cover_GFQ_4.qxp 06.10.2008 10:53 Uhr Seite 1 German Films Quarterly 4 · 2008 AT ROME Cinema 2008 Competition LONG SHADOWS by Connie Walther Anteprima-Premiere THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX by Uli Edel PORTRAITS Directors Hannes Stoehr & Neele Leana Vollmar, Rat Pack Filmproduktion, Actor David Kross Inhaltsverz_GFQ4_2008.qxp 06.10.2008 10:54 Uhr Seite 1 German Films Quarterly 4 · 2008 directors’ portraits 4 GLOBAL STORYTELLER A portrait of Hannes Stoehr 6 A SENSE OF FAMILY A portrait of Neele Leana Vollmar producers’ portrait 8 PACKING A PUNCH A portrait of Rat Pack Filmproduktion actor’s portrait 10 NORTHERN LIGHT IN THE MOVIE SKY A portrait of David Kross 12 news in production 18 24 STUNDEN SCHLESISCHES TOR Eva Lia Reinegger, Anna de Paoli 18 BERLIN Michael Ballhaus, Ciro Cappellari 19 DIE FREMDE Feo Aladag 20 DER GROSSE KATER Wolfgang Panzer 21 HAUS UND KIND Andreas Kleinert 22 HILDE Kai Wessel 23 HITLER VOR GERICHT Bernd Fischerauer 24 KINDERSUCHE Miguel Alexandre 25 MAENNERSACHE Gernot Roll, Mario Barth 26 ROMY Torsten C. Fischer 26 ROSAMUNDE PILCHER: VIER JAHRESZEITEN Giles Foster 27 SCHWERKRAFT Maximilian Erlenwein 28 THIS IS LOVE Matthias Glasner 29 TRANSFER Damir Lukacevic 30 UNTER BAUERN Ludi Boeken new german films 32 9TO5 – DAYS IN PORN Jens Hoffmann 33 88 – PILGERN AUF JAPANISCH 88 – PILGRIMAGE IN JAPANESE Gerald Koll 34 ADEMS SOHN ADEM’S SON Hakan Savas Mican 35 ANONYMA — EINE FRAU IN BERLIN A WOMAN IN BERLIN Max Faerberboeck Inhaltsverz_GFQ4_2008.qxp 06.10.2008 10:54 Uhr Seite 2 36 DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX Uli Edel 37 DIE BIENEN – TOEDLICHE BEDROHUNG KILLERBEES Michael Karen 38 BUDDENBROOKS BUDDENBROOKS – THE DECLINE OF A FAMILY Heinrich Breloer 39 DEM KUEHLEN MORGEN ENTGEGEN INTO THE COLD DAWN Oliver Becker, Katharina Bruner 40 FINNISCHER TANGO FINNISH TANGO Buket Alakus 41 FRECHE MAEDCHEN CHEEKY GIRLS Ute Wieland 42 GELIEBTE CLARA CLARA Helma Sanders-Brahms 43 HINTER KAIFECK KAIFECK MURDER Esther Gronenborn 44 HOTEL SAHARA Bettina Haasen 45 IN JEDER SEKUNDE AT ANY SECOND Jan Fehse 46 JERICHOW Christian Petzold 47 KRABAT Marco Kreuzpaintner 48 MA’RIB Rainer Komers 49 MIKE FIGGIS – THE SEDUCTION OF THE EYE Ina Borrmann 50 DAS MORPHUS-GEHEIMNIS MYSTERY OF MORPHUS Karola Hattop 51 NARRENSPIEL FOOL’S GAME Markus F. Adrian 52 NEBEN DER SPUR TOUR EXCESS Detlef Bothe 53 NOBODY’S PERFECT Niko von Glasow 54 DER PFAD DES KRIEGERS THE WAY OF A WARRIOR Andreas Pichler 55 SCHATTENWELT LONG SHADOWS Connie Walther 56 SHORT CUT TO HOLLYWOOD Marcus Mittermeier, Jan Henrik Stahlberg 57 STANDESGEMAESS NOBLE COMMITMENTS Julia von Heinz 58 U-900 Sven Unterwaldt 59 WARTEN AUF ANGELINA WAITING FOR ANGELINA Hans-Christoph Blumenberg 60 WELTSTADT CITY OF THE WORLD Christian Klandt 61 ZWEIER OHNE COXLESS PAIR Jobst Christian Oetzmann 65 film exporters 67 foreign representatives · imprint A portrait of Hannes Stoehr.qxp 06.10.2008 10:03 Uhr Seite 1 DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT Hannes Stoehr was born in Stuttgart in 1970 and studied European Law at the University of Passau after completing his civilian service and a nine-month trip through South America. He then studi- ed Scriptwriting and Directing at the German Film & Television Academy Berlin (dffb) from 1995 to 1999. After a number of shorts and medium-length documentaries, he made his feature directorial debut with Berlin is in Germany in 2001, based on a 15-minute short with the same name from 1999. The film was shown at over 30 festivals worldwide and released theatrically in Germany, France, Spain and Turkey, winning prizes at festivals in Poitiers, Valencia and Annonay. In Germany, the film received, among others, the Panorama Audience Award at the 2001 Berlinale, the German Film Critics’ Award for actor Joerg Schuettauf, 1st Prize in Studio Hamburg’s Next Generation Competition, the New Faces Award for Best Young Director 2002, and the Association of German Film Critics’ Award for Best Film 2002. In 2003, he wrote and directed the Tatort TV movie Odins Rache which was nominated for the German and European CIVIS Television Award 2004 and received the German Television Award 2004 in the category of Best Supporting Role for actress Sandra Borgmann. His second feature film, One Day in Europe, was invited to the Official Competition of the 2005 Berlinale, screened at over 30 other festivals around the world and was released abroad in cinemas in Japan, Spain, Turkey, the UK, Poland, and Russia. In 2006, he obtained a writing fellowship for the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles to work on the project Forty Eighters and directed his third feature Berlin Calling in the summer 2007. Starring the electronic composer Paul Kalkbrenner, who also wrote the film’s score, Berlin Calling had its world premiere on the Piazza Grande in Locarno this August. Hannes Stoehr works as a