From left: Irene Langemann, Wolfgang Bergmann (producer), Dmitri Krutogolovy, Nikita Mndoyants, Irina Tschistjakowa,  Elena Kolesnitschenko

After long hand clapping the 4 played with 8 hands a variation of a music piece of Robert Schumann “Happy Fellow-conutryman coming back from Work”.

The film started in 7 cinemas in Germany and is still running. More on the German only website

The film relates to the outstanding role of the German breeder Clemens Freiherr von Nagel, here together with his famed Anglo-Arab Ramzes

This time Wolfgang Bergmann (producer, author and director) produces a film linked to the love of his youth: horse riding. In the 50th it was common to use heavy warmblood horses. Today Germany is the most successful nation in breeding high performance “noble” horses. The film tries to disclose this secret and reveals astonishing stories: Equestrians and breeders from National Socialist times built the background for those „revolutionary“ changes. Even „foreign and noble“ horses from Poland and Hungary, from Central Asia, Arabia and Great Britain were to leverage for the German rise in Horse Breeding.

If you want to join the preview of the film, organized by WDR/ARTE, come to the beautiful city Warendorf, the capital of German sport horses.

Monday the 19th of October at 19.30 to Scala & Studio Filmtheatre, Klosterstraße 5, 8231 Warendorf.
After the film  a discussion will take place with the horse breeders and riders. Some characters of the film will be present. So far Gabriele Pochhammer, Inge Theodorescu and Margo van den Hoogen.

The film presents highly personnel German-American family stories from “Little America”, Germany, against the backdrop of the Iraqi War. Again and again, the private sphere merges with the world of international events. Through the perceptive narrative flow and the close observation of the people involved, the question whether or not personnel happiness is possible in the shadow of a war is continually brought up for discussion.

In its first meeting of the year, Filmstiftung NRW decided to co-fund our documentary “Noble Breed” with 100,000,- EUR.

The film, produced in cooperation with Poland (EUREKA) and Hungary (TIVOLI) investigates the secret of Germany's dominant position in breeding high-performance horses, and discloses stunning and curious stories.

The film will be shot in Germany, Poland, Hungary and the Netherlands and Uzbekistan, starting spring 2009.

Irene Langemann and the whole crew is proud on this nomination.

First run has ARTE showing LIVERPOOL – Beat City at 10.35pm . 

Liverpool tries to reinvent itself as “European Capital of Culture 2008″. Hosting events like the concert of Paul McCartney, thousands of people came to see the city changing. But Irene Langemann is wandering besides crowded paths. She visits Liverpool based artists, who use the energy and power of the apsiring city. The most renowned band of Liverpool, “The Mersey Beatles”, will guide us through   the vibrant and exciting city.

Accordingly follows RUBLJOVKA – Road to Bliss at 11.20pm on RBB.

Often discussed and awarded, the film is a portrait of the new russian power elite. The film is fascinating and frightening the same time, but up-to-date as never before. A lot of the footage was shot with a hidden camera. After a long struggle the film finally was finished and very successful after theatrical release in 2007.

“fascinating portrait of the present Russian society.” epd Film; “A courageous Cologne director has managed to create a gripping cinema documentary” Spiegel; “Unflattering, unaffected, done with high artistry.“ International Filmfest Munich; “A documentary jewel …The filmmaker has made a road movie of quite a different kind, entertaining and staged with subtle humor.” Viennale

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.

Irene Langemann’s documentary “Liverpool – Beat City” (60 min), which Lichtfilm produced in collaboration with ARTE  was finished in September 2008.

As the title implies the main topic of the film is Liverpool, the 2008 European Capital of Culture, who is celebrating its cultural heritage and its modern artistic diversity. The metropolis has indeed spawned numerous influential artists that have gone on to international fame in the spheres of literature, architecture, film and music. And, when it comes to Pop Music, the most famous sons of the city are perhaps also the most influential: The Beatles.

The documentary partakes in a journey of discovery to the lively and refreshing city of Liverpool with the most popular Beatles cover band – The Mersey Beatles.

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