Red and Blue

Colour, 35 mm
Germany, 2002, 113 min
Section: Official selection
Oficiální stránky: www.moana.de

Synopsis

After many years, the young Turkish girl Ilke returns to contemporary Berlin. She used to live here as a little girl with her father, whose death is the reason for her current visit. Her father left her property which the educated Ilke intends to invest, but he also left behind the mystery of its origins. Her mother lives somewhere here in Berlin but she doesn’t know her; in order to track her down, she seeks the assistance of a detective, her father’s old friend. In the meantime, we follow scenes from the life of construction office manager Barbara. Her generally satisfactory life with a husband and two almost grown-up children is occasionally disturbed by memories of the past and her pangs of conscience for having acted rashly. The paths of both women start moving closer, until they cross. It is not simple for either, both will encounter other surprises and perhaps even complications, but eventually mother and daughter meet. While they are both very different, they learn to respect – and perhaps love – one another. Rudolf Thome’s films always betray something of the intellectual, sometimes also an eccentric sense of humour and a fondness for characters who differ from the norm. In this case, it is the more mature Barbara who occasionally needs to break away from her everyday life and remember her somewhat stormy youth, while her daughter behaves rationally, like someone who just knows what she wants.

About the director

Rudolf Thome (b. 1939, Wallau/Lahn, Germany), director, screenwriter and producer, studied German, philosophy and history in Munich and Bonn. In 1962 he began writing articles for various newspapers and magazines. After shooting several shorts he debuted in features with the crime drama Detektive (1969). In 1977 he set up his own production company, Moana-Film. The comedy Der Philosoph (1989) was awarded at the Montreal festival. Paradiso (1999), about a spry 60-year-old who invites his former partners to his birthday party, took the Silver Bear at the Berlinale, and Venus Talking (2001) concerns infidelity and the violation of human privacy through spying.