Official Selection - Competition 2013 / Quellen des Lebens / Germany 2013
Basing his work on his own novel, Herkunft (Origin), Oskar Roehler shot an autobiographical film in which the destinies of three generations confront German history from the postwar era up until the 1980s. As an unloved child of bohemian intellectuals professing the political clichés of the 1960s, the filmmaker projects his disenchantment onto a sarcastic image of society, while introducing a surprisingly subtle romantic tone to the proceedings.
Germany, the late 1940s. Erich Freytag returns from captivity in Russia to a lukewarm reception from his family. Life goes on: after Erich’s son Klaus discovers he has a knack for writing, he starts his own family with the rich, talented Gisela. They have a son but many doubt their love for the child. Years go by, with Robert shuffled back and forth between an indifferent father, and his grandparents’ homes. As the boy grows up, he tries to find out who he really is. Oskar Roehler, considered one of the bad boys of German film, here revisits the theme of his roots – which he has dealt with before – first in his novel Origin (Herkunft, 2011) and now in its film adaptation. From the atmosphere of postwar Germany and the economic miracle – which included everything from garden gnomes and intellectual revolt to punk and West Berlin – to the beginning of the 1980s, the author employs characteristic volatility in presenting three generations of his family set against the backdrop of his country’s history. In the occasionally halting flow of his narrative, with its bitterly critical tone, a romantic sensitivity shines through that sometimes borders on a justifiable sentimentality.
174 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Oskar Roehler
/ Screenplay Oskar Roehler podle vlastního románu / based on his novel
/ Dir. of Photography Carl-Friedrich Koschnick
/ Music Martin Todsharow
/ Editor Peter R. Adam
/ Producer Stefan Arndt, Uwe Schott, Oliver Berben
/ Production X Filme Creative Pool GmbH
/ Cast Jürgen Vogel, Meret Becker, Moritz Bleibtreu, Lavinia Wilson, Kostja Ullman
/ Contact The Match Factory
Oskar Roehler (b. 1959, Starnberg, Germany) is the son of writers Gisela Elsner and Klaus Roehler. He has lived in Berlin since the beginning of the 1980s, working as a screenwriter, journalist, and author of plays and stories. Since the mid 1990s he has focused mainly on film direction. His writer-director effort Silvester Countdown (1997) was screened in 1998 at KVIFF, where two years later the protagonist of his film No Place to Go (Die Unberührbare), Hannelore Elsner, took Best Actress. Selected filmography: Gentleman (1995), Suck My Dick (2001), Angst (Der alte Affe Angst, 2003), Agnes and His Brothers (Agnes und seine Brüder, 2004), Atomized (Elementarteilchen, 2006 – Best Actor Silver Bear at Berlin for Moritz Bleibtreu), Lulu & Jimi (2009), Jew Süss – Rise and Fall (Jud Süss – Film ohne Gewissen, 2010). In 2011 he published his first book, Origin (Herkunft).
The Match Factory
Domstrasse 60, 50668, Cologne
Germany
Phone: +49 221 539 7090
E-mail: [email protected]
Oskar Roehler
Film Director, Film Director / Producer
Stefan Arndt
Producer
Manuela Stehr
Distributor
Lisa Smit
Actress
Brigitte Suárez
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