presents
Starring Daniel Bruehl, Burghart Klaussner, Justus von Dohnányi, Kathrin von Steinburg, Thomas Thieme, Axel Prahl
Directed by Sebastian Grobler
Produced by deutschfilm, Cuckoo Clock Entertainment and Senator Film Produktion in co-production with Rialto Film and ARD Degeto
CAST
Konrad Koch DANIEL BRUEHL Gustav Merfeld, the school's principal BURGHART KLAUSSNER Klara Bornstedt, Joost's mother KATHRIN VON STEINBURG Richard Hartung, Felix's father JUSTUS VON DOHNÁNYI Schricker Senior, producer of sports equipment AXEL PRAHL Dr. Jessen, sports teacher JÜRGEN TONKEL Dr. Roman Bosch, history teacher THOMAS THIEME
CREW
Director SEBASTIAN GROBLER Script PHILIPP ROTH JOHANNA STUTTMANN based on an idea by SEBASTIAN GROBLER, RAOUL REINERT Producers ANATOL NITSCHKE / DEUTSCHFILM
RAOUL REINERT / CUCKOO CLOCK ENTERTAINMENT Co-Producers HELGE SASSE / SENATOR FILM MATTHIAS WENDLANDT und FELIX WENDLANDT / RIALTO FILM H.-W. JURGAN / ARD DEGETO Cinematography MARTIN LANGER Editor DIRK GRAU Set Design THOMAS FREUDENTHAL Costumes MONIKA JACOBS Music INGO LUDWIG FRENZEL
TECHNICAL DATA: Running Time: 110 Min Format: Cinemascope Sound format: Dolby Digital
CONTACT INTERNATIONAL PRESS: Beta Cinema, Dorothee Stoewahse Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15 Mobile: + 49 170 63 84 627 [email protected]
CONTACT WORLD SALES: Beta Cinema, Dirk Schuerhoff/Andreas Rothbauer Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 80 Fax: + 49 89 67 34 69 888 [email protected] www.betacinema.com
SYNOPSIS
The young teacher Konrad Koch (Daniel Bruehl) is hired to teach English at a strictly-run German school for boys in 1874. The reform-minded headmaster von Merfeld (Burghart Klaussner) has hired Koch as one of the very first English teachers of all at a German secondary school in order to let a fresh new wind into his musty institution. Koch sees how badly this is needed in his very first class. Everything that the boys know about England is common prejudices handed down from one generation to the next. In order to stir up some enthusiasm for the foreign language, Oxford graduate Koch resorts to unusual means and introduces his students to a curious sport that comes from Britain: football. Unfortunately, Koch’s unconventional ways soon make him many enemies: influential parents, local dignitaries and, above all, his colleagues, who only believe in Prussian drills and discipline. They all want to get rid of Koch at any price. But then his students take the initiative...
PRESS NOTE
A Germany without football is hard to imagine. And yet, it took the imagination and determination of teacher Konrad Koch to raise enthusiam for the game. Based on true events, LESSONS OF A DREAM relates, with both drama and humor, the story of a young visionary, who not only changed his students' lives, but also brought football to Germany. LESSONS OF A DREAM, with a first-rate cast including Daniel Bruehl („Good Bye, Lenin!“, „Inglourious Basterds“), Burghart Klaussner („The White Ribbon“, „The Reader“), Justus von Dohnányi („Men in the City“), Thomas Thieme („Live of Others“), Kathrin von Steinburg („Shoppen“) and Axel Prahl („Grill Point“), marks director Sebastian Grobler's debut on the large screen.
