GERMAN FILMS QUARTERLY · 2018. 5. 14. · ISSUE 2-2018 DIRECTORS Ulrich Köhler & Ina Weisse...

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DIRECTORS Ulrich Köhler & Ina WeissePRODUCERS Rafael Parente, Korbinian Dufter & Simon Amberger of NEUESUPERACTOR Godehard Giese

IN CANNESSergei Loznitsa’s DONBASS in Un Certain RegardUlrich Köhler’s IN MY ROOM in Un Certain RegardMargarethe von Trotta’s SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN in Cannes Classics

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CONTENTS GFQ 2-2018

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GFQ 2-2018 CONTENTS

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I N T H I S I S S U E�� IN CANNES

DONBASSSergei Loznitsa ................................................................................. 4

IN MY ROOMUlrich Köhler ..................................................................................... 5

SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMANMargarethe von Trotta ...................................................................... 6

PORTRAITS

PEOPLE IN HOUSES, BUT NOT AT HOMEA portrait of director Ulrich Köhler ................................................. 8

WORKING PARTNERSHIPSA portrait of director Ina Weisse ..................................................... 10

TEAM SPIRITA portrait of production company NEUESUPER .............................. 12

EXPLORING INNER WORLDSA portrait of actor Godehard Giese .................................................. 14

NEWS & NOTES ................................................................................ 16

�� NEW FEATURES

DIE DEFEKTE KATZEA DYSFUNCTIONAL CAT Susan Gordanshekan .............................. 21

DRAUSSEN IN MEINEM KOPFEibe Maleen Krebs ........................................................................... 22

FONOTUNE: AN ELECTRIC FAIRYTALEFINT .................................................................................................. 23

FRAU MUTTER TIERMOTHER BEE Felicitas Darschin ...................................................... 24

FÜNF FREUNDE – UND DAS TAL DER DINOSAURIERTHE FAMOUS FIVE – AND THE VALLEY OF DINOSAURSMike Marzuk .................................................................................... 25

DER GESCHMACK VON LEBENTASTE OF LIFE Roland Reber ......................................................... 26

HEILSTÄTTENMichael David Pate .......................................................................... 27

LILIANE SUSEWINDJoachim Masannek ......................................................................... 28

REISE NACH JERUSALEMTHE CHAIRS GAME Lucia Chiarla .................................................. 29

SCHWIMMENSWIMMING Luzie Loose ................................................................... 30

SPIELMACHERPLAYMAKER Timon Modersohn ..................................................... 31

�� NEW DOCUMENTARIES

AUSSORTIERT – ASIENS UNERWÜNSCHTE TÖCHTERTHE BACHELOR TIME BOMB Antje Christ, Dorothe Dörholt .......................................................... 32

KUNST IM PARADIESART IN PARADISEJoachim Haupt, Sabine Pollmeier ................................................. 32

�� NEW SHORTS

BURKINA BRANDENBURG KOMPLEXUlu Braun ......................................................................................... 33

CARLOTTA’S FACEValentin Riedl, Frédéric Schuld ........................................................ 33

LINKRobert Löbel .................................................................................... 34

�� UPCOMING FILMS

100 DINGEFlorian David Fitz ............................................................................. 35

BEATMarco Kreuzpaintner ...................................................................... 35

DEUTSCHSTUNDEChristian Schwochow ...................................................................... 35

DREISSIGSimona Kostova ............................................................................... 36

ELEFANTEN WACHSEN SCHNELLCarlos A. Morelli ............................................................................. 36

KENT OZANI, DER STADTSCHREIBER VON ISTANBULDogan Altuner .................................................................................. 36

DER KRIEG IN MIRSebastian Heinzel ............................................................................. 37

PARFUMPhilipp Kadelbach ........................................................................... 37

STILLSTEHENElisa Mishto ..................................................................................... 37

SYSTEMSPRENGERNora Fingscheidt ............................................................................ 38

TEARS OF CHANGECeylan Alejandro Ataman-Checa ..................................................... 38

TRÄUME VON RÄUMENMatthias Lintner .............................................................................. 38

WARUMBernd Böhlich ................................................................................... 39

WEST OF LIBERTYBarbara Eder .................................................................................... 39

Shareholders & Supporters ............................................................ 45Film Exporters ................................................................................. 46Imprint .............................................................................................. 47

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When war is called peace, whenpropaganda is uttered astruth, when hatred is de -clared to be love, life itself

begins to resemble death. Surviving Donbass.A practical guide to Inferno.

The action of the film takes place in a regionof Eastern Ukraine, occupied by various cri-minal gangs, which are fighting at once withthe Ukrainian regular army, with other gangsand with Russian troops. The context in whichthe action takes place is a hybrid war, happe-ning alongside an open armed conflict,accompanied by robberies on a mass scaleand gradual degradation of the civilian popu-lation. There is fear, deception, hatred andviolence everywhere. Society is collapsing,and death and deadly silence lie upon theplace. The state of war reaches its climax.

SERGEI LOZNITSA was born in 1964 inBaranovichi in the former USSR. He grewup in Kiev, and graduated from the KievPolytechnic with a degree in Applied Mathe-matics. From 1987-1991, he was employedat the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, workingon artificial intelligence research. He alsoworked as a translator for Japanese. In 1997Sergei Loznitsa graduated from the RussianState Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). Hestudied Feature Filmmaking in the class ofNana Dzhordzhadze. From 2000-2008 hework ed at the St. Petersburg DocumentaryFilm Studio. In 2001, he and his family movedto Germany. A selection of his award-winningfilms includes: TODAY WE ARE GOINGTO BUILD A HOUSE (1996), LIFE, AUTUMN(1998), THE TRAIN STOP (2000), SETTLE-MENT (2001), PORTRAIT (2002), LANDSCAPE(2003), FACTORY (2004), BLOCKADE (2005),ARTEL (2006), REVUE (2008), MY JOY (2010),IN THE FOG (2012), AUSTERLITZ (2016), andDONBASS (2018).

GENRE Drama CATEGORY Feature YEAROF PRODUCTION 2018 DIRECTOR SergeiLoznitsa SCREENPLAY Sergei Loznitsa CINE-MATOGRAPHY Oleg Mutu CAST TamaraYatsenko, Liudmila Smorodina, OlesyaZhurakovskaya, Boris Kamorzin, ThorstenMerten, Sergei Russkin, Petro Panchuk,Irina Plesnyaeva, Zhanna Lubgane, VadimDobuvsky, Alexander Zamurayev, GerogyDeliev, Valeriu Andriuta, Konstantin Itunin,Valery Antoniuk, Nina Antonova, NataliaBuzko, Sergei Kolesov, Svetlana Kolesova,Sergei Smeyan PRODUCER Heino DeckertPRODUCTION COMPANY ma.ja.de. Fiction,in co-production with Arthouse Traffic, JBAProduction, Graniet Film, Wild at Art, DigitalCube RUNTIME 120 min LANGUAGE Russian,Ukrainian FESTIVALS Cannes 2018 (UnCertain Regard – Opening Film)

SALES Pyramide [email protected]

© ma.ja.de. Fiction

DONBASS

IN CANNES GFQ 2-2018

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Armin is getting too old for hisnight life habits and the woman helikes. He’s not really happy, butcan’t picture living a different life.

One morning he wakes up: the world looksthe same as always, but mankind has dis -appeared.

A film about the frightening gift of maximumfreedom.

ULRICH KÖHLER was born in 1969 inMarburg and studied Fine Arts in France,Philosophy in Hamburg and later VisualCommunication at the University of Fine Artsin Hamburg, where he also made his firstshort films. His feature films BUNGALOWand WINDOWS ON MONDAY premiered inthe Berlinale Forum and have screened atmany festivals worldwide, winning nationaland international awards. His film SLEEPINGSICKNESS premiered in Competition at theBerlinale and won the Silver Bear for BestDirecting.

GENRE Drama CATEGORY Feature YEAR OFPRODUCTION 2018 DIRECTOR Ulrich KöhlerSCREENPLAY Ulrich Köhler CINEMATOG -RAPHY Patrick Orth CAST Hans Löw, ElenaRadonicich, Michael Wittenborn, EmmaBading, Kathrin Resetarits, Ruth BickelhauptPRODUCERS Christoph Friedel, ClaudiaSteffen PRODUCTION COMPANY PandoraFilm Produktion, in co-production with EchoFilm, Komplizen Film, WDR, ARTE RUNTIME120 min LANGUAGE German, Eng lish FESTI-VALS Cannes 2018 (Un Certain Regard)

SALES The Match Factory [email protected]

© Pandora Film Produktion

IN MY ROOM

GFQ 2-2018 IN CANNES

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“I am often asked whether I have a parti-cular role model. Who is my favoritedirector? My answer is always thesame: Ingmar Bergman. Of course,

there are many film directors who are importantto me, but he was the first whom I perceived asan ‘artist’ and who sparked the wish within meto make films myself.” Margarethe von Trotta

40 years later and after having directed some24 of her own films, von Trotta set off toexplore the trail left by Bergman in the worldof film. She still has tremendous respect forthe master, but she embarks on a personaljourney through the Bergman universe, hisfilms and his life, visiting original locationsand places to find out what was typical ofBergman. And she talks to members of hisfamily and companions, who worked with himfor many years. His female characters and afresh interpretation of his masterpieces arekey elements of this quest.

But what significance does Bergman have fortoday’s generation of filmmakers? Aside from

his internationally renowned actresses (LivUllmann, Gunnel Lindblom, Julia Dufvenius),his working companions and Bergmanexperts, von Trotta also met with differentgenerations of directors from differentcountries: from Carlos Saura and OlivierAssayas, to Ruben Östlund and Mia HansenLøve. During the talks with her colleagues,von Trotta asks: “Which films and whichscenes inspired you? And what remains ofBergman – of his thoughts, his charactersand his significance to the history of cinema?

MARGARETHE VON TROTTA ranks among themost important female directors in Germancinema since the 1970s, during which timeshe also made a name for herself as anactress. Today primarily active as a screen -writer and director, her most well-knownfilms include: THE LOST HONOR OFKATHARINA BLUM (1975, in co-direction withVolker Schlöndorff), THE SECOND AWAKE-NING OF CHRISTA KLAGES (1977), SISTERSOR THE BALANCE OF HAPPINESS (1979),MARIANNE AND JULIANE (1981), SHEER

MADNESS (1983), ROSA LUXEMBURG (1985),THE AFRICAN WOMAN (1990), THE LONG SI-LENCE (1993), THE PROMISE (1994), ROSEN-STRASSE (2003), I AM THE OTHER WOMAN(2006), VISION (2009), HANNAH ARENDT(2012), FORGET ABOUT NICK (2017), and herfirst documentary SEARCHING FOR INGMARBERGMAN (2018), among others.

GENRE Art, Film History CATEGORY Docu-mentary YEAR OF PRODUCTION 2018DIRECTOR Margarethe von Trotta CINE -MATOG RAPHY Börres Weiffenbach PRO -DUCTION COMPANY C-Films (Deutschland),in co-production with Mondex et Cie RUN-TIME 96 min LANGUAGE German, Swedish,English, French FESTIVALS Cannes 2018(Cannes Classics)

SALES CMG Cinema Management [email protected]

© Börres Weiffenbach

SEARCHINGFOR INGMAR BERGMAN

IN CANNES GFQ 2-2018

at the cannes film festival 2018

°efp producers on the movepresented by °efpeuropean film promotion

Participating EFP members Bulgarian National Film Center, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Czech Film Center, Danish Film Institute, Estonian Film Institute, EYE International/The Netherlands, Film Center Serbia, Finnish Film Foundation, German Films, Icelandic Film Centre, ICAA/Spain, Istituto Luce Cinecittà/Italy, Lithuanian Film Centre, National Film Centre of Latvia, Norwegian Film Institute, Slovak Film Institute, Slovenian Film Center, Swedish Film Institute, Swiss Films, UniFrance

Veselka KiryakovaRed CarpetBulgaria

Oliver SertićRestartCroatia

Esko Rips Nafta FilmsEstonia

Fabian MassahEndorphine ProductionGermany

Lukas TrimonisiN SCRiPTLithuania

Frank HoeveBALDR FilmThe Netherlands

Miia HaavistoTekele ProductionsFinland

Marco AlessiDugong FilmsItaly

Birgitta BjörnsdottirVintage PicturesIceland

Radovan Síbrt PinkCzech Republic

Biljana TutorovWake Up FilmsSerbia

Peter BadačBFILMSlovak Republic

Luisa RomeoFrida FilmsSpain

Katrin RenzTellfi lmSwitzerland

Nicolas AnthoméBathysphere ProductionsFrance

Åshild RamborgMaipo FilmNorway

David Herdies Momento FilmSweden

Per Damgaard HansenMasterplan PicturesDenmark

Aija BerzinaTasse FilmLatvia

Rok SečenMonooSlovenia

EFP is a unique network of 38 European member organisations who represent films and talent from their respective territories. Under the EFP flag, they team up on initiatives to jointly promote the diversity and the spirit of European cinema and talent at key international film festivals and markets.

Contact in Cannes [email protected]

www.efp-online.com

Event partnerEFP is supported by

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DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT GFQ 2-2018

In Ulrich Köhler’s debut film BUNGALOWone minor character says: “I come fromhere; we live here.” The film is set in theprovinces of central Germany, in Hesse,

but words like these could never pass the lipsof a leading character in any of the film -maker’s works.

Köhler was born in 1969, and it is true that hisœuvre to date consists of only three films –BUNGALOW (2002), WINDOWS ON MONDAY(2006), and SLEEPING SICKNESS (2011); andthe fourth, most recent film IN MY ROOM iscelebrating its premiere this year in Cannes’Un Certain Regard. Nevertheless, it is notwrong to speak of an œuvre: Köhler’s filmsare linked interestingly via their motifs andreferences. And identification with place isclearly not one of them.

Ulrich Köhler currently lives in Berlin-Prenz-lauer Berg. There’s a café where the film -maker drinks an espresso in the mornings,and often calls in to have one for the road inthe evening, e.g. after a visit to the cinema.Such routines are alien to his film characters,because they live in places where they are notat home.

