After getting the bad news that he is soon to die of cancer Max wants to escape to the most beautiful place in the world – Mexico. When he accidentally lands at brave Emma’s pig-breeding farm, he realizes however, that true happiness waits just around the corner ...
EMMA lives as a pig-breeder at the shabby and hopelessly indebted farm of her ancestors. She slaughters the pigs in her own true way: she treats them lovingly till the last day, the lethal cut shows something like tenderness and in Emma’s strong arms the dying animals cease bleeding calmly and submittingly.
But Emma is lonely. Only Henner, the good-natured and somehow simple country policeman proposes to her in regular intervals. Emma refuses, because she lives in mutual hatred with his intrusive and omnipresent mother. If need be the missing man is replaced by her motor-bike with its wonderfully noncircular flywheel, and the bike’s heavily vibrating saddle pleases her extremely from time to time. But the loneliness stays.
One night a Jaguar smashes on her farm. Inside the wrecked car lies an unconscious man and a bag full of money. Emma’s luck seems to be perfect: fate has thrown money into her lap and furthermore has given a man to her, who smells exactly the way she has always dreamt of. Max – that’s the man’s name, a fanatic for order and lover of vegetables – has stolen the bag with the illicit money from Hans, his only and best friend and employer, who is as shrewd as they come. This robbery doesn’t correspond with his “wait and see”-nature, but Max is seriously ill: because of cancer of the pancreas he has only a few weeks left to live.
Emma doesn’t even think of coming down with Max and the money. She burns the wrecked car, hides the man in her bed and the money under her bed. She guesses Max has stolen the money and therefore must be in trouble. He would accept anything that will save him from getting caught.
When Max wakes up he is startled by the sight of the strong woman and the dirty farm. Only by and by he realizes that the state of affairs couldn’t be any better for him and that his miserable life has given him a break. Even Emma’s occasional fits of rage –for instance when Max is cleaning the kitchen or unsuspectingly mending her rattling motor-bike – help him to forget about his illness and keep him from thinking about his forthcoming death. seriousness of his friend’s condition. Hans forgives him und takes him to the nearby hospital.
Emma finally gets over her shyness of the city and takes her lost lover out of the hospital and brings him back home. When they reach the farm Max finds himself enervated and exhausted in Emma’s arms. Their last days together are sweetened by happiness. Their wedding could have been a disaster would have Emma not been able to handle Max’s retching onto her dress while she is carrying him over the doorstep. But Max is inevitably running short of life. Eventually he takes an example from the pigs and surrenders to Emma’s tender art.
Sven Taddicken was born in 1974 in Hamburg. He has been studying at the director’s programme of the Baden-Wuerttemburg Film Academy in Ludwigsburg from
1996 to 2002. Winning numerous international awards, including the National Short Film Prize at Dresden 1999, the Main Prize at the Finnish festival Lappeenraanta, and the First Prize at Short Cuts Cologne 1999, he was also nominated Honorary Foreign Student Award/Student OSCAR 2000 for his film Counting Sheep (Schaefchen Zaehlen, 1999), which also opened the prestigious Max Ophuels Festival Saarbruecken that same year.
His films include: the shorts FISH! (Fisch, 1997), Whodunit?! (1998), El Cordobes (1998), Ice Cream (1998), Counting Sheep (Schaefchen Zaehlen, 1999), STAY LIKE THIS (Einfach so bleiben, 2002). As well as his feature debut Getting My Brother Laid (Mein Bruder der Vampir, 2001) and Emma’s Bliss (Emmas Glück, 2006).
Jördis Triebel /// Jürgen Vogel /// Hinnerk Schönemann /// Nina Petri /// Martin Feifel
Director / Sven Taddicken /// Scriptwriter / Ruth Thoma / Claudia Schreiber /// based on the novel by / Claudia Schreiber /// Casting / Simone Bär /// Director of photography / Daniela Knapp /// Editor / Andreas Wodraschke /// Art Director / Peter Menne /// Producer / Ralph Schwingel / Stefan Schubert / Hejo Emons /// Commissioning Editor / Sabine Holtgreve (SWR) /// A production of Wüste Film and Wüste Film West / In co-production with SWR / Funded by Filmstiftung NRW, Film-förderung Hamburg, BKM and FFA
FORMAT 35 mm / 1:2.35 / Colour Dolby Digital Surround EX / LENGTH 99 mins / Original Titel: Emmas Glück
Munich 2006 -
Young German Cinema Award: Best Actress Joerdis Triebel /// The Hamptons 2006 -
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature Film - Zicherman Family Foundation Award for Screenwriting ///
Festival of German Film Paris - Coup de Coeur ///
Sevilla 2006 - Gran Premio del Público