SUMMARY
Left, two, three, four: The Physical Education held by Doktor Jessen consists in military-style exercise and apparatus gymnastics; and in Doktor Bosch's history lessons, the class learns all the minutae of the First Battle of Sedan. It is 1874, and in the eighth grade of the Martino-Katharineum Grammar School in Braunschweig, things follow their normal course – as in all schools of the German Empire... But then a stagecoach arrives in town, and one passenger will see to it that in this eighth grade nothing will remain as before. The passenger is young teacher Konrad Koch, returning to his home town after four years in England. Koch brings novel ideas – and a leather ball: In England he has come to know a new sport called football, completely unknown in Germany, and has learned to love it.
The progressive principal Von Merfeld has hired Koch as one of the first teachers for English, ever, in a German grammar school, to bring a breath of fresh air to his fusty educational establishment.
Koch learns the necessity for this right in his first hour of lessons. All that the boys know about England is a bunch of prejudices, and as far as etiquette is concerned at the school, Dr. Bosch immediately informs Koch: He chastises pupil Joost Bornstedt, for allegedly having sawed on a pointer – although it was fellow student Felix Hartung, ringleader of the class, who framed Bornstedt by smuggling a saw in his satchel.
At a soiree, Koch meets Felix’ father – and offends immediately. While Koch praises the young people's imagination, for Hartung senior, a successful businessman, who is also chairman of the school's Society of Friends, all that counts are order, discipline and obedience. And if Hartung had his way, there would be no place in school for a “proletarian” like Joost, whose mother Klara is a factory worker, and who can only attend because of a scholarship program.
In the first real English lesson, Koch finally realizes that his job won't be easy. Not only does the class have extreme problems with English – during pronunciation exercises he always hears „ssee earss“ instead of „the earth“ – but also doesn't show any interest in learning the language. So the determined Koch orders the boys into the gym and gets out the leather ball. „This is a foot-ball“, Koch lectures, and shows them how to score a goal. In the next lesson as well, the class learns football vocabulary and suddenly the boys participate enthusiastically.
Soon Joost, as a forward, and chubby Otto, as keeper, prove to be especially talented. But Konrad Koch's unusual methods of education are thwarted by the Friends' Society: Hartung Senior and the other members of the society, who are out to get Koch, want to visit one of his lessons – and find only an empty classroom.
When the delegation enters the gym, parson Werners unfortunately receives the ball on his privy parts, after a kick from Joost, of all people! Joost is sent into the detention room as a very last warning before being expelled. Now Hartung finally has something he can use against Koch: He threatens to fire him, unless football vanishes immediately from the curriculum. And Joost's mother as well takes Koch to task, for lightly putting her son's future at risk.
But Konrad Koch is not one to let go of his dream so easily. In the school, Koch complies with the ban, but there are still the afternoons, after all...! In a Braunschweig park, the first football match takes place – and Joost is the first to enter his name to the list of scorers. By and by, the class is turned into a real team. But will the boys be able to keep quiet in the long run and keep the game a secret from the many football detractors in the school? And what will become of Joost and of Konrad Koch, if the afternoon meetings become known?
INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR SEBASTIAN GROBLER
Mr. Grobler, how did LESSONS OF A DREAM begin?
Sebastian Grobler: I had met Raoul Reinert, who co-produced the film, at the Berlinale, and we quickly realized that we both like football. It didn't take long for the idea of making a football film to arise. But what kind of a film? So I said: For the topic of the movie, we should return to the beginnings!
What made it so alluring?
Because no one we talked to, even passionate football fans, knew that football only came here in 1874, and how a time hard it had in Germany, for quite a while. The bourgeois establishment was against it, and football was tolerated at best. It was frequently banned in schools, and teachers sought out football-playing pupils even in parks, and many of them were expelled from the schools!
Why were there these strong misgivings?
Football was considered an „anarchic“ game, and from 1890 onwards, strong anti-English sentiments came into play. In Germany at that time, gymnastics were prevalent, and the ideal of gymnastics stood against the idea of winning, which was considered amoral and dishonorable.
In the film you have deviated from the life story of the real Konrad Koch in various regards – why?
