When We Leave (Die Fremde) by Feo Aladag

Scene from "When We Leave" (photo © 2008 Independent Artists Filmproduktion/Manfred Horender)

When We Leave (Die Fremde)

What would you sacrifice for your family’s love? Your values? Your freedom? Your independence? German-born Umay flees her oppressive marriage in Istanbul, taking her young son Cem with her. She is hoping to find a better life with her family in Berlin, but her unexpected arrival creates intense conflict. Her family is trapped in their conventions, torn between their love for her and the values of their community. Ultimately they decide to return Cem to his father in Turkey. To keep her son, Umay is forced to move again. She finds the inner strength to build a new life for her and Cem, but her need for her family’s love drives her to a series of ill-fated attempts at reconciliation. What Umay doesn’t realize is just how the wounds have gone and how dangerous her struggle for self-determination has become...

Director Feo Aladag
Screenplay Feo Aladag
Director of Photography Judith Kaufmann
Editor Andrea Mertens
Music by Max Richter
Production Design Silke Buhr
Producers Feo Aladag, Zueli Aladag
Production Company Independent Artists Filmproduktion/Berlin, in co-production with WDR/Cologne, RBB/Potsdam-Babelsberg, ARTE/Strasbourg
Principal Cast Sibel Kekilli, Derya Alabora, Settar Tanrioegen, Nizam Schiller, Tamer Yigit, Serhad Can, Almila Bagriacik, Florian Lukas, Alwara Hoefels, Nursel Koese, Ufuk Bayraktar, Blanca Apilánez
Length 119 min
Format 35 mm, color, cs
Original Version German/Turkish
Subtitled Versions German, English
Sound Technology Dolby SRD
With backing from German Federal Film Board (FFA), BKM, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film
German Distributor Delphi Filmverleih/Berlin

World Sales
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Sonnenstrasse 21
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phone +49-89-55 87 60
fax +49-89-55 87 62 29
email: cinepool@telepool.de
http://www.telepool.de

Feo Aladag was born in 1972 in Vienna. She began her career as an actress, completing her training in London and Vienna from 1990-1995. While studying Acting she completed a Master in Psychology and Journalism, continuing on to receive her PhD in 2000. She acted in numerous acclaimed film and television productions while attending various master-classes and directing seminars at the European Film Academy as well as the German Film and Television Academy. During this time she also maintained a successful career as a scriptwriter and commercial film director. In 2005, Feo Aladag founded the production company Independent Artists, responsible for her debut as the producer, director and writer of When We Leave (Die Fremde, 2009).

Review | Soul Kitchen

Venice
Soul Kitchen (Germany)
By DEREK ELLEY

A Pandora Film release of a Corazon Intl. production, in association with Pyramide Prods., NDR, Dorje Film. (International sales: the Match Factory, Cologne.) Produced by Klaus Maeck, Fatih Akin. Co-producers, Fabienne Vonier, Alberto Fanni, Flaminio Zadra, Paolo Colombo. Directed by Fatih Akin. Screenplay, Akin, Adam Bousdoukos.

With: Adam Bousdoukos, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birol Unel, Anna Bederke, Pheline Roggan, Lucas Gregorowicz, Dorka Gryllus, Wotan Wilke Moehring, Demir Gokgol, Monica Bleibtreu, Udo Kier, Marc Hosemann, Cem Akin, Catrin Striebeck, Jan Fedder, Julia Wachsmann, Markus Imboden, Gudrun Egner, Gustav Peter Woehler, Ugur Yucel.

Returning to his native Hamburg, Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin rediscovers the verve of his early "Short Sharp Shock," tempered by a mature warmth, in "Soul Kitchen." Nicely cast ensembler, centered on a hopelessly disorganized eatery owner and peopled by a weird collection of lovable eccentrics, is pacey entertainment that hardly puts a foot wrong. This is not the fest-laureled Akin of weighty fare like "Head-On" and "The Edge of Heaven" -- more the one of "Solino" with a grungy, down-to-earth Hamburg edge. Offshore sales, at least in Europe, look to be lively.

