A Year Ago A5book.Indd

A Bavaria Film/Constantin Film Production A Year Ago in Winter A film by Academy Award® winner CAROLINE LINK Special Gala Presentation Germany - 128 min - Cinemascope 2:35 - Color - Dolby SRD - German World Sales & Festival Bookings Celluloid Dreams 2 rue Turgot, 75009 Paris, France T : + 33 (0) 1 4970 0370 F : + 33 (0) 1 4970 0371 [email protected] www.celluloid-dreams.com SYNOPSIS A grieving woman commissions a painter to do a portrait of her children: her 22 year- old daughter, and her 19 year-old son, who recently died in a tragic accident. As he struggles to perfect his portrait, the stormy interaction between artist and subjects brings forth the intense psychological state of a complex family. A powerful story in which the tragic loss of a loved one becomes the catalyst for each family member to rediscover themselves and redefine their relationships. INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR CAROLINE LINK What is A Year Ago In Winter about? It’s primarily about the death of an 18-year-old boy and how his family deal with this traumatic experience in their own individual ways. For a year or so not a great deal happens – they try to return to everyday life, which is very, very difficult. Then, perhaps out of some kind of subconscious need for understanding and development, the mother goes to a painter and asks him to paint a picture of her dead son and his sister. In doing this she sets a process in motion that confronts the family with their feelings of guilt and gets the family moving again. At the centre of the story is Lilli, 21, the dead boy’s sister. It’s about her image of herself, her lack of self-esteem and her search for unconditional love. She is a needy person who has received little genuine support from her family. As with my previous films it is once again about family. But what’s different this time is that there is also an external relationship that is very important – between the daughter and the artist. With this movie, I wanted to paint an atmospheric portrait of a family. The mood, broad emotions, and the unknown are the driving forces, not the plotline. The artist and the painting he creates are unwanted catalysts for this. So this is all the more about the healing power of art. Is it right to assume that this is not about special effects, but about human emotions? For sure. What makes a film interesting for me – as a viewer too - is the configuration of characters. Who is going to meet whom? A world evolves around these characters as if it were a mosaic. A mood comes to life. Ideally, the audience can be so drawn in by the characters that they are willing to take a journey with them, wherever this may lead to. At the end of the film there is no clear resolution or something unexpected. The protagonists themselves are the story. When we were doing the read-through it was apparent that it would be a real challenge to tell a story in this manner. I couldn’t build on a plot that was already exciting. But each individual scene can instantly fall apart if the mood isn’t right and the characters aren’t plausible. How does your screenplay adaptation differ from the novel? In a lot of ways. Scott Campbell is an American and his novel is set on the East Coast of the USA. At first glance one might think it would be easy to transfer the Boston upper classes to Munich, but that is not the case, of course. In the novel the family were even more closed-in and full of inhibitions. That didn’t seem right for Germany. My decision to set the story in Bavaria has less to do with the fact that I live there than being able to cast Josef Bierbichler as the artist. That was what settled the location for me. The novel is also written from different angles. Sometimes Scott Campbell writes from the perspective of the girl, sometimes he writes from the perspective of the mother, or the father, or the painter. I am telling the story of the girl. In the novel, the artist is undeniably gay and has nothing but platonic feelings for his model. I thought that would be boring for my two protagonists. I wanted to explore erotic attraction and proximity between Max and Lilli. The difference in age may be too great to really tell a love story, but the kinship is there, the desire to be close to someone, to have a sense of intimacy, which can also be sexy. I think Josef Bierbichler did this fantastically. At first he was afraid of either ending up as the good uncle or making himself look ridiculous with this very young girl. But neither of these things happened – he walked the tightrope between erotic attraction and platonic friendship perfectly. And I knew he would. How autobiographical is your screenplay? I felt extremely bad after my father’s death in 2005. I was really shaken. Anyone who has lost a loved one prematurely will understand what I mean. You can’t explain it. This was when I first realized what death is. Somebody you love will never, ever, be coming back, they will never walk through this door again, and I’ll never be able to hold them again. This finality really hurts. And