Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ) - German Films

Im Osten geht
die Sonne auf
Original Title Im Osten geht die Sonne auf English
Title The Sun is Rising in the East Genre Documentary
Production Company MGS Filmproduktion, Munich, for
Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich and ORB, Potsdam Producer
Carolin Müller Director Wolfgang Ettlich Director of
Photography Hans-Albrecht Lusznat Editor Monika
Abspacher Length 90 min Format 16 mm, color, 1:1.77
Shooting Language German Shooting in Cottbus
Contact:
MGS Filmproduktion
Georgenstr. 121 · D-80797 Munich
phone +49-89-1 23 64 65 · fax +49-89-1 23 64 99
email: mgs@az-online.net
For fans of soccer club Energie Cottbus, 29 May 2000 was the
most important day after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their team
beat FC Cologne and won promotion to the first division. This
time local skinheads had something new to chant. Most of the
114,000 inhabitants also took to the streets, carrying the crossbar
of the goal through which star player, Vasile Miritua, had put
the winning shot.
Miritua, a Romanian and once a mistrusted foreigner, had not
only secured his team’s place, but had also become ”one of us.“
And Cottbus, at least for a couple of days, could set aside its
reputation as Germany’s most foreigner unfriendly city. The
underdogs had roared.
Cottbus was long East Germany’s ”Cinderella“ city and this was an
opportunity to wave the flag of civic pride, so often tarnished by
the city’s unenviable reputation for violence and intolerance. It
hoped visiting fans would also bring opportunities for economic
improvement and much needed outside investment.
The city’s hoteliers, shopkeepers, souvenir sellers, restaurant and
bars owners can certainly look forward to increased takings and,
with unofficial unemployment somewhere between 20-30%, anything
that creates new jobs is more than welcome.
32
Franklin Bittencourt
But having made it to the first division, the question on everybody’s
lips is ”for how long?“ Promotion was achieved through the
efforts of the manager, former East German international Eduard
Geyer, and his troop of foreign ”football legionnaires“, but the
money for a truly top team is lacking.
There are the players, such as Moussa Latoundji from Benin (who
knows what it’s like to be a foreigner) and Franklin Bittencourt
from Brazil, who’s been playing soccer in Germany for over seven
years.
There are Michael and Simone, regular customers at the local
kiosk on a run-down housing estate and Inge, who has waited
tables for thirty years. If it weren’t for loyal customers and rock
bottom prices, she’d have closed long ago.
Team sponsor and local butcher Hartmut feeds the fans and, like
Inge, hopes for new business. And there is Christian, gardener and
loyal Energie supporter.
Im Osten geht die Sonne auf looks at the last season, how
the club’s rise has changed the life and political mood in the region
and the effect it’s had on the people of Cottbus itself.
Ninas
Geschichte
Original Title Ninas Geschichte (working title) English
Title Nina’s Story (working title) Type of Project Feature
Genre Tragicomic Love Story Production Company Bosko
Biati Film, Berlin, in co-production with ZDF, Mainz With
backing from Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Kultur und
Medien (BKM), Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmförderungsanstalt
(FFA), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM)
Producer Jörn Rettig Director Joseph Orr Screenplay
Joseph Orr Director of Photography Stefan Wachner
Editor Bernd Euscher Music by Bert Wrede Principal
Cast Henriette Heinze, Simon Schwarz, Julia Bremermann
Length 100 min Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85 Shooting
Language German Shooting in Arnstadt, Thuringia
Contact:
Bosko Biati Film
Auguststr. 34 · D-10119 Berlin
phone +49-30-2 84 49 40 · fax +49-30-28 44 94 11
If there is a thread running through Jörn Rettig’s one man
company Bosko Biati Film’s productions it has to be their
emphasis on the character of the lead figure, on a quite ordinary
person, unassuming, modest even, who holds and fascinates
through who, not what, they are.
Take the company’s lyrical comedy Zugvögel … einmal nach
Inari (Trains ’n Roses, 1997) for example. Under Peter
Lichtefeld’s direction, Joachim Król turns in a fantastic performance,
both humorous and moving, as the little man determined
to make it to, of all things, the world railway timetable and
route memorization championship in Finland. Hot on his heels is
the detective (Peter Lohmeyer), convinced that Król has
committed a serious crime.
Nina’s Story is that of a woman who can see beyond reality
and of her attempt to impart her gift, her knowledge, to the man
she loves.
SK