In BUNGALOW, a young recruit called Pauldeserts to his parents’ weekend cottage,where he encounters his older brother andthe latter’s girlfriend. This provides the basisfor conflict, as the directionless, 19-year-oldanti-hero with his still youthful, awkward bodyrejects the norms of social cohabitation. Theidea, for example, that you don’t fall in lovewith your older brother’s girlfriend.

In WINDOWS ON MONDAY, a young doctor,Nina, pregnant with her second child and inthe midst of renovating a house with herhusband Frieder, is the one who pulls awayfrom the established norms of nuclear familylife. Nina also flees to her parents’ emptyweekend property, and from there throughthe forest to a hotel. She roams through itscorridors, dropping into strangers’ parties,where she encounters an ageing professionaltennis player, who is swinging his racket for ashow.

“That’s true,” Köhler says when I enquireabout his characters’ experiences of alie n -ation. “I have always had the sense that Ididn’t belong. In Africa we were the childrenof the white development aid workers, theones who had the toys and could decide who

PEOPLE IN HOUSES,BUT NOT AT HOMEA PORTRAIT OF DIRECTOR ULRICH KÖHLER

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their friends were. We exploited that shame-lessly.” For four years, between the ages offive and nine, Köhler and his brother lived inMobutu Sese Seko’s Zaire. “We arrived therestraight after the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ box -ing match between Muhammad Ali andGeorge Foreman. People were calling out:‘Ali, buma ye!’ and wearing Ali T-shirts.”

His impressions of that time play a part inSLEEPING SICKNESS. The film is about adoctor, Ebbo Velten, whose time in Africa isactually coming to an end. As opposed to whatmay be suggested in the first half of thefilm, however, he will not have returned toGermany, to Wetzlar in Hesse, when – after abrilliant cut – French doctor Alex Nzila fromthe World Health Organization travels toCameroon to evaluate a sponsored project inthe second half of the film. Two outsiders inthe wrong place encounter each other inVelten and Nzila: the German doctor whoseems unable to return home after long yearsin a foreign country, and Nzila, the son of aCongolese father, who doesn’t understand hisancestors’ country.

Köhler’s return to German society was notproblem-free, either. “At the start of year fourhere, one of my fellow pupils sat next to me,saying: You’re the African and I’m the Turk, webelong together. Then I got an A for my firstschool essay and he moved away againbecause he didn’t want to associate with aneager beaver. So I sat on my own for sixmonths.” Later, Köhler was an exchangestudent in the USA, and after his schoolgraduation he studied Art in France. It wasthere that he first discovered his love of thecinema: “Until then I hadn’t had a cinephilebackground, I came from a small town with -out a cinema, and my parents had gotten ridof the TV for educational reasons. Readingwas the only thing left.”

When studying at the Hamburg StateAcademy of Higher Artistic and ScientificEducation during the nineties, he was regis -tered at the same time as Jonathan Meeseand Daniel Richter. “If I had stuck to art,” Köh-ler jokes, ”I would be rich and famous today.”

But since then he has developed further inthe direction of film, and after BUNGALOWhe has been considered part of the so-called‘Berlin School’. This is a frequently over-used label, but Köhler has no problem withit: “A group of filmmakers who know andappreciate each other’s work, and sometimesmake use of similar references. But you couldprobably make out just as many differences.”

And what is IN MY ROOM about? “In thebroad est sense, the film is a Robinsonade”.That doesn’t sound as if anyone has deeproots in the place he is living. But how couldhe – after all, we are talking about theprotagonist in a film by Ulrich Köhler.

Matthias Dell

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DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT GFQ 2-2018

Television audiences are sure to havecome across Ina Weisse in episodesof the TATORT or POLIZEIRUF crimeseries or the award-winning TV film

THE END OF A NIGHT, which garnered her aGerman Television Award, Grimme Prize andGünter Rohrbach Award for her acting per -formances. In addition, she has appeared innumerous German feature films over morethan 20 years, from REAL GUYS throughSAMS IN DANGER to NOTHING BUT GHOSTSand, most recently, Florian Henckel vonDonnersmarck’s latest film, WORK WITHOUTAUTHOR.

But what many cinema-goers and TV viewersmight not be aware of is that Ina Weissehas cultivated another string to her bow asa screenwriter and director with a handful

of shorts, the debut feature THE ARCHITECT,a documentary on the Neue Nationalgalerie,and a second feature – DAS VORSPIEL – setto go into production this autumn.

“I had made short films as a child togetherwith my father during the school holidays,“Weisse recalls. “My father was a passionatefilmmaker with his 8mm camera – the filmshe made about the time working with Miesvan der Rohe appear in my documentary onthe Neue Nationalgalerie – and so it wasonly natural for me to want to work with thevisual medium. What’s more, I was an avidcinema-goer as a child and would regularlygo to the [now closed] Studio Cinema atAdenauerplatz as well as the Bali in Zehlen-dorf.“

She also acquired her first taste of directingwhen attending the Waldorf school in Zehlen-dorf “where I had plenty of practice of bothacting as well as taking on the role of thedirector. It was always part of the same thingfor me, never a case of either one or theother.“

Weisse had also caught the acting bug at anearly age after going to the Schaubühnetheater on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm: “I wasespecially fascinated by the work of KlausMichael Grüber and the way he treated timein a production like An der Grossen Strasse.I saw people on stage working with text inplays like The Three Sisters in the staging byPeter Stein and knew that this is what I alsowanted to do.”

WORKING PARTNERSHIPSA PORTRAIT OF DIRECTOR INA WEISSE

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So, at the tender age of 18, she appliedand was accepted for a place at the highlyrespected Otto Falkenburg drama school inMunich. After graduation, Weisse then ap -peared on stage in the Bavarian capital’sKammerspiele and as a permanent memberof the theater company at the Nationaltheaterin Mannheim.

But, Weisse admits that at some point she feltconfined by being part of a theater company’sensemble and decided to quit to study Phil -osophy at the University of Heidelberg. Sincethen, she has never returned to act on thestage and has instead concentrated her workas an actor on roles for film and television.

Meanwhile, her aspirations to become adirector behind the camera came one stepfurther when she was accepted for the Direct -ing course at the University of Hamburgunder the direction of filmmaker Hark Bohmin 2000.

“I had already tried my hand at making shortsin the past, but it had always been a plan ofmine to go to film school to learn the craft ona daily basis over two years,“ she explains.“It was a great experience and preparation forwhat I wanted to do later on.“

Indeed, Weisse made an impact with hergraduation film ALLES ANDERS – “aboutidentity and betrayal“ – which won the FirstSteps Award in 2002. And it was this filmwhich caught the attention of Wim Wenderswho recommended Weisse as a highly pro -mising talent to his then partner at ReverseAngle Pictures, Peter Schwarzkopff, to worktogether on her feature debut.

The result in 2008 was THE ARCHITECT whichpremiered at the Hof International FilmFestival that autumn and was screened thefollowing year at the Filmfestival Max OphülsPreis in Saarbrücken and in the GermanCinema sidebar at the Berlinale.

Weisse succeeded in attracting an impressiveline-up for the cast with Bavarian actor JosefBierbichler as the title character, with Belgianactress Hilde van Mieghem as his wife,Sophie Rois as a former flame, and SandraHüller and Matthias Schweighöfer playing thecouple’s grown-up children.

In the film, Bierbichler as the successfulHamburg architect Georg Winter travels withhis family to a snowy mountain village for hismother’s funeral. An encounter with Rois’character and her son Alex at the funeralceremony drags the family into a vortex ofdesires and confusion of which there is noescape when the village is cut off from theoutside world by an avalanche...

This debut marked her first collaborationwith the Greek-born screenwriter DaphneCharizani who is a director in her own right

with such credits as the documentary MAKE-UP and the fiction feature MADRID. “We metthrough a common friend and it didn’t takelong before we knew that we were on thesame wavelength and shared similar inte-rests,“ she recalls. “That makes things somuch easier when you know that both of youare thinking in the same direction. I like work -ing with a co-author because there’s thedanger of just going around in circles whenyou are writing alone. Of course, there aretimes when you have to work on your own ona screenplay, but I like this kind of workingpartnership.“

In fact, the collaboration went so well be -tween Weisse and Charizani that they havebeen working together on her second featurefilm project, DAS VORSPIEL, which will seeNina Hoss cast as a violin teacher in conflictwith her profession.

“Music played an important role in THE AR-CHITECT and it will be at the center of my newproject,“ Weisse explains. “What fascinatesme is the process of how music is created.The husband of Nina Hoss’ character is aviolin maker, so this will be an opportunity toshow how sounds evolve.“

DAS VORSPIEL is being produced by the up-and-coming producer Felix von Boehm’sBerlin/Heidelberg-based company Lupa Film,whose recent credits include Karim Ainouz’saward-winning documentary CENTRAL AIR-PORT THF and Joya Thome’s debut THEQUEEN OF NIENDORF.

Weisse had previously worked with vonBoehm, who is the son of the TV presenterGero von Boehm, on her documentary DIENEUE NATIONALGALERIE which included in-terviews with her father Rolf Weisse, who hadworked at the office of Mies van der Rohe inChicago during the planning of the art gallery

in the 1960s, as well as with van der Rohe’sgrandson Dirk Lohan and the architect DavidChipperfield, who is overseeing the gallery’srenovation.

Since the film is being planned as a German-French co-production with Pierre-OlivierBardet’s Idéale Audience, it was fortuitousthat von Boehm had grown up in France andcan speak French fluently. “Felix is brimmingwith energy and full of ideas which is reallyquite refreshing,“ Weisse continues. “And hewas the one who introduced me to MargaretMénégoz who is set to handle the distributionof the film in France.“

Raising the finance for the film wasn’t awalk in the park, she admits, but Medien -board Berlin-Brandenburg, the FFA-CNC„Mini-traité“ and broadcaster ZDF are alreadyonboard, and other partners are now likely tofollow to close the financing so that principalphotography can begin this October in Berlin.

Martin Blaney

PRODUCERS’ PORTRAIT GFQ 2-2018

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TEAM SPIRITA PORTRAIT OF PRODUCTION COMPANY NEUESUPER

“We have always liked towork as a team,” saysRafael Parente, one of thethree producers along

with Simon Amberger and Korbinian Dufter,who set up the Munich-based NEUESUPERFilmproduktion during their studies atMunich’s University of Television & Film(HFF) in 2010.

Even before their graduation from the HFF,the trio had produced several short filmssuch as Benjamin Pfohl’s TOTES LAND andSusan Gordanshekan’s EISBLUMEN as wellas a couple of feature films – ADA by MirjamOrthen and the international co-productionEASTALGIA by Daria Onyshchenko.

“And from the outset, we thought that it wouldbe better to work as three producers togetherrather each of us trying to make it on ourown,” Amberger recalls. “We were also veryclear in our minds of the goal of wanting tomake films for a wide audience,” KorbinianDufter adds. “With some of our films, we have

gone in the direction of arthouse. As in thecollaboration with the latest feature film byHans Weingartner, 303, which had its worldpremiere in the Berlinale’s Generation 14plussection in February. We will always searchfor both things: relevant content and anaudience. That’s why we’re so enthusiasticabout the current momentum in televisionindustry.”

The young company – which also works forclients in the advertising world as well forcinema and TV – did the rounds of the officesof TV commissioning editors with story ideasfor series and TV movies, but that all impor-tant green light to go into production wasn’tforthcoming. However, the newcomers hadtheir lucky break into the TV market whenthey pitched an idea for a sitcom series to thefledgling public channel ZDFneo as part of itsTV Lab in 2014. “The three finalists from thepitches were each given a budget to producea pilot episode of their series,” Amberger ex-plains. “The pilots were then broadcast byZDFneo over the course of one evening in

August 2014 and the audience voted on itsfavorite of the three, with the overall winnergetting the commission to produce a wholeseries.”

NEUESUPER’s pilot of what later became thequirky sitcom BLOCKBUSTAZ about an un -employed rapper (played by Eko Fresh) in aCologne high-rise housing estate went downa storm with the ZDFneo audience and pavedthe way for the company’s subsequent deve-lopment as a purveyor of high-end television.

“I think it was a good fortune for us as a youngcompany that the viewers were the onesdeciding on the winner,” Dufter says. “Itwas much easier than having to follow theclassical path of needing to convince acommissioning editor as newcomers to theindustry. The audience made it very clear thatthey wanted to see a series based on the pilotand we received five times as many votes asthe next finalist,” he continues. “The pilotfitted in with the image ZDFneo was wanting to promote and our success was also partly

Rafael Parente, Korbinian Dufter, Simon Amberger (© Andreas Pfohl)

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GFQ 2-2018 PRODUCERS’ PORTRAIT

down to our strategy of using YouTube starslike Eko Fresh and Joyce Ilg who already havetheir own fan base.”

Aired in 2015, the six-part series proved to beone of the most successful series ever com-missioned by ZDFneo and prompted thebroadcaster to order a second season – thistime with 12 episodes – which came on air atthe end of March 2018.

Another pitching competition organizedby Bavarian Television (BR) and the HFF –“Free TV!” in autumn 2014 – landed theproducing trio their next big commission – forHINDAFING, although their proposal was notthe final winner!

“Reinhard Scolik, Bettina Ricklefs and ElmarJaeger at BR recognized the series’ potentialand said what we had shown in a speciallyproduced trailer would be a perfect fit forBavaria right down to the story and the actorswe had cast,” Parente recalls. This satiricalsix-parter about a crystal meth-addictedmayor (played with relish by former EuropeanShooting Star Maximilian Brückner) in aBavarian backwoods was “something freshand new, unlike any other Bavarian seriesbeing shown on television at the time.”

“It was also important for us as a company atthe time that we had people who supportedus and believed in the potential of our pro-jects,” Dufter notes.

Airing on BR from mid-May last year afterpremiering on the web (br.de/hindafing) andin BR’s online mediatheque, HINDAFING hassince gone on to garner nominations from theprestigious Grimme Institute and the GermanAcademy for Television. In addition, the SVODrights for Germany were sold last autumn toNetflix and the US remake rights to the serieswere snatched up by Fox 21 Television at thebeginning of this year. “We are now in talks toproduce a second season of HINDAFING,”Amberger adds.

