cooking and cleaning on
their minds. But then lover number two shows up and the chaos is perfect. Mr. Boogie has
to deal with a crying two-meter Swede, a Shakespeare-quoting Frenchman who can’t keep
his hands off the housekeeper, let alone cook a decent soup, and all of Ms. Schumacher’s
other demanding guests. And as though all that weren’t enough, even the dead body has a
few surprises for Mr. Boogie.
Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Vesna
Jovanoska Screenplay Farhad Shahed Director
of Photography Peter Przybylski Editor Niko
Remus Music by Frank Stumvoll Set Design
Frank Sander Producer Frank Dragun
Production Company ena Film, Pulheim
Principal Cast Zlatko Trpkovski, Sunnyi Melles,
Ivan Desny, Rolf Kanies, Karin Seyfried Casting
Gitta Uhlig Special Effects Wolfgang Jäger
Length 95 min, 2600 m Format 35 mm, color,
1:1.85 Original Version German Sound
Technology Dolby Digital With backing
from Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German
Distributor Highlight Communications AG,
Pfäffikon, Switzerland
Vesna Jovanoska studied Theater, Film,
Television, Slavic Languages, Sinology, and Japanese
from 1979 – 1984 in Cologne, Marburg and
Moscow. Since 1984, she has been working as a
freelance screenwriter. In 1988 she began simultaneous translating for television and produced and
edited numerous film and television productions in
Cologne. In 1991 she became director and producer for the German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere.
She founded the production company ena Film in
1994. Active in both directing and producing, her
films include: the documentary Menschen
zweiter Klasse (1986) and Warum (1987), a
short film about the effects of child abuse.
World Sales: please contact
ena Film GmbH · Frank Dragun
Kölner Str. 46-48 · D-50259 Pulheim
phone +49-22 38-84 33 30 · fax +49-22 38-84 33 31
email: enafilm@aol.com
58
My Sweet Home
A collection of tragicomical stories which take place during the failed ”Polterabend“ (the
German traditional party on the night before a wedding) of an American exile and a
German woman. Stories about people who have lost their aim in life: what they have,
they don’t want, and what they want, they’ll probably never get. Realizing the absurdity
of this trap, they celebrate their misfortune, at least for one night.
Nadja Uhl, Harvey Friedman
My Sweet Home is about the search for a foothold in life, a solid ground to walk on, a
place to call home.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Filippos Tsitos
Screenplay Filippos Tsitos Director of Photography Hanno Lentz Editors Petar Markovic,
Nebojsa Stanojevic Music by Dr. Nelle Karajilic,
Dejan Sparavalo Set Design Peter Weber
Producer Thanassis Karathanos Production
Company Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion,
Berlin, in co-production with Pandora Film, Cologne,
Ideefixe Productions, Athens, in cooperation with ZDF,
Mainz, ARTE, Strasbourg, Hellenic Broadcasting
Company (ERT), Athens Principal Cast Harvey
Friedman, Nadja Uhl, Mario Mentrup, Monika Hansen,
Michael Schweighofer, Neil D’Souza Casting Andrea
Frey, Foreign Faces Length 83 min, 2266 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version
German/English Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Dolby Stereo International
Festival Screenings Berlin 2001 (in competition)
With backing from Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg,
Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Eurimages, Greek Film
Center German Distributor Pegasos Film,
Frankfurt/Main
Filippos Tsitos was born in Athens, Greece in
1966. He studied Marketing in Athens and worked
at the same time as a photographer, director’s
assistant, editor for music documentaries and
producer for a radio program. Since 1991, he has
been living in Berlin, where he studied Film
Directing at the German Film & Television
Academy (dffb) under Nikita Michalkow, Dominik
Graf, Jirí Menzel, Peter Lilienthal, Don Bohlinger,
Dick Ross and Richard Leacock. His films include
the shorts: Prélude (1992), Der Hut meines
Vaters (1993), Parlez-moi d’amour, winner
of the German Film Award in Gold, Komm’
gleich wieder (1995), Charleston (1996),
Zeit fliegt (1996), and Griechische
Spezialitäten (1998).
RLI N
AT B E
ION
PETIT
M
O
IN C
World Sales:
ARRI Media Worldsales · Antonio Exacoustos jun.
Türkenstr. 89 · D-80799 Munich
phone +49-89-38 09 12 88 · fax +49-89-38 09 14 33
www.arri-mediaworldsales.de · email: aexacoustos@arri.de
59
Nancy und Frank
NA N CY A N D F R A N K
(photo © WDR/Dominique Conway) Hardy Krüger Jr., Frances Anderson
Adapted from the novel Beyond the Horizon by Hans Werner Kettenbach
(Diogenes-Verlag), Nancy and Frank is a romantic urban love story, with
road-movie elements, between the American student Nancy, financing her
studies as an escort-lady, and the German businessman Frank in the melting
pot of today’s New York.
Genre Comedy, Drama Category Feature Film
Cinema Year of Production 2000 Director
Wolf Gremm Screenplay Jonathan Brett, Wolf
Gremm Director of Photography Egon
Werdin Editor Karola Mittelstädt Set Design
Eduard Krajewski Producers Regina Ziegler,
Elke Ried (Ziegler Film Köln), Rainer Bienger
(Cinerenta) Production Companies Ziegler
Film Köln GmbH, Cologne, Cinerenta/Cinefrank,
Potsdam & Munich, Ziegler Film GmbH & Co KG,
Berlin, in co-production with WDR, Cologne
Principal Cast Hardy Krüger Jr., Frances
Anderson, Robert Wagner, Gottfried John, Jamie
Harris Length 93 min, 2544 m Format 35 mm,
color, 1:1.85 Original Version English
Dubbed Version German Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from Filmstiftung
NRW, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German
Distributor Warner Bros. Film GmbH,
Hamburg
Wolf Gremm, born in 1942 in Freiburg, has
collaborated closely with Regina Ziegler since his
debut film I Thought I Was Dead (1973). In
the 1970s, he directed such successful cinema hits
as The Brothers, Death or Freedom and
the Erich Kästner adaptation Fabian. In the
1980s, he directed After Midnight, No
Terraced House for Robin Hood, and the
science-fiction thriller Kamikaze (1989) with
Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the lead role. He has
also written and directed several tele-features and
TV series - in addition to such dramas and thrillers
as Appointment with Yesterday, I Want
to Live, Cliffs of Death, Californian
Quartet, Die Inca Connection, Angel’s
Sin, Only a Dead Man is a Good Man, and,
recently, A Vicious Couple.
