Scene from:“THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL” Kino GERMAN TV-MARKETS Spotlight on SELLING GERMANFILMS Special Report International FilmFestival in CompetitionattheBerlin Wendersand Thome Schlöndorff, MASTERS GERMAN 1/2000 OF GERMANCINEMA EXPORT-UNION Thanks to our national and international customers

subtitling

film

video

dvd

10 years of Film und Video Untertitelung dubbing

post-production 10 years of high-quality subtitles editing

telecine 10% reduction on our regular prices standard conversion

video transfer

inspection of material during 10 celebratory months

graphic design from 10 July 1999 to 10 May 2000

dvd mastering

you will see the difference

www.untertitelung.de [email protected] tel.: +49-2205/9211-0 fax: +49-2205/9211-99 www. german- cinema. de/

INFORMATION ON GERMAN FILMS. now with links to international festivals!

Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH Tuerkenstrasse 93 · D-80799 München · phone +49-89-39 00 95 · fax +49-89-39 52 23 · email: [email protected] KINO 1/2000

6 Selling German Films 25 In Competition at Special Report 25 The Million Dollar Hotel 10 Opening Reality OPENING FILM For Illusions 26 Paradiso – Sieben Tage mit Portrait of Director Sherry Hormann sieben Frauen PARADISO 11 ”I Sold My Soul To Rudolf Thome The Cinema“ 27 Die Stille nach dem Schuss Portrait of Director RITA’S LEGENDS Volker Schlöndorff 12 Purveyors Of Excellence Cologne Conference

13 German TV Fare Going Like Hot Cakes German Screenings

15 A Winning Combination Hager Moss Film

16 KINO news

28 German Classics 18 In Production 28 Die Legende von 18 Besser als Bier Paul und Paula Matthias Lehmann THE LEGEND OF 18 Bis zum letzten Mann PAUL AND PAULA Carl Schenkel Heiner Carow 19 Denk ich an Deutschland … – Ein Fremder 29 Olympia I + II Peter Lilienthal 20 Du lebst noch 7 Tage 30 Sebastian Niemann 20 Invicible 31 Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum 21 Jahrestage THE LOST HONOUR OF KATHARINA BLUM 22 Poison Heart Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta Winfried Bonengel 22 Sommer Nana Djordjadze 23 Der Zauberlehrling Thomas Riedelsheimer C ONTENTS

32 New German Films 47 Die Königin – Marianne Hoppe 32 Airbag THE QUEEN – Juanma Bajo Ulloa MARIANNE HOPPE 33 Amerika Werner Schroeter Jens Jenson 48 Die Legende vom 34 Anatomie Potsdamer Platz THE LEGEND OF 35 Der Bär ist los POTSDAMER PLATZ BEAR ON THE RUN Manfred Wilhelms Dana Vávrová 49 Marlene 36 Bonhoeffer – Die letzte Stufe 50 Midsommar-Stories BONHOEFFER – AGENT OF GRACE Elena Alvarez, Michael Chauvistré, Andi Eric Till Niessner, Livia Vogt, Heike Wasem 37 Chill out 51 Spiel mit dem Teufel Andreas Struck PLAYING WITH THE DEVIL 38 Damaskus Stefan Schwiertert Manfred Beierl 52 Sumo Bruno 39 Fandango Lenard Fritz Krawinkel Matthias Glasner 53 Tobias Totz und sein Löwe 40 Flashback – TOBIAS TOTZ AND HIS LION Mörderische Ferien Thilo Graf Rothkirch, Piet de Rycker FLASHBACK 54 Der tote Taucher im Wald Michael Karen Markus O. Rosenmüller 41 Frau2 + Happy End 55 Undertaker’s Paradise FEMALE2 + HAPPY END M. X. Oberg Edward Berger 56 Verlorene Flügel 42 Ganz Unten, Ganz Oben LOST WINGS FROM THE DEPTHS Wolfgang Scholz TO THE HEIGHTS 57 Verzweiflung Matti Geschonneck DESPAIR 43 Hans Warns – Marcus Lauterbach Mein 20. Jahrhundert HANS WARNS – MY 20TH CENTURY 58 Foreign Representatives Gordian Maugg 44 Hillbrow Kids 60 Film-Exporters Michael Hammon, Jacqueline Görgen 45 Kanak Attack 62 Imprint Lars Becker 46 Käpt’n Blaubär CAPT’N BLUEBEAR Hayo Freitag Special Report SELLING GERMAN FILMS

In this new series of features we will be looking films hardly travelled outside of their home borders and pointed in forthcoming issues of KINO at the nuts-and- to the fact that, on average, 80% of the box-office takings bolts of the German sales business with profiles of at cinemas in Europe are taken by US films, 15% by national leading sales companies operating from . European films, and only 5% by non-national European films. To start with, though, this issue is presenting a general overview of what it is like selling German Over the last couple of years a number of high-profile sales films in the international market today. successes – particularly, ’s Oscar-nominated Beyond Silence and Joseph Vilsmaier’s Comedian A pan-European phenomenon Harmonists (both to Miramax) and Tom Tykwer’s (to Sony Picture Classics) – have prompted industry Before turning specifically to the German experience, it has to be observers to suggest that German cinema has become attractive said that many of the challenges and hurdles that German sales for the international market again. agents face are not any different from those confronting many of their European neighbours. But, sales veteran Dieter Menz of Atlas International Film voices a note of caution about the euphoria surrounding While US colleagues may speak all too easily in shorthand of the the international popularity of Run Lola Run and pinpoints ”European market“, such a statement ignores the fact that the film some key problems shared by other European filmmaking nations. market is far from being homogenous like the North American ”One swallow doesn’t make a summer“, he declares. ”Lola was one and is in fact made up of several individual, national markets an exception because most German feature films find it hard to with their own cultural and linguistic specificities which are some- be sold abroad – the actors aren’t known, the directors are times held up as a positive factor, i.e. Europe’s much vanuted unknowns as well and, what's more the language is a hindrance heritage of cultural diversity, but are not conducive to a film’s for some territories“. reception outside of its own national borders. Similarly, Ida Martins of Cologne-based Media Luna Film Germany shares with many of its European neighbours the fact Sales says that sales companies have to be careful not to slip that the domestic market share fluctuates from year to year – into ladling on the hype about German films because of their usually in a downward trajectory, and the market share of domestic commercial success: ”We got a negative reception non-national European films has been shrinking year by year. from some countries when we later offered German films Indeed, Vivian Reding, the European Union's new Commissioner because those other [hyped] films didn’t have the anticipated for Education and Culture, called it a ”scandal“ that European success“, she notes. ”Run Lola Run“ by Tom Tykwer ”Run Lola Run“ by Tom

6 Selling German Films ”Buena Vista Social Club“ by Wim Wenders

Classics in demand Exacoustos continues. ”Sometimes, it is for individual titles, but the that fact these producers have films with a long shelf life However, those sales companies with films by the leading lights of means that they can regularly see a trickle of money coming back the New German Cinema from the 1970's and early 1980’s – by from international sales“. the likes of Schlöndorff, Herzog, Fassbinder and Wenders – enjoy a regular income from foreign distributors In his opinion, the same goes for Edgar Reitz’s award-winning coming back every few years to renew rights to films in their back TV series Heimat and Heimat II, which were sold around the catalogues. globe and are now being represented internationally by ARRI TV, and Exacoustos anticipates considerable international interest Antonio Exacoustos, Jr., who ran Futura Film – Welt- for Reitz’s ambitious new project, Heimat 2000, which will vertrieb im Filmverlag der Autoren until the end of last be co-produced by ARRI. year and is now managing a world sales unit within ARRI TV, says that ”Fassbinder is, by far, the most popular and most ”The demand abroad for such classics has become very strong“, requested of those directors. And with good reason“. agrees veteran sales agent Lilli Tyc-Holm of company Cine- International. ”For example, we just sold a package of three ”There is also a constant demand for films from Percy Adlon, Schlöndorff films to a video company in the US“. Michael Verhoeven and Helma Sanders-Brahms“,

And she points out that a filmma- ker like Werner Herzog – who has practically all of his inter- nationally renowned films on Cine-International’s books – had more recognition and success abroad than at home in Germany with such films as Aguirre – Der Zorn Gottes, Kaspar Hauser and .

Cinepool’s Wolfram

”Der bewegteWortmann Mann“ by Sönke Skowronnek’s has similar positive experiences with leading German woman filmmaker Doris Dörrie, handling the features Geld, Happy Birthday, Türke, Keiner liebt mich (sold to 47 territo- ries) and now the latest picture Erleuchtung garantiert. ”We got a print of Erleuch- tung at the very last minute for the MIFED and had two wonderful screenings with

7 Selling German Films ”Life Is All you Get“ by Wolfgang Becker ”Life Get“ by Wolfgang Is All you

people sitting on the floor“, Skowronnek recalls. ”I have been Similarly, festival programmers and foreign buyers can be keep in talks with US distributors since then, but they are waiting to see their eyes peeled for the German talents of tomorrow by the international reaction after the film shows at festivals in Rot- checking out the films shown in the”"Next Generation“ of film terdam, Göteborg and Iran. I’ll know more by the AFM“. student shorts which are programmed by the Export-Union in Cannes and during its Festivals of German Cinema at selected Pushing a new generation cities around the globe.

At the same time, this familiarity with and demand for films by Creating markets for German films the so-called ”name“ directors can arguably make it difficult for the sales companies to get a buzz about the new generation of ”Ideally, Europe should really be the key market for German films filmmakers active in Germany. and act as a launchpad into other markets“, Michael Weber suggests. ”Distributors tend to bank on established names and want first to see how the new ones develop“ suggests Michael Weber, While Spain and Italy have often shown interest in German films head of Film International, whose ”German as seen by the success of Sönke Wortmann’s Der beweg- Independents“ label marketed Run Lola Run, Comedian te Mann and Cine-International’s recent 30-title package deal Harmonists, Hans-Christian Schmid’s 23, and Fatih to Spain, the market in the UK, on the other hand, is practically Akin’s Short Sharp Shock. closed to German films due to the ”foreign language-unfriendly“ film acquisition policies of TV stations Channel 4 and the BBC. ”With Tom [Tykwer], they all knew with Wintersleepers that he would be an interesting director, but few had the courage ”In the past couple of years, there were at least three sales of to pick up the film then. They all came back [to buy the film] German films which didn’t come about because the distributor when Lola came out and was a success“. couldn't get the security of a sale to Channel 4 or BBC“, Weber declares. At the same time, the series of invitations in recent months from leading international film festivals to films by directors from the This dilemma isn’t one only reserved for German language films, latest generation of filmmakers show that there is an exciting though: it affects all foreign language films wanting to penetrate new wave of talent out there that festival programmers have the UK market. Indeed, the British Film Institute’s Paul Brett already latched onto and of whom foreign buyers should also be told a seminar in Berlin last December that the BBC and Channel aware. 4 had bought a total of eight foreign language titles in 1998.

Thus, this year’s Sundance Film Festival is screening twin Thus, unusual strategies are the order of the day to crack the brothers Dominik and Benjamin Reding’s coming of age seemingly impenetrable UK market: two years ago, Bavaria drama Oi! Warning and actor-director Sebastian Film International and producer X-Filme Creative Pool Schipper’s Gigantic, while the ”counter festival“ Slamdance came to an agreement with British exhibitor Tony Jones to down the road invited Veit Helmer’s quirky Tuvalu and give Wolfgang Becker’s Berlin-set drama Life Is All You Farhad Yawari’s Dolphins to show in competition. Get (Das Leben ist eine Baustelle) a limited release in his City Screens chain, and Jones subsequently picked up Tom Moreover, Frieder Schlaich’s Otomo was competing Tykwer’s Wintersleepers as well to screen in his theatres. simultaneously at the festivals of Brussels and Rotterdam, and also showing in Göteborg this January as part of a large Better prospects for documentaries German presence including features by such new faces as Sebastian Peterson (Helden wie wir), Andreas Thiel On the documentary front, the situation looks rosier. Ida (Kismet), Andreas Kleinert (Paths In The Night) and Martins’ Media Luna, for example, had considerable sales Fred Kelemen (Nightfall). success with Susanne Ofteringer’s Nico-Icon and

8 Selling German Films

Donatello and Fosco Dubini’s Jean Seberg, while Road and made the selection of films - ranging from Werner Movies’ production of Wim Wenders’ Buena Vista Herzog’s – Klaus Kinski through Social Club was set to be, internationally, the most successful Caroline Link’s Annaluise and Anton (Pünktchen German majority-produced film of 1999, after taking more than und Anton) to Dagmar Knöpfel’s Requiem For a $ 6 million at the US box office and over DM 9.4 million in Romantic Woman (Requiem für eine romantische Germany as well as being the most successful documentary of all- Frau) and Doris Dörrie’s Am I Beautiful? (Bin ich time in the notoriously difficult UK market. schön?) – in collaboration wih Atlas International, Bavaria Film International, Media Luna, Cinepool and Werner Herzog The music documentary, which has already won numerous prizes Filmproduktion. and commendations including the European Documentary Award 1999 – Prix Arte, has been shortlisted into the final 12 candidates These initiatives complement the Export-Union’s own efforts to for nomination to the Documentary Oscar. identify potential new markets for German films and organise mini-festivals of German films to raise the international profile of As Road Movies’ Ulrich Felsberg quips, their experience with German filmmakers and bring them together with interested Buena Vista Social Club ”is every producer’s dream: to buyers from distribution companies and broadcasters. have total control over a production and its financing and then have a film which becomes a hit“. As Amberlon Pictures’ Norbert Maass points out, the screening of Aimee & Jaguar in the Export-Union’s Festivals Producer-director Jens Meurer of Berlin/-based Egoli of German Cinema in , Madrid and New York helped Films (Jeckes) adds that ”Buena Vista Social Club showed to rekindle interest in the film after its premiere at the Berlin that documentaries get an audience, and it was documentaries Film Festival. which kept the German cinema present and visible internationally when nobody wanted to see the feature films“. ”The Film Weeks are well prepared and you don’t have the impression that it is all divorced from the market", Michael ”When I was in the States presenting Public Enemy [which Weber observes. ”Such a setting allows you to show a film to was premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival], I had the buyers on a big screen away from a festival hubbub, and they impression that people are dying for German films“, Meurer see it with a normal audience“. declares, ”but they are not dying for German comedies they don’t understand“. Buoyed by the success of previous Festivals, another round were held in Madrid, Paris, London and Buenos Aires last autumn, orga- Raising German cinema’s international profile nised in cooperation with the German Federal Film Board (FFA), the Goethe-Institut, Inter Nationes, the Federal State Minister for The sales agents are not left to fend for themselves, though: over Culture and Affairs of the Media (BKM) and the six main regional the last couple of years, the regional film funds have done their film funds. own bit by arranging special weeks and showcases to present films produced in and with support from their respective And 2000 will see Rome added to the list of cities hosting a regions. FFF Bayern, for example, organised two programmes of showcase of the latest interesting films to emerge from Germany. ”Movies Made in Bavaria“ last November in Warsaw and Cracow ”Nico-Icon“ by Susanne Ofteringer

9 Portrait of Sherry Hormann

Born in the USA in 1960, the German-American came to Germany with her family in 1966. At the age of 19, she stopped training to become a pianist and applied instead for a place at Munich’s Academy for Television & Film (HFF). Upon graduation, she worked as an assistant director and production designer before beginning to write her own screenplays. Her first feature film as director, Leise Schatten, won three German Film Awards and a Bavarian Film Prize for best newcomer direction. Her film credits are: Stupid Marriage (short, 1981), Frosch ist König (short, 1982), Jetzt oder nie (graduation film, 1984), Tiger, Löwe, Panther (script/produc- tion design; dir: Dominik Graf, 1987/88), Spieler (production design; dir: Dominik Graf, 1989), Leise Schatten (1989), Frauen sind was Wunderbares (1993/94), Irren ist männlich (1995), Widows – Erst die Ehe, dann das Vergnügen (1997), and Private Lies (formerly known as Bye Bye America, 2000). OPENING REALITY FOR ILLUSIONS It wasn’t an escape, but more of an inner self-reflection. Sherry tendon and its sheath shattered these plans and fostered her Hormann had managed with two comedies, Women Are chronic love for the cinema, a love she has championed since with Simply Wonderful (Frauen sind was Wunderbares, charm, vivacity and a desire to carry things through to the end. 1994) and Doubting Thomas (Irren ist männlich 1996), Right away with her first screenplay Tiger, Lion, Panther, to meet with an acclaim which one often hopes for German films which was then filmed by Dominik Graf and where she would but can never take for granted. However, her next feature film have liked to have directed, but wasn’t allowed to by the finan- Widows (1997) shot wide of the mark of many people’s expec- ciers, she had to get used to a prejudice that she was loathe to tations, not least also those of the American passport carrying constantly fight against: of having to prove herself in particular German director, with its daring mixture of melodramatic and because she was young and a woman. weirdly funny moments. ”I look at what I know“ was always her maxim, ”one’s own life must All the sweeter then was the not just take place in a darkened triumph when her directorial cinema”. Unexpectedly, she was debut Silent Shadows (Leise in danger of no longer being Schatten, 1991) was honoured able to trust her own stories. with the in Silver and other distinctions. This Meeting expectations was film, poetic and at the same time never to be her recipe, she was highly stylised, is the portrait of a more inclined to be one to woman whose life’s illusions are swim against the current. So as dashed by reality. The following she could indulge in reflection two works, incomparably more in peace and quiet, she with- turbulent and playful, went in the drew from Germany at the end opposite direction: opening of 1997 and went to America reality up again for illusions. and the solitude of the woods two hours' car drive from Women are Simply Boston where she had few Wonderful, the second film problems ”listening to my based on her own script, and own silence“. She is currently Irren ist männlich, her first working on a screenplay Sherry Hormann (photo © Erika Hauri) film based on another author’s about survivors of the screenplay, do not aim with Holocaust, and took part in the past two years in a TV series forced comedy for a reflection of life, but are completely con- about life in contemporary Germany with the clearly personal structed done for the sake of cinema. contribution Angst spür’ ich, wo kein Herz ist, and direc- ted an episode of the Bella Block series for ZDF with the title Figures in a dramatic corset, but at the mercy of their individual Blinde Liebe which will be aired this year and will cause a real centrifugal force: this tension feeds the alphabet of love and it is stir with its thematic heightening of the issue of people’s human only through this roundabout way of practised artificiality that this interdependence as well as its excitingly realistic casting director’s joy of observation and knowledge of human nature (Hannelore Hoger, Natalia Wörner, Martin Wuttke). leads to a sense of truthfulness. And she has just completed a film shot in America with Martina Gedeck and Marianne Sägebrecht with the working title Sherry Hormann vouches that her figures hold onto their Private Lies, a modern version of the Caucasian Chalk Circle freedom: for volatility, the tendency towards the weird and mad. and ”my most personal film“, as Sherry Hormann admits. She sees it as ”honest“ to have the courage to show breaks and feelings outside the norm. The spectator should not be able to Back to the roots then. Sherry Hormann has always been work out what awaits him or her. There is no more intelligent that smart in her own life. Born in New York State in 1960 and way to be entertained. coming with her parents to Germany six years later, she had actually intended to become a pianist. But an inflammation of a Sherry Hormann spoke with Hans-Dieter Seidel

10 Portrait of Tom Tykwer

Tom Tykwer was born in in 1965 and began making films in 1976. He worked on various productions as production assistant, script reader, and assistant director. In 1994, his feature debut Deadly Maria (Die tödliche Maria, 1993) was named the Best Film by the German Film Critics Association, and Tykwer won the Eastman Support Award at the Hof Film Days and the Bavarian Film Award for Best Newcomer Direction. He was also co-author on Wolfgang Becker’s 1997 Berlinale competition entry Life Is All You Get (Das Leben ist eine Baustelle). Tykwer has directed Friday Afternoon (Super 8, 1986), Because (medium-length feature, 1990), Epilog (short, 1992), Wintersleepers (Winterschläfer, 1997) and Run Lola Run (Lola rennt, 1998), which won several German Film Awards and was Germany’s entry for the 1998 Best Foreign Language Academy Award. He is currently working on the postproduction of his latest feature The Princess and the Warrior (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin). ”I SOLD MY SOUL TO THE CINEMA“ When talking about the exciting new generation of filmmakers images that I absolutely want to see in the cinema, images where coming out of Germany, there is inevitably one name that always I feel I haven’t seen them before. In Lola, of course, it was the crops up in conversation as one of the directors who has helped girl running. That is more important to me than starting out with a return German cinema to the international arena after it had story idea“. spent so many years in the doldrums. ”Thematically, my films look at what the power of love is able That person is Berlin-based filmmaker Tom Tykwer who was to achieve; romantic, broken elements play a role here. There is already a ”person to watch“ even before the excitement erupted always a longing for a love that is supposed to save something“, two years ago over Run Lola Run. he adds, pointing out that his credo is ”to make a very personal and emotional cinema and com- After spending his childhood in bine this with entertainment the Ruhr industrial town of value“. Wuppertal, Tykwer moved to Berlin soon after finishing His approach to filmmaking is school, and he has stayed here very much in the tradition of the ever since. His love affair with film auteur with his finger in cinema began at the tender age many pies: Tykwer is not only of 11 when he shot his first credited as director on his films, Super 8 films and, in common he also pens the screenplay with Germany’s other great (with or without co-writers), film export Rainer Werner composes the film’s music Fassbinder, failed to get a with friends and also has a very place at one of the country's much hands-on approach during film schools. the editing of the film.

