Germany 09: 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation ( Fraktur / Schieflage / Gefährder / Krankes Haus / Feierlich reist / Der Weg - den wir nicht zusammen gehen / Die Unvollendete / Joshua / Erster Tag / Der Name Murat Kurnaz / Ramses / Séance / Eine demokratische Gesprächsrunde zu festgelegten Zeiten ) ( Fracture / Imbalance / Offender / Sick house / Festive travel / The Way That We Do Not Go Together / The Unfinished / Joshua / First Day / The Name Murat Kurnaz / Ramses / Meeting / A Democratic Round Table At Set Times )

Germany 09: 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Fraktur / Schieflage / Gefährder / Krankes Haus / Feierlich reist / Der Weg - den wir nicht zusammen gehen / Die Unvollendete / Joshua / Erster Tag / Der Name Murat Kurnaz / Ramses / Séance / Eine demokratische Gesprächsrunde zu festgelegten Zeiten
Alternate Title: Fracture / Imbalance / Offender / Sick house / Festive travel / The Way That We Do Not Go Together / The Unfinished / Joshua / First Day / The Name Murat Kurnaz / Ramses / Meeting / A Democratic Round Table At Set Times
Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
German ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )

Product Origin/Format:
Germany ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
152 min + Extras

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Booklet

Movie filmed in 2009 and produced in:
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Fatih Akin
Wolfgang Becker

Written By:
Fatih Akin
Wolfgang Becker

Actors:
Adriana Altaras ..... (segment "Fraktur")
Bernhard Baron Boneberg ..... Verlagsarbeiter (segment "Fraktur")
Josef Bierbichler ..... Beintl (segment "Fraktur")
Bernd Birkhahn ..... (segment "Schieflage")
Uwe Bohm ..... Danner (segment "Gefährder")
Winnie Böwe ..... (segment "Schieflage")
Justus Carriere ..... (segment "Gefährder")
Cedric Eich ..... Ralf
Arne Fiedler ..... Medizinstudent (segment "Krankes Haus")
Benno Fürmann ..... Herr Feierlich (segment "Feierlich reist")
Claudia Geisler ..... (segment "Gefährder")
Christoph Glaubacker ..... Patient (segment "Krankes Haus")
Dominik Graf ..... Narrator (segment "Der Weg - den wir nicht zusammen gehen") (voice)
Helene Grass ..... (segment "Gefährder")
Dennis Grawe ..... (segment "Schieflage")
Eva Habermann ..... Frau (segment "Feierlich reist")
Jeanette Hain ..... Narrator (segment "Der Weg - den wir nicht zusammen gehen") (voice)
Helene Hegemann ..... Herself (segment "Die Unvollendete")
Andreas Hofer ..... (segment "Krankes Haus")
Hans Hollmann ..... (segment "Joshua")
Sandra Hüller ..... Ulrike Meinhoff (segment "Die Unvollendete")
Christoph Jacobi ..... (segment "Gefährder")
Peter Jordan ..... Dr. Roth (segment "Krankes Haus")
Alexander Khuon ..... (segment "Krankes Haus")
Senta Dorothea Kirschner ..... Patient (segment "Krankes Haus") (as Dorothea Kirschner)
Arnd Klawitter ..... (segment "Krankes Haus")
Stefan Kriekhaus ..... Mann an der Kreuzung
Florian Krüger-Shantin ..... Narrator (segment "Der Weg - den wir nicht zusammen gehen") (voice)
Dani Levy ..... Himself (segment "Joshua")
Joshua Levy ..... Himself (segment "Joshua")
Maria Mägdefrau ..... Frau Giesebrecht
Karl Markovics ..... Rolf (segment "Schieflage")
Raoul Mewes ..... Patologiestudent
Torsten Michaelis ..... 2. Polizeibeamter (segment "Joshua")
Nina Monka ..... (segment "Erster Tag")
Denis Moschitto ..... Murat Kurnaz (segment "Der Name Murat Kurnaz")
Johanna Nagel ..... Herself (segment "Eine demokratische Gesprächsrunde zu festgelegten Zeiten")
Mahmoud Rahimzadiany ..... Himself (segment "Ramses")
Hans-Michael Rehberg ..... Narrator (segment "Séance") (voice)
Reynold Reynolds ..... Narrator (segment "Der Weg - den wir nicht zusammen gehen") (voice)
Alexandra Rothert ..... Logopädieschwester (segment "Krankes Haus")
Klaus Sakelarides ..... Narrator (segment "Der Weg - den wir nicht zusammen gehen") (voice)
Anneke Kim Sarnau ..... Nadine (segment "Schieflage")
Christoph Georg Scheurle ..... Patient
Andreja Schneider ..... (segment "Krankes Haus")
Axel Schreiber ..... Alex (segment "Gefährder")
Hildegard Schroedter ..... Rita - Sekretärin
Edeltraud Schubert ..... (segment "Krankes Haus")
Tim Seyfi ..... (segment "Fraktur")
Kai Strittmatter ..... (segment "Der Name Murat Kurnaz")
Jasmin Tabatabai ..... Susan Sontag (segment "Die Unvollendete")
Frank Voß ..... Herr Lodex
Anne Werner ..... Schwester Karen (segment "Krankes Haus")
Susanne Wuest ..... Freundliche Krankenschwester (segment "Krankes Haus")

