Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ)
Transcription
Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ)
2/2001 ”MEDIUM OF ENTERTAINMENT & CULTURAL MESSENGER“ A message from the new Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media, Prof. Dr. Julian Nida-Rümelin GERMAN FILM PRIZE ... and the nominees are … GERMAN BOX OFFICE HIT ”THE EXPERIMENT“ by Oliver Hirschbiegel Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel in ”THE EXPERIMENT“ (photo © SENATOR FILM) Kino EXPORT-UNION OF GERMAN CINEMA GERMAN CINEMA GERMAN FILMS at the official program of the Directors’ Fortnight Ecce Homo by Mirjam Kubescha World Sales please contact: Confine Film, Munich phone/fax +49-89-13 03 87 66 Directors’ Fortnight: ”Le Cinéma dans tous ses états“ The Films of the Fishes by Helma Sanders-Brahms World Sales please contact: Helma Sanders GmbH, Berlin phone/fax +49-30-2 15 83 44 Cannes Junior Eine Hand voll Gras A Handful of Grass by Roland Suso Richter World Sales: Bavaria Film International, Geiselgasteig phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 Critics’ Week: Short Film Competition Staplerfahrer Klaus – Der erste Arbeitstag Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job by Jörg Wagner, Stefan Prehn World Sales: ShortFilmAgency Hamburg phone +49-40-3 91 06 30 · fax +49-40-39 10 63 20 Critics’ Week: F I P R E S C I D i s c o v e r y o f t h e Ye a r Die Innere Sicherheit The State I Am In by Christian Petzold World Sales: First Hand Films, CH-Bülach phone +41-1-8 62 21 06 · fax +41-1-8 62 21 46 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL Critics’ Week: Short Film Night Forever Flirt: Nijinsky at the Laundromat The Autograph Triumph of the Kiss by Percy Adlon World Sales please contact: Leora Films, Santa Monica phone +1-3 10-8 28 47 66 · fax +1-3 10-8 28 87 66 Forum: ACDO Havanna, mi amor by Uli Gaulke World Sales: EuroArts Entertainment Filmproduktion, Berlin phone +49-30-88 70 81 72 · fax +49-30-88 70 81 70 GERMAN-INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTIONS at the OFFICIAL PROGRAM In Competition Il Mestiere Delle Armi by Ermanno Olmi (Italy-France-Germany) German co-producer: TaurusProduktion, Ismaning phone +49-89-9 95 60 · fax +49-89-99 56 27 59 Un Certain Regard Hijack Stories by Oliver Schmitz (Germany-United Kingdom) German producer: Schlemmer Film, Cologne phone +49-2 21-9 12 75 10 · fax +49-2 21-9 12 75 12 Lovely Rita by Jessica Hausner (Austria-Germany) German co-producer: Essential Filmproduktion, Berlin phone +49-30-32 77 78 79 · fax +49-30-3 23 20 91 K I N O 6 2 / 2 0 01 ”Medium of Entertainment and Cultural Messenger“ A message from the new Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media 8 Film Archives and Film Museums in the Federal Republic 17 36 Untitled MTM Project Urs Egger 37 Wildenranna – Ein Heimatfilm Alice Agneskirchner 38 Unswerving Commitment The 100 Most Significant German Films Director’s Portrait Angela Schanelec 38 Highlights of German Film History 18 Progression and Persistence The 100 Most Significant German Films 39 M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder Director’s Portrait Michael Verhoeven M – A TOW N I S LO O K I N G F O R 21 United They Sell A M U RDE RE R World Sales Portrait: german united distributors 22 T H E CA B I N E T O F D R . CA L I GA R I The Progress Report World Sales Portrait: Progress Film-Verleih 24 Fritz Lang 40 Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari Robert Wiene 41 Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt B E RLI N, SYM PHONY OF A C ITY Time of New Departures Producer’s Portrait: UFA Film & TV Produktion Walther Ruttmann 42 Menschen am Sonntag 26 KINO news 30 In Production P E O P L E O N S U N DAY Robert Siodmak 44 30 Elefantenherz Züli Aladag 30 La Grande Chartreuse M NNES AT C A I NG S REEN C S T ARKE Philip Gröning 31 Halbe Treppe Andreas Dresen NNES GS AT C A ENIN SC RE T E K MAR 32 Ninas Geschichte Hans-Christoph Blumenberg 34 Die Prüfung Seyhan Derin 34 Semper 2000 Thomas Tielsch 35 Someone Is Sleeping In My Pain Michael Roes 36 Tamara Michael Gutmann Hubertus Siegert 45 Drei Stern Rot 3 S TA R R E D Olaf Kaiser Bob Rafelson Wolfgang Ettlich 33 Planet der Kannibalen 44 Berlin Babylon 46 Erotic Tales: PORN.COM 32 Im Osten geht die Sonne auf Joseph Orr New German Films MA NNES GS AT C A ENIN SC RE T E K R Erotic Tales: Verkehrsinsel W H Y D O N ’ T W E D O I T I N T H E ROA D ? Eoin Moore 47 Das Experiment TH E EXPE RI M E NT Oliver Hirschbiegel E H IT OFFIC B OX N ION S S A S M I GER ADM LION L I M 1. 5 C O N T E N T S 63 Palermo flüstert PA L E R M O W H I S P E R S Wolf Gaudlitz 48 E i n g ö t t l i c h e r J o b A G O D DA M N J O B M NNES AT C A I NG S REEN C S T ARKE Thorsten Wettcke 65 So weit die Füße tragen M NNES AT C A I NG S REEN C S T ARKE A S FA R A S M Y F E E T W I L L CA R RY M E Michael Klier 50 In den Tag hinein Hardy Martins 66 Tanz mit dem Teufel T H E DAY S B E T W E E N Maria Speth 51 It Happened in Havana Daniel Díaz Torres B LO O DY W E E K E N D P H OTO G R A P H Y A N D B EYO N D Heinz Emigholz 49 Heidi M. 52 Kaliber Deluxe 64 Photographie und jenseits M NNES AT C A I NG S REEN C S T ARKE NNES GS AT C A ENIN SC RE T E K MAR DA N C E W I T H T H E D EV I L Peter Keglevic 67 Venus und Mars VE N U S AN D MARS Harry Mastrogeorge 68 Wie Feuer und Flamme Thomas Roth 53 Konzert im Freien N EV E R M I N D T H E WA L L A P L AC E I N B E R L I N Connie Walther Jürgen Böttcher 54 Lale Andersen – Die Stimme der Lili Marleen NNES AT C A I NG S REEN C S T ARKE M 69 Zeichnen bis zur Raserei – Der Maler Ernst Ludwig Kirchner D R AW T I L YO U D RO P L A L E A N D E R S E N – T H E VO I C E O F – T H E PA I N T E R E R N S T LU DW I G K I RC H N E R LI LI MARLE E N Michael Trabitzsch Irene Langemann 55 Legion of the Dead Olaf Ittenbach M NNES GS AT C A ENIN SC RE T E K AR 70 Das Zimmer T H E RO O M Roland Reber 56 Mädchen Mädchen G I R L S O N TO P Dennis Gansel 57 Milch und Honig aus Rotfront M I L K A N D H O N EY F RO M ROT F RO N T Hans-Erich Viet 58 Der Mistkerl T H E B LO O DY N U I SA N C E NNES GS AT C A EENIN T SC R E MARK Andrea Katzenberger 59 Mondscheintarif Ralf Huettner 60 Muratti & Sarotti M U R AT T I & SA ROT T I – H I S TO RY O F G E R M A N A N I M AT I O N Gerd Gockell 61 Nachts im Park Uwe Janson 62 Nancy und Frank NA N CY A N D F R A N K : A M A N H AT TA N LOV E S TO RY Wolf Gremm 72 Film Exporters 74 Foreign Representatives 74 Imprint A m e s s a g e f ro m t h e n e w Fe d e ra l G o ve r n m e n t C o m m i s s i o n e r Prof. Dr. Nida-Rümelin has been the Federal Government’s Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the and Media since 13 January 2001. He assumed office almost at the same time as the Berlinale 2001 was taking place. He used this occasion not only as a welcome opportunity to gain closer knowledge and personal experience of important personalities and institutions within both the national and international film business, but also to clearly state his intention of making film policy the main thrust of his period of office, as well as those other areas which he considers to be of the most importance. ”MEDIUM OF ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURAL MESSENGER“ Films have fascinated me ever since I was a child. Whenever I’m asked where this fascination comes from I often think of a remark made by Andrei Tarkovsky, where he described film as ”the most poetic of all the arts.“ I share this opinion. Films create their own worlds and satisfy our longing for myths. They tell stories and change our way of looking at things. They combine entertainment and the aesthetic, dreams and reality, like almost no other form of art. The reference they make to the world in which we live is closer than, for example, that of contemporary painting and sculpture or e-music. Even when film is most widely considered a medium of entertainment it remains, as before, a cultural object and a cultural messenger. In the 20th century it has, in many ways, assumed the role that opera played in the 19th century. The art of film embodies acting, music, writing, the visual arts, dance, etc. Film politics, as I understand and wish to conduct it, are first and foremost the politics of culture and should be intended to help as many people as possible gain access to the entire body of this art and promote the public conscious for that cultural dimension film affords. As the reflection of the personal and cultural identity of its makers, film has not only a universal but also a regional component. It is precisely the mixing of both these aspects which creates the main fascination. It cannot be in our interest if the regional cultural identity in filmmaking is replaced by a more or less ”globalized“ flavor, oriented just towards entertainment value, as is to be found especially in many Hollywood productions. That is why I am concerned with strengthening not just German but also European films as a whole. 6 The German film industry is currently undergoing deep structural changes affecting all aspects of its activities, not least of which is due to the extremely rapid pace of technical development. We must react to this structural change and try to actively manage it. Here the state, both the national and regional governments, plays an indispensable role. I am in no doubt that strengthening German film will belong to one of my main activities. The situation in which German film currently finds itself is partly influenced by mutually opposing factors. On the one hand we have, not least of which is due to the strength of the German television industry, a considerable number of outstanding, artistically significant and financially successful films and the large potential afforded by highly talented directors, script writers, actors and technicians who stand all international comparison. This also applies to the young generation, as evidenced by the OSCAR awarded to Florian Gallenberger for the Best Short Film. But on the other hand, the financial success achieved by German films and their audience acceptance domestically is not satisfactory and, especially abroad, needs to be improved. There are a number of reasons which I cannot go into individually here. But in any event one thing is certain: Increased efforts have to be undertaken to maximize the potential of the German film industry. I want to actively support our film industry in these efforts. If individual elements of film policy are to strengthen the film industry that does not mean simply handing out subsidies. Much more it means the maintenance of legal and financial frameworks in order to be able to produce film as a cultural item. That is why I am in agreement, together with my French colleague as well as f o r C u l t u ra l A f f a i r s a n d t h e M e d i a Prof. Dr. Julian Nida-Rümelin (photo © Dörflinger) broadcasters airing European films in prime time. Perhaps the European Union’s television guidelines should also contain the corresponding obligation for public broadcasters to transmit European films in the original language with subtitles. In this context I also consider important the maintenance and continued expansion of bilateral and multilateral relations within the film industry. And not just with our European neighbors but world-wide. International co-productions in particular should be made easier and access to the relevant markets also improved. This is why I am annoyed by the recently introduced financial regulations which unfortunately hinder international co-productions rather than promote them. I am very grateful to the German Federal Film Board (FFA) for organizing a symposium, together with the Erich-Pommer Institute, on the effects of the new financial regulations shortly after they came into effect. After the results have been evaluated I will, if necessary, put forward proposals to the Finance Minister for a more balanced implementation. Another important matter is the reform of German copyright law. I am especially personally concerned with finding a fair compromise which suitably rewards the creative contribution and also pays fair due to the interests of the film industry. Germany shall, in the future, also become a more interesting location for investment in film production. most European Union culture ministers, to push the case with the Commission as well as within the European Parliament for the need for European film to receive future public funding, both as a national cultural treasure and a medium promoting a European identity. In so doing, we are working on a European alternative to mainstream cinema from Hollywood. I am personally very keen to see the European Commission take sufficient note of this within the framework of its regulations governing competition. A further main plank of my policy is to improve foreign representation of German films and, in so doing, their export opportunities. To bring this about I am keen to expand, on the one hand, the role played by the Export-Union and its financial basis, and on the other, the possibilities of strengthening cooperation between the film and television industries in making joint sales efforts, particularly at foreign markets. The Goethe Institute could also play an important role in this and I would very much like to improve its possibilities for organizing German film weeks as well as its scope for special activities to represent film abroad. Prof. Dr. Julian Nida-Rümelin To promote European cinema it is not just enough to provide the film industry in the member countries of the European Union with sufficient financial foundations. We must, at the same time, make all efforts to increase mutual audience interest in films from neighboring countries and, in so doing, give them more opportunity in our cinemas. Along with this I also see the public 7 Marlene Dietrich Room/Film Museum Berlin (photo © Scherhaufer) FILM ARCHIVES Film was the most important medium of the 20th century – we cannot say as yet whether it will remain so in the 21st. It has left traces behind: in people’s collective memory, and in the form of film copies, screenplays, architectural set designs, film posters and film criticism. And although it has made such a deep impression on us, film is a fleeting art. The film material itself decomposes, and materials used in production have been, and still are often thrown away carelessly. The task of film archives and film museums is to save the traces of film history, but also to make them usable and show them to the public. The fact that there are so many of these in the Federal Republic of Germany is a consequence of the historical development of post-war society in Germany. A race against time The history of film began more than 100 years ago, and yet decades passed before the first public film archive began work. Because this happened very late, the majority of films from the age of silent films must be considered irretrievably lost. In a Germany which was forcibly made to conform during the NS regime, the film archives of the Third Reich opened on 4 February 1935 in the presence of Hitler and Goebbels. It was almost certainly the role of film in the Nazis’ propaganda system which promoted the establishment of a central German film archive, 8 but it was no coincidence that it happened at this time: people were beginning to take film seriously as an art form, but also as an educational medium and as an historical source. The Second World War produced a caesura here as well. Looking back over time, the federal German archive situation during the post-war period appears to have been something of a temporary system. The collections of the Reich’s film archives – around 12,000 films at the end of the war – were placed at the legal disposal of the allies. It was a private initiative which led to the foundation of the first archive of the post-war era: after the war, the collector Hanns Wilhelm Lavies made efforts to re-assemble scattered exponents from the archives in Berlin and the western zones, and in 1947 he founded his “Archive for Film Science”, which became the “German Institute of Film Sciences” (DIF) in 1949. It was not until some time later that the two directly government archives were set up: the Federal Archives, at that time in Koblenz, in 1954, and the State Film Archives of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in East Berlin during the same year. After the unification of the two German states, this passed over into the Federal Archives (Film Archive). The third large archive in the Federal Republic, the Film Museum Berlin-Deutsche Kinemathek (SDK) – a foundation established in 1963 – also owes its basic stock to a private collector, the film director Gerhard Lamprecht. FILM ARCHIVES AND FILM MUSEUMS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC It was only during the sixties that the fate of many films produced before 1945 was settled. After the allies had handed over the administration of the ”film property of the Reich“ to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1953, and the state had in turn sold the rights to two private firms, there was a threat of sale abroad after these went bankrupt. In 1966 the Friedrich-WilhelmMurnau Foundation was established, named after the famous German film director from the age of silent films. It administrated the rights and also some of the film stocks of the production companies Ufa, Universum Film, Bavaria and Tobis, which includes most of the classics of German silent film. The commercial rights were utilized by Transit Film in Munich, whilst the DIF in Frankfurt or Wiesbaden took charge of non-commercial distribution (also abroad). There is more to film than just the copy During the seventies, under the influence of the commercial picture palaces’ collapse and the first works by young German directors, a cinema movement emerged which was oriented on film culture. In 1971, the cultural politician Hilmar Hoffmann (Frankfurt) founded the Community Cinema (Kommunales Kino), the first cinema to be entirely in municipal hands. The slogan of these community cinemas, which were then founded in an increasing number of cities in the Federal Republic, was ”to show different films in a different way“. But Hilmar Hoffmann dreamt of more: the cinema was to become the focal point of a communications center based around film, also inviting the public to join in discussion and analysis of films. In 1976, the city of Frankfurt acquired the AND FILM MUSEUMS Filmmuseum Düsseldorf (photo © Inken Kuntze 1993) private archive belonging to Paul Sauerländer and used this collection as a basis with which to establish the German Film Museum, opened in an old villa by the Main River during 1984. The political, educational ambitions of the community cinemas resulted in two circumstances which have become significant for the film cultural scene in the Federal Republic. On the one hand, some cinemas established their own archives, buying copies from abroad, because the films were not or no longer available in the Federal Republic. In addition, there followed an extension of the concept of film: the collecting of film copies was no longer the only focal point, but also the preservation and exhibition of production materials. The German Film Museum in Frankfurt became the first film center in the Federal Republic: it collects everything connected with film, it maintains a library together with the DIF, and it presents exhibits concerning film history in a permanent exhibition and four to five additional, changing exhibitions per year. A large number of exhibition activities began during the eighties. Even earlier than the German Film Museum, the Film Museum of the GDR (now Film Museum Potsdam) opened its doors in Potsdam during 1981. It displayed part of its excellent technical collection, and in 1983 this was supplemented by an exhibition on film history before 1945 and on the history of the DEFA, the eastern German film company. After the Wall fell, the Film Museum Potsdam, whose personnel structures had then been altered, faced a new task: in 1994, it erected a permanent exhibition on the history of Potsdam-Babelsberg as a production location; studio operation began there in 1912 and Ufa and DEFA produced on the site. The documentation of this location, also as an aspect of national cultural history, is still a focal point of this museum’s activities, but the spectrum is being extended with other exhibitions, for example on the film architect Alexandre Trauner (1992), Federico Fellini (1995) or Romy Schneider (1998). 9 FILM ARCHIVES AND FILM MUSEUMS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC The Film Museum Düsseldorf, opened in 1993, developed from the nucleus of community film work. Its exhibition documents the collecting activities begun by the city of Düsseldorf at the end of the seventies. By contrast to Frankfurt, where the first part of the permanent exhibition offers a clearly subdivided, didactic tour on the history of perception in film, the makers in Düsseldorf have brought together the experience and the history of film in a style resembling a mosaic, distributed throughout various rooms on three floors; here it is possible to find the fan cult, a look back to shadow theater, and alongside this, a presentation of the technical collection. The fourth and most recent film museum in the Federal Republic, the Film Museum Berlin, established in the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz, has had a varied history. During the eighties there were already plans to present the collection of the SDK in a museum to be housed in the former Hotel ”Esplanade“ beside the Potsdamer Platz, which was not built on at all at that time. However, the fall of the Wall and tugs of war over new construction work on Potsdamer Platz meant that the planned museum was put on ice, and its official opening was not possible until September 2000. Its permanent exhibition follows the thread sovereignty. It was not until 1978 that the regulations of the Association of German Film Archives were developed to take over the tasks of a central film library. The three large archives are full members of this association, whilst the film museums of Frankfurt, Munich, Potsdam and Düsseldorf are also co-opted members. There is no legal deposit in the Federal Republic – no duty to deposit current film material as there is in some other European countries. The Federal Archive in Koblenz concerned itself primarily with the collection of documentary films. Not until 1974 was the policy of collecting complementary copies of all films sponsored by the Federation introduced at the largest German archive, now holding around 150,000 titles. Nonetheless, the Federal Film Archive, which must limit itself to German productions, is dependent on acquisitions or donations in order to complete its collection. It also offers producers a contractually regulated deposit – long-term surrender – of the negative of a film. Within this system, the small archives in particular offer a guarantee that the marginal fields of film are also collected: independently produced films, advertising films, experimental films which often work using exotic formats such as Super 8 and often only exist as unique copies. The Film Museum Munich (without exhibitions, but with a community cinema) has a large collection of films by German-author filmmakers dating from the sixties until today available in its archives. The lending conditions and prices of archives differ; but non-commercial users such as educational institutions or community cinemas are usually given reductions. Initial information may be found on the websites of German archives and museums (cf. address list p. 14), where there are usually also lists of people to contact and their e-mail addresses. Versions of Expressionist Studio Exhibit/German Film Museum Frankfurt (photo © German Film Museum) German films with subtitles are only available in very limited numbers in the archives. Subtitled versions in English, of Berlin film history; beginning with a gallery of shimmering film French and Spanish, for example, usually in 16 mm format, are images, it presents the pioneers and the early divas of German offered by the Goethe Institute Inter Nationes, which is film, concentrates on the classics of silent film in Germany, and responsible for the presentation of German culture abroad. also focuses on the years between 1933 and 1945, which meant For information about the collection, the people to approach collaboration for some and exile for others. The exhibition are those at the individual Goethe Institutes. ”Artificial Worlds“ on the history of special effects completes the tour. All the archives are making constant efforts to extend and to complete their collections. The widest range of collected objects is surely to be found at the four film museums in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Potsdam. These do not only collect film copies, but also technical exhibits, photos, film programs, screenThe archives and museums with their different emphases guaranplays, production documents, posters and press pull-outs. tee diversity in collection, although German film dominates, of Amongst the most fascinating collected objects in the museums course. But this widely scattered archive scene also compensates are designs for costumes and scenery, for in a certain way, these for a deficit in post-war film history in the Federal Republic: there anticipate the images of a film. The largest collection of this kind is no central film library. Ultimately, plans for this failed because of is probably owned by the SDK with works including those of the Republic’s federal structure, which gives each state cultural Collections 10 FILM ARCHIVES AND FILM MUSEUMS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC Munich, is connected with Metropolis, since he has often worked on this film. His reconstruction of classic silent films like Murnau’s Der brennende Acker or Paul Wegener’s Golem and his lecturing activities have meant that in recent years those members of the public interested in film have developed a greater awareness for silent movies. Important reconstructions by the archives in recent years include Robert Wiene’s Orlacs Hände, G.W. Pabst’s Die freudlose Gasse and Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, Lubitsch’s Anna Boleyn, Paul Wegener’s Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam or Lotte Reiniger’s silhouette film Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed. The reconstruction of films can only succeed if several archives work together. This is not only true of the preparation of film copies, but also of research work. Traces of a film – such as its screenplay, censorship certificate or musical score, which are all important for a reconstruction – are often scattered in various places. Contact to the international association of archives FIAF, founded in 1938, is also of eminent importance, for an export version stored abroad has often proven to be more complete than the one preserved in Germany. Metropolis Theater (photo © Kinemathek Hamburg) Erich Kettelhut (Metropolis), Robert Herlth and Herbert Kirchhoff. The designs by the DEFA set architect Alfred Hirschmeier are stored at the Film Museum Potsdam, drawings by Walter Reimann (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari) and Otto Hunte (Die Nibelungen) in Frankfurt. The archive material is available for viewing in the museums by previous arrangement, and the museums lend out originals for exhibitions by acknowledged institutions at home and abroad; for all other users (for example for book reproductions), slides or photos may be made in exchange for a certain fee. Emigration and Holocaust The absorption of film into the propaganda apparatus of the Nazis and the exodus of Jewish film artists after the so-called ”take-over of power“ is the heaviest burden of guilt to be borne by German film. An investigation into the consequences of National Socialist film policy is one of the most important The museums have not limited their acquisition activity to the Federal Republic. The estates of directors and actors in particular are often kept with their heirs in other countries. In 1993, the SDK acquired a superlative collection for five million marks: the estate of the actress