Congratulations Sönke, on receiving the Minister President's Honorary Award at the Bavarian Film Prize!

"When I started, in the mid-eighties at the HFF (Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film) in Munich, I had a big goal: I wanted to run once, only once, with one of my student films in Hof! Surprisingly, this was achieved the very first time. NACHTFAHRER was shown as a supporting film and I can't remember ever having been so excited before or after in my life. I couldn't sleep for days, before the performance I was sick and when the film was shown, I didn't dare to go into the hall at first, but chewed off my fingernails in front of the door.

At some point, curiosity prevailed, and I sneaked into the dark hall. It was packed, so I squatted down on the floor. Next to me, two women whispered something like this: "Oh shit, what's the point?" - "What is he (i.e.) doing there?" – "What are these funny cuts?" – "Is he serious?" – "I can't even look at it..." - "Should we go?" - "Yes, it's better." Got up and left the hall.

I died inside and was too weak to go out as well. And weren't they right? Wasn't everything that came back from the screen just bad? After what felt like three hours, the lights went on again, and to my surprise, one clapped, already during the final title. Then another one and then the whole hall, very friendly and honestly enthusiastic. Nevertheless, I'm not sure today whether Heinz Badewitz included the film in the program only because I was able to play football quite well back then.

No matter - it was a great experience, as in the years after. In any case, my cradle is in Hof."