Max Ophüls Preis Filmfestival

Finally, the premiere of Hazorea took place. Since Ulli and I share a flat I somehow witnessed the whole process of creation. Thus I was looking forward to join the film team for the trip to Saarbrücken to Hazorea's permiere.

Before the film was accepted for the Max Ophüls Preis festival I hadn't really been aware of this festival. Since then it seemed to be mentioned quite often. This year the 30th anniversary took place. It is a festival for young German speaking films to support new talents. There are even two participants from last year nominated for the Oscar. I was quite impressed that Hazorea was shown at this festival.

One of the first affecting moments at the festival was when we heard a woman asking for tickets for Hazorea. It really became true. The premiere took place and the audience seemed to like the film and was very interested in the topic. It was amazing to finally watch the film in a cinema.

Later we attended the award cermony. There were interesting film clips shown, different to the mainstream movies, and we regret that we had not been able to come there earlier to watch other films. At least we were able to see the winner film "Universal Love". I can only recommend to watch out for films that had been accepted for this festival.

Jagdsaison, Finanzkrise oder Bionadeüberschuss?

Reduziert, Ausverkauf, Sonderpreise in neonrot, grün, gelb - zu lesen in beinahe jedem Schaufenster.

Gleich weckt sich mein Jagdtrieb, um dann schnell von einem Zweifel überschattet zu werden. Sahen die Schaufenster im letzten Januar genauso aus? Waren die Prozente so hoch, die Angebote so viele? Ganz normaler Winterschlussverkauf oder verzweifelter Umsatz-Rettungsversuch? Wird hier mit allen Mitteln versucht den Leuten das Geld aus der Tasche zu locken, die den unbesorgten Umgang mit dem Geld beiseite legen?

Einsame Verkäuferinnen in leeren Läden. Nicht dass man sich nicht schon oft gefragt hätte, wie all die kleinen Läden überleben können, mit ihrem Versuch nach Individualität, die sie in der Masse aber dann doch wieder verlieren. Ein Sparziergang durch die naheliegenden Strassen, rund um den Helmholtzplatz, lässt mich jedesmal wieder einen solchen entdecken, den ich noch nicht kannte, der schön anzuschauen ist, aber mich doch über dessen Zielgruppe ins Grübeln kommen lässt.

Waren mir aber diese Läden schon immer so einsam erschienen? Sind es Zeichen, nur weil sie mir als solche in den Sinn kommen? Oder, war ich einfach nur im letzten Jahr nie abends an einem kalten Wintertag spazieren?

Hazorea

Hazorea, the name of a kibbutz in northern Israel, is the title of the debut film by Ulrike Pfaff. It is a documentary about this place, about how everything began and how things changed since 1936, when the kibbutz was founded.

Listening to the old women telling from which ideas they built up their new homeland made me think that a kibbutz was a place I desire to be when the world is a place where life is running too fast and the city is too big. There the romantic ideas of communism seem to have had a chance to become true. At least they became a reality for a longer time than they usually did. When the old woman Hannah tells about the beginning of the kibbutz where they had to build up their village from almost nothing on a desert land you can imagine why. Fighting and working together such hard in order to survive creates a strong company. The film supports Hannah's report about the founding of the kibbutz by showing archive pictures. You can see the house where all children lived together and where parents took it in turns to look after them during nights. Another building contains the dining-hall. Instead of having their meals in their own houses all residents came there to eat together. Kibbutzniks shared almost everything and every occupation was of equal value. As an example, it was not possible that one household got a TV, either all of them or none of them got one.

As every "too good to be true" story there is a flip side of the coin, such as children that felt being left alone when spending their nights in the children's house. The film shows young adults telling how some well-intentioned custom turned out to be not so well affecting them. In fact they closed the children's house such that these can spend the nights in their parents house with someone taking care of them when waking up crying. Young men are shown, that are at an age where they have to decide whether to stay in their kibbutz or leave it, who explain why the kibbutz as it was meant to be might die sooner or later. One main reason for that is actually something that may be one of the main causes of conflicts everywhere. People notice that others do have more of arbitrary commodities and can't stand the desire to get the same. The idea of all being equal seems to no longer work and things already have changed quite much.

In my opinion this a very successful documentary about the story of a kibbutz. It shows these lovely women telling their fascinating story about how they founded and built their kibbutz. A women with young children is explaining the reasons why she chose to live with heir husband in his kibbutz. And then there are these young men that deliberate about whether they should stay or leave the kibbutz. I would love to travel to a kibbutz and experience the atmosphere the film conveys.

The film has its premiere at the film festival "Max Ophüls Preis" which started this week.
Well done, "Frau Pfaff" :)!