World Sales:
Capitol Films · Sharon Harel
23 Queensdale Place · GB-London W11 4SQ
phone +44-20-74 71 60 00 · fax +44-20-74 71 60 12
email: films@capitolfilms.com
60
Pinky und der
Millionenmops
P I N KY A N D T H E M I L L I O N - P U G
Pinky, Monster, Princess, Wumm and Peng all live together with foster-parents, the Pommers. The five
characters are – as their nicknames reveal – rather unusual orphans, which becomes obvious by Pinky’s
determination to imitate the great detective Pinkerton. It takes quite some time though before the cranky
and gruff old millionaire Jonathan Morgan warms up to him. But since the old man cannot deny his
craziness, he soon needs Pinky's support to help him find his lost dog.
Hans Clarin, Jaime Krsto
The two are a pair that couldn’t be any more different: the old millionaire, lonely, mistrusting and
eccentric, and the clever little orphan, who, together with his ”brothers and sisters“, is always coming
up with new ideas. Together, you have a great story for all ages that covers the gamut of emotions –
from sentimental to funny to goose-bump scary.
Genre Children’s Film Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Stefan Lukschy
Screenplay Sybille Durian, adapted from the book
Detektiv Pinky by Gert Prokop Director of Photography David Slama Editor Kerstin Kexel Music by
Andreas Bick Set Design Dieter Adam, Heike Wolf
Producer Jürgen Haase Production Company
Provobis, Leipzig, in co-production with MDR, Leipzig,
Tellux Film, Dresden, SWR, Stuttgart Principal Cast
Jaime Krsto, Hans Clarin, Carmen-Maja Antoni, Tilo
Prückner, Winfried Glatzeder Casting Ulrike Haase
Special Effects Mitter, Leipzig Length 90 min, 2462 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.37 Original Version
German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Filmboard
Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFörderung Hamburg German
Distributor Progress Film-Verleih GmbH, Berlin
Stefan Lukschy studied Music, Philosophy,
German and Journalism at the Free University in
Berlin and at the German Film & Television
Academy (dffb) in Berlin. He works as a freelance
writer and director. His films include: Krawatten
für Olympia (1976), Valse Triste (1979),
Wer spinnt denn da, Herr Doktor?
(1982), Beim nächsten Mann wird alles
anders (1988) and Der doppelte Nötzli
(1990). He has also co-directed numerous television movies, including: Loriot 1-6 (1975-1983),
Der Untermieter (1986), Harald und
Eddi (1989), Ach, Du fröhliche (1994/95),
Die Camper (1995/96), several episodes of
Heimatgeschichten (1995-1997), and
Seitensprung ins Glück (1999/2000).
World Sales:
Progress Film-Verleih GmbH · Christel Jansen
Burgstr. 27 · D-10178 Berlin
phone +49-30-24 00 32 25 · fax +49-30-24 00 32 22
www.progress-film.de · email: c.jansen@progress-film.de
61
planet alex
Berlin Alexanderplatz 2000 – within 24 hours various stories rotate between the heights
and depths of the square, between the television tower and the subway shafts, between
larger and smaller fates, that slowly but surely become entangled.
(photo © de.flex-film) Marie Zielcke, Baki Davrak
Love, murder, fairy tale, drugs, madness, humor and a lot of music – planet alex moves
playfully through various genres. A sparkling firework of ideas that come together in a
greater story. With its driving rhythm, the film sketches the seeming loss of orientation of
Berlin’s city as a pulsating, shimmering network.
Genre Drama, Adventure, Music Category
Feature Film Cinema Year of Production
2000 Director Uli M Schüppel Screenplay
Charlotte Wetzel, Uli M Schüppel Director of
Photography Alex Fischerkoesen Editor
Elena Bromund Music by Jacki Engelken, Ulrik
Spies Production Design Donia Hamdami
Producer Milanka Comfort Production
Company de.flex-film, Berlin, in co-production
with ZDF, Mainz Principal Cast Marusha, Marie
Zielcke, Nadeshda Brennicke, Baki Davrak, Ben
Becker, Andreas Schmidt, Regine Zimmermann,
Birol Uenel, Jochen Nickel, Meret Becker, Mario
Mentrup Length 102 min, 2790 m Format
35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version
German Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Dolby Digital SR International
Festival Screenings Ophüls-Festival Saarbrücken 2001 (in competition), Rotterdam 2001
(in competition)
Uli M Schüppel was born in 1958 in Odenwald.
After numerous music clips and experimental films,
he studied at the German Film and Television
Academy (dffb) in Berlin. His first feature film
Nihil (1987) was a big surprise at the Hof Film
Days in 1988 and won, among others, the Special
Jury Award at the Festival des Ecoles du Cinéma in
Montreal (1988) and the 2nd Nino Rota Prize at
Trento (1989). He graduated from the Film
Academy in 1990 with the film The Road, to
God Knows Where, a documentary about
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. His next feature
film, Vaterland (1992), won the OCIC Award in
1993. His other documentary and music films also
received recognition at countless international film
festivals (Berlin, Rotterdam, Montreal, Edinburgh,
New York, Leipzig): The Virus Breaks
Through (music documentary, 1992), Frozen
Stories (Jahre der Kälte) (1994), Sid &
Nancy – Ex & Pop (1996), The Place
(1997). With planet alex, Schüppel combines, in
a rather unusual manner, his experience from music
clips, documentary essays and feature films.
World Sales: please contact
de.flex-film · schüppel-comfort
Husemannstr. 33 · D-10435 Berlin
phone/fax +49-30-4 42 94 57
www.planetalex-film.de · email: info@planetalex-film.de
62
Der schöne Tag
A F I N E DAY
Der schöne Tag is, after the films Geschwister and Dealer, the third part in a trilogy about
the living conditions of Turkish youth growing up in Germany.
Deniz is 21-years-old, lives in Berlin, works as a dubbing speaker and wants to become an
actress. Der schöne Tag describes a long, labyrinth-like day in the life of Deniz. A day in
which she experiences everything that takes place around her with a feverish intensity. The
separation from her boyfriend Jan, her relationship to her family, her work, the promise of a
new friendship and summer in the city.
