Who Saw Him

Colour, 35 mm
Germany, 2009, 92 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

At first sight, young Berliner Gianni Meurer looks a lot like a southerner, and that’s how he feels and acts. The Italian blood coursing through his veins pushes him to take a journey to the unknown in order to seek out his roots and his father, whom he last saw 25 years earlier. Besides faded childhood memories, the only reminders he has of his dad are a few letters and a photograph. Gianni sets out for Rome, showing the photo to everyone he meets on the way in the hope that someone will eventually recognize his dad. In this remarkable debut, German director Claudia Rorarius, who has ample experience making documentaries, blends fiction and reality, biography and drama. Who Saw Him – a road movie about a trip the protagonist must take in order to move on with his life – is based on improvised dialogue and wonderful acting performances from well-known musician Paul Kominek and, above all, Gianni Meurer, which is the protagonist’s actual name. In Germany he is a popular musical actor who, like Gianni in the movie, is an Italian-German who lost all contact with his father at an early age.

About the director

Claudia Rorarius (b. 1972, Berlin) studied photography and then worked successfully as a freelance photographer. Her work, primarily powerful portraits of well-known personalities, has been published in a variety of newspapers and magazines. At the same time, she studied direction at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. While still in school she created several award-winning shorts and documentaries, among them Cable Car (2001) and Twin (2001). She has also shot music videos, and in 2004, in cooperation with the prestigious show "Kleines Fernsehspiel”, on the ZDF television station, she put together a documentary about her relatives in eastern Germany spanning several years entitled Susanne. Who Saw Him, which she also produced, is her feature debut.