As HINDAFING went on air, NEUESUPERembarked on production of its third seriesproject, EIGHT DAYS (ACHT TAGE) – this timeas a commission for the pay TV platform SkyDeutschland. “We had been developing theproject for some time and at a point when Skyhadn’t yet decided to begin getting involved inco-producing local TV series,” Amberger re-calls. “Sky really put their trust in us and be-lieved that we would be able to tackle such anambitious project as EIGHT DAYS,” he con -tinues. “This production was another signifi-cant step, both in terms of budget andproduction value for us as a company.”

The doomsday scenario focuses on what willprobably be the last days of humanity as agiant asteroid rushes towards Earth. “It wasalso a conscious move by us to have an ex -perienced director working with a young one

on the series,” Dufter explains. “With some -one like Stefan Ruzowitzky [who received theForeign Language Film Oscar® for THECOUNTERFEITERS], we brought someone on-board who has lots of knowledge of workingon TV series and also is adept at directingaction. And he has a reputation and standingrecognized by the broadcasters. At the sametime, we wanted to have a young voice beingrepresented here, a filmmaker from ourgeneration at the HFF,” he continues. “So wepicked Michael Krummenacher who studiedDirecting at the HFF in Munich from 2006 to2014.” EIGHT DAYS is set to air in Germany,Switzerland and Austria later in 2018.

The past seven years have seen NEUE -SUPER’s producing trio evolving and adaptingas its production output expanded. “At the be-ginning, we developed, financed and producedthe projects together, but with time, we realiz -ed that things would be more efficient if eachone of us had specific responsibilities,” ex-plains Dufter who, for example, now overseesthe company’s day-to-day administration andthe financing of the projects as well as per-sonnel issues.

“We have always seen NEUESUPER as avehicle to realize story ideas that we had de-veloped ourselves,” he notes. “We see our -selves as creative producers workingtogether in a team with the creatives: we areas much involved in helping to develop thescreenplays for the shorts at the beginning ofthe company’s history as in brainstormingideas for the pitches to advertising clients orto broadcasters.”

“Our goal is to be involved creatively from theearliest stages of our projects,” Ambergersays, pointing out that NEUESUPER is alwaysopen to becoming a production partner onthird party projects. From the outset, the triohave sought to foster long-standing workingrelationships, particularly with screenwriters,to collaborate on their projects, like NiklasHoffmann, Peter Kocyla, Benjamin Seiler,Frederick Schlofield and writer-directors likeBoris Kunz, Jakob Lass and Jakob Erwa.

Niklas Hoffmann, for example, has workedwith NEUESUPER since 2014 as he studiedScreenwriting at the HFF: he wrote thescreenplay for the pilot for BLOCKBUSTAZand then wrote three episodes of the re -sulting series as well as serving as headwriter for the sitcom. In addition, Hoffmanndevised the concept and script forHINDAFING together with Boris Kunz andNEUESUPER producer Rafael Parente andreturned to BLOCKBUSTAZ last year forits second season where he penned fourepisodes and was responsible again as headwriter.

He is now working with Parente and anotherNEUESUPER “regular”, Peter Kocyla, on de-veloping the screenplay for another TV series

in the making, LUDEN (HAMBURG HUST-LING), with Jan Mojto’s Beta Film as co-pro-ducer. Meanwhile, writer-director Kocyla,who is also a graduate of Munich’s HFF andworked in the past on scripts for the ZDF se-ries DIE CHEFIN, devised the concept andpenned the scripts for EIGHT DAYS.

“Our core team of writers is very open to theidea of working in a writers room,” Duftersays. “Previously, you would have an authorworking all alone and then getting occasionalfeedback from the producer or a commission -ing editor. However, our strategy is to involveour authors increasingly in the decision-mak -ing process about, say, the casting or thechoice of director. I think they can have a re-ally positive influence because they are soclose to the story.”

NEUESUPER may be focused on working fortelevision for the moment, but that doesn’tmean that they have turned their backs on ci-nema – indeed, a number of feature film pro-jects are in development. “At the same time,we have developed considerable expertise inhigh-end TV and have an edge over othercompanies,” Amberger explains. “We allshare a great passion about staying active inthis particularly exciting segment for the fore -seeable future.”

Martin Blaney

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ARRI WORLDSALES UND KINOSTAR FILMVERLEIH PRÄSENTIEREN EINE PRODUKTION DER OSIRIS MEDIA GMBH UND DER OSIRIS MEDIA FRANCE S.A.S.U. GEFÖRDERT DURCH DAS DÉPARTEMENT CHARENTE-MARITIME UND DER RÉGION POITOU-CHARENTES, IN ZUSAMMENARBEIT MIT DEM CNC

SEBASTIAN FRÄSDORF, KARIN HANCZEWSKI, ALICE PEHLIVANYAN, GODEHARD GIESE, WILLIAM PEIRO, BILDGESTALTUNG WILLI BÖHM, MONTAGE ANNA KAPPELMANN, SZENENBILD BABETT KLIMMECK, ORIGINALTON PHILIPPE BOUCHEZ, SOUNDDESIGN IVAN BROUSSEGOUTTE, MISCHUNG MARVIN H. KEIL,

CASTING UWE BÜNKER UND NATHALIE CHÉRON, DREHBUCH UND REGIE TOM SOMMERLATTE, PRODUZENTIN IRIS SOMMERLATTE

A FILM BY JULES HERRMANN “LIEBMANN” STARRING GODEHARD GIESE, ADELINE MOREAU, FABIEN ARA, BETTINA GRAHS SOUND RECORDIST TOBIAS RÜTHER SOUND DESIGN MICHAŁ KRAJCZOK MUSIC BY CHRISTIAN HALTEN, ZAAL33, SEBASTIAN KIEFER PRODUCTION DESIGN NICOLA MINSSEN ASSISTANT DIRECTOR SARAH DRATH

EDITED BY JULES HERRMANN DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY SEBASTIAN EGERT WORLD SALES PATRA SPANOU PRODUCED BY JULES HERRMANN, ROSWITHA ESTER, TORSTEN REGLIN

www.liebmann-fi lm.de

Godehard Giese is relaxing inRome during our Skype con -versation. It’s a sunny springmorning and the actor with the

sharp, lucid eyes is quite laid-back as he sipshis coffee.

Giese is taking a break. Which is surely agood thing, as he has been extremely busyin recent years. In February, he was in theBerlinale competition with TRANSIT, the re-fugee drama shot by Christian Petzold inMarseille and since fêted by the critics.He also acted in Wim Wenders’ SUB -MERGENCE, which was shown in Toronto in2017, and in A CURE FOR WELLNESS underthe direction of Gore Verbinski. He can bespotted in all the important quality GermanTV series, as well: in BABYLON BERLIN byTom Tykwer, Henk Handloegten and Achimvon Borries, DAS VERSCHWINDEN by Hans-Christian Schmid, THE SAME SKY by OliverHirschbiegel, and the series DEUTSCHLAND83 produced by Nico Hofmann.

But his love of Italy is even older than hisact ing career. Giese, born in 1972, firststudied Italian at the Humboldt University inBerlin – arriving at acting as an indirect re-sult. “One professor of Italian staged theaterplays with her students. I took part in themand immediately I knew: this is exactly whatI want to do.”

At the age of twenty-four he applied to theActing class at the Berlin University of theArts, where he studied from 1997 to 2001.After completing his training he spent twoyears at the theater in Hildesheim. Giesewas not even considering film at that stage,as he tells me amidst some laughter:“My lecturer at acting school said I wasn’tcompatible with film work. He advised meagainst it.”

That lecturer has been proven wrong. In2005 Giese caught the attention of JulesHerrmann, who cast him in her filmacademy graduation film. This marked thestart of Giese’s film career. He has continuedto collaborate with Herrmann to the presentday. In her feature film debut LIEBMANN in2016, he played the role of a German teacherwho is spending the summer in a French vil-lage, hoping to come to terms with a recenttraumatic event. The film premiered at the2016 Berlinale in the section PerspektiveDeutsches Kino, and after an internationalfestival tour it was nominated for the Euro-pean Film Award in the Discovery category.Tom Sommerlatte’s comedy SUMMERSDOWNSTAIRS, in which Giese also plays aman spending the summer holidays inFrance, followed the same route a year be-fore.

Giese’s Liebmann is a fascinating character,damaged and yet self-righteous, who wearsprotective armour but is filled with sexualenergy, nonetheless. “For me, LIEBMANN isa special film. We had the complex idea fora character but there was no screenplay, justan outline.” A huge set like that of BABYLONBERLIN and the intimate and improvisedfilm ing of LIEBMANN may be worlds apart,but such differences are what attract Giese:“It’s important to stay alert in the actor’sprofession, so that you can react directly. Youdon’t have more than a moment. So you needto engage with the material. That’s why Itake on many different projects, so that Idon’t slip into a routine.”

In our conversation, Giese returns again andagain to the process of shooting. Acting forhim means preparing well, so that at themoment of recording he is able to let go, toallow himself to be challenged, “to be cata-pulted into a state of excitement that is trulywonderful”. His own experience as a director

has helped him here. His directing debut,THE STORY OF THE ASTRONAUT, received anaward at the festival Achtung Berlin in 2014(where he also won the prize for Best Actorin 2015 for his role in SUMMERS DOWN -STAIRS). “The fact that I made my own filmhas helped me to gain an outside impressionof myself as an actor.”

Giese is especially enthusiastic about the at-mosphere during the filming of Petzold’sTRANSIT in Marseille and the way in whichthe city and its architecture influenced hischaracter. “I make an attempt to lay out mycharacter’s inner, mental world. And exter-nal influences always help to shape it.” As anactor, he visualizes this mental space onceagain in the external world – “it’s the samein my own film, THE STORY OF THE ASTRO-NAUT, when a woman writer’s mental worldis projected onto the landscape of Mallorca.”In this way Giese expands on his characters’inner worlds, translating them into anextremely physical and yet intimate style ofacting.

What other colleagues have inspired himdur ing this process? “Recently, I have beenmost impressed by Jean-Pierre Léaud inTHE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. He is one of mygreat heroes anyway, just like Albert Finney.He’s not afraid to make himself ridiculous.”And there is one more, or perhaps two:“Naturally, there is something about Mar-cello Mastroianni’s elegance as well. AndGian Maria Volonté. He gives his charactersimmense clarity with his strength andserenity.” Did he think of them because hehappens to be in Rome at the moment?Smiling, he adds: “It’s my Italian side comingout, I suppose.”

Philipp Stadelmaier

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NEWS & NOTES

GDR history, warring banks or bar talks – thefifth edition of KINO!2018 Festival of GermanFilms in New York (6 – 12 April 2018) washeld for the first time in New York’s latest“state of the art” (Deadline) arthouse cinemaLandmark at 57 West. Nine new productions,a silent film and the NEXT GENERATIONSHORT TIGER 2017 program of shorts werepresented by seven guests.

The screening of IN TIMES OF FADING LIGHTfollowed by a Q&A with the director MattiGeschonneck opened the festival and wasvery well re ceived. Directed by ChristianSchwochow, the first two episodes of theseries BAD BANKS, were shown in the atten-dance of producer Lisa Blumenberg andactress Désirée Nosbusch. WHEN PAULCAME OVER THE SEA, which was namedBest Documentary at the Shanghai Inter -national Film Festival, was presented bydirector Jakob Preuss, who also took part in a packed panel discussion moderated by Pro-

fessor Noah Isenberg and organized by theDeutsches Haus at NYU.

The supporting program included a round -table talk on “FRAUEN POWER: GermanWomen Filmmakers Making Their Mark”.Lisa Blumenberg and Désirée Nosbuschtook part along with Marieke Schroeder, thedirector of BAR TALKS BY SCHUMANN.She was joined by the film’s charismaticprotagonist, the bartend ing institutionCharles Schumann, for a Q&A. In addition,director Nick Baker-Monteys answered theaudience’s questions about THE FINALJOURNEY.

Connoisseurs of German film classics lovedthe silent film VARIETÉ by Ewald AndréDupont presented in cooperation withBertelsmann. The live musical accompani-ment was provided by the pianist andmulti-instrumentalist Stephen Horne andpercussionist Martin Pyne. Ira Deutchman, a

professor at Columbia University and a filmproducer, introduced the film. The VoD ser-vice Fandor was the exclusive partner of theKINO! Audience Award for the third year in arow and created a curated online program ofGerman “Festival Favorites” for U.S. onlineviewers.

This year’s Audience Award went to theseries BAD BANKS, which is available inthe U.S. on Hulu.

1KINO! 2018: GERMAN FILMS IN THE BIG APPLE

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Opening night guests at KINO! 2018 (© Alberto Reyes)

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Peter Dinges, Christine Berg, Monika Grütters, Bernd Neumann, Frank Völkert (© Ulf Büschleb)

2FFF WRITERS‘ DELEGATION AT SXSW

With support from FilmFernsehFondsBayern, a delegation of Bavarian writers par-ticipated at this year’s SXSW Conferences &Festival in Austin, Texas. The trip signals FFFBayern’s aim to strengthen its support forscreenwriters and further develop its inter-national activities and networks.

Five writers participated in the Writers’Delegation: Natalie Spinell, Andy Wolff,Niklas Hoffmann, Christian Lex and AnneKeßel. Two mentors – Egbert van Wyngaar-den and Philipp Schall – from TransmediaBayern, which also offered financial supportto the delegation, accompanied the groupand the FFF funding executive Lisa Giehl.

The Writers’ Delegation program gave thewriters access to numerous events at SXSWconcentrating on storytelling, artificial intel-ligence and digital content, as well as aBavaria-Québec Dinner sponsored by FFFBayern, the Representation of the QuébecGovernment, and the Representation of theFree State of Bavaria in Québec.