(photo © Pickpocket Filmproduktion/Thomas Arslan) Serpil Turhan
Der schöne Tag is the story of a young woman’s search for happiness, her feelings and her
ideas about love.
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2000 Director Thomas
Arslan Screenplay Thomas Arslan Director of
Photography Michael Wiesweg Editor Bettina
Blickwede Music by Selda Kaya, Morton Feldman,
Saul Williams Set Design Ulrika Andersson
Producers Martin Hagemann, Thomas Arslan
Production Company zero film, Berlin, in coproduction with Pickpocket Filmproduktion, Berlin,
ZDF, Mainz Principal Cast Serpil Turhan, Bilge
Bingül, Florian Stetter, Selda Kaya, Hafize Üner,
Hanns Zischler, Elke Schmitter Casting Simone Bär
Casting Length 74 min, 2025 m Format 35 mm,
color, 1:1.66 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology
Dolby SR International Festival Screenings
Berlin 2001 (Forum) With backing from
Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg German
Distributor Peripher Filmverleih, Berlin
Thomas Arslan was born in 1962 in
Braunschweig and spent four years during his
schooling in Ankara, Turkey. He studied
Germanics and History in Munich and Film at
the German Film & Television Academy (dffb)
in Berlin. He has been working as a writer and
filmmaker since 1992. His films include the
shorts Eine Nacht, Ein Morgen (1984),
Test 2 (1986), Risse (1989), 19 Porträts
(1990), Am Rand (1991), Im Sommer
(1992) as well as the features Mach die
Musik leiser (1994), Geschwister (1996)
and Dealer (1998).
RLI N
AT B E
M
FORU
World Sales: please contact
zero film GmbH · Martin Hagemann
Lehrter Str. 57 · D-10557 Berlin
phone +49-30-3 90 66 30 · fax +49-30-3 94 58 34
www.zerofilm.de · e-mail: office@zerofilm.de
63
Stiller Sturm
S I L E N T S TO R M
Anne is a young woman who lives in a big city, by a river. She has her own apartment,
directly behind the zoo. Day and night, she hears the screams of the caged-in animals.
Screams that are searching for something, not answers, but rather questions …
In her heart, Anne is lonely but she is not alone. It is a summer of extremes. Her unconventional best friend tries her best to pull Anne out of her lethargy. Four men cross her
path and leave their mark on her life and her soul. But Anne is looking for something …
for love, closeness and security. She is searching, but she doesn’t know what for. She finds
it, but doesn’t even notice it. Her life is shaped by the loneliness of the masses, by
motionlessness in motion. Anne wants to break out.
(photo © SCREEN WORKS Köln GmbH) Jana Thies
It is Anne’s summer, Anne’s life – and in her heart a Silent Storm is brewing.
Genre Drama Category TV-Movie (fiction) Year
of Production 2000 Director Tomasz Thomson
Screenplay Tomasz Thomson, Katrin Merkel
Director of Photography Oliver Soravia
Editor Christoph Galetzka Music by Jörg Burger
Set Design Guido Holz Producer Björn Klimek
Production Company SCREEN:WORKS,
Cologne, in cooperation with ZDF, Mainz Principal
Cast Jana Thies, Christoph Bach, Marcus Born,
Gudrun Landgrebe, Henriette Thimig, Paul Fassnacht,
Jana Hora, Doreen Dietel Length 95 min, 2600 m
Format Super 16 mm Blow up 35 mm, color,
1:1.66 Original Version German Sound
Technology Stereo International Festival
Screenings Ophüls-Festival Saarbrücken 2001
With backing from Filmstiftung NRW
Tomasz Thomson was born in 1973 in Kattowitz,
Poland. He went back to Poland from 1993-1997 to
study at the Academy for Film and Television in Lodz.
From 1996-1997, he was an editor at Canal+ in
Warsaw and from 1997-1999 was a director and producer at House of Promotion in Cologne. He has
been a freelance director since 1999. His films include
the shorts A Deep Breath (1994), And Also
the Flowers (1995), Wiola (1996), and 100
Kilometers of Outskirts (1998).
World Sales: please contact
SCREEN:WORKS Köln GmbH · Björn Klimek, Kerstin Lackmann
Hildeboldplatz 15-17 · D-50672 Cologne
phone +49-2 21-57 96 80 · fax +49-2 21-5 79 68 20
email: info-koeln@screen-works.de
64
Tanz mit dem Tod –
Der Ufa-Star Sybille Schmitz
DA N C E W I T H D E AT H – T H E U FA - S TA R S Y B I L L E S C H M I T Z
She was in over 30 films, half of which she starred in a leading role. She had prominent partners such
as Hans Albers, Heinz Rühmann or Gustav Gründgens: the actress Sybille Schmitz was considered the
most beautiful face in German cinema during the 1930s. She was an exceptional figure, whose austere
charm elevated her above the smooth salon ladies and the dance-crazy revue girls of the times. But
she was also an outsider, with an air of mystery and melancholy. Her life was an enigma, particularly
her fate after World War II and the circumstances of her suicide in 1955, which led R. W. Fassbinder
to his film Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss.
Sybille Schmitz
Based on Friedemann Beyer’s biography Schöner als der Tod – Das Leben der Sybille Schmitz (BellevilleVerlag), the film portraits the myth of Sybille Schmitz, showing the different phases of her life through
interviews with relatives and colleagues and clips from her most important films.
Genre Biopic Category Documentary TV Year of
Production 2000 Director Achim Podak
Screenplay Achim Podak, Friedemann Beyer Director
of Photography Thomas Repp Editor Beatrix
Wilbert-Schieferstein Producer Loy W. Arnold
Production Company Transit Film, Munich, in cooperation with the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation,
ZDF, Mainz, ARTE, Strasbourg Principal Cast Winnie
Markus, Fritz Schmitz, Gyula Trebitsch, Willy Egger,
Annemarie Wysbar, Christel Jacobs Length 60 min
Format Digi Beta, color and b&w Original Version
German Dubbed Version French Subtitled
Version French German Distributor Transit Film
GmbH, Munich
Achim Podak was born in 1967 in Stuttgart. He works as
a television journalist for several leading German TV-cultural
magazines, including ARD-Kulturweltspiegel, Kulturreport, Titel,
Thesen, Temperamente as well as for the German-AustrianSwiss broadcaster 3Sat’s Kulturzeit. He has also done several
feature productions for the German public broadcaster ARD
and ARTE. Film, literature and cultural politics are the main
focus of his work.
