Side programme > Retrospective of a Contemporary German Film
Novemberchild
NOVEMBERKIND/ NOVEMBERCHILD
Germany, 2008., 95’
Director
Christian Schwochow
Cast
Anna Maria Mühe, Ulrich Matthes, Christine Schorn
Awards
Cottbus Film Festival of Young East European Cinema 2008.
Promotional award- DEFA Foundation
Max Ophüls Festival 2008. - Audience award
Inga, now 25, was raised by her grandparents in an East German village. Her mother is said to have drowned when Inga was six months old, and a grave is the touchstone that connects her to her mother’s story. As she is at work in the library one day, an out-of-town professor who had taught creative writing to Inga’s mother in Konstanz seeks her out. He wants to write a book about Inga’s mother. Once she learns that her mother escaped to the West, Inga’s search for all the missing pieces in her life begins. Who is her father? What is the truth about her mother? Why did she abandon her? Is she alive? With the professor in tow Inga embarks on a journey to the west to find the answers.
Christian Schwochow was born in 1978 in Bergen on the island of Rügen, Germany. He worked as an author and reporter for various television and radio broadcasters before studies from 2002-2008 in Film Directing at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy. His films include: „Soapstar“ (documentary, 2003), „Der Grosse Franz“ (short, 2004), „Marta und Der Fliegende Grossvater“ (TV, 2006), „Jaeger Verlorener Schaetze“ (TV, 2007), and „November child“ (2008) is his feature debut.