Events | We are young, we are strong
Los Angeles | June 8, 2016 | 7:00 PM
Screening
WE ARE YOUNG, WE ARE STRONG
Dir.: Burhan Qurbani, Germany, 2014, 116 min., German and Vietnamese with English subtitles, digital. Screenplay: Burhan Qurbani, Martin Behnke. Cast: Devid Striesow, Jonas Nay, Trang Le Hong, Joel Basman, Saskia Rosendahl, Thorsten Merten, Paul Gäbler, David Schütter, Jakob Bieber, Swantje Kohlhof, Mai Duong Kieu, Aaron Le, Lariss Füchs, Axel Pape
Discussion with Director Burhan Qurbani, and reception following the screening.
RSVP via Eventbrite
August of 1992. Three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, anti-immigrant attacks targeting a refugee shelter on the outskirts of the former East German city of Rostock culminate in the notorious “Night of the Fire.” Following three days of violence, nearly 3,000 rioters, neo-Nazis and bystanders set fire to the shelter, trapping Vietnamese refugees and a group of journalists inside.
Qurbani’s controversial film recounts the hours leading up the evening’s startling events as experienced by three very different characters:Lien, a young Vietnamese immigrant, caught in a struggle for survival; Stefan, an insecure youth, who, along with his friends participates in the night’s riots; and Stefan’s father Martin, an ambitious local politician torn between advancing his career by remaining silent, and standing up for his ideals, taking action to stop the riots.
Qurbani meticulously recreates the look and feel of the era, when many East German cities struggled with unemployment and feelings of isolation from the West, exposing the complex issue of xenophobia in a country thought to have been healed by German reunification.
Select Awards:
- German Film Award 2015 (Best Supporting Actor - Joel Basman)
- Sofia IFF 2015 (International Jury Special Award)
- Deutscher Schauspielerpreis 2015 (Best Actor-Devid Striesow)
- Rome IFF 2014 (Best Editing, SIGNIS Award- Ente dello Spettacolo, Sorriso diverso Roma-Best Foreign Film)
- Filmtage Hof 2014 (Best Costume Design, Best Set Design)
- The German Cinema Award for Peace - The Bridge (New Talent: Burhan Qurbani)
Burhan Quirbani was born in 1980 in Erkelenz (Nordrhein-Westfalen). Following school in Stuttgart, he worked in the theater as a dramatist’s and director’s assistant. Beginning in 2002, he studied directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
His short films have screened at festivals around the world, winning numerous prizes including the German Camera Award and the German Film Critics’ Award in 2008 for Illusion (2007). His graduation project and feature debut, Shahada (2010), premiered at the Berlinale (2010) later winning the Golden Hugo in Chicago.
