European Actors Award / "Die Europa"

Laudatio: Kerstin Specht



Kerstin Specht, born 1956 in Kronach Upper Franconia), she studied German and theology in Munich. After studies at the University of Television and Film, she began to write plays. Today her plays belong to the permanent repertoire of German stages. For her literary work she received numerous awards and scholarships. She is living in Munich.


Plays (Excerpt):

"Das glühend Männla"		UA Schauspiel Bonn, 1990
"Amiwiesen"		UA Münchner Kammerspiele, 1990
"Der Flieger"		UA Ulmer Theater, 1992
"Mond auf dem Rücken"		UA Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, 1994
"Carceri"		UA Münchner Kammerspiele, 1996
"Marieluise"		UA Stadttheater Ingolstadt, 2001
"Die Rückseite der Rechnungen"		UA Münchner Kammerspiele, 2001
"Das goldene Kind"		UA Münchner Kammerspiele, 2002
"Solitude"		UA Staatstheater Stuttgart, 2003
"Die Zeit der Schildkröten"		Ruhrfestspiele, 2005

Awards (Excerpt):

1988		Stipendium des Literarischen Colloqiums Berlin
1990		Literaturpreis des Kulturkreises des BDI
1990		Staatlicher Förderpreis des Landes Bayern
1991		Friedrich-Baur-Preis der Bayerischen Akademie der Künste
1993		Else-Lasker-Schüler-Preis des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz
2005		Marieluise-Fleißer-Preis

Short Films:

"Die stille Frau" (WDR 3)
"Afrika" (WDR 3)
"Wilgefort" 1989


Directed Theatre Plays:

"Das glühende Männla", Schauspiel Ulm, 1991


Directed Audio Plays:

"Der Flieger", BR 2000





Lili Marleen
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, BRD 1980, 120 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
Actors: Hanna Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, Mel Ferrer


"Like Lale Andersen, who originally sang the legendary, melancholic song of Lili Marleen, Willie is an ambivalent character. While making career as a singer under the Nazi regime, she was secretly in love with a Jew. All her suppressed love energy went into that song", says Hanna Schygulla.




Die Ehe der Maria Braun
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, BRD 1978, 120 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
Actors: Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny


Hanna Schygulla: "A German woman pays for the rebuilding of her war-shattered country with the breakdown of her feelings. She plays a double role of being both an almost insane idealist as well as a cynical realist. She puts off living her real life till tomorrow - but there is no tomorrow."




Passion
Director: Jean-Luc Godard, F/CH 1982, 87 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Hanna Schygulla, Isabelle Huppert, Jerzy Radziwilowicz


Hanna, who is married, runs a petrol-station and motel. She is more than bored with her everyday life and longs for new feelings. She takes up with a Polish film director who is making a historical film in the area but who has run out of money for the project.




Heller Wahn
Director: Margarethe von Trotta, BRD/F 1982, 105 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
Actors: Hanna Schygulla, Angela Winkler, Peter Striebeck


This feminist film is about the friendship between two women, Ruth and Olga. Ruth is withdrawn and in deep depression. Olga manages to draw Ruth out of her depression but then is herself on the verge of exhaustion. The intense friendship deepens which leads to inevitable jealousy.




Die Geschichte der Piera
Director: Marco Ferreri, BRD/I/F 1982, 105 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Hanna Schygulla, Isabelle Huppert, Marcello Mastroianni


This film is about a mother-daughter relationship. Eogania, the nymphomaniac mother of young daughter, Piera, often frequently leaves home and jumps on her bike to go off and enjoy "life" and "men". Eogania would perish in her own erotism if it were not for Piera’s helping hand.




Eine Liebe in Deutschland
Director: Andrzej Wajda, BRD/F 1983, 108 min, 35 mm, colour, GV
Actors: Hanna Schygulla, Piotr Lysak, Daniel Olbrychski


This film tells the tale about the forbidden wartime love between Pauline and a Polish forced labourer. Not only is the love forbidden because, according to the Nazis, the Pole is from an inferior race but also because Pauline is married and he is very young. The love ends tragically.




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