German Cinema ­ 26e Festival des Films du Monde Montréal 2002

Roland Suso Richter’s Der Tunnel, starring Heino Ferch in a thrilling reenactment of a 1962 tunnel escape under the Berlin wall, proved so popular at the 25th Montreal World Film Festival in 2001 (awarded the Air Canada People’s Choice Award) that it went on to play eight months in a Montreal cinema! Appropriately, in 2002, Heino Ferch was invited to serve on the International Jury. Furthermore, festival director Serge Losique programmed once again a broad spectrum of 22 German films, including coproductions and shorts, in various sections of the 26th Montreal World Film Festival. These included two Berlinale competition entries, Tom Tykwer’s Heaven and Andreas Dresen’s Halbe Treppe (Grill Point), both programmed in the »Hors concours ­ World Greats« section. Herewith the other German highlights at Montreal 2002, together with the sections noted in which they were programmed.

Väter (I’m the Father), Dani Levy ­ Competition

Although the English title indicates a singular father, the plural in the German title underscores the double-edge grandfather-father-son relationship ­ thus adding psychological depth to Väter, a family drama about a father who kidnaps his own son. Sebastian Blomberg, in the role of the distraught father, was last seen as the yuppie lawyer in Gregor Schnitzler’s anarchist-thriller Was tun, wenn’s brennt? (What to Do in the Case of Fire?) (2001). This time, Blomberg is the successful yuppie architect Marco, who has just received the commission of a lifetime. His wife Melanie (Maria Schrader), a schoolteacher with a heavy workload, can barely keep up with household chores. So she expects Marco to share the burden of raising their 6-year-old son Benny (Ezra Valentin Lenz), who is anything but healthy and requires regular doses of medicine. So when the irresponsible Marco forgets, once again, to pick up Benny’s medicine on the way home from an office celebration, this proves to be the last straw ­ Melanie abruptly leaves, taking Benny with him. The blow is just too much for the egoistic Marco, who won’t accept an impending divorce, a trauma that has pursued him ever since his own parents separated when he was 15. After feeble attempts to patch up the relationship, he goes bezerk, kidnaps his own son, and drives off to southern France to visit his father and gradually come to his senses. Filmed with a digital camera (Carsten Thiele), a stylistic factor that aptly reflects the mental state of Marco, I’m the Father is Dani Levy’s most personal film.

Mein erstes Wunder (My First Miracle) Anne Wild ­ Competition

Mein erstes Wunder marks the third time Anne Wild has made a film with Henriette Confurius. She was 12 when they first collaborated on the short film Nachmittag in Siedlisko (Afternoon in Siedlisko) (2000), followed then by the award-winning short Ballett ist ausgefallen (Ballet Is Canceled) (2001). Now in My First Miracle, Wild’s debut feature, she plays Dole, a head strong 11-year-old who disdains the loose, compromising ways of her single mother ­ so one day, on an impulse, she runs away with a child-like married man whom she had met on the North Sea coast during the holidays. Hermann (Leonard Lansink), she feels, understands her ­ and she’s just old enough to experience what love is all about. In hot pursuit come her mother Franziska (Juliane Köhler) and Hermann’s wife Margot (Gabriele Maria Schmeide) ­ cameos that add color and drive to the tale. Eventually they end up at the seashore where it all began, but with the twist that Dole is now grown up while Hermann is still the child. Anne Wild, after her university studies (literature, philosophy, art history), enrolled in courses for acting and screenwriting, which, in turn, led to freelance journalism, television commissions, and short films. She coscripted Gregor Schnitzler’s anarchist-thriller Was tun, wenn’s brennt? (What to Do in Case of Fire?). It took four years before Anne Wild could raise the finances for My First Miracle, based on a true story with autobiographical footnotes.

