At the start of the Hamburg Film Festival, numerous celebrities appeared on the red carpet in front of the Cinemaxx at Dammtor. Among the guests were the actor Christian Friedel (“Babylon Berlin”), who also plays a major role in the opening film “The Idiot(s)”, the acting brothers Merlin and Fridolin Sandmeyer (“The Discounters”) and the actresses Pheline Roggan (“Soul Kitchen”), Nicole Heesters and Mechthild Großmann.
Mayor Tschentscher opens the festival
Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) opened the festival and said in his speech: "The competition and the award ceremony make cinema exciting. Red carpet, glamor and applause honor those who are creative and talented, but also risk and hard work, for the film and who delight and inspire us as an audience."
Festival director Malika Rabahallah explained that the cinema represents optimism and pessimism is a privilege that she would happily forego in the future. Empathy in and through cinema changes the world. "For two hours we see the world through the eyes of another person. Maybe through the eyes of a complete stranger whose life has nothing to do with us. And suddenly we get closer to that person," said the festival director.
Start with a film about Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The opening film “The Idiot(s)” by Polish directors Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert is a major experiment with a permanently uncertain outcome. With the power of its images, emotions and outstanding acting performances, the film remains unforgettable. However, with its daring dream sequences and its lack of stringent plot direction, it doesn't necessarily have what it takes to be a blockbuster.
In their adaptation of the biography “The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky” (or the correct original spelling of the original) by Andrew D. Kaufman, the directing duo tells an episode from the life of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Johnny Flynn) and his wife Anna (Aimee Lou Wood) in Baden-Baden. The focus of the film is Anna, who holds the reins in the background and works as a ghostwriter on the novel “The Idiot” while her husband gambles away their money in the casino. Anna is secretly supported by the successful author Ivan Turgenev (Christian Friedel).
Thorsten Merten and Hanna Schygulla are guests
In the coming days, film festival fans will also want to take a look at the red carpets in addition to looking at the program: Actresses Jella Haase and Lena Urzendowsky are expected at the screening of “Children of the Sun” on Saturday. On Sunday Thorsten Merten and Hanna Schygulla will present the film “The Great Collapse”.
More celebrities are expected on Tuesday: Helen Mirren stops by the red carpet and accepts the film festival's Douglas Sirk Prize. She also has a film in her luggage. In “A Talent for Murder” she plays the writer Patricia Highsmith.
Free entry on October 3rd
The Hamburg Film Festival is showing 114 films from 64 countries in the five festival cinemas until October 3rd. October 3rd is also “Free Entry Day” again, on which many film festival films can be watched free of charge in the Hamburg festival cinemas and nine other district cinemas.