the thought of perhaps being to blame for the death of this person, in the case of the film one’s own child, is just unimaginable. When I read Scott Campbell’s novel, this state of shock the family was in really affected me – but so did the elements of art, painting and music. I felt really drawn to this confused, needy girl, Lilli, and constructed her relationship to the painter in my mind exactly how I wanted to see it. I can’t tell you why I’m so drawn to the bond between a girl and a much older man. That’s just the way it is and I have to accept that. It’s not easy explaining your subconscious. This relationship between Lilli and Max is a very attractive one for me. CAROLINE LINK Caroline Link was born in 1964. After graduating from high school she spent a year in the United States. In 1984 she took her first steps in the movie business as an intern at the Bavaria Film Studios. She then participated in many TV and movie projects as a script editor and assistant director. In 1986 she became a student at the Academy for Film and Television in Munich. Her graduation piece SOMMERTAGE received the Kodak Advancement Prize at the Film Festival in Hof. In addition to her studies, she continued to work as assistant director and script author (for the TV series DER FAHNDER, among others). In 1992 she made the children’s film KALLE DER TRÄUMER for German TV. In the same year she also started researching the script for BEYOND SILENCE. She finally began shooting the unusual story about a deaf couple and their musically talented child in 1995. Among many other awards the film received the Bavarian Film Award, The German Film Award (Silver), The Guild Film Award (Gold) and Awards in Tokyo, Chicago, Vancouver and Kalkutta. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Movie in 1998. In 1999, her successful and modern adaptation of Erich Kästner’s ANNALOUISE AND ANTON was a clear testament to her talent for moving stories. This film too received many national and international awards, among them the Bavarian Film Award. The year 2003 crowned Caroline Link’s hitherto career, when she received an Academy Award for NOWHERE IN AFRICA for Best Foreign Language Film. She also received German Film Awards for Best Film and Best director as well as the Special Jury Prize at Karlovy Vary in 2002. She began working on the A YEAR AGO IN WINTER script in 2004. SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY 2008 A YEAR AGO IN WINTER (director & screenwriter) 2001 NIRGENDWO IN AFRIKA / NOWHERE IN AFRICA (director & screenwriter) Bavarian Film Award, Best Feature Film, 2001 Guild Film Award in Silver, 2002 German Film Awards 2002: Best Feature Film Best Director Best Cinematography Best Music Best Supporting Actor Hamptons IFF, Audience Award, 2002 Karlovy Vary IFF, FIPRESCI Prize & Special Prize of the Jury, 2002 Golden Globe Nomination, 2003 Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film, 2003 1998 PÜNKTCHEN UND ANTON / ANNALUISE & ANTON (director & screenwriter) Bavarian Film Award, Best Children’s Film, 1999 German Film Award in Gold, Best Music, 1999 Chicago Intern. Children’s FF, Best Feature Film, 1999 Mexico Intern. Children’s FF, Best Feature Film, 1999 Toronto Intern. FF for Children, Best Feature Film, 2000 Montréal Intern. Children’s FF, Children’s Jury Prize, 2000 1996 EMMERAN, TV series (director) 1995 JENSEITS DER STILLE / BEYOND SILENCE (director & screenwriter) Bavarian Film Award, Best Director - Young Film, 1997 German Film Award in Silver, 1997 Guild Film Award in Gold, 1997 Chicago IFF, Gold Plaque, 1997 Tokyo IFF, Best Screenplay Award & Tokyo Grand Prix, 1997 Vancouver IFF, Most Popular Film, 1997 Kalkutta IFF, Best Debut Film, 1997 Academy Award Nomination, Best Foreign Language Film, 1998 1992 KALLE DER TRÄUMER, TV (director & screenwriter) 1991 ANAHITA, TV-series DER FAHNDER (screenwriter) 1990 TIM, TV-series DER FAHNDER (screenwriter) 1989 SOMMERTAGE (director & screenwriter) Hof IFF, Kodak Award, 1990 CAST Lilli Richter Karoline Herfurth Max Hollander Josef Bierbichler Eliane Richter Corinna Harfouch Thomas Richter Hanns Zischler Alexander Richter Cyril Sjöström^ Aldo Mišel Maticevic` Tom Daniel Berini Johannes Franz Dinda Renee Waters Karin Boyd Tobias Hollander Jacob Matschenz Andrea Inka Friedrich Stephan Hansa Czypionka CREW Screenplay and Director Caroline Link (based on the novel “The Aftermath” by Scott Campbell) Producers Uschi Reich Martin Moszkowicz Executive Producers Robert Cort Scarlett Lacey Co-Producers Bettina Reitz Hans-Wolfgang Jurgan Line Producer Oliver Nommsen Director of Photography Bella Halben Editor Patricia Rommel Production Design Susann Bieling Costume Design Barbara Grupp Make Up Nanni Gebhardt-Seele Stephanie Hilke Original Sound Roman Schwartz Sound Design Michael Kranz Music Niki Reiser Casting An Dorthe Braker Stefany Pollmann A co-production of Bavaria Filmverleih und Produktions GmbH and Constantin Film Produktion GmbH funded by FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, FFA and DFFF.

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