German auteur Tom Tykwer and producer Uwe Schott decried the limited funding opportunities available to make German-language films, ahead of the world premiere of their film The Light opening this year’s Berlinale.
“It’s always too costly, too expensive if you try and come up with really juicy cinema,” said Tykwer, who holds the record for having directed the most films to open the Berlinale. The Light is his third, after Heaven in 2002 and The International in 2009.
“At least in my life, the public broadcasters are real heroes,” he continued. “There are always these discussions about their role in society… sometimes people talk [badly] about them, I could never do that.”
The film was produced by X Filme Creative Pool, in co-production with ZDF, ARP Séléction, Gold Rush Pictures, Gretchenfilm and B.A. Filmproduktion. Funders for The Light included German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), the German Federal Film Board (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.
“Right now in Germany it is hard to make German-language films,” added Schott, producer at X Filme Creative Pool. “You can manage to do that if you find the right partners. But towards the end, you always run out of money. The funding was only agreed three weeks before we started shooting [The Light].”
The Light is Tykwer’s first German-language film since 2010, although he has since then worked on series Babylon Berlin. The film, which includes some Arabic language, is set in present day Berlin, and explores a middle class family, whose lives are altered by the arrival of a Syrian refugee as their housekeeper, played by Tala Al-Deen. Nicolette Krebitz and Lars Eidinger star as the parents of the central family.
Narcissism is a key theme in the politically-charged film, with the family living detached and isolated lives from one another. “The most powerful people in this world are people who have a narcissistic personality disorder – I would go as far as to say we all have that,” said Eidinger.
It will play as a Special Gala. “First I was a bit sad we weren’t part of the competition,” reflected Eidinger. “But I think this film has the potential to be important for the debates we are dealing with every day. There is no single day where you are not called upon to position yourself with what is happening politically.
“To use this film as a starting point to enter into the debates to just say this one is right and not right – but live with the contradiction that both parties might be right. That is the objective of a festival like this.”
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