World Sales:
Transit Film GmbH · Loy W. Arnold
Dachauer Str. 35 · D-80335 Munich
phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax +49-89-59 98 85 20
www.transitfilm.de · email: transitfilm@compuserve.com
65
Venus Talking
Sabine Bach
Venus, a writer in her early forties, takes a break from her everyday family life in the
country – her publisher offers her a super modern studio with a view of the Spree River
in Berlin as a refuge, where she starts writing her next novel, which is supposed to
become a best-seller. On one of her nightly jaunts in the big city, she meets and has an
affair with Fabrizio, who makes her feel young and free again. And then there’s Bernhard,
a successful young entrepreneur, who also lands her in bed. But when her family catches
her in the act (via a secretly installed video camera), she realizes that she is playing with
the feelings of those she loves the most …
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2001 Director Rudolf
Thome Screenplay Rudolf Thome Director
of Photography Carsten Thiele Editor Karin
Nowarra Music by Wolfgang Böhmer Set
Design Reinhard Dietmann Producer Rudolf
Thome Production Company Moana Film,
Berlin Principal Cast Sabine Bach, Roger Tebb,
Vladimir Weigl, Guntram Brattia, André Meyer
Length 95 min, 2599 m Format 35 mm, color,
cs Original Version German Subtitled
Version English Sound Technology Mono
International Festival Screenings Berlin
2001 (New German Films)
Rudolf Thome was born in Wallau/Lahn (now
Biedenkopf ) in 1939. He studied German Language
and Literature, Philosophy and History in Munich
and Bonn. He began writing film reviews in 1962
for various newspapers and magazines. In 1964, he
collaborated with Max Zihlmann and Klaus Lemke
on his first short film and became managing director of the Munich Film Critics’ Club in 1965. He
founded his own production company, Moana Film,
in 1977. In 1981, he received the Guild Award in the
category second best German film for Berlin –
Chamissoplatz and in 1989 he received the
International Film Critics’ Award at Montreal for his
film The Philosopher. He founded his own distribution company, Prometheus, in 1993. His film
Paradiso (1999) won a Silver Bear at Berlin 2000.
NE
RLI N
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AT B E
FI LM
RMAN
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G
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World Sales:
Cine-International Filmvertrieb GmbH & Co. KG · Lilli Tyc-Holm, Susanne Groh
Leopoldstr. 18 · D-80802 Munich
phone +49-89-39 10 25 · fax +49-89-33 10 89
www.cine-international.de · email: email@cine-international.de
66
Weiser
Michael Mendel (photo: Piotr Buynowicz © 1999 Prawa autorskie zastrzeźone)
During his childhood, Pawel befriends the mysterious outsider David, who not only kindles
colorful explosions, but is also considered to be a philosopher. One day, during his most
powerful explosion, David simply vanishes. No one believes Pawel’s story that David ascended to heaven. Even as an adult, Pawel suffers from the memories. As a result, he undertakes a search to find David, whom he believes is still alive, but in another form.
Genre Literature Category Feature Film
Cinema Year of Production 2000
Director Wojciech Marczewski Screenplay Toni Grisoni, Wojciech Marczewski
Director of Photography Krysztof
Ptak Editor Milena Fiedler Music by
Zbigniew Preisner Set Design Andrzej
Kowalczyk Producer Iwona Ziulkowska
Production Company Filmowe Studio
Tor, Warsaw, in co-production Vega Film,
Zurich, Provobis, Berlin Principal Cast
Marek Kondrat, Juliane Köhler, Krystyna
Janda, Michael Mendel Length 115 min,
2747 m Format 35 mm, color Original
Version Polish Subtitled Versions
English, German Sound Technology
Dolby Digital International Festival
Screenings Berlin 2001 (in competition)
With backing from Eurimages
Wojciech Marczewski was born in 1944 in Lodz. After his studies in
History and Philosophy, he studied Directing at the Academy for Theater,
Television and Film in Poland. He currently works as a graphic artist,
screenplay writer, and film and television director. Since 1984, he has
been a member of the teaching faculty at the National Film and Television
Academy in Copenhagen, and instructed at the National Film and
Television Academy of Great Britain from 1992-1994. He has led
numerous directing, writing and acting workshops in Germany, Holland,
Switzerland, Denmark and Poland. In addition to his feature films, he has
directed numerous television films. His films include: The Anatomy
Lesson (1968), Travellers like other ones (1969), Departures,
Returns (1970-72), Easter (1975), Whiter than snow (1976),
Nightmares (1977) – winner of the 2nd Prize in Silver at the Festival of
Polish Films Danzig 1979, the OCIC at San Sebastian 1979, the Publisher’s
Prize 1979 from the magazine Film, and the Andrzej Munk Award for best
film 1979, Keyskeeper (1978) – prize winner at the TV Film Festival in
Olsztyn 1980, Shivers (1979) – winner of the 2nd Prize in Silver at the
Festival of Polish Films 1981, the Silver Bear at Berlin 1982, the FIPRESCI
1982, and the CICAE at Berlin 1982, Escape from ”The Liberty“
Cinema (1991) – winner of the Grand Prize at the Festival of Polish Films
1991, the Publisher’s Prize 1991 from the magazine Film, un certain regard at
Cannes 1991, Grand Prize at the International Film Festival Avoriaz, France
1992, and Grand Prize at the Film Festival Burgos, Spain 1994, and Time
of Treachery (1997) – winner of the Special Jury Award at the Festival
of Polish Films 1997.
Progress Film-Verleih GmbH · Christel Jansen
Burgstr. 27 · D-10178 Berlin
phone +49-30-24 00 32 25 · fax +49-30-24 00 32 22
www.progress-film.de · email: c.jansen@progress-film.de
RLI N
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ION
PETIT
M
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IN C
67
Das weisse Rauschen
TH E WH ITE NOI S E
Katja is tired of getting her schizophrenic brother out of serious trouble. But Lukas unwaveringly
follows his self-destructive way of living. He is obsessed with the thought that the whole world is
against him. Katja’s last and ultimate try to bring Lukas back to his senses ends with him jumping
into a river. Just in time, a hobo appears and saves his life. At the vagrant’s side, Lukas is introduced
to a whole new life, far away from the usual standard of today’s society. These people do not
expect him to behave in a ”normal“ way. They accept him as he is and wants to be. He travels
south with them, but tension rises as Lukas often endangers the group with this aggressive behavior. Finally, the situation escalates. Lukas dives into the sea and starts to swim. He is already very
far out, before all sight of him is lost. He will never again endanger or hurt anyone …
Daniel Brühl
Das weisse Rauschen deals sensitively with the effects of schizophrenia without presenting a
”thesis play“. Although the main characters have to fight serious problems, they do not despair.
