Interview Judy Tossell and Jens Meuer, Egoli Tossell Film AG
Congratulations on your new Alexander Sokurov film shot at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Is Waterloo The Russian Ark really a »one-shot« film?
JM: Yes, it's a one-shot, 90-minute, »24p« (24 pictures per second in a HD digital camera) film that tells a continual story through 300 years of Russian history. The Marquis de Custine (1790 - 1857), a French aristocrat, takes the viewer on a journey inside the Hermitage »the ark of the Russian soul« from the beginning of the 18th century until today. Along the way Custine encounters a blind painter, an infant prodigy, a family of museum directors, revellers at a costumed carnival, Peter the Great thrashing one of his generals, Catherine the Great attending a performance of her own play, Tsar Nicolas I hosting Persian counselors at a state reception, and a waltz scene at the Great Ball of 1913 all characters from this period, and altogether 879 actors.
One shot, one film like The Arrival of a Train (1895) by the Lumière Brothers
JM: You know, a lot of famous directors have wanted in the past to update the Lumière shot: Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, Max Ophüls, the master of the continuously moving shot, also the early films of Miklos Jancso in Hungary. But just imagine a 90-minute, 2,000-meter tracking shot through the Hermitage. We feel Sokurov is writing a new page in film history.
Your company, Egoli Tossell Film AG, grew out of Egoli Films and Tossell Pictures. When did this union come about?
JT: Early in 2001. We found it more appropriate to create a single, more active, more influential, and more adventurous film enterprise. Now, with a permanent staff of 16 and offices in Berlin, München, and Leipzig, we’re active in four distinct areas of production: feature films, primarily for the international market; German films, with an eye on debut directors; telefeatures and nonfiction films, some of them feature-length documentaries; and shortly our first IMAX film, to be shot in Siberia.
Two of your award-winning films, Nana Djordjadze’s 27 Missing Kisses and Achim von Borries’s England!, can be described as Eastern European themes. Is it difficult to work in the East?
JM: Yes, of course and wholeheartedly No! I’ve been involved in 22 film projects in the ex USSR, and I’ve found it quite easy to work with some very talented filmmakers in all branches of production. First of all, they’re very motivated. Secondly, they’re fairly open to the challenges of new technologies, and tend to learn quickly. Thirdly, Eastern Europe offers great places to film, many striking locations, and all those extra benefits that add color and flair to a production. Last, but certainly not least, to work with such talent is both stimulating and inspirational. In my honest opinion a new wave of films and filmmakers is already evident in Eastern Europe.
Your catalogue lists 24 completed films and videos, beginning with Jens Meurer’s documentary Harlem A Dream Deferred (1989) and including his award-winning Egoli My South African Home Movie (1997). How many films did Egoli Tossell Film produce in 2001?
JT: Six films: three features and three documentaries. We’ve already mentioned one of the feature films: Alexander Sokurov’s Waterloo The Russian Ark, now in postproduction. The other features are both youth films by women directors. In Katalin Gödrös’s Mutanten (Mutants), a 14-year-old girl is into zombies, mutants, and serial killers, something that sets her apart from other girls at her school but opens the door for some pretty wild adventures. And Maria von Heland’s Big Girls Don’t Cry takes the pulse of teenage girls on the brink of adulthood as they deal with sex, drugs, divorce in the family, and a bittersweet friendship put to the test. An Euro 3.8 million (DM 7.2 million) coproduction with Deutsche Columbia Pictures, it will be released later this summer.
JM: As for the documentaries, we are currently producing a series on The Hermitage World famous directors making a film, either short or long, on any chosen aspect of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the former Winter Palace. Two films in the series are finished: Elfi Mikesch’s Mon Paradis Der Winter Palast (My Paradise The Winter Palace) (2001) and Frank Müller’s Petersburger Gesichter (Petersburg Faces) (2002) on the city of St. Petersburg.
Do you have any films at the Berlinale?
JT: Yes, Alfred Holighaus has invited two of our films to the new »Perspektive Deutsches Kino« section. Katalin Gödrös’s feature film Mutanten will premiere at the Berlinale on February 9 at 8:30 pm at Cinemaxx 1, then again on February 10 at 9pm at Cinemaxx 3. Judith Keil and Antje Kruska’s Der Glanz von Berlin (Queens of Dust), the documentary hit of the Hof festival, will screen on February 13 at 8:30 pm at Cinemaxx 1, then again on February 14 at 9pm at Cinemaxx 3. Neither Keil nor Kruska graduated from a film school or an arts academy, yet as autodidacts they’ve proved themselves quite capable in portraying the work and life-styles of three cleaning women whose job is not only tough, but also requires a degree of optimism and a hope of one day fulfilling a dream.
Your plans for the future?
JT: Although still in the development stage, we look forward to a second project with Nana Djordjadze scripted by Irakli Kvirikadze: The Tears of Don Juan. Kvirikadze has also written a screenplay for a new project by Agnieszka Holland: Catherine I, the story of a simple maid who rose to become the wife of Peter the Great. Another project in the making is The Ferry by Achim von Borries. Check our webpage www.EgoliTossell.com for the latest update on these projects.
JM: We’re pretty far along on the large-format IMAX film: Secrets of Siberia, a coproduction with cine.dok. This journey along the Trans-Siberian railroad links with the past remember Victor Turin’s documentary Turbsib (1929)? And we’re working with Bobby Seale on a feature film based on Public Enemy (1999), my documentary about four former members of the Black Panthers that premiered at Venice. To be filmed on location in the United States, A Lonely Rage is a screen adaptation of Seale’s book with the same title and his »Seize the Time« sequel.
Good luck and thank you for the interview.
Editors