“I don’t want to tell a story. No complete identification with the people on the screen. Recognition, yes. But one where I still know that it’s me who recognizes something, that it’s me whose curiosity is aroused about something with an uncertain outcome, about people and conditions, situations, episodes.“
Photo: Pia Frankenberg during the shooting of “Never sleep again”, © P.Groenewold
GER 1992, 92 min
Rita, Lilian and Roberta travel to Berlin for a friend’s wedding celebration on the river Spree. Rita’s unexpected encounter with a former lover forces the women to end the festive trip. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, the friends begin an erratic odyssey through the city, driven by the desire not to return to everyday life and accompanied by the symptoms of gradual decline. The car’s tires are stolen, hotels and guesthouses are booked out. “What do we do now?” - “Carry on!” They allow themselves to get lost in the ruins of the city.
GER 1988, 83 min
Gina is German. It is a known fact that a German man’s love of cars is stronger than his interest in the opposite sex. Gina has a dual strategy against this state of affairs: as a vehicle inspector she joyfully seizes her opportunities to take revenge on man and machine, while in her private life she devotes herself to the previously missed sexual revolution. Everything Gina does is done with German accuracy. “I’m British, my dear!” says Harry, refering to self-control, discretion, restraint. Qualities that were always useful to him as a drummer waiting for the right moment to strike.
GER 1985, 88 min
Martha lives in Hamburg with her small son. She also makes films. “In order to be closer to the pulse of society” she has moved in with portuguese friends: Teresa helps other migrants with their struggles with administrative authorities. Martha meanwhile tries to start a love story with Alfred, who either doesn’t have a hold on things. At the end of his thirties, he’s still studying architecture and he doesn’t let up with Martha either.
GER 1984, 9 min
Woman and man clash in a bar: she slaps him (almost) out of the blue. His reaction is completely different than expected: the attack is a liberating impulse and opens up a series of friendly beatings that soon spans the entire city.
GER 1981, 13 min
SEHNSUCHT NACH DEM GANZ ANDEREN begins with a long panning shot of Hamburg Central Station. Filmed in grainy black and white and accompanied by jazz music, this place promises more than just the simple routine of getting on and off trains. The film’s protagonist (Peter Zadek actress Elisabeth Stepanek) heads straight into the strangely somnambulistic world of a night train and starts searching through the sleeping passengers’ luggage.