Marlene Dietrich, which had been kept in various storage houses in Europe and the United States. The “Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin” now administrates this unique collection illustrating a life whose highlights are shown by the Film Museum Berlin. The Collection first presented parts of the estate in the exhibition “Kino*Movie*Cinema” in Berlin during 1995, after this as an individual exhibition in Bonn and Rome, and from 1997 onwards, a small section went on its travels as a touring exhibition to the Goethe Institutes. In 1997, the German Film Museum Frankfurt was able to take over the estate of Curd Jürgens, which had been housed in the south of France, where the star lived until his death. In Frankfurt, a focus on (west) German post-war film has emerged together with the Artur Brauner Archive – the film documentation of the Berlin producer. Editing Room (photo © Film Museum Munich) Restoration and reconstruction During this year’s Berlinale, film historians from all over the world waited excitedly for one screening: the “premiere” of Fritz Lang’s silent film classic Metropolis (1927). Several archives had worked together on the reconstruction of this under the overall control of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation. Within the German archive scene, the name Enno Patalas, the former director of the Film Museum themes for the archives and the museums in Germany – at least this has been the case during the last two decades. The SDK in Berlin has collected together the probably largest collection of materials on German film emigration, in particular to Hollywood. Its nucleus are the estate and business documents of the film agent Paul Kohner, who was the first person approached by many emigrants during the Nazi period. In 1987, the German Film Museum Frankfurt assembled the touring exhibition “From Babelsberg to Hollywood: Film Emigration from Nazi Germany”, which was a great success in 11 FILM ARCHIVES AND FILM MUSEUMS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC Frankfurt, and was established in 1992. This group has taken on the task of documenting film traces of the genocide perpetrated on the Jews. Lively film culture The film museums and the film archives in Germany are indispensable if we are to maintain 20th century film heritage. That should be clear to everyone by now. But what is often forgotten is that they also, particularly at a time of financial cuts, help to maintain a lively film culture in the Federal Republic. Film historical retrospectives can only be realized with their support and the use of their collected treasures. Since 1977, for example, the Berlin Film Festival has made use of assistance given by the SDK, which arranges and organizes the festival’s annual retrospectives. Technical Collection (photo © Film Museum Potsdam Zurich, Los Angeles and New York. The most comprehensive collection of films whose production involved German film emigrants in Hollywood is available in the Film Library Hamburg. These film copies, around 600 in number and mostly acquired from collectors in the USA, present the entire range of work in emigration: they include films by famous directors such as Lubitsch, Siodmak, Dieterle or Lang and titles such as Casablanca (many emigrants worked on its production), but also films completely unknown today (and here) – the archive has acquired these because, for example, Curt Bois played a minor role. The archives also participate in the working group “Cinematography of the Holocaust”, which is supported by the DIF, CineGraph Hamburg and the Fritz Bauer Institute in But the activities are not only historically oriented, by any means. Every two years, the German Film Museum arranges the International Children’s and Young People’s Film Festival ”Lucas“, with its “Murnau Short Film Prize” the Friedrich-WilhelmMurnau Foundation honors current short format productions, and in Wiesbaden the festival ”GoEast“, presenting films from the former socialist countries, was organized for the first time this year by the German Film Institute (DIF). Publications often appear about festivals, film series, retrospectives and exhibitions. Today, this appears to be a matter of course, but especially during the seventies and eighties, the film institutions functioned as a motor for serious film journalism, which was only just beginning at that time. Stefan Drößler, Claudia Dillmann, Hans Helmut Prinzler, Heiner Roß 12 Film Storage (photo © Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Stiftung) FILM ARCHIVES AND FILM MUSEUMS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC Digital future In 1999, the Association of German Film Archives (Kinemathekenverbund) presented a data bank on CDROM which brings together basic data concerning 17,858 German feature films. The 100 Most Significant German Films – a selection made by means of a questionnaire among film historians – are documented with selected material and information concerning the location of the copy; documentary and short films are now to be registered as a follow-up project (cf. new KINO series “The 100 Most Significant German Films” p. 38). Digital technology and modern communication technologies have been part of the archivists’ work for some time now. They have made faster access to materials and data bases possible. In 1999, the German Film Institute – DIF placed its most advanced archive with regard to information technology within the Association of German Film Archives - its censorship project – onto the Internet. Under the Institute’s address, it is possible to find all the decisions made by the Head Office of Film Censorship in Berlin from 1920 to 1938. These certificates are first-rate documents of cultural history, for they not only give us an insight into the judgement practice of censorship authorities, but also information concerning the way in which people imagined the dangerous effects of the mass medium film during the twenties and thirties. In the EUsponsored project “Collate”, the DIF is working together with other European archives in order to research into the management of large amounts of text in the Internet in connection with traditional scientific processing methods. Digital processing of material has almost become a matter of course in the restoration of films today. The film images are scanned, processed digitally within the computer and then reexposed onto film. But digital recording formats are also entering the field of feature film, and in the long or short term, cinemas will be equipped with digital projection technology. For a long time, the Federal Archives have had to face the fact that television producers demand excerpts in digital form. But keeping digital material in archives means that we have to contend with a problem: up until now, storage media such as discs, tapes, CDs and DVDs have only limited durability, not in the least comparable with the lifetime of traditional film material. As yet, the archives have found no solution to the storage of digitally moved images. But they are aware of their tasks for the future. Rudolf Worschech Bärbel Dalichow, Karl Griep, Dr. Sabine Lenk 13 D A TA A N D A D D R E SS E S C O N C E R N I N G T H E M O S T I M P O R TA N T A R C H I V E S Federal Archives/Film Archive, Berlin and Koblenz Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, Wiesbaden The largest German archive with over 200 employees and two copy works of its own in Berlin-Wilhelmshagen and Koblenz. It has a collection of 148,000 titles (21,000 feature and 127,000 documentary films as well as ”Wochenschau“ programs). In the near future, the archive will not only receive a new data bank facilitating exchange with archives in the USA and Australia, but also new storage area for its highly inflammable nitro-films, of which around 77,000 reels are still waiting to be copied. The Federal Archive-Film Archive also has a large collection of posters (22,650 examples), photographs (over half a million) and publications (c. 30,000). The archive distinguishes between commercial and non-commercial borrowers in its lending practice; a quarter of the users come from abroad. As well as films from the basic collection – the former film property of the Reich –, the foundation also owns copies of the post-war productions by Bavaria and Universum Film. The film collections are supplemented by over 250,000 photos, posters and advertising materials. Director: Peter Franz Technical Department: Gudrun Weiss Kreuzberger Ring 56 · D-65205 Wiesbaden phone +49-6 11-9 77 08-0 · fax +49-6 11-9 77 08-19 www.murnau-stiftung.de · email: info@murnau-stiftung.de Film Museum in the Municipal Museum Munich Director: Karl Griep Fehrbelliner Platz 3 · D-10707 Berlin phone +49-18 88-77 77-0 · fax +49-18 88-77 70-9 99 www.bundesarchiv.de · email: filmarchiv@barch.bund.de Besides a comprehensive collection on New German Cinema, the film archive (approx. 4000 copies and negatives) also has collections of classical German and Russian silent films and avant-garde films dating from the twenties. The collection of Stalin films is one of the biggest in western Europe. The museum, which has restricted itself to the collection of film copies to date, also collects Munich productions in its archives and has, for example, all the films by Vlado Kristl, Jean-Marie Straub, Roland Klick and Maximilian Schell. In the year 1998, the film museum took over the estate of Orson Welles. The film museum lends out its copies to a limited extent, for retrospectives and non-commercial use – for example it is possible to borrow the silent film classics ”Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam“ and ”Die freudlose Gasse“. Director: Stefan Drößler St.-Jakobs-Platz 1 · D-80331 München phone +49-89-23 32 23 48 · fax +49-89-23 32 39 31 www.stadtmuseum-online.de/filmmu.htm email: filmmuseum@compuserve.com German Film Museum Frankfurt Library of the German Film Institute/German Film Museum (photo © Deutsches Filminstitut) German Film Institute – DIF, Frankfurt and Wiesbaden The focal points of the collection of 10,000 German and foreign feature, documentary and short films are silent films from Germany, German productions after the Second World War and outstanding international works. The DIF, which is supported by both government and private enterprise, and whose documentation section resides in the building of the German Film Museum, has the largest text and photo archive (1,5 million exponents) in the Federal Republic. Director: Claudia Dillmann Schaumainkai 41 · D-60596 Frankfurt phone +49-69-9 61 22 00 · fax +49-69-62 00 60 www.filminstitut.de email: info@deutsches-filminstitut.de Film Archive: Nikola Klein Kreuzberger Ring 56 · D-65205 Wiesbaden phone +49-6 11-9 70 00 10 · fax +49-6 11-9 70 00 15 email: nikola.klein@em.uni-frankfurt.de Over 5,000 copies are stored in the film archive of the museum, the focus being on animation film and the classical film avant-garde of the twenties (Fischinger, Ruttmann, Richter). The film archive also keeps the most comprehensive national collections concerning the brothers Diehl and the silhouette filmmaker Lotte Reiniger. The institution presents its technical collection in an accessible depot, the non-film archive preserves 800,000 photos, 25,000 posters and a comprehensive collection of graphics. A speciality of this museum is its collection of music related material, including sound tracks, music scores and sheet music. Director: Walter Schobert Archive & Exhibits: Hans-Peter Reichmann Schaumainkai 41 · D-60596 Frankfurt phone +49-69-21 23 88 30 · fax +49-69-21 23 78 81 www.deutsches-filmmuseum.de email: info@deutsches-filmmuseum.de Film Archive: Michael Schurig Eschborner Landstr. 42-50 · D-60489 Frankfurt phone +49-69-78 37 01 email: filmarchiv@deutsches-filmmuseum.de Film Museum Berlin – Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin The Deutsche Kinemathek (SDK), a foundation financed by the city-state of Berlin and the Federation, has a collection of around 10,000 German and foreign films which are stored in its various branches. The SDK owns what is probably the most comprehensive collection of materials related to film in the form of set designs, costume designs, estates, film programs, etc. Special collection areas are documentation concerning film exile (Paul Kohner, Erich Pommer, Fritz Lang), special effects and the estate of the actress Marlene Dietrich. The remaining collections consist of around 1 million photos and 20,000 posters; the collection of screenplays, with 30,000 exponents, is the largest in Germany. Director: Hans Helmut Prinzler Archive: Werner Sudendorf Distribution: Holger Theuerkauf Potsdamer Str. 2 · D-10785 Berlin phone +49-30-3 00 90 30 · fax +49-30-30 09 03 13 www.filmmuseum-berlin.de email: info@filmmuseum-berlin.de 14 Romy Schneider Exhibit (photo © German Film Museum Frankfurt) D A TA A N D A D D R E SS E S C O N C E R N I N G Film Museum Düsseldorf The archive – 2,600 titles to date – collects film material on the history of film in Düsseldorf, productions by filmmakers from North RhineWestphalia, productions by the winners of the Helmut-Käutner Prize, and feature films of the DEFA. During the last year, the film archive was able to move into a new storage area with air-conditioning. Here space is also available for other archives from the region (for example company archives) to store their films. The non-film department has over 200,000 photos and 20,000 posters. Director: Dr. Sabine Lenk Schulstraße 4 · D-40213 Düsseldorf phone +49-2 11–8 99 22 56 · fax +49-2 11-8 99 37 68 www.duesseldorf.de/kultur/filmmuseum T H E M O S T I M P O R TA N T A R C H I V E S Director: Heiner Roß Dammtorstr. 30a · D-20354 Hamburg phone +49-40-34 23 53 · fax +49-40-35 40 90 email: info@kinemathek-hamburg.de Film Library in the Ruhr – Film Archive for the Region Collection of productions from the Ruhr area, especially industrial films. Director: Paul Hoffmann Amtsgerichtstr. 32 · D-47119 Duisburg phone +49-2 03-8 99 03 · fax +49-2 03-8 83 09 CineGraph – Hamburg Center for Film Research Film Museum Potsdam Although CineGraph does not collect film copies or other materials, it collects data. The researchers in Hamburg have put together the most comprehensive data bank on German cinema. The archive, which also has an excellent technical collection, collects mainly evidence of GDR film history and film copies of relevant productions. Besides the designs by Hirschmeier, the film museum also keeps estates of other GDR artists, for example Werner Bergmann. At present a collection of films which no longer have German distribution is being set up. Director: Hans-Michael Bock Gänsemarkt 43 · D-20354 Hamburg phone +49-40-35 21 94 · fax +49-40-34 58 64 www.cinegraph.de · email: desk@cinegraph.de Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Archives Director: Dr. Bärbel Dalichow Archive: Elke Schieber Marstall · D-14467 Potsdam phone +49-3 31-2 71 81-0 · fax +49-3 31-2 71 81-26 www.filmmuseum-potsdam.de email: info@filmmuseum-potsdam.de Film Library Hamburg Besides its collection concerning film emigration, the archive also receives copies of the films sponsored by Hamburg Film Promotion; it has a large collection of Griffith films and the complete oeuvres of the Hamburg filmmakers Hellmuth Costard, Heinz Emigholz and Franz Winzentzen. The festival has acquired the prize-winning films since it began, and has therefore been able to build up an archive of over 1,000 film titles. The archive combines its films to create programs. Fee for use: Euro 30,- for films under 30 mins., Euro 55,- for longer films. Director: Lars Henrik Gass Grillostr. 34 · D-46045 Oberhausen phone +49-2 08-8 25 26 52 · fax +49-2 08-8 25 54 13 www.kurzfilmtage.de · email: info@kurzfilmtage.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. 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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 Beichstraße 8, D - 80 802 München, Germany Phone: (89) 391 425 Fax: (89) 340 1291 D i re c t o r ’ s Po r t ra i t Angela Schanelec Angela Schanelec was born in Aalen, Baden-Württemberg in 1962. From 1982 to 1984, she trained as an actress at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt. After this, she was engaged by several theaters, including: the Schauspielhaus in Cologne, the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Schaubühne in Berlin and the Schauspielhaus in Bochum. In 1990, Angela Schanelec decided to finish her career as an actress and applied to the Academy of Film and Television in Berlin (dffb). Here she studied Direction until 1995. During her studies, she made the short films Schöne gelbe Farbe. Weit entfernt (1991), Prag, März 1992 (1992) and Über das Entgegenkommen (1993). Angela Schanelec’s first feature film The Summer I Stayed in Berlin (Ich bin den Sommer über in Berlin geblieben) (1994) already shows the city of Berlin as it is perceived by her characters. This is also true of her graduation film My Sister’s Good Fortune (Das Glück meiner Schwester, 1995). In 1998, she made Places in Cities (Plätze in Städten), which was shown in the Cannes section “Un certain regard” during the same year. Since then, she has completed Passing Summer (Mein langsames Leben, 2001), an ensemble film about people in their mid-thirties living in Berlin, which was screened at the Forum of this year’s Berlinale and will be opening in German cinemas in September 2001. UNSWERVING COMMITMENT Form as a framework within which life finds a place – Angela Schanelec’s films are characterized by a paradox. On the one hand, with respect to form, her works are the most self-contained and – in the best sense of the word – self-willed on the entire German film scene. However, her intrinsically quiet takes, together with the hypersensitive sound track, lead to the development of an immense openness; they capture atmosphere and everyday moments which set forth reality almost in passing. Critics often see Angela Schanelec, who admits to taking Maurice Pialat and Robert Bresson as her models, in close connection with French cinema. Schanelec herself reacts soberly to this French comparison: “My films come about as the result of observation and the way I feel about reality, that is all”. Schanelec’s new film Passing Summer (Mein langsames Leben) follows a handful of people, aged around thirty, through a summer and an autumn in Berlin. Basically, “follow” is the wrong word, for usually the camera remains static and constitutes the section where life is taking place at a specific time. The characters sit in a café, in the kitchen or a restaurant, by a lake and in the park. They talk about their work and their holidays, about marriage and whether it is okay to simply earn some money in your profession rather than try to change the world. “In this film there is no conflict in the classical, dramatic sense”, says Schanelec, “I was interested in what these young people do with their lives. It is a matter of the familiar, of a normality which each person handles in a different way.” Normality, in Schanelec’s work, is conversations which appear to have been filmed from the next table, scenes in which people’s talk is confused and they interrupt each other, making tense digs at the others and sitting in troubled silence. However, the Angela Schanelec (photo © Schramm Film 2000) 17 D i re c t o r ’ s Po r t ra i t Angela Schanelec natural quality of the dialogue here is not the result of improvisation, but of precision work with the actors, whereby Schanelec can of course call upon her own experience. Basically, her first career is already behind her: she trained as an actress and worked on stage for seven years, at such well-known theaters as the Hamburg Thalia Theater, the Berlin Schaubühne and the Schauspielhaus in Bochum. “A time came when the chapter ’acting‘ was over for me, I wanted to make films, I knew that with great clarity and intuition.” From 1990 onwards, Schanelec studied Direction at the German Academy of Film and Television (dffb) in Berlin. Her graduation film My Sister’s Good Fortune (Das Glück meiner Schwester) was already something of a monolith on the film scene. It tells the story of two sisters who love the same man. The presence of the city of Berlin, which exists on the sound track as uninterrupted traffic noise, forms a contrast to the almost physical proximity to the characters. puberty and everyday life in a wintertime Berlin. “In both films, I remain very close to the characters. I wanted to portray the city as you experience it as an inhabitant: as a constant, vague presence, as a murmur, as a city per se.” Places in Cities (Plätze in Städten) was the only German contribution to be shown in the Cannes section “Un certain regard” in 1998. Together with her colleague from student days, Thomas Arslan, Angela Schanelec is one of only a handful of young German directors who continue unswervingly along their own paths, repeatedly seeking to give form to reality – with films that really do succeed in accompanying life along part of the way. Films which quite incidentally recount the fluctuation, radical changes and existential decisions faced by an entire generation. Katja Nicodemus spoke to Angela Schanelec In her next film, Places in Cities (Plätze in Städten), Schanelec concentrated fully on the perceptions of her nineteen-year-old protagonist: first sexual experiences, the reticence of D i re c t o r ’ s Po r t ra i t Michael Verhoeven PROGRESSION AND PERSISTENCE In many aspects, he is an exception to German cinema: Michael Verhoeven first studied Medicine and became a doctor, just like the lyricist Gottfried Benn or the songwriter Georg Ringsgwandl. In the 60s, when young German filmmakers demanded innovation of the German cinema, they considered themselves a fatherless generation. Michael Verhoeven’s father, Paul Verhoeven (not to be confused with the Dutch cineast of the same name), had been a recognized actor and director since the 30s. And his son stood in front of a camera at an early age, in Kurt Hoffmann’s Das fliegende Klassenzimmer and Julien Duvivier’s Marianne de ma jeunesse. Was Michael Verhoeven then less ”fatherless“ than his colleagues? ”I too belong to the fatherless generation,“ says Verhoeven, ”the films my father made were not the ones I would have wanted to make. For my colleagues, I was not only the son of a director, I was also already married to a woman who had a contract with Columbia – at a time when ’Hollywood’ was a negative concept.“ With the Strindberg adaptation Paarungen, which was his cinematic debut, Michael Verhoeven, who felt a sense of belonging to the 1968 generation of student revolt and film d’auteur, seemed to be walking on comparatively sure 18 ground, as his father, alongside Lilli Palmer, took on a leading role in the film. ”At that time, when most filmmakers were filming their own stories, no one understood it. But my film had a lot to do with the present. I was concerned not only with a failed marriage, but also with a sham existence – that was a current theme.“ His Vietnam film o.k. also contributed to his status as an exception. Shown in the official competition at Berlin in 1970, this was the film that lead to a break within the competition. The film caused quite a controversy among the members of the jury, and when George Stevens (then jury president) pressured the festival direction to ban the film from the competition, other directors pulled their films out of the official running, resulting in a complete cancellation of the festival. Michael Verhoeven is one of the few German directors to have received an OSCAR nomination, for The Nasty Girl – a film that brought its director and author a series of other awards, including the Critics’ Award in New York, a Golden Globe nomination and the BAFTA Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. D i re c t o r ’ s Po r t ra i t Michael Verhoeven Michael Verhoeven (photo © Sentana Filmproduktion) Michael Verhoeven was born in 1938 in Berlin, the son of German actor and director Paul Verhoeven and the actress Doris Kiesow, and is married to the actress Senta Berger. In the 50s, Verhoeven gathered experience as a cinema and theater actor. He then studied medicine and completed the state medical examination to become a qualified doctor. In 1967, one year after completing his medical studies, he directed his first feature film, Paarungen, an adaption of Strindberg’s Totentanz. Since then, he as continuously worked in film and television, and occasionally for the theater, as a screenwriter and director. He received his first German Film Award in 1971 for o.k. – the film that initiated the controversy in 1970 at the Berlinale. He received further awards for The White Rose (Die weiße Rose, 1982), The Nasty Girl (Das schreckliche Mädchen, 1989/90) and My Mother’s Courage (Mutters Courage, 1995/96), including a Silver Bear in Berlin for Best Direction, a New York Critics’ Award, and a Golden Globe and OSCAR nomination for The Nasty Girl. My Mother ’s Courage won the Bavarian Film Prize and the Award of the City of Jerusalem for Best Film. His most recent film Enthüllung einer Ehe (2000) won a FIPA D’ARGENT in the feature film section and a FIPA D'OR for Best Leading Actor at the FIPA television festival in Biarritz. Verhoeven is currently working an a new cinema project, a film adaptation of Laura Waco’s novel Von Zuhause wird nichts erzählt. Verhoeven is also one of the very few directors who began his career in the 60s and has been able to continually work up to today. In the meantime, he has made 13 films for the cinema and more than 20 for television. From the very beginning, he has had the courage to address uncomfortable topics and has proven a social conscience: ”With my work, it has always been important to me that political concerns become private ones, for the two cannot be separated.” As a result, such films as A Terrific Exit (Ein unheimlich starker Abgang, 1973) appeared, a passion play about a broken young woman, or MitGift (1975), a wicked satire about a murderous society with a superficial shine, or Killing Cars (1985), ”a green action thriller that came out too early because, at that time, no one gave any thought to whether or not other types of energy were more environmentally friendly.“ Again and again, Michael Verhoeven looks for the critical analysis of National Socialism and its consequences: The White Rose, The Nasty Girl and My Mother’s Courage are but a few of his exceptional works. Often Verhoeven puts women in the foreground of his films: ”That probably has to do with my experience that in life, very often the women carry the burden. I don’t expect a film to change society, but I do believe that the sum of activities of individuals can make a difference. A film can only be a building block.“ Hans-Günther Pflaum spoke to Michael Verhoeven 19 www. germancinema. de/ INFORMATION ON GERMAN FILMS. GERMAN CINEMA Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH Sonnenstrasse 21 · D-80331 Munich · phone +49-89-59 97 8 7 0 · fax +49-89-59 97 87 30 · email: export-union@german-cinema.de Wo rl d S a l e s Po r t ra i t german united distributors Established in 1997 Foreign offices Representatives in Italy, France, Spain Managing Director Silke Spahr Additional contact Rosemarie Dermühl (Bavaria Media), Ulla Lamas-Torres (Studio Hamburg) Main fields of activity World-wide distribution of German television programming (TVmovies, miniseries, collections, drama series, children’s programming, documentaries, wildlife, music) with emphasis on France, Italy, Spain, Eastern Europe. Regular attendance of the following film and TV markets NATPE, MIPDOC, MIP-TV, Moscow Teleshow, DISCOP, MIPCOM JUNIOR, MIPCOM, German Screenings (joint organizer with TELEPOOL and ZDF Enterprises) Number of titles on offer 15,000 Percentage of German titles on offer 100% Buyers include TF1, RAI, SRG DRS, MTV Networks, RTV Slovenia, AQS/Nova TV, Prima Plus, MTV3 Finland, NOS Most well-known current titles on offer Scene of the Crime (Tatort), The Investigator (Der Fahnder), Schimanski’s Return (Schimanski), Expeditions into the Animal World (Expeditionen ins Tierreich), Beat Club Best-selling titles currently on sale Beast in the Lake (Das Biest am Bodensee, TV-movie), Force Majeure (TV-movie) Address german united distributors Programmvertrieb GmbH · 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 UNITED THEY SELL So you’re looking to buy German television programming in quality and/or quantity. Who you gonna call? Forget Ghostbusters and try german united distributors instead! ”We were formed in 1997,“ says managing director Silke Spahr, ”as a joint venture between the two public broadcasters WDR and NDR and two of the largest production companies, Studio Hamburg and Bavaria Film. The idea was to pool their program stocks to meet the demand from those many broadcasters who want to buy packages.