GHOSTS
Film - Homage | Retrospective Christian Petzold Filmfest 2016

GHOSTS

Directed by Christian Petzold

Info

Director: Christian Petzold
Section: Homage | Retrospective Christian Petzold
Country: Germany, France
Year: 2005
PT: GESPENSTER
OT: GESPENSTER
Language: German
Version: Original version
Cast: Julia Hummer, Sabine Timoteo, Marianne Basler, Aurélien Recoing, Benno Fürmann
12+

Logline

GHOSTS

Two girls meet at the Berlin zoo, early in the morning: orphan Nina (Julia Hummer) and vagrant Toni (Sabine Timoteo). At the same time a French woman is searching for her child that was abducted years ago. She thinks Nina is her lost daughter and won’t give up on her dream, while Nina and Toni try their hand at the fleeting thing called love. After a successful audition with a wonderfully oily director (Benno Fürmann), they are invited to a party, dancing together in a room, bathed in bright red light. “In that red room, they are in their own bubble, belonging to each other. It’s their world, their red. But they have to emerge into everybody else’s world. One of them stays in the bubble, the other leaves it, and betrays the other.” – Christian Petzold

Meet the director

GHOSTS

Christian Petzold

Christian Petzold was born in Hilden, North Rhine Westphalia, in 1960. He moved to Berlin in 1981, studying German lit and theater studies at the Free University. He graduated in 1989 and went on to study directing at dffb film school, working as assistant director for Hartmut Bitomsky and Harun Farocki, and writing film criticism. Petzold shot his graduating film PILOTINNEN 1994. After TV movies CUBA LIBRE and DIE BEISCHLAFDIEBIN he shot his first theatrical film THE STATE I AM IN (2000), a daram about a teen and his parents, who are wanted terrorists. The film won a string of awards, including the German Film Prize in Gold as Best Film. In 2001, Petzold’s collaboration with Nina Hoss began on SOMETHING TO REMIND ME, with whom he went on to shoot a series of films: WOLFSBURG (2003) won the Berlinale FIPRESCI Award and the Adolf Grimme Prize in Gold. Nina Hoss also starred in YELLA (2007), JERICHOW (2009) and BARBARA (2012). He shot an episode of TV three-parter DREILEBEN (2011). Petzold’s latest theatrical film PHOENIX (2013/2014), also starring Nina Hoss, won the International Film Critics’ Award at San Sebastián Film Festival.

Credits

Screenplay: Christian Petzold, Harun Farocki
Director of Photography: Hans Fromm
Film Editor: Bettina Böhler
Composer: Stefan Will, Marco Dreckkötter
Production Designer: K.D. Gruber
Costume Design: Anette Guther
Sound: Andreas Mücke-Niesytka
Producer: Florian Kerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber
Production Company: Schramm Film Koerner & Weber
Co-Producer: Anne-Dominique Toussaint
Co-Production Company: Les Films des Tournelles, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Arte, Arte France Cinéma
Distributor: PIFFL MEDIEN GmbH
Editor: Bettina Reitz, Andreas Streitmüller, Michel Reihlac
TV channel: Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Arte, Arte France Cinéma