In the early period of the Soviet Union breathtaking experiments have taken place. Crossbreeding between man and ape; blood refreshment by transfer; fixing conditional reflexes to the genes; artificially inseminating women by sperms of genius men, everything seemed to be possible in this short time period, ending 1936 with mass murdering of so called opponents.
The film will lighten this period by archive footage, authentic places and with the words of specialists.

After the victory of Bolshevist revolution breeding of “a new man” (in a broad sense – new mankind) became one of the main goals of grandiose experiment carried out at “one sixth part of the earth”.

The struggle for “a new man” had not only ideological reasons. Strange, as it may appear at the first sight, but its active development was stimulated by disease and death of Bolshevist leader Vladimir Lenin. Lenin’s death became alarming signal for his comrades. Communist elite rushed to doctors’ rooms requiring to prolong their lives due to the newest medical discoveries. Different scientists were involved in the solution of this problem. An old Lenin’s comrade and later his ideological opponent Alexander Bogdanov, physician, philosopher and science fiction writer was among them.

His speculative novel Red Star, , narrates the life of selected inhabitants on Mars. The people there are truly connected by blood: The elder and younger Martians exchange blood regularly and, as a result, becomes “blood brothers.” The Martians have also long recognized that the mixing of one’s own blood with that of other people is rejuvenating for the whole body. In 1924 Bogdanov began to experiment with blood transfusions on real humans. The blood of old and young people was exchanged, just like in his novel. He often experimented on himself, and he kept track in his records of the improvements of his general condition, production capacities and appearance. Following 11 successful experiments, Bogdanov undertook another blood transfusion with a student who was suffering from a form of tuberculosis. Bogdanov hoped to transfer his own immunity onto the student. But, with the 12-th time, the tragedy happened – 54-year scientist died. The supposable reason of his death – it was the so-called rhesus incompatibility. But it had not been known by that time – blood Rhesus – factor would be discovered only in 1940.

There were rumours about the wish of Stalin to espouse a woman with a male ape to create hybrid ape-men as warrior or slave-worker. The always well informed German BILD newspaper headlined about this. But this was wrong, not Stalin, more Trotsky supported the idea of unleashed breeding.

The film will explore the experimenting of Professor Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, who – by the way – was the first to contrive the fertilization without physical coitus, Ivan Pavlov and Alexander Bogdanov with a deeply researched archive footage and shootings on the locations.

To read the full script click here: film script

The film will produced in HD, 52-60 minutes and released in December 2008

Most people in Europe are familiar with Liverpool as the poor, former industrial city where The Beatles began their international career. Today, the city not only enjoys the well earned reputation as a new and fabulous cultural centre, but has even been chosen the European City of Culture for 2008. The city on the River Mersey is going to be celebrating the arts, its music, its cultural heritage and its diversity. The city fathers have promised an extensive and magnificent cultural programme “like no other yet experienced in the world”.

The film will cover different varied and colourful events and performances: visitors have the choice of a rich spectrum of exhibitions, festivals and premieres in all art forms and genres ranging from public art, architecture, dance and fashion to film, literature, music and both street and stage theatre. Many events have been conceived especially for younger people, like a celebration of the best of the Merseyside youth culture at the Halton Stadium.

Pop music is truly an aspect of Liverpool’s cultural heritage. For, above all, pop music is The Beatles. The cult that surrounds the legendary band is ubiquitous. The Beatles’ legend and heritage will be also one of the thematic aspects in the film.

After The Beatles and its football clubs, Liverpool is renowned for its architecture. The film will show the magnificent waterfront with The Three Graces on its docks, the Anglican and Metropolitan Cathedrals, and the diversity of Liverpool streets.

At the Albert Dock, a showcase of maritime songs will present the nautical extravagance of Liverpool. The Arabic Arts Festival shall be celebrated for two weeks at numerous locations. And, of course, at the same time the famous Liverpool “Mersey Beat” — that special style of pop music that the North English youths made so popular in the early sixties — can be experienced everywhere.
The film will be an appreciation on Liverpool and its fascinating cultural life.

