Highway to Hellas
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Highway to Hellas |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language |
German , Greek , English |
| Publishing year | 2015 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Aron Lehmann |
| script |
Arnd Schimkat , Moses Wolff , Aron Lehmann |
| production |
Matthias Schweighöfer , Dan Maag , Marco Beckmann |
| music | Boris Bojadzhiev |
| camera | Nikolaus Summerer |
| cut | Simon Gstöttmayr |
| occupation | |
| |
Highway to Hellas is a German culture clash comedy by Aron Lehmann from 2015 based on a novel by Arnd Schimkat and Moses Wolff .
action
The story takes place against the backdrop of the financial crisis in Greece on the fictional Greek island of Paladiki. The island community has received a loan from a German bank for its eco-tourism project “Galapagos in Greece” and pledged its non-existent power station, hospital and beach as security.
The German bank employee Jörg Geissner is supposed to check the island's loan security. The islanders, first and foremost the charming German-Greek shopkeeper Panos, want to prevent this and are giving the embittered German all kinds of harassment. But he steadfastly gets to work and explores the island in a gray suit with tie and briefcase. The Greeks try to fool him, which they almost succeed. However, Geissner is getting closer and closer to the locals and it becomes clear to him that the outcome of his trip will determine the future of the island.
production
The idea for Highway to Hellas came up in 2012 when Arnd Schimkat and Moses Wolff wrote the plot for the story on two A4 pages together in one night. The very next day they gave the draft to Dan Maag of Pantaleon Films, who was impressed by the story; Schimkat and Wolff signed the contract for a film script just two weeks later. The satirical novel Highway to Hellas , which appeared in September 2014, was written parallel to the script .
Filming for the film on the Cycladic island of Tinos in Greece began in October 2014 . Schimkat and Wolff had to drop the original plan to take on the leading roles themselves, as the film was not a small production, but a large-scale production by Pantaleon Films, Warner Bros. Film Productions Germany and ARRI Productions . The film was shot in German with numerous dialogues in Greek (subtitled). The film's title itself is a play on the song Highway to Hell by AC / DC .
Highway to Hellas celebrated its world premiere at the 20th Busan International Film Festival in early October 2015 . The German theatrical release was on November 27, 2015.
The musical version of Highway to Hellas (with Dirk Weiler as Jörg Geissner and Ron Holzschuh as Panos) premiered on June 10, 2016 at the Bad Gandersheim Cathedral Festival . The libretto came from the two authors Arnd Schimkat and Moses Wolff , as well as Christian Doll, the music is from Heiko Lippmann. Directed by Achim Lenz .
Reviews
Julia Dettke said in Zeit Online that the “clichéd exaggeration of the film” exudes “a kind of sympathetic dilettantism”; comedy is always best when it “really reminds of amateur theater”. The film is "not an outstanding piece of cinema, but a somewhat surprising lesson in matters of self-irony".
“Of course the film plays with a lot of clichés about the German bureaucrats and the laid-back Greeks. But what may seem stereotypical at first glance, also contains a grain of truth and gives an idea of why it is so complicated to master the financial crisis, ”stated the Swiss Dispatch Agency . Barbara Möller found the world to be “charming and lovable,” and called the film a comedy “in which both sides get their fat. And a fairy tale that draws its charm from the growing understanding for one another. "
In the film service , Heidi Strobel judged that the “superficial” film tried to “break up negative stereotypes through wit and crude humor”; he is "caught in a lot of clichés when the crisis is resolved". Angie Pohlers ( Der Tagesspiegel ) was irritated by the sheer "mass of clichés that are being driven here". The event seems “dreary and flat” because “it does not break the clichés ironically, but simply reinforces them”. The film is "a comedy of missed opportunities in which mutual prejudices are only let loose on each other without humorously undermining them", criticized Martin Schwickert in the Saarbrücker Zeitung .
In the Hamburger Abendblatt , Thomas Abeltshauser described the film as “badly harmless and predictable. The highway is more of a beaten track, it sometimes drags along quite laboriously and not very funny. And aesthetically, the clothes are more reminiscent of television than of cinema. ”About the main actor Herbst“ gross mimics give the monkey sugar, and the directors dabble with small change budgets through a script that they themselves contributed to, ”said the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . “A few charming moments cannot hide the fact that this film is a sad relapse into the German comedy drama of the eighties and nineties,” wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung .
Awards
Highway to Hellas won the Audience Award at the Busan International Film Festival in October 2015.
Web links
- Highway to Hellas in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Highway to Hellas at filmportal.de
- "Highway to Hellas" website
- google street view "Preparation for the shooting"
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Approval for Highway to Hellas . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , May 2015 (PDF; test number: 151 631 K).
- ^ Piper Verlag, September 1, 2014, ISBN 978-3-492-06003-5
- ↑ a b Barbara Hordych: philistines versus rascals . Arnd Schimkat and Moses Wolff wrote both the script and the novel "Highway to Hellas" . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 15, 2014.
- ↑ No more funds in the Mediterranean (publisher information on Highway to Hellas ). piper.de.
- ↑ Ricarda Nowak: "The weather has made us crazy" [Interview] . In: Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung , November 25, 2015, p. 22.
- ↑ David Siems: Review of Highway to Hellas . epd-film.de, November 23, 2015.
- ↑ World premiere for "Highway to Hellas" in Busan . filmportal.de, August 26, 2015.
- ↑ "Highway to Hellas" website
- ^ Thomas: Highway to Hellas. (No longer available online.) In: domfestspiele-gandersheim.de. Archived from the original on October 20, 2016 ; accessed on October 20, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Julia Dettke: A cliché ouzo. Zeit Online , November 25, 2015, accessed December 8, 2015 .
- ↑ "Highway to Hellas": Financial bureaucrat in the Greek chaos . In: sda - Swiss Dispatch Agency , Basic Service German, November 19, 2015.
- ↑ Barbara Möller: "Here comes the Gauleiter!" Christoph Maria Herbst in "Highway to Hellas" . In: Welt Kompakt , November 26, 2015, p. 24 ( long review online ).
- ^ Heidi Strobel: Highway to Hellas. Filmdienst , 24/2015, accessed on December 8, 2015 (short review ).
- ^ Angie Pohlers: The paradise is called Paladiki. Der Tagesspiegel , December 2, 2015, accessed on December 8, 2015 .
- ↑ Martin Schwickert: Much ouzo, few punch lines . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung , November 26, 2015.
- ↑ Thomas Abeltshauser: Anger for order meets chaos. The comedy "Highway To Hellas" is too predictable . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , November 26, 2015, p. 8.
- ↑ ues: The total absence of Alexis Sorbas . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , November 26, 2015.
- ↑ Now in the cinema: Highway to Hellas . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 26, 2015, p. 18.
- ↑ Pantaleon Entertainment: "Highway to Hellas" celebrates great success in Asia . In: news aktuell, October 12, 2015.
