German Oscar hopeful hits screens

26/09/2008

Constantin released on German screens yesterday the country’s hopeful for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination (announced on September 16): The Baader Meinhof Complex [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Uli Edel (who directed the film adaptations Zoo in 1981 and Last Exit to Brooklyn in 1989 and lived for a few years in Los Angeles in the 1990s).

Based on Stefan Aust’s eponymous book, The Baader Meinhof Complex traces the activity of the Red Army terrorist group, known as the Baader gang, in the 1970s. The title avoids "glorifying the protagonists", as pointed out by the selection committee who chose the film to represent Germany in the Oscar nomination race.

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The film is produced for Constantin by the well-known producer and old friend of Edel, Bernd Eichinger, in co-production with Paris-based Nouvelles Editions de Films and Prague’s G.T. Film Production.

The impressive cast includes Martina Gedeck (who starred in Oscar-winning German title The Lives of Others [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Florian Henckel von Donners…
interview: Ulrich Muehe
film profile]), Moritz Bleibtreu in the role of Andreas Baader, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Nadja Uhl and recent Shooting Stars Johanna Wokalek and Hannah Herzsprung.

German audiences will also have the chance to discover the black and white documentary Kinder. Wie die Zeit vergeht. This is the final part in Thomas Heise’s trilogy about East German youngsters and the grey-tinged sadness of lost hopes (distributed by GMfilms).

Also hitting screens is Volker Meyer-Dabisch’s musical documentary Love, Peace & Beatbox, distributed by Wild Style (GMfilms).

Two co-productions are also on the line-up: Amos Gitai’s Italian/French/German drama Disengagement [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], starring Juliette Binoche (released by Pandora); and Julia Loktev’s German/US film Day Night Day Night, which recounts the last two days in the life of a young woman preparing to commit a suicide attack on Times Square (distributed by Peripher).