They take on the challenge, developing tricks to succeed and get through life.
Genre Coming-of-Age Story, Drama Category
Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2000
Director Johann Weingartner Screenplay Johann
Weingartner, Toby Amann, Matthias Schellenberg
Directors of Photography Toby Amann, Matthias
Schellenberg, Johann Weingartner Editors Dirk
Oetelshoven, Andreas Wodraschke Music by Marek
Goldowski Set Design Claudia Stock Producer
Annette Pisacane Production Company Cameo
Film & Fernsehproduktion, Cologne, in co-production
with the Academy of Media Arts KHM, Cologne
Principal Cast Daniel Brühl, Anabelle Lachatte,
Patrick Joswig Casting Outcast Length 106 min,
3095 m Format Mini Digital Video Blow up 35 mm,
color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Sound
Technology Dolby Digital International Festival
Screenings Ophüls-Festival Saarbrücken 2001 International Awards Max-Ophüls Prize With backing
from Filmbüro NW, State of Voralberg, Austria
Johann Weingartner was born in 1970 in
Feldkirch, Austria. After studying Physics, he
earned a diploma as a Camera-Assistant from
the AAC Austrian Association of Cinematography and went on to study Neurology at the
University of Vienna and the Neurosurgery
Dept. of the Steglitz Clinic in Berlin. In 1997 he
began postgraduate studies at the Academy of
Media Arts KHM in Cologne. His films include
the shorts: Der junge Mann auf dem
blauen Sofa (1994), §263 (1995), Der
Dreifachstecker (1994) – winner of several prizes including the Short Film Prize at the
Filmfestival Emden, Split Brain (1997), and
Frank (1999).
World Sales: please contact
Cameo Film & Fernsehproduktion e.K. · Annette Pisacane
Lübeckerstr. 6 · D-50668 Cologne
phone +49-2 21-9 12 81 20 · fax +49-2 21-9 12 81 33
www.dasweisserauschen.de · email: info@cameo-film.de
68
www.vermisst-auf-demOktoberfest.de
W W W. M I S S I N G - AT-T H E - O KTO B E R F E S T. D E
Dietmar Mössmer, Maja Wolff
Hanna Goebel and her daughter, Laura, left their home in Friedberg in Hessen on
16 September 2000, heading for the Oktoberfest in Munich, but never returned home.
Three weeks later, a search initiative was started on the Internet under the website
www.vermisst-auf-dem-Oktoberfest.de. Despite numerous tips, Hanna and Laura Goebel
never turned up again. On 8 January 2001, a video camera was found in a strip of woods
near Augsburg – the very camera the two had with them on their trip …
Genre Family Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2001 Director Charly
Weller Screenplay Charly Weller Director of
Photography Charly Weller Editor Nicole
Ziegler-Vladarski, Charly Weller Music by
Martin Kern, Haunsdorfer Singers, Vinscher
Dreigesang, Kreuther Klarinettenmusi Set
Design Udo Poppitz Producer Charly Weller
Production Company Samurai Film, Munich,
in co-production with Odeonfilm, Munich
Principal Cast Maja Wolff, Marlina Pfefferer,
Dietmar Mössmer, Markus Hering, Udo Poppitz,
Carlo Weller Length 92 min, 2478 m Format
35 mm, color, 1:1.37 Original Version
German Subtitled Version English Sound
Technology Dolby SR International
Festival Screenings Ophüls-Festival
Saarbrücken 2001 (in competition) With
backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern
Charly Weller was born in 1951 in Marburg an
der Lahn. He studied Theology, Law and Journalism
in Berlin. During his studies, he completed the television documentary 4 Wochen ohne Fernsehen, which won the Adolf-Grimme Award in
1975. In 1980, he became an assistant director
under the guidance of Peter Fleischmann. He has
directed Wetzlar ist nicht Washington,
Favoriten, and Doberstein for the German
public broadcaster ZDF. His short film The Only
Forgotten Take of Casablanca won the Prix
du Jury at Cannes in 1983, the Short Film Prize at
Figueira da Foz and was shown at over 20 festivals
worldwide. He won the Max-Ophüls-Promotional
Award in 1991 for his first feature film Schlammbeisser. He has directed more than 40 episodes
of numerous television series, including: Ein Fall
für Zwei, Auf Achse, Schwarz greift ein,
Im Namen des Gesetzes and Die
Kommissarin.
World Sales: please contact
Samurai Film · Charly Weller, Udo Poppitz
Kapuzinerplatz 5a · D-80337 Munich
phone +49-89-5 32 85 56
www.vermisst-auf-dem-Oktoberfest.de · e-mail: samuraifilm@aol.com
69
Foreign Representatives
Argentina
Dipl. Ing. Gustav Wilhelmi
Lavalle 1928 · 1º Piso
C1051ABD Buenos Aires
phone: +54-11- 49 52 15 37
phone + fax: +54 -11- 49 51 19 10
email: gustav.wilhelmi@german-cinema.de
China & South East Asia
Lukas Schwarzacher
G/F, 71-B Peak Road
Cheung Chau, Hong Kong
phone: +8 52-29 86 85 55
fax: +8 52-29 86 85 58
e-fax: +1-240-255-71 60
email: lukas.schwarzacher@german-cinema.de
France
Cristina Hoffman
2, Place de Séoul
F-75014 Paris
phone + fax: +33-1-43 21 44 75
email: cristina.hoffman@german-cinema.de
Italy
Alessia Ratzenberger
Angeli Movie Service
Piazza Massa Carrara, 6
I-00162 Rome
phone: +39-06-86 20 44 14 / 8 60 54 21
fax: +39-06-8 60 74 75
email: alessia.ratzenberger@german-cinema.de
Japan
Tomosuke Suzuki
Nippon Cine TV. Corporation
Suite 123, Gaien House
2-2-39 Jingumae
Tokyo, Shibuya-Ku, Japan
phone: +81-3-34 05 09 16
fax: +81-3-34 79-08 69
email: tomosuke.suzuki@german-cinema.de
70
Spain
Stefan Schmitz
Avalon Productions S.L.