But, no matter, at the age of Tykwer agrees that his work is 23, Tykwer became manager made easier by the fact that he and projectionist of Berlin’s has built up a ”family“ around legendary Moviemento cinema Tom Tykwer (photo © Jim Rakete) him to make his films. First and and laid the foundation for his foremost are producer Stefan extensive knowledge of cinema and unquenchable thirst for new Arndt, who produced his feature debut Deadly Maria in film experiences. 1993 and with whom he founded the production company X- Filme Creative Pool with fellow filmmakers Wolfgang ”I have a long tradition of spending my time in the cinema“, Becker and Dani Levy in 1994, and X-Filme’s second produ- Tykwer declares, ”not for theoretical reasons, but just for some cer Maria Köpf. simple longing to be in a darkened room and experience other worlds - I sold my soul to the cinema! I have always had the fee- In addition, he always works with the same director of photo- ling that someone is sending me on a journey with them. In my graphy Frank Griebe and is now in the editing suite for The favourite films, the film had something to do with the filmmaker's Princess and the Warrior with Mathilde Bonnefoy subjectivity, with their personality“. who won the German Film Award last year for her editing of Run Lola Run. Does he see a common thread running through his own films? ”This family character of our productions means that when you ”Each film at the beginning has something of its own to say“, start a new project, you can start exactly at the point where you Tykwer explains, ”but then, later on, I see that some elements left off. It’s all about intuition because often one doesn’t have to crop up again and again even though I hadn't planned it that way. I exchange words. We have experienced so much together that don’t have a list of things that I tick off. In my case, I have some one get's a feel for what the other person is thinking“.

Tom Tykwer spoke with Martin Blaney 11 Cologne Conference – International Television and Film Festival

From 1993, the section ”Top Ten Television“ was created to show the best of international television, ranging from Prime Suspect and Wild Palms through Cracker, Die Bubi Scholz Story to South Park and Queer As Folk. Lutz Hachmeister The 1995 edition then saw the introduction of the ”Spectrum“ sidebar to present unusual formats such as the UK travel magazi- ne series Rough Guide To The World, 3rd Rock From The Sun, The Sopranos and From The Earth To The Moon, and the ”Screenings On Demand“ service has enabled interested buyers and the general public to create their own mini-festival of TV fare.

Each subsequent year, another innovation has been introduced to the Conference programme to acknowledge the dynamic growth of the television market in Germany and abroad.

In 1996, the establishment of an annual retrospective helped highlight the relationship between film and television, beginning with Michael Radford and following with Donn A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus (1997), Götz George (1998), and Tim Roth (1999).

A year later, a DM 10,000 Casting Award was presented to An Dorthe Braker whose credits include Schtonk, Rossini, Das Leben ist eine Baustelle and the 1995 Top Ten Television entry Frau Bu lacht. The Award, which aims ”to honour the importance of casting for both television PURVEYORS OF EXCELLENCE

After only ten years in business, the Cologne Conference and cinema productions and shall bring the merits of independent, can rightly be mentioned in the same breath as the other major professional casting agencies to the public’s attention“, has since television festivals, FIPA in Nice and the Banff Television Festival in gone to Heta Mantscheff (Todesspiel) and Nessie Canada. Nesslauer (23, Crazy).

In 1991, Dr. Lutz Hachmeister, the then director of the Then, in 1998, the Conference became host to a Producer Award Adolf Grimme Institute in the North Rhine-Westphalian ”intended to acknowledge German language producers who have town of Marl, launched the ”Cologne Conference“ as a distinguished themselves through high-quality, original concepts parallel event to the Media Forum NRW in June. which have also enjoyed public success“. In its first year, the Award went to the Munich-based producing duo Jakob As Hachmeister recalled later, the Conference was intended Claussen and Thomas Wöbke, while 1999 saw the honour as ”a high calibre meeting which would focus on the quality of TV being bestowed on Marlene producer Jutta Lieck-Klenke. productions, the expertise of those active in TV journalism and the art of television, and was to be an answer to the usual, rather Attempting to bridge the gap between television and film is one of sterile form of media-political debate“. the Conference’s goals: whether it is through the creation of a new ”Cinema“ section (renamed ”Cinema International“ in 1999) The word ”Conference“ might give outsiders the impression or the extension of the event’s subtitle to read ”International that the event consisted merely of seminars and workshops, Television and Film Festival Cologne“. but this was definitely not the case even though this is an integral part of the event and has focused over the last nine years on such ”The Cologne Conference considers itself as a festival for a issues as TV design and network identity, the international new language both in movies and television, as a 'Bauhaus' for the market for documentary television, promotion and marketing connection of the media, without denying each its proper value for TV programmes, and the UK TV market as a model for and respect“, Hachmeister declares. ”Establishing a new German broadcasters. Cinema section is part of this structure as well as awarding a prize for the best producer of the year“. Unlike the rest of the Media Forum, the Cologne Conference gives delegates and the general public the opportunity to see examples of quality television which are often referred to in the Contact: panel discussions. Cologne Conference – International Television and Film Festival Cologne ”New and exceptional international TV productions were presen- Im Mediapark 5b · D-50670 Cologne ted to the public in carefully selected series, without schematically phone: +49-2 21-4 54 32 80 distinguishing between public or commercial productions, fiction fax: +49-2 21-4 54 32 89 or documentary, series or independent works, Hachmeister www.cologne-conference.de points out. email: [email protected]

12 German Screenings

Each year, the German Screenings, the most important programme market for ARD and ZDF, sets up shop in a different German city.

In 1999, the 24th German Screenings came to Cologne to offer a showcase of programmes by TELEPOOL, ZDF Enterprises and german united distributors, and the initial results suggest that this edition was one of the most successful so far.

An important feature of the Screenings is that they are not just another of the usual TV programme trade fairs – to begin with, it is the only international market dedicated exclusively to German productions, and it is also a unique opportunity for TV executives to really have a chance to come to grips with the contents of the programmes on view in the Screenings because the participants decide how they put their screening day together. GERMAN TV FARE GOING LIKE HOT CAKES

In addition to the individual programme presentations, The German Screenings were also the year’s most successful participants can obtain a good overview of new productions trade fair for Munich-based TELEPOOL with more than 100 through the Special Screenings which were organised by programmes sold. Highlights in the area of fiction were the TELEPOOL, ZDF Enterprises and german united distributors ARD series Power Women (Lauter tolle Frauen), with directors and actors in attendance to talk about their shows. Love And Other Catastrophes (Liebe und weitere Katastrophen) as well as the TV movies Supersingle, While ZDF Enterprises showed a selection of its new doctor Women Are Better Liars (Frauen lügen besser), series – The Sternbergs – Doctors, Brothers, Passion and Your Best Years (Deine besten Jahre). On the and Heartbeat Northern Medecine under the slogan documentary front, there was strong demand for the series ”ZDF’s Doctor Series – Bloody Good!“, TELEPOOL invited the Schauplätze der Weltkulturen. A package of programmes Screenings delegates to ”spend an entertaining afternoon with with more than 30 hours of documentaries was sold to a Germany’s most fascinating Power Women“, such as Senta French TV station, while the series Kein schöner Land which Berger in At Fifty Men Kiss Differently, Jennifer visits different regions of Germany, was sold to South Africa. Nitsch in Men Are Like Chocolate and Suzanne von Borsody in I Love My Family, Really I Do!, and german German united distributors also reported brisk business at the united distributors presented a selection from its children’s 24th Screenings: more than 250 hours of programming were programmes (Einstein’s Kids), new fiction (Trio For Life) sold to Eastern Europe, including such detective TV movies as and wildlife programmes (Expedition Into The Animal Schimanski and Tatort episodes or the series Trio For World). Life (Drei mit Herz). A deal with France worth 11 million Francs was also on the table to be signed. Moreover, the first part Last December, Cologne’s Dorint Kongress Hotel was the venue of a volume deal for Italy will include such TV movies as the over four days for around 60 screening rooms with more than thriller Schitour, episodes of Tatort and Die Männer vom 200 buyers from a total of 40 countries around the globe. In this K3. In addition, the children’s series The Pepperkorns (Die professional setting, the buyers were able to devote all of their Pfefferkörner) and Pauline were sold to Italy and Eastern attention to viewing the programmes on offer and have one-on- Europe, while Hungarian television picked up the family TV one discussions with the sales agents. According to organiser movie Der Hund aus der Elbe. Documentaries from the Silke Spahr of 1999’s host german united distributors, this is german united distributors’ catalogue were also much in demand seldom possible in the hustle and bustle of the big trade fairs like – such as Die amerikanische Reise des Alexander MIP-TV and MIP-COM in Cannes. This time round, the Screenings von Humboldt and the two-parter Die Ballade von were able to welcome participants for the first time from Russian Baikalsee, while Spanish broadcasters bagged 20 wildlife State Television RTR as well as guests from Bosnia Herzegovina productions, and it may be only a matter time before colleagues and Nigeria. from Denmark and follow suit and also buy some nature programmes ”made in Germany“. Soon after the last programme had shown at the Screenings, the sellers made the first announcements of deals made this year: The 25th German Screenings will be held in ZDF Enterprises was able to sign a total of 70 deals with over 20 Munich from 26-30 November, 2000. partners from 13 countries. Deals worth no less than 18 million Francs were concluded with French-speaking territories. The German Screenings 2000 most successful title was Der Kardinal, which was shown Telepool · Heide Bayer by ZDF in early 2000 and is ”Mr Derrick“ Horst Tappert’s Sonnenstr. 21 · D-80331 Munich first TV movie since he retired from the internationally successful phone: +49-89-55 87 60 detective series. ZDF also found a lot of interest for the detec- phone: +49-89-55 87 61 88 tive series Siska, which will be aired in 17 countries in future, as email: [email protected] well as the documentaries Der Ötztal-Mann und seine Welt and the series Sphinx.

13

Circle International GmbH

Sie suchen einen kompetenten Partner, der Ihnen schnell und zuverlässig bei Transport und Logistik zur Seite steht, der die ideale Lösung für Sie hat ? Dann sind wir die Richtigen für Sie. Durch die langjährige Erfahrung unserer Mitarbeiter vor allem in der Filmindustrie, diversen Produktionen und bei der Abwicklung von Messetransporten, wir von Circle International alles was Sie brauchen. Schließlich garantieren wir mit unserem weltweit verzweigten Netz an Büros und spezialisierten Agenten/Mitarbeitern eine sichere, souveräne und globale Abwicklung Ihrer Aufträge.

You are looking for a competent partner who can assist you proficiently and reliably with all your logistic needs ? Then we have the right solutions for you. With the long-term experience of our employees in the film industry, productions (in general) and on- time deliveries for film fairs, Circle International offers you all you will ever need. After all, our world- wide network of offices and specialized agents guarantees you the world class competence and support you can expect from a strong partner.

Airport-Office Munich Logistics Center Eching/Munich

Aircargo Center, Modul F Heisenbergstrasse 10 85356 Munich / Germany 85386 Eching/Munich Tel./Phone: ++49 89 97 30 30 Tel./Phone: ++49 8165 64 40 Fax: ++49 89 97 59 49 86 Fax: ++49 8165 64 450 Contact: Günter Berger Contact: Thomas Kuhn

Interview Hager Moss Film

Last November, Munich-based producers Kirsten Hager and Hager Moss Film’s first feature was Sherry Hormann’s Eric Moss celebrated the tenth anniversary of the founding of Leise Schatten (Silent Shadows, 1992) which was their company Hager Moss Film. awarded the Bavarian Film Award and the German Film Award (Deutscher Filmpreis). Their next collaboration with Hormann, ”From the outset, we adopted a two-track strategy“, explains Frauen sind was Wunderbares (Women Are Simply partner Eric Moss, who had already amassed extensive Wonderful, 1993) won the Bavarian Film Award for newcomer experience of working on both German and international producers and was followed by Philipp Weinges’ Japaner productions, ”and we did this by producing commercials, on sind die besseren Liebhaber (Japanese Are Better the one hand, and features, on the other“. Lovers, 1994), and another two films by Sherry Hormann: Irren ist männlich (1995) and Widows – Erst die Ehe, "The first feature project to be made after the company was foun- dann das Vergnügen (Widows, 1997). Last year, the com- ded was Sherry Hormann’s first feature Silent Shadows“, pany produced ’s and recalls Kirsten Hager who had previously worked as a line Sönke Wortmann St. Pauli Nacht producer and production manager for Bernd Eichinger and as a Friedemann Fromm’s Schlaraffenland. Hager Moss Film freelancer. is also producer of many award-winning commercials. A WINNING COMBINATION ”It has been a very successful combination“, Hager declares, As time went on, the company embarked on ever more ambitious ”commercials have allowed us to work in shorter time spans and projects with increasingly bigger budgets and they attracted an earn money much quicker, whereas for features you are commit- international star of the calibre of Italian actress Ornella Muti ted to a project for a longer time“. to appear in Widows.

”Each film has been a challenge because it has been a bit bigger than the previous one“, Hager declares: ”for example, we went from Irren ist männlich at DM 6.5 million to Schlaraffenland at DM 10 million.

Next steps

Eric Moss, Kirsten Hager Eric Moss, Now, after ten years, the company has established itself as one of the key players in the German feature film and advertising worlds and is planning to expand its activities.

”Until now, we have produced for the German market“, Hager explains, ”but now we want to become more international. We often had enquiries from foreign producers in the past, but now we are actively interested in working with partners on internatio- nal co-productions where it makes sense“.

”In addition, we are investing more in project development and will launch a TV production arm“, Moss says. ”To this end, we have been hiring new personnel to handle this area, including a head of development and a junior producer“.

This new flurry of activity doesn’t, however, mean that Hager Moss Film is planning to come under the wing of one of the many aggressively acquisitive publicly listed media companies.

Staying independent

”There were many discussions“, Moss admits, ”but we want to keep our independence“.

”We saw that we need our individuality in order to mobilise our forces“, adds Hager, ”this is very important for us. And we are Synergies created also free in our choice of partners. It has just turned out that our last films have been released by Buena Vista, but there was no Moss also points out that there has been a real exchange bet- reason to change things since our collaboration on Irren ist ween the two sectors: ”directors working in advertising have männlich was so good“. moved over into features and, at the same time, we have worked with film directors on commercials because this gives them a Looking back at the development of German cinema over the last chance to try out new things and work with more precision. It’s ten years, Hager notes ”how the early years were really very very good training and good discipline“. hard. Nobody went to see German films. Then we had a period when people went to see comedies and thus also German films. ”The synergies between the two fields also meant that we are Suddenly, you had the films practically snatched out of your more aware of the new possibilities in postproduction because hands, you were courted and didn’t have to go around like a there are quite different sums of money available in advertising for door-to-door salesman with your project. That was almost a the various techniques one can use“, Hager continues. heavenly situation“.

15 Kino news

EXU-FFA joint stand at the Berlinale 2000

As in previous years, the German Federal Film Board (FFA) and the Export-Union will also be having a joint stand at the Berlinale’s new venue at Potsdamer Platz. The German film industry – with its funders, trade associations and exporters – will be represented with stands over a total space of around 450 sqm in the Mercedes-Benz show room of the debis Haus from 9-20 February 2000. Gigantic Recognition for Four German Films at Sundance and MFG Baden-Württemberg in 2000 Slamdance festivals At Sundance Filmfestival: by Dominik and Benjamin Reding ”Oi! Warning“ The Baden-Württemberg Script Prize worth DM The Sundance Festival 2000 (20-30.1.2000) presented two 50,000 will be awarded for the second time during the 50th films by German newcomer directors in its sidebar ”World Berlin International Film Festival on February 15. 33 scripts Cinema“: GIGANTIC by Sebastian Schipper and OI! will participate in the competition whose aim is to support WARNING by Dominik and Benjamin Reding. young script talents. The winner of the first Baden- Württemberg Script Prize in 1999, Anne Wild and GIGANTIC, currently showing in German cinemas, is about Stefan Dähnert’s script ”Was tun wenn’s brennt?“, three friends who decide to paint the town red one last time will be produced by Claussen + Wöbke for Deutsche and pass between laughter and tears as their friendship turns Columbia Tristar in spring 2000. them into giants for this one night (production company: X-Filme creative pool). And OI! WARNING is also a MFG has further more initiated a Franco-German coming-of-age-story: the film portrays in expressive black- exchange for animated films between the two regions and-white images the life of a boy searching for identity in a Baden-Württemberg and Rhône-Alpes. Two major events in world where only masculinity counts (production company: this project will be the ”Festival d’un Jour“, February 18-19, Schlammtaucher-Film, ). where a selection of animated films produced recently in Baden-Württemberg will be shown, and the ”10. Inter- An invitation to this festival, which enjoys a cult status in the nationales Trickfilmfestival “, March 16-21. international film world, is a great sense of achievement for the young directors: ”I’m dancing in the sun and dead proud In collaboration with MFG, Filmboard Berlin-, that Sundance, one of the most exciting and innovative film Studio Babelsberg Independents, the European Film Academy festivals in the world, will show GIGANTIC. Mega-gigantic!, and Kinowelt, Script House Berlin will be presenting the first enthused Sebastian Schipper. The twins Dominik European Pitch Point on February 11 during the Berlin and Benjamin Reding were similarly delighted: ”Being International Film Festival. The Pitch Point sees itself as an invited to Sundance is for us an enormous recognition of our opportunity for European producers, distributors and commis- filmmaking and a strong encouragement to continue on the sioning editors to meet talented scriptwriters and find path of uncompromising, imaginative and innovative films“. interesting projects for co-production. Sundance also featured the German-Austrian-Swiss-Russian- Middle Germany French coproduction LUNA PAPA by Bakhtiar Internet Location Guide Khudojnazarov (production company: Pandora, Cologne).