Basically, we concentrate 30 years of football history in the film. There were several football pioneers, with Konrad Koch actually the very first. Therefore we say: „based loosely on actual events“. It was clear to us, that we would need a good story. In the development of the script, we always started out with something authentic, and then dramatized, sharpened or amplified it for our purposes. I believe that our story basically does justice to Konrad Koch, because it shows what a passionate pioneer and teacher he was.
While his „apprenticeship“ in England is an invention for the film...?
That is true: We don't know whether he had been to England that early. In reality he was a classics scholar, hence he didn't teach English, but the classical languages. But he was definitely an educational reformist, and in his striving for a better pedagogy, educational ideals from England were playing a large part; e.g, that it was important to him to encourage solidarity among the group. What is
definitely documented is the moment where he threw a ball among his pupils, and none of them knew what to do with it. That was the inception of football in Germany.
What specifications did composer Ingo Ludwig Frenzel receive from you regarding the musical score?
The German film scene seems to have its difficulties with emotions, but to me it was extremely important that we narrate emotionally. I think that is really the film's strong point. And even during filming we were imagining a very emotional music. It could and should also underline the comedy and dynamic of the scenes.
What can this old story convey to today's moviegoers?
With all contrasts to today: We are debating the same issues as in LESSONS OF A DREAM. The themes of integration and equal opportunities are still of great importance. We still are a rather impermeable society. Poverty is less obvious, but the contrast between rich and poor is still there. In football, many people overcome their prejudices and approach one another. Even today, you need to stand up against authority, assert yourself. The film is, following the thinking of Konrad Koch, a plea for liberal thought, a free spirit and the discovery of the individual.
With all that, LESSONS OF A DREAM is still a football movie...
Absolutly. For me, football includes the utopia, the potential of connecting people. And also the experience of sticking together and achieving something together. As Franz Beckenbauer said: Football is a little like the Lord must have imagined the world.
KONRAD KOCH – THE LIFE OF A FOOTBALL PIONEER
Konrad Koch is considered the founding father of football in Germany. His two most important pioneering deeds were, to have introduced the English football game at his grammar school in 1874, and in 1875 to publish the first football rules in German language. In 1885 he amended his brochure with the rules of Association Football, i.e., the variation of the game of the English Football Association, banning the use of hands. All in all, he published some 100 texts about football, cricket and gymnastics in specialized pedagogic press and other media.
Konrad Koch, actually Wilhelm Carl Johann Conrad Koch, was born February 13 th 1846 in Braunschweig/Brunswick. He attended the Martino-Katharineum Grammar School, where his father was a senior teacher, teaching English and French. In 1864 Koch went to Goettingen to read
theology und philology; later he changed to Berlin and Leipzig. In 1868 he returned to his old school, the Martino-Katharineum as a teacher, where he taught German and the classical languages. In 1872, Koch and his colleague, P.E. instructor August Hermann, introduced „school games“, meant to extend and revive the existing sports education. In 1874, after Koch had been promoted to senior teacher, Koch and Hermann added football to the school games. The impulse for that came from Koch's father-in-law, the military physician Dr. Friedrich Reck, who had visited England and reported the quick spreading of this new sport – and he had brought back a ball as well.
For Koch, football was a further means against the „Stubenhockerthum“ („stay-at-home-ness“) of the young generation, which was attacked in many pedagogic essays. The „educational merit“ of football as a complement to gymnastics, according to Koch, lay primarily in the schooling of the common spirit through the team sport – at least if it were practised with „the avoidance of certain brutalities of some English plays“. To him, the individuality and self-motivation in the game were highly important. This would only „be achieved on the grounds of freedom“. Starting 1891, Koch was a member of the „Central Board for the Furthering of People's and Youth Games in Germany“, where gymnasts as well as footballers were represented. One endeavour of the Board was to abolish the social separation of gymnast workers and the football-playing middle class.
