The 49th Hof International Film Festival will kick off on Tuesday, 20 October 2015 with the European premiere of ONE BREATH by Christian Zübert with Jördis Triebel and Benjamin Sadler in the leading roles. For five days, the Upper Franconian city of Hof will be under the spell of films, filmmakers, producers, distributors, cinema operators and enthusiastic audiences.
The young filmmakers
As always, festival director Heinz Badewitz will focus on young filmmakers presenting their first features, many of whom have already shown their short films in previous festival years: for example, Constantin Hatz, who was in Hof last year with his short film HELIKOPTER-HAUSARREST. This year, he will be presenting his feature debut FUGE, the story of a young student living in the suburbs of a big city who gradually frees herself from family dependencies. Further debuts include: HENRY by Philipp Fussenegger, HÖRDÜR by Ekrem Ergün about the 17-year-old Alyin who finally recognizes where her real strengths lie and no longer has to escape into her dreams to find her own happiness, and TRASH DETECTIVE by Maximilian Buck.
But there is also TREPPE AUFWÄRTS by Mia Maariel Mayer with Hanno Koffler as a gambler; ZWEITE HAND by Nikolas Jürgens; AFTER SPRING COMES FALL by Daniel Carsenty about Kurdish refugees in Germany whose lives are shaped by betrayal, collaboration and violence. In THE BICYCLE, Arne Körner turns Paris into the stage for a long-distance relationship.
Festival guests include:
Thomas Stuber with his feature debut A HEAVY HEART, a genre overlapping film about a former boxer and bouncer who has to fight for his last victory on a completely different level. Stuber was awarded the Student Oscar® for Best Foreign Film in 2012 for his film OF DOGS AND HORSES, in addition to numerous other prestigious awards. Sebastian Peterson, who was already a festival guest in Hof in 2013, tells the interwoven story of three guys in a shared flat in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district with MAIER MÜLLER SCHMIDT. After SASCHA (2010), Dennis Todorovic presents his second feature SCHWESTER WEISS with Lisa Martinek, Zeljka Preksavec and Beatrice Richter. Martin Hawie, who was invited to Hof in 2013 with CAMILLE, will present his new film TORO about two friends who couldn’t be any more different, but together are searching for a new beginning in life.
In UNSER LETZTER SOMMER by Michel Rogalski, four young people – two Poles, one German and one Jewish woman – encounter one another, discover together new music and new love, but in the middle of the war in 1943 are faced with a decision which will change their lives forever. On board again this year is the Cologne-based duo Markus Mischkowski and Kai Maria Steinkühler with WEISSE RITTER, in which they themselves play two unemployed friends who are recruited as couriers by an old friend, with catastrophic consequences. In EVA S. – DIE NATIONALISTEN, Detlef Bothe tells a story of the injuries and longings of an actress who works as a prostitute and gradually loses all sense of hope. Bernd Michael Lade presents his latest directorial work, DAS GESTÄNDNIS, in which two comrades of the East Berlin homicide squad in the last year of the GDR are pushed to their limits and forced to face an existential decision regarding covering up or investigating.
Traditionally, Hof provides young film students and filmmakers a platform to screen their first film experiments and short films.
Once again this year, the festival will present a comprehensive short film program with over 50 films.