Thanks to its favourable position in the middle of Germany Meanwhile, practically down the road, another two German and MDM’s funding possibilities (http://www.mdm- films took part in the 6th ”Slamdance“ Festival, the ”counter- foerderung.de), this media location is increasingly gaining in festival“ to Sundance: TUVALU by Veit Helmer and attractiveness. In order to ensure that the impressive DOLPHINS by Farhad Yawari. locations in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia do not remain tips for those in the know, a location guide is currently Helmer had already made a name for himself internationally being compiled for the WorldWideWeb. Over 1,000 locations with his sensational shorts (”Surprise!“). In his first feature- will be registered by May 2000 and can be accessed via the length film TUVALU, he employs unusual means – using few address: http://www.film-location.com. The Middle words, filmed in black-and-white and lovingly hand-coloured – Germany Internet Location Guide will offer the uni- to recount a fairytale story which was first seen during the San que opportunity for users to receive swift and comprehensive Sebastian Film Festival and has since received invitations from information about the locations in the three Länder. A detailed around the globe. picture of the situation on the ground will be provided with the aid of photographs of the individual locations and infor- DOLPHINS by Farhad Yawari is already an internatio- mation of relevance for production teams. nal success as well: the story of a young woman who has to live in a psychiatric institution and creates a dream world for The Middle Germany Internet Location Guide herself where dolphins are her friends. The visually powerful, will be presented for the first time to interested professionals lavishly produced short has already won several prizes and is during this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. The presen- tipped as a strong candidate for a short film Oscar nomination. tation will be held during the MDM’s reception at the ”Blaue It was shown in the Slamdance’s feature film competition Kugel“. despite its short film running time of 40 minutes. 16 Kino news

FilmFörderung Hamburg new partner for “North by Northwest“

This January saw FilmFörderung Hamburg become the German partner of ”North by Northwest“, the North European network for writers, producers and directors. The partner organisations are the Danish Film Institute, the First Film Foundation and the Maurits Binger Film Institute. 16 pro- At Sundance Filmfestival: ”Gigantic“ by Sebastian Schipper New: The Bavarian Bank Fund fessional writers are trained at "”North by Northwest“ over a period of seven months in three workshops which each last Four Bavarian banks – Bayerische Landesbank, HypoVereins- for a week. The tutors are experienced screenwriters and bank, Reuschel Bank and the LfA Förderbank Bayern - lecturers from the USA. ”The intensive work with the excel- joined forces to launch the DM 20 million Bavarian Bank lent lecturers and the exchange with other North European Fund (BBF) to finance the production and distribution of countries is certain to be valuable for German writers, story commercial German feature films. editors and producers“, says Eva Hubert, chief executive of FilmFörderung Hamburg. The BBF will provide gap financing of up to DM 2 million for production and DM 400,000 for distributing projects that have Further information can be obtained from Media Desk also applied for backing by the Bavarian film funding institution (phone: +49-40-390 65 85) or in the Internet at FFF Bayern. www.n-nw.dk.

The loan will only be allocated once a project gets the green- light from FFF’s selection committee, and, having recouped its loan, BBF will participate in a film's further revenues in accordance with its share of the production budget.

According to general manager Klaus Schaefer, the accu- mulation of FFF funding alongside the BBF loan will enable FFF to make greater volumes of financing available in Bavaria for producers and distributors, as the BBF will be a complemen- tary financing measure to the existing FFF Bayern fund.

Active at home and abroad: Filmstiftung NRW

Filmstiftung NRW is currently preparing a co-production At Slamdance Filmfestival: ”Dolphins“ by Farhad Yawari treaty with the Netherlands. The centrepiece of the new FFA backing the future: treaty with the Dutch Film Fund will see the possibility for Strengthening of funding for supported co-productions between producers from NRW and the Netherlands being able to in part fulfil the regional newcomers effects demanded by the respective film funds in one or other of the two regions. Other aspects of the limited pilot project The FFA is to award funding of DM 200,000 for the first time include the exchange of professionals and joint training and fur- in 2000 to support the creative new generation of filmmakers. ther education programmes. Six short films, which have been selected by six film schools and evaluated by a jury, will each be presented with a funding At the Sundance Film Festival in Park City in January, Film- sum of DM 30,000, with one of them receiving DM 50,000. stiftung NRW was represented by two of its funded films: The prizes will be presented at the Munich Film Festival this Gigantic by Sebastian Schipper and Shadow Magic. summer and will serve the graduates as start-up or seed Ann Hu’s film was shot in China and is the first US-Chinese- financing after or shortly before the end of their studies for Taiwanese-German co-production. For Filmstiftung the production of a new short or feature-length film. NRW, Shadow Magic is also the result of the good contacts forged with China following two trips to Asia by The FFA is also planning to intensify its activities in the area representatives of the NRW film industry. of further vocational training. The free Film Industry Training Atlas, which will be launched during the Berlinale, aims to provide a national overview of all providers of vocational and in-service training courses in the creative and business administration fields. The training programmes are listed in alphabetical order from administration through production to video with the course length, number of participants etc. as well as the addresses of the individual institutions. The Atlas can be obtained from the FFA, Budapester Strasse 41, 10787 Berlin, or via the order box on the website: http://www.ffa.de/Publikationen.

17 At Slamdance Filmfestival: ”Tuvalu“ by Veit Helmer by Veit At Slamdance Filmfestival: ”Tuvalu“ love with two girls, then end up at a punk concert by Attila The Stockbroker and the Legendary Fish Brothers – and the girls are also there. A happy end made in heaven!“

”The film has two levels“, adds producer Manja Lutz. ”on the one hand, you have the fun level, and then there is the more philoso- phical aspect with their longing for love“. Scene from ”Besser als Bier“ © Prokino Scene from Besser als Bier Bis zum Original Title Besser als Bier (working title) Type of letzten Mann Project Feature Film Genre Comedy Production Company Catapult Film, Munich in co-production with Original title of the film Bis zum letzten Mann (working Prokino Filmproduktion, Munich With backing from title) Type of Project Feature Film Genre Thriller FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film, Production Company MPS Medienproduktionen GmbH, Filmstiftung NRW Producers Manja Lutz, Monika Raebel Munich With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern Director Matthias Lehmann Screenplay Matthias Lehmann, Producer Susanne Porsche Line Producer Michael Roehrig Eckhard Preuss Director of Photography Jo Heim Director Carl Schenkel Screenplay Nikolai Müllerschön, Ian Principal Cast Markus Knüfken, Eckhard Preuss Format Bowater Director of Photography Egon Werdin Principal 35 mm, colour, 1:1,66 Shooting Language German Cast Thomas Kretschmann, Désirée Nosbusch, Klaus Löwitsch Shooting in Munich and Dortmund from July 12 to August 23 Shooting Language German Shooting in Frankfurt and 1999 German Distributor Prokino, Munich Munich in 1999/2000

World sales: Contact: Bavaria Film International MPS Medienproduktionen GmbH München Bavariafilmplatz 8 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig Münchener Str. 14, D-85774 Unterföhring phone: +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax: +49-89-64 99 37 20 phone: +49-89-95 99 00 www.bavaria-film-international.de fax: +49-89-95 99 04 44 email: [email protected] email: [email protected]

Last summer saw the shooting of Matthias Lehmann’s debut Principal photography began shortly before Christmas on the feature-length film Besser als Bier (working title) at locations thriller Bis zum letzten Mann, directed by Swiss-born in Dortmund and Munich. action specialist Carl Schenkel, who is known to international audiences for such films as Out Of Order (Abwärts, 1984), The co-production by young Munich-based outfit Catapult with Götz George and Hannes Jaenicke, and the chess Film and the production arm of distributor Prokino expanded psycho-drama Knight Moves (1992), starring Christopher on the story of two drinking mates Hoffi and Lehmi whose Lambert. adventures had first been explored by the director in his graduat- ion film of the same name.

”I experienced some weird things during my youth and community service and then thought that one could make a film out of them“, Lehmann recalls. ”At the HFF I was more occupied with fanta- sy-type films that had nothing to do with reality, but then I thought it would be interesting to try something drawn from real life“. Carl Schenkel with team Carl Schenkel The autobiographical short Besser als Bier was very well received, winning one of the City of Munich’s Film Prizes for up- and-coming filmmakers, and Lehmann decided to return to Hoffi and Lehmi for his feature debut. ”We had so many anecdo- tes but had to find a way of distilling all these adventures down to 21 hours in one day“, Lehmann explains.

”The question [actor] Eckhard Preuss and I asked ourselves when we were writing the screenplay was how we could make this full of life without having anyone shot, there being any car chases or any meteorites raining down on Dortmund. It’s just taken from real life: two lads having a few beers together and phi- losophising about life and love. They spend the day together, fall in

18 in production

Scripted by writer-director Nikolai Müllerschön and Ian Veteran director Peter Lilienthal (David, Es herrscht Bowater, Bis zum letzten Mann centres on right-wing Ruhe im Land), who celebrated his 70th birthday last year, extremist terrorists who kidnap the press spokeswoman of an has been the latest filmmaker to put his reflections about contem- energy concern allegedly as a bargaining chip to save the en- porary Germany onto film in the documentary series Denk ich dangered jobs of some miners. But this is a smokescreen: it is an Deutschland … really all about money and power. They blackmail the company’s computer specialist to render the security system out of order. Lilienthal’s film about Germany looks with empathetic and gentle Gradually, the film works up to a nail-biting showdown after a nuances for the ”state of being different“, the ”alien“ at historic dramatic scaling of the outside of a skyscraper … places in Germany. His journey begins with his earliest memories of his homeland: with which he just managed to No less nail-biting is the production schedule set by the film’s escape by the skin of his teeth when he emigrated with his family Munich-based production outfit MPS Medienproduktion who is to Uruguay in 1939. aiming to have the film premiere at the EXPO 2000 exhibition in Hannover this summer.

Largely financed from private sources, the film also scores a first in the Bavarian film fun- ding landscape as it is the first project to be selected by FFF Bayern to benefit from the recently created DM 20 million Bavarian Bank Fund (BBF).

In addition to receiving DM 1 million produc- tion backing from FFF's regular funding ”pot“, the actioner has also received another DM 500,000 from BBF which was launched by four Bavarian banks in December 1999 to support the production and distribution of commercially attractive projects.

Moreover, Bis zum letzten Mann follo- wed hot on the heels of Joseph Vilsmaier’s Marlene as the next occupant of the spanking new No. 12 sound stage on the Bavaria Film Studios lot in Geiselgasteig.

Scene from ”Denk ich an Deutschland … – Ein Fremder“ (photo: Christa Henke)

Denk ich an 60 years later, he returns to Berlin and visits children in the Heinz Galinski School. The film shows Jewish life today with a Deutschland … hope for tolerance and understanding. A stark contrast to this is provided with Eberswalde, a bleak place of recent Germany – Ein Fremder history. Nine years ago, this was the place where the Angolan Antonio Amadeu was beaten to death on the street by some Original Title Denk ich an Deutschland … – Ein Fremder right-wing extremist youths. But Eberswalde put up a fight and Type of Project Documentary Production Company Lilienthal also finds the first signs here of a humane society. Megaherz tv, Munich in co-production with BR, Munich, and Germany and its aliens is also the main subject of an Israeli WDR, Cologne Director Peter Lilienthal Screenplay Peter Klezmer musician who often works in Germany but is not yet Lilienthal Format 58 min., DigiBeta, colour, b&w, 16:9 reconciled with history. Nevertheless, Ein Fremder gives one Shooting Language German Shooting in Germany in cause for hope. summer 1999. With Ein Fremder, Lilienthal’s contribution joins the first five Contact: Megaherz tv GmbH Film und Fernsehen films in the Denk ich an Deutschland … series which were Föhringer Allee 17 · D-85774 Unterföhring made in 1997 and 1998 and aired by BR and WDR during phone: +49-89-9 50 00 40 · fax: +49-89-95 00 04 30 autumn/winter 1998. They were Doris Dörrie and Werner email: [email protected] Penzel’s Augenblick, Dominik Graf and Michael Althen’s Das Wispern im Berg der Dinge, Katja von Garnier and Uli Kerschbaumer’s Kix?, Andreas Kleinert’s Niemandsland, and Sherry Hormann’s Angst spür’ ich, wo kein Herz ist.

19 hatched with associate producer Mike Downey to shoot in English, and UK actors Sean Pertwee and Amanda Plummer were cast for the lead roles in what became Indigo’s first English-language international feature after such German projects as Südsee, eigene Insel and Bang, Boom, Bang.

Meanwhile, scouting for a house by itself in a fenland location – the ”Haus im Moor“ – proved fruitless, so Indigo decided to locate the production in where they built a house on an outside site with 1:1 replica in a former ice rink stadium for the interiors.

Local production services company EIS Productions handled the logistical side of the shoot in the Czech Republic. However, it turned out that the land on which the house had been built was formerly a military training area. Some mines from the First World War started cropping up, and Indigo had to find the money to clear the area of mines. Amanda Plummer, Sebastian Niemann © Indigo Filmproduktion Amanda Plummer,

The shoot on the $ 2.4 million production near Prague was follo- wed by some studio interiors, trick shots and postproduction in Munich.

Invincible Original title of the film Invincible German title of the film Unbesiegbar Type of Project Feature Film Genre Drama Production Company Werner Herzog Filmproduk- Du lebst tion, Munich in co-production with Tatfilm GmbH, Düssel- dorf, Little Bird, Dublin, WDR, Cologne, BR Munich, and arte, Strasbourg With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, noch 7 Tage Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Angelegenheiten der Original Title Du Lebst Noch 7 Tage English Title Kultur und der Medien Producers Werner Herzog, Gary Bart 7 Days To Live Type of Project Feature Film Genre Mystery Director Werner Herzog Screenplay Werner Herzog Thriller Production Company Indigo Filmproduction, Munich Director of Photography Peter Zeitlinger Principal Cast in co-production with Senator Film, Berlin, Roof Top Jouko Ahola, Tim Roth, Udo Kier, Max Raabe Format 35mm, Entertainment, Berlin Producers Christian Becker, Thomas colour, 120 min. Shooting Language English Shooting in Häberle Director Sebastian Niemann Screenplay Dirk Ahner Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Berlin and NRW from mid-March until Director of Photography Gerhard Schirlo Editor Moune end of May 2000. Barius Music by Egon Riedel Principal Cast Amanda Plummer, Sean Pertwee, Nick Brimble, Sean Chapman. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,66 Shooting Language English Shooting in Prague from July to September 1999.

World Sales: Herzog Werner Amberlon Pictures c/o Senator Film AG Kurfürstendamm 65 · D-10707 Berlin phone: +49-30-88 09 17 00 · fax: +49-30-88 09 17 66 www.senatorfilm.de · email: [email protected]

The seeds for 7 Days To Live were sown when producer Christian Becker met up with writer Dirk Ahner during their studies at Munich’s Academy for Television & Film in 1996. Ahner had the basic idea for the plot to a mystery thriller known at that time as Das Haus im Moor (The House In The Fens). However, the project was put on the back burner for three years because they couldn't think of a suitable director.

Then, early last year, after finishing work on the TV mystery thriller Das Biikenbrennen with Sebastian Niemann, Becker and partner Thomas Häberle of Indigo Film decided to put him together with the Das Haus im Moor project.

Originally, it was planned to shoot the project in German, but casting German actors proved difficult, so an alternative plan was

20 in production

World Distribution: Fine Line, Los Angeles, Zephir Film GmbH, Düsseldorf (German-speaking countries)

Contact: TATFILM GmbH Rathausufer 14 · D-40213 Düsseldorf phone: +49-2 11-32 23 80 · fax: +49-2 11-32 23 90 Suzanne von Borsody E-mail: [email protected]

After the success of his documentary My Best Fiend (Mein liebster Feind – Klaus Kinski) Werner Herzog is retur- ning to the feature film arena with a true story about another extreme character à la Fitzcarraldo or Woyzeck.

Invincible tells the true-life story of the Jewish blacksmith Zishe Breitbart who created a sensation in the varieté world of Berlin in the early 1930s as the strongest man of his time – much to the dismay of the burgeoning Nazis as it was inconceivable to them that a Jew could be so strong. What was more, Zishe soon embraced his Judaism openly and became the hope of the Jewish community of Berlin.

Played by the Finn Jouko Ahola, Zishe comes into conflict with his employer Erik Jan Hanussen (portrayed by the internationally popular British actor Tim Roth) who, as clairvoyant, forecasts the victory of Hitler to the rapture of his largely Nazi following. Hanussen even dreams of becoming Minister of the Occult in Hitler's future cabinet.

But the tables are turned on Hanussen when Zishe accuses him of fraudulent manipulation in his seances and it is revealed in court that Hanussen is, in fact, a Czech Jew. When he is subsequently murdered by the SA, Zishe undergoes an inner change and regards himself as the New Samson who must protect his people D-14482 -Babelsberg from something terrible which he discovers in a sudden vision. phone: +49-3 31-7 21 28 20 · fax: +49-3 31-7 21 28 28 email: [email protected] He travels to the shtetls of Eastern to recruit an army of young Samsons to defend the Jewish race but, tragically, an injury Uwe Johnson’s four-volume literary masterpiece Jahrestage – from one of his strongman stunts is left unheeded and Zishe dies aus dem Leben der Gesine Cresspahl has been adapted for the just two days before Hitler comes to power … small screen in a TV four-parter by award-winning filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta. The DM 13 million project, which reunites Herzog with Fiend producer Christine Ruppert of TATFILM, is set to begin The film (and Johnson’s book) opens in New York in August 1967 shooting in Riga from mid-March, but 50% of the production will where the main character Gesine Cresspahl (played by Suzanne be located in NRW for studio work. von Borsody) is now living with her 10-year-old daughter Marie (Marie-Helen Dehorn).

Marie asks about her mother’s origins, and Gesine begins to Jahrestage recount her life: we hear the story of the Cresspahl family and her mother’s family, the Nazi crimes committed on the Jewish families Original title of the film Jahrestage Type of project TV in the (fictional) village of Jerichow in Mecklenburg, and pastor series Genre Drama Production Companies EIKON Ge- Brüshaver who courageously opposes the Nazis and is sent to a meinnützige Gesellschaft für Film- und Fernsehen mbH, Potsdam, concentration camp. EIKON-WEST Gesellschaft für Fernsehen und Film mbH, Cologne Gesine also recalls her love for Jacob Abs, Marie’s father, who in co-production with WDR, Cologne, NDR, Hamburg, BR, came to Jerichow at the end of the Second World War as a Munich, ORB, Potsdam, and ORF, With backing from refugee and later worked as a railway pointsman in a ”town on Filmstiftung NRW, Filmförderung Niedersachsen Producer the Elbe“ where he was killed under mysterious circumstances Wolfgang Tumler Director Margarethe von Trotta Screenplay in 1956. Peter Steinbach, Christoph Busch Director of Photography The scenes of Gesine’s past life are brought together with a Franz Rath Editor Corina Dietz Music by Enjott record of her day-to-day life in New York between August 1967 Principal Cast Suzanne von Borsody, Marie Helen Dehorn, and August 1968, her work as a clerk and confidante of the bank , Susanne Simon, Axel Milberg, Kai Scheve, Jutta manager de Rosny, her love affair with the German physicist Wachowiak, Nina Hoger, , , Carola Erichson, and a reunion with Anita, her closest childhood friend Regnier, Edgar Selge, Peter Roggisch Format Super 16 mm and Marie’s godmother. Shooting Language German Shooting in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and New Scheduled to air in primetime slots on ARD in November 2000, York in autumn 1999. no expense has been spared to recreate Gesine’s life from 1931 to 1968 in Germany and the US. The DM 16 million production Contact: EIKON Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für boasts no less than 120 leading and supporting roles and dozens Film- und Fernsehen mbH of extras, and the 20-odd locations included Usedom on the Baltic August-Bebel-Str. 26-53 coast as well as villages in Lower Saxony and North Rhine- Westphalia and authentic locations in and around New York. 21 Poison Heart Original title of the film Poison Heart English Title ”The film will reveal how certain minorities in had a Poison Heart Type of Project Feature Film Genre Youth completely different awareness of life to the image often held of Drama Production Company Duramedia, Berlin With them“, he continues. ”The ’heroes‘ of the story never lose their backing from Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) absurd optimism, even in the most desperate of situations. Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, European Script Fund Producers Their attititude to life forms a stark contrast to the dullness and Bernd Gaul, Wolfgang Trevisany Director Winfried Bonengel hypocrisy of everyday East Germany, a society which did not Screenplay Winfried Bonengel, Ingo Hasselbach Principal allow for excesses in any way“. Cast Jürgen Vogel, Nils Nelleßen, Richy Müller Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,85 Shooting Language German Shooting in According to Bonengel, ”some of the characters can even be Berlin and Saxony in 2000. compared to those in Sergio Leone’s ’Once Upon A Time In America‘ “ and ”the main characters are constantly moving, unlike Contact: most of the other people in the country. They are like wild young Perfect Film · Bernd Gaul animals, breaking out of the cage called East Germany. Schöneberger Str. 1 · D-10963 Berlin Nevertheless, some of them have a remarkable love-hate relati- phone: +49-30-32 70 84 76 · fax: +49-30-32 70 84 77 onship with this prison“. email: [email protected] Summing up, Bonengel argues that the subject of Poison Director Winfried Bonengel, who came to international Heart may be ”ultra-German“, but its treatment will be recognition in 1993 with his documentary feature Beruf ”completely un-German“. Neonazi, is now in preparations for the youth drama Poison Heart which centres on a Neo-Nazi and his less political friend as they get into trouble with the law and spend time in prison in East Germany in the years before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Sommer Original title of the film Sommer (working title) English Title Summer (working title) Type of Project Feature Film Genre Laconic tragicomedy Production Company Egoli/ Sommer Kinofilmproduktion, Berlin in co-production with Le Studio Canal Plus, Paris, Moco Films/British Screen, London, Jürgen Vogel (photo © Jim Rakete) Jürgen Vogel Studio Adam&Eve, Tbilisi, Studio Babelsberg Independents, Babelsberg, Wave Pictures, Copenhagen With backing from MEDIA II, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Eurimages Producers Jens Meurer, Oliver Damian Director Nana Djordjadze Screenplay Iraklij Kvirikadze Editor Vessela Martschewski Director of Photography Phedon Papamichael Principal Cast Nino Kuchanidze, Genia Sidichin, Chalva Ijachrili, Pierre Richard Format 35mm, colour, 1:1,85 Shooting Language Russian, Georgian Shooting in Georgia and Greece

Contact: Wild Bunch, Vincent Maraval 47, rue Dumont D'Urville · F-75116 Paris phone: +33-1-53 64 85 56 · fax: +33-1-44 43 43 83 email: [email protected]

Shooting wrapped on location in Greece in November for Georgian director Nana Djordjadze’s Summer, the first fea- ture film project by Berlin-based production company Egoli Films.