3HAPPY BIRTHDAY FFA: 50 YEARS OF FILM FUNDING

On 6 March 1968, the German Federal FilmBoard (FFA) was established in Berlin – andfive decades later, in 2018, it is celebratingit’s 50th birthday. And the anniversary alsorepresents half a century of German filmhistory. Supported film classics, which areexemplary for the quality and diversity ofGerman filmmaking, include Rainer WernerFassbinder’s THE MARRIAGE OF MARIABRAUN, Volker Schlöndorff’s THE TINDRUM, Wolfgang Petersen’s THE BOAT, WimWender’s PARIS, TEXAS, Caroline Link’sNOWHERE IN AFRICA, and Tom Tykwer’sRUN LOLA RUN. Over the course of the last50 years, the German Federal Film Board hasawarded over 1.6 billion euros in fundingsupport for production (for some 4,000 fea-ture films and 1,000 screenplays), distribu-tion and film theaters. In addition to its taskas a funding institution, the German FederalFilm Board also acts as a central service pro-vider for the entire German film industry andas a moderator for the future challenges ofthe film industry.

The German Federal Film Board celebratedthis milestone anniversary with a gala on 6March 2018 in Berlin with some 500 guestsfrom the film industry, funding, politics andculture. On the occasion of the event, BerndNeumann, president of the German FederalFilm Board, emphasized the fact that “it isalso the Film Board’s task for the future toprotect, strengthen and maintain the exi-stence of a cinematic culture,” and confirmedthe importance of the cinema as a premiumlocation, even in times of new digital media.State Minister for Culture Monika Grütterscongratulated the Film Board as an “interna-tionally unique levy-based film funding,which is sustained by a sense of solidarity”and honored the funding institution as an “in-dispensable partner for film policy.”

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IN THE AISLES (© Sommerhaus Filmproduktion/Anke Neugebauer) FEST (© Nikita Diakur)

NEWS & NOTES GFQ 2-2018

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4IN THE AISLES WITH MFG BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG

After her leading role in Maren Ade’s world-wide hit TONI ERDMANN, Sandra Hüller re-turns in Thomas Stuber’s latest feature INTHE AISLES, alongside European ShootingStar Franz Rogowski (VICTORIA) and PeterKurth (BABYLON BERLIN) to form a top-class cast. The three actors play out ClemensMeyer’s story about three co-workers at asupermarket. Christian (Rogowski) is thenew guy and in charge of stocking theshelves. Bruno (Kurth) is his colleague in thebeverage section and acts as a father figure,taking him under his wing and teaching himall the tricks. Marion (Hüller) works in thenext aisle and, although she is actuallymarried (to a thug, no less), she takes a shineto Christian. Despite all odds, they offer eachother support in life; a life which outside ofthe supermarket seems to be almost un -bearable. But inside, it’s their own littleworld.

MFG Baden-Württemberg, together withMitteldeutsche Medienförderung, BKM,Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and theGerman Federal Film Fund supported thefilm produced by the Ludwigsburg-basedSommerhaus Filmproduktion, in cooperationwith the broadcasters MDR, ARTE, SWR andHR, and co-produced with Departures Filmand Rotor Film. The film was shot in part inKarlsruhe and took home two independentfilm prizes from the Berlinale: the GermanFilm Guild Award and Ecumenical JuryAward.

5DIANE KRUGER SHOOTING AGAIN IN NRW

For her role in Fatih Akin’s Golden Globe-winner IN THE FADE, Diane Kruger wasawarded the Best Actress prize at theFestival de Cannes in 2017. And once again,she will soon be shooting in North Rhine-Westphalia for a new feature supported bythe Filmstiftung NRW and the Israel FilmFund, taking on the leading role in Israelidirector Yuval Adler’s upcoming film THEOPERATIVE. A large part of the principle pho-tography will be taking place in NRW and thefilm is being co-produced by Michael Weberand Viola Fügen of the Cologne-based MatchFactory Productions.

In the thriller, Kruger portrays a youngBritish woman who is recruited by the Israelisecret service Mossad for a covert mission inTehran. Director Yuval Adler won the mainprize of the Venice Days in 2013 for his poli-tical drama BETHLEHEM.

6SHORT GERMAN ANIMATIONS IN ANNECY

In 2018, a line-up of ten German animatedshort films, commissioned films and TVseries will be presented in the official selec-tion of the Festival International du Filmd’Animation in Annecy (11-16 June 2018),which is one of the most important festivalsfor animated film worldwide. With NOT MYTYPE (DE/CH) by Gerd Gockell and FEST byNikita Diakur, there are two German ani -mated short films competing for the Cristald’Annecy in the International Competition.ANT by Julia Ocker and LINK by Robert Löbelwere selected for the section Short FilmsYoung Audiences. Another five Germanshorts have been invited to the competitionfor graduation films: AUGENBLICKE by KianaNaghshineh, FOLLOWER by Jonathan Behr,FUSE by Shadi Adib, LOVE ME, FEAR ME byVeronica Solomon, and NOSIS by VincenzNeuhaus. Furthermore, 32-RBIT by VictorOrozco Ramirez (DE/MX) is shortlisted for thePerspectives Short Films in Competition.

Once again, both AG Kurzfilm (German ShortFilm Association) and German Films willattend the festival’s film market MIFA andprovide the international film scene andvisitors with useful information and contactsregarding the range of German film makersand their animated films. A preview DVD withrecent German animated short films willalso be available at the booth in Annecyaddressing festival representatives, curators,interested participants and buyers. Apartfrom this, the DVD is also available uponrequest from the office of AG Kurzfilm inDresden.

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Diane Kruger (© Filmstiftung NRW/Hubert Bösl)

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© AG Kurzfilm

7GERMAN SHORT FILMS IN CANNES

Once again AG Kurzfilm (German Short FilmAssociation) and German Films offer aplatform for German short films and shortfilmmakers during the 71th edition of theFestival de Cannes. As every year, some ofthe most recent short film productions areavailable at the Short Film Corner for inter-national industry professionals. The selec-tion German Short Films – Cannes Edition2018 containing eight current short films willbe available at the Short Film Corner and onDVD at the German Pavilion.

Additionally, for the eighth time, the programNEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER cel ebratesits premiere in Cannes. It features not onlyfilm school productions but also the winnersof the 2018 Short Tiger Award granted by theGerman Federal Film Board. Upon request,all films will be available on preview DVDsfrom German Films or AG Kurzfilm.

In cooperation with ARTE, the German ShortFilm Association invites professionals fromthe German and international short filmscene to their annual Short Film Lounge,giving filmmakers, festival representativesand buyers the opportunity to meet and con-nect. During the festival in Cannes, pleasecontact us at the German Pavilion, Inter -national Village.

8INDUSTRY SCREENINGS IN TOKYO

For the third time, German Films organizedindustry screenings in Tokyo presentingseven new German films to Japanese distri-butors over the course of two days in March.As Japanese audiences have a particularlystrong interest in historic and cultural issues,the Tokyo screenings aimed to widen thisperspective by offering genre films likeTHIS CRAZY HEART, HANNA’S HOMECOMINGand the animated MANU THE SWIFT at theNippon Film Art Cinema. Seven sales com-panies (ARRI Media International, BetaCinema, Global Screen, Picture Tree Inter -national, Sola Media, The Match Factory, andFilms Boutique) joined the event to presentupcoming films to Japanese buyers and en-force their network in Japan, a country whichis one of the strongest markets in Asia.German Films also took the opportunity topresent the Distribution Support scheme toJapanese buyers and inform them of up -coming films as well as discussing a futurecooperation with the Tokyo International FilmFestival whose Artistic Director, Yoshi Yatabe,invited the delegation for a casual dinner ina typical Japanese location.

The highlight of the Tokyo Screenings wasthe Japanese premiere of IN THE FADE in thepresence of director Fatih Akin, and actorsDiane Kruger and Denis Moschitto at theHuman Trust Cinema Shibuya. The filmtallied 5,200 admissions on the first week-end.

9GERMAN FILM FESTIVALDOWN UNDER

German Films has partnered the GermanFilm Festival in Australia for more than adecade. This year the event is organizedby the well-established Palace Cinemaswho are the traditional organizers of othernational film events (for French, Brazilianand Italian cinema) and who hired projectmanager Bettina Kinski to supervise theGerman Film Festival 2018, which will takeplace in five cities (Sydney, Canberra,Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide) andwill include a program of 26 films as wellas the short film program SHORT EXPORT2018. Opening film of the event in Sydneyon May 22nd will be Lars Kraume’srecent Berlinale-contribution THE SILENTREVOLUTION; other films in the programinclude further festival successes such asTHREE PEAKS, PAULA and 303 by HansWeingartner, as well as the FACK JU GOEHTEtrilogy. As partner of the event, the Goethe-Institut offers young audiences the pos -sibility to see six new films from Germany,including AT EYE LEVEL and ROBBY &TOBY’S FANTASTIC VOYAGER. Closing film ofthe festival 2018 will be the restored versionof Wim Wenders’ WINGS OF DESIRE.

Fatih Akin, Diane Kruger, Denis Moschitto (courtesy of Bitters End)

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11 FEATURES2 DOCUMENTARIES3 SHORT FILMS14 UPCOMING FILMS

30 more new German productions are presented

on the following 19 pages. Please visit

our website www.german-films.de

for more information on German features,

documentaries and shorts.

NEW FILMS GFQ 2-2018

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Mina’s family has introduced her toa few potential husbands in Iran.She has rejected them all untilshe meets Kian, a surgeon who

has travelled from Germany in search of awife. It’s not love at first sight, but rather theseduction of life in Europe that makes herconsent. In his mid-30s, Kian is desperate fora wife to make his life appear complete. Hetakes his new bride back home, but marriageto a virtual stranger is more difficult than theyimagined.

SUSAN GORDANSHEKAN is a German film-maker of Iranian origins. She first studiedCommunication Design (specializing in videoand multimedia-design), but in the course ofher studies she realized that her real passionwas to make movies. After working for aGerman broadcaster and a film productioncompany, she began studying Film at theUniversity of Television and Film in Munich.Over the years, she has made severaldocumentaries and three short fictionfilms. Notably, her documentary GARÇONSMANQUÉS and the short fiction ICEFLOWERS were screened at numerousfilms festivals worldwide. ICE FLOWERSpremiered at the 61st Berlinale. In 2013/14,she attended the 27th session of Cinéfonda-tion Residence of the Festival de Cannes inParis where she developed her first featurefilm A DYSFUNCTIONAL CAT.

GENRE Drama YEAR OF PRODUCTION 2018DIRECTOR Susan Gordanshekan SCREEN-PLAY Susan Gordanshekan CINEMATOG -RAPHY Julian Krubasik CAST PegahFerydoni, Hadi Khanjanpour PRODUCER RalfZimmermann CO-PRODUCERS NatalieLambsdorff, Monika Lobkowicz, BarbaraHäbe PRODUCTION COMPANY Glory FilmRUNTIME 93 min LANGUAGE German, FarsiFESTIVALS Berlinale 2018

SALES Media Luna New Films [email protected]

© Glory Film/Hendrik Heiden

DIE DEFEKTE KATZEA DYSFUNCTIONAL CAT

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Christoph begins his year of civilservice at a nursing home as thepersonal caretaker for 28-year-oldSven. The seriously ill young man

is suffering from muscular dystrophy and hisnursing room has become his own littlemicrocosm which he has been sovereignlycontrolling for years. Sven’s humor comesacross quite strange and somewhatthreatening, which Christoph noticesimmediately. But after their first “welcomecrisis”, Sven slowly allows Christoph into hisworld. He starts to open up and the two youngmen become friends. Genuine closeness andtrust develop, allowing Sven to confide hisinner most desires to Christoph.

EIBE MALEEN KREBS was born in 1982. Shestudied Communication Design, Photographyand Film in Hamburg. Her films include:ALTER EGO (2007), LOOKING FORWARD,LOOKING BACK (2008), VOM HÖREN SAGEN(2014), and DRAUSSEN IN MEINEM KOPF(2018).

GENRE Drama YEAR OF PRODUCTION 2018DIRECTOR Eibe Maleen Krebs SCREENPLAYEibe Maleen Krebs, Andreas Keck CINEMA-TOGRAPHY Judith Kaufmann CAST SamuelKoch, Nils Hohenhövel, Eva Nürnberg, LarsRudolph PRODUCER Verena Gräfe-Höft PRO-DUCTION COMPANY Junafilm RUNTIME 99min LANGUAGE German FESTIVALS Film -festival Max Ophüls Preis Saarbrücken 2018AWARDS Youth Award Max Ophüls Preis 2018

SALES Junafilm [email protected]

© Junafilm

DRAUSSEN INMEINEM KOPF

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In another time and place, where peoplebarely communicate and an impendingapocalypse is in the air, lone drifter Monomakes an odyssey to experience myste-

rious rock star Blitz’s final cosmic perfor-mance out in the Big White Nothing, a desertsurrounding the city. Here, people escapefrom reality, and each other, through music.A constant companion in their headphonesis Radio, nihilistic DJ of radio stationFONOTUNE, playing his own joyous sound-track to destruction! On his journey, Monoshares fleeting connections with a gang ofstrangers: Teen-hooker Stereo, lo-fi cowboyAnalog, and the sassy Bubblegum. Theirpaths finally collide in an audiovisual show-down with the mythical musician manythought dead or long-gone. They each carryBlitz’s cassettes and vinyl; a strange andelectrifying call-to-arms where he proclaims“the Universe is my Rock-n-Roll! Destructionis my music!”. The final explosive result is anincendiary performance to remember! And itmay finally make them feel something.

Influenced by Japanese cinema, graphicdesign and manga comics, FONOTUNE: ANELECTRIC FAIRYTALE is a film about strangeencounters, lost connections and just maybethe end of the world.

FINT made his debut with AVANT*GARDE, aseries discussing arthouse films and theirdirectors which received wide spread criticalacclaim. The documentary VISITING UWE,about the controversial filmmaker Uwe Boll,and several music videos, followed. FONO-TUNE: AN ELECTRIC FAIRYTALE is his featuredebut.

