Karger

Colour, 35 mm
Germany, 2007, 90 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

He´s divorced from his childhood sweetheart, redundant after company downsizing, and his father has suffered a heart attack... 30-something Karger’s thus far pleasantly dull and predictable life has now reached a crisis point. This burly, easy-going individual, who has never left his native town, turns his back on his problems, however, ignoring them with disarming stoicism. Short-term and perhaps overly simple solutions can only provide temporary solace, and Karger is increasingly confronted with the need for a radical change in his life. In her debut film, the director was inspired for her story by a school reunion, during which she discovered that her former classmates, like the hero of the film, had spent the first half of their lives shuffling between the factory and their poky flats. The intensity with which the film probes into the life of a single individual in order to reflect the grim destinies of the director’s contemporaries is reinforced not only by the detached, objective documentary-style approach, but also by the fact that all the protagonists come from the given region and social environment.

About the director

Elke Hauck (b. 1967, Riesa, Germany) trained as a bookbinder. She then attended evening courses at the Dresden Academy of Arts and also enrolled for lectures in German studies and fine-art history in Leipzig and Versailles. She moved to Berlin in 1993 where she worked as a camera assistant, editor and production assistant. In 2002 she completed her studies at the German Film and Television Academy. She lives and works in Berlin and Saxony. She not only directed the feature debut Karger, but also wrote the screenplay for it, which was nominated for the Lola national award. Filmography: 7 Ärzte 1 Leiche (doc., 1997), Flügge (doc., 2001), Karger (2007).