(DEUTSCHER FILMPREIS) The Nominations for 2023
News
The nominees for the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Prize) have been announced. An event of the German Film Academy, the Deutscher Filmpreis honours the best of German Cinema. Picture Tree International has three titles that have been nominated for the prestigious award: MISSION ULJA FUNK for Best Children's Film, MEASURES OF MEN for Best Production Design and SENECA for Best Makeup.
MEASURES OF MEN
Berlin at the end of the 19th Century. Alexander Hoffmann is an ambitious PhD student of Ethnology. When a delegation of the Herero and Nama tribes travels to Berlin during a ‘Colonial Exhibition’, he takes a special interest in their young female translator Kezia Kambazembi as subject for his studies. Impressed by her intellect, he begins to question the common racial theories of white supremacy, whilst the delegation fails in their attempt to negotiate for better conditions with the German Kaiser and returns to Namibia, where the political tensions are growing worse over time and culminate in the Herrero uprising and brutal retaliations of the German imperial army. In this tense atmosphere, Hoffmann eagerly joins an ethnological expedition under the army’s protection to gather scientifically ‘valuable’ artefacts, whilst trying to collect further proof for his progressive theories and to find Kezia. Hoffmann experiences the brutality of war and the massacres among the local population. Slowly he begins to lose his moral compass with his ambitions depending on the promotion by the opportunistic and deeply racist professor von Waldstätten. When he finally encounters the brutalized Kezia in a concentration camp, he can neither face her nor himself. Hoffmann achieves his career goals by denying his true beliefs and chooses not to speak out against the common theory of white supremacy that will soon contribute to an even darker chapter in German history.
MISSION ULJA FUNK
When Ulja (12) is prevented from pursuing her passion, astronomy, she decides to take matters into her own hands. With a stolen hearse and a 13-year-old classmate as a driver, she makes her way across Eastern Europe to watch the impact of an asteroid. In doing so, she not only has to shake off her persecutors, but also her pragmatic view of friendship and family.
SENECA
Rome in 65 AD, the philosopher Seneca has been Emperor Nero‘s teacher, mentor and close advisor since childhood, he is significantly involved in his ascent. Nevertheless, Nero gets weary of Seneca and Nero uses a foiled attack on his life to falsely accuse Seneca of being an accomplice. While throwing a decadent party at his farmhouse, Seneca receives his surprising death sentence of Emperor Nero, delivered by a messenger. He must be dead by morning. He accepts his fate and, like Socrates, wants to depart from life after proffering a final lesson of his life philosophy to his followers. This last night becomes his final test: Who is he really? An opportunist, hypocrite and collaborator or, according to his selfimage, a morally upright, wise man looking death in the face without any fear?