“ Just to give one example of how much easier that has made life for all concerned: Hit German crime series Tatort (Scene of Crime) is an ARD production, where the programs are made by many of the member broadcasters. Previously, buyers first had to find out who to talk to. Now they come straight to german united. For its owners and other members, such as Radio Bremen and Hessischer Rundfunk, german united guarantees extensive representation and market organization, selling their programming in Asia, Russia, South America, or wherever on a scale far beyond what they could have achieved representing themselves. The company, although ”always open to other independent producers and broadcasters,“ says Spahr, sells predominantly ARD programming: ”Our four partners produce a very large volume and our priority is to distribute it. And you only have to look into their archives to see how much material there is. Who’d have thought ten years ago that the music show Beat Club would become an international sales success?“ Being the sales arm for public broadcasters means ”dealing with subjects which are not always very commercial,“ says Spahr. Silke Spahr Not that she means they don’t sell, but rather in terms of subject material, such as Schande (Shame) which was about child abuse, or the way the subject is tackled. She cites Die Polizistin (The Policewoman). Andreas Dresen’s TV-movie won a German Emmy, the Adolf Grimme Award, for providing, says Spahr, ”another theme and view; about her life and personal conflicts. She doesn’t charge in 21 Wo rl d S a l e s Po r t ra i t german united distributors waving her gun! It’s a reflective examination of people and how they deal with their situations.“ Because german united works closely with buyers, it is able to evaluate their needs and then discuss with its shareholders and suppliers how best to place the product. ”That’s our strength,“ says Spahr. This two way communication is the key to the company’s continued success, as Spahr is also able to tell her shareholders, for example, ”This particular customer is looking for action-oriented programming“ and if it’s not in the pipeline or the archives german united can then acquire it, ”either from producers or by entering into co-production.“ And Studio Hamburg and Bavaria Film have themselves been involved in co-productions for years. For independent producers, german united evaluates the program, turning it over to whichever genre department is most relevant; Fiction, Children’s, Documentaries, Wildlife or Music. ”We’ve invested once or twice in production,“ says Spahr, ”and we still do. But it’s basic. Producers should contact us once the financing is in place. We’ll talk as long as there aren’t any large financial holes to be filled. Then we’re happy to say what we think it could fetch and where it could be sold. But we prefer to invest our money in sales, not production, and rarely make presales.“ Wo rl d S a l e s Po r t ra i t Specific production responsibilities are shared between the four partners: NDR for wildlife and music, WDR for documentaries, both Studio Hamburg and Bavaria Media for fiction. In fact, of Germany’s ten most successful fiction productions last year, five came from Bavaria Film and Studio Hamburg. The threads all come together under the roof of german united. ”As a brand,“ says Spahr, ”german united sells very well. German programming enjoys a reputation for very high production values and a way for skillfully conveying difficult material. That’s something the public broadcasters are especially proud of; excellent research on contemporary subjects.“ With regard to new media and new ways of selling, while the Internet is the way of the future, ”the technology is a long way off. It’s no substitute for everyday distribution activities, visiting a client and showing them tapes, making personal contact.“ Spahr, who grew up and studied law in Hamburg, started her distribution career at Studio Hamburg. How she came to german united was merely a matter of ”being in the right place at the right time! It was a great experience to watch this joint vision unfold. It was great fun to watch it work and, thank God, it has worked!“ SK Prog ress Film-Verleih THE PROGRESS REPORT Last August, Progress Film-Verleih celebrated its fiftieth birthday, making it Germany’s oldest and still active film distributor. “Progress’ history is a rich one,” says managing director Prof. Jürgen Haase. “Our original owners were the DEFAFilmverleih and Sovexport and, in 1950, Progress took over all DEFA film rights for the then German Democratic Republic (GDR), as well as distributing them internationally.” In November 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. Progress was taken over by the Treuhand, the government privatization body, and faced an uncertain future. “I represented one of the negotiating companies, Tellux.” says Haase. “Together with Drefa GmbH and Kinowelt, we formed the DEFA-Foundation, which cleared the way for privatization. The foundation has the rights and we have a long-term contract to exploit them. I became managing director in 1997.” Born in 1945, Haase studied at the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin. He is especially proud of his writerdirector-producer credit on the German-Turkish co-production, Gülibek which won, among others, the first prize at the 1984 22 Berlin Children’s Film Festival. He has also directed and written TV-movies such as Lieferung nach Hause for ZDF and coauthored the three-part Tanz auf dem Vulkan for ARD. Very much coming from the creative side, Haase also produced such films as Das Spinnennetz, Johannes Passion, Nikolaikirche, Pinky und der Millionenmops, Feuerreiter and Mario und der Zauberer. And the professor title? He is a visiting lecturer at the ”Konrad Wolf“ Academy of Film & Television in Babelsberg and Bulgaria’s Film Academy and School of Art in Sofia. Fifty-one years on, Progress is involved in the world-wide sales, theatrical and excerpt distribution of some 10,000 films, comprising 800 DEFA features, 3,000 features from Eastern Europe, and several thousand animated and documentary films; an extensive archive with the emphasis on the GDR; “forty-four years of this country and its social system,” says Haase. Two years ago, Progress signed a long-term exclusive contract for the worldwide rights to Vietnam’s film archives. Handling a treasure trove of film history calls for skilled marketing “The contemporary factor always plays a role,” says Haase. “For example, ten years after the fall of the Wall or reunification. Wo rl d S a l e s Po r t ra i t Prog ress Film-Verleih Established 1950 Managing Director Prof. Jürgen Haase Additional contact Christel Jansen (Head of Sales), Brigitte Paetsch, Karl-Heinz Mandler (Excerpts) Main fields of activity World-wide distribution of theatrical and television rights for films of all formats and genres, with emphasis on DEFA productions Regular attendance of the following film and TV markets Berlinale, MIPCOM Number of titles on offer 800 DEFA features, 3,000 features from Eastern Europe and several thousand animated and documentary films Percentage of German titles on offer 95 % Buyers include ARD and the Third Programs, ZDF, 3sat, KiKa, VOX, ARTE, Planet Multithématique (France), RAISAT (Italy), Alcine Terran (Japan) Most well-known current titles on offer Jacob the Liar (Jakob der Lügner), The Kaiser’s Lackey (Der Untertan),The Story of Little Muck (Die Geschichte vom Kleinen Muck) Best-selling titles currently on sale Pinky and the Million-pug (Pinky und der Millionenmops), Mask of the Desire (Die Braut), Fueling the Flames of Love (Feuerreiter), The Pharmacist (Die Apothekerin), Trains ’n Roses (Zugvögel) Address Progress Film-Verleih GmbH · Burgstr. 27 · D-10178 Berlin · phone +49-30-24 00 32 25 fax +49-30-24 00 32 22 · www.progress-film.de · c.jansen@progress-film.de Films like Nikolaikirche are perfectly suited to that. But we also have some great actors, such as Manfred Krug, Hildegard Knef, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Kurt Böwe and Winfried Glatzeder and directors such as Frank Beyer, Heiner Carow, Rainer Simon, Konrad Wolf and Kurt Maetzig. There are always occasions to screen their films.“ When Carlos Saura’s Goya was released last year Progress was able to piggy-back its Goya film by Konrad Wolf. Progress also works closely with the Goethe Institute and other cultural institutions, which promote German language and culture, to organize retrospectives. One such retrospective in Vienna involved more than 120 films and lasted three months. Each year, Progress licenses some 30-40 films within the German-speaking territories, as well as to the Czech Republic, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the UK, Slovakia, and further afield to Japan, Mexico and the Philippines. “Our emphasis, though, is on Europe,” says Haase. “We’re represented in the US by Icestorm, the video distributor, but it’s a very difficult market.” As part of efforts to expand there he cites the DEFA library formed jointly with Amhurst University: “It’s a platform for young people to study and come into contact with German film.” Children’s films also feature large “We already have more than 200 from DEFA and every couple of years we acquire another one or two. The latest is Pinky (2000) which had its first sales at this year’s Berlinale,” says Haase. “We distribute or acquire children’s films which have a very humanist approach and are very constructive, not deconstructive.” Progress also has a number of recently-produced adult-skewed features such as Zugvögel, Die Braut, Männerpension, Feuerreiter, Liebe deine Nächste and Die Apothekerin. Prof. Jürgen Haase “You need to take a long-term view and say this film has long-term prospects and can be marketed as long as there is a feeling for film art and culture,” avers Haase. “And we have the decisive advantage that we have the rights for an unlimited period. There’s no sell-by date.” “We don’t co-produce or co-finance but if we like the script or cast,” says Haase, “we’re ready relatively early to offer a minimum guarantee to acquire a film.” SK And Progress takes care of its product. The Story of Little Muck, for example, has been seen by 13 million people over the last twenty years. 23 P ro d u c e r ’ s Po r t ra i t UFA Film & TV Produktion Taken over in 1964 by the Bertelsmann Group when it purchased the UFA name and created the production group operating under that label, UFA Film & TV Produktion has developed over almost 40 years into a respected address for the production of popular series and high quality TV movies. UFA productions range from such TV movies as The Policewoman (Die Polizistin) by Andreas Dresen or The Sandman (Der Sandmann) by Nico Hofmann through the daily soaps Good Times – Bad Times (Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten) and Forbidden Love (Verbotene Liebe) to weeklies like Behind Bars (Hinter Gittern) and such crime series as Balko and SOKO 5113 (and SOKO Leipzig). Together with its affiliates UFA Fernsehproduktion, UFA Film Production, Westdeutsche Universum-Film in Cologne, UFA Film Munich, UFA Film- & Medienproduktion Leipzig, Grundy UFA, UFA International and UFA Entertainment, the company became part of the holding of Luxembourg’s CLT-UFA in January 1997 and is now part of the RTL Group which was created following the merger with the Pearson Television Group in 2000. UFA Film & TV Produktion GmbH Dianastr. 21 · D-14482 Potsdam phone +49-3 31-7 06 04 02 · fax +49-3 31-7 06 04 09 · www.ufa.de · email: info@ufa.de TIME OF NEW DEPARTURES – Norbert Sauer (photo © Ufa Film & TV Produktion) UFA Film & TV Produktion Switch on a television in Germany and there is a very likely chance that the program showing at the moment is one created by UFA Film & TV Produktion. Indeed, nearly every channel, both public and private, airs UFA productions, whether they be TV 24 movies, soap operas, series, light entertainment or feature length movies, making UFA the clear leader in the German TV market, ahead of such competitors as the Bavaria Group, Studio Hamburg and ndf Neue Deutsche Filmgesellschaft. P ro d u c e r ’ s Po r t ra i t UFA Film & TV Produktion However, being market leader doesn’t mean that UFA plans to rest on its laurels, since the production house has to contend with the competing attentions of reality and quiz formats and the fact that the broadcasters have either drastically reduced their program production budgets (e.g. RTL and ProSieben) or have changed their commissioning policies to favor affiliated production companies. New possibilities However, as UFA’s executive in charge of production Norbert Sauer points out, the fusion last year between CLT-UFA and Pearson has opened up a number of new possibilities for UFA Film & TV Produktion. ”UFA now has partner companies in almost every European country as well as North America and Australia“, Sauer declares, ”and we have a link to the other European markets through the person of UFA managing director Wolf Bauer who is responsible for the European activities except for the UK“. While Sauer doesn’t expect UFA as a German company to suddenly start producing for these other markets, ”one can ask how can one cooperate with the sister companies to cater for the markets together, i.e. by developing formats which can travel world-wide. Areas, in particular, where this would work are quiz and reality shows and daily series whereas the fictional area is more nationally structured and is likely to stay that way for the time being“. European co-productions The bulk of UFA’s fictional output may thus remain nationally based in the future, but another track that can be developed under the RTL Group umbrella would be the cooperation with partners in such key European territories as France, Spain, Italy and the UK to find projects which would be of interest for all five markets. ”We would aim to avoid the mistakes of the 80’s – which were usually summed up in the term 'Europudding'“, Sauer explains, ”by developing a strategy from the outset that would have us going to the national TV channels upstream and pitching them the story ideas. The KirchGroup companies though tend to work on the basis of their distribution structure whereas we want to do this based on the content in direct consultation with the broadcasters“ ”Moreover, we also have the ambition to develop projects with partners that function on the world market“, he continues. ”Hallmark is a name that comes to mind here as a model, and in the medium term, in 3-5 years, we would like to get into a position where we would also be able to organize such globally exploitable programs“. German company produced its first project with Warner, Disaster At The Mall, with Warner Bros. as part of a long-term framework agreement. Moreover, preparations are now underway for a two-parter on the life of 1930s screen diva Zarah Leander to be made for Swedish Television from a script by German writer Peter Steinbach (Heimat) who signed an exclusive deal with UFA in early 2001. ”The project had been developed by Peter Steinbach with the Swedish TV channel, and then as we have this exclusive deal, he came to see if we would be interested in being involved“, Sauer recalls. ”Since 80% of the action is set in Germany and Babelsberg, the Swedish station had already been thinking of working with a German production company. Shooting is scheduled to begin in late autumn but this depends on getting the right actresss to play Zarah Leander“. Foray into film Television may be the mainstay of UFA's activities, but there is always a hankering by the company to dip its toe in the high-risk waters of feature film production. Indeed, it is not for nothing that the company is based in spanking new offices in PotsdamBabelsberg across the road from the legendary Babelsberg Studios where the old Universum Film-AG (Ufa) established a European cinematic tradition with such names as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and Marlene Dietrich and such film classics as The Blue Angel, Münchhausen and Metropolis, among many others. At the moment, Sauer has three feature projects in development which are set to go into production over the next two years: – an adaptation of former East German writer Christoph Hein's novel Willenbrock which will be directed by Andreas Dresen from a screenplay by Laila Stieler, their second collaboration with UFA after the prize-winning The Policewoman (Die Polizistin); – a biopic of the life of German screen legend Romy Schneider, based on a screenplay by Susanne Schneider (Solo für Klarinette, Hölderlin); – and a big-budget adaptation of Donna W. Cross’ bestselling 1996 historical drama Pope Joan about the Catholic Church’s only female Pope from the 9th century, with Volker Schlöndorff attached to direct from the end of 2002. ”These are three very different and ambitious projects“, Sauer declares. ”If they are successful, we will certainly do more in this area“. A development unit dedicated to identifying such internationally marketable projects has already been set up at UFA, but Sauer is aware that all of these plans can only be achieved in a step-bystep approach: first, having success on the European market, and then the global market ”although this would mean having to work with and from America“. MB That is not to say that UFA has not already been active in the international arena: the submarine thriller Hostile Waters was co-produced with HBO and BBC in 1996, and, a year later, the 25 Kino n e w s Also home to the Munich International Film Fest, Telepool and the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, this new location will prove to be one of the most important film addresses in Munich in the future. The Export-Union’s team can still be reached at the same email addresses via the website at www.german-cinema.de or at Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH Sonnenstr. 21, D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-59 97 87 0, fax +49-89-59 97 87 30 email: export-union@german-cinema.de Export-Union publishes German Film Festival Guide Potsdam-Babelsberg – The Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, together with ProSieben, has developed a set of standard guidelines for editorial reports which can now be downloaded from the Internet. This standard guide assists in the professional selection of material in all phases of story development. According to a recent survey, only 10% of the producers in Germany draw up editorial reports for scripts – and 30% even said that they never use them. Professor Klaus Keil, director of the Filmboard, says that the benefits from such reports are still greatly underestimated in story development. ”Of course the success of a film production is dependent upon many factors“, says Keil, ”but the quality of the script is still decisive for the ultimate success of the film“. During the 54th International Cannes Film Festival, the Export-Union of German Cinema will officially present its new publication entitled ”Film Festivals in Germany 2001/2002 – A Comprehensive Guide“. The festival guide, which has been specially tailor-made to meet the needs of foreign filmmakers and representatives of the media, offers detailed information and commentaries on approx. 50 of the most interesting German film and TV events. The guide is organized by town and also has a comprehensive index system of festival dates and genres. The detailed festival profiles include contacts, important dates, participation guidelines, sections and awards, attendance figures, media coverage and assessments. The new Festival Guide can be ordered free of charge from the Export-Union office in Munich as from 20th April, and it will also be available at the Export-Union stand during the Cannes Film Festival. A complete online version of the publication is planned for the end of May, with the support of the six major regional film funds (Filmboard BerlinBrandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFörderung Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, MFG Baden-Württemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung). "Film Festivals in Germany 2001/2002 - A Comprehensive Guide" was produced in collaboration with the two editors-in-chief of the specialist magazine ”Der Schnitt“ Nikolaj Nikitin and Oliver Baumgarten. The Export-Union also published a second revised and expanded version of its already very successful overview of the most important international film festivals, ”International Film Festivals – A Comprehensive Guide“, which can also be obtained free of charge from the Export-Union’s Munich office. 26 Brigitta Manthey, funding consultant at the Filmboard, sees great potential in the use of editorial reports for story development as well as in the decision making process: ”everyone profits from a thorough survey of the story material, especially when an objective overview has been lost. Professional evaluations serve to assess the quality of the story as a product and therefore prevent future disappointments. A standard guide also provides a uniform basis, for everyone involved, in regards to the advising on the strengths and weaknesses of a story.“ Scene from ”Das Taschenorgan“ (Next Generation 2001) The Export-Union des Deutschen Films has moved from Schwabing to the city center of Munich. The new head office is centrally located between Karlsplatz/Stachus and Sendlinger Tor in the Sonnenstrasse 21, 80331 Munich. www. filmboard.de - Standard Editorial Report Guidelines on the Internet The guide can be downloaded free-of-charge from the Internet at www.filmboard.de. From September 2001, the Filmboard will require such a report from all applicants. For this reason, an editorial workshop was organized in April by the Erich-Pommer-Institut in Potsdam, in cooperation with the Filmboard. Further workshops are now in planning. Scene from ”Marie muss rennen“ (Next Generation 2001) New Home for the Export-Union Next Generation for the fourth time in Cannes The Export-Union of German Cinema will again be presenting a selection of short films by German film students under the Next Generation banner during the Cannes Film Festival. Scene from ”Oberstube“ (Next Generation 2001) Scene from ”Kleine Fische“ (Next Generation 2001) Kino n e w s Two German Films win at Créteil Maria Speth was awarded the main prize Jury Grand Prix of the 23rd Festival International de Films de Femmes in Créteil (Women’s Film Festival, 23.03. – 01.04.01) for her first feature film the days between (in den tag hinein). The prize includes a money award of approx. DM 7,500, the costs for a French subtitling and promotional costs for the theatrical release. Eleven new films from nine German film and art academies make up this year’s Next Generation lineup which will be presented for the first time on the occasion of the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, 13th May, in the STAR Cinema. The independent expert jury (Heinz Badewitz, Hof Film Days; Astrid Kühl, Short Film Agency, and Nikolaj Nikitin, ”Der Schnitt“) compiled a multi-faceted program which is marked by a pronounced stylistic will and technical skill: The jury of the festival, which is regarded internationally as one of the most important events of its kind, founded its decision on ”the precise talent for observation of the director and her actors, the intelligence and sensitivity of the general message and the both beautiful, as well as daring, visual composition of this first film“. Oberstube by Sebastian Winkels and Für Dich Mein Herz by Johannes von Gwinner (both from HFF ”Konrad Wolf“); Endstation : Paradies by Jan Thüring and Der Pilot by Oliver Seiter (both from the BadenWürttemberg Film Academy); Quak by Wolfgang Dinslage (Film Studies Dept., University of Hamburg); Dans l’atelier du sculpteur by Richard Badé (Academy of Media Arts, Cologne); Marie muss rennen by Konrad Sattler (HFF Munich); Wünsch Dir was by Franziska Stünkel (Hannover Polytechnic); Kleine Fische by Holger Ernst (College of Art, Kassel); Das Taschenorgan by Carsten Strauch (College for Design, Offenbach); and <S> by Romeo Grünfelder (College for Fine Arts, Hamburg). the days between (in den tag hinein), produced by November Film, Berlin, in collaboration with ZDF Kleines Fernsehspiel and HFF ”Konrad Wolf“, was first shown in January at the Rotterdam Film Festival where it received one of the three renowned ”Tiger Awards“. Scene from ”Wünsch Dir was“ (Next Generation 2001) The Audience Award of the Créteil festival – with a purse of approx. DM 6,000 - went to Imogen Kimmel’s film Secret Society. The story set in England about a group of women who secretly train as sumo wrestlers received its premiere at the Hof Film Days last October. The program will also feature a special screening of Quiero Ser by Florian Gallenberger (HFF Munich) who received both the Honorary Foreign Student Award (”Student OSCAR“) and – most recently – the Best Short Film OSCAR for his film. Following the presentation in Cannes, which is also supported by the six major regional film funds, Next Generation will be shown, as in previous years, at the Festivals of German Cinema which the Export-Union organizes in key cities of the international film industry (2001: Rome, Madrid, Paris, London, Los Angeles). 27 Kino n e w s OSCAR Nomination for ‘The Periwig-Maker’ Scene from ”The Periwig-Maker“ Already highly awarded at international festivals, The Periwig-Maker recieved an OSCAR nomination for Best Animated Short. Inspired by a Daniel Defoe novel from 1722, director and Filmakademie Ludwigsburg graduate Steffen Schäffler and his sister Annette chose an extraordinary subject: a man seals himself off in medieval, plague-infested London to escape the danger of infection. When a little girl seeks his help, his life is turned upside down. German Federal Film Board with a New Address in Berlin-Mitte After 32 years in Berlin-Charlottenburg, the German Federal Film Board (Filmförderungsanstalt, FFA) has moved to a new location in the Große Präsidentenstr. 9, 10178 Berlin. The modern, seven-story building with a view of the Hackescher Markt shares the same neighborhood in the government district with numerous production companies, agencies and publishing houses. Rolf Bähr, president of the FFA, says the new location “should become a meeting point for everyone committed to German film – a pulsating, lively, and progressive film house for the German film industry.” Atmospherically dense and overwhelmingly intriguing, The Periwig-Maker is animation at its best, funded by MFGFilmförderung Baden-Wuerttemberg, FFA and FFF. The 2nd Festival of German Cinema (5 – 9 April 2001) in Rome was a great success again this year. Over 4,100 cinemagoers saw 14 current German films. There was also great resonance from film buyers: Italian distributors showed interest in five of the films shown, including My Sweet Home and In July (Im Juli). Eleven directors and two actresses had the opportunity to meet with a curious Italian audience. The Italian media showed great interest in these new German films too. Michael Weber of Bavaria Film International was also very satisfied with the results: ”the festival was a great success for us and we see a positive trend for German films in Italy.“ The opening film was My Sweet Home, also shown in competition at Berlin. The main program of the festival featured: Crazy, England!, In July (Im Juli), Lost Killers, Paradiso, The Legends of Rita (Die Stille nach dem Schuss) and No Place to Go (Die Unberührbare). The closing film of the event was the silent classic Nosferatu with live musical accompaniment. This year’s partners and sponsors included: the office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media (BKM), the German Federal Film Board (FFA), the six major regional film funds, Goethe Institute Inter Nationes, Studio Universal Italy, www.35mm.it, Lufthansa, Radio Centro Suono, Transit Film and the Friedrich-WilhelmMurnau-Foundation. 