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.