Lübeck, Oct. 23, 2017. For 30 years now, the Filmforum has been a part of the Nordic Film Days Lübeck, which this year – its 59th – runs from November 1 to 5, 2017, and in its expanded form for the last 10 of those, the Filmforum has featured filmmakers from Hamburg as well. This year, the Filmforum programme ranges from works by successful directors such as Miguel Alexandre, with "Arthur & Claire”, his declaration of love to life starring Josef Hader and Hannah Hoekstra, or Christian Theede, presenting his first “Crime Scene - Murder ex Machina", to first features with unusual visual and narrative strains, such as “Drift” directed by Helena Wittmann, which celebrated its world premiere in Venice, or the film version of the prize-winning novel “Once Upon a Time in Indian Country”, with Ilker Çatak at the helm. The director’s thesis film at the Hamburg Media School, “Sadakat” (NFL 2015) won the student Oscar.
This year, that honour also went to Katja Benrath, who grew up in Lübeck, for her short film “All of Us”, which is screening in the “Best of Film Schools” programme. Also in that programme, we present last year’s student Oscar winner “Ayny – My Second Eye” by Ahmed Saleh, produced by Hamburg's Stefan Gieren ("Dust Cloth", NFL 2016). A prime example of the years of successful cooperation between producers from Hamburg and Copenhagen is the film “Letters for Amina” by Danish director Jakob Bitsch, which was co-produced by Tamtam Film (“Some Had Crocodiles”, NFL 2016) in Hamburg.
In his first feature-length documentary, “Wild Heart”, actor Charly Hübner takes a closer look at an enigmatic headliner – Jan “Monchi” Gorkow, lead singer of the punk band “Feine Sahne Fischfilet”. Other unusual portraits of artists include “Werner Nekes – A Life Between Images” about the influential experimental filmmaker and former professor at Hamburg’s University of Fine Arts, as well as “Daniel Hope – The Sound of Life”, which also points up the world-famous violinist’s special relationship to Lübeck. For her portrait of “Ludwig Nissen”, the famed émigré and patron of Husum, filmmaker Martina Fluck from Heide travelled to New York for revealing archive material and expert interview partners, while directors Gabriel Kob and Hanno Hart found their subject matter on their doorstep in the Schleswig-Flensburg district, where they made a documentary about schools that are exploring innovative solutions to fend off threatened closure and prevent the exodus of young families, turning the schools into cultural centres for the entire community.
In cooperation with NDR we will present two films in accessible versions, with audio descriptions and subtitles: In addition to the complex "Alarm 110 - In Flames", in which the Rostock detective pair played by Anneke Kim Sarnau and Charly Hübner investigate the murder of a right-wing populist politician, there will also be an accessible screening of “The German Child” by Umut Dağ, the story of a Turkish-German family dealing with unexpected difficulties after a family friend dies suddenly, leaving them with custody of her young daughter.
In this anniversary year, curator Doris Bandhold is especially pleased that a wide diversity of film artists have put Schleswig-Holstein's landscapes “under the microscope”. In the short film series “Landscape:Time”, the filmmakers give us an entirely new perspective on familiar landscapes, as well as tackling the subject of time, such as in “One Day – One Year – One Tide” by Alexandra Pohlmeier, or Karsten Wiesel (“Brunsbuettel Viaduct”, NFL 2015), who turns the tanquil German/Danish border into a spectacular piece of cinema. Selected stills from that unusual project will be on display in an accompanying exhibition in the foyer of the Kolosseum cinema.
The three-person jury of Maria Hemmleb (director and editor), Elke Ried (producer) and Knut Winkmann (director and writer) will choose the best short film in the Filmforum section to receive the CineStar Prize, endowed with 3,000 euros by the CineStar Group, one of the festival’s main sponsors.
As part of the Film Days, there will once again be a documentary Master Class, which this year will deal with working with archive material. On Friday morning, Nov. 3, 2017, the Swedish directors of “Citizen Schein”, Kersti Grunditz Brennan and Jannike Åhlund will hold the Master Class “Living History”. The two filmmakers will talk about their specific approach, and discuss the challenges of working with historical material. The Master Class is held in cooperation with the Filmwerkstatt Kiel of the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein film commission (FFHSH), the ver.di Film Union, and the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB / southeast Schleswig-Holstein region).
Participation in the Master Class is free of charge, but registration by Oct. 25, 2017 is required. To register, send an e-mail to masterclass@filmtage.luebeck.de.
For 36 years, the trade unions based in Lübeck have awarded the documentary film prize at the Nordic Film Days Lübeck. “Citizen Schein” will be shown at the festival on Nov. 2, 3, and 4, 2017.
The full festival programme is now available online at www.filmtage.luebeck.de. Advance ticket sales begin on October 28, 2017 at 3:00 pm at the CineStar Filmpalast Stadthalle, Lübeck and online on the NFL homepage and at www.cinestar.de.
Highlights, news, and videos by NFL guests can be found on Facebook / Twitter / Instagram.com/nordicfilmdays. Press photos for festival films will be available online at: www.luebeck.de/filmtage/de/presse/pressefotos
Press contact:
Silke Lehmann, Luisa Wellhausen, Svenja Knoke, Melissa Harms
Nordic Film Days Lübeck
Press and publicity department
Schildstr. 12, 23539 Lübeck
Tel: + 49 / (0) 451 / 122 1454
presse@filmtage.luebeck.de
www.filmtage.luebeck.de
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