Schweiger and Kraus back on screens

by Bénédicte Prot

04/02/2011 - A week away from the opening of the Berlinale, German distributors are showing no signs of flagging, quite the opposite.

Yesterday, Warner released a guaranteed comedy hit: Kokowääh [trailer], by and starring German celebrity and box office king Til Schweiger (who also produced the title through his company, Barefoot Films). Once again, he plays an irresponsible loser who has an encounter that forces him to change his life, in this case a little-known scriptwriter who discovers he is the father of a little girl (played by his own daughter, Emma Tiger Schweiger).

Piffl is hoping for success with the release of The Poll Diaries, the new film by Chris Kraus (Four Minutes [trailer]). Produced by Kordes & Kordes and presented in competition at Rome, the film is set on the eve of the First World War. It traces the decline of a German community on the shores of the Baltic Sea in a difficult coexistence with Estonians and Russians, from the moment the main character, Oda, a mad-doctor’s daughter inspired by the director’s grandmother, decides to look after a wounded Estonian anarchist.

Movienet is launching Philip Koch’s remarkable but unbearably violent prison drama Picco (see review), which screened in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Meanwhile, Farbfilm is offering viewers Sergei Loznica’s German/Dutch/Ukrainian co-production My Joy [trailer], shown in competition on the Croisette.

Other new releases this week are Dror Zahavi’s German drama Der Uranberg (Rekord-Film); Katarina Launing and Roar Uthaug’s Norwegian film for children Magic Silver [trailer] (EuroVideo); Jacques Doillon’s French/Belgian title Just Anybody [trailer] (Arsenal Institut); and Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues’s To Die Like a Man [trailer] (Salzgeber).

(Translated from French)