SOUND OF HEIMAT
Deutschland singt
Synopsis
"The same Germans, who are touched to tears when they hear an old indio playing an andino folk song for the hundredth time with his pan flute, blush by embarrassment when you ask them about the tunes of their own homeland“. The new-zealandic saxophone player Hayden Chisholm goes on a road trip through Germany and reveals the roots of popular music there. Doing so he almost touches a taboo in a country whose popular culture has been first discredited by the Nazis and then in the East reduced to tunes "valuable for the society". But at the same time Hayden discovers a very lively "new wave" of German popular music with young people experimenting with old sing and people of all ages longing to sing.What is a jazz saxophone player from New Zealand looking for behind a milk can in the eastern German countryside? The answer is simple enough: For musical extravagance! And for –Heimat- - the German expression for –home-. What may sounds confusing in the first place turns out to be a musical adventure with cult potential.
Witty, colorful and emotional – full of liveliness and full of music. On his quest for authentic representatives of German folk Hayden gets to know some bizarre people, he toasts joyfully with lots of German beer to all kinds of musicians and tunes into quite some polka and waltz. In “Sound of Heimat” the vast variety of German folk music, which is hardly recognized by the Germans themselves is covered in all its splendor and offers unimagined amenities.
For „Sound of Heimat“ Hayden Chisholm is on a discovery mission all over Germany and meets old and young, traditional and modern folk musicians. On his quest he is not only confronted with all kind of regional musical delicacies but also with the persistent ambivalence of most Germans when it comes to matters as “Heimat” and “German folk music”.
At the end Hayden discovers something most Germans are still unavailingly looking for: Exotic behind the next milk can, wonderful melodies and touching lyrics, in short: a piece of “Heimat” in the tunes and lyrics of its songs and dances.
Cast and Crew
- Director Arne Birkenstock
- Screenwriter Arne Birkenstock, Jan Tengeler
- Director of Photography Marcus Winterbauer
- Editor Volker Gehrke, Katharina Schmidt
Original Languages
German
Co-Production Company
Fruitmarket Arts & Media GmbHGermany
www.fruitmarket.de
Links / Reference
www.kino-on-demand.com/movies/...
www.soundofheimat.de
www.facebook.com/SoundOfHeimat...
www.soundofheimat.de/presse/fi...
DVD
www.amazon.de/Sound-Heimat-Deu...