To receive the full script contact Barbara Mientus: barbara.mientus@lichtfilm.de

At June 22nd the shooting of the continuation of the new film started in Moscow. A love story and confession for music starts again.
When we began in early 2007 with the financing of the film, we would not have believed how difficult this turned out to be. At the end we did it.

We built some sequences of old and new footage to give you an idea of the film project!!

The piano and the pianist are symbols for the world of classic for utopias, longings, failed opportunities and for much more. The magic of the black and white keyboard can give great moments of pleasure, but it can also destroy human destinies. Irene Langemann already investigated this phenomenon in one of her past films. RUSSIA’S WONDER CHILDREN had been released in cinemas in the USA and Germany, broadcasted worldwide and awarded internationally.

Ten years have passed since the first encounter between the protagonist and her. It is known, that quite a few child geniuses lose their joy of playing a musical instrument during puberty or even lose their extraordinary talent. In some way it is the cause of the wearing process of practising, in other ways it is maybe that other, new interests awake. With these four, meanwhile young adults, this was not the case. All have stayed true to their music and still are heaped with awards, prizes and praise.

Yet what price have they paid for that? Has the scarcely liven childhood left traces in their psyches? Was the heavy work over many years worth it, so that at least one of them would be able to have a world career?

When we started in early 2007 with the financing of the film, we would not have believed how difficult this turned out to be. At the end we did it. With the initial support of Dagmar Mielke from RBB/ARTE we got Sabine Rollberg from WDR/1Festival – as HD broadcaster – into the boat, received fundings from Filmstiftung NRW, Medienbord Berlin-Brandenburg and from the new DFFF in Berlin. Furthermore we succeeded to get 7 presales ( CZ-TV, ERR Estonia, NPS The Netherlands, SF Swiss, TVP1 Poland, SKAI TV Greece and ERA from the Ukraine) Finally we got the support of the most powerfull distributor for music documentaries Euroarts/Medici
and are very optimistic about the funding through MEDIA TV distribution.

T he film will be produced in HD, the shootings will take place till summer 2009, the release is forecasted to December 2009.

Here you find the PDF of the film description: PDF

For your respond, contact Wolfgang Bergmann: wolf.berg@lichtfilm.de

In the 60s and 70s nearly 300 fighter jets of the Federal German Air Force, known as “Starfighters”, crashed and more than 100 pilots lost their lives. Never during peacetime have more soldiers been killed. The depth of this trauma of German post-war history can be gauged by the fact that no film has ever explored the dramatic human and political dimension of this tragedy.

In more than 20 locations, from the Allgäu to the Baltic Sea, author Kai Christiansen has found contemporary witnesses for the projected film. He meets women who break their silence often kept over many years and speak of the day their husbands fell from the sky. Pilots serving at the time speak of their addiction to flying, but also of those agonizing seconds when they lost control of their plane and just barely managed to save themselves by parachuting. An attorney reveals a secret file from the Federal Ministry of Defence in Bonn, which analyzes the causes of the fighter jet crashes.
Further research in Norway, Italy and the USA will follow. The camera work is projected for 2008.
The development of the project is funded by the Filmstiftung NRW (Film Foundation Northrhine-Westphalia).
Format: 90 minutes.

German equestrian sport and horse breeding have become a dominant power in the last three centuries. Horses of German breeding and training are „export hits“, and they win the most of the prizes in dressage and horse-jumping contests worldwide.

Yet German virtues are not hereditary, also not for horses. The secret of the success of German horse riding and showmanship is, and what I would like to depict impressively in this film, that on the one hand horse riding is based on a well structured training and on the other hand by refining the heavy warm-blooded horses through the Arabian, and indirectly with the Anglo-Arabian thoroughbreds.
The film will follow the career of outstanding horses who revolutionized the German breeding and the passionate individuals behind them. The film traces the bloodline from the Arabian Bedouins to Hungary and Poland to Germany. Traveling trough the Arabic world, the United Kingdom, Hungary and Poland, the film will always return to Germany in order to unveil the mystery of the enduring success of the German equestrians.
Format: 60/90 min, period of producing 2008/2009