28 FFF Bayern: Movies Made in Bavaria Go on Tour In addition to its wide-ranging film and location funding activities in Bavaria, the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern regularly leaves the borders of the free state and presents the products of its funding work at international festivals and film weeks. Already in 1998, under the slogan Movies Made in Bavaria, the FFF Bayern was present in Moscow, at the ”Bayerische Kulturtage“ in Kiev and the Festival of German Film in Hong Kong, followed by film weeks in Bratislava, Ljubljana, Prague and Cracow. In 2001, Eastern Europe is the main destination again: in July, this year’s first Bavarian film week takes place in Moscow (22 - 28 July 2001). The film program includes Joseph Vilsmaier’s Marlene, Caroline Link’s Pünktchen und Anton and many others. Activities in Cairo, Budapest and – now for the fifth time – Cracow are also currently in preparation. Scene from ”Endstation … Paradies“ (Next Generation 2001) Second Festival of German Cinema in Rome Kino n e w s DM 35 million in film funding in one go! German Federal Film Board (FFA) awarded this record sum at the end of March during an informational event in Berlin to the Industry Tiger – the year 2000’s most successful German film producers and distributors. During this event, the FFA also provided information about current film issues. The FFA-Industry Tigers for the most successful productions went to: Claussen + Wöbke/Deutsche Columbia TriStar for Anatomy · Claussen + Wöbke for Crazy Constantin Film for Ants in the Pants (Harte Jungs) · Hofmann & Voges Entertainment for The Bunnyguards (Erkan & Stefan) Amendment to the MDM Grant Guidelines: Film Marketing now Eligible for Grants At the beginning of the year, the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) changed its grant guidelines. With these changes, the MDM has become the first German film board to support film marketing concepts. The film marketing concept’s aim is to determine, evaluate and analyze, even during the script development phase, target groups, motivations for viewing a film and marketing opportunities. Producers can apply for film marketing grants together with the application for story development support. As soon as the completed script has been accepted by the MDM, the funds for the marketing concept (up to 12,500 Euro) can be distributed. With these guideline changes, even larger amounts of support for story development and package grants can be applied for. All new guidelines and application forms can be found on the Internet under www.mdm-foerderung.de. Scene from <S> (Next Generation 2001) Over DM 35,000,000 in Film Promotion: FFA-Industry Tiger and FFA-Short Tiger Awards 2001 FFA-Industry Tigers for the most successful distributors went to: Columbia TriStar for Anatomy · Constantin Film for Ants in the Pants (Harte Jungs), Crazy, and The Bunnyguards (Erkan & Stefan) · Tobis Studio Canal for Otto – Der Katastrofenfilm · Warner Bros. Film for Der kleine Vampir This year’s FFA-Short Film Prize Short Tiger, for the promotion of up-and-coming creative talent, is worth DM 250,000. The grant, which was increased by DM 50,000 for the awarding of an animation film, goes to six graduates of German film schools. The FFA jury selects the winners from 18 short films presented by German film schools. The awarding of the Short Tiger takes place at the beginning of July, as last year, during the Munich International Film Festival. Third Location Tour Black Forest From 28 - 29 June, the MFG film fund invites producers and filmmakers to join this year‘s location tour Southwest. The two-day discovery of shooting-locations in BadenWuerttemberg will lead into parts of the black forest as well as to Baden-Baden and its periphery, providing a large variety of contrasting motifs. FilmFörderung Hamburg: International Commitment FilmFörderung Hamburg will continue to pursue its international commitment. This involves providing both concrete support for international co-productions and assisting in establishing international networks. As the German partner for the European screenwriting training program, "North by Northwest", FilmFörderung Hamburg has close contacts to Denmark and Ireland, as well as to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in its role as co-organizer of the ”Baltic Film Festival“. ”We hope to encourage an exchange between producers, and have the international aim of presenting ourselves as a major German film location,“ states Eva Hubert, managing director of FilmFörderung Hamburg. This also includes a strong presence at international festivals: FilmFörderung Hamburg will once again be presenting its extensive range of services at this year’s Cannes Festival, at the Focus Germany stand in the Marché du Film. 29 For Pisacane, the project follows in CAMEO’s tradition of working with young, first-time directors: in 1995, the Cologne-based outfit was a co-producer on the multi-award-winning documentary Nico Icon by Susanne Ofteringer who, like Aladag, was a graduate of the Academy of Media Arts (KHM) in Cologne; and last year saw the company collaborate with another KHM graduate, Hans Weingartner, on his Max Ophüls prize-winner. Daniel Brühl (photo © CAMEO) Born in 1968, director Aladag has worked as a freelance filmmaker since 1995 and made a number of shorts and documentaries during his studies at the Academy from 1996, including the award-winning documentary Zoran and the short Listen (Hör Dein Leben) which was selected last year to screen in the Export-Union’s Next Generation showcase of new films by students from German film schools. MB La Grande Char treuse Elefantenherz Original Title Elefantenherz Type of Project Feature Film Genre Coming-of-age story Production Company Cameo Film- und Fernsehproduktion, Cologne With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, WDR Producer Annette Pisacane Director Züli Aladag Screenplay Marija Erceg, Jörg Tensing Director of Photography Judith Kaufmann Principal Cast Daniel Brühl, Erhan Emre, Jochen Nickel, Manfred Zapatka Length 90 min Format Super 16 mm, color, Dolby SR Shooting Language German Shooting in Cologne from April 2001 Original Title La Grande Chartreuse Type of Project Documentary Film Production Company Philip Gröning Filmproduktion, Düsseldorf, in co-production with BR, Munich, ZDF, Mainz, ARTE, Strasbourg With backing from Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), Filmstiftung NRW Producer Philip Gröning Director Philip Gröning Co-director Nicolas Humbert Director of Photography Philip Gröning Editor Philip Gröning Format Super 16 mm / Sony HD Shooting in La Grande Chartreuse, France in either summer 2001/winter 2002 or February - May 2002 Contact: CAMEO Film- und Fernsehproduktion Lübecker Str. 6, D-50668 Cologne phone +49-2 21-9 12 81 20 · fax +49-2 21-9 12 81 33 www.cameo-film.de · email: info@cameo-film.de The screenplay by Marija Erceg and Jörg Tensing is described by producer Annette Pisacane of CAMEO Filmund Fernsehproduktion as a “coming-of-age story” about a young boxer in the amateur league who dreams of going professional and has to learn what sacrifices he has to make if he wants to realize this ambition. The main role of the budding boxer searching for his own identity is played by the newcomer talent Daniel Brühl, who came to greater attention earlier this year through another CAMEO production – Hans Weingartner’s Das weisse Rauschen – while the part of his Turkish friend and fellow boxer was taken by Erhan Emre (known to audiences from his appearances in Martin Eigler’s Freunde and Miguel Alexandre’s Gran Paradiso). Other supporting roles have been cast with Jochen Nickel and Manfred Zapatka. 30 Philip Gröning (photo © Bavaria Film International) Principal photography began at the beginning of April in North Rhine-Westphalia on Elefantenherz, the first full-length feature by Turkish-born director Züli Aladag, as part of the “Sixpack” initiative launched by broadcaster WDR and Filmstiftung NRW to support new directorial talents. Contact: Philip Gröning Filmproduktion Lohauser Dorfstraße 40e · D-40474 Düsseldorf phone +49-2 11-4 70 91 23 · fax +49-30-26 55 09 21 email: film_groening@compuserve.com Some sixteen years ago, filmmaker Philip Gröning (L’Amour L’Argent L’Amour) thought up the idea of a film about the Carthusian monastic order and researched the subject with in p r o d u c t i o n Nicolas Humbert, a fellow student from his days at Munich’s Academy of Television and Film (HFF/M). At the end of 1980s, Gröning made the acquaintance of one of the Carthusian priors who has since become the head of the La Grande Chartreuse monastery near Grenoble in the French Alps. They kept in contact over the following years, and Gröning has now received permission to be the first filmmaker to visit the monastery since 1960. ”In the 1960 film they were not allowed to show the monks’ faces and, since then, there were no films made there. This documentary will be extremely austere“, Gröning explains, ”there will be no interviews, not a single commentary. It will be like a meditation about the monastery. One won’t learn anything about the monks except that after 90 minutes of film one will have the feeling that one understands a lot about what life means to them. So it will be more on the emotional level than about receiving information“. Gröning plans to live in the monastery for three months, cut off from the rest of the world and without any team. He will have an editing suite set up in the monastery to work on the film, and codirector Humbert will join him for a week or so at a time to bring in another perspective. Gröning admits that ”it will be difficult to transport without words what contemplative life in the strictest sense is, and to show a life that is exclusively concerned with coming nearer to God“, but he hopes that immersing himself in the monks’ daily routine over such a long period will point up the rhythmic and repetitive quality of their lives. Now, two years later, Rommel and Dresen are back together again on a new project with the working title of Halbe Treppe, which Rommel describes as ”an experimental feature with as little production ballast as possible“ using a Sony DV camera and a miniscule team – seven crew and four actors – for the story set in Frankfurt/Oder on the border with Poland. Commenting on the film’s title Halbe Treppe, Rommel says that they ”wanted to recount half of the life of normal people. What happens when one gets to halfway in life and then asks: ‘how does it go on?’. There was an initial storyline from Andi, but this was then reflected anew each day by the actors and crew, i.e. the story was developed further and altered on a daily basis“. ”Each of the protagonists in the film have their respective professions“, Rommel adds, ”that meant that, in the mornings, they often went to their ‘jobs’ and were then there for filming in the afternoons. And, sometimes, they were in their professions for one or two days in a row without any filming being done“. Working with digital video made the logistics of shooting at original locations much easier because, unlike on normal film shoots, “we could just say ‘Let’s go into a perfumery today and shoot’, and this was possible”, Rommel recalls. Moreover, the production had a special character since the team and actors all lived together in a hotel in Frankfurt/Oder for the duration of the two month shoot: “In that situation, you can’t switch off so easily because we were constantly together”, Rommel observes, “unlike normal film productions where everyone has a break away at some point”. MB MB Halbe Treppe Original Title Halbe Treppe (working title) Type of Project Feature Film Genre Drama Production Company Rommel Film, Berlin Producer Peter Rommel Director Andreas Dresen Screenplay Andreas Dresen Director of Photography Michael Hammon Principal Cast Steffie Kühnert, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Axel Prahl, Thorsten Merten Format Digital Video Shooting Language German Shooting in Frankfurt an der Oder from 16 January to the beginning of April 2001 Contact: Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media 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 After being the German partner on several international co-productions, Berlin-based producer Peter Rommel worked together with director Andreas Dresen to produce his “Short Cuts”-style Night Shapes (Nachtgestalten) which was shown in the official competition of the Berlin Film Festival in 1999 and enjoyed a successful international festival career. Axel Prahl (photo © Peter Hartwig) 31 Im Osten geht die Sonne auf But having made it to the first division, the question on everybody’s lips is ”for how long?“ Promotion was achieved through the efforts of the manager, former East German international Eduard Geyer, and his troop of foreign ”football legionnaires“, but the money for a truly top team is lacking. There are the players, such as Moussa Latoundji from Benin (who knows what it’s like to be a foreigner) and Franklin Bittencourt from Brazil, who’s been playing soccer in Germany for over seven years. Original Title Im Osten geht die Sonne auf English Title The Sun is Rising in the East Genre Documentary Production Company MGS Filmproduktion, Munich, for Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich and ORB, Potsdam Producer Carolin Müller Director Wolfgang Ettlich Director of Photography Hans-Albrecht Lusznat Editor Monika Abspacher Length 90 min Format 16 mm, color, 1:1.77 Shooting Language German Shooting in Cottbus There are Michael and Simone, regular customers at the local kiosk on a run-down housing estate and Inge, who has waited tables for thirty years. If it weren’t for loyal customers and rock bottom prices, she’d have closed long ago. Contact: MGS Filmproduktion Georgenstr. 121 · D-80797 Munich phone +49-89-1 23 64 65 · fax +49-89-1 23 64 99 email: mgs@az-online.net Franklin Bittencourt Team sponsor and local butcher Hartmut feeds the fans and, like Inge, hopes for new business. And there is Christian, gardener and loyal Energie supporter. Im Osten geht die Sonne auf looks at the last season, how the club’s rise has changed the life and political mood in the region and the effect it’s had on the people of Cottbus itself. SK Ninas Gesc hic hte Original Title Ninas Geschichte (working title) English Title Nina’s Story (working title) Type of Project Feature Genre Tragicomic Love Story Production Company Bosko Biati Film, Berlin, in co-production with ZDF, Mainz With backing from Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM), Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) Producer Jörn Rettig Director Joseph Orr Screenplay Joseph Orr Director of Photography Stefan Wachner Editor Bernd Euscher Music by Bert Wrede Principal Cast Henriette Heinze, Simon Schwarz, Julia Bremermann Length 100 min Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Shooting Language German Shooting in Arnstadt, Thuringia For fans of soccer club Energie Cottbus, 29 May 2000 was the most important day after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their team beat FC Cologne and won promotion to the first division. This time local skinheads had something new to chant. Most of the 114,000 inhabitants also took to the streets, carrying the crossbar of the goal through which star player, Vasile Miritua, had put the winning shot. Miritua, a Romanian and once a mistrusted foreigner, had not only secured his team’s place, but had also become ”one of us.“ And Cottbus, at least for a couple of days, could set aside its reputation as Germany’s most foreigner unfriendly city. The underdogs had roared. Cottbus was long East Germany’s ”Cinderella“ city and this was an opportunity to wave the flag of civic pride, so often tarnished by the city’s unenviable reputation for violence and intolerance. It hoped visiting fans would also bring opportunities for economic improvement and much needed outside investment. The city’s hoteliers, shopkeepers, souvenir sellers, restaurant and bars owners can certainly look forward to increased takings and, with unofficial unemployment somewhere between 20-30%, anything that creates new jobs is more than welcome. 32 Contact: Bosko Biati Film Auguststr. 34 · D-10119 Berlin phone +49-30-2 84 49 40 · fax +49-30-28 44 94 11 If there is a thread running through Jörn Rettig’s one man company Bosko Biati Film’s productions it has to be their emphasis on the character of the lead figure, on a quite ordinary person, unassuming, modest even, who holds and fascinates through who, not what, they are. Take the company’s lyrical comedy Zugvögel … einmal nach Inari (Trains ’n Roses, 1997) for example. Under Peter Lichtefeld’s direction, Joachim Król turns in a fantastic performance, both humorous and moving, as the little man determined to make it to, of all things, the world railway timetable and route memorization championship in Finland. Hot on his heels is the detective (Peter Lohmeyer), convinced that Król has committed a serious crime. Nina’s Story is that of a woman who can see beyond reality and of her attempt to impart her gift, her knowledge, to the man she loves. in p r o d u c t i o n Back in the black and white 1950s, as if the threat of nuclear annihilation and, worse yet, Communism, wasn’t enough, there were also those pesky rampaging giant ants, rampaging giant spiders, flying saucers landing in the desert, invasions of body snatchers, Martians up to no good, creatures in black lagoons and all kinds of things just itching to destroy mom, apple pie and, yes, civilization as we know it! Now the B-movie is back! Planet der Kannibalen is Rotwang Film’s third production. After Rotwang muss weg and the German Film Prize winning Beim nächsten Kuss knall ich ihn nieder, comes a black and white, low budget, science fiction satire. Joseph Orr (photo © Stefan Wachner) She lives in a small town in central Germany; a 30-year-old single woman who would be living alone if it weren’t for the ghosts of the dear departed who keep her company and whom she knew while they were alive or from tales told by her grandmother. If she lived in another time, another culture, she would be revered as a mystic. In a small town in Germany it’s more complicated. Nina falls in love with Max, the husband of her best friend, Sibylle. Despite both their efforts to the contrary, driven by her love, her character and the ghosts, Nina eventually decides to begin an affair. For Max it means betraying his wife, slipping from one lie to another until his wife leaves him. But living with Nina means living in her world, together with the ghosts, creatures free of doubts and pain. They and Nina represent forces far stronger than he is and, try as he might, he fails to meet his own ideal of proving worthy to her. He flees back to the world whose forces and circumstances he understands, that of Sibylle and his children. Nina’s suicide attempt fails and, in the hospital, she discovers that she is pregnant. She now lives a soulless and empty existence, surrounding herself with a protective wall through which no man, no ghost, can penetrate. Until, that is, she sees the baby’s face on the ultrascanner. At that moment, the ghosts return and Nina lives again. SK Writer-director Hans-Christoph Blumenberg, having finished the German reunification drama-documentary Deutschlandspiel, decided to give his imagination free rein and set out to revive the genre that, certainly in Germany, has become neglected these past few years. But you only have to think of Metropolis to realize that science fiction is part of German filmmaking’s genetic heritage. Planet der Kannibalen is set in the year 2020, in a Germany where the European economic system has collapsed and a poverty stricken country in the grip of an energy crisis is about to celebrate thirty years’ reunification. Meanwhile, the two remaining media giants, Alphaplus and Eurolux, are fighting to the death for, what else?, ratings. Their weapons, ever more extreme game- and talk shows. Minh Khai plays Emma Trost, Alphaplus’ director for trend management. Her mission is to find aliens in the city, lure them onto a talk show and win the ratings war for once and all. Emma’s cool as she knows there are no such things. Aren’t there? But just as her boss is about to tell her where they’re hiding, he’s shot. Emma, a murder suspect, is forced to flee through a night time city of cannibals, criminals, tycoons and terrorists until she meets media desperado Adam Singer. Together they set out to solve the mystery of the aliens. Shot in just 19 days on a budget of only DM 2.1 million, by using deferments Rotwang’s owners, Blumenberg and Brandt, have assembled a stellar cast. Not only TV presenter Minh Khai and star actress Barbara Auer, but writer-director Fatih Akin (Im Juli) also lends his talents. SK Planet der Kannibalen Original Title Planet der Kannibalen Type of Project Feature Genre Science fiction satire Production Company Rotwang Film, Hamburg With backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg, ARTE, Strasbourg, ZDF, Mainz Producers Patrick Brandt, Hans-Christoph Blumenberg Director Hans-Christoph Blumenberg Screenplay Hans-Christoph Blumenberg Director of Photography Klaus Peter Weber Editor Florentine Bruck Music by Nick Glowna Principal Cast Minh-Khai Phan-Thi, Florian Lukas, Barbara Auer, Fatih Akin, Vadim Glowna Format 35mm, b/w, 1:1.85 Shooting Language German Shooting in Hamburg and surroundings Contact: Rotwang Film GmbH Koppel 94 · D-20099 Hamburg phone/fax +49-40-24 48 64 Minh-Khai Phan-Thi (photo © Baernd FRAATZ) 33 Die Prüf ung Original Title Die Prüfung Type of Project Feature Film Genre Love story Production Company Mediopolis Film GmbH, Cologne, in co-production with WDR, Cologne With backing from Filmstiftung NRW Producer Alexander Ris Commissioning Editor Andrea Hanke (WDR) Director Seyhan Derin Screenplay Seyhan Derin Director of Photography Martin Farkas Principal Cast Arzu Bazmann, Fatih Alas, Dennis Grabosch, Volker Büditz, Sigo Lorfeo, Dinah Maria Helal, Lilia Lehner, Nina Jaruga, Klaus Nierhoff, Sabine Adams Format Super 16 mm, color, 1:1,85 Shooting Language German Shooting in Cologne from 6 March 2001 for 25 days. approached him with another script (for Papierdrachen, which they will now film later) and then suggested Die Prüfung which he describes as ”a love story and a first love against all odds with a happy end“. ”What we like about this film is that it is not a heavy subject“, Ris explains, ”it is a universal love story set against a real social background with real people and their problems. Love is something universal, as are the problems young people have when they go against their parents’ wishes to live with someone in another land“. Fatih Alas (photo © Mediopolis Berlin GmbH) Contact: Mediopolis Film- & Fernsehproduktion GmbH Bülowstr. 66 · D-10783 Berlin phone +49-30-2 35 56 00 · fax +49-30-23 55 60 66 www.mediopolis.de · email: office@mediopolis.de Die Prüfung centres on Deniz, a girl of Turkish descent in her last year of school, who had met and fallen in love with a young man called Umut on a visit in Turkey. He returns to Germany illegally to be reunited with Deniz, but his presence threatens to jeopardize Deniz’s preparations for her school-leaving exams, much to the chagrin of her parents who demand that she break off all contact with the impetuous young man … ”We spent a very long time casting for the film“, Ris declares, ”because we needed actors around eighteen to nineteen, so we couldn’t take people who were much older and had played lots of roles“. At the same time, Die Prüfung marks a reunion of director Derin with cinematographer Martin Farkas who worked most recently on Dominik Graf’s Der Felsen and had been behind the camera for her on her award-winning documentary Ben annemin kiziyim – Ich bin Tochter meiner Mutter. MB Semper 2000 Original Title Semper 2000 (working title) Genre Creative Documentary Production Company Next Film Filmproduktion, Hamburg, in cooperation with ZDF, Mainz With backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung Producer Thomas Tielsch Director Thomas Tielsch Screenplay Thomas Tielsch, Niels Bolbrinker Director of Photography Niels Bolbrinker Editors Thomas Tielsch, Niels Bolbrinker Length 80 min Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Shooting Language German Shooting in Dresden, Berlin Contact: Next Film Produktion GmbH Lippmannstr. 