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Section: Documentary Films
Brundibar (2014)
The Holocaust? Again? That’s the first reaction of the members of a youth theatre company in Berlin when they hear they are to play the opera Brundibár. This young company, a group of problem children, are thrust back in time to the worst chapter of German history. They are tasked with studying a work which had its premiere in 1938 in the notorious Theresienstadt concentration camp. While working on the opera they get to know Greta Klingsberg, one of the few survivors from the original theatrical cast. Her optimistic approach to life changes the attitudes of the young cast toward history and the present. Thus the group gain an experience that would be hard to get in a school environment. When watching the premiere of the newly studied opera, a moved Greta feels she has already built up a deep friendship with the protagonists.
| Country | Germany, Czech Republic |
|---|---|
| Year | 2014 |
| Duration | 85 min |
| Rating | 14 |
| Language | German |
| Subtitle | Czech |
| Directed by | Douglas Wolfspreger |
| Screenplay | Douglas Wolfsperger |
| Director of Photography | Frank Amann, Igor Luther |
| Music | Alex Komlew |
| Edited by | Frank Brummundt |
| Contact | Eine Douglas Wolfsperger Filmproduktion |
Biography
Douglas Wolfsperger (1957) is a German director and screenwriter. He co-operated with TV companies SWF and WDR for many years. He worked in live-acted film productions, making his feature debut with Live Criss and Die Cross (Lebe kreuz und sterbe quer, 1985), and further directed the comedy My Polish Virgin (Meine polnische Jungfrau, 2001), among others. Later, he began to work in documentary film; among others he's made the award-winning Bellaria: As Long as We Live! (Bellaria – So lange wir leben!, 2001) and Double Life (Doppelleben, 2011).