NEWS & VIEWS:

Competition:
Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei (The Edukators)
by Hans Weingartner produced by Y3-Film (Germany),
coproduced by Coop 99 (Austria)

Remember Hans Weingartner's Das weisse Rauschen (White Frenzy) (2001), winner of the prestigious Max Ophüls Prize at the Saarbrücken Film Festival? Best described as a digital-trip into the troubled mind of a schizophrenic youth as he skids into madness under a cacophony of voices and noises that only he hears, White Frenzy featured a luminous performance by Daniel Brühl. The same director-actor team are back together again in Weingartner's second feature, Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei (The Edukators). Originally titled Jan Jule Peter after the names of the young protagonists, three rebellious youths ­ Jan (Daniel Brühl, center in photo), Peter (Stipe Erceg, left in photo), and Jule (Julia Jentsch, right in photo; courtesy Y3-Film) ­ share a passion for changing the world. As the »Edukators,« they resort to non-violent means to warn the rich and mighty that their »days of plenty are numbered.« The tables are tipped, however, when Jule falls in love with both of her reckless companions. And complications mount when their next operation runs amuck: what was never intended to be a kidnapping forces the three young idealists to reevaluate their lives.

Un Certain Regard:
Marseille by Angela Schanelec

»All my films deal with the idea that a major part of life is inexplicable, full of misunderstandings, and determined by chance,« said Angela Schanelec about the overriding theme in all her films. In Marseille Sophie (Maren Eggert), a young woman photographer, exchanges her Berlin apartment with a student from Marseille, thereby hoping to resolve an unrequited love for the husband of her best friend. She meets Pierre, a young mechanic in a auto-repair garage, and tries to break out of her routine existence ...

Short Film Competition:
Der Schwimmer by Klaus Hüttmann

The striking images in this directorial debut sketch the dilemma of a true love that requires the fulfillment of an ideal ... or its very destruction.

In the Cannes Film Market ...
there are some more remarkable German films to be seen. Among others, Michael Schorr’s Schultze Gets the Blues and Dito Tsintsadze’s Schussangst (Gun Shy).