The film’s genesis goes back to producer Jens Meurer’s meeting with director Djordjadze during her attendance of the MEDIA Programme’s Nipkow Programme in 1994/95. ”It was obvious that we had something in common because I knew her country and I am also a director“, recalls Meurer who had initially plan- ned to make a short film with her. The $ 1.7 million project is set to star Jürgen Vogel and Richy Müller (appearing together again after Rainer Kaufmann’s However, a year later, the idea of doing a short developed into a The Chemist) and newcomer Nils Nelleßen. feature, and Djordjadze proposed the story of Summer which she had been developing with husband Iraklij ”In no way can Poison Heart be described as a socio-drama“, Kvirikadze. Bonengel declares. ”The scriptwriters were influenced in their writing chiefly by real people and events. Nevertheless, the story Set in a small Georgian town in post-Soviet times, the tragicomedy itself is fictional. Similarities to real people are purely coincidental. centres on 14-year-old girl Sybille who crashes into the lives of the Poison Heart is the story of rebellious young misfits in East townspeople like a typhoon on a visit to her aunt’s during her Germany. Despite its tragic elements, the main characters sparkle summer holidays, triggering a series of absurd and funny sexual with refreshing optimism“. complications.

22 in production

The last two years saw documentary filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer following the English artist Andy Golds- worthy around the globe to make a film about how he creates works of art out of natural landscapes and the elements, and then records them as photographs.

In preparations for this film, Riedelsheimer explained that he wanted ”to see how Andy checks the quality of the snow with his hands, how he makes contacts with the place and his materials. I want to feel his euphoria and his fears and hopes because of the changes in light and weather. I want to experience how he is pleased with a pattern on the earth, a swollen stream, a bird’s song or a shooting star“.

”The camera must be vigilant and observant“, the filmmaker continues. ”Andy’s works are of a grandiose aesthetic which adds another new quality to the production process. The complete work stands on its own and is changed by the surrounding influen- ces. Andy loses the creative control, he becomes the astonished spectator. He perceives the energy and the multilayered relation- ships of his work to the place where it is located – the relation- ships to space and time. These new qualities also represent a new challenge for the film camera, it has to begin to interpret“. Iraklij Kvirikadze, Jens Meurer, Nana Djordjadze, Phedon Papamichael, Pierre Richard, Oliver Damian (© Bernd Fischer) A graduate of the documentary department at Munich’s Academy for Television & Film (HFF) where he studied for six years, After last year’s Berlin Film Festival, an exhausting programme of Riedelsheimer has worked since as director of photography casting began in Berlin and continued in St. Petersburg, Moscow, on various shorts, music videos, documentaries and travelogues Tbilisi and Odessa. The Georgian actress Nino Kuchanidze as well as directing his own films. In 1993, he was awarded an was picked to play Sibylle, while Russian star actor Genia Adolf Grimme Prize in Gold and the German Video Art Prize Sidichin was cast as the older object of her desires, and other for his camerawork. roles were taken by Amalia Mordvinova (The Thief), and veteran French actor Pierre Richard (who also appeared in Djordjadze’s Oscar-nominated A Chef In Love).

Shooting then began simultaneously on August 11 in Munich and Georgia during the sun's eclipse, but the bulk of the shoot was in Georgia, with some final shots in Greece for exteriors in November. Egoli Films is planning to have the film’s world premiere in Cannes this year.

Der Zauberlehrling Thomas Riedelsheimer (© Mediopolis)

Original title of the film Der Zauberlehrling – Zeit, Natur und Andy Goldsworthys Arbeit English Title The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Time, Nature and Andy Goldsworthy's Work Type of Project Documentary Production Company Mediopolis Film- und Fernsehproduktion GmbH, Berlin With backing from FFF Bayern, Scottish Art Council, Filmboard Berlin- Brandenburg, Yle Finland, WDR/arte. Producer Annedore von Donop Director Thomas Riedelsheimer Screenplay Thomas Riedelsheimer Director of Photography Thomas Riedelsheimer With Andy Goldsworthy Format 80 min., 35 mm, colour, cs, stereo Shooting Language German, English Shooting since January 1999

Contact: Mediopolis Film- und Fernsehproduktion GmbH Bülowstr. 66-D1 · D-10783 Berlin phone: +49-30-2 35 56 00 · fax: +49-30-23 55 60 66 email: [email protected]

23 Studio Babelsberg

Volker Schlöndorff

Wettbewerb Die Stille nach dem Schuss Babelsberg Film

Panorama Andreas Struck Chill Out Jost Hering Filmproduktion/Studio Babelsberg

Forum Uli Gaulke Havanna mi amor Flying Moon/Studio Babelsberg Independents

Neue deutsche Filme Andreas Kleinert Wege in die Nacht ö-Film/Studio Babelsberg Independents

Roland Suso Richter Studio Babelsberg Nichts als die Wahrheit August-Bebel-Str. 26-53 Helkon Media Filmproduktion/Studio Babelsberg Independents D- 14482 Potsdam Tel +49 331 72 -0 Egon Günther Fax +49 331 7212135 Die Braut www.studiobabelsberg.com Tellux Film Dresden/Studio Babelsberg Independents [email protected] The Million Dollar Hotel

The Million Dollar Hotel is a story of friendship, betrayal and the overwhelming power of un- conditional love. A gang of unique outcasts and misfits live in a downtown Los Angeles fleapit, known locally as the ”Million Dollar Hotel“. Their story is seen through the eyes of Tom Tom (Jeremy Davies), a young man who serves them all like some sort of ”Beggar's Butler“. He has a childlike, innocent mind. Tom Tom has fallen head over heels for the tarnished street angel Eloise (Milla Jovovich). As their relationship develops, the Million Dollar Hotel becomes the focus of a police investigation: one of its residents, the engaging junkie Izzy, has come to a grisly end. He fell off the roof. Or was he pushed? To the amazement of his neighbors, he is revealed to have been son of a billionaire media magnate. Every inhabitant of the Million Dollar Hotel falls under suspicion in the enquiry led by FBI hardliner, Detective Skinner (Mel Gibson). As Skinner’s investigation proceeds, the lines between murder and suicide, sane and deranged, become very blurred indeed. Mel Gibson

Genre Feature Director Wim Wenders Wim Wenders was born in Düsseldorf in Screenplay Nicholas Klein, based on a story by 1945. He attended the Academy for Television and Nicholas Klein Director of & Film (HFF) in Munich from 1967-70. He Photography Phedon Papamichael Editor wrote articles for ”Filmkritik“ and ”Süddeutsche Tatiana S. Riegel Music by Jon Hassell, Bono, Zeitung“ between 1968-72 and was a founder Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, produced by Hal Willner member of the Filmverlag der Autoren. In 1975, Producers Deepak Nayar, Bono, Nicholas Klein, he set up his own production company Road Bruce Davey, Wim Wenders Executive Movies. Wenders has received many internatio- Producer Ulrich Felsberg Production nal awards, including the Golden Lion (1982), Company Road Movies, Berlin Principal Cast Golden Palm (1984), and Felix (1988). His films Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich, Jimmy Smits, Peter include: Summer in the City (1970), The Stormare, Amanda Plummer, Gloria Stuart, Tom Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty Bower, Donal Logue, Harris Yulin and Mel Gibson (1971), Alice in the Cities (1973), Wrong Length 122 min., 3.338 m. Format 35 mm, Move (1974), Kings of the Road (1975), colour, cs Original Version English Subtitled (1977), Hammett Version German Dubbed Versions German, (1978/82), The State of Things (1982), French, Italian Sound Technology Dolby Paris, Texas (1984), SDR/SDDS International Festival (1986), Until the End of the World Screenings Berlin 2000: opening film, in compe- (1990), Faraway, So Close (1993), Lisbon tition German Distributor Concorde Story (1994), The End of Violence (1997) Filmverleih GmbH, Munich and Buena Vista Social Club (1998). OPENING FILM World Sales: IN COMPETITION Icon Entertainment International · Jamie Carmichael The Quadrangle, 4th Floor · 180 Wardour Street · GB-London W1V 3AA AT B E R L I N phone: +44-1 71-4 94 81 00 · fax: +44-1 71-4 94 81 01 email: JamieCarmichael@icon_entertainment.co.uk

25 Paradiso – Sieben Tage

mit sieben Frauen IN COMPETITION AT BERLIN PARADISO

A composer celebrates his 60th birthday in seven days with seven of the most important women in his life. Cora Frost, Joya Thome, Nicolai Hanns Zischler Cora Frost,

Genre Feature Director/Screenplay Rudolf Thome was born in Wallau/Lahn Rudolf Thome Director of Photography on 14 November 1939 and studied German, Reinhold Vorschneider Editor Karin Nowarra Philosophy and History in Munich and Bonn Music by Wolfgang Böhmer Producer David from 1960. He initially worked as a film critic Fermer Production Company Moanafilm, and made his first film with Max Zihlmann and Berlin, in cooperation with Degeto, Frank- Klaus Lemke. In 1968, he made his first feature- furt/Main Principal Cast Hanns Zischler, length film Detektive and followed this with Cora Frost, Adriana Altaras, Sabine Bach, such films as Rote Sonne (1969), Supergirl Khyana el Bitar, Irm Herrmann, Isabel Hindersin, (1970) and Fremde Stadt (1972). He moved Amelie zur Mühlen, Guntram Brattia, Valeska from Munich to Berlin in 1973 and wrote film Hanel, Marquard Bohm, Nicolai Thome, reviews for ”Der Tagesspiegel“ and ”Hobo“ as Joya Thome Length 102 min., 2.810 m. well as working for the Freunde der deutschen Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,85 Original Kinemathek. His other films include: Be- Version German Subtitled Version schreibung einer Insel (1977/79), Berlin English Sound Technology Dolby Mono Chamissoplatz (1980), Tarot (1985), Das International Festival Screenings Mikroskop (1987), Der Philosoph (1988), Berlin 2000: in competition Sieben Frauen (1989), Das Geheimnis (1994), Tigerstreifenbaby wartet auf Tarzan (1997) and Paradiso (1999).

World Sales: please contact Moanafilm GmbH · Rudolf Thome Fidichinstr. 14 d · D-10965 Berlin phone: +49-30-69 50 90 71 · fax: +49-30-69 50 90 72 www.moana.de · email: [email protected]

26 Die Stille nach dem Schuss RITA’S LEGENDS ”The Legend“ – Stasi terminology for a false identity and a manufactured past. For Rita, this is where ”real life“ begins. Rita is 28 years old. After having spent 10 years with West German terrorist group, she has lost faith in their violent ways. She has also lost faith in her love for her leader, Andi. Closing the door on her former life, she boards the S-Bahn in West-Berlin and crosses over into the East, where she will submerge herself in the ”true realtiy“ of life among the working class. In exchange for certain information, the Stasi has agreed to help her secure a new identiy, hidden admist the crowd in an anonymous factory, deep in the heart of the country. Wanting to fit in, Rita can’t help but seem different. Soon she attracts the attention, and later the affections, of a young female worker named Tatjana, who longs for the West as much as Rita wants to disown it. But as foreign as this new world is to Rita, it is a world that is willing to accept her and offer her a chance at happiness – till the day when she is recogni- zed by someone who has seen her face on West TV. Without a word of explanation – or farewell – Rita disappears. She has an obligation to her ”benefactors“ – the connection between the terrorists and the Stasi must not come to light. Another name and another past, a new factorty in a new city. This time she has taken care to adapt herself so that she can pass for an East German. In a holiday camp on the Baltic Coast, she is taking care of some children when she meets a young atomic physicist, who is working as a swimming pool attendant. He has an offer to work in a research institute in the Soviet Union – if they were married, he could take her with him. Rita would love nothing more than a child and a normal life. She resolves to take a bold step – she wants her boyfriend to know who she really is. Unfortunately he proves to be not as strong as she believed him to be. All around Rita, the world is an upheaval. It is autumn ’89, the collapse of the Berlin Wall lies just around the corner. The Stasi has no more help to give her. There is nothing left to look forward to, expect a return to her life of running and hiding. , BIBIANA BEGLAU,

Genre Feature Director Volker Schlöndorff Screen- Volker Schlöndorff was born in Wiesbaden in 1939. He play , in cooperation with Volker made his debut as a in 1965 with his adaptation Schlöndorff Director of Photography Andreas Höfer of Robert Musil’s novella Young Törless (Der junge Editor Peter Przygodda Producers Friedrich-Carl Wachs Törless). He also directed the filming of Heinrich Böll’s The Arthur Hofer, Emmo Lempert Production Companies Lost Honour Of Katharina Blum (1975), Germany Babelsberg Film, Potsdam, in co-production with Mittel- in Autumn (1976, together with Stefan Aust, Alexander deutsches Filmkontor, , MDR, Leipzig Principal Kluge), Circle Of Deceit (1980/81), Swann In Love Cast Bibiana Beglau, Nadja Uhl, Martin Wuttke Length (1983) and Voyager (1990). In 1979, his adaptation of 104 min., 2.845 m. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,85 Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum was the first film by a Original Version German Subtitled Version English German director to be awarded a Golden Palm in Cannes. Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from A year later, it was the first German film since 1927 to be Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung International awarded an Oscar. In the USA, Schlöndorff directed, among Festival Screenings Berlin 2000: in competition others, Death Of A Salesman, A Gathering Of Old German Distributor Arthaus Filmverleih GmbH, Men and The Handmaid’s Tale. Munich

World Sales: IN COMPETITION Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH AT BERLIN Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone: +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax: +49-89-64 99 37 20 www.bavaria-film-international.de · email: [email protected] 27 Die Legende von Paul und Paula THE LEGEND OF PAUL AND PAULA

Paul and Paula have known each other for a long time, but it is only in a roundabout way that they eventually become lovers. There are reasons for this, of course: Paul is married albeit unhappily. Paula is also tied, though not to a husband, but she has a steady partner and two children, besides. Saft, the tyre dealer, sets out to win round the young single woman. Being rational and thinking of what is best for the children, Paula is not really opposed to marrying this extremely decent and res- pectable, though much older, man. Paula and Paul meet each other in a bar by accident. They fall in love, and this feeling very soon develops into a profound emotion. Yet, Paul, who can never make up his mind, almost gambles away his luck. Paula feels betrayed by him. And when her child dies in an accident, she blames herself for it and splits up with Paul. Only now does he realize how much he loves Paula. He starts to fight for her. This is so moving that all who witness it will deeply sympathize with Paul. Finally, Paul wins over his Paula despite all the obstacles. Their love becomes legendary in Paul and Paula's neighbourhood, especially because Paula dies at the birth of their child. Winfried Glatzeder

Genre Feature Director Heiner Carow Heiner Carow was born in Rostock on 19 Screenplay Ulrich Plenzdorf Director of September, 1929, and attended directing classes at the Photography Jürgen Brauer Editor Evelyn DEFA Studios for Young Filmmakers. He was a director Carow Music by Peter Gotthardt at the DEFA Studios for Popular Science Films from Producer Erich Albrecht Production 1952 to 1956 and made his first feature film, Sheriff Company DEFA Studio für Spielfilme ”Gruppe Teddy in 1957. His major films are: Sie nannten Berlin“ Principal Cast Angelica Domröse, ihn Amigo (1959), Das Leben beginnt (1960), Winfried Glatzeder Length 106 min., 2.900 m. Die Hochzeit von Lanneken (1964), Die Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,35 Year of Russen kommen (1968/87), Die Legende von Production 1973 Original Version Paul und Paula (1973), Ikarus (1975), Bis daß German Subtitled Version English der Tod euch scheidet (1979), So viele Sound Technology Mono German Träume (1986), Coming Out (1989) and Distributor Progress Film Verleih GmbH, Verfehlung (1991). Carow died in 1997. Berlin

World Sales: Progress Film Verleih GmbH · Bettina Kunde Burgstr. 27 · D-10178 Berlin phone: +49-30-24 00 32 00 · fax: +49-30-24 00 32 22

GERMAN CLASSIC MOVIE www.progress-film.de · email: [email protected] 28 Olympia I + II

This documentary on the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by famous director Leni Riefen- stahl, is the first film ever made on the big- gest single sporting event, the Olympic sum- mer games. Apart from Russia and Spain, almost everyone went to Berlin: a total of 4.594 athletes, representing 52 nations. But while the Olympics were one big sporting event, they were also a perfect showcase for Scene form ”Olympia I + II“ Adolf Hitler, tailor-made to give the world proof of Germany’s new image. Whatever the inevitable setting or back- ground of this film may be, it is foremost a documentary on the fascination of sports. More than 1.2000.000 spectators, of whom 150.000 were foreign visitors, watched the different events. The international success of the Olympia films – Fest der Völker and Fest der Schönheit – was huge.

