TRIBUTE TO HANNELORE ELSNER

Hannelore Elsner was one of the most popular German actresses. When she died in April this year, the news spread rapidly all over Germany. Immediately her films and interviews were broadcasted widely. Not just as a beauty queen, but with her impeccable role play and humaneness, she has touched the hearts and moved the souls of many of her fans.

Born in 1942, she started her film career in the late 1950s in entertainment movies. She gained huge popularity with her leading role in the popular TV series 'Die Kommissarin' (The Commissioner). From 1994 until 2006, she played the title character Leo Sommer in more than sixty episodes. Her performance won her several awards. Elsner achieved international recognition for her lead role in the 2000 film 'Die Unberührbare' (No Place to Go) by Oskar Röhler, shown at the Cannes Film Festival, which recounts the last days in the life of a writer, based closely on the life of Gisela Elsner, who took her own life in 1992. Hannelore Elsner received numerous awards for her impressive portrayal of this broken character, including the German Film Award in the year 2000. Other important roles for which she won relevant awards were in Oliver Hirschbiegel's 'Mein letzter Film' (My Last Film) and Dany Levy`s comedy 'Alles auf Zucker'. (Go For Zucker – An Unorthodox Comedy).

In March 2019, 'Kirschblüten & Dämonen', Doris Dörrie's sequel to her successful film 'Kirschblüten - Hanami' (Cherry Blossoms - Hanami) premiered in German cinemas, with Elsner once more in the role of Trudi alongside Elmar Wepper. In 2019 one could see Elsner in Dörrie’s kind of proplongation 'Kirschblüten und Dämonen'.

'For me Hannelore Elsner was a great adventurer, who threw/launched herself into every role and her life with curiosity, dedication and bravery. I will miss her a lot.' said Dörrie.

No Place To Go
Dir.: Oskar Roehler | 2000 | 110 min

is the fascinating portrait of middle-aged writer Hanna Flanders, a monomaniac intellectual torn between her conflicting ideals and the new realities of a changing society. Hanna lives in a posh Munich apartment and desperately hangs on to the faded fame she earned as a controversial left-wing writer many years ago. Abuse of prescribed drugs, make-up and flamboyant wigs can no longer cover up the pains of the eccentric woman′s lonely life. Nor can shopping sprees in upscale boutiques satisfy the human needs which have begun to eat away at her protected cocoon.

In autumn 1989, Hanna is shattered by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Although a reunited Germany represents the end of an ideal for her, Hanna decides to seek out a new beginning herself - renew her career, solve her increasing money problems, rekindle an old romance with her publisher. Hanna sells everything she owns and sets out for Berlin, not even sure where she will live.

Based on the writer-director Oskar Roehler′s mother, real-life German writer Gisela Elsner - a bravura performance by beloved German actress Hannelore Elsner.