Sushi in Suhl

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Movie
Original title Sushi in Suhl
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2012
length 107 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Carsten Fiebeler
script Jens-Frederik Otto
production Carl Schmitt
music Günther Fischer
camera Gero Steffen
cut Monika Schindler
occupation

Sushi in Suhl is a German feature film, premiered in 2012, about the history of the only Japanese restaurant in the GDR for 15 years and its chef Rolf Anschütz . Directed by Carsten Fiebeler . Uwe Steimle and Julia Richter played the main roles .

action

The chef Rolf Anschütz and his wife Ingrid run the HO -Restaurant Waffenschmied in Suhl , which once belonged to his parents but was then nationalized. He also sees cooking as an art and therefore likes to try new things instead of what he considers to be boring, usual dishes. When the HO celebrates its 23rd anniversary in the restaurant, he has cockchafer soup served as a starter , for which he has organized cockchafer soup that is especially difficult to get. But when the HO boss finds out after a few spoons what the soup is about, she feels sick. Anschütz then found himself exposed to serious accusations due to his willingness to experiment, as one expected more traditional dishes.

Despite the negative reactions, he plans to implement his next idea: cooking Japanese dishes and serving them to his friends in a suitable setting. Although it is difficult to organize, it succeeds, and a journalist reports about it in the newspaper. As a result, the restaurant receives numerous inquiries regarding the possibility of dining in Japanese. Even a Japanese who teaches at Jena University visits the restaurant. He likes the opportunity to dine in Japanese so much that he comes to Anschütz again to prepare meals with him. He also convinces the chef to cook for him and his Japanese friends. The result is very well received by the Japanese guests. As a result, Anschütz also offers Japanese dishes for normal guests, including sushi.

Meanwhile, his superiors in the HO are constantly vacillating between the decision to close the restaurant because the chef's initiative falls too far outside the socialist framework and the opportunity to use his skills to improve relations with Japanese business representatives. However, the high number of guests due to the exotic food by GDR standards is increasingly burdening Anschütz 'marriage, which is falling into a serious crisis. However, he does not allow himself to be dissuaded from his path.

The news also arrives from Japan that he should receive a medal. To receive it, he travels to Japan, a world completely alien to him. Because of all the hustle and bustle in Japan, he suffers a faint attack and has to go to the hospital for some time. There are also difficulties with the return visa, which is why his return home is delayed further. Although he likes what he gets to see in Japan, he longs to go back to the familiar “cage”, his home in Suhl. After the visa problems have been resolved and he returns to Suhl, he continues to successfully serve Japanese dishes in the restaurant. However, his marriage finally falls apart.

At the end of the film, the viewer learns that by the fall of the Berlin Wall, 1,974,000 guests had visited the first Japanese restaurant in the GDR. In Memoriam of the real Rolf Anschütz, on whose life story the film is based, his photo is displayed.

Origin and background

After the film producer Carl Schmitt heard of Rolf Anschütz (1932–2008) for the first time in a film by Fritz Pleitgen , he was immediately fascinated and contacted Anschütz. Before the death of Anschütz he conducted extensive interviews with him. So 24 hours of sound recordings were made. After the initial plan of a documentary film about Rolf Anschütz, Schmitt gave it up after evaluating the interview material. Instead, he opted for a feature film "freely based on a true story" - as it says in the opening credits of the film - which was based on the interviews. According to Schmitt, the film is “not a political film. It is neither a film about the GDR nor about Germany. The focus is on Rolf Anschütz, a passionate chef and restaurateur, [...] it is the story of a man who believed he had to realize a dream that he actually didn't even have. In the end he had to realize that he had only lied to himself and his family. "

Many plot details are fictitious. Other things have taken place similar to the one shown. So there was the idea of ​​a Japanese meal at the journalists' regular table or a visit from the "real" Japanese Dr. Hayashi. The real Rolf Anschütz also paid for his professional success when his family broke up, his wife Ingrid - who was the restaurant's chef for 12 years - filed for divorce in 1975. Anschütz opened the Japanese Sentō bath in 1977 and went on a four-week trip to Japan in 1979.

The statement at the end of the film that almost 2 million guests had visited the Japanese restaurant goes back to a statement by Rolf Anschütz in Pleitgen's film. However, this number does not seem believable. A document from the Ministry of State Security speaks of 17,000 to 20,000 guests annually, another source states that there were two Japanese banquets with 30 people each on Tuesdays to Thursdays and four on Fridays and Saturdays (there were supposedly no banquets on Sundays and Mondays). This would result in a maximum of 440,000 guests in 20 years.

Performances

The film premiered at the Film Nights in Chemnitz and Dresden on August 28, 2012 on the Theaterplatz in Chemnitz and in the presence of director Christian Fiebeler and the actors Uwe Steimle and Julia Richter on August 29, 2012 on the banks of the Elbe in Dresden. As part of the Thuringian Art and Literature Festival Provincial Scream , the film had its Thuringia premiere on October 14, at the same time in all seven cinemas of the Suhl Cineplex, at which the director, producer and almost all actors involved in the film were present.

