Summer in Berlin

  • Andreas Dresen
  • Germany
  • 2005
  • 110'
  • Sommer vorm Balkon

Nike and Katrin are best friends living in an old rented house in east Berlin. Katrin is an unemployed single mother from Freiburg, and Nike is a seamstress working as a caretaker. They each go about their daily routines, but spend the warm summer evenings on Nika’s balcony, sharing their everyday experiences and their dreams. The fragile balcony idyll is soon disrupted by reality when they meet Ronald, a truck driver who moves in with Nika. Katrin feels abandoned and seeks comfort in alcohol, gradually losing control of her life. But Nika and Ronald are also not without problems. Some consider Summer in Berlin the first true German film about the unification of Germany, precisely because it doesn’t explicitly deal with the topic of unification.

 

Andreas Dresen

Born in 1963 in Gera, East-Germany. In the early 1980s, he began working in theater and making short films. He studied directing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam. Since 1992, he has been working as a writer and director for film, TV, theater, and opera. Andreas Dresen is one of Germany’s most esteemed and most successful contemporary directors, with a diverse oeuvre and many award-winning films. Night Shapes won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival and the Best New Director Award at the Valladolid Film Festival in Spain. Grill Point won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, as well as Best Director and Best Ensemble at the Chicago Film Festival and Best Director at the Ghent Film Festival in Belgium. Cloud 9 premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 where it won the Jury Coup de Coeur Award in the Un Certain Regard section. The film was nominated at the European Film Awards for Best Actress and Best Director and won the Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Film (bronze) at the German Film Awards in 2009. Whiskey with Vodka was awarded Best Director at the International Film Festival Karlovy Vary in 2009. Stopped on Track won the Prize of Un Certain Regard at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and the German Film Award 2012 in four categories: Best Film (gold), Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

Summer in Berlin

Director
Andreas Dresen
Writer
Wolfgang Kohlhaase
Production
Rommel Film
Cast
Inka Friedrich, Nadja Uhl, Andreas Schmidt, Stefanie Schönfeld, Christel Peters, Kurt Radeke, Vincent Redetzki, Hannes Stelzer, Lil Oggesen, Maximilian Moritz
Photography
Andreas Höfer
Montage
Jörg Hauschild
Producer
Peter Rommel
Festivals & Awards
San Sebastián International Film Festival 2005 – Silver Shell for Best Screenplay; Chicago International Film festival 2005 – Silver Hugo for Best Actress; Bavarian Film Awards 2005 – Best Director

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