Genre Documentary Director/Screenplay Leni Born in 1902, she trained as a dancer and began Riefenstahl Directors of Photography Hans Ertl, Walter her film career as an actress in ’s Frentz, Guzzi Lantschner, Kurt Neubert, Hans Scheib "mountain films" in the 1920s. In 1932, she made Music by , Walter Gronostay Production her directorial debut with The Blue Light Supervisors Walter Großkopf, Walter Traut Production (Das blaue Licht), winning critical and com- Company Leni Riefenstahl Produktion, Pöcking Length mercial success as well as Hitler’s personal part I: 110 min., 3.017 m. ; part II: 95 min., 2.606 m. approval. This led to her being commissioned to Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1,66 Year of Production 1936 film the Nuremberg party rally in 1934. After Original Version German, English Dubbed Versions numerous attempts to re-launch a film career French, Italian International Festival Screenings after the war, she turned successfully to photo- Venice 38 (Golden Lion), World Exhibition Paris 37 (Grand graphy and wrote her memoirs The Sieve Of Prix of France) Time in 1992. In recent years, Riefenstahl has worked on an underwater film shot at locations around the globe and she is also preparing a new illustrated book about her life and work. Her films include Triumph Of The Will (Triumph des Willens, 1936), Olympia I + II (1936) and Lowlands (Tiefland, 1940-1953). World Sales: Atlas International Film GmbH · Dieter Menz, Stefan Menz, Christl Blum GERMAN CLASSIC MOVIE Rumfordstr. 29-31 · D-80469 Munich phone: +49-89-2 10 97 50 · fax: +49-89-22 43 32 www.atlasfilm.com · email: [email protected]

29 Solo Sunny

Sunny is a singer in a band which is constantly on the road. She therefore leads a relatively restless life. She is single; living on her own, she takes things into her own hands. Besides, she has no difficul- ty warding off men who harass her or try to chat her up. And she generally sees to it that what talent she has, is not overly exploited by others. Still, Sunny yearns for a great love experience. She gets to know Ralph, a philosopher, and believes she has found her true love. But Ralph does not return her love in the same way. Harry, who owns a taxi company, loves Sunny and, being well off, can offer her an easy and fun life. But he is not the one she wants. In the band, Sunny demonstrati- vely turns down Norbert’s obtrusive advances and she cold-shoulders him so completely that he kicks her out. He takes on a new young singer who is prepared to do everything expected of her in order to further her career. At this very point, Sunny discovers that Ralph is betraying her. She is deeply unhappy and when a solo appearance in a bar is a flop, she opts for suicide as a last resort. Her life is saved. It is especially the friendship and selfless help of a former colleague, Christine, which enables Sunny to actively face up to life again. Renate Krößner

Genre Feature Director Konrad Wolf Konrad Wolf was born in Hechingen in 1925 and Screenplay Wolfgang Kohlhaase died in Berlin in 1982. He was a son of Friedrich Wolf, Director of Photography Eberhard Geick the writer. In 1933, the family emigrated and arrived in Editor Evelyn Carow Music by Günther the Soviet Union in 1934. At the age of eighteen, Wolf Fischer Producer Herbert Ehler Production joined the Red Army and came to Germany, as lieuten- Company DEFA Studio für Spielfilme ”Gruppe ant in 1945. He studied directing at the Moscow Film Babelsberg“ Principal Cast Renate Krößner, School in 1949 and worked as assistant director to Alexander Lang, Dieter Montag, Heide Kipp, at the DEFA Studios in 1953. After his first Klaus Brasch, Fred Düren Length 102 min., feature film as a director Einmal ist keinmal 2.854 m. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,85 (1955), he worked at the DEFA Feature Film Studios. Year of Production 1980 Original From 1965, Wolf was president of the GDR’s Academy Version German Subtitled Version English of Arts. His major films include: (1956), Sound Technology Stereo German Lissy (1957), Sonnensucher (1958), Sterne Distributor Progress Film Verleih GmbH, (1959), Der geteilte Himmel (1964), Ich war Berlin 19 (1968), Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz (1974), Mama, ich lebe (1977) and Busch singt (six part series for GDR Television, 1982). World Sales: Progress Film Verleih GmbH · Bettina Kunde GERMAN CLASSIC MOVIE Burgstr. 27 · D-10178 Berlin phone: +49-30-24 00 32 00 · fax: +49-30-24 00 32 22 www.progress-film.de · email: [email protected]

30 Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum THE LOST HONOUR OF KATHARINA BLUM Katharina Blum – young, attractive, bright, sensitive – falls in love at a carnival party with a young radi- cal lawbreaker on the run from the police. Her brief association with a hunted man brings her under police surveillance and makes her the cruelly exploited subject of cheap newspaper sensationalism. Paraded across the front pages of a big-city daily newspaper, portrayed as a whore, an atheist, a Communist sympathizer, she becomes the target of anonymous phone calls and letters, sexual advances and threats. Out of an anger so remorseless and a violation of integrity so profound that it overcomes even her will to survive, she shoots the ovending journalist. Scene from ”The Lost Honour OfScene from Blum“ Katharina

Genre Feature Directors Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schlön- Margarethe von Trotta Screenplay Volker dorff first worked together on Schlöndoerff's 1969 Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta, based on a novel adaptation of Brecht’s Baal. Von Trotta played by Heinrich Böll Director of Photography Jost numerous parts in the films of the New German Vacano Editor Peter Przygodda Music by Hans- Cinema and was the author of Schlöndorff's Der Werner Henze Producers Willi Benninger, Eberhard plötzliche Reichtum der armen Leute von Junkersdorf Production Company Bioskop-Film, Kombach (The Sudden Richness of the Munich, in co-production with Paramount/Orion Poor People of Kombach, 1970) and Stroh- Pictures, Munich, WDR, Cologne Principal Cast feuer (Free Woman, 1972). They co- directed Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser, Heinz Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum Bennent Length 106 m., 2.916 m. Format 35 mm, (The Lost Honour Of Katharina Blum, 1975). colour, 1:1,85 Year of Production 1975 Original Von Trotta has since become an award-winning director Version German Subtitled Version English in her right; Schlöndorff won the Golden Palm and Dubbed Version Italian Sound Technology Foreign Language Oscar for his screen adaptation of Dolby A With backing from Filmförderungsanstalt Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum. Schlöndorff's latest (FFA) German Distributor United International project is Die Stille nach dem Schuss, while von Pictures, Frankfurt/Main Trotta has just completed work on a four-part TV series based on Uwe Johnson’s Jahrestage.

World Sales: please contact Bioskop-Film GmbH · Eberhard Junkersdorf GERMAN CLASSIC MOVIE Rosenheimer Str. 143d · D-81671 Munich phone: +49-89-4 09 09 20 · fax: +49-89-40 90 92 20

31 Airbag Juantxo’s life is perfect: He is rich, he has a social position, a career and, in 5 days time, he is getting married to the daughter of a marquise. But, before that, he will grant his friends one last request. At his stag night in a well-known brothel with his two friends – Pako and Konradin – he loses his virginity and his 30-million-Peseta engagement ring. The search for the lost ring plunges the three friends into the underworld of drug barons and brothel kings. Undaunted, the trio embark on a furious journey around northern Spain from brothel to brothel, unwittingly setting in motion a series of events that bring the drug gangs to each other’s throats. They are let loose into a bizarre world: from Portuguese mafia boss Souza, his black magic powers and convoy of gun-toting kamikazes to unashamedly corrupt politicians; from dialectic policemen to exotic whores, and from coke to airbags that inflate with more than just air. On the way they meet the seductive and dangerous Fatima Espirito Santo, and the outrageous and unpredictable Pazos, whose efforts to linguistically impress are nothing short of hilarious. As the chaos and clouds of smoke and coke billow up behind them, Juantxo discovers hitherto untapped powers. Pako’s highway credibility and sexual prowess are put to a severe test, and Konradin keeps them both sane with encyclopaedic gems from his store of use- less facts. Meanwhile, many, many miles away, the church bells ring out on a sunlit banquet … Maria de Medeiros

Genre Feature Director Juanma Bajo Ulloa After directing and producing several shorts, Screenplay Karra Elejalde, Juanma Bajo Ulloa, Juanma Bajo Ulloa won a whole host of Fernado Guillés-Cuervo Director of awards with his first feature Alas de Photography Gonzalo Berridi Editor Pablo Mariposa (1991), among them the Concha de Blanco Music by Bingen Mendizábel Oro at the San Sebastian Film Festival, and the Producers Iñaki Burutxaga, Adrian Lipp, Ulrich Goya for the best original screenplay and for Felsberg Production Companies Asegarce best actress: Silvia Munt. Outside Spain, Junama Zinema, Bilbao, Marea Films, Madrid, in co-pro- Bajo Ulloa’s film won the award for Opera Prima duction with Road Movies Dritte Produktion, at the Seattle International Film Festival, and the Berlin, MGN Films, Lisbon Principal Cast New York Critics Prize. After the success of Alas Karra Elejalde, Fernando Guillés-Cuervo, de Mariposa, he directed in 1992/93 La Alberto San Juan, Maria de Medeiros Length Madre muerta, another award-winning film – 112 min., 3.064 m. Format 35 mm, colour, cs best film at the Stockholm and Fantasporto Film Original Version Spanish Subtitled Festivals. He has directed a number of music Version English Dubbed Version German videos for Joaquin Sabina, Los Enemigos and Sound Technology Dolby SRD With Barricada since 1994. backing from Eurimages, Filmstiftung NRW

World Sales: Road Sales GmbH Mediadistribution Ulrich Felsberg, Denise Booth Clausewitzstr. 4 · D-10629 Berlin phone: +49-30-8 80 48 60 · fax: +49-30-88 04 86 11 www.das-werk.de · email: [email protected] 32 Amerika

Films are components of the collective memory. They are substantially involved in whom or what we remember. This is the background of Amerika for the East German miners whose potash mine was closed shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall due to economic reasons. The director Jens Jenson puts the young miner Lanski at the centre of the story as being representative of them as he sets off on an unfamiliar journey in an old Volga after losing his job. Amerika arouses the desire to look at these still free landscapes only a few years after the political changes. At the same time, the film describes the difficulties of its hero being able to cope with this new world. Devid Striesow, Oliver Wronka Devid Striesow,

Genre Feature Director/Screenplay Jens Jens Jenson was born in Osnabrück in 1963 and worked Jenson Directors of Photography Jens as a photographer at the ‘Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung’ from Jenson, Thomas Koppehele Editor Johannes 1984-1986 before studying German and Philosophy at the Schmidt Music by Andreas Blumenthal University of Bielefeld and at the town's Academy for Producer Jens Jenson Production Photographic and Film Design. After graduation, he worked as Company Picture & Motion Produktion, Berlin a freelance editor and cameraman for industrial films in Berlin Principal Cast Devid Striesow, Oliver from 1992-1993 and then ran his own TV production company Wronka Length 66 min., 1.880 m. Format bildpunkt TV from 1993-1996. He set up his Berlin-based 35 mm, b&w, 1:1,66 Original Version company picture & motion Produktions GmbH. His films as German Subtitled Version English director are Beschreibung eines Kampfes (short, 1988), Sound Technology Mono International One Hundred (short, 1991) and Amerika. His films as Festival Screenings Saarbrücken/Max director of photography include the TV reportages Kunst, Ophüls 2000 Kommerz, Kitsch - Goethe in Weimar, Franken- steinfestival in Weimar and Weltsprache Musik (1999).

World Sales: please contact Picture & Motion Produktions GmbH · Jens Jenson Eisenblätterstr. 23 · D-13156 Berlin phone: +49-1 72-3 63 36 30 · fax: +49-30-91 74 14 91

33 Anatomie

A dream comes true for Paula (), a gifted and ambitious medical student, when she’s invited by the famous Professor Grombeck of Heidelberg to participate in an elite summer course in anatomy. But a disquieting shadow darkens Paula’s happy little world when she finds the cadaver of a young man on her dissecton table – a man who, just yesterday, was full of life. When she begins to investigate the young man’s death, she unearths some unseemly secrets at the seemingly respectable institution. Despite warnings from her professor and fellow students, who urge her not to delve further, Paula’s unstoppable ambition compels her to get to the bottom of the mystery – and to jeopardize her life. Percy Adlon Percy Sebastian Blomberg, Benno Fürmann, Franka Potente, Anna Loos Sebastian Blomberg, Benno Fürmann, Franka Potente,

Genre Feature Director/Screenplay Stefan Ruzowitzky was born in Vienna in 1961 and Stefan Ruzowitzky Director of Photo- studied Theatre and History as well as attending film courses graphy Peter von Haller Editor Ueli Christen and seminars by such industry figures as Syd Field, Zdenek Music by Marius Ruhland Producers Jakob Mahler and . In the first half of the 1980s he Claussen, Thomas Wöbke Production worked in the theatre as a director and wrote radio plays for Companies Deutsche Columbia Pictures ORF. From 1987, Ruzowitzky worked as a freelance director Filmproduktion, Munich, Claussen + Wöbke and author for television and also tried his hand at commercials Filmproduktion, Munich Principal Cast and music videos. In 1996, he made his feature directorial Franka Potente, Benno Fürmann, Anna Loos, debut with Tempo which was awarded the Max Ophüls Prize Holger Speckhahn, Sebastian Blomberg, Traugott in 1997. His second feature, The Inheritors (Die Buhre Length 103 min., 2.770 m. Format 35 Siebtelbauern, 1997), was sold to 50 countries and shown mm, colour, cs Original Version German at numerous film festivals around the globe, winning many pri- Subtitled Version English Sound zes including the Tiger Award in Rotterdam. The Inheritors Technology Dolby Digital With backing was ’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförde- 1999 Oscars. His third feature Anatomie is the debut pro- rungsanstalt (FFA), MFG Baden-Württemberg duction of Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion. German Distributor Columbia TriStar Film GmbH, Munich

World Sales: Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International · Tony Manne 10202 West Washington Boulevard · Culver City · USA-California 9 02 32-31 95 phone: +1-3 10-2 44 40 00 · fax: +1-3 10-2 44 18 75 and Columbia TriStar Film GmbH · Jürgen Schau Kemperplatz 1 · D-10785 Berlin 34 phone: +49-30-25 75 58 00 · fax: +49-30-25 75 58 09 · www.columbiatristar.de Der Bär ist los BEAR ON THE RUN

”Circus is mega out“. That’s what you think! Because it’s thanks to the circus that a bear is on the loose in the Bohemian Forest. Julia, a city kid from Berlin, is spending her summer holidays there. But instead of just playing around, or trying to reach the next level on her Game-Boy, she and Tom – the young animal trainer from a bankrupt circus – and other children from the village try to save a good-natured dancing bear from slaughter. The children need all their wits about them and plenty of good ideas, as a rich investor – obsessed with hunting – would love to take a pot shot at the bear. And that would help the ailing village, too. But things turn out quite differently. Scene from ”Bear On The Run“ Scene from

Genre Feature Director Dana Vávrová Dana Vávrová was born in Prague in 1967 Screenplay Christoph Stark, Jochen Bitzer and was already a child star in her native Director of Photography Peter von Haller when she was cast in the lead Editor Norbert Herzner Music by Petr of the German TV series Ein Stück Himmel Hapka Producers Hanno Huth, Joseph (1980, 1985). During the shooting of the series, Vilsmaier Production Companies Perathon she got to know the cameraman Joseph Film, Munich, Senator Film Produktion, Berlin Vilsmaier and they subsequently married. Since Principal Cast Heinrich Schafmeister, Armin then, she won many prizes for her roles in his Rohde, Götz Otto Length 95 min., 2.599 m. films like (Herbstmilch, Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,85 Original 1988), Rama Dama (1990), Stalingrad Version German Subtitled Version (1992), and (Schlafes English Sound Technology Dolby SRD Bruder, 1994). She has also made regular With backing from FilmFernsehFonds appeareances in TV films by directors like Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), BKM Marian Vajda and Peter Lehner. In 1995, she German Distributor Senator Film Verleih co-directed Wia die Zeit vergeht, a docu- GmbH, Berlin mentary on the Alpine rocker , with husband Vilsmaier, and made her directorial debut proper with Hunger – Addicted To Love (Hunger – Sehn- sucht nach Liebe, 1997).

World Sales: Amberlon Pictures Ltd. · Norbert Maass Kurfürstendamm 65 · D-10707 Berlin phone: +49-30-88 09 17 56 · fax: +49-30-88 09 17 53 www.Senatorfilm.de · email: [email protected]

35 Bonhoeffer – Die letzte Stufe BONHOEFFER – AGENT OF GRACE

In July 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer leaves the United States to go back to , even though he is aware that his life there will be very dangerous. Dietrich has been opposing the Hitler regime within the confessing church for years. After his return to Germany, the theologian becomes a political conspriator. Dietrich meets the woman who is going to be the love of his life: Maria von Wedemeyer. 18-year-old Maria’s high spirits, vivacity and intelligence pierce the armour of the unproachable bachelor of 36. Shortly after that, Dietrich gets arrested by the Gestapo under suspicion of conspiracy. Maria’s love becomes one of Dietrich’s major sources of strength throughout his almost two years in prison. During

the time he spends in cell 92, he keeps Adlon Percy writing about his inner struggle between certainity and doubt, about his life-long quest for his place in the world, and creates a modern classic of theology. With the help of a reliable prison guard, an escape plan for Dietrich is forged by his family and Maria. Maria is appalled when Dietrich refuses to run. He argues that he doesn’t want to leave his fellow- sufferers behind. Together with other conspirators, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is executed at dawn on April 9, 1945, less than a month away from Germany’s surrender. Ulrich Tukur

Genre Feature Director Eric Till Screenplay Gareth Jones, Eric Till was born in London and for a while Eric Till Director of Photography Sebastian Richter worked in the BBC Television Music department. Editor Roger Mattiussi Music by Eric Robertson, Claude Moving to Canada he became company manager Desjardins Producers Gabriela Pfändner, Kurt Rittig to the National Ballet of Canada before joining the Production Company NFP teleart, Berlin, in co-produc- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation directing clas- tion with ORB, Potsdam, Norflicks Productions, Toronto sical music productions, most notably with the pia- Principal Cast Ulrich Tukur, Robert Joy, Johanna Klante, nist Glenn Gould. Moving into drama and feature Length 88 min., 2.408 m. Format 35 mm, films, he returned to the UK, then later to the US colour, 1:1,66 Original Version German Subtitled and Canada. His feature films include: The Girl Version English Sound Technology Stereo With Next Door, Oh, What A Night, All backing from AID Association for Lutherans, Filmboard Things Bright And Beautiful, A Great Berlin-Brandenburg, Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg, Big Thing, A Fan’s Notes, Improper Media Programme of the European Union International Channels and Bonhoeffer – Agent of Festival Screenings Monte Carlo 2000 Grace.

World Sales: Euroarts International GmbH · Christine Klingler Wilmersdorfer Str. 79 · D-10629 Berlin phone: +49-30-32 78 39 11 · fax: +49-30-32 78 39 18 www.euroarts.com · email: [email protected]

36 Chill Out Anna, an investigator in questions of inheritance, has no need of boyfriends. She wants no more than fleeting one-night-stands. No one in sight comes up to her standards – she does not want to share her life. Johann is gay. He has debts which he could never pay off by working. He therefore gets along as a credit card thief. When the paths of these two outsiders cross in Berlin, they join forces in an unconventional friendship. Johann moves in with Anna, and begins to share her every- day life. But they each keep up an independent way of life. Max is in his early twenties, much younger than the two of them, and one of Anna’s fleeting lovers. One day Johann finds him on the doorstep and lets him in – Anna is unable to resist his charm. He stays, and they try out life as a threesome. Max sleeps with Anna, and when she doesn’t want any- thing to do with him, he sleeps with Johann. Instinct and attraction. All their senses open … But friends cannot be lovers: Max is unable to understand the friendship between Anna and Johann. A friendship, a subtle love which can be shared with no one … Sebastian Blomberg, Andreas Stadler Sebastian Blomberg, Andreas

Genre Feature Director/Screenplay Andreas Struck was born in Cologne and Andreas Struck Director of Photography studied Comparative Literature. He directed his Andreas Doub Editor Philipp Stahl first play in 1987 and served as assistant to Hans Music by Erlandas Producer Jost Hering Neuenfels at Hamburg’s Schauspielhaus and the Production Company Jost Hering Burgtheater in Vienna. He worked on the team Filmproduktion, Berlin, in co-production with of Derek Jarman’s Edward II and Wittgenstein Studio Babelsberg, Potsdam, for ZDF, Mainz and was assistant director and script continuity Principal Cast Sebastian Blomberg, Tatjana for various German feature films and TV Blacher, Barnaby Metschurat Length 90 min., movies. He also wrote articles for the magazines 2.565 m. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,66 ”Filmfaust“ and ”Theater heute“ and worked for Original Version German Subtitled the Berlin Film Festival and the Cannes film Version English Sound Technology market. He directed the shorts Night, Dolby SR International Festival Sweetie (1993) and Random Access Screenings Berlin 2000: Panorama (1994) and, in 1999, developed and staged the German Distributor Jost Hering monologue Telemach Trip Terror from Homer’s Filmproduktion, Berlin The Odyssey with actor Andreas Stadler. Chill Out is his first feature-length film.