GENRE Art, Music, Science Fiction YEAROF PRODUCTION 2018 DIRECTOR FINTSCREENPLAY FINT CINEMATOGRAPHY JonBritt CAST Kiki Sukezane, Guitar Wolf Seiji,Kazushi Watanabe, Yuho Yamashita, FINT,Jiwoon Ha PRODUCERS Catherine Morawitz,Sven Schnell CO-PRODUCERS Marc OliverDreher, Martin Ludwig, Ian Marcks PRO -DUCTION COMPANIES STUDIO SABOTEUR,San Cinema, in co-production with MAMOKOEntertainment RUNTIME 78 min LANGUAGEJapanese

SALES phantasticas [email protected]

© FINT

FONOTUNE: ANELECTRIC FAIRYTALE


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MOTHER BEE is a warm-heartedcomedy that takes an affection -ate and self-deprecating look atwhat it means to be a mother

today. Marie (36), Nela (40) and Tine (22) re-present three classic types of women. Mariewas pretty late having children and is nowoverly ambitious to do everything just right.Nela is happy with her husband Lutz and theirchild, but this classic life model doesn’t reallyfulfill her. Lutz takes advantage of the oppor-tunity to be a father and house-husband sothat Nela can try to get back into her career.And Tine is the youngest of the three and asingle mom. She is trying to cope with thepremature loss of her own childhood, herresponsibility as a mother, her job and finan-cial difficulties – all the while hoping she willat some point find Mr. Right.

In a humorous manner and with surrealmeans, MOTHER BEE presents the dilemmaof the modern woman as a light, clever andsomewhat quirky roundelay of endless andunexpected tasks, overload and illusions.

FELICITAS DARSCHIN was born in 1982.After numerous internships in film andtelevision, she set up her own productioncompany in 2002 and studied Directing atthe University of Television & Film Munichfrom 2003-2007. Also active as a screen -writer, lecturer and producer, her films asa director include: ZWERG NASE (TV),IM BESTEN ALTER (TV), KÄSE LAIB UNDLEBEN – MARTHA UND JOSEF LOBIS’ASCHEN PUTTEL (doc), DIE LOISACH – EINFLUSS MIT VIELEN GESICHTERN (doc),EXPEDITION INS UNBEWUSSTE – DENTRÄUMEN AUF DER SPUR (doc), WIEVIELNATUR VERTRÄGT DER MENSCH? (doc),LIEBE LIEBER UNGEWÖHNLICH, andMOTHER BEE.

GENRE Comedy, Drama YEAR OF PRODUC-TION 2017 DIRECTOR Felicitas DarschinSCREENPLAY Alexandra Helmig, Rudi GaulCINEMATOGRAPHY Stefan Biebl CASTJulia Jentsch, Kristin Suckow, AlexandraHelmig, Brigitte Hobmeier, Annette Frier,Matthias Weidenhöfer, Michael Kranz, FlorianKarlheim PRODUCERS Sebastian Zembol,Alexandra Helmig, Dagmar Kusche, BerndKrause PRODUCTION COMPANY MixtvisionRUNTIME 92 min LANGUAGE German

SALES Bavaria Media [email protected]

© Mixtvision/Luis Zeno Kuhn

FRAU MUTTER TIERMOTHER BEE


25

Another long summer holidaybrings more adventures forGeorge, Julian, Dick, Anne andTimmy the dog, when they meet

Marty Bach, a young man who appears at firstto be behaving rather oddly. It turns out hisdeceased father had discovered a supposedlyintact dinosaur skeleton, but crooks havestolen the code that reveals the coordinatesto the legendary “Valley of Dinosaurs”. If thekids, Marty, and, of course, Timmy can’t res-cue the code and get to the valley first, thepriceless bones will be lost forever.

MIKE MARZUK was born in 1969 in Lands-berg am Lech. Since 1995 he has been work -ing as an editor, musician, writer and directorfor short and feature films as well as videoclips. His films include: WWGW* – *WEISSTWAS GEIL WÄR...?! (2007), SUMMER(SOMMER, 2008), ROCK IT! (2010), and all fiveof the THE FAMOUS FIVE films.

GENRE Family Entertainment YEAR OF PRO-DUCTION 2018 DIRECTOR Mike MarzukSCREENPLAY Mike Marzuk CINEMATOG -RAPHY Philip Peschlow CAST AllegraTinnefeld, Amelie Lammers, MarinusHohmann, Ron Antony Renzenbrink PRO -DUCERS Ewa Karlström, Andreas Ulmke-Smeaton PRODUCTION COMPANY SamFilm,in co-production with Constantin FilmProduktion RUNTIME 101 min LANGUAGEGerman FESTIVALS TIFF Kids 2018

SALES Beta Cinema [email protected]

© SamFilm/Constantin Film Produktion/Marc Reimann/Hodder and Stoughton Ltd.

FÜNF FREUNDE – UNDDAS TAL DER DINOSAURIERTHE FAMOUS FIVE – AND THE VALLEY OF DINOSAURS


26

What does life taste like? Forjoyful Nikki the answer isclear: pleasure. Delightfully,she enjoys this on every pos-

sible occasion, as she drives through thecountry in her Land Rover looking for peopleand their stories for her video-blog. “I’m notso much interested in the topics that areshown every night in the evening news, butrather what the people on the road have tosay. Every person has a story.”

Cheeky, explosive and full of easiness, thefilm pictures life in associative images allaround topics of sex and relationships, guiltand religion, sense and nonsense of conven-tions – and thus gives voyeuristic insight intothe desires and longings of the protagonists.

ROLAND REBER’s filmography as a directorand writer includes: TASTE OF LIFE (2017),ILLUSION (2013), THE TRUTH OF LIE (2011),ANGELS WITH DIRTY WINGS (2009), MYDREAM OR LONE LINESS NEVER WALKSALONE (2007), PENTAMAGICA (2003), 24/7THE PASSION OF LIFE (2005), THE DARKSIDE OF OUR INNER SPACE (2003), AREGIRLS WEREWOLVES...? (short, 2002),THE ROOM (2001 – 6 inter national awards),COMPULSION (short, 2000 – awarded BestSocial Film, Pisticci/Italy), THE BAG (short1999), MANUEL (short, 1998), ON TELEVISION(short 1998), and IHR HABT MEINE SEELEGEBOGEN WIE EINEN SCHÖNEN TÄNZER(1979), among others.

GENRE Comedy, Drama, Erotic, Road MovieYEAR OF PRODUCTION 2017 DIRECTORRoland Reber SCREENPLAY Roland Reber,Mira Gittner, Antje Nikola Mönning CINEMA-TOGRAPHY Mira Gittner CAST Antje NikolaMönning, Andreas Pegler , Wolfgang Seiden-berg, Iris Boss, Agnes Thi-Mai, NormanGraue, Marina Anna Eich, Mira GittnerPRODUCERS Marina Anna Eich, Patricia KochPRODUCTION COMPANY wtp internationalRUNTIME 88 min LANGUAGE GermanFESTIVALS Hof 2017, Brussels Int. FantasticFF 2018, Espoo Cinè IFF 2018

SALES wtp international [email protected]

© wtp international

DER GESCHMACKVON LEBENTASTE OF LIFE


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In HEILSTÄTTEN, a remote and gloomysanctuary near Berlin with a history fullof horror and crimes against humanity,a group of YouTubers illegally access

the ominous surgery block for a 24-hourchallenge they hope will go viral. Equippedwith night vision and thermal cameras, theadolescent adrenaline junkies chase therumors of paranormal activity in the rottingbuilding, only to learn too soon that they arenot alone… and not welcome. But it is too lateto leave the premises alive.

Genre specialist Michael David Pate stagesthis low-budget, found-footage horror thrillerwith an A-list German cast: internationalEmmy® award-nominee Sonja Gerhardt(KUDAMM 56, DEUTSCHLAND 83) deliversan outstanding performance next to TimOliver Schultz. Shot at the original location"Heilstätte Grabowsee" near Berlin and pro-duced by new genre production companySchmerbeck Entertainment, HEILSTÄTTENmakes for entertaining paranormal horrorcinema.

MICHAEL DAVID PATE discovered his fasci-nation for film in his childhood, watching andreenacting movies instead of going to sports.At the age of 15, he shot his first films withhis grandmother‘s camcorder, forced bylimited circumstances to edit his material liveduring filming. In 2014 at the age of 34, hereleased his first theatrical feature I LIKE(GEFÄLLT MIR), which won Best Picture at thegenre festival Cinestrange Braunschweig in2014. In 2015, his horror parody POTATOSALAD (KARTOFFELSALAT), shot and distri-buted independently, made 3.8 million eurosat the box office with nearly 500,000 soldtickets in Europe. His new horror shockerHEILSTÄTTEN was released in Germany by20th Century Fox in 2018 and has, thus far,attracted over 150,000 cinemagoers – a verypositive result for German horror genre.

GENRE Horror, Psycho Thriller YEAR OF PRO-DUCTION 2017 DIRECTOR Michael David PateSCREENPLAY Michael David Pate, EckiZiedrich CINEMATOGRAPHY Pascal SchmitCAST Sonja Gerhardt, Tim Oliver Schultz,Lisa-Marie Koroll, Nilam Farooq, EmilioSakraya, Timmi Trinks, Maxine Kazis PRO -DUCER Till Schmerbeck PRODUCTIONCOMPANY Schmerbeck Entertainment, in co-production with Fox International PicturesGermany RUNTIME 89 min LANGUAGE Ger-man

SALES Schmerbeck [email protected]

© Schmerbeck Entertainment

HEILSTÄTTEN


28

11-year-old Liliane “Lilli” Susewindcan speak with animals! This is asecret nobody should know aboutexcept for her parents. Her special

talent has caused enough trouble in the pastand is forcing the family to move again. Lillivows to keep her secret to herself when arriv -ing at their new home – but then she learnsthat a mean animal thief has kidnapped thebaby elephant Ronni from the local zoo. To-gether with her new classmate Jess, Lilli setsoff on an adventure to save Ronni and theother animals!

JOACHIM MASANNEK was born in 1960 inHamm and studied German, Philosophy, andFilm in Munich. Since 1985, he has worked asa production designer, lighting technician,cam eraman and author. After working onvarious animation projects, he wrote thechildren’s book Die Wilden Fussballkerle basedon the soccer team he founded in Munich. Hisfilms include: numerous short films and TVmovies, all of the award-winning THE WILDSOCCER BUNCH films, both V8 films, andLITTLE MISS DOLITTLE.

GENRE Family Entertainment YEAR OF PRO-DUCTION 2018 DIRECTOR Joachim MasannekSCREENPLAY Katrin Milhahn, Antonia Rothe-Liermann, Matthias Dinter, Beate Fraunholz,Betty Platz CINEMATOGRAPHY Richard vanOosterhout CAST Malu Leicher, ChristophMaria Herbst, Tom Beck, Aylin Tezel, MeretBecker PRODUCERS Felix Zackor, StefanRaiser, Maike Haas PRODUCTION COMPANYDreamtool Entertainment, in co-productionwith Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmpro-duktion, Velvet Films, CINE PLUS RUNTIME102 min LANGUAGE German

SALES ARRI Media [email protected]/international

© Dreamtool Entertainment

LILIANE SUSEWINDLITTLE MISS DOLITTLE


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THE CHAIRS GAME is a game inwhich you need luck: You need to bein the right place at the right time –otherwise you won’t get a chair.

Alice, 39, single and unemployed can nolonger win at this silly game. The unemploy-ment office keeps sending her to job appli -cation trainings. Yet, Alice knows they won’tlead her to stop waiting in line. Hence, onemorning she decides to interrupt one ofthem. Her unemployment benefits are thenreduced, and money gets tight. Her parentsand friends have no idea of the kind of chaosin which Alice finds herself since she is aproficient liar. Her persistent search to besocially accepted cannot prevent her fromgetting lonelier and lonelier. She keeps her-self stubbornly afloat with gas vouchers,which she gets for participating in marketresearch, and tries to once again take controlof her tattered life.

LUCIA CHIARLA was born in Genoa/Italy andtook acting classes at the Performing ArtsSchool “Paolo Grassi” in Milan. She alsostudied Literature at the University of Genoa.She worked in Italy as an actress in municipaltheaters and movies. In 2005, she movedto Berlin. Her first movie BYE BYEBERLUSCONI! (author and actress) wasshown in the Panorama section of theBerlinale 2006. She acted in theater pro -ductions in Berlin and attended the SkriptAkademie, as well as wrote scripts andworked as a dramaturge. THE CHAIRS GAMEmarks her directorial debut.

GENRE Tragicomedy YEAR OF PRODUCTION2018 DIRECTOR Lucia Chiarla SCREEN-PLAY Lucia Chiarla CINEMATOGRAPHY RalfNoack CAST Eva Löbau, Beniamino Brogi,Veronika Novak-Jones, Axel Werner PRO -DUCERS Giulio Baraldi, Lorenzo Baraldi,Claudine Castay CO-PRODUCER MartinLehwald PRODUCTION COMPANY Kess Film,in co-production with Schiwago Film,Camelot Broadcast Services RUNTIME 120min LANGUAGE German FESTIVALS Film -festival Max Ophüls Preis Saarbrücken 2018

SALES Kess [email protected]

© Kess Film

REISE NACH JERUSALEMTHE CHAIRS GAME


30

SWIMMING is the story of Elisa andAnthea, two very different girls,whose friendship gives them orien-tation and stability in the most diffi-

cult time of their young lives. But theirinnocent friendship soon turns into co-dependency. To maintain their cohesion, theydevelop a game – which turns them fromvictims into offenders. They start recordingeverything they do with their cell phonecameras. Soon they turn the camera aroundand secretly film their classmates, parti -cularly the ones who used to bully Elisa. Theirfriendship takes on a destructive dynamic,which becomes highly dangerous for thosewho get in the duo’s way.

LUZIE LOOSE was born in 1989. After study-ing at the College of Fine Arts in Berlin, sheenrolled at the Filmakademie Baden-Würt-temberg. Also active as a director’s assistantin the theater, she has worked on numerousGerman film and television productions. Aselection of her films include: the shortsCHAOSTAGE (2009), SKYPE (2010), DERZAUBERER (2012), WHEN KAFKA DIED IMMEMPHIS (2013), NOUVEAU MONDE (2014),THE WORLD OF MAVI KALEM – MAVI KALEMDÜNYASI (2014), EVERYTHING WE DO ISMUSIC (2015), FRENCH FRIES (2015), LUI/LEI– GIORGIO ARMANI FILM OF CITY FRAMES(2016), and her feature debut SWIMMING(2018).

