Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival 2011 FLIFF Catalog

Page 45

SHOWTIME Thursday, October 27, 6pm, Sunrise Civic Ctr Sunday, October 30, 1pm, Cinema Paradiso

REFRACTAIRE

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FEATURE

Friday, November 4, 2pm, Sunrise Civic Ctr Sunday, November 6, 1pm, Muvico Pompano Saturday, November 12, 4:15pm, Sheffields ­ Amelia Island

SOUTHEAST PREMIERE EAST COAST PREMIERE Nicolas Steil Luxembourg – Switzerland / 2011 / 100 min / WORLD PREMIERE French w/English sub­titles UNITED STATES PREMIERE François, a 21­year­old, is living in Luxembourg, FLORIDA PREMIERE which Nazi Germany has just annexed. His father collaborates with the fascist regime, forcing FESTIVAL WINNERS Francois to go to German university. François

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SAVIORS IN THE NIGHT

SHOWTIMES Sunday, October 23, 4pm, Sunrise Civic Ctr Sunday, October 30, 1:30pm, Sunrise Civic Ctr Wednesday, November 2, 5:30pm, Cinema Paradiso

SOUTHEAST PREMIERE EAST COAST PREMIERE WORLD PREMIERE UNITED STATES PREMIERE FLORIDA PREMIERE FESTIVAL WINNERS

commits a first act of disobedience by leaving this place that preached racial hatred. Now he is facing a Cornelian choice: to become forcibly enrolled and leave for the Russian front to fight the Allies or to become a draft dodger, buried alive in the cold and damp mines for months on end without seeing the light of day, the only hope being the Liberation. Wartime slows history down, but for men deci­ sions are accelerated: Collaborate with the enemy, or resist? Writer: Nicolas Steil / Producer: Solveig Harper / Cinematographer: Denis Jutzeler / Editor: Loredana Cristelli / Principal Cast: Grégoire Leprince­Ringuet, Marianne Basler, Michel Voïta, Carlo Brandt / Con­ tact: Maxime jacques, Iris Productions 45 bd Pierre Frieden, Luxembourg, L, 1543, Luxembourg, maxime.jacques@irisproductions.lu

Ludi Boeken Germany / 2011 / 95 min / English and German & French w/English sub­titles Based on the memories of Marga Spiegel, published in 1965, she describes how the courageous farmers in southern Münsterland hid her, her husband Siegfried {named Menne} and their little daughter Karin from 1943 until 1945, thus saving them from deportation to the extermination camps in the East. The film tells this story of survival with a sense for the absurd in daily life and not without the typical Westphalian humor. Without reservation, the farmers offer the refugees their protection. That this turns them into heroes would never occur to them. They are used to weathering even dangerous situations somehow, guided only by their instinct and century­old code of ethics. They risk their own lives, and, if necessary, even that of their families. There is never a discussion about friendship, reliability, humanity. In Yad Vashem the farmers’ names are immortalized: Heinrich Aschoff, Hubert Pentrop, Bernhard Südfeld, Heinrich Silkenböhmer, Bernhard Sickmann.

THE DIRECTOR: Nicolas Steil was born in Luxembourg the 2nd of January 1961. He started his career as a journalist, first with the written press then with radio and television. He opened his own audiovisual company in 1986 and for the next 5 years produced and directed for television and the industry. In 1991 he joined the Media Program of the European Union and headed the Euro Aim, a structure designed to help independent Eu­ ropean producers to sell their films and also to set up financing. In 1997 he reactivated his company and with Iris Productions he launched a pro­ duction program including feature films, animations and documentaries. To date, over 20 films have been produced. Since 1997, Nicolas Steil is the Secretary General of the Luxembourgish Producers Union (ULPA), as well as a theatre and cinema director as well as a screenwriter. Luxembourg was annexed by Germany and became an integral part of the Reich. This dark period of history nearly generated a depersonalization of Luxembourg. The Resistance in Luxembourg became really effective and efficient from the moment where the Nazis made the mistake to attack its youth and thus any sign of hope. A large number of young Luxembourgers were 'forcibly enrolled' and sent to the Russian front. They only had two choices: shoot the Allies or desert at their own risk, hiding until the end of the war. Those who chose the latter option became 'draft dodgers' by the established order, accepting the underlying risks. The Resistance organized hideouts that varied from dropped ceilings to church towers and especially parts of iron-mines that weren't worked in anymore. Another concern was that the close family of draft dodgers were systematically deported.... A real dilemma where they were stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea without any hope of getting out. So this is the question that is put to the audience: what would you have done if you were this young man whose basic equation is admittedly complex but unites negative as well as positive elements. Nicolas Steil

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Saviors in the Night wants to create a memorial in honor of these silent heroes. Writer: Otto Jägersberg, Imo Moszkowicz, Heidrun Schleef / Producer: Joachim von Mengers, Pascal Judelewicz, Karl Baumgartner / Principal Cast: Veronica Ferres, Armin Rohde, Margarita Broich, Martin Horn, Lia Hoensbroech / Contact: Menemsha Films Sponsored by

THE DIRECTOR: Ludi Boeken graduated from London Film School in 1973 and from tel Aviv University in 1976. He produced HA–HOLMIM (’87), WHEREVER YOU ARE (’88), VINCENT & THEO (’90), LA FRATURE DU MYOCARDE (’90), SILENT TONGUE (’93), ROULEZ JEUNESSE (’93), LUCKY PUNCH (’96), ZEUS & ROXANNE (’97), KINGS FOR A DAY (’97), TRAIN OF LIFE (’98), VITNER’S LUCK (’09). He directed BRITNEY, BABY ONE MORE TIME (’02) and DEADLINES (’04). Ludi (Boeken) was really shocked when he received the screenplay for SAVIORS, his German grandmother had married a Jew in Amsterdam and was so outraged during the Second World War about the German occupation of the Netherlands and the persecution of the Jews that she helped bring hundreds of Jews to safety by hiding them in the countryside outside of Amsterdam. Our film’s story is a German variation of what Ludi’s family went through. Joachim von Mengers

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