World Sales: please contact Jost Hering Filmproduktion · Jost Hering Winterfeldtstr. 31 · D-10781 Berlin phone: +49-30-21 75 68 56 · fax: +49-30-21 75 68 58 www.josthering.de · email: [email protected] 37 Damaskus

On a superficial level, Damaskus is a weird, Bavarian character comedy with a mystical, psychological angle. A small village in Eastern Bavaria and everything that goes with it – the unusual exception is the place’s woman priest. She has the unusual gift of being able to look into people’s souls. Terrible things are revealed to her: A farmer has raped his daughter, a minister pulls the wool over his voters’ eyes, a bus-driver only thinks about his work and the bus – they all violate their own souls. The priest feels she has a mission to help. She encourages the sinners to show remorse and self- knowledge, but unintentionally drives them to suicide. A police detective who had been making investigations following the minister’s death, is also getting into a psychological struggle with the woman priest. She has discovered his sore point: he cannot admit to himself that he is in love with a prostitute. When he is also about to take his own life, a strange shaman comes to his aid and saves him body and soul. The way is now free for love: the detective Mollack and the prostitute Anna find common ground. Bettina Kurzan

Genre Feature Director Manfred Beierl Manfred Beierl was born in 1963 and stu- Screenplay Robert Mayer, Johannes Straub, Manfred died Literature and Psychology in Munich as well Beierl Director of Photography Johannes Straub as training as an actor under Jürgen Scheller and Editor Dieter Staiger Music by Clemens Wagner Eleonore von Hoogstraten. He has appeared on Producer Robert Mayer Production Company stage throughout Germany and abroad as well Robert Mayer Film & Videoproduktion, Munich as working for television. His films include: Principal Cast Bettina Kurzan, Christian Janda, Claudia Fauxpas (short, 1992), Das Unbehagen in Sauermann, Marianne Sägebrecht Length 80 min., 2.400 m. der Kultur (short, 1993), Bunt ist Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,66 Original Version Trumpf (documentary video, 1995), Die German Sound Technology Dolby Stereo With Untersuchung (video short, 1996) and backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern International Damaskus (1999). Festival Screenings Max-Ophüls/Saarbrücken 2000 German Distributor Robert Mayer Film & Videoproduktion, Munich

World Sales: plaese contact Robert Mayer Film & Videoproduktion · Robert Mayer Pariserstr. 31 · D-81667 Munich phone/fax: +49-89-48 99 89 11

38 Fandango

Welcome to Clubland, to the eternal party, to the rave in unreal worlds. People dance here to the rhy- thm of the wildest music and pills offer a few hours of happiness. This is home for the spaced-out Shirley Maus who is dreaming of a career as a model although she is not tall enough. Her boyfriend Lupo is the boss of the best club in town, ice-cold and calculating, but only Shirley is really able to throw him. DJ Sunny Sunshine, until recently the most popular DJ in town, has escaped from this synthetic night club madness. He has actually had enough of all of this when Shirley bumps into him completely beside herself. He doesn't yet have the slightest inkling of Duke with whom Lupo and Shirley still have a score to settle and, above all, he doesn't yet know how near he already is to a total fandango ... Percy Adlon Percy Moritz Bleibtreu, Nicolette Krebitz Moritz Bleibtreu,

Genre Feature Director Matthias Glasner Matthias Glasner was born on 20 January Screenplay Matthias Glasner, based on an idea by 1965 and worked as a projectionist. He spent Jens Bielefeldt von Kunowski Director of Photo- some time abroad and started shooting with graphy Sonja Rom Editor Markus Goller Music Birgit Staudt from 1983. In 1993, he founded by Fetisch, Meister Producer Werner Possardt Jack Film an Music Productions with Bernd Production Company Calypso Filmproduktion, Medek and produced Die Mediocren in 1995. Cologne, in co-production with Buena Vista He then founded schwarzweiss Film Productions International Filmproduktion (Germany), Munich, with Jürgen Vogel for future projects. His films Bavaria Film, Geiselgasteig Principal Cast Moritz are: Requiem (1985), Schicksal und Bleibtreu, Nicolette Krebitz, Richy Müller, Corinna Zufall (co-directed with Brigit Staudt, 1990), Harfouch, Lars Rudolph Length 112 min., 3.100 m. Herzblatt oder Die Sexuellen (short, Format 35 mm, colour, cs Original Version 1993), Die Mediocren (1995), Sexy Sadie German Subtitled Version English Sound (1996) and Fandango (1999). Technology Dolby SRD With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFörderung Hamburg International Festival Screenings Berlin 2000: Panorama German Distributor Buena Vista International (Germany), Munich

World Sales: Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone: +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax: +49-89-64 99 37 20 www.bavaria-film-international.de · email: [email protected] 39 Flashback – Mörderische Ferien FLASHBACK Twelve year old Jeanette has to watch as a murderer in women’s clothes kills her parents with a sickle. Even today, Jeanette still can not remember why she survived that night. After ten years in an asylum her psychiatrist wants to integrate her back into normal life. Her job is to teach French to three teenage brothers and sisters during their summer holidays. Already on her way there we can not get rid of the feeling that someone is following the young woman. Leon, 18, Melissa, 17, and Lissy, 16, hate Jeanette for destroying their holiday plans. Soon a dress is missing from Jeanette’s suitcase. A sickle has disappeared from the shed. We more and more get the feeling that the lunatic from that time has come back. Tension and horror are increasing to the climax as there are more and more people killed. In the meantime, Jeanette is caught more and more by her past. After Jeanette’s flashback, we know, why HE returned after ten years. But now the situation is escalating and we find an end that nobody would have expected. Valerie Niehaus Valerie

Genre Feature Director Michael Karen Michael Karen began as an actor and radio Screenplay Natalie Scharf, Jimmy Sangster reporter before making his first short Die Director of Photography Peter Joachim Loosers in 1986. He followed this with various Krause Editor Behruz Torbati Music by Siggi jobs on documentaries, a six-month stay in Los Müller Producer Rikolt von Gagern Angeles, and directing for television in the late Production Companies Tele München, 1980s/early 1990s. He attended the Frank Clasert Film, Munich Principal Cast Valerie Daniel script workshop and Robert McKee’s Niehaus, Alexandra Neldel, Xaver Hutter story structure seminar and directed the musical Length 94,5 min., 2.580 m. Format 35 mm, The Little Shop Of Horrors in Düsseldorf in 1995. colour, cs Original Version German Sound Apart from writing many scripts for film and Technology Dolby SR With backing television, Karen’s directing credits include: Im from Cinetirol, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) Namen des Gesetzes (1994, TV), So ist German Distributor Concorde Filmverleih das Leben – Die Wagenfelds (TV, 1995), GmbH, Munich Parkhotel Stern (TV, 1996), Die Diebin (TV, 1997), Verführt – eine gefährliche Affäre (TV, 1998), Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei (TV, 1999), and his feature debut Flashback (1999). World Sales: please contact Tele München Fernseh GmbH & Co Produktionsgesellschaft · Rikolt von Gagern Kaufingerstr. 24 · D-80331 Munich phone: +49-89-29 09 30 · fax: +49-89-29 09 31 09

40 Frau 2 + Happy End FEMALE 2 + HAPPY END

Autumn days are coming to Berlin. Two lonely hearts are wandering through the city: the radio presenter Gregor, who hides behind a protective shield since the singer Lea broke his heart, and the young Mai who had been crossed in love with the boyfriend of her flatmate Anne. Whenever she can no longer stand it at home, she drives aimlessly through the city in the evenings. One evening, Mai hears Gregor’s show on the car radio. He is playing a gentle love ballad full of longing just as Mai manages to avoid a fatal accident by the skin of her teeth. The song becomes a symbol for her. She writes an e-mail to Gregor and asks him to play the song for her one more time. But Gregor thinks that Mai is a friend of Lea's, and they begin to chat on regular basis. Gradually, Mai falls in love with Gregor and wants to meet him. Again and again, both of them are near to meeting each other – yet fate has

other ideas each time. Adlon Percy

Genre Feature Director/Screenplay Edward Berger was born in 1970 and studied at the Edward Berger Director of Photography Academy of Fine Arts in Braunschweig. He moved to New Gero Steffen Editor Sabine Krayenbühl York in 1991 where he completed his studies at the Film Music by Enrico Fabio Cortese Producers Institute of the Tisch School of Arts. He co-founded the Andreas Eicher, Philipp Homberg Production Hound Dog Films Inc. production company and has worked as Company box! Film- und Fernsehproduktion, an independent writer and director. His various short films Potsdam, in co-production with Studio, Babels- include Straitjacket (1991), Smelly Dinners (1994) and berg Independents, Berlin, Universal Pictures, Wanderbread (1995). Gomez – Heads Or Tails Hamburg Principal Cast Ben Becker, Isabella (Gomez – Kopf oder Zahl) was his first feature-length Parkinson, Sabrina Setlur Length 100 min., film and was shot in summer 1997 in Berlin. Berger followed 2.736 m. Format 35 mm, colour, cs this in winter 1999 with his second feature Female2 + Original Version German Subtitled Happy End, which was also shot on location in Berlin. Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital Surround With backing from Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg German Distributor Universal Pictures Germany GmbH, Hamburg

World Sales: Bavaria Film International Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone: +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax: +49-89-64 99 37 20 www.bavaria-film-international.de · email: [email protected] 41 Ganz Unten, Ganz Oben FROM THE DEPTHS TO THE HEIGHTS

Elli Schulze has been been working efficiently as a bank cashier for ten years. She is a generous and big hearted person and tends to look after everyone’s needs but her own. After splitting up from her husband, she has to continue paying off the loans they took out. But as much as she juggles with the payments, the debts are too high. Soon, Elli's flat is repossessed. From one day to the next, she's out in the streets. Blumenberg, the sympathetic bailiff, offers to help her but in fact is more interested in her baroque physique. Nor does Elli’s sister manage to prevail on her husband to help her. Eventually, Elli finds refuge with Cora, a young homeless woman living in a caravan. But things go from bad to worse. When money is found missing in the cash till, Elli is accused of stealing the money. She’s dismissed on the spot. For the first time ever, she’s at a complete loss … Marianne Sägebrecht

Genre Feature Director Matti Geschonneck Matti Geschonneck was born in 1952 and Screenplay Hannah Hollinger Director of completed his professional film training at the Photography Hans Grimmelmann Editor Eisenstein Institute in Moscow. His films include: Heidi Handorf Music by Frank Kuruc, Philippe Geschlossene Akten (1993), Endstation Kayser Producers Jakob Claussen, Thomas (1994), Angst hat eine kalte Hand Wöbke Production Company Claussen + (1995), Der Schrei der Liebe (1996), Wöbke Filmproduktion, Munich Principal Der Rosenmörder (1997), Reise in die Cast Marianne Sägebrecht, Dietmar Bär, Tilo Nacht (1997), Polizeiruf 110 (1998) Prückner, Katharina Meinecke Length 88 min., Mörderkind (1998), Comeback für 2.525 m. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,66 Freddy Baker (1998), and Ganz Unten, Original Version German Sound Ganz Oben (1999) which was first shown at Technology Dolby SR International the Hof Film Days in October 1999. Festival Screenings Hof 99

World Sales: Telepool GmbH · Marlene Fritz Sonnenstr. 21 · D-80331 Munich phone: +49-89-55 87 60 · fax: +49-89-55 87 61 88 www.telepoolgmbh.com email: [email protected] 42 Hans Warns – Mein 20. Jahrhundert HANS WARNS – MY 20TH CENTURY

A compilation feature about the life of the sea captain Hans Warns. Born in 1899, so always as old as the century itself, Hans Warns documented all the sea voyages of his life with his own photographs and films, beginning as a 14 year old ship’s boy on the Chile sailing ship ”Herbert“ in 1914, and culminating with a final exhibition of his photos in a Bremen old people’s home in 1993. The film offers a wealth of material, the history of a century at sea, compiled and processed to include original noises, contemporary musical recordings and historical film material – as well as restaged sequences technically and aesthetically oriented upon the filmic texture of Warns’ own material. Scene from ”Hans Warns – My 20th Century“ ”Hans Warns Scene from

Genre Feature Director/Screenplay Gordian Gordian Maugg was born in Heidelberg in Maugg Directors of Photography Hans 1966. He studied film and television at the Moser, Andreas Giesecke, Thomas Rosié Kassel College of Art under Prof. Manfred Vosz Editor Monika Schindler Music by Ferdinand and completed another course of studies in film Försch, Heidi Aydt Producer Susanne Binninger dramaturgy at the Academy for Film & Production Company Gordian Maugg Television (HFF) ”Konrad Wolf“ in Babelsberg. Filmproduktion, Heidelberg, in co-production with He has been a freelance writer and director ZDF, Mainz Principal Cast Florian Höber, since 1990 with such films as Liebe ist ein Shenja Lacher, Julia Jessen, Leonor Q. Ochoa Geräusch von Sand in den Händen Length 100 min., 2.977 m. Format 35 mm, (1989/90), The Olympic Summer (Der colour and b&w, 1:1,66 Original Version olympische Sommer, 1991/93), The German Subtitled Versions English, French Caucasian Night (Die kaukasische Sound Technology Mono Comopt Nacht, 1995/96), and Hans Warns – My International Festival Screenings Toronto 20th Century (Hans Warns – Mein 20. 99, Berlinale 2000: Forum With backing from Jahrhundert, 1996/99). FilmFörderung Hamburg, MFG Baden- Württem- berg, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), Filmbüro NW German Distributor Pegasus Film, Frankfurt/Main

World Sales: Transit Film GmbH · Loy Arnold Dachauer Str. 35 · D-80335 Munich phone: +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax: +49-89-59 98 85 20 email: [email protected]

43 Hillbrow Kids

”There once lived a familay … The mother and father were ordinary people like you and me but, for some reason, the children were different. The were made out of wax …“ So begins an African legend that occurs to a story teller as she wanders through the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, and wit- nesses the trials and tribulations of the street children of this growing metropolis. Vusi works for his bicy- cle and for his mother. Jane, a child, is looking for her own child. Silas is desperately seeking help. An abscess in his jaw almost blinds him with pain. Bheki numbs his senses with strong doses of glue. And Shadrack? Shadrack believes in himself and his good fortune. He is convinced he is different. He’s going to make it. He’s got plans. They all have one thing in common: the legacies of Apartheid have driven them from the townships to seek their fortune in the city of gold, Johannesburg. But the future that awaits them there is not the one they bargained for. Trapped in the big city, they see their hopes dwindling. Rootless and confused, they stare helplessly at the clouds gathering on the horizon while the storyteller shouts the ancient myths to the skyline of Johannesburg. Scene from ”Hillbrow Kids“ ”Hillbrow Scene from

Genre Documentary Directors/Screenplay Michael Born in 1964 in Erfurt, Jacqueline Görgen escaped Hammon, Jacqueline Görgen Director of Photo- from the GDR in 1986 and studied Languages and Visual graphy Michael Hammon Editors Michael Hammon, Communication in Berlin. She made the documentary Yvonne Loques Music by Harald Bernhard, Matthias Der Streit oder Kinder im Asyl in 1995/96 and Kratzenstein Producer Mirjam Quinte Production collaborated with Michael Hammon on Hillbrow Company Quinte Film, Freiburg, in co-production with Kids in 1997/99. ZDF, Mainz, arte, Strasbourg, Goethe Institut, Munich With street children of Johannesburg Length 94 min., Michael Hammon was born in South Africa in 1955 2.572 m., (short version: 59 min., 1.614m.) Format 35 and graduated in Painting and Photography from the mm, colour, 1:1,85 Original Version Afrikaans/English University of Cape Town in 1978. He worked as a Subtitled Versions English, German Sound Tech- news cameraman before attending the German Film & nology Audio With backing from MFG Baden- Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin from 1985-1991. Württemberg, Open Society Institute, New York He worked as director of photography for many film International Festival Screenings Locarno 99, and TV productions and began directing his own films in IDFA-Amsterdam 99: in competition 1986. His films include: Mohale Street Brothers (1990), Wheels And Deals (1991), Trekking To Utopia (1993), and Hillbrow Kids (co-directed with Jacqueline Görgen). World Sales: Media Luna – International Film Sales · Ida Martins Alter Markt 36-42 · D-50667 Cologne phone: +49-2 21-1 39 22 22 · fax: +49-2 21-1 39 22 24 email: [email protected]

44 Kanak Attack

Kanak Attack is about the 25 year-old Ertan Ongun, born and raised in Germany but of Turkish descent. For Ertan and his friends Kemal and Mehdi, friendship, love, and loyalty are the values that count. But making money fast along the usual criminal lines is what rules their daily lives – until things get out of hand and Ertan reconsiders. In an episodic style Lars Becker depicts his characters as authentic human beings on the down side of life where joy, violence, death, loneliness and paranoia are so close to each other. The brilliant music, inventive editing and the underlying poesy make the difference for Kanak Attack. Orhan Güner, Luke Piyes Luke Orhan Güner,

Genre Feature Director Lars Becker Lars Becker was born in 1951 in Hannover Screenplay Lars Becker, Feridun Zaimoglu, and studied Film at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bernhard Wutka Director of Photogra- Hamburg and graduated in 1986. Since then, phy Hannes Hubach Editors Marco Pav he has worked as a writer and director. He D’auria, Oliver Gieth Music by Frank Wulff, published two crime novels, Kalte Sonne and Stefan Wulff Producers Thomas Häberle, Amigo, and directed his first feature film, Christian Becker Production Company Schattenboxer, in 1992. In 1994, he was Becker & Häberle Filmproduktion, Krefeld, in awarded the Otto Sprengler Prize for his collected co-production with ZDF, Mainz, Bavaria Film, works. His films are: Kalte Sonne (1988, TV), Geiselgasteig Principal Cast Luke Piyes, Africa Around The Corner (Afrika um David Scheller, Tyron Ricketts, Oezlem Çetin, die Ecke, documentary, 1990), Schatten- Nadeshda Brenneke, Ercan Durmaz, Murat boxer (1992), Bunte Hunde (1995), Yilmaz, Orhan Güner Length 89 min., 2.435 Landgang für Ringo (1996), Das Gelbe m. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,85 Original vom Ei (1998) and Kanak Attack (1999). Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby SR With backing from FilmFörderung Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW

World Sales: Bavaria Film International · Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 · D-82031 Geiselgasteig phone: +49-89-64 99 26 86 · fax: +49-89-64 99 37 20 www.bavaria-film-international.de · email: [email protected] 45 Käpt’n Blaubär CAPT’N BLUEBEAR

One day, as Capt’n Bluebear sat astride the rock of his retirement, he heard the grim voice of fate: ”Bluebear, you have travelled the seven seas. You have written a successful book about your life, and 87% of Germans know you. What is missing is a cartoon film.“ And so Capt’n Bluebear decided to become a film star, certain that his life story would provide plenty of suitable material. Find out how Capt’n Bluebear overcomes sea phantoms, water droplets and crocodile pirates, how he survives the calorie rays fired by his long-distance chess opponent and archenemy Prof. Dr. Finefinger, and is able to fend off the attacks of the real estate sharks which infest the Capitalistic Sea; aided and abetted as always by his best friend, and his remarkable knowledge of the language of Fartinese. Percy Adlon Percy Scene from »Capt’nScene from Bluebear“

Genre Animation Director Hayo Freitag Hayo Freitag was born in Wilhelmshafen in 1950 and stu- Screenplay Walter Moers Director of died Art and Philosophy in Hamburg. He came to animation via Photography Graham Tiernan Art book publishing and illustration and had his 1985 animated Direction Gyula Szabo, Christoph Baum short Mein Bruder winning the prize for Best Animation in Music by Wolfgang von Henko, Fred Timm, Zagreb and the 1986 German Short Film Award. Freitag worked Joachim Schlüter, Helge Schneider Producer on many commercials for cinema and television before moving Hanno Huth Production Company Senator into feature films as character designer and animator on Film Produktion Berlin, in co-production with Werner – Beinhart in 1990. Since then, he has worked in ARD/Degeto, Frankfurt/Main Voices various roles for Michael Schaack’s TFC Trickompany on the Wolfgang Völz, Edgar Hoppe, Helge Schneider Ottifanten series (1994), Felidae (1994), Logger- Length 80 min., 2220 m. Format 35 mm, heads (1995), Max und Moritz (1997) before directing colour, 1:1,85 Original Version German Capt’n Bluebear (1999). He also served as designer, aut- Subtitled Version English Sound hor, animator and director on the short Das Pflaumen- Technology Dolby SRD With backing huhn (1997) which was awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau from Filmstiftung NRW, FilmFörderung Prize and nominated for the German Short Film Award in 1998. Hamburg, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Freitag is presently working on another two shorts – The Distributor Senator Film Verleih GmbH, Punch & Judy Show and Wenn der Pinguin zwei- Berlin mal klopft – and preparing a US version of the series Pigs Next Door which he conceived, designed and directed with Magma Films in Ireland.