GENRE Drama YEAR OF PRODUCTION 2018DIRECTOR Luzie Loose SCREENPLAY LuzieLoose CINEMATOGRAPHY Anne Bolick CASTStephanie Amarell, Lisa Vicari, AlexandraFinder, Jonathan Berlin, Bjarne Meisel PRO-DUCERS Christoph Holthof, Daniel Reich CO-PRO DUCER Thomas Schadt PRODUCTIONCOMPANY kurhaus production, in co-produc-tion with Film akademie Baden-WürttembergRUNTIME 102 min LANGUAGE German

SALES kurhaus production Film & Medien [email protected]

© Paul Nungeßer

SCHWIMMENSWIMMING


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Ivo, former professional footballer andjailbird with nothing to lose, is a bettingnatural. His feel for the sport and back-ground draw the interest of Dejan, who

takes him into his family, sucking him quicklyinto football’s underbelly, a world of globalfraud and manipulation where individuals aremerely small cogs in an international networkwhose digital tentacles stretch all the way toChina and beyond. But when Ivo meets youngLukas, a talented lad in whom he sees his for-mer self, and starts training him for a topteam trial while, at the same time, supposedlygrooming and manipulating him on Dejan’sbehalf, he also falls in love with the boy’smother. Now Ivo finds himself caught be -tween two fronts and two families, and has todecide...

TIMON MODERSOHN was born in 1978. Hestudied Psychology at the Free UniversityBerlin and has been active as an assistantdirector for numerous commercials andfeature films. He then studied Directing at theGerman Film and Television Academy Berlin.His films include: KAISER & KÖNIG (2012),WIGALD (2006), and his feature debut PLAY-MAKER (2018).

GENRE Thriller YEAR OF PRODUCTION 2018DIRECTOR Timon Modersohn SCREEN-PLAY Christian Brecht CINEMATOGRAPHYChristian Rein CAST Frederick Lau, OliverMasucci, Antje Traue, Mateo Wansing Lorrio,Paul Fassnacht, Karl Markovics PRODUCERSManuel Bickenbach, Alexander BickenbachPRODUCTION COMPANY Frisbeefilms, inco-production with Warner Bros. Film Pro-ductions Germany, cine plus FilmproduktionRUNTIME 95 min LANGUAGE German

SALES Picture Tree International yuan@picturetree-international.comwww.picturetree-international.com

© Warner Bros./Gordon Timpen

SPIELMACHERPLAYMAKER


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Today, 150 million women are miss -ing in Asia. Zoning in on personalstories from South Korea, China,India and Vietnam, the film explores

the regional and global consequences of thisdramatic gender imbalance. With previouslyunseen archive material, the film also looksback at the years after the Second World Warand examines the dubious role of inter -national organizations and their influence onworldwide family planning. A revelatory docu-mentary that weaves together elements ofpolitics, economics and medicine, showingwomen – both then and now – as the play-thing of political and criminal interest groups.

THE BACHELOR TIME BOMB

ANTJE CHRIST is an experienced documen-tary producer and director. Since 1997 shehas been realizing high-quality docu -mentaries for international broadcasters,where she focuses on globalization issues.She works mainly in Asian countries.

DOROTHE DÖRHOLT has a Ph.D. in Psychol -ogy and a Master’s degree in Media Studies.

Since 1995 she has been working as an inter-national documentary filmmaker. Her high-quality documentaries focus on human rightsissues and human interest.

GENRE Human Interest, Sociology, SocietyYEAR OF PRODUCTION 2018 DIRECTORSAntje Christ, Dorothe Dörholt PRODUCERBirgit Schulz PRODUCTION COMPANY Bilder-

sturm Filmproduktion RUNTIME 90 & 52 minLANGUAGE English, German, Hindi, Vietna-mese, Korean, Chinese

SALES NEW [email protected]

© Dorothe Dörholt

NEW DOCUMENTARIES GFQ 2-2018

A RT IN PARADISE presents themost beautiful private artmuseums on the planet. Builtby passionate collectors who

have spent hundreds of millions of dollars fortheir visions. Their museums are surroundedby fantastic landscapes where art and natureblend together. In Tasmania, in China, in themidst of the Andes in Argentina and onislands of the Seto Inland Sea in Japan.Locations that are off the beaten paths ofthe art world: the MUSEUM OF OLD ANDNEW ART (MONA) in Australia, the SIFANGART MUSEUM in China, the JAMES TURRELLMUSEUM in Argentina, and the BENESSEART SITE NAOSHIMA in Japan.

He who wants to see them has to embark ona long journey.

JOACHIM HAUPT and SABINE POLLMEIERdirect and produce films and series aboutarts, culture and nature. Their films include:the series UP TO THE SKY (2009/2012/2017),GREAT OCEAN ROAD – AUSTRALIA’S WILDCOAST (2016), and ART IN PARADISE (2018).

GENRE Art, Series YEAR OF PRODUCTION2018 DIRECTORS Joachim Haupt, SabinePollmeier CINEMATOGRAPHY Sabine Poll-meier, Michael Komagata, Matthew ScottPRODUCER Sabine Pollmeier PRODUCTION COMPANY Parnass Film, in co-productionwith Radio Bremen, ARTE RUNTIME 4 x 26min LANGUAGE English

SALES Parnass [email protected]

© Sabine Pollmeier

ART IN PARADISE

33

GFQ 2-2018 NEW SHORTS

© Ulu Braun

Apresumably African village, in -habited by Germans. The filmBURKINA BRANDENBURG KOM-PLEX describes a geographical

construction that makes use of ‘our’ medialand collective image of Africa and puts it tothe test through inaccuracies. An archaeolo-gical find is made in a mine: a Ferrari. We tagalong with Joachim on his everyday rounds.He has his heart set on realizing a commonenergy project. The Museum of PrussianCultural Heritage is run by a black woman.She presents artefacts from Western consu-mer culture with a special emphasis on Ger-man products. Joachim is involved in theritualistic production of energy in the village,but gets excluded when the ceremony isnear ing its finale, finally catapulting himselfout of the ‘story/history’.

ULU BRAUN studied Painting and Film inVienna, Helsinki and Potsdam. He has beenusing the medium of video to explore the fieldbetween visual arts and auteur cinema since1997. He is one of the key figures who hastransferred painting into video art and has

played a significant role in defining andfurther developing the genre of video collage.His works are regularly exhibited in art insti-tutions and shown at international film festi-vals. A selection of his award-winning filmsincludes: the shorts WESTCOAST (2009),MARIA THERESIA AND HER 16 CHILDREN(2011), FORST (2013), BIRDS (2014), ARCHI-TEKTURA (2015), THE HOSTEL (2017), andBURKINA BRANDENBURG KOMPLEX (2018).

GENRE Art, Fantasy, History, Science Fiction,Tragicomedy YEAR OF PRODUCTION 2018DIRECTOR Ulu Braun SCREENPLAY UluBraun CINEMATOGRAPHY Ulu Braun,Valentin Lorenz CAST Joachim Stargard,Evyonne Muhuri, Valentin Lorenz, KatjaFranziska Müller PRODUCER Ulu BraunPRODUCTION COMPANY Studio Ulu BraunRUNTIME 19 min LANGUAGE German FESTI-VALS Berlinale 2018 (Short Film NomineeEuropean Film Awards)

SALES Studio Ulu [email protected]

© Fabian&Fred

As a child, Carlotta didn’t expect thepeople around her to have faces.She doesn’t even recognize herown face. Years later, she learns

about a rare, untreatable deficit of her brain.It was art, after all, that offered her a way tofinally recognize herself.

VALENTIN RIEDL is a physician andneuro scientist. In videos of brain scans, hesearches for patterns of neuron activity. Hisfirst short film BURNED SOIL (2012) won theLA Movie Award for Best International Filmand Best Editing. His other short filmsinclude TWELFTH NIGHT (2014) andCARLOTTA’S FACE (2018). He is currentlydeveloping his first feature-length documen-tary in which Carlotta’s intimate story willmerge with a sphere of brain science.

FRÉDÉRIC SCHULD studied at the Academyof Media Arts Cologne and founded the studioFabian&Fred with Fabian Driehorst. He worksas a director and animator of short films anddocumentaries. His films as a directorinclude THE NEW CHIMNEY (2018) andCARLOTTA’S FACE (2018).

GENRE Animation, Art, Children & Youth,Docu mentary, Drama YEAR OF PRODUCTION2018 DIRECTORS Valentin Riedl, FrédéricSchuld SCREENPLAY Valentin Riedl, FrédéricSchuld ANIMATION Frédéric Schuld PRO -DUCER Fabian Driehorst CO-PRODUCERValentin Riedl PRODUCTION COMPANYFabian&Fred, in co-production with FilmstahlRUNTIME 5 min LANGUAGE German FESTI-VALS San Francisco 2018, Cleveland 2018,Hot Docs 2018, Oberhausen 2018, Hamburg2018 AWARDS Short Tiger 2018

SALESFabian&[email protected]

34

NEW SHORTS GFQ 2-2018

© Robert Löbel

Two characters are linked by theirhair. They influence each other byevery move they make and whereverthey go.

ROBERT LÖBEL was born in 1984 and grewup in Dresden. In 2005 he began his GraphicDesign studies in Wismar. After two years hemoved to Hamburg to study Illustration. Todayhe lives and works in Berlin. His films in-clude: S SSYP (2009), WIND (2103), LINK(2017), and ISLAND (2017).

GENRE Animation YEAR OF PRODUCTION2017 DIRECTOR Robert Löbel SCREENPLAYRobert Löbel CINEMATOGRAPHY RobertLöbel ANIMATION Robert Löbel SOUNDDESIGN David Kamp PRODUCER RobertLöbel RUNTIME 8 min LANGUAGE no dia -logue FESTIVALS Ottawa 2017, DOK Leipzig2017, Interfilm Berlin 2017, Dresden 2018,Annecy 2018, Glas Animaton Festival 2018,Pictoplasma 2018, Ann Arbor 2018 AWARDSPrix de Varti for Funniest Film Ann Arbor 2018

SALESKurzFilmAgentur [email protected]

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35

100 DINGE

How many possessions do we reallyneed to enjoy life? That’s the questionposed by Florian David Fitz and

Matthias Schweighöfer in their second co l -laboration after the box-office hit THE MOSTBEAUTIFUL DAY.

Inspired by the Finnish experimental docu-mentary MY STUFF, 100 THINGS focuseson two up-and-coming entrepreneurs sur -rounded by countless gadgets and statussymbols. They’re also plagued by anxietiesand unable to function without Alexa & Siri.That is, of course, until they make a bet withone another. The wager strips them of alltheir belongings and permits them only totake back one item per day for the next 100days. Who will be the first to give up?

GENRE Comedy CATEGORY Feature DIREC-TOR Florian David Fitz SCREENPLAY FlorianDavid Fitz CAST Florian David Fitz, MatthiasSchweighöfer, Miriam Stein, Sarah ViktoriaFrick, Johannes Allmayer, Max Bretschneider,Hannelore Elsner, Maria Furtwängler,Wolfgang Stumph, Katharina Thalbach PRO-DUCERS Dan Maag, Matthias Schweighöfer,Marco Beckmann PRODUCTION COMPANYPANTALEON Films, in co-production withWarner Bros. Film Productions Germany,Erfttal Film & Fernsehproduktion LANGUAGEGerman

SALESPicture Tree International yuan@picturetree-international.comwww.picturetree-international.com

BEAT

The seven-part series BEAT (workingtitle) is the fifth German AmazonPrime Original to go into production

and marks filmmaker Marco Kreuzpaintner’sfirst foray into directing a TV series. Headingup a veritable Who’s Who of young Germanacting talent including Karoline Herfurth,Kostja Ullmann and Alexander Fehling,Jannis Niewöhner stars as Robert Schlag,nick named Beat, a Berlin club promoter wholives for the excesses of sex, drugs and theGerman capital’s nightlife. His connections tothe underworld lead the newly establishedEuropean intelligence agency to use Beat totry and infiltrate a notorious human organsmuggling ring. However, it is not long beforeBeat is fighting for his own life...

GENRE Drama, Thriller CATEGORY Mini-Series DIRECTOR Marco KreuzpaintnerSCREENPLAY Norbert Eberlein, based on anoriginal idea by Marco Kreuzpaintner CASTJannis Niewöhner, Karoline Herfurth,Christian Berkel, Alexander Fehling, HannoKoffler, Kostja Ullmann, Nina Gummrich, KarlMarkovics, Anna Bederke, Claudia MichelsenPRODUCERS Christopher Doll, LotharHellinger PRODUCTION COMPANY Hellinger/Doll Filmproduktion, in co-production withWarner Bros. Entertainment, PANTALEONFilms LANGUAGE German

CONTACT Hellinger/Doll [email protected]

DEUTSCHSTUNDE

Christian Schwochow moves from theworld of high finance in his BADBANKS mini-series to a small North

German village for a drama played out duringand shortly after the Second World War aboutduty versus individual conscience andmorality.

A glittering acting ensemble including threeEuropean Shooting Stars – Johanna Wokalek,Maria Dragus and Louis Hofmann – joinnewcomers Levi Eisenblätter and TomGronau who play the central figure of SiggiJepsen in this adaptation of Siegfried Lenz'sclassic 1968 novel The German Lesson.

The film marks Schwochow’s latest collabo-ration with his mother Heide who penned the

screenplays for three of his previous featurefilms (NOVEMBER CHILD, CRACKS IN THESHELL and WEST).

GENRE Drama, Literature CATEGORY FeatureDIRECTOR Christian Schwochow SCREEN-PLAY Heide Schwochow CAST Levi Eisen -blätter, Ulrich Noethen, Tobias Moretti,Johanna Wokalek, Sonja Richter, MariaDragus, Louis Hofmann, Tom Gronau PRO -DUCERS Jutta Lieck-Klenke, Dietrich Kluge,Ulf Israel PRODUCTION COMPANY NetworkMovie, in co-production with Senator FilmProduktion, in cooperation with ZDFLANGUAGE German

SALES Wild [email protected], www.wildbunch.biz

© Anne Wilk

© Warner Bros.