Das Verlangen (The Longing), Iain Dilthey ­ World Greats section

Awarded the Golden Leopard at the 2002 Locarno film festival, Das Verlangen is the third film in Iain Dilthey’s »trilogy of yearning«, each film about a lonely woman’s pining desire to be loved in a cold, unfriendly world. The trilogy began with the short film Sommer auf Horlachen (Summer at Horlachen) (1999), featuring a young woman (Eva Löbau) who falls in love and seeks to break off an incestuous relationship with her father. The theme was honed to a sharp edge in Ich werde Dich auf Händen tragen (I’ll Wait on You Hand and Foot) (2001), his debut feature invited to compete at Locarno about a young Viennese mother (Eva Löbau again) who is abandoned by her erstwhile lover. All three films were produced at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, where Iain Dilthey directed seven films (!) in all. In fact, The Longing is the graduation film of the 31-year-old Scotsman, who arrived in Germany in 1992 to study chemistry and pharmacology at universities in Mainz and Marburg. After penning some successful scripts for German TV stations, Dilthey entered the film academy in Ludwigsburg. The Longing - originally titled Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung (Faith, Love, Hope), in reference to the dramas of Ödön von Horvath and the early films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder ­ is the story of Lena (Susanne-Maria Wrage), the lonely wife of a tyrannical Protestant pastor in an isolated Swabian-Franconian village. When she meets the friendly mechanic Paul (Klaus Grünberg), a newcomer to the village with a mysterious past, she lets down her emotional barriers and experiences love for the first time in her life. It becomes a fatal illusion when a police inspector arrives on the scene to investigate the murder of a young girl with circumstantial evidence pointing to Paul. A minimalist film with typically restrained acting performances, The Longing confirms Iain Dilthey as a promising directorial talent.

Sophiiiie!, Michael Hofmann ­ Hors Concours: World Greats

For the past two decades, director Michael Hofmann (born 1961) is best known for his advertising spots ­ save for one venture into feature-film production with Der Strand von Trouville (The Beach at Trouville) (1998), a comedy-of-manners about love at first sight in a roadmovie context that got lost along the way before reaching the Normandy coast. This time, however, he got it all right: Sophiiiie!, his second feature, was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2002 Filmfest München in the double category of director and actress. As the elongated title hints, this is the story of a young girl in her early twenties well on her way to self-destruction. On the night before she is scheduled to have an abortion ­ the baby’s father is unknown and could have been anyone ­ Sophie (Katharina Schüttler) steals her boyfriend’s motorcycle and tears through the streets of Hamburg on a suicide mission that, surprisingly for her, comes to naught. Then she really steps on the gas. Her next willful contretemps occurs when she visits a bar, insults a redneck macho, and somehow with spirit and finesse comes away again unscathed. Next come encounters with a clip-joint conman, then a friendly immigrant taxi-driver, and finally a young man (Robert Stadlober) who grasps her misery of weekend parties, reckless affairs, and the coming abortion better than the others. Although all is resolved with a slight-of-hand ending, one wonders how the tale might have continued on the following day ­ for Katharina Schüttler does, indeed, give a spellbinding performance in this low-budget film shot with a digital camera about a girl in search of her own identity.

Invincible, Werner Herzog ­ Hors Concours: World Greats

A contender for the Lion of the Year award at the 2001 Venice festival, Werner Herzog’s Invincible chronicles the tragic story of a blond Jewish strongman who, back in the early 1930s, was billed as the »World’s Strongest Man« in Hanussen’s »House of the Occult« in Berlin. As the story goes, Zishe Breitbart (Jouko Ahola), a Jewish blacksmith from East Poland, was allured to Berlin by Erik Jan Hanussen, the same mysterious figure featured in Istvan Szabo’s Hanussen (1988), a German-Hungarian coproduction starring Klaus Maria Brandauer. All goes well for Zishe at the beginning ­ until the Nazis rise to power. To suffer a Jew in the pose of a popular hero was too much, so the strong man was doomed in Nazi Germany by a circumstance of fate. The intriguing twist in Herzog’s version is this: Zishe also believes that he is the new Samson sent to protect his people from the Nazis. Invincible fits neatly into the Werner Herzog oeuvre. Always fascinated by the lives of broken people in isolated places, he began his feature film career with a similar story set in Greece during the Second World War. In Lebenszeichen (Signs of Life) (1970), a German soldier gradually goes mad while convalescing on a lonely island. Multi-Oscar-winner film composer Hans Zimmer contributed the score for Invincible.

Karu Süda (The Heart of the Bear), Arvo Iho ­ Hors Concours: World Greats

Long before Arvo Iho’s Karu Süda was invited to compete at the 2002 Moscow film festival, it was one of the most talked about productions on the European film scene. Six years in production, the Estonian epic eventually found its way to the screen as a coproduction with Russia, Germany, and the Czech Republic. The key producer in this constellation was Berlin-based Manfred Durniok, without whom the film might still be in production limbo. Based on a popular novel by Estonian author Nikolai Baturin, with a screenplay drafted by Oscar-winning Rustam Ibragimbekov (Nikita Mikhalkov’s Burnt by the Sun), this romantic drama about the quest for identity was filmed on location in the Siberian Taiga over a two-year stretch, often under harsh sub-zero shooting conditions. No wonder Estonian cameraman Rein Kotov was honored with a nomination for best cinematography at last year’s European Film Awards. The Heart of the Bear is the story of Nika (Rain Simmul), a young Estonian who departs for the Siberian wilderness as a hunter, where he meets his »Nganassani« shadow and a native tribesman, who teaches him how to survive in the wilderness. One day, Nika kills a male bear, only to be befriended by the she-bear as the natural victor in a fight for mating rights. From this point on, The Heart of the Bear becomes a journey into the depths of the soul ­ in short, Nika’s manhood is tested to the very core on his being.