scriptwriter and director in Berlin and is a lecturer at the dffb and the Baden-Wuerttemberg Film Academy. His other films include: Biete Argentinien, Suche Europa (short, 1995), Lieber Cuba Libre (documentary, 1997), Prawda (short, 1998), and Gosh – Live in Paris (documentary, 1998). Agent: Above the Line GmbH · Uschi Keil Wielandstrasse 5 · 10625 Berlin/Germany phone +49-30-2 88 77 30 · fax +49-30-28 87 73 10 email: [email protected] www.abovetheline.de · www.stoehrfilm.eu Hannes Stoehr (photo © Filmfestival Locarno) GLOBAL STORYTELLER A portrait of Hannes Stoehr Thoughtfully entertaining rather than sermonizing – that’s the goal of “I see myself as more of a clown than a priest,” says Hannes. “I love director Hannes Stoehr whose latest feature Berlin Calling solid storytelling which is based on research. Reality is complex, the had its world premiere on the Piazza Grande at the Locarno main thing is to find the right angle for your story. And the right tone: International Film Festival in August 2008. I prefer tragicomedies.” german films quarterly director’s portrait 4 · 2008 4 A portrait of Hannes Stoehr.qxp 08.10.2008 9:54 Uhr Seite 2 Hannes was born in Stuttgart and grew up in Hechingen in Baden- in a universal way. So, it is important to know the cinema styles of Wuerttemberg. Before and after civil service, he did extended back- other countries.” packing tours through Central and South America. He then studied Law, but his involvement in various art projects making films made His feature One Day in Europe – which had its premiere in the him decide to “turn my hobby into a profession.” In 1994, he moved Official Competition of the Berlinale in 2005 – he describes as his res- to Berlin. ponse to “a historical European moment coming from this chance of the fall of the Wall” with interwoven stories set in Berlin, Moscow, Hannes became part of an underground-style filmmaking movement Istanbul and Santiago de Compostela. The overall theme of the film in the reunified capital, “which was really anarchic, low budget and of was languages in Europe. course without any shooting permits. Everything was possible then because there was such a great energy in the air.” And looking back now, Hannes says that he can see his three feature films as forming a trilogy: “Berlin is in Germany shows Berlin These Super 8 films were then shown at basement bars and can now viewed from the alien perspective, One Day in Europe shows also be viewed on Hannes’ own YouTube channel. Berlin in the European context, and Berlin Calling is now the view from within.” “In fact, looking back, I think that this atmosphere at the beginning of the 90s in Berlin was very important to me,” he suggests. “It wasn’t As Hannes points out, it is not by coincidence that his three features just Germans, because you seemed to have the whole world coming to date all have English titles: “The titles may be English but the films here to find answers. That energy is something you find in my films.” have a very German content or at least a German point of view. The films are very local, but at the same time very universal. It worked His application to Berlin’s German Film & Television Academy (dffb) out: Berlin is in Germany and One Day in Europe were was accepted in 1995 where he studied until 1999, making such films released in the cinemas in France, Spain, Turkey, Poland, Russia, the as the documentaries, Lieber Cuba Libre, Gosh – Live in UK and Japan, and elsewhere. “Also, English titles are an advantage in Paris, and a 15-minute short version of his 2001 feature debut a Google world,” Hannes quips. Berlin is in Germany. At the moment, he is promoting the release of Berlin Calling in Hannes admits that there may at times have been an ideological clash Germany and is invited to several international festivals. Berlin between him and dffb director Reinhard Hauff over his work, but he Calling portrays the world of an electronic music composer, a tra- has nothing but respect for the veteran filmmaker’s humanism. “I gicomedy in the Berlin of today, starring Paul Kalkbrenner, Rita learned a lot from Reinhard Hauff, although or maybe because he Lengyel, Corinna Harfouch and Araba Walton. “Our main role and comes from a different generation.” Moreover, several of his fellow musician, Paul Kalkbrenner, is an internationally known electronic students from film school days have worked with him on subsequent music artist, so we have a worldwide audience on all continents projects such as DoPs Andreas Doub and Florian Hoffmeister, editor around the globe. We are trying to also reach our global community Anne Fabini and producer Karsten Aurich. by net guerilla activities through My Space, Facebook and YouTube. The Internet gives you a great opportunity to promote your film with- Berlin is in Germany stirred things up winning the Panorama out having so much money,” Hannes adds.