In 1895, Koch visited England for the first time. He wrote an account of the journey, entitled „The Life of Contemporary Games in England“. In this he stresses the part that sports play in overcoming class distinctions: “The common game, wherein the most genteel and the lowest take part, contributes to the softening of the harsh social contrast in no little measure.“ Konrad Koch taught at the Martino-Katharineum until his death, April 1911.
FOOTBALL HISTORY – FROM ANCIENT TIMES UNTIL TODAY
2nd Millennium B.C. Football-like game in China called „Ts’uh-küh“
4th Century B.C. Ancient ballgames in Sparta
14 th Century AD Mayas and Aztecs carry out ritual hipball games
15 th Century AD Medieaval games driving balls in England, France and Italy, esp. the rough „Calcio Storico“ in Florence
1846 Students from Cambridge write down the first football rules
1857 Foundation of the first football club in the world in England (Sheffield Wednesday F.C.)
1863 Foundation of the Football Association (FA) in London
1870 Differentiation between the rules of football and rugby by the FA
1874 Dr. phil. Konrad Koch first introduces football to the German Empire, translates the English rules into German and with his pupils, establishes the first football team in Germany
1888 Foundation of the oldest football club in Germany still in existence today (Berliner Fußball-Club Germania 1888)
1900 Establishing the DFB in Leipzig; football becomes Olympic discipline
1903 VfB Leipzig is the first German champion
1954 Germany wins the Football World Championship for the first time. Further wins in 1974 and 1990
1963 Foundation of the German Bundesliga. First Bundesliga Champion is 1 st FC Cologne. Bayern Muenchen is not among the founding members, isn't promoted until two years later.
1972 Germany wins the European Championship. The national side manages to repeat this success twice, in 1980 and 1996.
1990 In a friendly game against Switzerland in December of that year, the DFB-team for the first time starts as a national side of reunified Germany.
2003 The German Women's National Side wins the World Championship in USA – the team wins the final with a Golden Goal by Nia Künzer 2:1 against Sweden.
2006 The Summer Fairy Tale – Millions of football-fans celebrate a delirious World Championship Party. The DFB-team plays a strong tournament and finishes in third place.
2007 Germany's football women defend their world title in the tournament in China.
2008 Football Euro-Championship in Austria and Switzerland
2010 World Championship in South Africa – for the first time, a country on the African continent hosts a Football World Championship.
2011 13 th February 2011 marks the 165 th anniversary of Konrad Koch's birthday. On 26. June 2011, the German Women's National Team will play the opening match of the World championship in their own country, in the Berlin Olympic Stadium against the Canadian Eleven.
Source: kicker, Nr. 39/1927
THE CAST
DANIEL BRUEHL (Konrad Koch) Born 1978 in Barcelona as the son of TV-director Hanno Bruehl and a Spanish teacher, Daniel Bruehl grew up in Cologne. As a child he could already be heard on the radio and as a dubbing actor, and played first small parts on TV. In 1994 he had his debut in Roland Suso Richter's TV movie „Svens Geheimnis“. His big breakthrough in movies came – after the well-regarded films “No regrets” (2001) and “The White Sound”– with Wolfgang Becker's towering comedy success “Good Bye, Lenin!”. From the year 2004 on, Daniel Bruehl's career turned increasingly international: He worked alongside Dames Maggie Smith and Judi Dench in “Ladies in Lavender“, 2004, stood in front of the cameras next to Guillaume Canet, Diane Kruger and Benno Fürmann in the French anti-war film “Merry Christmas”, had in 2006 one of the biggest cinematic successes in Spain with “Salvador”, played a decisive cameo in Julie Delpy's “2 Days in Paris” – a part he has just repeated in the recently
completed sequel “2 Days in New York” – and could be seen in “The Bourne Ultimatum”. He acted in Quentin Tarantino's “Inglourious Basterds” and recently, with Clive Owen, in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's “Intruders” (2011) as well as in “Eva” (2011), the new film of Spanish director Kike Maíllo. Besides many honours like two German Film Awards, a German Bambi and the Max-Ophüls- Award, Daniel Bruehl received in 2005 at the Quai d'Orsay, the French Foreign Ministery, together with Audrey Tautou, the „De Gaulle-Adenauer-Award“ for outstanding merits to German-French relations.