The German theatrical release was on October 18, 2012.

production

The film Sushi in Suhl was produced by StarCrest Media GmbH Frankfurt am Main in co-production with Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk . The distributor is Movienet Film GmbH Munich.

The shooting took place from January 18, 2011 in Schmalkalden , Suhl , Erfurt , Gotha , Ohrdruf , Fulda and Frankfurt am Main . The former tavern Zur Wilhelmsburg at Schmalkaldener Schlossberg 1 at the foot of Wilhelmsburg Castle , which had been vacant for 15 years, functioned as a Waffenschmied restaurant . In Ohrdruf the film was shot in a general store with nostalgic furnishings. The Japanese scenes were recorded in Germany in April 2011. The location pictures at the beginning and the end of the film show the small town of Ziegenrück in Thuringia.

Awards

In 2010 Jens-Frederik Otto received the Hessian Film Prize in the Best Screenplay category for the book of the film Sushi in Suhl . In 2012, the film was given the rating of particularly valuable by the German Film and Media Assessment (FBW).

Reviews

"Harmless home tragic comedy , which avows itself to the carefree farce and entertains undemanding as an involuntary horror fairy tale with a sentimental feel-good factor."

- Lexicon of international film

“This Thuringian-Japanese film menu is funny, curious and simply delicious, served with a well-dosed pinch of humor and humor. The mixture should appeal to the audience. "

- Kino.de

"A very lovable comedy , at the same time a song of praise for all people who stay true to their dreams even under adverse circumstances."

- Knut Elstermann : MDR Figaro

“The danger of the film is too much love, exaggerated kindness and honesty. But Fiebeler does not lose sight of the serious background. 'Sushi in Suhl' is the first gastronomy film to propose the thesis that cooking is political. His hero is guilty of various offenses: individualism, private business, contact with the class enemy. And by the way, the restaurateur also loses his family and friends. These loss experiences are casually staged and almost played under by Uwe Steimle with silent tragedy . "

- Eike Kellermann and Frank Noack : Der Tagesspiegel

"The mechanisms of the GDR regime, in which everyone monitors everyone and nobody wants to be naked, the film gets to the point more than once and caricatures it deliciously. The almost naïve fearlessness with which the protagonist lives out his individualism is also delicious. [...] Why the director had Anschütz's son comment on the film from the off remains a bit of a mystery. The comments neither complement the scenes, nor does the son play a role in the story. "

- Wolfram Hannemann : film blog

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for sushi in Suhl . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2012 (PDF; test number: 133 473 K).
  2. ↑ a b Winter magic in the Thuringian Forest. Documentary by Fritz Pleitgen , first broadcast: Das Erste , December 28, 2003.
  3. ^ Trailer, information magazine of Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH , issue 1/2011, p. 16.
  4. ^ Holger Uske: Rolf Anschütz and the Japanese restaurant Suhl. City administration Suhl 2012, p. 68.
  5. ↑ Movienet Filmverleihs press release: Producer's comment on p. 19.
  6. ↑ Free Word , organ of the Suhl district leadership of the SED , February 9, 1966.
  7. ↑ ADN -Meldung 203 , February 20, 1966, born in 1966, no. 51st
  8. ^ Holger Uske: Rolf Anschütz and the Japanese restaurant Suhl. City administration Suhl 2012, p. 51.
  9. ^ Holger Uske: Rolf Anschütz and the Japanese restaurant Suhl. City administration Suhl 2012, p. 36.
  10. ^ Holger Uske: Rolf Anschütz and the Japanese restaurant Suhl. City administration Suhl 2012, p. 29 ff.
  11. ↑ “I had two years to reserve and a total of 1,974,000 guests who got to know Japanese culture. 870,000 of them took a bath without bathing suits, according to an old Japanese ritual. ” Quoted from Rolf Anschütz.
  12. ↑ Security concept for the HOG “Waffenschmied” from June 21, 1985 ( BStU , Ministry for State Security, District Administration Suhl, Department II 82).
  13. ^ Holger Uske: Rolf Anschütz and the Japanese restaurant Suhl. City administration Suhl 2012, p. 40 f.
  14. ↑ film series. Premiere at the film nights. In: Freie Presse , August 27, 2012, p. 12.
  15. ↑ 12. Provincial cry: Great excitement for the Thuringian film premiere of "Sushi in Suhl".
  16. ^ German film and media rating: Sushi in Suhl.
  17. ^ Sushi in Suhl in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used .
  18. ↑ Kino.de: Sushi in Suhl.
  19. ↑ The film talk. MDR Figaro, October 18, 2012.
  20. ↑ Eike Kellermann, Frank Noack: "Sushi in Suhl" - a Japanese dream world in the GDR province. In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 17, 2012.
  21. ↑ Wolfram Hannemann, September 2012 film blog archive: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - True stories, culinary delights in the GDR.