Hommage Oliver Storz

"Im Schatten der Macht" opens this year’s International Film and Television Festival Cologne Conference 2003. The parable of contemporary history concerns the Günter Guillaume espionage affair which led to the resignation of Chancellor Willy Brandt. This screening provides a fitting occasion to dedicate this year’s retrospective to the work of screenplay author and director Oliver Storz. Winner of numerous awards, Storz is rightly regarded as one of the great creative forces in German television history.
"Im Schatten der Macht" is, in many respects, a classic Oliver Storz film. The recent past provides him with the subject matter and the social climate. On this foundation he constructs a film narrative exploring human conflicts with universal relevance. An excellent acting ensemble is guided to outstanding performances under his direction. In the past decade, Storz has delivered several successful productions in this vain: "Drei Tage im April"- commissioned in 1994 by the SDR to commemorate 8 May 1945 and winner of the Bayerischer Filmpreis (Bavarian Film Award) - tells the story of ordinary townspeople caught between paralysis and showing moral courage during the last days of the Second World War. "Gegen Ende der Nacht", set in the immediate post-war era, portrays the disturbing love story between an American secret service agent (Stefan Kurt) and a young German woman (Karoline Eichhorn), suspected of having been a concentration camp warden. The film won the 1999 Grimme-Preis (Grimme Award).

(read more...)