09/06/2016 - Sven Taddicken’s latest outing will compete at the prestigious Czech international festival, where a total of 6 German (co-)productions are on the programme

Original Bliss by Sven Taddicken

The 51st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (1-9 July) has announced its competition entries, and amongst them is a German production: Sven Taddicken’s Original Bliss [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sven Taddicken
film profile], produced by Frisbeefilms, Cine Plus Filmproduktion and Senator Film. This adaptation of the eponymous novel by AL Kennedy, which will feature as an international premiere, sees Martina Gedeck and Ulrich Tukur in the lead roles. The story revolves around a couple trapped in an ailing marriage. When Helene finally loses hope, feeling that she has been abandoned by God, too, she sees the key to her liberation in the celebrated psychologist Eduard E Gluck, but he has to fight demons of his own. However, when he and Helene come together, these apparently complete opposites find themselves magically attracted to one another. Hesitantly, they move towards each other – and give themselves over to a world where love is both a test and a promise. Also in competition is the co-production Zoology [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan I Tverdovsky
film profile] by Russia’s Ivan I Tverdovsky. 

The Documentary Competition includes Vitaly Mansky’s already acclaimed Baltic-co-produced Ukrainian story Close Relations [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (German co-producer: Saxonia Entertainment) and Daniel Abma’s Transit Havana [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a Dutch-German title co-produced, on the latter side, by Kloos & Co Medien and the Konrad Wolf Film School in Babelsberg (it is in fact Abma’s graduation film). The documentary tells the story of an initiative that is particularly unusual for Catholic-dominated Latin America. Mariela Castro, the daughter of the Cuban president and niece of Fidel Castro, supports LGBT rights through her position as the director of the Cuban Centre for Sex Education. Each year, she brings top surgeons to the island for a week to undertake sex reassignment operations at the state's expense. Will the Socialist island become a paradise for transgender people while continuing on its steady journey to greater openness? How free and tolerant has Cuba really now become? Abma tries to get to the bottom of these questions and accompanies three transgender people during their everyday routines. 

Germany is also represented in the East of the West section by two co-productions – Žiga Virc’s Houston, We Have a Problem! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Žiga Virc
film profile], co-produced by Sutor Kolonko, and Verge [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ayhan Salar
film profile] by Ayhan Salar and Erkan Tahhuşoğlu, co-produced by salarfilm – as well as in the EFP’s Future Frames programme, by Clemens Pichler's Diorama, from the Munich Film School. The films selected in the other sections will be announced shortly.