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PRODUCTION Germany

Biopic Gundermann in post-production

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- Andreas Dresen’s film about the titular East German author-composer will be released in Germany in late August, courtesy of Pandora

Biopic Gundermann in post-production
Alexander Scheer and Andreas Dresen during the shoot for Gundermann (© Peter Hartwig/Pandora)

Having covered East Germany (Grill Point [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
Willenbrock) and Berlin (Night Shapes, Summer in Berlin [+see also:
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film profile
]
), youth (As We Were Dreaming [+see also:
film review
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Q&A: Andreas Dresen
film profile
]
), later life (Cloud 9 [+see also:
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film profile
]
) and even death (Stopped on Track [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Un Certain Regard Prize in 2011), Andreas Dresen, a filmmaker who is constantly aware of his medium (Whisky with Vodka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andreas Dresen
film profile
]
), has perused a whole array of emotions and human relations (friendship, love, rivalry, disappointment) with sensitivity but without resorting to sentimentality. What’s more, he has done so without ever losing sight of the historical and social context that has moulded his own particular perspective, which is always easily identifiable in the midst of all this diversity – perhaps because the director also maintains a certain consistency in his many collaborations. With his most recent film, the family adventure The Legend of Timm Thaler or the Boy Who Sold His Laughter [+see also:
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film profile
]
, which came out in Germany last year, Dresen ventured even further. Now, his upcoming feature, Gundermann [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, will mark his return to depicting Germany’s recent past through an exploration of the (albeit short) life of the East German author-composer who lends his name to the title of the movie. 

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Gerhard Gundermann (1955-1998) once worked in the coal mines after he was dismissed from the military academy, and he was once even a Stasi agent and a member of the GDR’s socialist party before being expelled from it for ideological dissent. Known for his songs tinged with melancholy and social commentary, he would probably have pursued a career in politics if he hadn’t died of a heart attack at the age of 43. To breathe life into this unsettling (anti-)hero character in his film, which was penned by his regular writing partner Laila Stieler, Dresen chose Alexander Scheer (who recently played the role of Nietzsche in Lou Andreas-Salomé: The Audacity to Be Free [+see also:
trailer
interview: Cordula Kablitz-Post
film profile
]
, and he graced screens last year in The Young Karl Marx [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
). He is flanked by Anna Unterberger (13 Minutes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
), Axel Prahl (one of Dresen’s regulars), Thorsten Merten (seen in Grill Point) and Milan Peschel (who played the lead role in Stopped on Track).

Gundermann, which is being produced by Claudia Steffen for Pandora Film Produktion, in co-production with Kineo FilmproduktionRBB and Arte, was shot over a period of two months between October and December 2017, with support from the DFFF federal film fund (€750,000), the Ministry of Culture (€30,000, then €500,000) and the FFA (€470,000), in addition to the regional funds MDM (€25,000, then €600,000), NRW North Rhine-Westphalia (€700,000) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (€500,000). Pandora Filmverleih will bring it out in German theatres on 23 August.

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(Translated from French)

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