Bright Future?

Born in 1974, Benjamin Heisenberg studied art before joining Munich's University for Film and Television in 1997. One year later, he co-founded film magazine Revolver, which is often seen as promoting the so-called Berlin School of young German cinema. His first film, "Schläfer" (Sleeper), was part of the official selection at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and won several awards. He's currently working on a movie about an Austrian bank robber.

Born in 1973, Nicolas Wackerbarth trained as an actor at the Bavarian Theater Academy in Munich and is studying film direction at the German Film and TV Academy in Berlin since 2000. His TV movie "Anfänger!" (Beginner!) received awards in Rome, Turin and Lisbon. He is a co-publisher of Revolver and is currently working on a film about a summer camp for children.

DW-WORLD.DE: Will you go to the Berlin Film Festival?

Benjamin Heisenberg: Of course, but by now it's turned into hopping from one reception to the next for me. I regret that a bit, because I get to see fewer movies. But when you're looking after the magazine, and especially future projects, the receptions are important.

Nicolas Wackerbarth: I try to limit the number of films by listening to friends whose advice I value. It usually works to see mainly good films that way.

What do you think of the film festival? Has it changed in recent years?

BH: I think that it's slowly moving away from a very political festival to one that looks for a balance between political and artistic movies. That's what we need in Germany: a festival with a broad spectrum that still stands for artistic quality.

In addition to your cinematic work, you also publish Revolver. What's the idea behind that project?

BH: We're interested in theory of practice, so to speak. That means, we're asking how and why films are made. So far, we've mainly poked around European art house cinema, but for a while now, we've also been thinking about commercial films. I think we have a lot of catching up to do in that respect in Germany. When you compare our shows with US shows such as "24" or "The Office," you can see that there's still a pretty big difference in quality.

I'd question whether we have the know-how to write a show like "24" right now. If we want to produce such things, we need to build structures that don't just focus on making a quick buck but offer intelligent education. At the same time, the avant-garde has to be strengthened. Otherwise it'll end up like in the US, where independent film is incredibly weak. France has done a better job to combine the two things via a strong system of public funding.

Your colleague Matthias Luthardt recently said that he'd like you to explain what the Berlin School is all about. What would you tell him?

NW: I think that's a misunderstanding. We're not the organization that awards a seal of approval for the Berlin School. Anyone who reads our magazine or the new "Best of Revolver" book will see that we were never interested in academicism, but a broad range of different approaches.

Personally, I don't like that the term is always connected with something that's missing: no narration, no music, no conflicts. You could also say that it describes the identity void that has a lot to do with Germany. These are movies that are not embarrassed to film a yellow wall or stage a love story in front of a concrete tub in a pedestrian zone. That's enriching and I'm glad that it's happening.

BH: None of us are actually from Berlin -- almost all of us are country bumpkins. I think that our films express a need that we've all had for a long time: to present our country and the people we live with and the people who we are. You can see that in the films. I wouldn't call it Berlin School. I think that labeling is boring. It's one exciting trend within German cinema. There are many others and that's good. They all have to co-exist. You shouldn't see it as a stylistic corset.

The people that are now known as members of the "nouvelle vague allemande" (New German Wave) or Berlin School will produce heterogeneous movies in the future. So far they were first films -- starting points and products of self-discovery that set a high standard. But the more people are challenged, the more they'll branch off in different directions to keep things interesting for themselves as well. I'm having fun with this current demand on cinema. That's why I'm looking forward to what will happen. Let me put it this way: This was just the beginning.