Filmography (selection)
Title Director 2011 LESSONS OF A DREAM Sebastian Grobler 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK Julie Delpy 2010 THE COMING DAYS Lars Kraume KING’S ROAD Valdis Oskarsdottir 2009 MY WORDS, MY LIES – MY LOVE Alain Gsponer JOHN RABE Florian Gallenberger INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS Quentin Tarantino THE COUNTESS Julie Delpy 2008 KRABAT Marco Kreuzpaintner 2007 2 DAYS IN PARIS Julie Delpy THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM Paul Greengrass SALVADOR Manuel Huerga 2006 A FRIEND OF MINE Sebastian Schipper 2005 MERRY CHRISTMAS Christian Carion 2004 THE EDUKATORS Hans Weingartner 2003 LOVE IN THOUGHTS Achim von Borries GOOD BYE, LENIN Wolfgang Becker 2001 THE WHITE SOUND Hans Weingartner
BURGHART KLAUSSNER (Gustav Merfeld) Born 1949 in Berlin, Klaussner completed his training as an actor at the Max-Reinhardt-School in Berlin and has been working for prestigious German theatres since the late 1980's: He stood on the stage of the Schauspielhaus Hamburg and the Hamburger Kammerspiele, the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, the Berlin Maxim Gorki Theater as well as the theatres in Zurich and Bochum. Burghart Klaussner became known to a wider audience by appearing in numerous TV-productions and
theatrical releases. On the large screen he could be seen in, amongst other things, Sönke Wortmann's “The Superwife” (1995) and Helmut Dietl's “Rossini”. For Wolfgang Becker, he stepped in front of the cameras for “Child’s Play” (1992) and “Good Bye, Lenin!”. He worked with Hans- Christian Schmid in “23” (1998), “Crazy” (1999) and “Requiem”. For his part as an abducted manager in Hans Weingarten's “The Edukators”, Burghart Klaussner was awarded the German Film Award as Best Male Supporting Actor in 2005. At the International Filmfestival Locarno 2006 Klaussner was awarded the Silver Leopard for Best Male Actor, for his starring role in the Georgian film “The Man from the Embassy” (2006) by Dito Tsintsadze. In 2010 this was followed by the German Film Award in the category „Best Male Actor“ for his performance in the award-winning film “The White Ribbon” by Michael Haneke, which was on the short list of the Academy Awards 2010. Klaussner's latest films also include Michael Klier's “Age and Beauty” (2008) alongside Henry Huebchen, Armin Rohde and Peter Lohmeyer as well as, at the side of Kate Winslet, Stephen Daldry's Academy Award-nominated “The Reader”. Most recently, Burghart Klaussner could be seen in Philipp Stoelzl's film GOETHE! on the large screen.
