Runner / Läufer

Short synopsis

Amal, a 13-year-old refugee from Lebanon, deals drugs in the Hannover subway system. He lives an isolated life in an asylum home outside the city. One day he meets a young German girl called Clara, who might be his savior.

 

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Main cast

Artem Klevansky (Lead)
Rebecca Stein (Lead)

Crew

Writer/Director/Editor: Carolina Hellsgård
DP: Kathrin Krottenthaler
1st A.C.: Simon Hamann
Sound recorder: Robert Fuhrmann
Production manager: Andrea Giesel
Assistant director: Christian Kelm
UPM: Julika Martin
Light: Carsten Brand, Florian Hoff
DIT: Andreas Melcher
Scenography: Nadine Meister
Costume design: Nadine Meister, Elena Neuthinger
Make-up: Henrike Huppertsberg
Production assistants: Helen Werner, Valerie Hellman
Production interns: Bente Ehrig (director's assistant), Magdalena Tucka (light)
Child supervision: Heidi Pettit
Costume design assistant: Anne Makarov
Music: Steffen Scholz
Sound designer: Christian Obermaier
Color correction: Chroma TV, Hamburg

Technical info: HD, 14 minutes
Produced by FLICKFILM GbR
Producer: Johanna Aust
Co-producer: Florian Gerstenberg / filmgestalten

With generous support by

CHROMA TV
FILMBLICK Hannover
teaming+ timing
Equipment sponsoring: Braunschweig University of Art

Funded by nordmedia – Film- und Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH
the cast&cut Short Film Grant
FFA, German Federal Film Board

 

Director's note

The story of LÄUFER, is inspired by real events that happened in Berlin, not far away from where I live. The police repeatedly arrested very young drug dealers in the subway, sometimes they were not more than 12-13 years old. Often they were asylum seekers from Lebanon, without any family in Germany. If they were found to be above the age of 14, they were to be immediately deported. I imagined how it must feel being one of the kids, perhaps just longing for a normal teenage life, and made LÄUFER.

 

Awards and nominations

Receives a Special Jury Mention @ Fano International Film Festival, Italy, 2014
Nominated for the German Film Critics Prize 2013
Award Cermony on the 10th of February 2014 @ the Berlinale International Film Festival
Nominated for Startsladden – the biggest short film award in Sweden! Screening on the 26th of January, 2014
Göteborg International Film Festival Best Swedish Short
Wins best short film "Youth Days" @ the exground filmfest, Wiesbaden!
Wins 1st Prize at Mostra de Cinema de frontera, Spain Award screening on the 22nd of June in Portbou

Festivals & Screenings 2013 – 2015

27. FILMFEST DRESDEN 14 – 19 April, 2015
Cairo Video Festival, Egypt "Present & Future / Reality & Fantasy" 11 March, 2015
Bangladesh International Short & Independent Film Festival, 2014 4 – 11 December, 2014
Filmfest Osnabrück "Nord Shorts - Awardwinning Short Films" Sunday 19th October at 11.30 am, Cinema-Arthouse
Fano International Film Festival, Italy 21 – 24 Oktober, 2014
Cairo Video Festival, Egypt 5th to 19th November 2014
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, UK Wednesday 17 - Sunday 21 September 2014
Young Nordics at Nordisk Panorama, Malmö, Sweden 19-24th September 2014
Buff Filmfestival, Malmö 10 – 15th of March, 2014
15. Landshuter Kurzfilmfestival, Germany 26 – 31st of March, 2014
Vera Filmfestival Åland, Finland 12 – 16th of March, 2014
Göteborg International Film Festival Best Swedish Short "Startsladden"
18th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival in San Francisco Program "Sensational Seven" on Wednesday, January 15th 2014
Coups de coeur allemands mardi 26 novembre // 20h30 Goethe Institut 4bis, rue Clémence Isaure, 31000 Toulouse
exground filmfest, Wiesbaden 15–24th November "Youth Days"
Screening: Saturday 16th of November at 17.30 Caligari Filmbühne
11th Kalpanirjhar International Short Fiction Film Festival, India Soirée Allemande at Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan kolkata Tuesday, 5 November 2013, at 6:45
Geneva International Film Festival, Festival Tous Ecrans 31st October to 7th November
Girona Filmfestival, Spain 5 – 7th of September
Klappe Auf! Kurzfilmfestival, Hamburg 25-27 October
Rencontres Cinématographiques Cerbère, France 3 – 6th of October
Festival Silhouette, Paris August 31 – September 8
Inventa un Film, Italy July 31 – August 4
EuroAsia Shorts - Short Films from Europe, Asia and the United States China-Germany: Monday, June 10, 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut Washington
Berliner Kurzfilmrolle 2013 im Radioeins Freiluftkino Friedrichshain 14th of June 2013, 09.30 pm
achtung berlin - new berlin film award April 17th – 24th, 2013
European Film Market / Berlinale 2013
Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival @"Soirée Allemande • Coup de cœur - Le court métrage allemand"