Lichter (2003)

Director:

Hans-Christian Schmid

Writers:

Michael Gutmann (writer)
Hans-Christian Schmid (writer)

Release Date:

31 July 2003 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Willkommen in der Wirklichkeit

Plot:

This movie reflects on the situation around the border between Poland and Germany. The fate of many...

Plot Keywords:

Border | Taxi Driver | Poland | Illegal Immigration | German Frontier

Awards:

14 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Andrzej Górak	...	LKW Fahrer
Anna Yanovskaya	...	Anna (as Anna Janowskaja)
Sergei Frolov	...	Dimitri (as Sergej Frolov)
Bartek Wójtowicz	...	Petja
Ivan Shvedoff	...	Kolya
Andrej Liousikov	...	Oleg
Sergey Kalantay	...	Flüchtling
Nikolaus Kieselmann	...	Flüchtling
Juri Konkov	...	Flüchtling
Woytec Klimkowicz	...	Flüchtling
Boris Raskin	...	Flüchtling
Jana Pfeffer	...	Flüchtling
Martin Kiefer	...	Marko
Peter Obermann	...	Zollbeamter
Alice Dwyer	...	Katharina

Also Known As:

Distant Lights (International: English title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German | Polish | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:12 | Netherlands:MG6 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Frankfurt an der Oder, Brandenburg, Germany

Company:

Arte

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Kinomagazin: An der Grenze - Der Film 'Lichter' von Hans-Christian Schmid und Michael Gutmann" (2003)

Two worlds, just a river apart, yet not so different after all

This episode film draws quite a realistic picture on life on both sides of the German-Polish border. To the group of Ukrainian, stranded at the polish side of river Oder, the lights of the German town of Frankfurt/Oder promise a new life, wealth and freedom in the West. And nearly impossible to reach, as they cannot hope for asylum there. But life on the other side is also not as easy as it seems. We meet Ingo, who tries to make some money building up a mattress store and fails miserably; Katharina who has fled from the children's home and now makes her living of smuggling cigarettes over the border. On the other side of the river, there's the polish father who tries almost everything to get together the money for his daughter's communion dress; student Beata who works as a translator and also fulfills the more special wishes of her customers, as long as she gets paid. During the film, some of these people's ways cross, some don't, some try to help the others, some betray them, everyone struggles to make the best out of it for himself whether he or she is Polish, German or Ukrainian. One other thing struck my mind: In one scene of the film, Beata meets her German ex-boyfriend; when they start arguing, she shouts at him in Polish. He doesn't understand her and tells her to speak German and she answers: "If you had really loved me, you'd have learned Polish a long time ago!" He just says: "You can't be serious." I found this exemplary for many of the people, especially the Germans, that they don't understand the others, and they don't want to try. The people on the other side of the border, or those connected to it like German-Ukrainian translator Sonya, seem to help each other more, even though they also try to make their own profit by it, sometimes. Maybe this is the difference between the two worlds on the two sides of the river.