World Sales: Amberlon Pictures Ltd. · Norbert Maass Kurfürstendamm 65 · D-10707 Berlin phone: +49-30-88 09 17 56 · fax: +49-30-88 09 17 53 www.blaubaer-derfilm.de · email: [email protected]

46 Die Königin – Marianne Hoppe THE QUEEN – MARIANNE HOPPE A portrait of one of the most fascinating German actresses, now on her way to becoming the cult image for the art of acting in 20th century Germany. She represents continuity in discontinuous periods of time. Like a queen, she has kept her own counsel on how much this continuity has demanded of her, especially between 1933 and 1945. The film utilises the form of internal monologue to link the expression of this great actress in her roles to what happened to her and within her, as well as to what still appears today in her public appearances – oscillating links to reality. So arises a vital conflict between life and art throughout the years from 1925 to 1999 that should inform our own desires and political assertions. Marianne Hoppe, Werner Schroeter Marianne Hoppe, Werner

Genre Documentary Directors Werner Schroeter Werner Schroeter was born in Thuringia in Screenplay Werner Schroeter, Monika Keppler 1945. He worked in the theatre and staged his Directors of Photography Thomas Plenert, Alexandra first opera (”Lohengrin“) in Kassel in 1979. He Kordes Editor Flo Köhler Music by Peer Raben made his first feature-length film Eika Producer Elke Peters Production Company Mira Katappa in 1969 and followed it with, among Filmproduktion, Bremen, in co-production with arte, others, The Death Of Maria Malibran Strasbourg, SFB, Berlin, Transit Film, Munich, Friedrich- (Der Tod der Maria Malibran, 1971), Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden Golden Flakes (Goldflocken, 1976), Principal Cast Marianne Hoppe, Maren Eggert, Judith Kingdom Of Naples (Neapolitanische Engel, Martina Gedeck With Evelyn Künneke, Lola Müthel, Geschwister, 1978), Palermo Or Barbara Nüsse, Martin Wuttke, Einar Schleef, Robert Wilson Wolfsburg (Palermo oder Wolfsburg, Length 98 min., 2.736 m. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,66 1980), Day Of Idiots (Der Tag der Original Version German Subtitled Version English Idioten, 1981), The Rose King (Der Sound Technology Optical With backing from Rosenkönig, 1985), Malina (1990), and Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Bremer Innovations-Agentur Love’s Debris (Abfallprodukte der International Festival Screenings Berlin 2000: Liebe, 1996). Panorama German Distributor Salzgeber & Co Medien GmbH, Berlin

World Sales: Transit Film GmbH · Loy Arnold Dachauer Str. 35 · D-80335 Munich phone: +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax: +49-89-59 98 85 20 email: [email protected]

47 Die Legende vom Potsdamer Platz THE LEGEND OF POTSDAMER PLATZ

During the twenties, the journalist Hardy Worm wrote: ”At Potsdamer Platz, one has the feeling a huge firework display is taking place; it is as if howling rockets were shooting into the air, exploding on the roofs of the houses and showering the city with a flood of noise“. It was at that time that the myth of Potsdamer Platz was born. The Potsdamer Platz of the nineties: a symbol for the reconstruction of the new German capital. In the intervening years, there was the period of absolute destruction during the Second World War, the square as a barren space with its death strip, and the rabbits’ paradise of no-man's-land directly beside the Wall. The Legend Of Potsdamer Platz allows unknown chroniclers to tell the story of the square. We meet a radio reporter who is collecting voices from Potsdamer Platz for his radio play collage and a maker of animated films. There is also a story-teller, guiding hordes of tourists across the square, a performance artist who marks the course of the former Wall with crepe paper and balloons, and finally witnesses from Potsdamer Platz' earlier, more glamorous era. A myth is reawakened to new life. Manfred Wilhelms, Birgit Ramsauer, Arno Lüning (photo: Claudia Dufke Birgit Ramsauer, © Lassoband-Filmproduktion) Wilhelms, Manfred

Genre Documentary Director/Screen- Manfred Wilhelms was originally a painter play/Director of Photography/Editor/ and photographer before undergoing a comple- Producer Manfred Wilhelms Production te metamorphosis into a self-taught filmmaker Company Lassoband-Filmproduktion, Berlin and cinematographer. As a part-time student, he With Arno Lüning, Fred Walther, Ralph Hoppe, took part in seminars given by Helmut Färber Birgit Ramsauer Length 120 min., 3.253 m. on the films of Griffith, Ozu and Renoir. He has Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,37 Original made short TV features – a minimal concession Version German Sound Technology to his professional career. Wilhelms lives in Stereo With backing from Filmboard Berlin and has made the following documenta- Berlin-Brandenburg, Beauftragter der Bundes- ries: Licht singt tausendfache Lieder regierung für Angelegenheiten der Kultur und (1985), Die Loreley (1988), Menschen- der Medien (BKM) German Distributor rechte (TV, 1989), Rostige Bilder (1990- Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek e.V., Berlin 92), Route des Creˆtes (1993), Die Rennstrecke (1994), Laufen um zu leben (1995), Berlin – Pictures of a City (1995-98) and Nightwalk (1999). World Sales: please contact Lassoband-Filmproduktion · Manfred Wilhelms Fürbringerstr. 11 · D-10961 Berlin phone: +49-30-6 93 84 42 · fax: +49-30-6 92 53 22

48 Marlene

World star comes back to life in a film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. With a unique collection of stars and sparkling, monumental images, Marlene describes the screen goddess’ path from Berlin to Hollywood. It shows her as a wife, a lover and an idolized, glamorous star. Hers was a life full of high points and defeats – the life of a strong, seductive and fascinating woman. Josef von Sternberg once asked: ”Do you want to be famous, or do you want to be happy?“ Marlene Dietrich became famous – and immortal … Katja Flint Katja

Genre Feature Director Joseph Vilsmaier Joseph Vilsmaier was born in 1939 and Screenplay Christian Pfannenschmidt grew up in Munich and Pfarrkirchen. He under- Director of Photography Joseph Vilsmaier took apprenticeship at Arnold & Richter (ARRI) Editor Barbara Hennings Music by Harald from 1953 to 1961 as well as studying Music at Kloser Producers Katharina M. Trebitsch, Jutta the Munich Conservatoire. In 1961, he became Lieck-Klenke, Joseph Vilsmaier Production a camera assistant at Bavaria and has been a Companies TPI Trebitsch Produktion Inter- director of photography since 1972. He made national, Hamburg, Perathon Film, Munich his directorial debut in 1988 with Autumn Principal Cast Katja Flint, Herbert Knaup, Milk (Herbstmilch) following with Rama Hans-Werner Meyer, Heino Ferch, , Dama (1990), Stalingrad (1992), Charlie Armin Rohde, Cosma Shiva Hagen, Heiner & Louise (1993), Brother Of Sleep Lauterbach, Monica Bleibtreu, Suzanne von (Schlafes Bruder, 1995), Comedian Borsody Length 125 min., 3.420 m. Format Harmonists (1997) and Marlene (1999). 35 mm, color, cs Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Digital With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungs- anstalt (FFA), Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmstiftung NRW, FilmFörderung Hamburg German Distributor Senator Film Verleih GmbH, Berlin

World Sales: Amberlon Pictures Ltd. · Norbert Maass Kurfürstendamm 65 · D-10707 Berlin phone: +49-30-88 09 17 56 · fax: +49-30-88 09 17 53 www. Marlene-derfilm.de · email: [email protected]

49 Midsommar-Stories

One myth of our times, IKEA, is the focal point of five different stories conceived by students at the Munich Film Academy. Under the direction of Prof. Doris Dörrie, the best material by five students was developed until suitable for screenplay. A professional team and excellent actors then helped smooth the stories' path onto the screen. The outcome is an delightful episodic film. Midsommar-Stories is about people driven on by a wide range of dreams, problems and fears. At some point in their lives, the ”furniture paradise“ IKEA plays a decisive role – whether this be comical or tragic. IKEA is the scene of wild adventures, of a struggle between destructive characters, or – in another case – of new-found happiness. The result is an abundant, varied picture of human destinies. Annika Kuhl (photo: M.A. / Allary-Film, TV & Media) Annika Kuhl

Genre Cycle of Shorts Directors/ Elena Alvarez (born 1964), Michael Screenplay Elena Alvarez, Michael Chauvistré (born 1960), Andi Niessner Chauvistré, Andi Niessner, Livia Vogt, Heike (born 1960), Livia Vogt (born 1966) and Wasem Directors of Photography Heike Wasem (born 1968) are students of Markus Krämer, Stefan Spreer, Christian Reitz the Academy for Television & Film (HFF) in Editors Jean-Claude Piroué, Dirk Göhler, Munich. The story ideas for Midsommar- Christian Knobloch Music by Christian Stories were developed in 1998 as part of a Knobel, Tom Leonhardt Producer Mathias dramaturgy and story development course led Allary Production Company Allary-Film, by filmmaker Doris Dörrie. Munich, in co-production with BR, Munich, arte, Strasbourg, HFF, Munich Principal Cast Franziska Petri, Jacques Breuer, Joachim Iffland, Rudi Knaus, Matthias Büdinger, Annika Kuhl, Billie Zöckler Length 98 min., 2.803 m. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,85 Original Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Dolby Stereo With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film Inter- national Festival Screenings Hof 99: opening film

World Sales: please contact Allary-Film TV & Media Produktion · Mathias Allary Milchstr. 27 D-81667 Munich phone: +49-89-48 64 72 · fax: +49-89-48 13 54 www.allaryfilm.de · email: [email protected]

50 Spiel mit dem Teufel PLAYING WITH THE DEVIL Playing With The Devil tells the story of that great old man of Caribbean music, Pacho Rada. It is the tale of a singer and composer who first held an accordion at the age of four and was never to let go of it again. He’s 93 now and lives in a corrugated iron shack on the outskirts of Santa Marta in Colombia, whilst his songs climb up the hit parades. The film follows Pacho Rada on a journey along the Caribbean coast of Colombia voyaging into the world of musicians who have grown up with Salsa, Cumbia and Vallenato. The musician who transformed Colombian Cumbia and bullfight tunes into a fiery big band sound, Alfredo Gutierrez, also performs in the film. And then there is the undisputed star, Israel Romero, King of Vallenato, hurling himself into a breathtaking virtuoso accor- dion duel with his nephew El Morré. Pacho Rada became famous through Gabriel Marquez’ novel One Hundred Years Of Solitude. The figure of the troubadour, Francisco El Hombre, who has a fateful encounter with the devil one night, is modelled on Pacho Rada. The boundaries between dream and reality are blurred in Pacho Rada’s tales, just as they are in Marquez’s novels. The film Playing With The Devil enters into both these universes with him, exploring a country torn asunder by poverty and violence and a fantastic realm of legends and captivating music. Scene from ”Playing Scene from With The Devil“(©von Muralt) Felix

Genre Documentary Director/Screenplay Stefan Stefan Schwietert was born in Esslingen in 1961 Schwietert Director of Photography Ciro Cappellari and made his first videos in the Basle video collective in Editor Tania Stöcklin Music by Francisco ”Pacho“ Rada, 1979. He spent a year working at TV Globo in Brazil as Manuel Rada, Alfredo Gutierrez Producer Thomas Kufus an assistant director from 1981-1982 and then received Production Company zero film, Berlin, in co-produc- a grant as a visiting student to the California Art tion with Neapel Film, Therwil, in cooperation with Institute in San Francisco in 1983. A year later, he began Televisione Svizzera, Lugano With Francisco "Pacho" Rada, studies at the German Film & Television Academy Manuel Rada, Alfredo Gutierrez Length 90 min., 2.462 (dffb) until 1990 and founded his production company m. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,85 Original Version Neapel Film in Basle in 1991. His films include Das German-Spanish Subtitled Version English Sound Topolino Projekt (video, 1986), Tapez 36-15 Technology Dolby SR With backing from Code Gorba (short, 1987), Rualni 88 – The Bundesamt für Kultur Bern, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Last Days Of A Campagne (video, 1988), BKM, Fachausschuss Film/Video/Foto Basel, Zuger Sprung aus den Wolken (1991), Der Schatten Kulturstiftung Landis & Gyr, Success Cinema, Direktion für ist lang (TV documentary, 1991), A Tickle In The Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit, Römisch-Katholische Heart (documentary, 1996), Im Warteraum Körperschaft des Kantons Zürich, UBS Kulturstiftung, Gottes (TV documentary, 1998), and Playing With Eurimages The Devil (documentary, 1999).

World Sales: please contact zero film GmbH · Thomas Kufus Lehrter Str. 57 · D-10557 Berlin phone: +49-30-3 90 66 30 · fax: +49-30-3 94 58 34 www.zerofilm.de · email: [email protected]

51 Sumo Bruno

For the first time ever, the Sumo Wrestling Amateur Championships are being held outside of Japan, in Riesa, a small town in Germany. Kalle, a shifty entrepreneur, talks Bruno, his 400 pound heavyweight buddy, into taking up Sumo wrestling with the goal to win the prize money. But Bruno is all but a fighting machine. Kalle hires Akashi, a local owner of a fairly successful Sushi restaurant, as a Sumo trainer. Bruno wouldn’t last long were it no for eleven year old, overweight Timo and his mother Anna, a dancer and fitness instructor. Bruno undergoes the relentless Sumo training enforced by Akashi. He is on his way to becoming a champion but his friends are in trouble. Kalle is threatened by a loan shark and Anna and Timo seek shelter in Bruno’s house. What could be more than sympathy between Anna and Bruno is destroyed by shyness and awkwardness and ends in disappointment. But, encouraged by Timo, Bruno sails through the qualifying tournament and qualifies for the World Championship. The big day – but the seats reserved for Timo and Anna remain empty. Bruno realizes that to get what he wants, especially in love matters, he has to overcome his shyness and take fate into his own hands. Just before the final fight, he finds Anna and Timo. Anna’s kiss is the biggest reward of the day. In the final match, Bruno is beaten but knows, that, even though he came in second, he is the winner overall. Hakan Orbeyi

Genre Feature Director Lenard Fritz Krawinkel Born in 1966, Lenard Fritz Krawinkel stu- Screenplay Marius del Mestre, Jan Berger, Lenard Fritz died Medecine and History of Art in Paris, Krawinkel Director of Photography Piotr Lenar Budapest and Geneva before working as a TV Editor Adam Boome Music by Biber Gullatz, Eckes journalist in Berlin. He also directed several Malz Producers Dirk Beinhold, Friedrich-Carl Wachs documentary dramas for SFB and WDR. He Production Company Babelsberg Film, Potsdam, in began studies at the Academy for Television & co-production with Studio Babelsberg Independents, Film (HFF) in Munich from 1993 and continued Potsdam, Senator Film Produktion, Berlin Principal at FEMIS in Paris. He directed short films, music Cast Hakan Orbeyi, Oliver Korittke, Julia Richter, Martin videos and commercials before shooting the Seifert, Thomas Drechsel, Martin Semmelrogge, Uwe pilot and two additional episodes to the ZDF Steimle Length 100 min., 2.735 m. Format 35 mm, series First Love. He made his feature direc- colour, 1:1,85 Original Version German Sound torial debut in winter 1999 with Sumo Bruno Technology Dolby Stereo With backing from for Babelsberg Film. Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor Senator Film Verleih GmbH, Berlin

World Sales: Babelsberg Film GmbH · Dirk Beinhold August-Bebel-Str. 26-53 · D-14482 Potsdam phone: +49-3 31-7 21 21 62 · fax: +49-3 31-7 21 21 74 www.StudioBabelsberg.com · email: [email protected]

52 Tobias Totz und sein Löwe TOBIAS TOTZ AND HIS LION

Tobias Totz is a very special zookeeper. He understands his animals perfectly and they all love him. His best friend is the lion, who dreams day and night of falling in love. As there are no lionesses in the zoo, on the spur of the moment, Tobias decides to fly to Africa and find a girlfriend for the lion. However, this is not as easy as it sounds. Nasty animal-collectors have lured lots of animals, including Lea the lioness, into traps. And although Tobias manages to free her, the animal-collectors are hot on their heels. All kind of things can – and do – happen before the lion and Lea are up in the clouds, sharing a rosy future together. Scene from ”Tobias Totz And His Lion“ Totz ”Tobias Scene from

Genre Animation Directors Thilo Graf Rothkirch, Thilo Graf Rothkirch was born in 1948 Piet de Rycker Screenplay Thilo Graf Rothkirch, and studied Graphics Design in Kassel from Piet de Rycker, Bert Schrickel Editor Simone Lo 1969-1974. He worked from 1974-1979 as a Chiatto Music by Nik Glowna, Siggi Mueller graphics designer, storyboard artist, background Producers Thilo Graf Rothkirch, Linda van Tulden, artist, cartoonist, author and director in London Bernard Goosens, Eberhard Junkersdorf Production and Bonn. He also lectured in Animation at Companies Rothkirch/Cartoon-Film, Berlin, Munich higher education institutions in Kassel and Animation, Bioskop Film, Munich, Road Movies, Berlin, Dortmund and became a producer in 1980. His Stupid Studio, Brussels, Warner Bros. Film, Hamburg credits as director include the Tobias Totz Speakers , Jürgen von der Lippe, Ingolf Lück, shorts for television (1988, 1994-1996), and the Hape Kerkeling Length 72 min., 2.063 m. Format feature-length animation films Tobias Totz 35 mm, colour, 1: 1,66 Original Version German And His Lion (Tobias Totz und sein Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Löwe, 1997-1999) and The Little Polar Dolby SR With backing from Filmboard Berlin- Bear (Der kleine Eisbär, 1999-2001). His Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFörderung production of shorts in the The Little Polar Hamburg, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), HET Fonds Bear 1993/94 series won prizes at the Golden Film, De Nationale Loterij German Distributor Sparrow children’s film and television festival in Warner Bros. Film GmbH, Hamburg Gera and at the New York Film Festival.