Filmography (Selection)
Title Director 2011 LESSONS OF A DREAM Sebastian Grobler 2010 GOETHE! Philipp Stoelzl 2009 THE WHITE RIBBON Michael Haneke 2008 THE READER Steven Daldry 2006 YELLA Christian Petzold 2005 REQUIEM Hans-Christian Schmid 2004 THE EDUKATORS Hans Weingartner 2003 GOOD BYE, LENIN! Wolfgang Becker 1996 ROSSINI Helmut Dietl
JUSTUS VON DOHNÁNYI (Richard Hartung) Justus von Dohnányi was born in Lübeck in 1960. After his studies at the Hochschule für Darstellende Künste in Hamburg, he started performing in 1985 at the Frankfurter Schauspielhaus, and in 1998 changed to the Hamburg Thalia Theater. Since 1993 Von Dohnányi has been seen in many TV-productions. His cinematic debut was in 1999 alongside Robin Williams in Peter Kassovitz’ American remake of “Jakob, the Liar” 1999. In 2001 he excelled in Oliver Hirschbiegel's well-noted drama “The Experiment”, for which he was awarded the German Film Award in the category „Best Male Supporting Actor“. In movie theatres he could since be seen in a multitude of films: Whether as Captain Nikoli in the James Bond movie “The World is Not Enough“, 1999, as Nazi General in
“Downfall” or as Gauleiter in “Before the Fall”. In 2007, the comedy “Bis zum Ellenbogen”, Justus von Dohnányi's directorial debut was released, for which he not only wrote the script, but he also co-produced it and took on a supporting part. Last autumn, Justus von Dohnányi was allowed to present his comic side, in Simon Verhoeven's “Men in the City”, which again won him the German Film Award as „Best Male Supporting Actor“. After his parts as Veit Harlan in Oskar Roehler's “Jew Suss: Rise and Fall” and in Dani Levy's “Das Leben ist zu lang”, Von Dohnányi will be seen apart from in LESSONS OF A DREAM also in “Men in the City 2”.
Filmography (Selection)
Title Director 2011 LESSONS OF A DREAM Sebastian Grobler 2010 JEW SUSS – RISE AND FALL Oskar Roehler DAS LEBEN IST ZU LANG Dani Levy DER GROSSE KATER Wolfgang Panzer 2009 MEN IN THE CITY Simon Verhoeven 2008 1 ½ KNIGHTS – IN SEARCH OF THE RAVISHING PRINCESS HERZELINDE Til Schweiger BUDDENBROOKS Heinrich Breloer 2007 BIS ZUM ELLENBOGEN Justus von Dohnányi 2004 ABOUT THE LOOKING FOR AND FINDING OF LOVE Helmut Dietl BEFORE THE FALL Dennis Gansel DOWNFALL Oliver Hirschbiegel 2002 AMEN Costa-Gavras 2001 THE EXPERIMENT Oliver Hirschbiegel
KATHRIN VON STEINBURG (Klara Bornstedt) Kathrin von Steinburg completed her training as an actor at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. Currently she is acting onstage in Munich and Berlin in several theatrical productions. On Television, she was and is seen in, among other things, „Liesl Karlstadt und Karl Valentin“, „2030 – Aufstand der Jungen“ and the TV-series „Franzi“. Her well-received large screen debut was in Ralf Westhoff's comedy “Shoppen” (2006).
Filmography (Selection)
Title Director 2011 LESSONS OF A DREAM Sebastian Grobler 2010 2030 – AUFSTAND DER JUNGEN (TV) Jörg Lühdorff FRANZI (TV-Series) Matthias Kiefersauer 2008 UNTER VERDACHT Isabel Kleefeld LIESL KARLSTADT UND KARL VALENTIN (TV) Jo Baier 2007 KOMMISSAR STOLBERG (TV) Christine Hartmann 2006 SHOPPEN Ralf Westhoff 2005 TATORT: AUSSER GEFECHT (TV) Friedemann Fromm
CREW
SEBASTIAN GROBLER (Director) Sebastian Grobler, after studying German, Psychology and History in Hamburg, gained experience as an Assistant Director for several film- and TV-productions, among others Romuald Karmakar's “The Deathmaker” (1995), Caroline Link's “Beyond Silence” (1996) and Dieter Wedel's “Der König von St. Pauli” (1998). His Graduate Thesis Film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, “Morgen früh ist die Nacht rum”, won the Studio Hamburg Young Talent Award in 2003. Alongside his work as a director, mainly in television (a. o. for diverse episodes of the series „Die Fallers“), Grobler teaches at the Universität Hamburg as well as at the Filmakademie in Ludwigsburg. Grobler, a father of two, lives in Berlin and at the moment is working on several subsidized scripts, among them that for the comedy “Das Jahr des Kindes”, which is being subsidized by FFF Bayern. LESSONS OF A DREAM is his feature film debut.