53 · D-22769 Hamburg phone +49-40-4 31 86 10 · fax +49-40-43 18 61 11 email: nexthh@nextfilm.de Principal photography wrapped at the beginning of April on Seyhan Derin’s debut fictional feature-length film Die Prüfung at locations in and around Cologne. Produced by the Cologne outpost of Berlin-based production company Mediopolis Film, whose past credits include Thomas Riedelsheimer’s Rivers and Tides (Fluss der Zeit) and Fred Kelemen’s Nightfall (Abendland), Derin’s romantic drama was made within the framework of broadcaster WDR and the Filmstiftung NRW’s ”Six Pack“ initiative for first-time directors. As Mediopolis Film’s Alexander Ris recalls, Munich’s Academy of Television & Film (HFF/M) graduate Derin initially 34 In the historic center of the German city of Dresden, one of the baroque treasures of Europe, not far from the Semper opera and the Frauenkirche, both destroyed in the last days of WWII and now restored to their former glory, a new temple is taking shape. A Volkswagen factory. This, however, is no ordinary building. On one level it provides transparency into the manufacturing process in that customers can watch their vehicle, one of the 150 luxury and off-roadsters per day, being assembled before their eyes. But here, purchasing a car becomes part of tourism, part of a cultural experience. For the first time, a company is no longer sponsoring culture, it is presenting itself and its products as culture. Nothing comes close to the automobile in terms of the changes it has wrought in the last century. How fitting it is, then, that it is a car manufacturer, presenting the final assembly of a luxury pro- in p r o d u c t i o n Hea ven Contact: CV Films Greifswalder Str. 207 · D-10405 Berlin phone +49-30-53 69 60 83 · fax +49-30-53 69 60 85 email: cvfilmsberlin@aol.com Six years ago, the Berlin author Michael Roes lived and worked in Yemen for over one year, undertaking an ethnological field study on the traditional games and dances of the South Arabian tribes, which resulted in his award-winning novel Rub’Al-Khali. Leeres Viertel in 1996. Thomas Tielsch, Niels Bolbrinker duct on a public stage in the center of a cultural metropolis, which is now redefining our definition of what constitutes public space. Semper 2000 examines not just the VW project itself (including the company’s brand-strategic and cultural visions) but also looks at the changes in use and definition of public space as well as the history of modern architecture and town planning. The building itself is 150 m long, 40 m high, and is costing DM 300 million. Producing the expensive jewels of motoring, it is both a showcase for those jewels and itself designed to shine brightly, both day and night. It is not just in Dresden but, like the historic building and gardens nearby, also of Dresden. What do the local people, those affected directly and indirectly, make of this new addition to their city, this triumph of the modern baroque? What of them and their milieu? Semper 2000, structurally and contextually, matches pace with the building’s construction. The construction workers also feature, those modern successors of all the now mute artisans who, over the centuries, chipped, chiselled, heaved and hoisted to build the cathedrals, opera houses, palaces and other monuments of their day. This winter, he returned to South Arabia to make the feature film Someone Is Sleeping In My Pain about an American film director (played by the Afro-American theater director, actor and dancer Andrea Smith) who comes to the region’s mountain ranges to make an Arabic version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with the Yemenite tribal warriors. ”Fascinated by the hostility of the landscape and the seriousness of its inhabitants, [the director] wants to use the archaic backdrop to capture the warriors’ everyday life as authentically as possible“, Roes explains. ”Then, for them, honor, hospitality and blood feuds – those medieval concepts which occupied the Scottish king Macbeth – are not obsolete ones, but are values that are still valid and lived out“. ”The appeal of this Macbeth adaptation is in making the difficulties of its realization into the film’s subject. The circumstances of the shooting provide the framework for the film in film, the South Arabian Macbeth“, he continues. ”The boundaries between the documentation of the work and the staged story become increasingly blurred. The action of the feature film is reflected in the way it is produced, in the Macbeth-like ambition of the director. What was thought at the beginning of the film as being a naïve equation of a contemporary traditional culture with a poetic invention, develops into a dramatic debate between reality and projection, reality and the mise-en-scène“. MB Past and present, history and reality, theory and practice, public and private space, the threads are all pulled together. In a world in which we have come to worship the car, their temple awaits. SK Someone Is Sleeping In My Pain Original Title Someone Is Sleeping In My Pain Type of Project Feature Film Genre Drama Production Company CV Films, Berlin, in co-production with Michael Roes Filmproduktion, Berlin Producers Ilona Ziok, Michael Roes Director Michael Roes Screenplay Michael Roes Director of Photography Manfred Andrej Hagbeck Principal Cast Andrea Smith Format 35 mm (blow up) Shooting Language English, Yemenite Shooting in New York and North Yemen from December 2000 to January 2001 Scene from ”Someone is Sleeping in My Pain“ (photo © Manfred Andrej Hagbeck) 35 Tom Schilling, Alicja Bachleda-Curus (photo © Claussen + Wöbke Filmproduktion) Tamara Original Title Tamara (working title) Type of Project Feature Genre Coming-of-age Story Production Company Claussen + Wöbke Filmproduktion, Munich With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), Filmstiftung NRW Producers Jakob Claussen, Thomas Wöbke Director Michael Gutmann Screenplay Michael Gutmann, Hans-Christian Schmid Directors of Photography Pascal Hoffmann, Klaus Eichhammer Editor Monika Abspacher Music by Rainer Michel Principal Cast Tom Schilling, Alicja BachledaCurus, Matthias Schweighöfer, Anna von Berg, Katharina MüllerElmau, Leonard Lansink Length 100 min Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Shooting Language German Shooting in Frankfurt, Munich German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih GmbH, Munich Contact: Claussen + Wöbke Filmproduktion GmbH Herzog-Wilhelm Str. 27 · D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-2 31 10 10 · fax +49-89-26 33 85 email: zentrale@cwfilm.com Jakob meets Tamara, a Polish au-pair working in a suburb of Frankfurt. He’s been away for over a year, staying with his father in Berlin after dropping out of school, unable to face his mother’s painful death from cancer. But things didn’t work out there, his highly pregnant sister is less than enthused to see him again, and his efforts to find and hold a job and make friends keep falling through due to his gruff and confrontational manner. Tamara is the exception. For Jakob it’s love at first sight and while she’s not so keen at first, he perseveres and the two become inseparable. But an au-pair’s life isn’t easy and Jakob immediately sticks his oar in and appoints himself her protector. But she’s a self-aware young lady and can stick up for herself, which means Jakob’s efforts only lead to sometimes amusing, sometimes unpleasant, situations with her friends and host family. Finally Tamara has to return to Poland. Least of all because Jakob’s talent for opening his mouth at the wrong time and acting without thinking has finally made a bad situation worse. While the two say their farewells at the bus station, uncertain if they’ll ever see each other again, buses full of new au-pairs are arriving, young women full of hope being welcomed by their smiling and laughing girlfriends. Aimed at a male and female audience, aged 15-25 years, Tamara appeals to those who enjoyed films such as Crazy (direction and 36 script Hans-Christian Schmid, co-written by Michael Gutmann), Lola rennt and Nach fünf im Urwald (script and direction Hans-Christian Schmid). And, unlike some films, Tamara is proud to wear its commercial credentials on its sleeve. That’s because production company Claussen + Wöbke (that’s Jakob Claussen and Thomas Wöbke) is the name behind some of the country’s most recently successful films. Not just coming-of-ager Crazy (1.5 million admissions), Die Apothekerin, Nach fünf im Urwald (with Franka Potente) but also, in co-production with Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion, for Anatomie. Again starring Franka Potente, the medical horror/thriller sold 2 million tickets, making it the most successful German film in 2000. It not only won the Audience Award of that year’s German Film Prize but gained one of the highest honors the industry can bestow – a sequel … so, look out for Anatomie 2! SK Untitled MTM Project Original Title Untitled MTM Project (working title) Type of Project Feature Film Genre Melodrama Production Company MTM Medien & Television München, Munich, in co-production with Constantin Film Produktion, Munich, and Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion, Zurich, in association with Filmhaus, Vienna With backing from Filmboard BerlinBrandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) Producer Andreas Bareiß Associate Producer Wolfgang Ramml Director Urs Egger Screenplay Jens Urban Director of Photography Lukas Strebel Principal Cast Mario Adorf, Bruno Ganz, Günter Lamprecht, Otto Tausig, Annie Girardot, Nina Hoss Format 35 mm, color Shooting Language German Shooting in Berlin and Vienna from mid-February to end of March and in May 2001 German distributor Constantin Film Verleih GmbH, Munich Contact: Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media 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 ”A chamber piece and a highly emotional drama“ is how producer Andreas Bareiß describes Urs Egger’s new as-yet-untitled project about three Jewish Holocaust survivors who come across one of their tormentors from the concentration camp in the guise of a Catholic priest some four decades later. Bareiß recalls that the original screenplay was sent to him by writer Jens Urban just at the time of the controversy surrounding Martin Walser’s Holocaust speech in summer 1999. ”It is an extraordinarily important project“, he declares, ”if you consider your profession as a producer not only as a profession but also as a calling, then you have a certain responsibility for the kind of films you make. This is certainly a film which will lead to a discussion that concerns us all, i.e. about law and justice, guilt and expiation. It will be a film that raises and discusses the issue once more because there is no forgetting, no forgiving and no liberation from guilt“. When casting began for this prestige production, it became clear to Bareiß and director Egger that there was only one actor in the German speaking area who could play the central character in p r o d u c t i o n of Epstein – Mario Adorf. ”And he was involved very early The film’s author and director, Alice Agneskirchner, goes in search of this special feeling of home and heart. In Wildenranna everybody has their tale to tell. The people take life’s many struggles and setbacks as they come, laconically, sometimes ironically, with a smile and tear on their furrowed faces. Places like Wildenranna will soon be a thing of the past as life there becomes more and more like life everywhere else. And films like Wildenranna will be all that remains to document what once was. There is a German film tradition known as the Heimatfilm. The word ”Heimat“ itself translates into English as ”home“, as in ”home is where the heart is“. The genre enjoyed a boom in the post-war years as cinemagoers sought escapism in harmless, sentimentalized (kitsch, even) entertainment. But all these films were based on idealized reality. They were fiction. Wildenranna is the actuality and life is physically and mentally very hard. Bruno Ganz, Mario Adorf, Otto Tausig (photo © MTM) of Epstein - Mario Adorf. ”And he was involved very early on, also contributing to the development of the screenplay“, Bareiß explains, ”and only then did we cast the other parts for our dream cast“. Alice Agneskirchner was born in Munich and studied Direction at the ”Konrad Wolf“ Academy of Film and Television in Babelsberg, just outside Berlin. In addition to having made a number of documentaries, she is probably one of the few industry professionals who can claim to have worked as a horse trainer in a circus and a cowgirl in Wyoming! ”The forum for this film is not limited to Germany”, Bareiß continues, “it is a film which has countries abroad in its sights, and I think that if there is a strong interest in the film abroad, this will have an effect on its reception back in Germany“. Shooting on the DM 7.6 million project began in Berlin in midFebruary and continued in Vienna during March, followed by a second shoot in Berlin from mid-May. Delivery of the film is scheduled for August 2001. MB Original Title Wildenranna – Ein Heimatfilm (working title) Type of Project Documentary Genre Direct Cinema, Ethnographic Film Production Company Tangram Christian Bauer Filmproduktion, Munich, for Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern Producer Christian Bauer Director Alice Agneskirchner Screenplay Alice Agneskirchner (Documentary Treatment) Directors of Photography Johannes Straub, Rainer Hartmann Editor Julia Furch Format Digital Betacam, color, 16:9 Shooting Language German Shooting in Wildenranna (Bavarian forest) Contact: Tangram Christian Bauer Filmproduktion Herzog-Wilhelm-Str. 27 · D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-2 36 60 60 · fax +49-89-23 66 06 60 www.tangramfilm.de · email: info@tangramfilm.de Alice Agneskirchner, Rudl Kurzböck (photo © Tangram Film 2001) Wildenranna – Ein Heimatfilm Producer Christian Bauer is responsible for more than fifty documentaries and in 1993, after several consecutive nominations, won the Adolf Grimme Prize, the equivalent of a German Emmy, for his film on the last days of an American army garrison in Bavaria, Der Ami geht heim. SK Wildenranna is as picturesque as German villages come. It lies in lower Bavaria, not far from Austria and the Czech Republic, in an area of unsurpassed natural beauty famed for its gently rolling hills, wide valleys and native forests. It’s home to nine hundred people, has a church and a local bar. Winters are hard, summers are short and cold. The local industries are agriculture and timber. The 1930s saw a wave of emigration to the United States as people sought their fortune overseas. Many returned, unable to sever their ties with home. As the locals say, this feeling of belonging, of being together, was always something special to Wildenranna and still is. 37 No examination of the history of cinema is complete without a survey as to the most important or favorite films of all time. In an international context American titles dominate; films such as Gone with the Wind and Citizen Kane through to Schindler’s List and Titanic. In 1995, on the occasion of the 100th Birthday of the Cinema, the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek organized a survey of film historians, journalists, editors and filmmakers to ask them which 100 German films, from the very beginning to the present day, they considered to be the most significant. They were asked to name those films ”which, for the spectrum of German film history, are of outstanding significance artistically, politically or socially.“ 324 industry experts voted in the first round to decide places 1 to 75. The result was announced in February 1994 at the International Film Festival in Berlin. In the second round of voting, for places 76 to 100, 228 people were asked for their opinion. The results were collected in autumn 1994 and announced in the anniversary year. Highlights of German Film History A S U RVEY BY TH E STI FTU NG DE UTSC H E KI N E MATH E K THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS Among those who voted were film makers Herbert Achternbusch, Frank Beyer, Alexander Kluge, Kurt Maetzig, Edgar Reitz, Christoph Schlingensief, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta, Wim Wenders and Bernhard Wicki, journalists Peter Buchka, Wolf Donner, Peter W. Jansen, Hellmuth Karasek, Ponkie and Will Tremper, the internationally renowned film historians Freddy Buache, Bernard Eisenschitz, Ulrich Gregor, Naum Klejman, Ib Monty, Enno Patalas, Giovanni Spagnoletti, Jerzy Toeplitz and Karsten Witte, producers Günter Rohrbach, Joachim von Vietinghoff and Jürgen Wohlrabe. Some of these are, sadly, no longer with us but their ballots, along with the others, have been archived for posterity at the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek. Two of the 100 selected films were made before 1914, 37 are from the Weimar Republic, 8 from the time of the Third Reich, 5 from the early post-war years, 36 from the Federal Republic and 12 from the German Democratic Republic. Of the 100 titles, 24 films are silent and 76 are with sound. Fritz Lang, Georg Wilhelm Pabst and Rainer Werner Fassbinder are represented by more than six titles (Fassbinder is also included for his participation in Deutschland im Herbst), Pabst for his co-direction on Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palu). Helmut Käutner, Wolfgang Staudte, Wim Wenders and Konrad Wolf are each represented by four films, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and Volker Schlöndorff by three. Because the survey was so wide ranging, the first 100 rankings are principally the most well-known and famous titles. But five documentaries, three large-scale television productions and a few experimental works are also included. Even six years on, the result of the survey is still representative. The highlights of German film history are not meant to be written in stone for eternity, but whoever has seen all one hundred films will have a solid basic historical knowledge of German filmmaking. Each year the number of new films one could term really “significant” is, as we know, not particularly long. Information about the 100 films can be found on the CD-Rom ”Die deutschen Filme“, which was released in 2000 by the German Film Institute in Frankfurt and is also available from the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin. Hans Helmut Prinzler 38 M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder A serial killer is keeping Berlin on pins and needles. The police commit everything they have to finding him, but to no avail. Even the great amounts offered as reward money do not help, but only lead to more panic and accusations. Not only the police, but also the underworld is interested in finding the killer, as the constant police raids are ”disturbing“ their work and, since the killer is an outsider, he is ruining their reputation too. The police are convinced that it can only be a pathologically ill person and investigate all such registered candidates. The underworld organizes the city’s beggars to keep a look out. As the killer attempts to approach the next child, he is seen by one of the beggars who calls one of his commissioners. The killer is followed into an office building, circled in on and caught. The gangsters hold trial in the cellar of the building and even give the killer a defence lawyer. The court and jury plea for the death penalty, but after the killer admits his guilt, the defence lawyer warns that a psychologically ill person cannot be held responsible for his acts. In the meantime, the police have found out where the killer is and just as the lynch mob is about to execute its sentence, the police storm in and ”save“ the killer with the line ”in the name of the law, you are arrested!“ Genre Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 1931 Director Fritz Lang Screenplay Thea von Harbou Director of Photography Fritz Arno Wagner Editor Paul Falkenberg Music motif from ”Peer Gynt“ from Edvard Grieg Production Design Emil Hasler, Karl Vollbrecht Producer Seymour Nebenzahl Production Company Nero-Film, Berlin Principal Cast Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Gustaf Gründgens, Friedrich Gnaß, Fritz Odemar, Paul Kemp, Theo Lingen, Ernst Stahl Nachbaur, Fritz Stein, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos, Georg John, Rudolf Blümmer, Karl Platen Length 117 min, 3208 m Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37 Original Version German Dubbed Versions French, Italian Subtitled Version English German Distributor Filmverleih Die Lupe, Göttingen Fritz Lang was born in 1890 in Vienna and died in 1976 in Beverly Hills. He studied Architecture in Vienna and Painting in Munich and wrote his first screenplay in 1916 for Joe May. Lang 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 films 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), Metropolis (1926), Spione (1927/28), Frau im Mond (1928/29), M (1931), Liliom (1934), Hangmen Also Die (1942), Ministry of Fear (1944), The Big Heat (1953) and many, many more. World Sales: Atlantic-Film S.A. · Martin Hellstern Münchhaldenstr. 10 · CH-8034 Zurich phone +41-1-4 22 38 32 · fax +41-1-4 22 37 93 www.praesens.com · email: info@praesens.com 39 THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 1 Scene from ”M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder“ (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek) M – A TOW N I S LO O K I N G F O R A M U R D E R E R Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 2 Scene from ”Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari” (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek) T H E CA B I N E T O F D R . CA L I GA R I Dr. Caligari, a demonic doctor and murderer, untouchable by the arm of the law (through the exploitation and use of a somnambulist), is traced by his antagonist, whom he has robbed of both friend and lover, to a mental hospital where he lives as its director. The vengeful young antagonist uncovers the keeper of madmen as a madman himself; as a madman for whom the example of faded criminal memoirs has become an obsession. And then all these events, reproduced as the youth’s story, finally reveal themselves to be the fantasies of an equally sick mind, and therefore a well-disposed audience can make friendly allowances for them, along with the offensive décor; all the more so, since the director – actually a most upright fellow – now also gives the young patient hope for recovery. After all, he has been in the madhouse … Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 1919/20 Director Robert Wiene Screenplay Carl Mayer, Hans Janowitz Director of Photography Willy Hameister Music by Giuseppe Becce, Lothar Prox (1920), Rainer Viertlböck (1994) Production Design Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann, Walter Röhrig Producer Rudolf Meinert Production Company Decla-Film, Berlin Rights Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden Principal Cast Werner Krauß, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover, Friedrich Fehör, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Rudolf Lettinger, Ludwig Rex, Elsa Wagner, Henri Peters-Arnolds, Hans Lanser-Ludolff Length 62 min, 1509 m Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.33 Original Version German German Distributor Transit Film GmbH, Munich World Sales: Transit Film GmbH · Loy Arnold, Mark Grünthal Dachauer Str. 35 · D-80335 Munich phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax +49-89-59 98 85 20 email: transitfilm@compuserve.com 40 Robert Wiene was born in 1881 in Breslau and died in 1938 in Paris. The son of an actor, he too studied Acting and later became a story editor at the Lessing Theater in Berlin. His first works were for Sascha-Film in Vienna and Bioscop and Messter Film in Berlin. After cooperation on Satanas with Friedrich-Wilhelm Murnau he directed Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, considered to be his most important film. His other films include: Genuine (1920), Raskolnikoff (1923), Orlacs Hände (1924), the passion play I.N.R.I. (1923), Ultimatum (1938) and many more. Berlin . Die Sinfonie der Großstadt Scene from “Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt“ (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek) B E RLI N, SYM PHONY OF A C ITY Genre Documentary Year of Production 1927 Director Walther Ruttmann Screenplay Karl Freund, Walther Ruttmann Directors of Photography Reimar Kuntze, Robert Baberske, Laszlö Schäffer Music by Edmund Meisel Production Design Erich Kettelhut Producer Karl Freund Production Company Fox-EuropaProduktion, Berlin, commissioned by Deutsche Vereins-Film, Berlin Length 65 min, 1466 m Format 35 mm, s/w, no dialog German Distributor Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF, Wiesbaden THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 3 The external framework is the life of the metropolis from morning until midnight. At first, one senses the atmosphere of the city; a long-distance train travels through the suburbs, making us increasingly aware of the proximity of the colossus, shots of the journey, motion filmed with amazing technical skill, symbolize our rushing towards the metropolis. The station, the dawn, Berlin! Gradually it awakens. The earliest workers sparsely populate the streets. It grows in a crescendo, highlights fall on the centers of morning life, on stations, factories, road junctions. Characteristic types are captured everywhere. And like an accompanying tune, we have sections from the private lives of big-city people, houses waking up, apartments coming to life. Midday arrives, evening arrives, again and again the objective fits to situations full of life, stealing the heart of them. The photographer penetrates all areas, all districts, all social classes. Night falls, sections from the dark existence of Berlin, flashes of light over the darkest periphery. Until the night gently covers over this incomparably seething life with its calm veil of stars. Walther Ruttmann was born in 1887 in Frankfurt and died in 1941 in Berlin. He studied Architecture and Painting and worked as a graphic designer. His film career began in the early 1920s. His first abstract short films, Opus I (1921) and Opus II (1923) were experiments with new forms of film expression. Ruttmann and his colleagues of the avant garde movement enriched the language of film as a medium with new form techniques. Together with E. Piscator, he worked on the experimental film Melodie der Welt (1929). His other films include: Opus III (1925), Opus IV (1925), Weekend (1930), Acciaio (Stahl, 1933), Altgermanische Bauernkultur (1934), Schiff in Not (1936), Mannesmann (1937), Henkel, ein deutsches Werk in seiner Arbeit (1938), Waffenkammern Deutschlands (1940), Deutsche Panzer (1940), Krebs (1941), and many more. World Sales: Eva Riehl Volkartstr. 69 · D-80636 Munich phone +49-89-1 29 72 74 · fax +49-89-1 23 80 66 41 Menschen am Sonntag Scene from ”Menschen am Sonntag“ (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek) P E O P L E O N S U N DAY THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 5* A completely normal summer day in Berlin in 1929: life pulsates, the city vibrates full of energy, there is action all around. As though it were coincidence, the viewer gains insight into the lives of different residents of the metropole, and follows them through their everyday activities, their work, their free time. A young man waiting at a streetcorner for his dark-haired girlfriend. A taxi driver, Erwin, and his wife and their triste domestic existence. On Sunday, Berlin is as empty as a ghost town. It seems as though everyone flees to the countryside, the train stations are packed. Erwin meets up with the young man and his female companions, who are on their way to a nearby lake. The two men know each other and decide to make the excursion all together. The young man’s intense flirting with his girlfriend’s friend arouses jealously in his girlfriend, especially when he arranges a date with her for the following Sunday. Erwin reminds him that they already have plans to play football next Sunday. When Erwin returns home, he finds his wife just as he left her, asleep. Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 1929/30 Director Robert Siodmak Screenplay Billy Wilder Director of Photography Eugen Schüfftan Editor Robert Siodmak Music by Otto Stenzel Producer Moritz Seeler Production Company Filmstudio 129, Berlin Principal Cast Erwin Splettstößer, Brigitte Borchert, Wolfgang von Waltershausen, Christl Ehlers, Anni Schreyer, Kurt Gerron, Valeska Gert, Ernst Verebes, Heinrich Gretler Length 74 min, 2014 m Format 35 mm, s/w, 1:1.37 Original Version German Subtitled Versions English, French German Distributor Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin World Sales: Atlantic-Film S.A. · Martin Hellstern Münchhaldenstr. 10 · CH-8034 Zurich phone +41-1-4 22 38 32 · fax +41-1-4 22 37 93 www.praesens.com · email: info@praesens.com 42 Robert Siodmak was born in 1900 in Memphis and died in 1973 in Locarno. He studied in Marburg and worked as an actor for the Ufa. In 1940, he went to the United States and made a name for himself with his psychologically accentuated crime story films. He was a representative of the humanistic-realism of German films prior to 1933 and one of the most important American directors of the “Black Series”. His films include: Abschied (1930), Voruntersuchung (1931) which was blacklisted in 1933, Brennendes Geheimnis (1933), The Suspect (Unter Verdacht, 1944), The Spiral Staircase (Die Wendeltreppe, 1945), Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam (1957) for which he won a prize for Best Director at Karlovy Vary, and many, many more. (* no.4 Nosferatu was already presented within the framework of the former series ”German Classic Movies“ in KINO 4/1999) Berlin Babylon Berlin after the Wall came down. Observations on radical reconstruction of a city core. Images of the conflict between the thirst for demolition and the hunger for completion. Edited into a documentary vision. Since the Wall fell in 1989, the German capital has been trying to overcome its catastrophic past, to restore the urban fabric destroyed in the 20th century, to build as if life depended on it, and to cast off the shadows of yesterday’s darkness. The film shows fascinating images of a city in transition. It is the drama of real estate, of money and power. Prominent architects, developers, politicians and urban planners are seen at work. (photo © S.U.M.O. Film) No interviews, no statements. The music provides the commentary. The Babylonian fable of civilization, of the violence of construction, lives on in reunited Berlin. The upheaval turns to stone. Genre Educational, History Category Documentary TV Year of Production 1996-2000 Director Hubertus Siegert Screenplay Hubertus Siegert Directors of Photography Ralf K. Dobrick, Thomas Plenert Editors Peter Przygodda, Anne Schnee Music by Einstürzende Neubauten Producer Hubertus Siegert Production Company S.U.M.O. Film, Berlin, in coproduction with Philip Gröning Filmproduktion, Düsseldorf Principal Cast Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano, Helmut Jahn, Ieoh Ming Pei, Günter Behnisch, Josef P. Kleihues, Axel Schultes, Angela Winkler Length 88 min, 2627 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SRD International Festival Screenings Berlin 2001 (Panorama) With backing from Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmbüro NW German Distributor Piffl Medien GmbH, Berlin Hubertus Siegert was born in 1959 in Düsseldorf. He studied History, Art History and Theater Studies in Berlin and graduated with a degree in Landscape Architecture. He began making documentary films during his studies and went on to direct and produce two short films Das Sonnenjuwel (1995) and The Orange Kiss (1996) as well as the short documentary Stravinsky in Berlin (1993) with S.U.M.O. Films. M NNES GS AT C A EENIN R C S T ARKE World Sales: Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG · Ida Martins Hochstadenstr. 