JULIA FRANCK
A FILM BY DANIELA SCHMIDT-LANGELSDE 2009, 52 AND 43 MIN
Julia Franck
Julia Franck
Julia Franck
IN NEW GERMAN LITERATURE
SYNOPSIS
Julia Franck is one of the key female authors in new German literature. In 2007, she garnered the German Book Prize for her novel “Die Mittagsfrau”. With her book Julia Franck has rediscovered and revitalized the epic period novel for a new generation of young authors. “Die Mittagsfrau” has become an enormous commercial success both in Germany and abroad. It has been translated into 34 languages and has been named novel of the year in China 2008. Be it in France (“La femme de midi”), the UK (“The Blind Side of the Heart”), in Spain (“La mujer del mediodía”) – Franck’s bestseller got brilliant critics in the media everywhere. The novel was said to be a silence-breaker, a laser beam into the German darkness.
The Film discovers Julia’s eventful biography which is often reflected in her novels: She was born in East Berlin in 1970, in 1978 Franck’s mother with her four daughters left the German Democratic Republic to a refugee camp in West Berlin. In her book “Lagerfeuer” she hauntingly describes her traumatic experiences in the Marienfelde camp. The film follows the author’s journeys from East to West, told through very personal interviews and highlights the historical context of the 70s and 80s, as well as the current state of literary affairs. The author speaks about the distance from her mother, the recovery of her fatally ill father; she speaks about dealing with success, loneliness, the power and the impotence of words, the existential necessity of writing.
CREW
Written & Directed by: Daniela Schmidt-Langels
Director of Photography: Isabelle Casez
Sound: Ivonne Gärber, Raimund von Scheibner
Editing: Anette Fleming
Music: Christian Steyer
Narrator: Maximilian Held, Almut Zydra
Producer: Felix Moeller, Amelie Latscha
Commissioning Editors: Christian von Behr (RBB/Arte), Anita Hugi (SF)
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TV Run
7th September 2009, Schweizer Fernsehen
28. November 2009, Arte
21. March 2010, RBB
Sales Agent: Wavelength Pictures, UK (www.wavelengthpictures.co.uk)
Award: Juliane Bartel Media Award 2010
Press: Statement of the Jury of the Juliane Bartel Media Award, granted by the Ministry of Social Affairs of Lower Saxony: “The film not only shows important moments of her life – it also tells almost casually a piece of East-West German History and gives the audience an understanding of the life situation in those two worlds at the time.”