German Filmmakers and Movies

Geschichte eines Abends

“Incitement to Democracy” – that is the way Berlin producer, Harald Siebler, views his ambitious GG 19 project . A series of short films dealing with the first 19 articles of the German Constitution were made in 19 German cities. The film is launched end of May, 2007.

The final product will be a feature-length episode film that will focus public awareness once more on Germany’s constitutional rights that were first laid down in 1949 as the foundation stone for a democratic Germany.

Thuringia, March 2006, icy cold. There has been a car accident on a country road. Clemens has been seriously injured. His girlfriend would like to help him, but she has to decide whether to stay at his side or to go into hiding in order to avoid the police checking up on her. Auréli, who comes from the Congo, is living illegally in Germany.

On the set – nothing but idealists

The name of the film is Geschichte eines Abends (i.e Story of an Evening). It is a love story whose main theme is Article 16 of the German Constitution – the right of asylum. The film was made by Axel Bold, a new, up-and-coming director who graduated from the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg. Production manager was Volker Leweck and he did a grand job rounding up a lot of his old colleagues from the past to work on the film – there was a crew of 40 including a stunt team. The set was simply full of idealists. Like everybody else involved in the GG 19 project, their motto was “work now, pay later” – they will only see some money for their efforts, if the film makes money at the box-office. The episodes have been coming into being since the summer of 2005 and today they have been put together to form a 120-minute cinema film.

Adrenalinflash

The shoot in Weimar was just one of 19 taking place in 19 German towns. In Bremen the film centred on Article 1 – human dignity shall be inviolable. In Adrenalinflash (i.e. Adrenaline Rush) we are confronted with a horror scenario showing an attack on a family – the attack later turns out to have been faked by a TV station in order to boost the ratings. Kindersicherung (i.e. Childproof Lock), shot in Wuppertal, deals with Article 13 that says that nobody has the right to enter another person’s home, not even the state, without the consent of the person living there. The episode tells the story of a little boy who tries to stop social workers from the youth welfare authorities from coming into his home to take him away from his drug-addict mother. Der große Videoschwindel (i.e. The Big Con) was set in Karlsruhe, the seat of the Bundesverfassungsgericht (the German Constitutional Court). This episode uses a courtroom drama to analyse Article 5 - the right of freedom of expression. The film has it all – tragedy, comedy, even satire.

A financial and personal feat of strength

The production was a feat of strength. About 1,500 people are involved in the project. Among them some of Germany’s best known actresses and actors like Maria Schrader (Rosenstraße), Anna Thalbach (The Downfall), Suzanne von Borsody (Run Lola Run), Michael Gwisdek (Good bye, Lenin!) and Jürgen Vogel (Rosenstraße). Director and Bundesfilmpreis award winner Dany Levy (Go for Zucker/ Alles auf Zucker) was acting as mentor to the film’s directors. There was no lack of non-financial support either – German Minister of Justice, Brigitte Zypries, also make a guest appearance, but money is tight. About eight million euros will be needed to finish the film, says producer Harald Siebler, who has been planning and promoting the project for years. So far he has managed to scrape together a mere 1.9 million.

Film promoters in the individual German states fear that the film is not going to be a hit at the box office. That is the reason why the towns themselves became partners and are supporting the financing and organisation of the project as best they can. In the meantime anybody could help support the project by donating 100 euros – for this they will later receive a ticket to the premiere. The project is indeed “utter madness”, says Axel Bold. He was bowled over by the screenplays selected by a jury from over 480 that were submitted. “It is not going to be an educational film,” he says, “they are all stories about people in Germany.” In the end it was the producer, Harald Siebler, who finally ‘won him over’. “He is just one of those people who really gets hooked on a project.”

People who have no idea, have no opinion

Kindersicherung

“Democracy is a highly sophisticated utopia,” says Harald Siebler and it can only work, if everybody involved knows the principles on which it is based. “People who have no idea, have no opinion,” here he is referring to a statement made by the former German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer. However “in order to have an opinion, you need education.” And that is what seems to be somewhat lacking in Germany at the moment. How else can we explain why there is no public outcry when, for example, politicians publicly declare that they are going to make sure fellow party members “toe the official party line”. “The right of freedom of expression is laid down in the constitution,” says Siebler, “as well as the idea that the people’s representatives are bound by one authority alone – that is not the party, but their own conscience.“

“Human dignity shall be inviolable” (Article 1), “Every person shall have the right to free development of his personality” (Article 2), “ All persons shall be equal before the law” (Article 3) – the Constitution that was promulgated on 23rd May 1949 today might seem to some people to be the work of a group of idealists. This set of principles however that guarantees freedom of the press and religious worship, the right of assembly and the privacy of correspondence, post and telecommunications is in fact the law of the land. The film on the Constitution is aimed at making people once again aware of these rights and, as is hoped for by the film’s initiator, to trigger widespread debate when the film is launched in 2007.

Harald Siebler is sometimes asked why there are episodes on only 19 of the basic laws in the Constitution. What about Article 20? The producer likes this question, because it proves that there are still a few people who actually know that there is an Article 20 - stating that “All state authority is derived from the people”. “This is in fact the underlying theme of the whole project,” says Siebler – and it just might have an effect - insofar as a film is capable at all of “inciting to democracy”.

GG 19: 19 Grundrechte - 19 gute Gründe für die Demokratie. Das Buch zum Film; ed. by Harald Siebler. Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim, 2007, ISBN 9 783806 751505