C/ Duque de Rivas, 2-2°D
E-28012 Madrid
phone: +34-91-3 66 43 64
fax : +34-91-3 65 93 01
email: stefan.schmitz@german-cinema.de
United Kingdom
Iris Kehr
Top Floor
113-117 Charing Cross Road
GB-London WC2H ODT
phone: +44-20-74 37 20 47
fax: +44-20-74 39 29 47
email: iris.kehr@german-cinema.de
USA/East Coast & Canada
Brigitte Hubmann
1202 Lexington Avenue, #352
New York, NY 10028, USA
phone: +1-2 12-4 39-07 70
fax: +1-2 12-4 39-91 93
email: brigitte.hubmann@german-cinema.de
USA/West Coast
Corina Danckwerts
Capture Film, Inc.
2400 W. Silverlake Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90039, USA
phone: +1-3 23-6 68-01 12
fax: +1-3 23-6 68-08 53
email: corina.danckwerts@german-cinema.de
VERBAND
DER AGENTUREN
für Film, Fernsehen und Theater e.V.
VORSTAND
Bernhard Hoestermann
Dr. Marlis Heppeler
Marie-Luise Schmidt
GESCHÄFTSSTELLE
RAe Lansnicker & Schwirtzek
Kurfürstenstraße 33 • 10785 Berlin
Telefon 0 30-2 30 81-90
Telefax 0 30-2 30 81-9 19
www.vda.fnw.de • vda@fnw.de
EGL Eagle Global Logistics GmbH
Sie suchen einen kompetenten Partner, der Ihnen schnell und zuverlässig bei Transport und Logistik zur
Seite steht, der die ideale Lösung für Sie hat ?
Dann sind wir die Richtigen für Sie. Durch die langjährige Erfahrung unserer Mitarbeiter vor allem in der
Filmindustrie, diversen Produktionen und bei der Abwicklung von Messetransporten, bieten wir von EGL
alles was Sie brauchen. Schließlich garantieren wir mit unserem weltweit verzweigten Netz an Büros und
spezialisierten Agenten/Mitarbeitern eine sichere, souveräne und globale Abwicklung Ihrer Aufträge.
You are looking for a competent partner who can assist you proficiently and reliably with all your logistic
needs ? Then we have the right solutions for you.
With the long-term experience of our employees in the film industry, productions (in general) and on-time
deliveries for film fairs, EGL offers you all you will ever need. After all, our world-wide
network of offices and specialized agents guarantees you the world class competence and support you
can expect from a strong partner.
EGL Eagle Global Logistics GmbH
Lohstrasse 28a
D-85445 Schwaig
Tel. +49.(0)8122.90996.20
Fax +49.(0)8122.90996.19
Mobil +49.(0)177.650 12 16
Guenter.berger@eaglegl.com
homepage: www.eaglegl.com
Export-Union of German Films
Shareholders and Supporters
Verband Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V./
Association of German Feature Film Producers
please contact Franz Seitz
Beichstr. 8, D-80802 Munich
phone: +49-89-39 11 23, fax: +49-89-33 74 32
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten/
Association of New Feature Film Producers
please contact Margarete Evers
Agnesstr. 14, D-80798 Munich
phone: +49-89-2 71 74 30, fax: +49-89-2 71 97 28
email: ag-spielfilm@arcormail.de
Verband Deutscher Filmexporteure e.V./
Association of German Film Exporters
please contact Lothar Wedel
Tegernseer Landstr. 75, D-81539 Munich
phone: +49- 89-6 92 06 60, fax: +49-89-6 92 09 10
email: vdfe@kanzlei-wedel.de
Filmförderungsanstalt
Große Präsidentenstr. 9, D - 10178 Berlin
phone: +49-30-27 57 70, fax: +49-30-27 57 71 11
www.ffa.de, email: presse@ffa.de
Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für
Angelegenheiten der Kultur und der Medien
Referat K 36, Graurheindorfer Str. 198, D - 53 117 Bonn
phone: +49-18 88 - 6 81 36 43, fax: +49-18 88 -6 81 38 53
email: Hermann.Scharnhoop@bkm.bmi.bund.de
Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH
August-Bebel-Str. 26-53, D - 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg
phone: +49-3 31-7 43 87-0, fax: +49-3 31-7 43 87-99
www.filmboard.de
email: filmboard@filmboard.de
FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH
Schwanthalerstr. 69, D - 80336 Munich
phone: +49-89-5 44 60 20, fax: +49-89-54 46 02 21
www.fff-bayern.de
email: filmfoerderung@fff-bayern.de
FilmFörderung Hamburg GmbH
Friedensallee 14–16, D - 22765 Hamburg
phone: +49-40-3 98 37-0, fax: +49-40-3 98 37-10
www.ffhh.de
email: filmfoerderung@ffhh.de
locationbuero@ffhh.de
Filmstiftung NRW GmbH
Kaistr. 14, D - 40221 Düsseldorf
phone: +49-2 11-93 05 00, fax: +49-2 11-93 05 05
www.filmstiftung.de
email: info@filmstiftung.de
Medien- und Filmgesellschaft
Baden-Württemberg mbH
Filmförderung
Huberstr. 4, D - 70174 Stuttgart
phone: +49-7 11-1 22 28 33, fax: +49-7 11-1 22 28 34
www.film.mfg.de
email: filmfoerderung@mfg.de
Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH
Hainstr. 17-19, D - 04109 Leipzig
phone: +49-3 41-26 98 70, fax: +49-3 41-2 69 87 65
www.mdm-foerderung.de
email: info@mdm-foerderung.de
Members of the German
Film Exporters’ Association
please contact Lothar Wedel
FILM
Tegernseer Landstr. 75
D-81539 Munich
phone: +49-89-6 92 06 60
fax: +49-89-6 92 09 10
ARRI Media Worldsales
please contact Antonio Exacoustos jun.