1-3 · D-50674 Cologne phone +49-2 21-1 39 22 22 · fax +49-2 21-1 39 22 24 www.berlinbabylon.de · www.mediaLuna-entertainment.de email: info@mediaLuna-entertainment.de · idamartins@mediaLuna-entertainment.de 44 Drei Stern Rot 3 S TA R R E D 3 Star Red is the name of the flare and the code name used by East German border guards to signal an escape attempt over the deadliest stretch of the Iron Curtain. During the shooting of a feature film in the winter of 2001, Christian Blank, a man playing the bit part of an East German border guard, goes berserk. For no apparent reason, he attacks one of the leading actors and tries to kill him. He is taken to the psychiatric ward of a hospital, where a tired but attractive psychiatrist, Dr. Wehmann, treats him. She is soon fascinated by what she hears. Blank was, in fact, an East German border guard in real life. He mistook the film actor for the vicious and sadistic Major Nattenklinger, his former commanding officer. Blank delves into the depths of his soul to reveal what he has gone through. The more he tells, the more it becomes clear that he is not as insane as he first seemed. (photo © Telepool) 3 Star Red is the almost unbelievable story of a man who found out what true horror was, who lost everything, including the love of his life. Now, years later, reality and ”insanity“ merge to form a chilling narrative of dashed hopes, love and betrayal, danger and the blunt desire for revenge … Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Olaf Kaiser Screenplay Holger Jancke Director of Photography Matthias Tschiedel Editor Sabine Brose Music by Rainer Kirchmann Production Design Anne-Katrin Hendel Producer Olaf Jacobs Production Company Hoferichter & Jacobs, Berlin, in co-production with ZDF, Mainz Principal Cast Rainer Frank, Petra Kleinert, Meriam Abbas, Dietmar Mössmer, Bastian Trost Special Effects Special Effects, Berlin Studio Shooting Studio Babelsberg, Potsdam Length 88 min, 2490 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Kulturelle Filmförderung Sachsen-Anhalt Olaf Kaiser, born in 1959 in Berlin, studied at the ”Konrad Wolf“ Academy of Film & Television in Babelsberg. From 1977-1979, he worked as a set decorator, production assistant and volunteer in the story department at the DEFA-Studio in PotsdamBabelsberg. From 1983-1984, he became an assistant in the story department and from 1986-1990 was a script doctor at the DEFA-Studio. Since 1991, he has been working as a freelance script doctor, writer and director. He has directed such films as Ich bin taub – aber nicht stumm (short, 1991), Demokratie üben (short, 1992), Deutschland im Glas (documentary, 1993), Wer anhält stirbt (1995) and wrote the scripts for Der Benzintrick (1997), the Tatort-episode Berliner Weiße (1997) and Benzin (1999). World Sales: Telepool – Europäisches-Fernsehprogrammkontor GmbH Wolfram Skowronnek, Angelika Schulze Sonnenstr. 21 · D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 61 88 www.telepool.de · email: skowronnek@telepool.de M NNES GS AT C A EENIN R C S T ARKE 45 E ro t i c Ta l e s : P O R N .C O M Veteran film director Matty Bonkers, a Hollywood legend, arrives in Berlin for an honorary retrospective tribute. While introducing his film Mockery, he receives a phone call from his producer lying in intensive care at a hospital. Blau needs a favor for old times’ sake. Could Matty finish a porn movie before his legs get broken by Tokyo Tony? Matty reluctantly agrees. On the set, he meets movie star and ex-cello player Inga – and the experience is bizarre, spirited, and uplifting – a comédie humaine. Bob Rafelson, born in New York City in 1933, is a compulsive drifter and a Hollywood maverick. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he started writing for television, adapting stage productions for Play of the Week. With Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner, he formed BBS Productions, the company which produced such hits as Easy Rider and The Last Picture Show. Rafelson made his directorial debut with Head (1968), a rock film featuring the Monkees. Two years later, he made Five Easy Pieces (1970), which won him the Best Director Award from the New York Film Critics. His other films include: The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), Stay Hungry (1977), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Black Widow (1986), Mountains of the Moon (1990), Man Trouble (1991), Blood and Wine (1996) and Poodle Springs (1998). The sequel to Wet (1994), a classic in the Erotic Tales series, PORN.COM features Rafelson in his first major acting role. Fabienne Babe (photo © ZIEGLER FILM GmbH & Co. KG) Genre Erotic Category Short film Year of Production 2001 Director Bob Rafelson Screenplay Bob Rafelson Directors of Photography Bernd Löhr, Frank Amann Editor Dirk Grau Music by Peter Rafelson Production Design Stephan Grebe Producer Regina Ziegler Production Company Ziegler Film GmbH & Co KG, Berlin, in co-production with WDR, Cologne Principal Cast Fabienne Babe, Bob Rafelson, Trevor Griffiths, Andreas Schmidt, Thomas Morris, Roxana Sun and others Length 28 min Format Digital video Blow Up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR Verkehrsinsel E ro t i c Ta l e s : W H Y D O N ’ T W E D O I T I N T H E ROA D ? Verkehrsinsel – as in ”Traffic Island“ – as in ”Middle of the Road“ – as in Why Don’t We Do It in the Road? Shot on Potsdamer Platz, the busiest corner in New Berlin, this is where a young couple decide to exercise their sexual fantasies by ”doing it“ on some public place, just beyond the pale of voyeurs and eavesdroppers. Genre Erotic Category Short film Year of Production 2000 Director Eoin Moore Screenplay Eoin Moore Directors of Photography Bernd Löhr, Frank Amann Editors Eoin Moore, Dirk Grau Music by Kai-Uwe Kohlschmidt, Warner Poland Production Design Stephan Grebe Producer Tanja Ziegler Production Company Ziegler Film GmbH & Co KG, Berlin, in co-production with WDR, Cologne Principal Cast Isabelle Stoffel, Erdal Yildiz, Thomas Morris, Kirsten Block Length 28 min Format Digital video Blow Up 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English International Festival Screenings Saarbrücken 2001 Sound Technology Dolby SR Eoin Moore, born in 1968 in Dublin, Ireland, moved to Berlin in 1988, where he worked as a soundman and freelance cameraman. He studied at the German Film & Television Academy Berlin (dffb), graduating with the film Break Even (Plus Minus Null, 1997) – winner of the Director’s Promotional Award at Munich 1998 and the Jury Special Prize at the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema 1998. His other films include: So oder so (short, 1992), Child of Light (documentary, 1992), Digital Video Ballet (short, 1993), Driver (short, 1993), Loops of Infinity (short, 1994), Der Duft des Mannes (short, 1994), Storm Rising (short, 1995) and 9 1/2 Minuten (short, 1996), Trance (1996) and Conamara (2000). Moore also received the Promotional Award at Saarbrücken 1999. 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 46 M NNES GS AT C A ENIN E R C T S ARKE Das Experiment TH E EXPE RI M E NT When former journalist Tarek Fahd, who presently drives a cab in the German town of Cologne, stumbles upon a newspaper ad looking for volunteers for a psychological experiment, he convinces his former boss to commission him to report undercover about the experiment, which seems to be partly funded by the army. Just before Tarek enters the experiment and agrees to live in a mock prison for two weeks, waiving his civil rights, his taxi is hit one night by the car of a young and beautiful woman. Dora has just lost her father, and she and Tarek spend a night together. But the next morning Dora has vanished and Tarek starts his “term” in the “prison” that has been built into the cellar of the university. In the beginning, everyone, “guards” and “prisoners” alike, take it as a game. But when Tarek, who records the proceedings with a miniature camera hidden in his glasses, starts to provoke the “guards”, the situation begins to get out of hand. But the psychologists, who keep a 24-hour surveillance on the experiment, decide not to intervene. Christian Berkel, Moritz Bleibtreu (photo © Senator Film) An unimaginable nightmare has begun. And the experiment turns into a matter of life and death… Genre Drama, Psycho-Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2000 Director Oliver Hirschbiegel Screenplay Mario Giordano, Christoph Darnstädt, Don Bohlinger Director of Photography Rainer Klausmann Editor Hans Funck Music by Alexander van Bubenheim Production Design Uli Hanisch, Andrea Kessler Producers Norbert Preuss, Marc Conrad, Fritz Wildfeuer Production Companies Fanes Film, Munich, Typhoon Film, Hürth, in co-production with Senator Film, Berlin, SevenPictures, Munich Principal Cast Moritz Bleibtreu, Maren Eggert, Christian Berkel, Justus von Dohnànyi, Oliver Stokowski, Timo Dierkes, Antoine Monot, Jr., Andrea Sawatzki, Edgar Selge Casting An Dorthe Braker Special Effects Arri Digital Length 120 min, 3283 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Versions English, French Sound Technology Dolby Digital International Awards Bavarian Film Prize 2001 for Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, BKM German Distributor Senator Film Verleih GmbH, Berlin Oliver Hirschbiegel had his television debut as author and director of the TV movie Das Go! Projekt (1986). In 1991, Mörderische Entscheidung – Umschalten erwünscht followed. He has won numerous awards for his television work: his crime story episode Kinderspiel (1992) from the Tatort series won the prestigious Adolf Grimme Award. He also won a Grimme Special Prize and a Golden Lion for Trickser (TV, 1996) and Das Urteil (TV, 1997), both of which received an Emmy nomination for Best Foreign TV Drama. He received the Bavarian Television Prize 1999 for Todfeinde (TV, 1998). He has directed 14 episodes of the TV series Kommissar Rex (1993), the crime story Ostwärts (1994), also from the Tatort series, and the TV movie Rex – die frühen Jahre (1997). The Experiment is his feature film debut. World Sales: Senator International Inc. · Joe Drake 8666 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor · USA - Beverly Hills, California 90211 phone +1-3 10-3 60 14 41 · fax +1-3 10-3 60 14 47 www.senatorfilm.de · email: jd@senatorentertainment.com H IT FFIC E O X O ION S AN B MISS D GERM A N I LLIO 1. 5 M 47 Ein göttlicher Job A G O D DA M N J O B New Year’s Eve 2000. Jonathan’s exhausting 1000-year term as a demi-god is finally over. The blissful paradise of the gods awaits! Actually, things aren’t quite so cool; in fact Jonathan is scared shitless because in a couple of hours he’s got to report to Divine Central where his boss, the Over-Goddess Yolanda, will grill him on his final report. Then he’ll be screwed, because she’ll quickly realize what a mess this lazy, always-wasted demi-god has left behind. Even worse, Jonathan completely spaced out finding himself a replacement, which could mean his having to endure 10 more centuries of this lowly, partial-god crap. He winds up choosing Niklas, of all people, whose only relationship to eternity is with the undying love he’s recently been hung up with. Facing the ultimate drag of yet another thousand wasted years, Jonathan gathers all of his remaining wits to execute his plan. It’s going down on New Year’s Eve, a night that Niklas will remember for a very, very long time. Thierry van Werveke, Oliver Korittke (photo © Buena Vista International) A Goddamn Job takes nobody seriously and leaves nothing sacred. God trips around in threadbare jogging pants, a guardian angel with blazing blue hair is charged with keeping “true love” true, and a clueless comic artist named Niklas finds out that there’s more than one way to get to heaven. Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2000 Director Thorsten Wettcke Screenplay Thorsten Wettcke Director of Photography Martin Ruhe Editors Brigitta Paech, Camille Younan, Hansjörg Weißbrich Music by Jule Maas, Nikolaus Sieveking, Peter Hinderthür Production Design Jürgen Schnell, Martin Gnade Producers Ralph Schwingel, Stefan Schubert, Eberhard Scharfenberg Production Companies Wüste Filmproduktion, Hamburg, VCC Perfect Pictures, Hamburg, in co-production with NDR, Hamburg, Buena Vista International Filmproduction, Munich, Wüste Film West, Cologne Principal Cast Oliver Korittke, Heike Makatsch, Thierry van Werveke, Anna Loos, Tamara Simunovic, Oscar Ortega Sánchez, Martin Semmelrogge, Detlef Bothe Casting Ingeborg Molitoris Special Effects Peter Wiemker Studio Shooting Studio Bendestorf Length 83 min, 2271 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital SR With backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, Filmbüro NW, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Buena Vista International (Germany) GmbH, Munich Thorsten Wettcke was born in 1974. His film career began quite early, with his first short films dating back to 1993. In 1995, he broke off his film studies in Mainz to become a scriptwriter for Wüste Filmproduktion in Hamburg. Since then, he has directed many, and acted in quite a few, of his own films, including: Nightmare on Danziger Street (short, 1993), Fröhlicher Suizid (short, 1994), Gotthold und Gotthilf (short, 1994), Degeneration X (1995) which received several prizes and considerable recognition, Digital Dope, Knut, and Anschlag (shorts, 1996) and Die Rosenfalle (short, 1997). NNES GS AT C A ENIN E R C T S ARKE World Sales: Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH M Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 www.bavaria-film-international.de · email: Bavaria.International@bavaria-film.de 48 Heidi M. Heidi M. is in her late forties and has a small store in the pulsating center of Berlin. She goes out in the evenings with her friend Jacqui, but when she is unexpectedly confronted with romantic love, old wounds are opened. At first, she is hesitant to open up to a new man. But then she takes the chance to lead her life in a new direction … Katrin Saß (photo © X Verleih) Heidi M. is an extraordinary portrait of a woman, with a mix of melodrama, social observation and road movie elements. Genre Art, Drama, Love Story, Women’s Film Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Michael Klier Screenplay Karin Åström Director of Photography Sophie Maintigneux Editor Bettina Böhler Music by Robert Matt Production Design Anina Diener Producers Manuela Stehr, Stefan Arndt Production Company X Filme Creative Pool, Berlin, in co-production with WDR, Cologne Principal Cast Katrin Saß, Dominique Horwitz, Franziska Troegner, Ulrike Krumbiegel, Julia Hummer, Kurt Naumann Casting Simone Bär Length 90 min, 2616 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR German Distributor X Verleih AG, Berlin Michael Klier, born in 1943 in Karlovy Vary, studied Philosophy and History. Before he began making films himself, he acted in several films by Harun Farocki and Rudolf Thome, among others. His first film Der Riese (1983), a video documentary about video surveillance, won several international prizes. Thereafter, he developed his artistic signature with films such as Überall ist es besser, wo wir nicht sind (1989) and Ostkreuz (1991). His film Out of America (1995) portrayed a group of former GIs who stayed in Germany after the rest of the troops returned home. He has also directed a series of film portraits about François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Henri Alekan, Juliette Binoche and others. World Sales: Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 www.bavaria-film-international.de · email: Bavaria.International@bavaria-film.de 49 In den Tag hinein T H E DAY S B E T W E E N Sabine Timoteo, Hiroki Mano (photo © November Film) Lynn lives with her brother in Berlin. There she enjoys the advantages of family life, without feeling involved in it. She is living without any plan, waiting for whatever the days may bring. During her working hours in a café, she is drowsy. When she earns some money as a discodancer, she looks ecstatic. She is impulsive and irrational, sometimes sulky like a child, then overtly responsive to the city’s atmosphere. As her character sways between moods, Lynn’s sex life also sways undecidedly between her boyfriend David, a disciplined professional swimmer who doesn’t share her sense of freedom, and Koji, a Japanese first-year student of German, who shares her sensuality, but not her language. Genre Drama, Love Story Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Maria Speth Screenplay Maria Speth Director of Photography Reinhold Vorschneider Editor Dietmar Kraus Production Design Heike Wolf Producers Brigit Mulders, Klaus Salge Production Company November Film, Berlin, in co-production with ZDF, Mainz, “Konrad Wolf ” Academy of Film & Television, Babelsberg Principal Cast Sabine Timoteo, Hiroki Mano, Florian Müller-Mohrungen, Sabina Riedel, Nicole Marischka, Guntram Brattia Length 120 min, 3283 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR International Festival Screenings Ophüls-Festival Saarbrücken 2001 (in competition), Rotterdam 2001 (in competition), Créteil 2001 (in competition) International Awards VPRO Tiger Award, Rotterdam 2001, Grand Prix du Jury, Créteil, 2001 With backing from Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg World Sales: please contact November Film · Brigit Mulders Fritschestr. 79 · D-10585 Berlin phone +49-30-34 70 26 56 · fax +49-30-34 70 26 57 email: novemberfilm@agdok.de 50 Maria Speth, born in 1967, studied at the ”Konrad Wolf“ Academy of Film and Television in Babelsberg. She attended acting lessons with Janina Szarek and has worked since 1991 as an editing and directing assistant on various films and TV programs. Her films include: Mittwoch (short, 1995), Knastmutter (documentary, 1996), and Barfuß (short, 1999) – winner of the 3sat Award at Oberhausen 1999. the days between is her feature debut. It Happened in Havana Peter Lohmyer, Ketty de la Iglesia (photo © ICAIC/Kinowelt) ”Playing Swede“ is slang in Cuba for pretending not to know or playing the innocent one. And the German crook Björn is quite good at it. He goes incognito in the Cuban metropole as a Swedish professor of literature in order to dart the European police. Of all places, he finds an adoptive family in a retired policeman’s household. And on top of that, he falls in love with the daughter. But this doesn’t prevent him from going about his criminal ways. The local street gangsters suffer most of all, as Björn takes away their ”work“. When the police fail to catch him, Havana’s underground world takes it upon itself to hunt down the competition. Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2000/01 Director Daniel Díaz Torres Screenplay Eduardo del Llano Director of Photography Raul Perez Ureta Editor Guillermo S. Maldonado Music by Edesio Alejandro, Gerardo Garcia Production Design Evelio Delgado Producers Camilo Vives, Rainer Kölmel, Angel Amigo Production Company ICAIC, Havana, in co-production with Kinowelt Filmproduktion, Munich, in association with IGELDO KOMUNIKAZIOA, San Sebastian, IMPALA, Madrid, with participation of TVE, Madrid, Canal+, Paris Principal Cast Peter Lohmeyer, Enrique Molina, Coralia Veloz, Ketty de la Iglesia, Mijail Mulkay, Rogelio Blain Studio Shooting ICAIC, Havana Length 105 min, 2873 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original Version Spanish Subtitled Versions English, German Sound Technology Dolby Digital International Festival Screenings Berlin 2001, Havana Film Festival New York & Chicago 2001 International Awards Audience Award & UPEC Cultural Circle Award, Havana 2000 German Distributor Arthaus Filmverleih GmbH, Munich Daniel Díaz Torres was born in 1948 in Havana, Cuba and is one of the most eminent directors in Cuba today. He studied Political Science at the University of Havana and has worked since 1968 at the Cuban film institute ICAIC as a directing assistant, critic and instructor. He is also chief editor of the ICAIC’s cinematic weekly publication. He presented his first film Jíbaro in 1985, but it was his third film Alicia en el pueblo de maravillas (1991) that brought him international recognition and the DAAD Artist’s Program scholarship in Berlin. Despite the political turbulence in his homeland, he is the only director in Cuba today who has been able to continue to direct his own films without having to accept commercial or ideological concessions. A selection of his films include: Libertad para Luis Corvalán (1975), Otra mujer (1986) and Little Tropikana (1997) among others. World Sales: Kinowelt World Sales · A Division of Kinowelt Lizenzverwertungs GmbH Jochen Hesse Schwere-Reiter-Str. 35/Geb 14 · D-80797 Munich phone +49-89-30 79 66 · fax +49-89-3 07 96 70 67 www.kinowelt-world-sales.com · email: worldsales@kinowelt.de M NNES GS AT C A EENIN R C S T ARKE 51 Kaliber Deluxe B LO O DY W E E K E N D Herbert Fritsch (photo © DOR FILM/Lukas Beck) Dean dreams of being a successful author of thrillers and having lots of money, a beautiful woman and a little house on an island in the South Pacific. But up to now, he has only made it as a property manager of a holiday camp in the mountains. He is not really committed, mixes up the reservations, and hardly takes care of his duties. At a rather dull party, he meets Romy, an attractive psychology student. Quickly, they become very close and leave the boring party and go to one of the holiday houses in the camp. Dean thinks that the house will be vacant for the coming days. They spend the night together. Ed Novak’s career as a gangster was abruptly ended by a terrible ”accident“, which confined him to a wheel-chair. He now specializes in planning the raids, and his collaborators Toby, Alex and Rochus carry out the work for him. The three men raid a betting office, not knowing that one of the customers is the powerful gangster Honcek, who has manipulated a horse race and now wants to place a high bet for this race. Suddenly, the police arrive, a gun-battle ensues and, in the hail of bullets, Toby jumps into the car with Alex, leaving Rochus behind. Once again, Dean has overslept. When he makes up, Romy is already gone. Instead, Ed, Toby and Alex are sitting in the remote house in the mountains – an ideal place to escape. Unfortunately, they are not only being chased by the police, but also by Honcek. And there is one thing that Dean does not yet know: Romy has given Rochus, who was hitchhiking, a lift in her car. Genre Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 1999 Director Thomas Roth Screenplay Thomas Roth, Robert Treichler, Martin Daniel Director of Photography Helmut Pirnat Editor Evi Romen Music by Lothar Scherpe Production Design Christoph Kanter Producer Danny Krausz Production Company DOR FILM West, Munich, in co-production with DOR FILM, Vienna Principal Cast Marek Harloff, Jürgen Hentsch, Annelise Hesme, Dieter Pfaff, Jürgen Tarrach, Herbert Fritsch Casting Barbara Vögel Special Effects Matthias Brandhofer Length 107 min, 2928 m Format Super 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital SRD International Festival Screenings Ghent 2000 With backing from Austrian Film Institute, Wiener Film Fond, ORF (Film-Fernsehabkommen), FilmFernsehFonds Bayern German Distributor Kinowelt Filmverleih GmbH, Munich World Sales: Atlas International Film GmbH Dieter Menz, Stefan Menz, Christl Blum Rumfordstr. 29-31 · D-80469 Munich phone +49-89-2 10 97 50 · fax +49-89-22 43 32 www.atlasfilm.com · email: mail@atlasfilm.com 52 Thomas Roth was born in 1965 in Graz, Austria. From 1985-1994, he worked at the Styrian studios of the Austrian Broadcasting Station (ORF). Today, he is a freelance scriptwriter and director and lives in Vienna. In addition to documentaries and music videos, his works include: Sudden Death (1993), Eine kleine Erfrischung (1994), Schnellschuss (TV, 1995), The Lake (TV, 1996) based on the novel by Gerhard Roth, Blutrausch (1997) his first feature film, based on the novel by Günther Brödl, and Im Kreuzfeuer (TV, 1998). M NNES GS AT C A EENIN R C S T ARKE Konzert im Freien A P L AC E I N B E R L I N Günther ”Baby“ Sommer, Dietmar Diesner (photo © 2001 Ö Film) Like a fossil, the ”Marx-Engels-Forum,“ a large, ambitious monument project from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), adorns a central and historical spot in the middle of Berlin. Jürgen Böttcher’s experimental documentary incorporates his own footage from 1981–1986 about the creation of this monument into new material, shot exclusively on location at the MarxEngels-Forum. A vast collage with numerous levels: documentary shots of the artists involved at the time, and above all, intense observations of today’s visitors to this square’s anachronistic monument ensemble. Groups, families, couples, tourists from around the world often have their pictures taken in front of the stiff, stoic figures of Marx and Engels. Percussionist Günther ”Baby“ Sommer and saxophonist Dietmar Diesner are the musical guides through the film, giving it structure, propelling the different kinds of material – partly brittle, strange and even grotesque – to dance. A confrontation with history and art in Berlin’s new center. Genre History Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Jürgen Böttcher Screenplay Jürgen Böttcher Directors of Photography T. Plenert, L. Lenski, L. Böttcher, G. Becher Editor Gudrun Steinbrück Music by Günther ”Baby“ Sommer, Dietmar Diesner Producers Frank Löprich, Katrin Schlösser Production Company Ö Filmproduktion, Berlin, in coproduction with WDR, Cologne Principal Cast Günther ”Baby“ Sommer, Dietmar Diesner Length 88 min, 2408 m Format Digi Beta Blow up 35 mm, color, 1:1.65 Original Version German Subtitled Versions English, French Sound Technology Dolby SR International Festival Screenings Berlin 2001 (Forum), Visions du Réel Nyon 2001 With backing from BKM, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung German Distributor Basis-Film-Verleih GmbH, Berlin Jürgen Böttcher, also known under his pseudonym “Strawalde”, was born in 1931 and grew up in a small village in the Oberlausitz. His childhood being overshadowed by the terror of the Nazi regime, he had a great desire for social change, and joined the Communist Party at the age of 17. He studied Painting at the Art Academy in Dresden. However, as a result of rising ideological turbulence, which led to his being blacklisted from the Association of Fine Arts, he was legally prohibited to continue his work as a painter. He then registered to study Film Direction at the “Konrad Wolf ” Academy for Film & Television in Potsdam in 1955. It wasn’t until the 1980’s however that his original work as a painter was finally recognized. With more than 30 films, he has attained cult status among cineasts and has become a moral and aesthetic authority for his East German film colleagues at DEFA, the state-owned film studios of the former GDR. In 1991, he was awarded the Silver Ribbon for his film work, and is also honored with a portrait in the German Parliament. His films include: Ofenbauer (short, 1962) – winner of the Silver Dove Award, Jahrgang 45 (1965), Martha (1978), Die Frau am Klavichord (short, 1981), Rangierer (short, 1984), In Georgien (1987), Die Mauer (1990) and many more. Today, he lives and works again as a freelance painter in Berlin-Karlshorst. World Sales: please contact Ö Filmproduktion Löprich & Schlösser GmbH · Frank Löprich, Katrin Schlösser Lychener Str. 82 · D-10437 Berlin phone +49-30-4 46 72 60 · fax +49-30-44 67 26 26 email: mail@oefilm.de 53 Lale Andersen – Die Stimme der Lili Marleen L A L E A N D E R S E N – T H E VO I C E O F L I L I M A R L E E N In the summer of 1999, as the German KFOR soldiers in Kosovo settled in their barracks, they turned on the radio to the program “Radio Prizren”. Every evening, the station broadcasted the three-hour program ”Radio Andernach“ from the German army’s radio station ”Soldiers for Soldiers“. News from back home and all the current hits. One evening, a smoky voice from the past came through the radio: Lale Andersen sang ”Lili Marleen“. Lale Andersen (photo © Lichtfilm) The film portrays more than just the life story of the singer, it traces the phenomenon of ”Lili Marleen“ and the resulting legend. What was the mix of talent, luck, Zeitgeist and decline that made Lale Andersen worldfamous with one song? What is the source of the fascination with the song that, even today, moves the hearts of soldiers? Legend and reality – for behind the singer’s glowing star façade hid a person full of contradiction and inner tragedy. Genre Biopic Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Irene Langemann Screenplay Irene Langemann Directors of Photography Otmar Schmid, Peter Mucko Editor Inge Schneider Producer Wolfgang Bergmann Production Company Lichtfilm, Cologne Principal Cast Norbert Schultze, Litta Magnus, Michael & Björn Wilke Length 90 min, 2462 m Format Digi Beta Blow up 35 mm, b/w + color, 1:1.33 Original Version German/English/Russian Dubbed Version English Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Mono With backing from Filmbüro NW Irene Langemann was born in the Omsk region of the Soviet Union in 1959. She studied Acting and Germanics at the Tcepkin Theater Academy in Moscow. From 1980-1990, she worked as an actress, director and theater writer in Moscow. In 1983, she began moderating and directing for Russian television. In 1986, she became director and scene editor at the Nasch Theater in Moscow. She moved to Germany in 1990 and was an editor at Deutsche Welle TV in Cologne until 1997. Since 1997, she has been working as a freelance filmmaker. Her films include: Nirgendwo verwurzelt (1993), Die Götter bitte ich um eine Änderung (1994), Imperium der Träume (1995/96) – a TV-documentary about the Bolshoi Ballet, Auf Wiedersehen in Berlin (1996/97), Zwischen hier und dort (1997) – a TVdocumentary about the writer Giwi Margwelaschwili, Das Ende einer Odyssee (1998) – a documentary about the pianist Rudolf Kehrer, Klasse(n) Klänge (1999), Fit für Leben und Arbeit (2000) and Rußlands Wunderkinder (1998-2000). World Sales: please contact Lichtfilm · Wolfgang Bergmann Kasparstr. 