World Sales: Warner Bros. Film GmbH · Willi Geike Jarrestr. 4 · D-22303 Hamburg phone: +49-40-22 65 01 00 · fax: +49-40-22 65 01 09 www.warnerbros.com

53 Der tote Taucher im Wald

Tobias Kutschke has been assigned to take over the job of police commissioner in a small village. His predecessor Konrad Hartwich has resigned due to health difficulties. Barely arrived, Tobias is confronted with a mysterious murder. A jogger has stumbled over a body in the forest; the corpse is dressed in a diving suit and the nearest lake is more than twenty kilometers away! Tobias is forced to work together with Hartwich, who blatantly rejects his successor. Hartwich’s assistant Bergmann, an incompetent bootlicker, and the overworked pathologist Dr. Finke don’t make things any easier. Then parts of a woman’s body are discovered in a red sports bag, one of a thousand given as Christmas gifts by a local store. When an unsuspecting small-time crook shows up with one of the bags, Hartwich makes the case fit the crook. Determined to complete his last assignment before leaving and to go out with glory, Hartwich ignores Tobias’ protests and the real murderer gets away. Scene from ”Der tote Taucher im Wald“ ”Der tote Taucher Scene from

Genre Feature Director Markus O. Rosenmüller Born in 1963 in Duisburg, Marcus O. Screenplay Peter Dollinger, Marcus 0. Rosenmüller Rosenmüller studied communications at the Director of Photography Ekkehart Pollack University of Munich from 1983 to 1988. In Editor Raimund Vienken Music by Reinhold Heil 1983 he co-founded Koenig & Rosenmüller Producer Nils Düncker Production Company Filmproduktion and in 1991 co-founded Me, Helkon Pictures Filmproduktion II, Munich, in co-produc- Myself & Eye (MME) Film-und TV-Produktion. In tion with Me, Myself & Eye Film, Hamburg, Studio addition to directing advertisements for compa- Babelsberg Independents, Berlin Principal Cast Dieter nies such as Diners Club, Microsoft and Philip Pfaff, Jens Schäfer, Christina Greb, Axel Milberg Morris, Rosenmüller has directed ca. 120 music Length 93 min., 2.544 m. Format 35 mm, colour, cs videos as well as numerous TV programs and Original Version German Subtitled Version TV program lead-ins. Among the prizes and English Sound Technology Dolby Stereo With awards he has received are the International backing from Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Visual Music Award at MIDEM in 1992 and the Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) German Distributor International Television Association Award in silver Helkon Filmverleih GmbH, Munich for the lead-in to Heike Makatsch’s Die Show in 1998.

World Sales: Beta Film GmbH · Claudia Schmitt Robert-Bürkle-Str. 2 · D-85737 Ismaning phone: +49-89-99 56 27 20 · fax: +49-89-99 56 27 03 www.KirchGruppe.de · email: [email protected]

54 Undertaker’s Paradise

A black, but also romantic comedy about Hugo, a young German, who arrives brimming with optimism in a little Welsh coastal town to learn the traditional craft of undertaking there. But soon, being repulsed by the boss’s vile son and his treatment of the corpses, Hugo opens his own upmar- ket funeral parlour. Although practically only pensioners live in the wonderful little town, the market is nevertheless too small for two undertakers. Desperately struggling to get his business running, Hugo meets an old jazz musician who treats him like a son and gives a helping hand to Hugo’s business – with dubious methods … However, Hugo’s struggle with the competition seems hopeless. The threat of bankruptcy always hovering over him and his budding love for Natalie keep Hugo on the go, all the more as he has concealed his profession from the pretty student. He more and more becomes tangled up in a com- plex bundle of lies until finally one day his hearse shows up in front of her house also … Thomas Schmauser, Ben Gazzara Thomas Schmauser,

Genre Feature Director M. X. Oberg M.X. Oberg was born in Hamburg. He made Screenplay Tim Dabringhaus, M. X. Oberg the shorts Dreaming Is A Private Thing Director of Photography Martin Kukula (1986), based on a novella by Isaac Asimov, and Editors Barbara Gies, Mona Bräuer Music by Ein herrlicher Tag für Bananenfisch Niki Reiser Producers Jakob Claussen, (1994), adapted from a novella by J.D. Salinger, Thomas Wöbke Production Company before shooting his first feature-length film Claussen + Wöbke Filmproduktion, Munich Unter der Milchstrasse (1994) which was Principal Cast Thomas Schmauser, Ben shown at several international film festivals and Gazzara, Emma Catherwood Length 93 min., was awarded the Max Ophüls Prize in 1995. In 2.500 m. Format 35 mm, colour, 1:1,85 1998, he shot his first film in English language – Original Version English Dubbed Version Undertaker’s Paradise – on location in German Sound Technology Dolby SRD Wales. With backing from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmstiftung NRW, Filmboard Berlin- Brandenburg German Distributor Buena Vista International (Germany) GmbH, Munich

World Sales: please contact Claussen + Wöbke Filmproduktion GmbH · Jakob Claussen Herzog-Wilhelm-Str. 27 · D-80331 Munich phone: +49-89-2 31 10 10 · fax: +49-89-26 33 85 email: [email protected] 55 Verlorene Flügel LOST WINGS

While eavesdropping on the conversation of two women, fourteen-year-old Benja learns of an old woman who lives in a mysterious villa. He decides to look for her. Following her husband’s death, seventy-one-year-old Johanna Haupt just wants to be left alone with her happy memories of the past. She notes down all her daily activities to the last detail as if this diary were the only thing keeping her alive and she tries to categorize all the information from the media concerning the world’s affairs according to her perception of their importance. It is 1990 – a year after the ”Wende“ – Germany’s reunification. When the son of the previous owner of the villa appears to have the property valued, he discovers Frau Haupt living there. She was supposed to have moved out. Benja offers to help her and invites her to live with him. He has no idea that they have touched upon a secret which encircles them both. Roy Helbig, Gudrun Okras (photo: © Kristin Richter)

Genre Feature Director/Screenplay Wolfgang Wolfgang Scholz was born on 5 October Scholz Director of Photography Hans Fischer 1958 in Dresden and studied Fine Arts at the Editor Wolfgang Scholz Music by Axel-Frank Singer city’s Academy of Arts. He made his first short Producer Robert Busch Production Companies in 1986 and taught at the HFF in Munich from Edgar Reitz Film, Munich, Koppfilm, Leipzig, Sic! Film, 1989-1990. He aims to produce three docu- Munich, in co-production with MDR, Leipzig mentaries for TV each year and completed his Principal Cast Roy Helbig, Gudrun Okras, Peter Franke first feature-length film, Lost Wings, in 1999 Length 84 min., 2.298 m. Format 35 mm, colour, after six years of preparation. His other films 1:1,66 Original Version German Sound include: Shadow Seeker (documentary, Technology Dolby SR With backing from 1994), Time I – Okanagon (experimental Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Ministerium für short, 1995), Time II – Melody (experimen- Wissenschaft + Kunst Sachsen, Sächsische Landesanstalt tal short, 1995), Time III – At Rest and für privaten Rundfunk und Medien International Rushing (experimental short, 1995), and A Festival Screenings Hof 99 German Munich Cinema Legend (TV documentary, Distributor Sic!Film Filmproduktion GmbH, Munich 1998).

World Sales: please contact Sic!Film Filmproduktion GmbH · Wolfgang Scholz Adalbertstr. 88 · D-80799 Munich phone: +49-89-2 71 18 50 · fax: +49-89-2 71 83 72 email: [email protected] 56 Verzweiflung DESPAIR

Ulrike has come out of prison and is living alone. If she wants to meet other people, then it will only be those who will give her what she believes is her destiny: punishment for murdering her child. She constantly looks for proof that there can never be any love for her and that her life must be an ordeal. Something approaching love is sown when she meets Sigs. She manages to forget the past for a few moments and her ordeal begins to flag. But the past catches up with her. At some point, what happened cannot be hidden from Sigs anymore. Her consistent silence about her past makes him curious. His growing hunch that this is because of a terrible secret makes him drive her increasingly into a corner. Ulrikes leaves Sigs as she sees that the past cannot be concealed any longer. The pain would be greater if he were to leave her on finding out that she had been in prison for infanticide. But they meet again and she has an important experience. Sylvester Groth, Nina Petri Sylvester Groth,

Genre Feature Director/Screenplay Marcus Lauterbach was born in Weimar Marcus Lauterbach Director of Photo- and studied to be an actor at the Hans Otto graphy Roland Dressel Editor Monika Drama Academy in Leipzig. He followed this Schindler Music by Klaus Doldinger with studies in Directing at the Academy for Producer Jost Hering Production Television & Film (HFF) in Munich. His films are: Company Jost Hering Filmproduktion, Berlin the award-winning shorts Replay (1992) and for ZDF, Mainz Principal Cast Nina Petri, Kurze Unterbrechung (1993), the TV play Sylvester Groth Length 75 min., 2.280 m. Toms Zimmer (1994), Human Factor Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1,66 Original (short, 1996) and Mangold (short, 1998). Version German Subtitled Version English Sound Technology Stereo International Festival Screenings Max Ophüls/Saar- brücken 2000 German Distributor Jost Hering Filmproduktion, Berlin

World Sales: please contact Jost Hering Filmproduktion · Jost Hering Winterfeldtstr. 31 · D-10781 Berlin phone: +49-30-21 75 68 56 · fax: +49-30-21 75 68 58 www.josthering.de · email: [email protected] 57 FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES

Argentina Spain Dipl. Ing. Gustav Wilhelmi Stefan Schmitz Lavalle 1928 Avalon Productions S.L. 1051 Buenos Aires C/ Duque de Rivas, 2-2°D phone: + fax: +54-11-49 51 19 10 E-28012 Madrid email: [email protected] phone: +34-91-3 66 43 64 fax : +34-91-3 65 93 01 email: [email protected] China & South East Asia Lukas Schwarzacher G/F, 71-B Peak Road United Kingdom Cheung Chau, Hong Kong Iris Kehr phone: +8 52-29 86 85 55 4 Lowndes Court fax: +8 52-29 86 85 58 Carnaby Street e-fax: +1-240-255-71 60 GB-London W1V 1PP email: [email protected] phone: +44-20-74 37 20 47 fax: +44-20-74 39 29 47 email: [email protected] France Cristina Hoffman 2, Place de Séoul USA/East Coast & Canada F-75014 Paris Brigitte Hubmann phone + fax: +33-1-43 21 44 75 246,West End Avenue email: [email protected] Suite 2 c New York, NY 10023, USA phone + fax: +1-2 12-7 21-19 17 Italy email: [email protected] Alessia Ratzenberger Angeli Movie Service piazza Massa Carrara, 6 USA/West Coast I-00162 Rome Corina Danckwerts phone: +39-06-86 20 44 14 / 8 61 09 15 Capture Film & TV fax: +39-06-8 60 74 75 2400 W. Silverlake Drive email: [email protected] Los Angeles, CA 90039, USA phone: +1-3 23-6 68-01 12 Japan fax: +1-3 23-6 68-08 53 Tomosuke Suzuki email: [email protected] Nippon Cine TV. Corporation Suite 123, Gaien House 2-2-39 Jingumae Shibuya-Ku,Tokyo. Japan phone: +81-3-34 05 09 16 fax: +81-3-34 79-08 69 email: [email protected]

There are plans to open up another representation for Eastern Europe.You can access up-to-date information on the subject at any time from the headquarters of the Export-Union in Munich, phone +49-89-39 00 95, fax +49-89-39 52 23 email: [email protected]

58

Members of the German Film Exporters’ Association please contact Lothar Wedel FILM Tegernseer Landstr. 75 D-81539 Munich phone: +49-89-6 92 06 60 fax: +49-89-6 92 09 10

ARRI-Weltvertrieb Cine-International Filmvertrieb please contact Antonio Exacoustos, jun. GmbH & Co. KG Türkenstr. 89 please contact Lilli Tyc-Holm,Susanne Groh, D-80799 Munich Inge Neber, Christiane Harris phone: +49-89-38 09 12 88 Leopoldstr. 18 fax: +49-89-38 09 14 33 D-80802 Munich phone: +49-89-39 10 25 fax: +49-89-33 10 89 Atlas International Film GmbH www.cine-international.de please contact email: [email protected] Dieter Menz, Stefan Menz, Christl Blum Rumfordstr. 29-31 D-80469 Munich Cinepool phone: +49-89-21 09 75-0 please contact fax: +49-89-22 43 32 Wolfram Skowronnek,Annegret Rönnpag www.atlasfilm.com Sonnenstr. 21 email: [email protected] D-80331 Munich phone: +49-89-55 87 60 fax: +49-89-55 87 61 88 Bavaria Film International www.telepoolgmbh.com Dept. of Bavaria Media GmbH email: [email protected] please contact Michael Weber, Thorsten Schaumann Bavariafilmplatz 8 DWF D-82031 Geiselgasteig Dieter Wahl Film phone: +49-89-64 99 26 86 please contact Dieter Wahl fax: +49-89-64 99 37 20 Sörgelstr. 15b www.bavaria-film-international.de D-81477 Munich email: [email protected] phone: +49-89-53 27 21 fax: +49-89-53 12 97 email: [email protected] BetaFilm GmbH please contact Claudia Schmitt Robert-Bürkle-Str. 2 Exportfilm Bischoff & Co. GmbH D-85737 Ismaning please contact Jochem Strate, Philip Evenkamp phone: +49-89-99 56 - 27 20 Isabellastr. 20 fax: +49-89-99 56 - 27 03 D-80798 Munich www.KirchGruppe.de phone: +49-89-2 72 93 60 email: [email protected] fax: +49-89-27 29 36 36 email: [email protected]

cine aktuell Filmgesellschaft mbH please contact Eugen Schaarschmidt, Ralf Faust, Futura Film – Axel Schaarschmidt Weltvertrieb im Filmverlag Werdenfelsstr. 81 der Autoren D-81377 Munich please contact Stelios Ziannis phone: +49-89-7 41 34 30 Schwere-Reiter-Str. 35, Geb. 14 fax: +49-89-74 13 43 16 D-80797 Munich email: [email protected] phone: +49-89-3 07 96 70 50 fax: +49-89-30 79 67 89 50

60 EXPORTERS

german united distributors Roxy-Film GmbH & Co. KG Programmvertrieb GmbH please contact Michael Waldleitner Auf der Ruhr 2 Schützenstr. 1 D-50667 Cologne D-80335 Munich phone: +49-2 21-92 06 90 phone: +49-89-55 53 41 fax: +49-2 21-9 20 69 69 and fax: +49-89-59 45 10 email: [email protected] Sales Office Munich please contact Rosemarie Dermühl Bavariafilmplatz 8 RRS Entertainment D-82031 Geiselgasteig Gesellschaft für Filmlizenzen GmbH phone: +49-89-64 99 36 66 please contact Robert Rajber fax: +49-89-64 99 22 40 Sternwartstr. 2 email: [email protected] D-81679 Munich phone: +49-89-2 11 16 60 fax: +49-89-21 11 66 11 Media Luna – International Film Sales email: [email protected] please contact Ida Martins Alter Markt 36-42 D-50667 Cologne Transit Film GmbH phone: +49-2 21-1 39 22 22 please contact Loy Arnold fax: +49-2 21-1 39 22 24 Dachauer Str. 35 email: [email protected] D-80335 Munich phone: +49-89-59 98 85-0 fax: +49-89-59 98 85-20 Metropolis Filmvertriebs GmbH email: [email protected] please contact Luciano Gloor Mediahaus Lützowufer 12 Uni Media International GmbH & Co. D-10785 Berlin Produktions- und Vertriebs KG phone: +49-30-26 48 03 60 please contact Irene Vogt, Dieter Nobbe fax: +49-30-26 48 03 61 Bayerstr. 15 email: [email protected] D-80335 Munich phone: +49-89-59 58 46 fax: +49-89-5 50 17 01 Progress Film-Verleih GmbH email: [email protected] please contact Bettina Kunde Burgstr. 27 D-10178 Berlin phone: +49-30-24 00 32 00 fax: +49-30-24 00 32 22 www.progress-film.de email: [email protected]

Road Sales GmbH Mediadistribution please contact Ulrich Felsberg, Denise Booth Clausewitzstr. 4 D-10629 Berlin phone: +49-30-8 80 48 60 fax: +49-30-88 04 86 11 www.das-werk.de email: [email protected]

61 Kino imprint

published by:

Export-Union des Deutschen Films GmbH Tuerkenstr. 93 · D-80799 Munich phone: +49-89-39 00 95 · fax: +49-89-39 52 23 www.german-cinema.de/ · email: [email protected]

ISSN 0948-2547

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

© Export-Union des Deutschen Films

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

Editors Susanne Reinker, Julia Basler Production Reports Martin Blaney Contributors for this issue Hans Dieter Seidel, Martin Blaney Translations Martin Blaney Design Group Werner Schauer Agentur für Design und Kommunikation Art Direction Werner Schauer Printing Office ESTA Druck, Obermühlstraße 90, D-82398 Polling Financed by Filmförderungsanstalt (German Federal Film Board)

Printed on ecological, unchlorinated paper.

VERBAND DER AGENTUREN für Film, Fernsehen und Theater e.V.

VORSTAND GESCHÄFTSSTELLE Bernhard Hoestermann RAe Lansnicker & Schwirtzek Dr. Marlis Heppeler Kurfürstenstraße 33 Marie-Luise Schmidt 10785 Berlin Telefon 0 30-2 30 81-90 Telefax 0 30-2 30 81-9 19 Export-Union of German Films Shareholders and Supporters

Verband Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V./ Association of German Feature Film Producers please contact Franz Seitz Beichstr. 8, D-80802 Munich phone: +49-89-39 11 23, fax: +49-89-33 74 32

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten/ Association of New Feature Film Producers please contact Margarete Evers Agnesstr. 14, D-80798 Munich phone: +49-89-2 71 74 30, fax: +49-89-2 71 97 28

Verband Deutscher Filmexporteure e.V./ Association of German Film Exporters please contact Lothar Wedel Tegernseer Landstr. 75, D-81539 Munich phone: +49- 89-6 92 06 60, fax: +49-89-6 92 09 10 email: [email protected]

Filmförderungsanstalt Budapester Str. 41, D-10787 Berlin phone: +49-30-2 54 09 00, fax: +49-30-25 40 90 57 www.ffa.de email: [email protected]

Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Angelegenheiten der Kultur und der Medien Referat K 36, Bundeshaus Berlin, Bundesallee 216-218 , D-10719 Berlin phone: +49-30-22 41 62 07, fax: +49-30-22 41 62 23

Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH August-Bebel-Str. 26-53, D-14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg phone: +49-3 31-7 43 87-0, fax: +49-3 31-7 43 87-99 www.filmboard.de email: [email protected]

FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH Schwanthalerstr. 69, D-80336 Munich phone: +49-89-5 44 60 20, fax: +49-89-54 46 02 21 www.fff-bayern.de email: [email protected]

FilmFörderung Hamburg GmbH Friedensallee 14–16, D-22765 Hamburg phone: +49-40-3 98 37-0, fax: +49-40-3 98 37-10 www.filmfoerderung-hamburg.de email: [email protected], [email protected]

Filmstiftung NRW GmbH Kaistr. 14, D-40221 Düsseldorf phone: +49-2 11-93 05 00, fax: +49-2 11-93 05 05 www.filmstiftung.de email: [email protected]

Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg mbH Filmförderung Huberstr. 4, D-70174 Stuttgart phone: +49-7 11-1 22 28 33, fax: +49-7 11-1 22 28 34 www.mfg.de email: [email protected]

Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH Hainstr. 19, D-04109 Leipzig phone: +49-3 41-26 98 70, fax: +49-3 41-26 98 76 5 www.mdm-foerderung.de email: [email protected] Bavaria Film International presents

C O M I N G

A T T R A C T I O N S

Bavaria Media GmbH Bavariafilmplatz 8 D-82031 Geiselgasteig Phone +49 - 89 - 64 99 26 86 Fax +49 - 89 - 64 99 37 20 e-Mail [email protected] www.bavaria-film-international.de