Türkenstr. 89
D-80799 Munich
phone: +49-89-38 09 12 88
fax: +49-89-38 09 14 33
www.arri-mediaworldsales.de
email: aexacoustos@arri.de
Cine-International Filmvertrieb
GmbH & Co. KG
please contact Lilli Tyc-Holm, Susanne Groh
Leopoldstr. 18
D-80802 Munich
phone: +49-89-39 10 25
fax: +49-89-33 10 89
www.cine-international.de
email: email@cine-international.de
Atlas International Film GmbH
please contact
Dieter Menz, Stefan Menz, Christl Blum
DWF
Dieter Wahl Film
Rumfordstr. 29-31
D-80469 Munich
phone: +49-89-21 09 75-0
fax: +49-89-22 43 32
www.atlasfilm.com
email: mail@atlasfilm.com
please contact Dieter Wahl
Bavaria Film International
Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH
Exportfilm Bischoff & Co. GmbH
please contact Michael Weber,
Evenkamp
Thorsten Schaumann
Isabellastr. 20
D-80798 Munich
phone: +49-89-2 72 93 60
fax: +49-89-27 29 36 36
email: philipevenkamp@csi.com
Bavariafilmplatz 8
D-82031 Geiselgasteig
phone: +49-89-64 99 26 86
fax: +49-89-64 99 37 20
www.bavaria-film-international.de
email: Bavaria.International@bavaria-film.de
Sörgelstr. 15b
D-81477 Munich
phone: +49-89-53 27 21
fax: +49-89-53 12 97
email: wahlfilm1@aol.com
please contact Jochem Strate, Philip
german united distributors
Programmvertrieb GmbH
Beta Film GmbH
please contact Dirk Schürhoff
Robert-Buerkle-Str. 2
D-85737 Ismaning
phone: +49-89-99 56 - 23 45
fax: +49-89-99 56 - 27 03
www.epsilon-beta
email: DSchuerhoff@epsilon-beta.com
please contact Silke Spahr
Richartzstr. 6-8a
D-50667 Cologne
phone: +49-2 21-92 06 90
fax: +49-2 21-9 20 69 69
email: germanunited@compuserve.com
and
Bavaria Media TV Vertrieb
please contact Rosemarie Dermühl
cine aktuell Filmgesellschaft mbH
please contact Eugen Schaarschmidt, Ralf
Faust,
Axel Schaarschmidt
Werdenfelsstr. 81
D-81377 Munich
phone: +49-89-7 41 34 30
fax: +49-89-74 13 43 16
email: cine_aktuell@compuserve.com
74
Bavariafilmplatz 8
D-82031 Geiselgasteig
phone: +49-89-64 99 36 66
fax: +49-89-64 99 22 40
email: info@germanunited.com
EXPORTERS
Kinowelt International GmbH
please contact Bettina Kunde
Schwere-Reiter-Str. 35 Geb. 14
D-80797 Munich
phone: +49-89-3 07 96 80 66
fax: +49-89-3 07 96 80 67
www.kinowelt.de
email: bkunde@kinowelt-international.com
Media Luna Entertainment
GmbH & Co.KG
please contact Ida Martins
Hochstadenstr. 1-3
D-50674 Cologne
phone: +49-2 21-1 39 22 22
fax: +49-2 21-1 39 22 24
email: idamartins@compuserve.com
RRS Entertainment
Gesellschaft für Filmlizenzen
GmbH
please contact Robert Rajber
Sternwartstr. 2
D-81679 Munich
phone: +49-89-2 11 16 60
fax: +49-89-21 11 66 11
email: info@rrsentertainment.de
Telepool – EuropäischesFernsehprogrammkontor GmbH
please contact Wolfram Skowronnek
Sonnenstr. 21
D-80331 Munich
phone: +49-89-55 87 60
fax: +49-89-55 87 61 88
email: skowronnek@telepool.de
Metropolis Filmvertrieb GmbH
please contact Luciano Gloor
Transit Film GmbH
Schönberger Ufer 71
D-10785 Berlin
phone: +49-30-26 39 56 30
fax: +49-30-26 39 56 59
email: luciano.gloor@metropolis-film.de
please contact Loy Arnold, Mark Grünthal
Dachauer Str. 35
D-80335 Munich
phone: +49-89-59 98 85-0
fax: +49-89-59 98 85-20
email: transitfilm@compuserve.com
Progress Film-Verleih GmbH
please contact Christel Jansen
Burgstr. 27
D-10178 Berlin
phone: +49-30-24 00 32 25
fax: +49-30-24 00 32 22
www.progress-film.de
email: c.jansen@progress-film.de
Uni Media International GmbH &
Co.
Produktions- und Vertriebs KG
please contact Irene Vogt
Bayerstr. 15
D-80335 Munich
phone: +49-89-59 58 46
fax: +49-89-5 50 17 01
email: UniMediaInt@t-online.de
Road Sales GmbH
Mediadistribution
please contact Denise Booth
Waldleitner Media GmbH
Clausewitzstr. 4
D-10629 Berlin
phone: +49-30-8 80 48 60
fax: +49-30-88 04 86 11
www.das-werk.de
email: office@road-movies.de
please contact Michael Waldleitner,
Angela Waldleitner
Münchhausenstr. 29
D-81247 Munich
phone: +49-89-55 53 41
fax: +49-89-59 45 10
email: Roxy-Film@t-online.de
75
EGL Eagle Global Logistics GmbH
Sie suchen einen kompetenten Partner, der Ihnen schnell und zuverlässig bei Transport und Logistik zur
Seite steht, der die ideale Lösung für Sie hat ?
Dann sind wir die Richtigen für Sie. Durch die langjährige Erfahrung unserer Mitarbeiter vor allem in der
Filmindustrie, diversen Produktionen und bei der Abwicklung von Messetransporten, bieten wir von EGL
alles was Sie brauchen. Schließlich garantieren wir mit unserem weltweit verzweigten Netz an Büros und
spezialisierten Agenten/Mitarbeitern eine sichere, souveräne und globale Abwicklung Ihrer Aufträge.
You are looking for a competent partner who can assist you proficiently and reliably with all your logistic
needs ? Then we have the right solutions for you.
With the long-term experience of our employees in the film industry, productions (in general) and on-time
deliveries for film fairs, EGL offers you all you will ever need. After all, our world-wide
network of offices and specialized agents guarantees you the world class competence and support you
can expect from a strong partner.
