How do you write stories about a country you’ve never seen before? Karl May had to wait more than 20 years before he was finally able to travel abroad to the settings of his novels. Six students of the Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig – Roman Ehrlich, Dorothee Elmiger, Franz Friedrich, Jasmin Herold, Sascha Kokot and Oliver Kluck – were given their chance much sooner: during the summer semester of 2008, at a seminar under the direction of Dr. Cathy de Haan, they developed screenplays for short films set in the Ukraine.

A jury, composed of film experts Frank Albers (Robert Bosch Stiftung), Dr. Markus Görsch (Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung), Prof. Dr. Josef Haslinger (DLL), Dr. Christian Lüffe (Goethe Institut), Robin Mallick (Filmfest Dresden) and Dr. Cathy de Haan (DLL, OSTPOL e.V.) nominated these six screenplays from the seminar output.

During a workshop in Kiev from 29th of July to 3rd of August with upcoming directors and producers of the Karpenko-Kary University and the International University Kiev, the winners jointly compiled detailed drafts of the short films, and filming in Kiev will have concluded by the autumn of 2008.

The authors from Leipzig and the filmmakers from Kiev had to face a double challenge: to work inter-disciplinarily and think cross-culturally. The finished films will be presented at various film festivals and special events over the next months.
For 2009 it’s planned to continue ANSICHTSSACHE in cooperation with the film school “Leon Schiller” in Łódź in Poland.

An OSTPOL project – with the backing of the Robert Bosch Stiftung in cooperation with the Goethe Institut, Deutsches Literatur Institut Leipzig, the Karpenko-Kary University for Theatre, Film and Television and the International University Kiev.

Project Diary

Montag, 28. Juli 2008, von Franz Friedrich (PDF, 170 KB)

Dienstag, 29. Juli 2008, von Roman Ehrlich (PDF, 235 KB)

Mittwoch, 30. Juli 2008, von Dorothee Elmiger (PDF, 444 KB)

Donnerstag, 31. Juli 2008, von Jasmin Herold (PDF, 396 KB)

Freitag, 1. August 2008, von Oliver Kluck (PDF, 177 KB)

Sonnabend, 2. August 2008, von Sascha Kokot (PDF, 1260 KB)