FESTIVALS

5. Socially Relevant Film Festival New York 2018

Grand Prize Narrative Feature

5ème Semaine du Cinema Allemand de Dinard 2017

Le Bretzel d’or, prix du public

27th International Filmfest Emden-Norderney 2016

NDR-Filmprize, audience award

RATING “EXCEPTIONALLY WORTHWILE” OF THE “FILMBEWERTUNGSSTELLE” 2016

Jury‘s statement:
„The Russian-German writer, philosopher and psychoanalyst Lou Andreas-Salomé was an extraordinary personality; freedom-loving, smart, fearless and thirsty for knowledge. In her feature film, Cordula Kablitz-Post found stylistic devices for meeting the complexity of the character and her historical significance. In the subplot, she is presented to us as a 70-year-old intellectual, who in 1930s Germany, after the books burnings, must expect to be discriminated against and persecuted by the National Socialists. Thus she first encounters the young philologist Ernst Pfeiffer with suspicion when he asks her to treat him for his writer’s block. The treatment consists of her dictating her life story to him in the course of many sessions. Nicole Heesters plays her with a confident serenity in these sequences. One accepts her analytical intelligence and the spiritual independence that characterized the main character, and this performance, which should not be underestimated, is equaled by the three other actresses who embody Lou Andreas-Salomé in the flashbacks, in which key scenes from her life are shown. An early act of rebellion during church services, arguments with her mother, and a very comical sequence during a social reception in which, instead of the customary small talk chit chat, she gives gives a small philosophical performance., by which she seems to seduce one of the gentlemen with her sheer brilliance. She had the same effect on the young Rainer Maria Rilke and Friedrich Nietzsche, and even if Cordula Kablitz-Post took a great deal of time to show her relationships to these well-known historical figures, there can be no question that she was defined through them. Instead, it seems to be she who forms the personalities of the still young men, by for example, encouraging René Maria Rilke to become a better poet and making him change his name. Kablitz-Post succeeds in bringing Rilke, Nietzsche and later also Sigmund Freud to life in a few, striking performances, using their well-known mannerisms without exaggerating them and thus creating caricatures. And they all speak in cleverly constructed and formulated dialogues, each of which reveals their vision of the world and their talent, without ever seeming artificial. The scenery, costumes and make-up look authentic, but Kablitz-Post also works with small stylistic hooks with which she indicates that she is reproducing the past playfully; at some edit points, at which times and places change, she briefly uses short animated settings motifs from old postcards in which she her protagonist move around. She doesn’t rely on entrenched, rigid images – it is clever, original and visually appealing. Cordula Kablitz-Post is intelligent, artistically convincing on all levels, and has succeeded with a surprisingly entertaining movie.“

2016, Festival of German Films Ludwigshafen
2016, International Filmfest Emden-Norderney
2016, Shanghai IFF
2016, Festival of German Cinema China
2016, Festival of German Films Paris
2016, Days of German-language Cinema Nicosia
2016, German Filmfest Australia
2016, Tbilissi IFF
2017, GI Bangkok Open Air Festival
2017, Berlin & Beyond
2017, Bengaluru International Film Festival
2017, Goethe Institut Strasbourg
2017, Jewish Film and Cultural Festival of Lisbon
2017, „Creative Woman“ Film Cycle Segovia, Spain
2017, Cleveland IFF
Nomination: Real Women Direct Award for Excellence in Directing by a Woman
2017, Julien Dubuque IFF
2017, Seoul International Agape FF
2017, German Language Film Fest in Ottawa
2017, Semaine du Cinéma Allemand de Dinard

16th Aspen Shortsfest 2007

BAFTA/LA Award for Excellence – Honorable Mention

Boulder International Film Festival, 2007

BIFF Award for Best Short Film

Camerimage, 2007

Nominee Golden Tadpole

Florida Film Festival 2007

Best International Short – Audience Award

Gen Art Film Festival 2007

Best Short Film – Acura Grand Jury Award
Best Short Film – Audience Award

HATCHfest 2007

Groundbreakers Award – Best Cinematography
Groundbreakers Award – Best Director

Seattle International Film Festival 2007

Golden Space Needle Award – Best Short Film

Student Academy Awards 2007, USA

Silver Medal – Narrative

Sundance Film Festival 2007

„Delta‘s Fly-In Movies“ Film

HBO Comedy Arts Festival 2007

AFI Filmmaker Award – Best Short Film

56th Berlin International Film Festival 2006

Talent Campus Award