Synopsis:

Film made up of thirteen segments by different directors who give a personal interpretation and portrayal of how they perceive the social and political situation of present-day Germany. Uses a mixture of abstract and experimental, essay and documentary styles. Consists of:
1. First Day / Erster Tag (director: Angela Schanelec)
2. Joshua (director: Dani Levy)
3. The name Murat Kurnaz / Der Name Murat Kurnaz (director: Fatih Akin)
4. The Unfinished / Die Unvollendete (director: Nicolette Krebitz)
5. Imbalance / Schieflage (director: Sylke Enders)
6. The way that we do not go together / Der Weg, den wir nicht zusammen gehen (director: Dominik graf)
7. Fracture / Fraktur (director: Hans Steinbichler)
8. A democratic round table at set times / Eine demokratische Gesprächsrunde zu festgelegten Zeiten (director: Isabelle Stever)
9. Offender / Gefährder (director: Hans Weingartner)
10. Festive travel / Feierlich reist (director: Tom Tykwer)
11. Ramses (director: Romauld Karmakar)
12. Sick house / Krankes Haus (director: Wolfgang Becker)
13. Meeting / Séance (director: Christoph Hochhäusler)

State of the Nation

Officially titled Deutschland '09 - 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation (Germany '09 - 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation) received top billing at the Berlinale in an out-of-competition slot by virtue of its participating directors. But the reason for its making is what caught the eye. According to Tom Tykwer, the mentor of the series, Germany '09 - 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation stands as an intentional link to the legendary Deutschland im Herbst (German in Autumn) (West Germany, 1977) omnibus film, a collective directorial statement on the country's political unrest following the suicide of RAF terrorists in the Stuttgart-Stammheim prison.
There is a big difference between the two, however. In Germany in Autumn the filmmakers - among them, Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schloendorff, Bernhard Sinkel - spoke unequivocally about the hysteria that had gripped West Germany in the wake of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. One could feel in each episode that the whole was meant to serve as a healing process. By contrast, the filmmakers in Germany '09 were allowed to say anything they wished about present-day Germany, so long as their statements were kept under 12 minutes in length.
Among those accepting the challenge were some prominent German New Wave directors who had already spoken on the state of the nation in past feature films: Fatih Akin (Gegen die Wand / Head On), Wolfgang Becker (Good Bye Lenin), Romuald Karmakar (Der Totmacher / The Death Maker), Dominik Graf (Der Felsen / A Map of the Heart), Hans Weingartner (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei / The Edukators), and Dani Levy (Mein Führer). But given a free pass to say anything they wished, most of the directors dodged saying anything politically relevant. A pity.
The one feasible exception was Fatih Akin's Der Name Murat Kurnaz (The Name Murat Kurnaz) - although here, too, his verbose statement on the state of the nation generally fell flat. Akin's aim was to reenact an interview that Kurnaz, a Bremen born Turkish-German citizen, had given to a Süddeutsche Zeitung journalist upon his release from Guantánamo after five years of detention. That interview eventually led to the 2007 publication of his autobiographical Fünf Jahre meines Lebens (Five Years of My Life), in which a finger is pointed as much at German politician Frank-Walther Steinmeier (today Germany's Foreign Minister) as at the American government. For those familiar with the book, or at least with the original newspaper interview, the short film The Name Murat Kurnaz seems redundant, if not pretentious. For Fatih Akin could have easily gone directly to the source, Kurnaz himself, instead of hiring an actor (Denis Moschitto) to render the salient passages on Gitmo torture taken directly from the Süddeutsche Zeitung interview.
The best episode in the series was a polit-comedy: Dani Levy's Joshua. It begins with the two-year-old son of the director lifted into the air by his father for a cart wheel-swing. Suddenly, Joshua slips out of Dani's hands and flies off into space, with his surprised father in hot pursuit. As for Joshua himself, he's having the time of his life - especially when he lands on a desk smack in front of a surprised Chancellor Angela Merkel!

Thirteen German directors present short films exploring the state of their country. (Deutschland 09 - 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation)

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 05 May, 2010.

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