Germany does doctrine.
A year after a group of young Danish directors, in Cannes, rebooted the pioneering 1990s independent film movement Dogme 95, the movement, with Dogma 25, five German-speaking directors are making their own spin-off films in the local language.
Directors: Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Babylon Berlin), Ilker Katak (Teacher’s lounge, Yellow letters), Nora Wengscheidt (System crusher, Overtaking), Helen Hegeman (Sea urchin is overrated(And Kardwin Ayoub)Mond) signed the “25 Doctrine Statement,” pledging to produce films that follow a strict “vow of chastity” that includes 10 “creeds” aimed at revitalizing independent cinema in the age of algorithms and streaming agreements.
The Ten Doctrines include restrictions stating that all texts “must be original and handwritten”; that at least half of each film be devoid of dialogue “to emphasize visual storytelling”; that the Internet is “blocked in the creative process to ensure connection to the physical world”; And that “no more than ten crew members are allowed behind the camera.”
Other requirements include that all Dogma 25 films must be filmed in real locations, with no cosmetic alterations to faces or bodies unless the story requires it; that all materials—sets, props, and costumes—must be reused or found; And that production had to be completed within a year to maintain urgency and creative flow.
“We are moving towards a world where stories are already conceived as products before they are experienced, photographed or even felt,” Tykwer said, speaking at the launch of German Dogma 25, at the German Pavilion in Cannes on Saturday. “We want to take the opposite action.”
The limitations imposed by the doctrine will allow filmmakers to embrace “unpredictable impulses, because not everything can or should be controlled,” Chattuck said.
Wengscheidt added: “We are all very different, and that is what inspires us…Some of us already know exactly what we are doing, others simply say yes to the creative process and look forward to journeys being completely anonymous. But there is one certainty we hold on to and that is that our decisions are human decisions. The other certainty is that we are stuck together.”
The 25 German Dogma films will be produced by X Filme in Berlin and Zentropa Deutschland, the German subsidiary of original Dogma producers Zentropa, with X Filme releasing the resulting films in Germany. TrustNordisk will handle international sales for all German Dogma 25 films.
The Danish Dogma 25 was launched last year by director Mai Al-Toukhi (Queen of hearts(Birth of science)opponent), Annika Berg (Hurricane team), Isabella Eklöf (All of you), and Jesper Gast (The disappeared woman). The first film in the Dogma 25 series is Eklöf’s film Mr. Nawashi, He just started filming.
