Comrades In Dreams - screen fever

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Movie
Original title Comrades In Dreams
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2006
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Uli Gaulke
script Uli Gaulke,
Jeannette Eggert
production Helge Albers,
Roshanak Behesht Nedjad ,
Konstantin Kröning
music Mark Orton
camera Axel Schneppat
cut Andrew Bird

Comrades In Dreams is a German documentary film by Uli Gaulke from 2006 . The parallel installation portrays four small cinema operators in four different countries around the world: Burkina Faso , India , USA and North Korea .

content

India

Anup Jagdale travels through the remote Indian country with his truck column and offers films in tents to people living in underdeveloped conditions. Although the 25-year-old Indian originally studied business administration and his father advised him against the tent cinema company he founded for health reasons, Anup decided to go into the strenuous tent cinema business. It is so successful that his film screenings become dramatic mass events and Bollywood stars come to promote them with autographs. With all his work, Anup hardly has time to find a woman who fits his working life, which is why he leaves the search to his sister-in-law and his brother; because a love marriage is out of the question for him.

Africa

In Ouagadougou , the capital of Burkina Faso, the three young entrepreneurs Lassane, Luc and Zakaria have rented an open-air cinema to run. The main business challenges for cinema operators are to get the right rolls of film and to attract the people of the city, who often have little money for cinema, to their screenings; among other things through very negotiable admission prices. The big goal is to have your own established movie theater in the city at some point. The wives, on the other hand, are skeptical about their husbands' ambitions, as these are now almost never to be found lively at home.

United States

Big Piney in the US state of Wyoming : The operation and life in the “Flick” village cinema have become part of Penny Tefertiller's life. After her job and upbringing her children, of which she would have loved to have more, Penny is now a film projectionist, program announcer and cashier all in one - voluntary. But because a lot of work in the sleepy provincial town is good for her, the woman who is not always happy in life also gives church lessons and drives to classic car meetings.

North Korea

In Chongsan-Ri , North Korea, Han Hong Sil has to fulfill the important state task of supplying the farm workers with films after work. But these are by no means only intended for entertainment: They are intended to increase economic productivity and extol life in the communist dictatorship. This is what the comrade, who loves spy films, and her cinema colleague have been campaigning for what feels like half a life. However , Han Hong Sil has to do without her distant husband, who works in memory of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung .

background

Uli Gaulke himself was active as a small cinema operator in the newly reunified Berlin and experienced the tough struggle for survival in the cinema business. Because of this background, too, he sees a connection between him and the protagonists from Comrades In Dreams : “It is a dream for me to make cinema because cinema makes people dream. In the film I found four comrades who share this dream with me. ”

The filming of the locations for Comrades In Dreams posed some difficulties. There was the language barrier in Africa, India and North Korea that had to be overcome by interpreters. On the other hand, the verbal lack of understanding also offered director Uli Gaulke the cinematic advantage of being able to better focus on the (non-verbal) imagery, which is more important to him. Another problem arose with the Indian protagonist: Anup tended to self-portrayal. Among other things, he always wanted portraits of himself. In order to do justice to the truthfulness of documentary films , such a circumstance can only be resolved through its objectification. Filming in the communist dictatorship of North Korea was particularly difficult: all recordings were checked by the authorities and only approved. The film team was constantly accompanied by "state guards" who also repeatedly instructed the protagonist on what she said in front of the camera.

criticism

Comrades In Dreams was awarded the title of particularly valuable by the film evaluation agency . “Anyone who loves cinema will love this film,” writes Der Spiegel . Bild finds the film "first amusing, then touching, but consistently amazing."

Versions

The international DVD version of Comrades In Dreams includes the making-of, an audio commentary by director Uli Gaulke as well as outtakes (10 minutes) and a slide show as bonus material .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Comrades In Dreams - screen fever . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2006 (PDF; test number: 107 939 K).