26 · D-50670 Cologne phone +49-2 21-9 72 65 17 · fax +49-2 21-9 72 65 18 www.Lichtfilm.de · email: Wolfberg@lichtfilm.de 54 Legion of the Dead Two guys, William and his side-kick Luke, have just started their trip through the beautiful California desert when they’re kidnapped by the notorious psycho Mike, the Kern River Killer. Securing their escape through hilarious means and the aid of an old friend, they soon stumble into a small desert town where, unbeknownst to them, a mysterious tall blond man and his sadistic henchmen are killing people to create a ”legion“. Here’s where it gets tricky. William falls in love with Geena, the beautiful waitress at the local restaurant and Luke spins out of control hormonally. The restaurant is suddenly attacked by the legion and the tall blond man gives an ultimatum to hand over Geena within two hours or he will personally come in to get her. Michael Carr, Joe Cook, Russell Friedenberg (© X-VISION FILMPRODUCTION) What is the mysterious secret that Geena and the blond man share? The clock ticks as the ultimatum draws near. The fight against evil has just begun… Genre Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2000 Director Olaf Ittenbach Screenplay Olaf Ittenbach Director of Photography Holger Diener Editors Thomas Bachmann, Christian Lonk Music by Ralph Wengenmayr, Jaro Messerschmidt Production Design Michael J. Poettinger Producers Michael J. Poettinger, Claudia Quirchmayr Production Company X-VISION FILMPRODUCTION, Aying-Munich, in co-production with Modern Graphics, Rastatt, FRAME WERK, Munich Principal Cast Michael Carr, Russel Friedenberg, Kimberly Liebe, Matthias Hues, Hank Stone, Harvey J. Alperin Casting Klaus J. Koch, Claudia Quirchmayr Special Effects DAS WERK, Munich, Olaf Ittenbach, PITT EFFECTS, Munich, Wayne Beauchamp, Los Angeles Studio Shooting Kotter Studios, Hoehenkirchen Length 94 min, 2572 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital 5.1 International Festival Screenings Stockholm 2000, International Fantasy Film Festival Brussels 2001 (in competition), Cinénygma Luxembourg 2001 (in competition) World Sales: Atlas International Film GmbH Dieter Menz, Stefan Menz, Christl Blum Rumfordstr. 29-31 · D-80469 Munich phone +49-89-2 10 97 50 · fax +49-89-22 43 32 www.atlasfilm.com · email: mail@atlasfilm.com Olaf Ittenbach, born in 1969, grew up in Fuerstenfeldbruck, just outside of Munich. At the age of 13, he started taking an interest in make-up and special effects. He began his first film Black Past in his spare time – a project that later (1998) turned into a burning interest and passion for film. His other films are Burning Moon (1992) and Premutos (1997). M NNES GS AT C A ENIN E R C T S ARKE 55 Mädchen Mädchen G I R L S O N TO P Felicitas Woll, Diana Amft, Karoline Herfurth (photo © OLGA-FILM) Girls on Top is a romantic, coming-of-age comedy. On her eighteenth birthday, Inken and her friends, Victoria and Lena, watch a film from the seventies about hippie women talking about their liberation and their enormous sexual satisfaction. From that moment on, the three girls are on a mission. They are convinced that their first orgasm will bring them success with their volleyball team, make them pass their final exams and lead them to the sunny side of life. To achieve all that, Inken has to get rid of her macho boyfriend, Victoria has to realize that it’s quality instead of quantity that matters, and shy Lena has to prepare herself to lose her virginity. In the end, the three girls learn to trust their own feelings instead of following forced goals and they all find true love. Genre Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Dennis Gansel Screenplay Maggie Peren, Christian Zübert Director of Photography Axel Sand Editor Anne Loewer Music by Tobias Neumann, Martin Probst Production Design Ingrid Henn Producers Molly v. Fürstenberg, Harald Kügler, Viola Jäger, Tina Fauvet, Matthias Emcke, Thomas Augsberger Production Company OLGAFILM, Munich, in association with Key Entertainment, Los Angeles Principal Cast Diana Amft, Felicitas Woll, Karoline Herfurth, Max Riemelt, Martin Reinhold, Andreas Christ, Ulrike Kriener, Florian Lukas Casting Nessie Nesslauer Length 90 min, 2462 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Bayerischer Bankenfonds, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Constantin Film, Munich Dennis Gansel, born in 1973 in Hannover, directed his first films during his studies at the Academy of Television & Film (HFF) in Munich. His films include: The Wrong Trip (short, 1995), Living Dead (1996) – a short film with Iris Berben, Im Auftrag des Herrn (short, 1997), and The Phantom (1999) – a TV movie for ProSieben with Jürgen Vogel and winner of the Adolf-Grimme Award, Jupiter Award and the 3sat Audience Award. World Sales: Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 www.bavaria-film-international.de · email: Bavaria.International@bavaria-film.de 56 Milch und Honig aus Rotfront The idea for Milk and Honey from Rotfront was born in May 1995 when a group of German filmmakers traveled through the central Asian republics of Kirghizia and Kazakhstan to present German film productions. An eight-hour flight away from Germany at the foot of the Himalayas, they discovered a village with the official name of Rotfront, a left-over from the Stalin period. The pronunciation is German – both in Kirghiz and Russian. The people living there speak an archaic German. But that is not the only reason why the visitor gets the impression of traveling back to the beginning of the 20th century. It’s also the skills and methods applied to the tasks of everyday life. Half of the inhabitants are of German origin, their ancestors having been Mennonites, a German religious minority. While capturing moments of people’s lives, the image arises of a different German culture: the keeping of traditions and adapting to a new culture simultaneously. Genre Family, History Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2000 Director Hans-Erich Viet Screenplay Hans-Erich Viet Director of Photography Thomas Keller Editor Anne Fabini Producer Herbert Schwering Production Company Schwering & Viet Filmproduktion, Cologne, in co-production with ZDF, Mainz Principal Cast Abraham Falk, Rudolf Koop, Andrej Wiebe Length 116 min, 3276 m Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.66 Original Version German/Russian/Kirghiz Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR International Festival Screenings Berlin 2001 (Forum), International Documentary Film Festival Munich 2001 With backing from Filmbüro NW, Kulturelle Filmförderung Niedersachsen Scene from ”Milk and Honey from Rotfront“ (photo © Schwering + Viet Filmproduktion) M I L K A N D H O N EY F RO M ROT F RO N T Hans-Erich Viet was born in 1953 in East Friesland. He studied Philosophy, Politics and Sociology of Art in Berlin and Belfast, graduating as a political scientist. He is also a graduate of the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin and received a scholarship for the Berlin Scriptwriting Workshop. He has worked in various capacities including in a chemistry lab in East Friesland, as a social worker in England and Northern Ireland, and as a forest worker. His films include: Karniggels (1991) – co-directed with Detlev Buck, Schnaps im Wasserkessel (documentary, 1991), Frankie, Jonny und die anderen (1993), Luggi L. ist nicht zu fassen (documentary, 1995), Die rote Hand von Ulster (documentary, 1996/97), Geiselfahrt ins Paradies (1997), Schlange auf dem Altar (1998) as well as several episodes of the TV series Polizeiruf 110 (1999-2000). World Sales: please contact Schwering & Viet Filmproduktion · Herbert Schwering Alter Markt 36-42 · D-50667 Cologne phone +49-2 21-32 20 53 · fax +49-2 21-32 20 54 email: iconfilm@t-online.de 57 Der Mistkerl T H E B LO O DY N U I SA N C E Pauline is a bright and energetic nine-year-old. And at times, incredibly stubborn. She and her mother, Anna, have been on their own since her father took off for America years ago. Pauline has never liked any of her mother’s boyfriends, so when Anna becomes romantically involved with Pit, she keeps it a secret from her daughter. But Pauline finds out and Anna has to promise never to lie to her again. Ines Nieri, Louis Klamroth (photo © Telepool) Pit, it turns out, is a confirmed bachelor who loves his freedom and wants no part of family life. ’As much as it hurts him’, he ends their affair. Anna is devastated and Pauline swears revenge. She is going to make this guy’s life hell. And, at first, she succeeds. But when she finds out that her mother is still in love with Pit, Pauline makes another vow: Pit will learn to love her and live happily ever after with her mom. Reforming him is not easy, but by the time Pauline’s done with him, Pit asks Anna to become his wife. But Pauline’s troubles don’t end there … Genre Family Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Andrea Katzenberger Screenplay Andrea Katzenberger Director of Photography Tore Vollan Editor Sylvia Genzmer Music by Mario Schneider Production Design Zazie Knepper Producer Dirk R. Düwel Production Company Studio Hamburg, in co-production with ZDF, Mainz, in cooperation with the Hamburger Filmwerkstatt Principal Cast Ines Nieri, Louis Klamroth, Ingo Naujoks, Anna Loos, Peter Lohmeyer Casting Esther Klostermann Studio Shooting Studio Hamburg Length 90 min, 2462 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Stereo International Festival Screenings Berlin 2001 (Children's Film Festival), Gera 2001, Kristiansand 2001, Giffoni 2001, Chicago 2001, Banff 2001, Tokyo 2001 With backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg, Medienstiftung Hamburg Andrea Katzenberger, born in 1962 in Heidelberg, studied Germanics and Theater Studies at the Free University in Berlin, Acting at the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna, and Film Direction with Hark Bohm at the University of Hamburg. She was engaged by several theaters in Vienna, Frankfurt, Berlin and Hamburg, and in 1988, was one of the founding members of the ”Neue Berliner Volksbühnen“. Her graduation film Anja, Bine und der Totengräber (1998) won the ProSieben Newcomer Award in 1998 and First Prize at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival in 1999. Her other films include the shorts: Neukölln: Ein Platz für Kinder (1995), Stille Wasser (1995), Blindman Blues (1996), and Gleislichter (1997). World Sales: Telepool – Europäisches-Fernsehprogrammkontor GmbH Wolfram Skowronnek, Angelika Schulze Sonnenstr. 21 · D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 61 88 www.telepool.de · email: skowronnek@telepool.de 58 M NNES GS AT C A EENIN R C S T ARKE Mondscheintarif Gruschenka Stevens (photo © Hager Moss Film) Saturday evening: Cora Hübsch recently slept with Daniel for the first time and is now impatiently waiting for him to call her. That is the beginning of this story about love, sex and everyday vanities and forms the basis for telling the story of the encounter between Cora and Daniel in interlinked flashbacks and entertaining episodes. But, it also takes a couple of ironic pot-shots at the complex and sometimes complicated mechanisms of the relationships between women and men. Making use of a variety of narrative stylistic devices, the story constantly drifts off into anecdotes told in loving, detailed fashion about the frequently comical diversions and confusion inevitably accompanying two people finding their way to one another. The main drift of the story is Cora waiting at the telephone in vain. Cora experiences an emotional roller-coaster ride that finally brings her to the insight that ”he“ is not going to call. Cora has coincidence to thank for the fact that she ends up in the arms of her lover this evening as well as the insight that all of the well-meaning tips, bits of advice and wisdom only stood in the way of her finding the man of her dreams. Genre Romantic Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2000/2001 Director Ralf Huettner Screenplay Ralf Huettner, Silke Neumayer, Barbara Oslejek Director of Photography Tommy Wildner Editor Horst Reiter Music by Schallbau, Reamonn Production Design Ingrid Buron Producers Kirsten Hager, Eric Moss, Andreas Schneppe Production Company Hager Moss Film, Munich, in co-production with Senator Film, Berlin Principal Cast Gruschenka Stevens, Tim Bergmann, Jasmin Tabatabai, Bettina Zimmermann Casting An Dorthe Braker Length 90 min, 2462 m Format Super 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version French Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmboard BerlinBrandenburg, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), German Distributor Senator Film Verleih GmbH, Berlin Ralf Huettner studied from 1981-1985 at the Academy of Television & Film in Munich. In addition to his work as a writer, he has worked on many television and film productions as well as image films and commercials for Die Goldene 1, Siemens, Telekom, OBI, MediaMarkt, Home Jumper, Air Marin and others. His films include: Das Mädchen mit den Feuerzeugen (TV, 1987), Der Fluch (1988), Babylon (1991), Texas – Doc Snyder hält die Welt in Atem (1993), Voll Normaaal (1994), the TV-series Um die Dreißig (1994) – winner of the Telestar Award for Best Script in 1996, Dealthline (Der kalte Finger, 1995), Cologne’s Finest (Die Musterknaben, 1996) and many more. World Sales: Peppermint GmbH · Michael Knobloch Rauchstr. 9-11 · D-81679 Munich phone +49-89-9 82 47 08 30 · fax +49-89-9 82 47 08 11 email: info@hager-moss.de 59 Muratti & Sarotti M U R AT T I & SA ROT T I – H I S TO RY O F G E R M A N A N I M AT I O N Scene from ”Muratti & Sarotti“ (photo © anigraf ) Using a variety of camera and graphic techniques, this unique animated documentary traces the development of animation as an art – and commercial – form in Germany. The camera roams through a surrealist archive, with animated file drawers that open to reveal the stories and films of such artists as Hans Richter, the noted surrealist, and Walter Ruttmann, whose Berlin, Symphony of a City, started the documentary ”city poem“ movement. Towering above the rest of them is the brilliant Oskar Fischinger, whose marvelously animated musical shorts influenced Norman McLaren, and inspired Walt Disney to make Fantasia. In a near encyclopedic approach, director Gockell finds the time to survey the accomplishments of lesserknown, but exceptional talents like Peter Sachs and Oskar Fischinger’s younger brother Hans. Moving from the heady days of the Weimar Republic through the Nazi period and into the post-war era with its divided German states, Muratti & Sarotti demonstrates that an art, once envisioned, can survive any political regime. Genre Art, History, Educational Category Animation/ Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2000 Director Gerd Gockell Screenplay Gerd Gockell, Kirsten Winter, Susanne Höbermann Director of Photography Thomas Bartels Editor Wolf-Ingo Römer Music by Arthur Honegger, Hanns Eisler Production Design Holger Jaquet, Ute Heuer, Susanne Höbermann Producers Gerd Gockell, Kirsten Winter Production Company anigraf, Hanover Studio Shooting anigraf, Hanover Length 80 min, 2189 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original Version German/English Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR Stereo International Festival Screenings World Film Festival Montreal 2000, Hot Docs Toronto 2000, Ottawa Animation Fest 2000, Hiroshima 2000 With backing from Filmförderung NDR German Distributor Edition Salzgeber, Berlin Gerd Gockell, born in 1960 in Darmstadt, studied Graphic Design and Film in Brunswick. After working as a freelance animator for the Hessische Rundfunk in Frankfurt, he moved to London in 1988 and produced several animated short films. Back in Hanover, he co-founded anigraf-Filmproduktion in 1990. Since 1992, he has been teaching Experimental Animation at the Brunswick College of Fine Arts. In 2000, he became a visiting professor in the Animation Department at the Kassel Art College. His films include: Crofton Road SE 5 (1990) – winner of the Main Prize and Film Critics' Prize at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival 1990, Busy Body (1991), Miles, So What (1993), Tossing Pies (1995), and The Innocents Abroad (1998). Muratti & Sarotti is his first feature film. World Sales: please contact anigraf · Gerd Gockell, Kirsten Winter Bödekerstr. 92 · D-30161 Hanover phone +49-5 11-66 01 65 · fax +49-5 11-66 73 27 www.muratti-und-sarotti.de · email: whats-her-name@t-online.de 60 Nachts im Park Heike Makatsch, Heino Ferch (photo © Beta Film GmbH) The brilliant heart surgeon Dr. Steffen Hennings watches his attractive female colleague Dr. Katharina Lumis through the windows of her living room. Since the tragic death of his beloved wife in a car crash he survived, Steffen has not been able to bring himself to do more than admire women from afar. Hidden in the park that borders on Katharina’s back yard, Steffen is spellbound as she lights a cigarette and slowly takes off her clothes. Then he slips quietly away, unaware of a dead woman’s body lying only inches from where he just stood. The next day, police inspector Dremmler storms the hospital and arrests Steffen while he is in the middle of surgery. While Steffen is being interrogated, the police psychologist Dr. Rosenblum barges in and begins to grill the doctor with his hypothesis of how the murder took place. When the irate Katharina also barges in, Steffen takes advantage of the ensuring chaos and takes Rosenblum hostage, fleeing with him. Steffen tries to convince the psychologist of his innocence, but Rosenblum is skeptical; the last time he trusted a suspected killer, one of his colleagues paid for it with a debilitating injury. Pursued by the police as well as killers hired by the dead woman’s fiancé, the two men struggle with their own inner ghosts as they set out to find the truth. Genre Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Uwe Janson Screenplay Jens Urban Director of Photography Hagen Bogdanski Editor Ingo Ehrlich Music by Oliver Biehler Production Design Bertram Strauß Producers Thomas Springer, Helmut G. Weber Production Company Tradewind Pictures, Cologne, in co-production with Fama Film, Zurich, Avrora Media, Berlin, MMC Independent, Cologne, Teleclub, Zurich, SRG/SF DRS, Bern/Zurich Principal Cast Heino Ferch, Heike Makatsch, Pasquale Aleardi Special Effects Flash Art Studio Shooting MMC Studios, CologneOssendorf Length 90 min, 2462 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Sound Technology Dolby Surround With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Highlight Film, Munich Uwe Janson, born in 1959, began his career with the short film Rastlos (1987). It was only two years later that he directed the highly acclaimed feature film Verfolgte Wege (1989), which won a German Camera Award in 1990 and for which he received a Bavarian Film Award in 1990 for Best Young Direction. From 1993 to 2000, he directed a series of TV movies, among them To Run and To Die (1994), The Therapist (1997), Rhapsody in Blood (1998), Whisky Sour (2000) and most recently Ms. Cupid (2001). Among the other prizes he has garnered along the way are a Director’s Promotional Prize at Munich 1989 and the Prix de Jeunesse at Locarno 1989. World Sales: Beta Film GmbH · Dirk Schürhoff Robert-Buerkle-Str. 2 · D-85737 Ismaning phone +49-89-99 56-21 34 / 27 19 · fax +49-89-99 56 27 03 www.betafilm.com · email: DScheurhoff@betafilm.com 61 Nancy und Frank NA N CY A N D F R A N K : A M A N H AT TA N LOV E S TO RY Hardy Krüger Jr., Frances Anderson (photo © WDR/Dominique Conway) 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 62 Palermo flüstert PA L E R M O W H I S P E R S Mimmo is a poet who learned to write while in exile. His father was a ”boss“ and, as a child, Mimmo repeatedly witnessed violence and murder in Palermo. But he didn’t want to remain silent. The only ”accomplice“ he had to his conscience was a blank sheet of paper, to which he held firmly. When his family discovered his writings, his only choice was to either be killed as a witness or sent away in exile. His father guaranteed his son’s silence to the ”organization“ – but Mimmo was not to return until his father’s death, twenty years later. Mimmo Cuticchio (photo © Wolf Gaudlitz) The re-encounter and reconciliation with his history-laden hometown – Palermo – ”before which the sea stretches out like a carpet that leads to paradise and covers all the violence with gentleness“ – is Mimmo’s last trip to this fascinating city and a breathtaking trip to the world’s most exciting island. Genre Action/Adventure, Art, Literature Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Wolf Gaudlitz Screenplay Wolf Gaudlitz Directors of Photography Gerardo Milsztein, Matthias Fuchs, Carolin Dassel Editor Andre Bendocchi Alves Music by Toti Basso Production Design Roberto Lo Sciuto, Mimma Pinsino Producer Wolf Gaudlitz Production Company Solofilm, Munich, in cooperation with ZDF, Mainz, ARTE, Strasbourg, Cultural Commission of the City of Palermo Principal Cast Mimmo Cuticchio, Francesco Di Gangi, Simone Genovese, Sergio Lo Verde, Giuseppe La Licata, Toti Palmo, Donatella Febraro, Roberto Lo Sciuto, special guest Leoluca Orlando Length 89 min, 2435 m Format 35 mm, color/b&w, 1:1.66 Original Version Italian Narrated Versions English, French, German Subtitled Versions English, French, German Sound Technology Dolby Digital SR With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern German Distributor Solofilm, Munich World Sales: please contact Solofilm · Wolf Gaudlitz Blombergstr. 6 · D-81825 Munich phone +49-89-40 35 95 · fax +49-89-49 63 11 www.carolath.de Wolf Gaudlitz was born in Bavaria and spent his childhood there, as well as in Palermo, Lisbon and other parts of the world. He has worked in various capacities, including as an actor, in Italy with Federico Fellini, in Korea with Im Kwon-Taek, and in Germany with Wolfgang Petersen and Michael Verhoeven, among others, and has received several prizes and awards. On the occasion of various retrospectives of his films, the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: ”Gaudlitz makes the kind of European cinema of which others can only dream.