Films by Helmut Schulzeck

2018, 99 min
by Helmut Schulzeck

Together with cinematographer Hans Albrecht Lusznat, Helmut Schulzeck followed the life of the family of his Kenyan in-laws in a Kenyan village for ten years. His film MUTANGA tells personal stories that refute the stereotypes of the needy African. He succeeds in getting close and unimpeded insights into the lives of some family members. A robust insistence on traditional culture hardly seems to contradict their orientation towards Western ideas and values. For both still shape the everyday life

Kenya, Germany 2011, 87 min
by Helmut Schulzeck

The film SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR (German title: Meine ferne Familie) is an autobiographical documentary about the director, Helmut Schulzeck and his relationship with Papa Wangechi, the director’s Kenyan father-in-law and his family. It shows in particular their understandings of each other despite cultural backgrounds as distant and as different from each other as those of Germany and Kenya. And the film reveals the difficulties that arise from these differences relentlessly. Papa and his famil

Germany 2007
by Helmut Schulzeck

The film "You Are My Africa. A Black And White Love Story" is an autobiographical documentary about the filmmaker Helmut Schulzeck and his Kenyan wife Wangechi Schulzeck. For Helmut Africa had mainly been Cape Town for a number of years. It was there where in December 2003 he met Wangechi Njenga from Kenya. She became "his Africa". The film "You Are My Africa" tells the story of a love relationship with the two partners gradually acknowledging each other. It shows how a personal adventure dev

Germany 2004
by Helmut Schulzeck

A film about Eduardas Jonusas, Lithuanian painter, sculptor, philosopher and poet. An individual caught between nightmare and art. Art that finds its space in apocalyptic world views and allows the artist to overcome his trauma and survive. The film takes us back to Jonusas’ past: idyllic rural childhood, Soviet invasion in 1945, torture in a KGB prison. Whether cleverly outwitting the KGB in the 60s and 70s or fighting for freedom as Russian tanks roll into Vilnius in 1991, Jonusas always manag

Germany 1999
by Helmut Schulzeck

"Once upon a time, that's how fairy tales begin - these were sometimes my mother's closing words when she was telling us children about her youth in Nidden, and what she meant was that it was over. How does a person recall things if she is suddenly obliged to leave her home when still young, and notpermitted to return for fifty years, and precisely what does she recall? Does she feel homesick for her youth? The film gives very personal answers to these questions, and yet they may be applicable t