Absolut Warhola, Stanislaw Mucha ­ World Cinema: Reflections of Our Times

Queried about the »Warhola clan« in Slovakia, Polish-German documentary filmmaker Stanislaw Mucha is prone to answer with a grin: »They’re the proudest people under the sun ­ ever since they heard on television that their Andrej Warhola (Andy Warhol) wasn’t just a house painter, but an artist of world renown.« Mikova can be found in eastern Slovakia, right on the border to Poland and the Ukraine. And here Mucha on one of his travels found an authentic »Pop Art Museum« stuffed with paintings and memorabilia sent by Andy’s brother John in Pittsburgh. Perhaps Mikova is the wrong place for the Slovak branch of the Andy Warhol Museum, for most of the Warhola family live in the neighboring village of Medzilaborce. No matter ­ this discrepancy, among others, is what makes Absolut Warhola one of the most amusing documentaries produced in Germany last season. How did Stanislaw Mucha find the Pop Art Museum? This wandering documentary filmmaker, who was born in Poland and studied cinema at the Babelsberg Film School in Potsdam, recalled a story told in communist days about smugglers and bootleggers crossing the tri-country borders. When he went there to check it out himself, he discovered the pop-art museum and probed how it got there. »One of the branches of the huge Warhola clan made its way across the ocean,« said Mucha in an interview. »But all the rest stayed behind in a remote village, where if you’re not related to your neighbor, you’re taken for a stranger, and where one bottle of plum brandy can be exchanged for ten wrist-watches.« And although Andy’s relatives in this neck of the woods may have only a dim idea about their famous relative abroad, they are all too eager to tell what they know ­ and naively believe to be true ­ before Susanne Schüle’s subtly observant camera.

Three Erotic Tales, Rafelson, Tsintsadze, Fridriksson ­ World Cinema: Reflections of Our Times

An Erotic Tale ­ Dito Tsintsadze. Hemingway wrote his Parisian stories on the table of a sidewalk café. Niko prefers to pen his Berlin tales on the counter of a funky bar behind the shark tank. What better place for a writer to pick up a girl? Along comes Sonja, who wants to know how the horny tale he’s now working on will end. So she invites Niko to finish it over a drink at her apartment! There’s only one catch: Martin, her ex-boyfriend, still hasn’t moved out of the place. Porn.com ­ Bob Rafelson. Veteran film director Matty Bonkers (Bob Rafelson), a Hollywood legend, arrives in Berlin for an honorary tribute. While introducing his award-winning Mockery, he receives a phone call from his producer lying in intensive care at a hospital. Blau (Trevor Griffiths) needs a favor for old times’ sake. Could Matty finish a porn movie before his legs get broken by Tokyo Tony? Matty reluctantly agrees. On the set he meets porn star and ex-cello-player Inga (Fabienne Babe) ­ the experience is bizarre, spirited, uplifting ­ a comédie humaine. The sequel to Rafelson’s Wet in the Erotic Tales series, Porn.com features Bob in his first major comic acting role ­ as alter ego Matty Bonkers, a burnt-out director about to have his creative batteries recharged. On Top Down Under ­ Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. On Top: Iceland, a lighthouse, a cold winter evening. Her thoughts drift back to that summer, to bathing in the hot springs, to when they first met ­ and embraced. Down Under: Australia, the desert, a blistering heat wave. His pickup stops at an icehouse. He lays the blocks neatly on the buckboard and drives off haunted by an aching memory. Without dialogue or comment, save for verses from a John Keats sonnet, Fridriksson links the thoughts, emotions, and sensual longings of young lovers at opposite ends of the world. A tone poem, a collage of sight and sound. The Erotic Tales ­ 30 to date ­ were produced by Regina Ziegler. Contact: www.ziegler-film.com ­ over 365 festival and event bookings!

Ronald Holloway