THE FRIEND
by Elmar Fischer
synopsis
He doesn't mention that he's leaving, says no good-byes. He parties one last time as if there was no tomorrow and the next day simply disappears: Yunes, 22 years old, a process engineering student in Berlin, born in Yemen. Chris, his German roommate, begins to worry. He remembers their friendship: how they first met in a Turkish grocery shop, the careful approach of two foreign cultures, the discussions about women, the great times with Julia and Nora. In cases when it really mattered, Chris and Yunes were always there for each other. But there are also things Chris never understood, moments in which pride and anger flared up in Yunes and frightened everybody around him. Times when his thoughts seemed to be infinitely far away. And the changes in his beliefs and his behavior for which there were never any explanations. Chris starts looking for him. Yunes' parents in Yemen don't know anything. Neither does his ex-girlfriend. He broke off contact with his friends, his Islamic group has disbanded. He remains untraceable. And then it's September 11, 2001.
international title: | The Friend |
original title: | Fremder Freund |
country: | Germany |
sales agent: | Naked Eye Fllmproduction (DE) |
year: | 2003 |
genre: | fiction |
directed by: | Elmar Fischer |
film run: | 105' |
screenplay: | Elmar Fischer, Tobias Kniebe |
cast: | Antonio Wannek, Navid Akhavan, Mina Tander, Mavie Hoerbiger, Fatih Alas |
cinematography by: | Florian Emmerich |
film editing: | Antje Zynga |
art director: | Doerte Schreiterer |
music: | Matthias Beine |
producer: | Sabine Lamby, Giulio Ricciarelli, Michael Amtmann |
production: | Naked Eye Filmproduction, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) |
backing: | Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Kulturelle Filmfoerderung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmförderungsanstalt FFA |
distributor: | Stardust Filmverleih Gmbh |