EGL Eagle Global Logistics GmbH
Lohstrasse 28a
D-85445 Schwaig
Tel. +49.(0)8122.90996.20
Fax +49.(0)8122.90996.19
Mobil +49.(0)177.650 12 16
Guenter.berger@eaglegl.com
homepage: www.eaglegl.com
The Export-Union of German Cinema –
The Export-Union of German Cinema is the national information
A Profile
EXPORT-UNION’S RANGE OF ACTIVITIES:
and advisory center for the export of German films. It was established in 1954 as the ”umbrella“ association for the Association of
German Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German
Feature Film Producers and the Association of German Film
Close cooperation with the major international film
festivals, e.g. Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Montreal, Toronto,
San Sebastian, Tokyo, New York, Locarno, Karlovy Vary;
Exporters and operates today in the legal form of a limited company.
Organization of umbrella stands for German sales companies
Shareholders in the limited company are the Association of
German Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German
and producers at international TV markets, e.g. MIP-TV,
MIPCOM, NATPE;
Feature Film Producers, the Association of German Film Exporters
and the German Federal Film Board (FFA).
Staging of German Film Weeks in key cities of the internaThe members of the board of the Export-Union of German
Cinema are: Jochem Strate (chairman), Rolf Bähr, Antonio
tional film industry (1999: Paris, London, Madrid, Buenos
Aires and Mexico-City);
Exacoustos Jr. and Michael Weber.
The Export-Union itself has nine permanent staff:
Providing advice and information for representatives of
• Christian Dorsch, managing director
the international press and buyers from the fields of
• Susanne Reinker, PR manager
cinema, video, TV;
• Julia Basler, project manager
• Angela Hawkins, publications editor
• Cordula Ulrich, PR assistant
• Stephanie Weiss, PR assistant
• Nicole Kaufmann, project coordinator
Providing advice and information for German filmmakers and
press on international festivals, conditions of participation and
German films being shown;
• Petra Bader, office manager
• Barbara Hirth, accounts
Publication of informational literature on the current
In addition, the Export-Union shares foreign representatives
German cinema: KINO-Magazine and KINO-Yearbook;
in eight countries with the Federal German Film Board (FFA).
(cf. page 70)
The Export-Union’s budget of presently approx. DM 4
million (including projects, administration, foreign representatives)
comes from the export levies, monies from the office of the Federal
An Internet website (http://www.german-cinema.de)
offering both information about new German films as well
as a film archive;
Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media and
the FFA. In addition, the six main economic film funds
(Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFör-
Organization of the selection procedure for the German
derung Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Medien- and Filmgesellschaft
entry for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film.
Baden-Württemberg and Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung) have
made a financial contribution, currently amounting to DM 0.45 million, towards the work of the Export-Union. In 1997, the Export-
The focus of the work: feature films; documentaries with
Union and five large economic film funds founded an advisory
theatrical potential and shorts that have been invited to the main
committee whose goal is the concentration of efforts for the pro-
sections of the major festivals.
motion of German film abroad (constitution).
The Export-Union is a founding member of ”European Film
Promotion“, an amalgamation of twenty national film-PR agencies
(UNIFRANCE, Scandinavian Films, British Screen, Holland Film,
among others) with similar responsibilities to those of the ExportUnion. The organization with its headquarters in Hamburg aims to
develop and realize joint projects for the presentation of European
films on an international level.
imprint
published by:
Export-Union des
Deutschen Films GmbH
Tuerkenstr. 93
D-80799 Munich
phone: +49-89-39 00 95
fax: +49-89-39 52 23
www.german-cinema.de/
email: export-union@german-cinema.de
as of march 2001:
Sonnenstrasse 21
D-80331 Munich
phone: +49-89-59 97 87 0
ISSN 0948-2547
Credits are not contractual for any
of the films mentioned in this publication.
© Export-Union des Deutschen Films
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or
transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
Editors Susanne Reinker, Angela Hawkins
Production Reports Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley
Contributors for this issue Martin Blaney, Hans Ernst, Simon Kingsley, Ralf Schenk,Thilo Wydra
Translations Simon Kingsley, Lucinda Rennison
Design Group Werner Schauer Agentur für Design und Kommunikation
Art Direction Werner Schauer
Printing Office ESTA Druck,
Obermühlstraße 90, D-82398 Polling
Financed by the office of the Federal Government Commissioner for
Cultural Affairs and the Media.
Printed on ecological, unchlorinated paper.
78
NEW
ADDRESS
as
of
march
Sonnenstrasse 21
D-80331 Munich
phone +49-89-59 97 87 0
GERMAN
CINEMA
Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH
www.german-cinema.de · email: export-union@german-cinema.de
2001
A FILM BY
OTTO ALEXANDER JAHRREISS
PANORAMA 01
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BAVARIA FILM INTERNATIONAL PRESENTS A VEGA FILM PRODUCTION "ZOOM"
Robert & Horst, Munich
STARRING
A FILM BY
OTTO ALEXANDER JAHRREISS
FLORIAN LUKAS OANA SOLOMON ALBERT KITZL GÖTZ SCHUBERT GUNDULA KÖSTER ALEXANDER POPESCU KLAUS MANCHEN WINFRIED DZIALLAS BELA ZAR
CASTING WALLY AHRWEILER AND WATERGATE CASTING MAKE-UP LJILJANA MÜLLER KATHARINA NAEDELIN COSTUME DESIGNER BEATE SCHEEL SOUND ED CANTU
MUSIC MARTIN TODSHAROW FEAT. TILL BRÖNNER EDITOR BEHRUZ TORBATI PRODUCTION DESIGN INGRID BURON DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY HANNES HUBACH
LINE PRODUCER MICHAEL SCHEEL UNIT PRODUCTION MANAGER FRANÇOIS DOGE CO-PRODUCER OTTO ALEXANDER JAHRREISS PRODUCER MICHAEL SCHWARZ
SCREENPLAY OTTO ALEXANDER JAHRREISS MARKUS HOFFMANN PRODUCED BY VEGA FILM GMBH DIRECTED BY OTTO ALEXANDER JAHRREISS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH SAT.1 AND FILMBOARD BERLIN-BRANDENBURG
WORLD SALES BAVARIA FILM INTERNATIONAL
FILMBOARD BERLIN-BRANDENBURG
SAT.1
VEGA FILM GMBH