© Georges Pauly

GFQ 2-2018 UPCOMING FILMS

36

UPCOMING FILMS GFQ 2-2018

DREISSIG

Twenty-four hours with a group offriends on a Friday in October inBerlin’s blue-collar district of Neu-

kölln. Övünç is suffering from writer’s block,Pascal and Raha split up recently and are try-ing to stay friends. Kara constantly subletsher flat to keep herself moving. Hennerspends the day in a bar and meets a girl bythe name of Anja. That evening they celebrateÖvünç’s birthday and drift together throughthe city’s nightlife. The film depicts six youngpeople in their struggle with the daily grind oflife in Berlin and the reality of turning thirty.

GENRE Drama CATEGORY Feature DIRECTORSimona Kostova SCREENPLAY SimonaKostova CAST Övünc Güvenisik, PascalHoudus, Raha Emami Khansari, KaraSchröder, Henner Borchers, Anja LangerPRODUCER Ceylan Alejandro Ataman-ChecaCO-PRODUCER Jörg Daniel PRODUCTIONCOMPANY Deutsche Film- und Fernseh -akademie Berlin (DFFB) LANGUAGE German,French

CONTACT Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)[email protected]

ELEFANTEN WACHSEN SCHNELL

ELEFANTEN WACHSEN SCHNELL isthe story of a separated couple,Matthias and Anna, whose wounds are

still open and sore, but decide nonetheless toorganize a joint birthday party for their seven-year-old son, Lukas. At the end of the party,after the guests have gone with their balloonsand pieces of cake, one child, Julius, remainsbehind, uncollected by his parents. This trig-gers a rapid chain of events. At first, Matthiasjust wants to get Julius off his hands. Butthen the helpless boy awakens his protectiveinstincts and opens his eyes to his own son’sneeds.

GENRE Drama CATEGORY Feature DIRECTORCarlos A. Morelli SCREENPLAY Carlos A.Morelli CAST Mark Waschke, Anne Ratte-Polle, Kasimir Brause, Finnlay Jan BergerPRODUCERS Jakob D. Weydemann, JonasWeydemann, Yvonne Wellie PRODUCTIONCOMPANY Weydemann Bros., in co-produc-tion with ZDF Das kleine FernsehspielLANGUAGE German

CONTACT Weydemann [email protected]

The film follows the Andalusian-born,German writer José F.A. Oliver duringhis time as a writer-in-residence in

Istanbul as he observes the coming togetherof peoples, histories and cultures on theBosphorus and records his impressions andthoughts in a personal diary. At the sametime, the “poetic documentary” – which inpart gave rise to Oliver’s 2016 book 21 Ge-dichte aus Istanbul 4 Briefe & 10 Fotow:orte –offers a unique insight into the creative pro-cesses of his work as a poet and sees directorAltuner portraying him and Istanbul over thecourse of two years. Altuner also collaborateswith the Turkish pianist Fazil Say for someclassic songs from his library and on com -posing his own musical homage to Istanbul.

GENRE Literature CATEGORY DocumentaryDIRECTOR Dogan Altuner PRODUCER SvenSchnell CO-PRODUCER Asli Ertürk PRODUC-TION COMPANY San Cinema, in co-produc-tion with ESR LANGUAGE German

CONTACTphantasticas [email protected]

© DFFB

© Friede Clausz/Weydemann Bros.

© Eren Bozbas/San Cinema

KENT OZANI, DER STADTSCHREIBER VON ISTANBUL

37

DER KRIEG IN MIR

Sebastian Heinzel examines WWII’seffects on his family, following hisgrandfather’s path from Germany to

Russia, discovering links to his own past. Healso meets people from other countries withsimilar experiences. This is a generationmarked by the war and their parents’ andgrandparents’ traumas. Via his own familyhistory and others, Heinzel shows how collec-tive experiences such as flight, displacementand genocide reach to the second andthird generations. But this interrelationshipof places, people and events can also loosenknots within families and allow change.

Against the background of the global refugeecrisis and international tensions, the film

tells of the need for hope for healing and re-conciliation; an urgent appeal for peace inEurope.

GENRE Society CATEGORY DocumentaryDIRECTOR Sebastian Heinzel PRODUCERSebastian Heinzel CO-PRODUCERS VadimJendreyko, Susanne Guggenberger PRODUC-TION COMPANY Heinzelfilm, in co-productionwith Mira Film LANGUAGE German, Russian,English

SALESRise and Shine World [email protected]

PARFUM

Following such TV series as the Interna-tional Emmy-winning GENERATIONWAR and SS-GB, director Philipp Ka-

delbach now tries his hand at a contemporarycrime series inspired by Patrick Süskind’sinternational bestselling novel Perfume: TheStory of a Murderer.

A young, headstrong profiler with unusual in-vestigation techniques sets about gatheringevidence after a series of brutal murders arereported in the Lower Rhine region. One ofthe leads takes her into the past – to fiveboard ing school pupils who began experi-menting with the mystery of human scent intheir quest for power and love...

Shot in NRW last year, the six-part series will

premiere on ZDFneo this autumn and simul-taneously be available in all territories out-side of Germany via Netflix.

GENRE Drama, Thriller, Crime CATEGORYSeries DIRECTOR Philipp KadelbachSCREENPLAY Eva Kranenburg CAST Friede-rike Becht, Wotan Wilke Möhring, AugustDiehl, Ken Duken, Natalia Belitski, TrystanPütter, Christian Friedel, Jürgen Maurer,Marc Hosemann PRODUCERS Sarah Kirke-gaard, Oliver Berben PRODUCTION COMPANYConstantin Film Produktion, in co-productionwith MOOVIE, ZDF, ZDFneo, ARRI Media, incooperation with Netflix LANGUAGE German

SALES Beta Film [email protected], www.betafilm.com

STILLSTEHEN

Julie is in her mid-twenties. She is smartand quick-witted. She marches to thebeat of her own drum and has her own

manifesto: to do nothing. And with nothing,she really means NOTHING: no work, no stu-dies, no friends.

Agnes is a happy go lucky nurse of the sameage. With a husband and a child, she is fittinginto society’s expectations without giving anygreat thought to the matter. Until, that is, shemeets Julie. Together they start a rebellionthat will bring them to the limits of their re-spective worlds.

STAY STILL is a bitter-comic ode to life: full ofwitty dialogue and situational humor, dange-rous, and sexy.

GENRE Coming-of-Age Story, TragicomedyCATEGORY Feature DIRECTOR Elisa MishtoSCREENPLAY Elisa Mishto CAST NataliaBeltiski, Luisa-Céline Gaffron, Martin Wuttke,Katharina Schüttler, Giuseppe Battiston,Ole Lagerpusch, Tim Kalkof, Leslie Malton,Jürgen Vogel PRODUCER Martina HaubrichCO-PRODUCER Andrea Stucovitz PRODUC-TION COMPANY CALA Filmproduktion, in co-production with PMI, Farbfilm Produktion,cine plus Filmproduktion LANGUAGE German

CONTACT CALA [email protected]

© Heinzelfilm

© Thomas Kost/Constantin Film Verleih

© CALA Filmproduktion


UPCOMING FILMS GFQ 2-2018

38

SYSTEMSPRENGER

What would your childhood havebeen like if the only constant thingwas change? SYSTEMSPRENGER

takes us on the wild and energetic journeyof 9-year-old girl Benni through all possiblestations of Child Protective Services. She’s agentle but bold girl. Wherever she is put, sheflies right out again, but there is only onething she really wants: to live with her motheragain! But Bianca is scared of her owndaughter.

GENRE Drama CATEGORY Feature DIRECTORNora Fingscheidt SCREENPLAY Nora Fing-scheidt CAST Helena Zengel, AlbrechtSchuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide PRODU-CERS Peter Hartwig, Jonas Weydemann,Jakob D. Weydemann CO-PRODUCER FraukeKolbmüller PRODUCTION COMPANIES KineoFilmproduktion, Weydemann Bros., in co-pro-duction with Oma Inge Film, ZDF Das kleineFern seh spiel LANGUAGE German

CONTACT Weydemann [email protected]

TEARS OF CHANGE

Sebastian is growing up in Hannover. Asthe son of a single mother, he learns tobe self-reliant at a very young age.

As a teenager he falls in love with Betty.Through her, he gets to know a differentfamily structure, one which has a great ap-peal to him. But soon tensions arise betweenhim and the two worlds surrounding him. Asa young man, he poses the question as towhat remains of childhood dreams when onebecomes an adult. The film tracks a youngperson through three periods of his life, onthe journey to finding himself.

GENRE Coming-of-Age Story, DramaCATEGORY Feature DIRECTOR CeylanAlejandro Ataman-Checa SCREENPLAYCeylan Alejandro Ataman-Checa CAST FinnFreyer, Joseph Peschko, Ambar De La Horra,Frederieke Morgenroth, Andreas Sigrist,Frederik Reents PRODUCERS Jörg Daniel,Övünc Güvenisik, Ceylan Alejandro Ataman-Checa, Simona Kostova PRODUCTION COM-PANY Deutsche Film- und FernsehakademieBerlin (DFFB) LANGUAGE German

CONTACT Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)[email protected]

TRÄUME VON RÄUMEN

‘What does it mean to inhabit aspace?’, asks filmmaker and re-sident Matthias Lintner, that

space being a housing estate almost un -touched by time. Built during the GermanEmpire, the ‘Kleine Bremer Höhe’ has servedas a refuge to artists, punks and the elderly.To the occasional visitor, the quiet courtyardwith its lindens is an enchanted gardentucked away off Berlin’s busy Torstrasse.

Lintner’s answer lies in affectionate portraitsof his neighbors as he watches and listens tothose who have built a world of their own, andrefuse to focus on the outside world.

Ideas on vacantness and void appear as asubversive act against the utopia of the well-

ordered spaces and echo the thoughts of wri-ter Georges Perec, whose quotes add anessay-like layer.

GENRE Society CATEGORY DocumentaryDIRECTOR Matthias Lintner PRODUCERSMatthias Lintner, Ewelina Rosinska PRO -DUCTION COMPANY Deutsche Film- undFern seh akademie Berlin (DFFB) LANGUAGEGerman, English

CONTACTDeutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)[email protected]

© kineo/Weydemann Bros./Yunus Roy Imer

© DFFB

© DFFB

39

WARUM

Alexandra Maria Lara appears asAntonia Berger, a young enthusiasticCommunist, who goes to the Soviet

Union in the 1930s. Whilst there, she is ac -cused of spying and sent to a labor camp.After being released from the Gulag in 1952,she manages to return home to the new so-cialist East German state with her seriouslyill daughter Lydia. Antonia is forced to keepher terrible experiences secret for the com-mon good. It is only after Stalin’s death thatshe speaks out about her time in the SovietUnion. But her newly regained freedom istaken away from her again when her lover, ahospital doctor and committed Communist,informs a functionary. Antonia has to make achoice – between truth or the present.

GENRE Drama CATEGORY Feature DIRECTORBernd Böhlich SCREENPLAY Bernd BöhlichCAST Alexandra Maria Lara, Carlotta vonFalkenhayn, Robert Stadlober, KarolineEichhorn, Barbara Schnitzler, Stefan Kurt,Jürgen Tarrach PRODUCERS Eva-MarieMartens, Alexander Martens CO-PRODU-CERS Regina Spreer, Frank Evers PRODUC-TION COMPANY Mafilm Martens Film- undFernsehproduktion, in co-production withRBB, cine plus Filmproduktion, STLLANGUAGE German

SALESPluto Film Distribution Network [email protected]

WEST OF LIBERTY

Cologne-based Network Movie andSweden‘s Anagram Se have joinedforces to produce the international

high-end six-part series WEST OF LIBERTY,the first novel in Thomas Engström’s seriesof novels about the former Stasi agent andCIA informant Ludwig Licht.

German actor Wotan Wilke Möhring as Lichtis no longer in active service and works as afreelance problem solver and barman in Ber-lin’s Kreuzberg. However, when his formerCIA colleague and partner in crime GT Berner(Matthew Marsh) contacts him about investi-gating the case of Lucien Gell (Lars Eidinger),a corrupt leader of a whistle-blower site,Licht decides to return to the shadowy worldof the intelligence service to bring the num-ber one enemy of the state to justice...

GENRE Thriller CATEGORY Mini-SeriesDIRECTOR Barbara Eder SCREENPLAY SaraHeldt, Donna Sharpe CAST Wotan WilkeMöhring, Matthew Marsh, Michelle Meadows,Cara Horgan, Philipp Karner, Dona Croll, LarsEidinger PRODUCERS Wolfgang Cimera,Bettina Wente, Gunnar Carlsson PRODUC-TION COMPANIES Network Movie, AnagramSe, in co-production with ZDF, SVT SwedishPublic TV LANGUAGE English, German

SALES ITV Global [email protected], [email protected]

© Arnim Thomass

© Martin Valentin Menke


Check out the newGFQ digital issue

www.germanfilmsquarterly.de

Specially designed for desktop and mobile devices,

to keep you informed on all the latest German films

and filmmakers, and a whole lot more!

REMUNERATION IN GERMANY FOR

PRIVATE COPYING VIDEO RENTAL CABLE RETRANSMISSION VGF, a collecting society under German law, was founded in 1981 when private copying of TV-programs (in particular feature films) by means of video recording equipment started to become commercially important.

Since 1982 VGF collects blank tape levies due to German and foreign film producers under Art. 54 of the German Copyright Act and distributes them to the respective rightsholders. The German Collecting Societies Act obliges VGF to make sure that all rightsholders and owners of neighbouring rights of motion pictures, including foreign rightsholders who enjoy national treatment under the international copyright conventions, receive an equitable share of the monies collected for all rightsholders of programs broadcasted by German TV-Stations. Since it is virtually impossible for the individual rightsholders to control the use of the property and to make claims individually, Art. 54 provides that the respective rights must be administered collectively and claims can be made through a collecting society only.

