Lichter (2003)

This movie reflects on the situation around the border between Poland and Germany. The fate of many single characters creates a picture of life in this region: Some Ukrainians want to cross... See full summary »

Director:

Hans-Christian Schmid

Writers:

Michael Gutmann, Hans-Christian Schmid

Stars:

Andrzej Górak, Anna Yanovskaya, Sergey Frolov

15 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Andrzej Górak	...	LKW Fahrer
Anna Yanovskaya	...	Anna (as Anna Janowskaja)
Sergey Frolov	...	Dimitri (as Sergej Frolov)
Bartek Wójtowicz	...	Petja
Ivan Shvedoff	...	Kolya
Andrej Liousikov	...	Oleg
Serhiy Kalantay	...	Flüchtling (as Sergey Kalantay)
Nikolaus Kieselmann	...	Flüchtling
Juri Konkov	...	Flüchtling
Wojciech Klimowicz	...	Flüchtling
Boris Raskin	...	Flüchtling
Jana Pfeffer	...	Flüchtling
Martin Kiefer	...	Marko
Peter Obermann	...	Zollbeamter
Alice Dwyer	...	Katharina

Storyline

This movie reflects on the situation around the border between Poland and Germany. The fate of many single characters creates a picture of life in this region: Some Ukrainians want to cross the border illegal to get into Germany, a company wants to build a new factory, a Polish taxi driver desperately needs money to buy his daughter a communion dress, and so on.

---

Plot Keywords:

border | communion dress | dress | ukrainian | taxi driver | 

---

Taglines:

Willkommen in der Wirklichkeit

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Did You Know?

Trivia

In one of the key scenes of "Lichter", the translator Sonja (Maria Simon) and her friend Christoph (Janek Rieke) talk to a Polish student (Kamil Majchrzak) in a stairwell while searching for Kamil (Marek Zeranski), who gave shelter to a Ukrainian migrant named Kolja (Ivan Shvedoff) in his shared student flat.

In real life Kamil Majchrzak also worked as a researcher for the screenplay and was assistant director to Hans-Christian Schmid. At the same time, Majchrzak studied law and counseled refugees at the EU border on asylum. Michael Gutmann named the character "Kamil" as a homage. Source: Audio commentary from the German DVD-edition edited by Prokino.

---

Connections

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

User Reviews

It touched and shocked me deeply

It is a slap in the face of all these rich, satisfied, egoistic, first world societies, who think that they are great, know better, and have more rights to live and spend than the poor on the other side of the fence.

We (some students, theatre people etc.) also tried recently to make a realistic feature, in our present times, shot on mini-DV, but this LICHTER is much, much better! I admire its realism, and how it could touch me within very few minutes, holding its tension for the whole time, and really caring for its characters. Believe me, I watch quite a lot of movies, but this does not happen very often.

It is a very sad observation of our economic situation, and the pressure which it forces on normal, small, everyday people. The need to make a living destroys their pride, their hopes, their humanity - and all this happens not far from the "Lights" ("Lichter") of the rich, promised land of wealth, where I live (I am blessed to live here) which is only a small distance away. Only a river to cross, but in fact the distance from poor to rich is nearly impossible to cross.

If you know "Lamerica" from Gianni Amelio or "Dekalog" aka "The Ten commandments" by Krzystof Kieslowski: "Lichter" has some similarities.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Germany]

Country:

Germany

Language:

German Polish Russian

Release Date:

31 July 2003 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Distant Lights

Filming Locations:

Kunowice, Lubuskie, Poland

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$804,054

Company Credits

Production Co:

ARTE, Claussen & Wöbke Filmproduktion GmbH, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1