Films by Dominik Graf

Germany 2023, 167 min
by Dominik Graf

Was it possible to be a good, even outstanding writer and still come to terms with the National Socialist regime? The feature-length documentary MELTING INK takes a closer look at the writers Gottfried Benn, Erich Kästner, Hans Fallada, Jochen Klepper, Ina Seidel and Will Vesper, who remained in Germany between 1933 and 1945, and explores the attitude they developed towards National Socialism in their writings, thoughts and perceptions. A film essay on the complex relationship between art and political action.With: Anatol Regnier, Florian Illies, Géraldine Mercier, Albert von Schirnding, Christoph Stölzl, Henrike Stolze, Günter Rohrbach, Gabriele von Arnim, Julia Voss, Willy Kristen, Wendelin Neubert, Carlo Paulus, Simon Strauß, Clemens von Lucius, Lena Winter

Germany 2017, 120 min
by Dominik Graf, Johannes F. Sievert

More than a third of all German feature films ever made are believed to have been lost without trace – and this is not referring to the silent movie era.In OPEN WOUNDS – A JOURNEY THROUGH GERMAN GENRE FILMS, we embark on another archaeological journey through the quarries of German film history. And try to throw light onto some of the paths that could have been continued, but were cut short.German film, constantly teetering back and forth between euphoria and an inferiority complex since the post-war period and always frantically trying to reach the ’world-class league‘, continues to have huge problems turning its hand to the commercial thriller genre, even after all the twists and turns depicted DOOMED LOVE. However, amongst all the weeds on this bumpy road, a number of flowers have taken blossom in the film and TV world and glimmers of hope have emerged for various genres over the past few years, even though this renaissance entails radical self-exploitation on the part of all involved.

Germany 2012, 90 min
by Dominik Graf

One of the most influential German television directors remembers another TV personality, thus reflecting on German television history and German history in general. The leitmotif for this film portrait is Oliver Storz’s autobiographical novel Die Freibadclique, which tells the story of a group of friends drafted into the army as fifteen-year-olds just before the end of the Second World War. Again and again, Dominik Graf reads passages from this account and, by juxtaposing them with clips from Storz’s films, reveals the echoes of the past they contain. Whether in his more experimental television plays or his Willy Brandt film IM SCHATTEN DER MACHT, Storz always provided new perspectives on the war and on Germany itself. Via a series of personal interviews Graf held with the journalist, director and producer shortly before the latter’s death in summer 2011, we are introduced to an analytical, unconventional man who witnessed the course of history. Graf takes up Storz’s reflections in his commentary, throwing light on an unexpected history of German television. Like the young woman in the red bathing costume in Storz’s novel, you just want to call out to him “Hang on in there!”