26/09/2006

Emma’s Bliss [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Emmas Glueck) by Sven Taddicken celebrated its international premiere last Friday at the 54th San Sebastian International Film Festival. The film was invited to the New Directors Competition section, dedicated to new films by young directors.

It was a sold-out premiere and the audience was more than enthusiastic. Director Taddicken and leading actress Joerdis Triebel were both in San Sebastian to present the film.

The film tells the story of Emma and Max. Emma (Joerdis Triebel) lives completely alone as a pig breeder on her family’s old, run-down, and debt-ridden farm. But she treats her pigs with loving care right up to their last day and slaughters them in her own tender way.

Max (Juergen Vogel) is a lonely car salesman with recurring stomach problems. During a visit to the doctor, he finds out that his life is in danger. Overreacting, he steals money from his only friend, books a flight and just wants to get away. On the run, Max crashes a Jaguar and lands on Emma’s farm, where he begins to realise that true happiness is often just around the corner.

Also in the New Directors Competition is the German-Swiss co-production So Long [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Wir werden uns wiederseh'n) by Stefan Hillebrand and Oliver Paulus. The film tells the story of three people who meet and fall in love at their workplace, a nursing home. From the outside, everything seems fine, but on the inside their existence turns out to be a permanent inner struggle. The film was produced by Hillebrand for Frischfilm and Paulus for Swiss co-production company Motorfilm.

As part of the Retrospective section, dedicated this year to Ernst Lubitsch, 47 of his films as well as the world premiere of the documentary Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin by Robert Fischer are being presented. In the film, Lubitsch’s daughter Nicola takes audiences through this period with the help of film historians, experts on his work, and some of today’s most outstanding German directors. This retrospective is organised with vast support from the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung.