Info
Logline
Based on the real-life kidnapping of the son of entrepreneur Jochem Erlemann.
Throughout the 1970s, Jochem Erlemann is the most charming swindler in the German business world. In 1980, the public prosecutor’s office finally puts this cunning specialist in tax write-offs in custody and freezes his assets. Soon thereafter, his 11-year-old son Johannes is kidnapped by four men who demand a ransom of three million marks. Since the police suspect the father himself of plotting the kidnapping, Johannes's mother, Gabi, has to come up with the money on her own.
Meet the director
Marc Rothemund
Marc Rothemund, born in 1968, began his career as an assistant director to such distinguished filmmakers as Helmut Dietl, Bernd Eichinger, and Dominik Graf. His first feature film, LOVE SCENES FROM PLANET EARTH, earned him the Bavarian Film Award for best young director in 1998. His second feature film, ANTS IN THE PANTS, was one of the most popular German productions of 1999, and his TV movie FINAL HOPE received the Golden Camera and the Grimme-Preis in Gold in 2002. For the Oscar-nominated film SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE FINAL DAYS, Rothemund received a Silver Bear for best director in 2005. Further popular motion pictures followed, including MY BLIND DATE WITH LIFE and THIS CRAZY HEART.