Off the beaten path of life, three people stumble into a fateful encounter. Thomas, young and strong, has been dishonorably discharged from the army. Ali, an affable Turkish businessman, has seen some hard times but now his primary concern is making sure the employees of his snack-bars don’t cheat on him. Laura, an attractive woman with a dark past, seems to find refuge in the shadows of her marriage to Ali.
Thomas, Ali, and Laura keep an eye on each other and keep their secrets to themselves. They want love but also security. They consider themselves independent, and what they desire can only be achieved by betrayal.
JERICHOW by Christian Petzold is a love-triangle in which yearning evaporates into even bigger dreams. This drama unfolds on the country roads in desolate northeast Germany, where thick forests suddenly end on cliffs overlooking the Baltic Sea. The story is a classic cinematic constellation but with a daring new interpretation: caught between guilt and freedom, between passion and reason, there are wishes whose fulfillment can only mean escape.
Christian Petzold is one of the leading directors of New German cinema. The German Film Critics Association has three times awarded him Best Film awards, for YELLA, GHOSTS and THE STATE I AM IN. He was twice named Best Director at the German Film Awards, for psychological drama WOLFSBURG and THE STATE I AM IN. His first fiction feature, 2000’s political drama THE STATE I AM IN, also won Best Screenplay at Thessaloniki (Greece) and the Grand Prize at Valenciennes (France). Actrice Nina Hoss won the Silver Bear/Best Actrice at the Berlin Film Festival 2007 for her role in YELLA.
Petzold has also received much acclaim for the made-for-TV features SOMETHING TO REMIND ME (TOTER MANN, 2002), DIE BEISCHLAFDIEBIN (1998) and CUBA LIBRE (1995).
Born in 1960, Petzold studied German and Theater Studies at the Free University in Berlin, then graduated from the German Film & Television Academy (DFFB) in 1994.
2008 JERICHOW /// 2007 YELLA /// 2005 GHOSTS – GESPENSTER /// 2003 WOLFSBURG /// 2002 SOEMTHING TO REMIND ME – TOTER MANN /// 2001 THE STATE I AM IN – DIE INNERE SICHERHEIT /// 1998 DIE BEISCHLAFDIEBIN /// 1996 CUBA LIBRE
Thomas / BENNO FÜRMANN /// Laura / NINA HOSS ///
Ali / HILMI SÖZER
DIRECTOR / CHRISTIAN PETZOLD /// SCREENPLAY / CHRISTIAN PETZOLD /// PRODUCERS / FLORIAN KOERNER VON GUSTORF / MICHAEL WEBER /// CINEMATOGRAPHER / HANS FROMM /// EDITOR / BETTINA BÖHLER /// ART DIRECTOR / KADE GRUBER ///
A PRODUCTION OF SCHRAMM FILM KOERNER & WEBER /// IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH BR / ARTE /// WITH SUPPORT FROM BKM / DFFF / FFA / MBB
FORMAT / 35 mm / 1:1,85 / Colour / Dolby / LENGTH 93 min. / ORIGINAL LANGUAGE
German / SUBTITLES English