“ His films include: Der Violincellist, Das Mosaik und Fasettenauge, Fluch(t) aus dem Chaos, Winteranfang, Aus einem deutschen Requiem (shorts, 1983), Motivsuche für ein Deutschlandportrait (TV, 1984), Ballata Ballaró (TV, 1985), L’opéra oder Musik entsteht aus der Stille (1986), Die Väter des Nardino (1989), Blaue Wüste (1992), Gezählte Tage (1993), Taxi Lisboa (1996), and Palermo schreit nicht (TV, 1999). Palermo flüstert is his eighth feature-length film. 63 Photographie und jenseits P H OTO G R A P H Y A N D B EYO N D Photography and beyond is a series of films dealing with the human accomplishments of design: projects such as writings, drawings, photography, architecture and sculpture. The three new films of the series are Sullivan’s Banks (Architecture as Autobiography – Louis H. Sullivan 1856-1924), The Basis of Make-Up II (Writings and Drawings), Maillart’s Bridges (Architecture as Autobiography – Robert Maillart 1872-1940). Maillarts Brücken (photo © Pym Films 1995-2000) A reverse visual process is analyzed here: sight as an expression, not an impression. The eye as the interface between the brain and the outside word, the view as a composing power that projects an idea or is brought to completion through film photography. From the writings, drawings and studies of various architects’ works something indescribable is formed: an expression in film about the objectification of mental thoughts. Genre Art, Educational, History Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 1983 2000 Director Heinz Emigholz Screenplay Heinz Emigholz Director of Photography Heinz Emigholz Editor Heinz Emigholz Sound Design Heiner Büld, Martin Langenbach, Stephan Konken Producer Heinz Emigholz Production Company Heinz Emigholz Filmproduktion, Berlin, in co-production with WDR, Cologne Length 38, 48, and 24 min, 3009 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.37 Sound Technology Dolby SR Stereo International Festival Screenings Berlin 2001 (Forum) With backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg German Distributor Pym Films GmbH, Berlin Heinz Emigholz has worked since 1973 in Germany and the USA as an independent filmmaker, artist, cinematographer, actor, author and producer. He has had many exhibitions, retrospectives, as well as given lectures and released publications. In 1978, he founded the Pym Films production company. His films include: Schenec Tady I,II and III (1973-75), Arrowplane (1974), Tide (1974), Hotel (1976), Demon (1977), Normalsatz (1981), The Basis of Make-Up I (1984), Die Basis des MakeUp (1985), Die Wiese der Sachen (1987), Der Zynische Körper (1990), and Miscellanea I and II (2001). World Sales: Pym Films · Ueli Etter Postfach 63 01 11 · D-10266 Berlin phone +49-30-55 49 03 86 · fax +49-30-55 49 03 96 www.pym.de · email: sales@pym.de 64 So weit die Füße tragen A S FA R A S M Y F E E T W I L L CA R RY M E Irina Pantaeva, Bernhard Bettermann (photo © Cascadeur Film) Never, ever, underestimate the sheer power of the human spirit and the force of will when it is inspired by love. That's the message of As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me. Based on Josef Martin Bauer’s novel, this true story is the incredible journey undertaken by the German soldier Clemens Forell in his dramatic escape from a Siberian labor camp. Set against the backdrop of a desolate and inhospitable landscape, beset by danger (from both animals and humans), constantly battling the worst nature can throw at him, Forell makes his way, step by step, kilometer by kilometer, towards Persia and the longed-for freedom. Three years it takes him. Sometimes riding on trains, sometimes by boat, mostly on foot, he covers more than 14,000 kilometers, knowing that every step brings him closer to his goal, but never knowing if his next step will also be his last. In December 1952, eight years after he left his family and was sent to fight on the Russian front in a war that was already lost, Forell was finally reunited with his wife and children. Genre Adventure, Drama Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Hardy Martins Screenplay Bernd Schwamm, Bastian Clevé, Hardy Martins, based on the novel by J.M. Bauer Director of Photography Pavel Lebeshev Editor Andreas Marschall Music by Edward Artemyev Production Design Valentin Gidulanov Producers Jimmy C. Gerum, Hardy Martins, Roland Pellegrino, Bastian Clevé Production Company Cascadeur Filmproduktion, Munich, in co-production with CP Medien, Stuttgart, B&C Filmproduktion, Ludwigsburg Principal Cast Bernhard Bettermann, Michael Mendl, Irina Pantaeva, Anatoly Kotenyov, Iris Böhm, Andre Hennicke, Hans Uwe Bauer Casting Heide Woicke Special Effects Jens Döldissen Studio Shooting Belarus Filmstudio, Minsk Length 158 min, 4323 m Format 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German/Russian Subtitled Versions English, French Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) Hardy Martins, born in 1963 in Baisingen/ Baden-Württemberg, trained for two years at the International Stunt Association in Los Angeles and was also taught by Jean Claude Zeferini in Paris for a year. He has worked as a stuntman and stunt coordinator on such productions as Die Katze (1986), Der Sommer des Falken (1987), Dr. M (1990), Manta – der Film (1990), Go Trabbi Go (1991), In weiter Ferne, so nah! (1992) and Die Sieger (1993). In 1996, he founded Cascadeur Filmproduction and, in 1997, took on the role of producer, director and lead actor for the film Cascadeur – The Amber Chamber (1998). World Sales: please contact Cascadeur Filmproduktion GmbH · Jimmy C. Gerum Sendlinger Str. 17 · D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-2 36 69 00 · fax +49-89-23 66 90 44 www.cascadeur.de · www.swdft.de · email: gerum@aol.com M NNES GS AT C A EENIN R C S T ARKE 65 Tanz mit dem Teufel DA N C E W I T H T H E D EV I L The crime that rocked the nation and took over twenty years to solve: 25 years ago, Richard Oetker, heir to one of the largest fortunes in Germany, was kidnapped. For the first time ever, he has agreed to collaborate with a film team to tell his story. Sebastian Koch, Tobias Moretti, Christoph Waltz (photo © Beta Film GmbH) It was the crate. To this day, it still unnerves Richard Oetker when he looks back… It is 1976, and Oetker is kidnapped and forced into a wooden crate. The kidnapper demands, and gets DM 21 million, an unheard-of sum at the time. Oetker is freed, but while in the crate he suffers an electric shock that leaves him crippled for the rest of his life. Georg Kufbach, the police agent who found Oetker, begins a quest for justice that will last nearly 20 years. Convinced that a man named Cilov is the kidnapper, Georg, working closely with Oetker, begins to circle in on his prey. Cilov knows he is trapped, but Georg has no proof; Cilov has the money, but Georg has to catch him with it. Like Oetker in his crate, all three are trapped within the narrow confines of their desires and obsessions. All three are inextricably bound together, hurtling towards the startling outcome… Genre Thriller Category Mini-series Year of Production 2001 Director Peter Keglevic Screenplay Dr. Rainer Berg Director of Photography Hans-Günther Bücking Editor Moune Barius Music by Juergen Ecke Production Design Martin Schreiber Producers Nico Hofmann, Ariane Krampe, Ludwig zu Salm, Patrick Simon Production Company teamWorx, Berlin/Munich, in co-production with KirchMedia, Munich Principal Cast Sebastian Koch, Tobias Moretti, Christoph Waltz, Günther Maria Halmer, Sophie von Kessel, AnnKathrin Kramer Special Effects Effective, Jens Döldissen Length 2 x 90 min, 4925 Format 16 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, ILB Brandenburg Peter Keglevic is one of the most distinctive directors and script writers in the German film and television business. He began his successful career 24 years ago directing the TV movie Im Zossener Bad, for which he also wrote the script. This was followed by, among others, the feature film Tragique (1977) and the TV movies Der Zauberlehrling (1977), Auf freiem Fuß (1978), Zuhaus in der Fremde (1979) and Die Jahre vergehen (1980). In the years that followed, some of his most important works were the feature film Bella Donna (1982), The Cop and the Girl (1985) as well as the TV movies Das Milliardenspiel (1988) and Dort oben im Wald bei diesen Leuten (1989). From 1993-1998, he directed a series of productions for RTL, among them Kommissar Beck – Der Polizistenmörder (1993), Der Tag der Abrechnung (1994), Die Roy Black Story (1996), for which he received a German Golden Lion, as well as the thriller Vicky’s Nightmare (1997) starring Katja Flint and Christoph Waltz. In 1999, he directed the German-Australian coproduction Falling Rocks for ProSieben, starring Claudia Michelsen and Christoph Waltz. Dance with the Devil is his first cooperation with teamWorx and SAT.1. World Sales: Beta Film GmbH · Dirk Schürhoff Robert-Buerkle-Str. 2 · D-85737 Ismaning phone +49-89-99 56 21 34 / 27 19 · fax +49-89-99 56 27 03 www.betafilm.com · email: DScheurhoff@betafilm.com 66 Venus und Mars VE N U S AN D MARS Twenty-six year old Kay returns to her hometown, Himmelsgarten, where she meets up again with old school friends: Lisa, who works as a photographer and is visiting from San Francisco; Marie, who lives with her conservative husband in Himmelsgarten and is expecting her fourth child; and Celeste, who is married to a wealthy and considerably older man and plays the role of the spoiled creature of luxury. Daniela Lunkewitz, Julia Sawalha, Fay Masterson, Julie Bowen (photo © Buena Vista International) Despite their different personalities and lives, they are all bound by a decisive factor: the search for ”big“ love and “small” personal happiness. And when Kay’s mother brings out the fortune cards, it seems as though it all comes a bit closer. For when Venus and Mars cross, … Genre Love Story, Romantic Comedy Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 1999 Director Harry Mastrogeorge Screenplay Ben Taylor Director of Photography Martin Fuhrer Editors Darcy Worsham, Donn Cambern Music by Nathan Barr Production Design Börries Hahn-Hoffmann, Patrick Steve Müller Producers Bernd Lunkewitz, Emmo Lempert, Uwe Schott Production Company Atlantis Film, Frankfurt, in co-production with mitteldeutsches Filmkontor (mdF), Leipzig Principal Cast Daniela Lunkewitz, Lynn Redgrave, Michael Weatherly, Fay Masterson, Julie Bowen, Julia Sawalha, Ryan Hurst Length 93 min, 2544 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version English Dubbed Version German Sound Technology Dolby Digital SDDS/DTS With backing from Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Buena Vista International (Germany) GmbH, Munich Harry Mastrogeorge has directed over 200 productions. He works in New York and Los Angeles and was a professor of Theater, Theater Studies and Acting at Brandeis University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Since 1960, he has been an instructor at the acting school named in his honor and is considered to be one of America’s most respected acting instructors, his students including Robert Redford, Ray Liotta, Melanie Griffith, Heather Graham and Djimon Hounsou. His films include: Mystery of the Sacred Shroud – starring Richard Burton, Desolate Silence, and Cabbages and Kings. He has also directed such popular television hit-series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, From Here to Eternity, and Miami Vice. World Sales: Beyond Group · Gary Hamilton 53-55 Brisbane Street · AUS-Surry Hills NSW 2010 phone +61-2-92 81 12 66 · fax +61-2-92 81 12 61 email: garyh@beyond.com.au 67 Wie Feuer und Flamme N EV E R M I N D T H E WA L L Anna Bertheau, Antonio Wannek (photo © X Verleih AG) Nele is in love with Captain and Captain is in love with Nele. Sounds all sorted and easy? Well, it’s not because it’s 1982. Nele is living in the western part of divided Berlin; Captain, a punk, is living in the East. In between this young and precious love – the Wall, the parents, the clique, the secret police and, on top of that, a fatal and captious Super 8 film that was not meant to be taken so seriously. However, the two won’t give up, because they realize if you’re not prepared to fight for your love, you’ve lost already … Genre Drama, Love Story Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Connie Walther Screenplay Natja Brunckhorst Director of Photography Peter Nix Editor Ewa J. Lind Music by Rainer Oleak Production Design Gabriele Wolff Producers Maria Köpf, Stefan Arndt Production Company X Filme Creative Pool, Berlin, in co-production with ZDF, Mainz Principal Cast Anna Bertheau, Antonio Wannek, Tim Sander, Luise Helm, Aaron Hildebrand, Carmen Birk, Michael Krabbe Casting Filmcast Sabine Schwedhelm Special Effects ARRI Digital Length 99 min, 2709 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SRD With backing from Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, BKM, Filmboard BerlinBrandenburg German Distributor X Vereih AG, Berlin Connie Walther studied Sociology and Spanish before switching over to Photography. After gathering experience as a lighting gaffer and production and directing assistant, she studied at the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin and landed her first success with her graduation film Das erste Mal (1996), which was recognized as the best graduation film from a German film academy in that year. Since then, she has demonstrated her talents with various genres and formats with films such as: Börsday Blues (short, 1992) – winner of the Audience Award in Wuppertal and First Prize at the Fest Festival Asynchron Berlin, Der Clown II (TV, 1997), Tic Tac Toe (TV documentary, 1998), Hauptsache Leben (1998) – winner of the Adolf Grimme Award in 1999, as well as an episode of the Tatort series, Offene Rechnung (1999). World Sales: Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 www.bavaria-film-international.de · email: Bavaria.International@bavaria-film.de 68 Zeichnen bis zur Raserei – Der Maler Ernst Ludwig Kirchner ”Kirchner’s art is – like Picasso’s – eminently autobiographical.“ In other words, the intention and form of Kirchner’s art are so deeply rooted in reality, yet his life was such a dramatic reaction to critical upheavals, that one can conclude: few artists yield so much of themselves that their work could be described as the focus of an epoch. At the end of the century we can take Kirchner as an example to make a film about the beginning of the century. No one succumbs to the city as fully as he did: enamored, lonely, swept off his feet, lost, disillusioned, fascinated. Berlin is Kirchner’s city. His streetscapes are considered the culmination of his work. They are a highlight of the history of modern painting and the backdrop in our mind’s eye when we seek to capture big-city life in the first half of the century. (© by Dr. Wolfgang und Ingeborg Henze-Ketterer, Wichtrach/Bern) D R AW T I L YO U D RO P – T H E PA I N T E R E R N S T LU DW I G K I RC H N E R Kirchner is the unvarnished perception of modern life. It hits him in the eye, he reacts, he seeks a form: size, speed, machine, man-eating monster, whore, crowds, razzle dazzle, synchronization of sensations, surrender to the show: cabaret, dance, circus. Kirchner’s art begins in Dresden and the Moritzburg ponds. Berlin is his urban awakening. The war crushes him. He retreats to the Swiss mountains. The span of tension in Kirchner’s life and work makes for suspense-filled drama and should yield an intense film portrayal. Genre Drama Category Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2001 Director Michael Trabitzsch Screenplay Michael Trabitzsch Directors of Photography Rolf Klingelhöfer, Pio Corradi Editor Mirijam Krokenberger Music by Michael Rodach Producer Michael Trabitzsch Production Companies Prounen Film, Berlin, Catpics, Zurich, in co-production with ARTE, Strasbourg, WDR, Cologne, SFB, Berlin, ORB, Potsdam, SRG SF DRS, Bern Principal Cast Maria Brak, Bernd Brenner, Martina Reuter, Monika Richter, Britta Zorn Length 86 min, 2506 m Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.66 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from Filmboard BerlinBrandenburg, FilmFörderung Hamburg, Kulturelle Filmförderung Schleswig-Holstein, Media II, EDI/Sektion Film, Switzerland German Distributor MFA Münchner Filmagentur Meinke/Arséguel GbR, Munich Michael Trabitzsch, born in 1954 in Neumünster, studied German Literature, Philosophy and Sociology in Göttingen and Berlin. He has worked as a freelance journalist and author for radio-features, documentaries, books and periodicals. From 1987 - 1991, he worked as an assistant director and assistant producer for Harun Farocki. In 1992, he founded Prounen Film in Berlin. His films include: A Quiet Rebel. The Sculptor Wieland Förster (short, 1992), District of the Refugees. A Journey into Jewish Paris (1993), Defenseless Hero. The Sculptor Werner Stötzer (1995),The Eisenfeld Family. A Chronicle (1995), The Stones Still Speak (1996), From Thessaloniki to Berlin via Auschwitz (1998) and The Marble Road (2001). World Sales: Telepool – Europäisches-Fernsehprogrammkontor GmbH Wolfram Skowronnek, Angelika Schulze Sonnenstr. 21 · D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-55 87 60 · fax +49-89-55 87 61 88 www.telepool.de · email: skowronnek@telepool.de M NNES GS AT C A EENIN R C S T ARKE 69 Das Zimmer T H E RO O M Mira Gittner, Marcus Grüsser (photo © 2000 wtp-film GmbH) Sophie and Christoph are looking after a house with a locked room – where everything (…or nothing) can be concealed from others. They project their hidden thoughts and memories into this locked room. ”All houses have a forbidden room“ says Christoph, Sophie’s answer, ”just like our souls.“ Between dream and reality, they develop a labyrinth of emotions. The heart of the story is not the mysterious incidents in the house, but rather the hidden feelings of the occupants. Genre Psycho-Thriller Category Feature Film Cinema Year of Production 2000 Director Roland Reber Screenplay Roland Reber Directors of Photography Roland Reber, Mira Gittner Editor Mira Gittner Music by Wolfgang Edelmayer Producer Petra Knieper, Ute Meisenheimer Production Company wtp-film, Geiselgasteig Principal Cast Mira Gittner, Marcus Grüsser Casting wtp-film Special Effects Mira Gittner Length 70 min, 1915 m Format Digi Beta Blow Up 35 mm, color Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Stereo Mix International Festival Screenings International Festival de Cine Mexico 2000, International Film Festival Sitges, Spain 2000, Millenium Film Festival of Fine Arts, Hungary 2000, Angel Citi International Film Festival Hollywood/Chicago 2001, International Film Festival of Uruguay, Montevideo 2001, International Film Festival of Kerala, India 2001, Director’s View, Stamford/New York 2001, Melbourne Underground Film Festival 2001 International Awards President’s Award Ajijic, Mexico 2000, Emerging Filmmaker Award, Hollywood 2001 Roland Reber has worked as a director and actor in theaters in Bochum, Zurich, Essen, Düsseldorf and for the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen after finishing his Acting studies in Bochum in the 70s. He has written more than twenty theater plays and scripts as well as text and lyrics. In 1989, he founded the Welt Theater Projekt (within the framework of the World Decade for Cultural Development of the United Nations and UNESCO) and worked as director, writer and head of WTP in India, Moscow, Cairo, Mexico City and in the Caribbean. He has also been cultural advisor to different countries and institutes and received the Cultural Prize of Switzerland and the Caribbean award Season of Excellence as a director and writer. In 2000, wtp film and Reber were named Producer of the Year by the Bavarian Film Center for the direction of The Room. His other films include: Ihr habt meine Seele gebogen wie einen schönen Tänzer (1977), Die kleine Heimat (TV, 1978), Manuel (short, 1998), Der Fernsehauftritt (short, 1998), Der Koffer (short, 1999), and Compulsion (Zwang, short, 2000). World Sales: please contact wtp-film GmbH · Bayerisches Filmzentrum Roland Reber Bavariafilmplatz 7 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone +49-89-64 98 11 12 · fax +49-89-64 98 13 12 www.wtpfilm.de · email: wtpfilm@wtpfilm.de 70 Export-Union of German Cinema Shareholders and Supporters Verband Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V./ Association of German Feature Film Producers please contact Franz Seitz Beichstr. 8, D-80802 Munich phone +49-89-39 11 23, fax +49-89-33 74 32 Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten/ Association of New Feature Film Producers please contact Margarete Evers Agnesstr. 14, D-80798 Munich phone +49-89-2 71 74 30, fax +49-89-2 71 97 28 email: ag-spielfilm@t-online.de Verband Deutscher Filmexporteure e.V./ Association of German Film Exporters please contact Lothar Wedel Tegernseer Landstr. 75, D-81539 Munich phone +49- 89-6 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 - 53117 Bonn phone +49-18 88-6 81 36 43, fax +49-18 88-6 81 38 53 email: Hermann.Scharnhoop@bkm.bmi.bund.de Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH August-Bebel-Str. 26-53, D - 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg phone +49-3 31-7 43 87-0, fax +49-3 31-7 43 87-99 www.filmboard.de email: filmboard@filmboard.de FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH Sonnenstr. 21, D - 80331 Munich phone +49-89-5 44 60 20, fax +49-89-54 46 02 21 www.fff-bayern.de email: filmfoerderung@fff-bayern.de FilmFörderung Hamburg GmbH Friedensallee 14–16, D - 22765 Hamburg phone +49-40-3 98 37-0, fax +49-40-3 98 37-10 www.ffhh.de email: filmfoerderung@ffhh.de or location@ffhh.de Filmstiftung NRW GmbH Kaistr. 14, D - 40221 Düsseldorf phone +49-2 11-93 05 00, fax +49-2 11-93 05 05 www.filmstiftung.de email: info@filmstiftung.de Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg mbH Filmförderung 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 Film Exporters Members of the German Film Exporters’ Association please contact Lothar Wedel Tegernseer Landstr. 75 · D-81539 Munich · phone +49-89-6 92 06 60 · fax +49-89-6 92 09 10 Progress Film-Verleih GmbH 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 DWF Dieter Wahl Film please contact Dieter Wahl Sörgelstr. 15b D-81477 Munich phone +49-89-53 27 21 fax +49-89-53 12 97 email: wahlfilm1@aol.com 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 Atlas International Film GmbH Exportfilm Bischoff & Co. GmbH please contact Denise Booth please contact please contact Jochem Strate, Dieter Menz, Stefan Menz, Christl Blum Philip Evenkamp 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 Isabellastr. 20 D-80798 Munich phone +49-89-2 72 93 60 fax +49-89-27 29 36 36 email: philipevenkamp@csi.com 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 Bavaria Film International Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH please contact Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone +49-89-64 99 26 86 fax +49-89-64 99 37 20 www.bavaria-film-international.de email: Bavaria.International@bavaria-film.de Beta Film GmbH please contact Dirk Schürhoff Robert-Buerkle-Str. 2 D-85737 Ismaning phone +49-89-99 56 - 21 34 fax +49-89-99 56 - 27 03 www.betafilm.com email: DSchuerhoff@betafilm.com 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 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 72 Road Sales GmbH Mediadistribution german united distributors Programmvertrieb GmbH please contact Silke Spahr Richartzstr. 6-8a D-50667 Cologne phone +49-2 21-92 06 90 fax +49-2 21-9 20 69 69 email: germanunited@compuserve.com and Bavaria Media TV Vertrieb 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 Rosemarie Dermühl please contact Wolfram Skowronnek Bavariafilmplatz 8 D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone +49-89-64 99 36 66 fax +49-89-64 99 22 40 email: info@germanunited.com Sonnenstr. 21 D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-55 87 60 fax +49-89-55 87 61 88 www.telepool.de email: skowronnek@telepool.de Kinowelt International GmbH please contact Alexander van Dülmen Transit Film GmbH 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-filmverleih.de email: info@kinowelt-international.com please contact Loy Arnold, Mark Grünthal Media Luna Entertainment GmbH & Co.KG Uni Media International GmbH & Co. Produktions- und Vertriebs KG please contact Ida Martins please contact Irene Vogt Hochstadenstr. 1-3 D-50674 Cologne phone +49-2 21-1 39 22 22 fax +49-2 21-1 39 22 24 email: info@mediaLuna-entertainment.de idamartins@mediaLuna-entertainment.de Bayerstr. 15 D-80335 Munich phone +49-89-59 58 46 fax +49-89-5 50 17 01 email: UniMediaInt@t-online.de Dachauer Str. 35 D-80335 Munich phone +49-89-59 98 85-0 fax +49-89-59 98 85-20 email: transitfilm@compuserve.com Waldleitner Media GmbH Metropolis Filmvertrieb GmbH please contact Michael Waldleitner, please contact Luciano Gloor Münchhausenstr. 29 D-81247 Munich phone +49-89-55 53 41 fax +49-89-59 45 10 email: Roxy-Film@t-online.de 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 Angela Waldleitner 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 Close cooperation with the major international film German Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German festivals, e.g. Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Montreal, Toronto, Feature Film Producers and the Association of German Film San Sebastian, Tokyo, New York, Locarno, Karlovy Vary; Exporters, and operates today in the legal form of a limited company. Shareholders in the limited company are the Association of Organization of umbrella stands for German sales companies German Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German and producers at international TV and film markets, e.g. Feature Film Producers, the Association of German Film Exporters MIP-TV, MIPCOM, NATPE, AFM; and the German Federal Film Board (FFA). The members of the board of the Export-Union of Staging of German Film Weeks in key cities of the interna- German Cinema are: Jochem Strate (chairman), Rolf Bähr, tional film industry (2001: Buenos Aires, London, Los Angeles, Antonio Exacoustos Jr. and Michael Weber. Madrid, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Rome, Warsaw); The Export-Union itself has nine permanent staff: • Christian Dorsch, managing director Providing advice and information for representatives of • Susanne Reinker, PR manager the international press and buyers from the fields of • Julia Basler, project manager cinema, video, TV; • Angela Hawkins, publications editor • Cordula Ulrich, PR assistant • Stephanie Weiss, PR assistant Providing advice and information for German filmmakers and • Nicole Kaufmann, project coordinator press on international festivals, conditions of participation • Petra Bader, office manager and German films being shown, e.g. publication of a • Barbara Hirth, accounts comprehensive guide to international film festivals as well as a German film festival guide; In addition, the Export-Union shares foreign representatives in eight countries with the German Federal Film Board (FFA). (cf. page 74) Publication of informational literature on the current German cinema: KINO-Magazine and KINO-Yearbook; 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) Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media and offering both information about new German films as well the FFA. In addition, the six main economic film funds as a film archive; (Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFörderung Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Medien- and Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg and Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung) have Organization of the selection procedure for the German made a financial contribution, currently amounting to DM 0.45 entry for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film. million, towards the work of the Export-Union. In 1997, the ExportUnion and five large economic film funds founded an advisory committee whose goal is the ”concentration of efforts for the The focus of the work: feature films; documentaries with promotion of German film abroad“ (constitution). theatrical potential and shorts that have been invited to the main sections of major festivals. The Export-Union is a founding member of the ”European Film Promotion“, an amalgamation of twenty national film-PR agencies (UNIFRANCE, the Scandinavian film institutes, Italia Cinema, Holland Film, among others) with similar responsibilities to those of the Export-Union. The organization, with its headquarters in Hamburg, aims to develop and realize joint projects for the presentation of European films on an international level. 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 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 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 China & South East Asia Lukas Schwarzacher G/F, 71-B Peak Road Cheung Chau, Hong Kong phone +8 52-29 86 85 55 e-fax +1-240-255-71 60 email: lukas.schwarzacher@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 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 France Cristina Hoffman 2, Place de Séoul F-75014 Paris phone/fax +33-1-49 86 44 18 email: cristina.hoffman@german-cinema.de Spain Stefan Schmitz Avalon Productions S.L. C/ Duque de Rivas, 2-2°D E-28012 Madrid phone +34-91-3 66 43 64 fax +34-91-3 65 93 01 email: stefan.schmitz@german-cinema.de 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 Imprint published by: Editors Production Reports Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH Contributors for this issue Sonnenstr. 21 D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-5 99 78 70 fax +49-89-59 97 87 30 Translations www.german-cinema.de email: export-union@german-cinema.de © Export-Union des Deutschen Films All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. 74 Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley Martin Blaney, Simon Kingsley, Katja Nicodemus, Hans-Günther Pflaum, Hans-Helmut Prinzler, Rudolf Worschech Simon Kingsley, Lucinda Rennison Design Group triptychon · agentur für design und kulturkommunikation Art Direction Werner Schauer ISSN 0948-2547 Credits are not contractual for any of the films mentioned in this publication. Angela Hawkins, Susanne Reinker Printing Office Financed by ESTA Druck, Obermühlstr. 90, D-82398 Polling the office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media. Printed on ecological, unchlorinated paper. GERMAN FILM AWARD … and the nominees are: BEST LEADING ACTRESS BEST PICTURE alaska.de by Esther Gronenborn N NNES S AT C A FI LM RMAN E G EW Julia Hummer in Die Innere Sicherheit NNES AT C A EEK IC S’ W T I R C Crazy Franka Potente by Hans-Christian Schmid in Der Krieger und die Kaiserin Das Experiment Katrin Saß by Oliver Hirschbiegel in Heidi M. Gran Paradiso by Miguel Alexandre Die Innere Sicherheit BEST LEADING ACTOR C NNES AT C A K ’ WE E S C I RIT Moritz Bleibtreu by Christian Petzold in Das Experiment Der Krieger und die Kaiserin Marek Harloff by Tom Tykwer Robert Stadlober in Vergiss Amerika in Crazy NNES AT C A K ’ WE E S C I C RIT D O C U M E N TA R Y F E AT U R E Havanna Mi Amor NNES AT C A O : AC D M U FOR by Uli Gaulke BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Barbara Auer Milch und Honig aus Rotfront in Die Innere Sicherheit NNES AT C A K ’ WE E S C I C RIT Franziska Troegner by Hans-Erich Viet in Heidi M. Antje Westermann DIRECTING in Gran Paradiso Esther Gronenborn by alaska.de Christian Petzold by Die Innere Sicherheit Tom Tykwer by Der Krieger und die Kaiserin N NNES S AT C A FI LM RMAN E G EW NNES AT C A K ’ WE E S C I C RIT BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Justus von Dohnànyi in Das Experiment Frank Giering in Gran Paradiso Lars Rudolph in Der Krieger und die Kaiserin NEW ADDRESS as of march Sonnenstrasse 21 D-80331 Munich phone +49-89-59 97 87 0 fax +49-89-59 97 87 30 GERMAN CINEMA Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH www.german-cinema.de · email: export-union@german-cinema.de 2001