Sleeping Sickness

"A spell hangs over this seemingly detached, artfully constructed film; those who choose to follow its magic will find themselves on a never-ending journey. A farewell, yes. A transition." Der Tagesspiegel

Genre Drama
Year of Production 2011
Director Ulrich Köhler
Principal Cast Jenny Schily, Hippolyte Girardot, Sava Lolov, Maria Elise Miller, Francis Noukiatchom, Ali Mvondo Roland, Isacar Yinkou, Jean-Christophe Folly, Pierre Bokma
Length 91 mins
International Festival Screenings Berlin 2011, BAFICI 2011, Istanbul 2011, CPH PIX 2011, Sydney 2011, Melbourne 2011
Awards Silver Bear (Best Director) Berlin International Film Festival 2011, German Film Critics' Award

Ebbo and Vera Velten have spent the better part of the past twenty years living in different African countries. Ebbo is the manager of a sleeping sickness programme. His work is fulfilling. Vera, however, feels increasingly lost in Yaounde’s expat community. She can’t bear the separation from her 14-year-old daughter, Helen, who is attending boarding school in Germany. Ebbo must give up his life in Africa or he risks losing the woman he loves. But his fear of returning to a land now remote to him increases with each passing day.
Years later. Alex Nzila, a young French doctor of Congolese origin, travels to Cameroon to evaluate a development project. It’s been a long time since he set foot on this continent, but, instead of finding new prospects, he encounters a destructive, lost man. Like a phantom, Ebbo slips away from his evaluator.

Ulrich Köhler was born in 1969 in Marburg. He studied Fine Art in France, followed by studies in Philosophy and Visual Communication in Hamburg. His films include: the shorts Epoxy (1996, in co-direction with Nina Könnemann), Maria Tokyo (1997), Starsky (1997), Palü (1998, in co-direction with Jochen Dehn), and Rakete (1999), followed by his highly-acclaimed feature debuts Bungalow (2002) and Windows on Monday (2006).

Source: 61. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)

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