A Proletarian Winter’s Tale

Ein Proletarisches Wintermärchen

DIRECTOR: Julian Radlmaier   COUNTRY: Germany  YEAR: 2014   LANGUAGE(S): Georgian, German SUBTITLES: German   RUNNING TIME: 63 min

SECTION: International Forum 2015

SYNOPSIS

In this refreshingly anarchistic grotesque film, three young Georgian cleaners are relegated to the attic of a Berlin palace so that they will not disturb the buffet of an arms manufacturer who collects art. While the invited guests chat in different languages, sometimes in an exaggeratedly theatrical way, sometimes using Berlin dialect, voicing uncannily contemporary banalities, on the roof the modern members of the lumpenproletariat try to find an answer to the question of whether class relations will ever be overcome by telling wild, fantastical tales.

The film seems like a strange elixir of the works of Achternbusch, Harun Farocki and other sharp observers of socio-political processes. It includes a few references to the heyday of proletarian film in the late 1920s. “A PROLETARIAN WINTER’S TALE has a lot to do with Brecht and his conception of the folk play. In this regard, one must think of the anarchistic humor of Liesl Karlstadt and Karl Valentin on the one hand, and, on the other, of that vivid abstract dream called MACHORKA-MUFF, which stands at the beginning of the oeuvre of Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub. The result is funny, proudly dialectic, simple but full of unexpected eccentricities. And amidst all that: a trio looking so defiantly melancholic as if it came out of an early Kaurismäki.” (Olaf Möller, FF Basel)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNnMyOX1lJs

JULIAN RADLMAIER
Director Julian Radlmaier was born 1984 in Nuremberg to a French-German family. He studied Film Theory and Art History in Berlin and Paris. In 2008 he worked as personal assistant to director Werner Schroeter. He is currently studying Film Directing at German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb). His middle-length film A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING EUROPE received the German film critics’ Award as “Best Experimental Film 2013”. His first feature film A PROLETARIAN WINTER’S TALE had its world premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival in 2014.

FILMOGRAPHY

Ein Gespenst geht um in Europa (2013), Ein proletarisches Wintermärchen (2014)

SCRIPT: Julian Radlmaier   PRODUCER: Kirill Krasovskiy   CAMERA: Markus Koob   EDITOR: Julian Radlmaier   CAST: Natia Bakhtadze, Sandro Koberidze, Ilia Korkashvili, Lars Rudolph

PRODUCTION: Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin, Faktura Film   WORLD SALES: Kira Sturm, Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin