Festival Films A-Z

Counterparts

Cast

Matthias Brandt, Victoria Trauttmansdorff, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Susanne Bormann, Anna Brass, Jochen Striebeck, Özgür Özata, Max Limper, Anne Ratte-Polle


Production

Heimatfilm GmbH und Co. KG
Lichtstraße 50
D-50825 Köln
Tel.: +49 221 97 77 99-0
Fax: +49 221 97 77 99-19
E-Mail:
post@heimatfilm.biz

Camera

Bernhard Keller

Cut

Stefan Stabenow

Distribution

W-film
Filmverleih & Filmproduktion
Gotenring 16
50679 Köln
Tel.: +49 221 22 21 980
Fax:
+49 221 22 21 981
E-Mail:
mail@wfilm.com
Internet:
www.wfilm.com

(Gegenüber)
D 2007, Regie: Jan Bonny, dF, 96 min.

Synopsis

GegenüberPolice officer Georg is very popular amongst his colleagues for always being calm and cool-headed. His young partner Michael admires him for his apparently harmonic marriage with Anne, an attractive primary school teacher. When a promotion is announced to Georg, he begins to lose control over the carefully maintained facade of his 'intact' family life. During christmas season the conflicts start to surface which have been dominating the couple's life for years: Anne's struggle for recognition; the patronizing attitude of her parents; Georg's attempts to always please everybody; the grown children who look away helplessly; and the traces of physical violence which can no longer be hidden. Under the Christmas tree the tragedy unfolds - "It ain't no drama, Anne!" - Well, yes, it is.

Interview with Jan Bonny
The movie is about two people who are bound together not only by marriage, but also by a long-lasting, deeply-rooted, violent struggle against each other. What fascinated you about this constellation?
In the end the story describes an extreme exaggeration of a basically very common conflict in relationships, an inevitable clash. We all know from experience the basic patterns that rule these conflicts: little problems that get out of hand under the pressure of conventions...
It starts with a little carelessness. In a relationship, you get used to everything, and that?s mostly a good thing at first.
Your picture places both characters in the middle of our society: both are civil servants, they have raised children...
It was an important choice to place the characters in the middle class. Georg is a police officer, Anne is a primary school teacher. They're not what we perceive as white trash. If you take a closer look, though, you won't find too many primary school teachers and policemen in the middle of our society any more. Our society rests on the shoulders of people who educate, who regulate. That's what these professions do, each in their own way. But society has completely neglected these people. That's something the characters in the film convey. And yet, they stand for certain rules, moral values, work ethics and a willingness to make sacrifices, all the things that make society work. They stand for the way our country traditionally sees itself, or used to see itself up until a few years ago. What they really stand for is something like the heart of the old Bundesrepublik. Which is gone by now, like a sunken civilisation.

Biography

kein sciencefiction (2001-2003), 2nd and A (2004), Gegenüber (2007)

Filmography

kein sciencefiction (2001-2003), 2nd and A (2004), Gegenüber (2007)

Dates

3304.10.200720:00CineCitta