Schatzritter gallops into Luxembourg cinemas

by Boyd Van Hoeij

09/07/2012 - The Luxembourg production Schatzritter an d’Geheimnis vum Melusina, the directorial feature debut of local director Laura Schroeder, was released last weekend in the Grand Duchy.

It is the first of two features released this year that is not only a majority coproduction but is also in the local language, Luxemburgish. The second feature, the police thriller Doudege Winkel, will be released in autumn.

Schatzritter is the passion project of the young Luxembourg producer Bernard Michaux, whose small production outfit Lucil Film has been steadily gaining ground in the last couple of years, notably by co-producing the award-winning Irish feature The Runway and, more recently, by having started working on a half-hour sitcom project for local broadcasting giant RTL.

He’s been the driving force behind Schatzritter an d’Geheimnis vum Melusina, which takes the local legend of the maiden Melusina and transforms it into a treasure hunt for children.

It has been several years since a live-action film for children was made in the local language; the last was Perl oder Pica [trailer], which Pol Cruchten directed in 2006.

The project is a co-production with neighbouring Germany and a German-language version of the film also exists. Rising German star Alexandra Neldel was cast as Melusina, though the children in the film are all played by Luxembourg newcomers.

The film was produced by Lucil Film, Neos Film, Bavaria Film Partners, Screenvest and Perathon Medien, with financial backing from Filmfund Luxembourg, Eurimages, MEDIA programme of the European Union, FFF Bayern and Saarland Medien.