11/02/2003 - Five episodes set on the German-Polish border. Hans-Christian Scmid: “This is my political film”

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“Towards tolerance” is the slogan of the Berlinale and Hans-Christian Schmid’s Lichter tries to lead us towards tolerance. The film is set against the backdrop of the Polish-German border on the Oder River just one hour from Berlin, and was screened today in competition.
It tells five distinct but overlapping stories of illegal immigration from Poland towards the European Community. The film is a mix of real life events and stories imagined by Schmid and his habitual co-writer, Michael Guttman. The cast consists of German, Polish and Ukrainian actors whose tired faces tell the viewer all he needs to know about the difficulties they encountered. Schmid followed their every action and remains close to his protagonists at all times.

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Coproduced by Germany’s Claussen and Poland’s Wöbke, Lichter is “about human relations” said Schmid as he defended the "politics" of this film.
“I wanted to make this film because I think that we have to be award of the fact that we live in a rich society. I don’t think that politics that limit immigration and prevent people from other countries from entering the EU countries are right. I tried to be as politically prudent as possible, but obviously, when you portray this world, you are talking about people in extreme situations and circumstances who react to these circumstances. They are not all kind, but I wanted to make a film that reflected this reality. You cannot always repeat yourself and even if my earlier films had a different point of view, I think all I did here was change the atmosphere but not my filmmaking style.”

(Translated from Italian)