Schlamassel
by Sylke Enders
Synopsis | Cast & Crew | Technical Information
With the loss of her grandmother, Johanna‘s soul is raging as she confronts her problematic family at Grandma‘s funeral. She does not give herself time to mourn throwing herself to her work at a newspaper. When she discover a photo of a female concentration camp guard, she seizes the opportunity to confront to the woman, but Johanna starts to relate with the woman’s daughter as she helplessly try to support their mother‘s tendency to stylize herself as a victim.
The approach seems logical to Johanna as a journalist, but she experiences an urge that she cannot identify as a sense danger starts to take over.
Cast
Mareike Beykirch, Linda Wendel, Lore Stefanek, Margarethe Tiesel
Director Bio
Sylke Enders is a director and writer based in Berlin. She initially studied sociology and social and economic communication before continuing to study directing at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin (DFFB).
Her debut feature film KROKO won the German Film Award and was nominated for the European Film Award Discovery prize. Her subsequent films have been regular guests at top festivals. HAB MICH LIEB, DU BIST DRAN, SCHÖNEFELD BOULEVARD and ZWEI VERLORENE SCHAFE all premiered at Munich International Film Festival. MONDKALB premiered at Filmtage Hof just as her upcoming independently produced PIA PIANO.
She was also one of the 13 German directors contributing to the episodic film DEUTSCHLAND 09 - 13 KURZE FILME ZUR LAGE DER NATION (Germany 09 - 13 short films on the state of the nation) that premiered at Berlinale. She is currently in post-production of her feature film SCHLAMASSEL.
Director Statement
For me SCHLAMASSEL deals with the transmission of unresolved history and family trauma through two families in which the culture of conversation is reduced to the bare minimum. Whether during the Nazi era, during the SED regime, or now in united Germany: the inner narrowness of the world of the parents has often been tragically perpetuated in the family structures.
I am not primarily interested in questions of guilt or responsibility; I want to explore how the denial of a real confrontation with the past prevents a kind of „healing“ and how this affects the next generations. These poisoned, heartless family atmospheres are a source of latent fear and a lack of inner security and make it difficult for the next generation to take responsibility for themselves. By witnessing these mechanisms in the Deckert family, Johanna is able to have an outside view on her own family dynamics. And so hopefully will the viewer.
Cast Bio
Mareike Beykirch studied at the University of Music and Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig. During her studies she was a member of the studio at the Centraltheater Leipzig. Since 2013 she has also been a guest lecturer for acting at the Bavarian Theater Academy in Munich. She appeared in plays and performances by Falk Richter, Nora Abdel-Maksoud, Schorsch Kamerun. In February 2021, Beykirch was part of the #ActOut initiative in SZ-Magazine. Schlamassel is her latest feature.
Lore Stefanek she studied acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. She was part of the Municipal Theater in Heidelberg and of the Braunschweig State Theater, as well as member of the ensemble at the Frankfurt Schauspiel. As of 2021 she can be seen in the plays The German Lunch Table and The King Dies directed by Claus Peymann at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna.
Lina Wendel she studied at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. She played Gretchen in Urfaust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ophelia in William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Sonja in Maxim Gorki's Summer Guests in Theatre. Wendel took his first role on the GDR television and has been working regularly for film and television, such as Großstadtrevier, SOKO Wismar, Der Alte, In allerfreunde and Tatort. For her portrayal of the title character in the film Silvi, received several awards. She took female lead alongside Peter Kurth in Thomas Stuber's feature film debut Herbert.
Crew
Directed and Written by Sylke Enders
Producers Roman Avianus, Anja Wedell
DoP Jakob Wehrmann
Music Bert Wrede
Editor Sebastian Lempe
Production Design Michael Schindlmeier
Costume Design Regina Gyr
Casting Tanja Schuh
Production Companies Joroni Film & CZAR Film
Original Title: Schlamassel | 112’ | German OV | Germany 2023
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