ANATOL NITSCHKE (Producer – deutschfilm) Born in Munich, Anatol Rolf Nitschke has between 1983 and 1999 run the gamut of positions in the film business, as cinema owner, dispatcher at the NEF 2 distributing company, sales director and management assistant at Filmwelt-Prokino as well as general manager of Senator Film Verleih. In February 2000, the X Verleih AG was founded by directors Manuela Stehr, Stefan Arndt and Anatol Nitschke. The basic idea of the integrated business model was the close creative, content-wise and economic collaboration by directors, writers, producers and distributors inside a common infrastructure, from the first idea for a film, via development and production, to the cinematic release and beyond. Within the framework of this model, Anatol Nitschke as executive CEO saw numerous films, among them Tom Tykwer's “The Princess & the Warrior” (2000), Wolfgang Becker's “Good
Bye, Lenin!” (2003), Dani Levy's “Go for Zucker!” (2004) and Andreas Dresen's “Summer in Berlin” (2006) through all steps of development, film production and film marketing. Anatol Nitschke continues this concept with his change in April 2007 to the post of CEO of the new Senator Film Verleih. The success of this integrated model caused Anatol Nitschke in February 2009 to establish the deutschfilm GmbH, a joint venture with the Senator Entertainment AG. As Managing Partner of deutschfilm, he has since co-produced Philipp Stölzl's “Goethe!” (2010) and is co-producer of the zero-one-production “Wer wenn nicht wir” (2011) by Andres Veiel. Anatol Nitschke is a member of the European Film Academy and sits on the advisory board of Vision Kino GmbH.
RAOUL REINERT (Producer – Cuckoo Clock Entertainment) The ex-footballer from Karlsruhe is a degreed film-producer, dramaturge and fully qualified lawyer. In 2004 he completed his film studies in Hamburg with honors, where together with his teams on the cinematic shorts “Kunstgriff, Himmelfahrt” and “Alim Market 30” he won international awards and was invited to by now 190 filmfestivals all over the world. At Zide/Perry Entertainment in Los Angeles (“American Wedding”, “Final Destination”), Ciby 2000 in Paris (“Secrets&Lies”, “Faillait pas…!”), IAC Films/The Mission in London (“Everybody Loves Sunshine”) and Eurosport S.A. in Paris he learned his cinematic and legal media craft. From 2004 to 2006 he worked for the Bavaria Film Gruppe a.o. in the international co-production (a.o. “Der Todestunnel”) and for Odeon Film (“Unter weissen Segeln”). From 2007 to 2009 he worked as regular line producer and executive producer for the Polyphon Film (“Pfarrer Braun”, “Koyamas Menü”). For LESSONS OF A DREAM he founded the Cuckoo Clock Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG. Outside the film business, Raoul Reinert works as a brand consultant for the Merck KGaA and with his business plan helped Cairos technologies AG to the “Innovationspreis der Deutschen Wirtschaft®” („Chip im Ball“).
BETA CINEMA (World Sales)
Beta Cinema is the theatrical division of Beta Film. Launched in 2001, Beta Cinema has established itself as a "boutique operation" for independent feature films with strong potential for theatrical distribution. Beta Cinema's philosophy is to limit its selective acquisition policy of 10 to 15 titles per year in order to fully develop the theatrical potential of each title according to its individual character. Beta Cinema’s portfolio includes outstanding productions like JOHN RABE, which won four German Film Awards 2009, Cannes 2008 Jury Prize-winning IL DIVO, Academy Award 2008- winning THE COUNTERFEITERS, Academy Award 2008 nominated MONGOL, Academy Award 2007-winning THE LIVES OF OTHERS and the Academy Award 2005-nominated DOWNFALL.