Jerichow
Genre Drama
Year of Production 2008
Director Christian Petzold
Principal Cast Benno Fuermann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Soezer
Length 93 minutes
International Festival Screenings Screenings Venice 2008 (In Competition), Toronto 2008, Rotterdam 2009, BAFICI Buenos Aires 2009, Edinburgh 2009, Shanghai 2009
Awards TBA
Jerichow, a village in northeastern Germany – the area is poor and there is little work to be found. Here three people, off the beaten path of life, stumble into a fateful encounter: Thomas, young, strong, taciturn, a former soldier, dishonourably discharged; Ali, a bit the worse for wear, but still affable, a Turkish businessman in Germany who is mainly concerned that the employees at his snack bars don't cheat him; Laura, a woman with a past, attractive, but somewhat withdrawn into the shadows in her marriage with Ali.
Thomas, Ali and Laura withhold themselves and their secrets from one another. They want love, but are also very concerned with security. They are dependent on each other, but what they want can only be reached at the cost of betrayal.
Christian Petzold's "Jerichow" is a love triangle in which the longings of the three characters only graze the surface of even greater dreams. On the byways of Germany's Northeast, in the forests of the expansive countryside and along the cliffs above the sea a drama unfolds in which a classical cinematic constellation undergoes a daring reinterpretation. Caught between guilt and freedom, passion and intrigue are desires, the fulfilment of which comes to resemble a curse.
Screening Details
16 Nov, 9.35pm
The Cathay, Hall 5
21 Nov, 7.30pm
Cineleisure, Hall 6
Rating M18 (Scene of intimacy and brief nudity)
Christian Petzold is one of the leading directors of recent German cinema. The German Film Critics Association has twice awarded him Best Film awards, for Ghosts (Gespenster, 2005) and The State I Am In (Die Innere Sicherheit, 2000). He was twice named Best Director at the German Film Awards, for Wolfsburg (2002) and The State I Am In, which also won Best Screenplay at Thessaloniki and the Grand Prize at Valenciennes. Petzold has also received much acclaim for his other films, including: Something to Remind Me (Toter Mann, 2002), Die Beischlafdiebin (1998), Cuba Libre (1995), Yella (2007), and Jerichow (2008) which also screened in Competition in Venice. 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.
