To Get a Grip on Manic Lunacy

When did you decide to become a filmmaker?

I wanted to be a director since I was 15 years old. First it was theatre, then I quickly changed to film. Why? Because I have a tendency for self-promotion without being more than a mediocre actor. So I would settle on commanding other people around…

Die Bewerber

Yeah, that's right. The idea came into my mind some morning when the mood was like: “Come on, let's shoot another one for our graduation celebration, no one's gonna see it anyway“. It was completely improvised.

The film starts out as a kind of mockumentary with characters talking to the camera, but then it shifts into pure fiction which seems meticulously directed and deftly edited. Was there a script?

No script. Making plans is a beginner's mistake. Well, we kind of set a framework, but we have worked with the same cast and crew before, and then as before we were very open about the characters and the situation.

Please tell us about this cast and crew and how they came into this project.

The team for me consists of the two best actors and the most brilliant DoP in the world when it comes to improvisation – we all care about the best course the story can possibly take. The characters have to be truthful, which might not always make us look good but it does make us look authentic. But our DoP Philipp Pfeiffer can create some magnificent images if we wants to – he doesn't work at the top of the German advertising industry for nothing.

Die Bewerber

It only took us a couple of days to edit DIE BEWERBER. And the montage came strictly out of trying to get a grip on the manic lunacy we had filmed this one morning. So that was a means to regain control over the material. But we certainly didn't plan anything.

The film has made quite a stir. Can you tell us where it was shown?

The film has been travelling quite a lot. I think we screened it internationally at about twenty different festivals. We also won a highly remunerated award – which sadly isn't given out anymore. We sure hope it wasn't because of us.

What are your plans after this film? And how did your real experiences as a rookie from film school in the industry look like?

I have made rather more positive experiences than the ones shown in DIE BEWERBER. While studying I already founded my own production company „eitelsonnenschein“ in Cologne and Berlin, which keeps me busy filming advertising spots. We do this on a very high and often international level, and for that you need free projects like DIE BEWERBER in order to balance yourself out. And if they work out as well as this one did – all the better for it. So it's all going very well over here.

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