09/03/2006

As the only German (or even European) film released today, Tough Enough [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Knallhart), distributed by Delphi, will find it difficult to compete with the four US titles – including Brokeback Mountain (distributed by Tobis) and The Pink Panther (20th Century Fox) – and two European documentaries hitting the screens, aimed at a rather selective public.

Tough Enough marks the cinematographic return of Detlev Buck, who has been busy starring in other people’s films since Bundle of Joy (o.t. Liebesluder, 2000). The script, co-written by Zoran Drvenkar and Gregor Tessnow, tells the story of a young boy, Michael Polischka (David Kross), who, on the day of his 15th birthday, is evicted with his mother, Miriam (Jenny Elvers) by her lover, a rich doctor. Mother and son are forced to move from their posh suburbs to a rough neighbourhood. Between the gangs that bully him at school and the lovers that his mothers drag home, Michael leads a tough life and ends up joining a gang of small-time drug dealers.

Tough Enough, whose images combine harsh realism and artistic elegance, was produced by Claus Boje, Michael André (Kebab Connection, Alone) and Andreas Schreitmüller (Ghosts, Go for Zucker!, The Free Will) for Boje Buck Produktion.

The two European documentaries are Arktos, a Swiss film about the adventures of South-African Mike Horn and his camera in the Arctic circle, distributed by MFA, and Odessa Odessa, a French-Israeli production by Michale Boganim about the history of the Jewish diaspora in Odessa (Ukraine), New York and Israel (Freunde d. dt. Kinemathek).

(Translated from French)