email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

Ziska Riemann • Director

“I think people who were comic book artists become really good directors”

by 

- German Films interviews director Ziska Riemann (Lollipop Monster), who is in post-production with her new film Electric Girl

Ziska Riemann • Director
(© KVIFF)

After an extensive work as a comic book author and artist, Ziska Riemann teamed up with Völker Schlöndorff at 26. “Through him I met the Babelsberg film scene,” she says, “wrote a treatment that did not work out, but then I applied for a scholarship in Munich and got accepted, where I wrote my first script, Blame It on the Dogs.” This dark comedy about a man who is afraid of dogs and falls in love with a woman who then buys herself one, was produced by ARD in 2001 and shown at the Munich Film Festival, later winning Riemann the Tankred Dorst Film Script Award. “I think it’s one of the best I’ve written,” she says proudly. 

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Still writing, Riemann then teamed up with producer Herbert Rimbach of Avista Film: “He wanted a script but also wanted me to direct”. But Riemann, who describes herself as “an introvert,” had made three or four shorts by then (“Just to see what it was like”) and so she agreed.

“I really enjoyed it,” Riemann says of her directorial debut, Lollipop Monster [+see also:
interview: Jella Haase
film profile
]
(2011). Eventually produced by Network Movie and ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel, this dark, coming-of-age story, which Riemann also co-wrote with Luci van Org and has been compared to Heavenly Creatures and the experimental Czech film Daisies.

What Riemann describes as “an intense story, an intense film,” won her regular cinematographer Hannes Hubach and lead actress Jella Haase Bavarian Film Awards. The film opened the German Film Festival at the MOMA in New York, and also screened at the Berlinale, Karlovy Vary and Golden Horse in Taiwan.

Riemann is currently in post-production on Electric Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ziska Riemann
film profile
]
, about a young woman who dubs anime, Japanese animation, and slowly comes to believe that she herself is the lead character. “She starts to see her role as saving the planet, developing superhero powers to do so,” Riemann explains, “but in the end realizes that she is bipolar. My friend, who is the role model for the character, has the worst possible form of it. And she hates the word ‘bipolar’. She says it’s manic depression because that’s what it is: manic and depressive! I want to dedicate the film to her." 

It’s a lot to juggle: “There is much animation, many stunts, special effects, underwater shots, a great deal to coordinate, but the edit is almost done and I’m maybe finished in April.” Riemann has to be because “I’m already shooting my next one, in June, a teenage sex-comedy called Get Lucky. It’s all about kids having it out in a house by the Baltic.” 

All the now classic Riemann-signatures are going to be there: “It’s full of jokes, very light, funny, but of a punk rock style, with some animation, rough and dirty. I wrote the script, after all! I wasn’t sure about directing but the producers at Deutschfilm and Rommel Film wanted me. I think I can do something more mainstream but it still has this dirty side. I can’t change completely! And I’m working with my usual cameraman, Hannes Hubach.” 

So how to describe a Ziska Riemann film? “It has very strong visuals, a lot of pop culture elements. Lollipop Monster had music videos, Electric Girl has animation. All my films have slightly exaggerated colours,” she explains. “Comic books involve working with a ‘Ka-Pow!’ at the end of every page to get you to turn to the next, whether it’s a strong stop or something to chew on. My films have a strong moment at the end of each scene. I’m totally more into colours, emotions, wild people, strong characters that express themselves, not quiet ones. I think people who were comic book artists become really good directors.” 

A casual cinemagoer, Riemann’s dream project is The Tigress, a novella by Walter Serner, “about a woman nobody believes can be tamed. She lives in Paris, everyone calls her The Tigress. Then a young man comes, tries and fails. It has drama, humour, tragedy, because they are in love. I read it a long time ago and was so impressed. I identify with my characters, of course,” she continues, “but I think I’m pretty tamed by now!”

In collaboration with

 

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

See also

Privacy Policy