VGF now administers a great number of film rights of important film and TV producers from USA, Great Britain, Germany and other countries who have joined VGF as members. Since VGF's activities come under the supervision of the German Patent Office, it is safeguarded that a fair division of monies among all rightsholders concerned takes place and that producers receive an equitable share of the royalties in Germany.

The following rights are administered by VGF:

Art. 54 German Copyright Act Private Copying

Art. 54 of the German Copyright Act provides a remuneration for private copying of films. As rightsholders cannot prevent private copying, makers of recording devices and storage media which are used to effect private copying are charged with a levy. The claim can be made by a collection society only (Art. 54h German Copyright Act). VGF as a trustee administers the rights for film and TV producers and distributes the respective amounts to the rightsholders. Licensing of television rights does not imply transfer of the above mentioned right.

Art. 27 German Copyright Act Video Rental

Art. 27 of the German Copyright Act entitles rightsholders to a supplementary remuneration for the rental and lending of videograms by video-retailers. The money must be paid by the video retailer. It is provided by law (Art. 27 Sec. 3) that claims can be made by collecting societies only.

Art. 20 b German Copyright Act Cable Retransmission

Rightsholders whose programs are broadcast by German TV stations and retransmitted via cable are also entitled to a remuneration for such cable retransmission. VGF is also active in collecting this fee. Administration of the above mentioned fees by VGF incurs no costs for the rightsholders. If your company is interested in collecting these remunerations, please contact VGF for more detailed information.

www.vgf.de [email protected]

VGF Berlin (for non-German films)Neue Schönhauser Straße 10, D-10178 Berlin — T: +49-30-2 79 07 39-46

VGF Munich (for German films)Beichstraße 8, D-80802 München — T: +49-89-1 89 37 84-0 — F: +49-89-1 89 37 84-29

43

GFQ 2-2018 GERMAN FILMS: A PROFILE

GERMAN FILMSSERVICE + MARKETINGis the national infor mation and advisorycenter for the promotion of German filmsworldwide. It was established in 1954 underthe name Export-Union of German Cinema asthe umbrella association for the Associationof German Feature Film Producers, theAssociation of New German Feature FilmProducers and the Association of GermanFilm Exporters, and operates today in thelegal form of a limited company. In 2004, thecompany was re organized and now operatesunder the name: German Films Service +Marketing GmbH.

SHAREHOLDERS are the German Pro -ducers Association, the German Pro ducersAlliance, the Association of German Film Ex-porters, the German Federal Film Board(FFA), the Deutsche Kinemathek, the GermanDocumentary Association, FilmFernsehFondsBayern, Film- und Medien stiftung NRW,Medien board Berlin-Brandenburg, and theGerman Short Film Association.

German Films’ budget of presently €4.82million comes from film export levies, theoffice of the Federal Government Com -missioner for Culture and the Media, andthe FFA. The eight main regional film funds(FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmförderungHamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Film- undMedien stiftung NRW, HessenFilm, Medien -board Berlin-Brandenburg, MFG Baden-Württemberg, Mittel deutsche Medien-förderung, and Nord media) make a financialcontribution towards the work of GermanFilms.

German Films is a founding member of theEuropean Film Promotion, a network ofEuropean film organizations with similarresponsibilities to those of German Films.The organiza tion, with its headquarters inHamburg, aims to develop and realize jointprojects for the pre sentation of Europeanfilms on an inter national level.

In association and cooperation with its share -holders, German Films works to promote fea-ture, documentary, television and short films.

In addition, German Films has foreign re p -resentatives for Eastern Europe and China/Southeast Asia.

.

RANGE OF ACTIVITIES

� Close cooperation with major interna -tional film festivals, in cluding Berlin, Cannes,Venice, San Sebastian, Locarno, Rome,Karlovy Vary, Montreal, Toronto, New York,Shanghai, Warsaw, Moscow, and Busan

� Organization of umbrella stands forGerman sales companies and producers atinternational television and film markets(Berlin, Cannes, AFM Los Angeles, Shanghai,Toronto, Clermont-Ferrand, Annecy)

� Staging of Festivals of German Films inselected inter national territories in coopera-tion with the Goethe-Institut

� Staging of industry screenings in keyinternational territories

� Providing advice and information for rep -resentatives of the international press andbuyers from the fields of cinema, homeentertain ment, and television

� Providing advice and information forGerman filmmakers and press on inter -national festivals, conditions of participation,and German films being shown

� Organization of the annual Next Genera-tion Short Tiger short film program, whichpresents a selection of shorts and is inter -nationally premiered in Cannes

� Publication of informational literatureabout current German films and the Germanfilm industry, as well as international marketanaly ses and special festival brochures

� A website (www.german-films.de) offer -ing in forma tion about new German films, afilm archive, in formation and links to Germanand international film festivals and institu -tions

� Organization of the selection procedurefor the German entry for the Oscar® for BestForeign Language Film

� Collaboration with Deutsche Welle’sDW-TV KINO program which features thelatest German film releases and inter nationalproductions in Germany

� Organization of the German Films Pre-views geared toward arthouse distributorsand buyers of German films

� Selective financial Distribution Supportfor the foreign releases of German films

� Organization with UniFrance of the annualGerman-French film meeting

SUPERVISORY BOARD

Peter Herrmann Chairman

Jana CernikKatharina Cramer-Hadjidimos Peter Dinges Antonio Exacoustos Prof. Dr. Klaus Schaefer

TEAM

Mariette Rissenbeek Managing Director

Mai Anh Do Accounts

Christine Harrasser Distribution Support, Television, Business Affairs

Angela Hawkins Communications & Marketing

Nicole Kaufmann Regional Coordinator: USA, UK & Northern Europe

Birgit Koch Press & PR

Marita Luger Assistant to the Managing Director

Dennis Ruh Festival Relations

Fides Schäffer Regional Coordinator: Asia & Australia

Maike Schantz Regional Coordinator: Southern Europe & Latin America

Martin Scheuring Project Coordinator & Short Film

Andrea Schiefer Monitoring & Strategic Development, Administration

Bernhard Simek Regional Coordinator: Eastern Europe, Documentary Film

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OPENINGTHE DOORS TO GERMAN CINEMA

45

Allianz Deutscher Produzenten – Film & Fernsehen e.V. German Producers Alliance Kronenstr. 3 | 10117 Berlin/Germanyphone +49-30-2 06 70 88 0 | fax +49-30-2 06 70 88 44 | [email protected] | www.produzentenallianz.de

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm e.V.German Documentary AssociationSchweizer Str. 6 | 60594 Frankfurt am Main/Germanyphone +49-69-62 37 00 | fax +49-61 42-96 64 24 | [email protected] | www.agdok.de

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kurzfilm e.V.German Short Film AssociationFörstereistr. 36 | 01099 Dresden/Germanyphone +49-3 51-4 04 55 75 | fax +49-3 51-4 04 55 76 | [email protected] | www.ag-kurzfilm.de

Deutsche Kinemathek Museum für Film und FernsehenPotsdamer Str. 2 | 10785 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-30 09 03-0 | fax +49-30-30 09 03-13 | [email protected] | www.deutsche-kinemathek.de

FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbHGesellschaft zur Förderung der Medien in Bayern Sonnenstr. 21 | 80331 Munich/Germanyphone +49-89-54 46 02-0 | fax +49-89-54 46 02 21 | [email protected] | www.fff-bayern.de

FilmförderungsanstaltGerman Federal Film BoardGroße Präsidentenstr. 9 | 10178 Berlin/Germanyphone +49-30-27 57 70 | fax +49-30-27 57 71 11 | [email protected] | www.ffa.de

Film- und Medienstiftung NRW GmbHKaistr. 14 | 40221 Düsseldorf/Germanyphone +49-2 11-93 05 00 | fax +49-2 11-93 05 05 | [email protected] | www.filmstiftung.de

Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbHAugust-Bebel-Str. 26-53 | 14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg/Germanyphone +49-3 31-74 38 70 | fax +49-3 31-7 43 87 99 | [email protected] | www.medienboard.de

Verband Deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE)Association of German Film ExportersRobert-Koch-Str. 1 | 80538 Munich/Germany | Berlin office: Winterfeldtstr. 56 | 10781 Berlin/Germany phone +49-173-577 08 38 | fax +49-89-57 08 77 60 | [email protected] | www.vdfe.de

Verband Deutscher Filmproduzenten e.V. German Producers AssociationHäberlstr. 5 | 80337 Munich/Germanyphone +49-89-22 84 50 45 | fax +49-89-12 19 76 03 [email protected] | www.verbanddeutscherfilmproduzenten.de

Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und MedienFederal Government Commissioner for Culture & the MediaKöthener Str. 2 | 10963 Berlin/Germany | phone +49-30-18 68 10fax +49-30-1 86 81 54 43 51 | [email protected] | www.kulturstaatsminister.de

Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein GmbHFriedensallee 14–16 | 22765 Hamburg/Germanyphone +49-40-398 37-0 | fax +49-40-398 37-10 | [email protected] | www.ffhsh.de

HessenFilm und Medien GmbHAm Steinernen Stock 1 | 60320 Frankfurt am Main/Germanyphone +49-69-15 32 404-0 | fax +49-69-15 32 404 99 | [email protected] | www.hessenfilm.de

MFG Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg mbHBereich Filmförderung | Breitscheidstr. 4 | 70174 Stuttgart/Germanyphone +49-7 11-90 71 54 00 | fax +49-7 11-90 71 54 50 | [email protected] | www.film.mfg.de

Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbHHainstr. 17-19 | 04109 Leipzig/Germanyphone +49-3 41-26 98 70 | fax +49-3 41-2 69 87 65 | [email protected] | www.mdm-online.de

nordmedia – Film- und Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen/Bremen mbHExpo Plaza 1 | 30539 Hanover/Germanyphone +49-5 11-1 23 45 60 | fax +49-5 11-12 34 56 29 | [email protected] | www.nordmedia.de

GFQ 2-2018 SHAREHOLDERS & SUPPORTERS

46

ASSOCIATION OF GERMAN FILM EXPORTERS GFQ 2-2018

ASSOCIATION OFGERMAN FILM EXPORTERS

Robert-Koch-Str. 1 80538 Munich/Germany phone +49-173-577 08 38 fax +49-89-570 877 60 [email protected] www.vdfe.de

ARRI Media InternationalTürkenstr. 8980799 Munich/Germanyphone +49-89-38 09 12 88fax +49-89-38 09 16 [email protected]/international

Beta Cinema GmbHGrünwalder Weg 28d82041 Oberhaching/Germanyphone +49-89-6 73 46 98 [email protected]

Constantin Film Verleih GmbHFeilitzschstr. 680802 Munich/Germanyphone +49-89-44 44 60 0fax +49-89-44 44 60 666 [email protected]

Berlin office: Winterfeldtstr. 5610781 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-8 61 23 93

Films Boutique GmbHKöpenicker Str. 18410997 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-69 53 78 50 [email protected] www.filmsboutique.com

Global Screen GmbHSonnenstr. 2180331 Munich/Germanyphone +49-89-24 41 29 55 00fax +49-89-55 87 61 91 [email protected]

Media Luna New Films UGKaiser-Wilhelm-Ring 38, 6th Floor50672 Cologne/Germanyphone +49-2 21-51 09 18 91fax +49-2 21-51 09 18 [email protected]

Picture Tree International GmbHHusemannstr. 710435 Berlin/Germanyphone +49-30-420 824 80fax +49-30-420 824 812pti@picturetree-international.comwww.picturetree-international.com

SOLA Media GmbHRotebühlplatz 2970178 Stuttgart/Germanyphone +49-7 11-96 89 44 40fax +49-7 11-96 89 44 [email protected]

Verband deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (VDFE)

47

GFQ 2-2018 IMPRINT & FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES

München� 089/97 58 07-0Fax 089/97 59 52 [email protected]

www.multi-logistics.de

Frankfurt� 069/69 52 36-0Fax 069/69 52 36 [email protected]

FILMTRANSPORTS . FIRST CLASS SERVICE !AIRFREIGHT WORLDWIDE:

EXPORT . IMPORT . WAREHOUSEINTERNATIONAL COURIERSERVICE:

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German Films Quarterly is published by:

German Films Service + Marketing GmbHHerzog-Wilhelm-Str. 1680331 Munich/Germanyphone +49-89-5 99 78 70fax +49-89-59 97 87 [email protected]

ISSN 1614-6387

Credits are not contractual for any of the films mentioned in this publication.

© German Films Service + Marketing GmbH

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy ortransmission of this publication may be madewithout written permission.

EditorAngela Hawkins

Contributors Martin Blaney, Matthias Dell,Simon Kingsley, Philipp Stadelmaier

TranslationsLucinda Rennison

CoverUlrich Köhler (© Annette Hauschild/Pandora Film Produktion)

Design & Art DirectionWerner Schauer www.triptychon.biz

Printing Officewww.esta-druck.de

German Films supports the use of paper from sustainable forestry.The pages of this magazine are made of PEFC certificated cellulose.PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certificationschemes) is the largest independent organization worldwide forsecuring and continuously improving a sustainable forest manage-ment and it guarantees ecological, social and economic standards.Currently there are 258 million hectares of PEFC certificated forestworldwide.

FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES

Eastern Europe

Simone BaumannSaxonia EntertainmentAltenburger Str. 904275 Leipzig/Germanyphone +49-3 41-35 00 45 36fax +49-3 41-35 00 77 45 [email protected]

China

Anke Redl China Media Management Inc.Galaxy SOHO, Tower D-50931No. 7 Xiaopaifang HutongDongchengBeijing 100010/Chinaphone +86-10-65 20 64 30fax +86-10-65 20 64 50 [email protected]

NEW FILMSFROMGERMANY

GERMAN PAVILION · #123 · VILLAGE INTERNATIONAL – RIVIERA

FOCUS GERMANY · phone +33-(0)4-92 59 00 04 · www.focusgermany.de

GERMAN FILMS · phone +33-(0)4-92 59 01 80 · www.german-films.de

CANNES

2018

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GERMAN FILMS QUARTERLY · 2018. 5. 14. · ISSUE 2-2018 DIRECTORS Ulrich Köhler & Ina Weisse...

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