CATE SHORTLAND Graphic Design
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W HEN YOU R LIFE IS A LIE WHO CAN YOU TRU ST? A FILM BY CATE SHORTLAND www.athoms.fr graphic design : W ORLD SALES AND FESTIV AL M EMENTO FILMS INTERNATIONAL 9, cité Paradis - 75010 Paris – France Tel: 33 1 53 34 90 33 - Fax: 33 1 42 47 11 24 [email protected] [email protected] A GERMAN – AUSTRALIAN OFFICIAL CO- PRODU CTION A ROHF ILM, PORCHLIG HT FILMS, ED G E CITY FILMS PRODU CTION A FILM BY CATE SHORTLAND P RODU CED BY KARSTEN STÖTER LIZ WATTS PAU L WELSH BENNY DRECHSEL W RITTEN BY CATE SHORTLAND ROBIN MU KHERJEE ROHFILM PORCHLIG HT FILMS EDG E CITY FILMS Eisenbahnstraße 99 #31 94 Oxford St. 6 t h F l o o r , 04315 Leipzig G ermany 2 0 1 0 D a r l i n g h u r s t 41 St. V i n c e n t P l a c e Tel: 49 34 1681 8870 (New South Wales) Australia G lasgow G 1 2ER Fax: 49 34 1681 8802 T e l : 6 1 2 9 3 2 6 9 9 1 6 Scotland U K Fax: 61 2 9357 1479 Tel: 44 141 221 5290 W ORLD SALES AND FESTIV AL M EMENTO FILMS INTERNATIONAL 9, cité Paradis - 75010 Paris – France Tel: 33 1 53 34 90 33 - Fax: 33 1 42 47 11 24 [email protected] [email protected] RUNNING TIME 108 MIN l S HOOT GAUGE SUPER 1 6 MM COLOU R l L ANGUA G E GERMAN Y EAR OF P RODU CTION 2 0 1 2 l S CREEN R ATIO 1:85.1 l S O U ND D OLBY D I G ITAL S R D SYNOPSIS At the close of the war in Germany 1945, a group of children set out to cross a devastated country to reach their Grandmother some 900 km to the North. The eldest, Lore, is left in charge of her four younger siblings when their SS Nazi parents are taken into Allied custody. The children must make a journey that exposes them to the reality and consequences of their parent’s actions. In meeting the charismatic and intriguing Thomas, a young jewish refugee, Lore soon finds her world shattered by feelings of both hatred and desire. She is transfixed by her fear of the young man, but must trust the one person whom she has always been taught is the enemy in order to survive. DIRECTOR’S NOTE From the Director, Cate Shortland When I first read ‘The Dark Room’ by tander or even worse, complicit. Lore and her siblings are the privileged I was drawn to understand her fight with Rachel Seiffert it resonated with me on The story is also close to me as my hus- children of a high ranking SS officer in- her own humanity and sense of belon- many levels. The three distinct stories band’s German Jewish family left Berlin volved in mass murder in Belarus. While ging. The outside world is oblivious to in the novel make history experiential in 1936. It is his family photographs in they play hopscotch, children across Lore and her siblings’ plight and Lore and intimate as each is told from the Thomas’s wallet. And it is his grandmo- Europe are being systematically murde- becomes more and more detached perspective of a young person trying ther’s stories that also tie me to Lore, red. Lore’s family is untouched until her from society. But within her detachment to make sense of fascist Germany. The to wanting to understand this dark and father returns from the East in 1945. In is a growing certainty - she is lost and struggles of the characters are distur- painful time. Although I speak virtually 1939 Lore’s father was a war hero, in adrift but she knows something of the bing but also utterly moving. I was fas- no German I knew that the film had to 1945 when the film begins, he is a cri- awful truth. She has been taught never cinated by Lore’s internal landscape; a be made in that language to have any minal. I wanted to understand what this to question but to obey. By the end of frightening place filled with a strange level of truth. I worked with the German does to the psyche of a child. How does the story she is full of questions that combination of surety and ambiguity. script editor Franz Rodenkirchen and a person grow up knowing that those she knows will never be answered. The book was given to me by Scottish interviewed elderly Berliners who had closest to them have committed unima- producer, Paul Welsh after a screening been members of Hitler Jugend and ginable crimes and that genocide hap- Albert Speer’s children stated they of my first film, SOMERSAULT in Edin- Bund Deutscher Mädel. Their stories pened in the midst of their ‘everyday’. could never ask their father