Clearly made as a change of pace after "Heaven," the pic is labeled by Akin "an audacious, dirty Heimat film." But for him, a Heimat film isn't Bavarian blondes in dirndls; this is northern, grungy, multikulti Germany, with Greeks, Turks, rock bands and drifters.

Zinos Kazantsakis (Greek-German thesp Adam Bousdoukos) owns and caters a warehouse restaurant in the Hamburg nabe of Wilhelmsburg, where the working-class clientele like deep-fried schnitzels and burgers with their beer. Always running behind the eight-ball, Zinos even arrives late for the farewell dinner of his better-off g.f., Nadine (Pheline Roggan), who's leaving for a job in Shanghai.

When Zinos' larcenous younger brother, Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu), is let out of jail on day release, he asks Zinos to give him a fake job so he can get out more often. Zinos also has the idea of hiring a professional chef, the temperamental Shayn (Birol Unel), whose nouvelle cuisine alienates his regulars but eventually becomes a hit with the in-crowd.

With a tax inspector (Catrin Striebeck) and health officer (Jan Fedder) on his back, Nadine nagging him long-distance to join her, and a real estate shark (Wotan Wilke Moehring) trying to force him to sell the place, Zinos signs power of attorney over to the unreliable Illias and decides to set off to China. But he doesn't get further than the airport.

Incident-packed script manages to juggle a large number of characters and cameos without leaving any of them feeling underdeveloped. As the pieces fall into place in the final reels, there's a nice sense of community among the group of dreamers, losers and getting-byers, a feeling of how "home" is where you're most comfortable rather than a specific country, culture or place.

Bousdoukos, who co-wrote the script with Akin and was in the helmer's "Short Sharp Shock," has a slightly goofy, dumbkopf appeal that's just right for Zinos, and he teams well with Bleibtreu as his younger brother. Moehring and Unel are fine as the property trader and prima donna chef, respectively, but the real discovery is Hamburg-born Anna Bederke as Lucia, Zinos' hard-drinking waitress, who, in a beautifully played sequence, falls hard for Illias. As Zinos' physical therapist, Anna, Hungarian thesp Dorka Gryllus ("Irina Palm") is also aces in a key but gentler role.

Though several sequences feature cuisine, "Soul Kitchen" is not a foodie film a la "Mostly Martha." Music, just as much as food, is the way into the souls of these characters, but the rough-edged city of Hamburg -- always there in the background -- is what brings them together. Pic is as much a love letter to the place as to its people.

Technical package is deliberately on the grungy side but blooms when necessary under the camera of Akin regular Rainer Klausmann. Tight editing by Andrew Bird brings the pic in at a flab-free 98 minutes, and end titles are especially inventive.

The film is dedicated to Akin's brother, Cem, who plays one of Illias' buddies. It also features one of the last performances of Bleibtreu's mother, Monica (who died in May), in a comically explosive cameo as Nadine's grandma.

Camera (color), Rainer Klausmann; editor, Andrew Bird; music supervisors, Klaus Maeck, Pia Hoffmann; production designer, Tamo Kunz; costume designer, Katrin Aschendorf; sound (Dolby Digital), Kai Luede, Richard Borowski; sound designer, Andreas Hildebrandt; casting, Monique Akin. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (competing), Sept. 10, 2009. (Also in Toronto Film Festival -- Special Presentations.) Running time: 98 MIN.

2008 | Chico by Özgür Yildirim

The latest corazón-production CHIKO, a first feature film by Özgür
Yildirim, will be premiered at the Berlinale 08 in the Panorama section


Chico Germany 2007/2008, Feature Film
Credits
Director Özgür Yildirim
Screenplay Özgür Yildirim
Director of photography Matthias Bolliger
Cast :
Denis Moschitto Chiko
Moritz Bleibtreu Brownie
Volker Özcan Tibet
Philipp Baltus Scholle
Jelica Batarilo Schwester Jessica
Fahri Ögün Yardim Curly

Production company:Corazón International GmbH & Co. KG (Hamburg)
Producer Fatih Akin; Klaus Maeck

Özgür Yildirim
born 1979 Hamburg

2007/2008 Chiko
Screenplay,Director
2004 Alim Market
Director
2003 Der nötige Schneid/Under the Knife
Director