about the burgh. Liz Watts, my Australian producer, and attitudes and even on occasion, a Holocaust and his role in Germany’s had given the book to my husband as a complicated nostalgia, helped me un- What drew me to Lore and at times slave labor program. Albert Speer Jr. birthday present a few months before. derstand Lore. repulsed and angered me, was the op- recently stated, “The fact is that when There was sense of serendipity. The research I did, especially that into portunity to delve into the grey areas. he came back home, I could have asked the Einsatzgruppen in Belarus was at Lore is a believer in one of the most him all those questions. I thought about Rachel writes in fragments, stark ob- times overwhelming. The victims were abhorrent and destructive political ideo- it and I didn’t do it.” His daughter Hilde servations without commentary. It was always just outside of the frame for me. logies of our time. I wanted to unders- stated. “I made it easier for him because frightening to think of adapting her There was no other way of making the tand her lack of empathy, her romantic I only asked up to a certain point and I novel to film, as she draws no conclu- film. This was a reality in the filming as determination to keep believing even accepted the answers he gave me.” His sions. The story was relevant to me, in well, some of the beautiful houses we when Germany was suffering defeat. third son Arnold stated simply, “I never terms of what it means to be the child used as locations in the former GDR Hitler was seen not only as her Fuhrer asked him anything connected to the of perpetrators. Australia’s relationship were built by Jewish merchants before but also as a beloved father figure. As Third Reich.” They didn’t ask because to its colonial history is suppressed, and the war. Now they stand empty and de- he stated “The weak must be chiseled they couldn’t bear the answers. The lies having spent quite a lot of time in post relict. Many of the locations such as the away. I want young men and women or the truth. Apartheid South Africa and in Germany, armaments factory were manned by who can suffer pain.” Lore feels it is her these questions are often in my mind. slave labourers. Now these places are duty to carry this pain uncomplainingly. Cate Shortland What would I have done in the midst deserted and overgrown. of genocide and horror? Would I have stood up for the weak and persecuted or rather, like most, been a silent bys- S ASKIA KAI U R S I N A H A N S - J O C H E N R OSENDAHL MALINA LARDI WAG NER (Lore) (Thomas) (Mutti) (Vati) One of Germany’s most exciting young acting Kai Malina is recognised as one of the rising Ursina Lardi first studied acting at the pres- Hans-Jochen Wagner is a highly esteemed talents, Saskia developed a love for theatre at talents in German film after his breakout role tigious University of Drama, Ernst Busch in German actor. Like Ursina, Hans attended the school in her home city Berlin. She continued in Michael Haneke’s Oscar nominated and Berlin. She is a renowned theatre actress and University of Drama Ernst Busch in Berlin and to hone her craft as a pupil in the renowned Palme d’Or winning THE WHITE RIBBON in has played leading roles on the most reputable further honed his skills with acting workshops Marcel Sparman Performance Art Workshop. 2009. Prior to this role, Kai has starred on stages in German theatre, such as Düssel- at Filmakademie Baden- Wurttemberg under Saskia went on to take parts in several theatre German television with notable performances dorfer Schauspielhaus, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Jurgen Egger, amongst others. His screen productions at the Improvisationstheater Kalts- including DER ALT E, PATCHWORK, TATORT Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg and credits include SIE HABEN KNUT, JENA PA- tart and the Theater Halle, before she played and STROMBERG. the Schaubühne Berlin. RADIES and EVERYBODY ELSE, which won her first role in the movie FÜR ELISE in 2010. Kai is fast becoming one of Germany’s most In 2011/12, Ursina played many leading roles on the Jury Grand Prix at the 2009 Berlin Film Saskia’s amazing screen presence has led her sort after young actors. LORE marks Kai’s se- German television such as EIN STARKES TEAM, Festival.