Films by István Imreh

2016, 96 min
by Till Harms

687 candidates, 10 places, 9 instructors in 10 days. Year for year, the entrance exam at the National Acting School in Hanover is a special challenge for the candidates, but it is also an extraordinary endurance test for the staff. In the battle for the best talent, the examiners are just as passionately involved as the candidates themselves in filling the few coveted admissions. Up close and personal with the instructors and professors, the film focuses on an unknown side of the process, that of the examination committee. The viewers have the opportunity to form their own opinion of the selection and assessment criteria. Conventional perceptions of the examiners and the candidates are shaken and the viewers get to know the members of the commission as human beings, who constantly question themselves and their standards and fight for their personal favorites.For the first time in Germany, such a committee opens up to the camera. Three years of preparation were necessary before all academy doors were opened to filmmaker Till Harms. A unique behind-the-scenes look at university operations, an unfiltered view of the dream job of an actor in a microcosm of hope, professional demands, and pugnacious colleagues.

Germany 2011
by Aldo Gugolz (revolumenfilm)

Crimes against Humanity in the Context of Everyday Working Life A film by Aldo Gugolz When millions of human beings were killed in Auschwitz and the other German concentration and extermination camps, the murderers were faced with technical problems. The killing and disposal of the corpses was to be carried out continuously and inexpensively in a manner which economized on fuel and left as little evidence behind as possible. In order to contrive such a system, the SS had to rely on civilian experts who had no scruples about thinking their way into the practical problems of extermination and developing appropriate solutions. The Erfurt family business J. A. Topf & Sons played a decisive role in this process. The subject of the film is the history of this perfectly normal German company – a history beginning in nineteenth-century Erfurt and leading to the Auschwitz crematoria. The film sets out in search of historical traces at the former workplaces of the company’s owners and engineers in buildings over a hundred years old. Historical documents testify to the mentality and activities of the chief protagonists – contrasted with images of Buchenwald and Auschwitz Concentration Camps. Film duration: 30 minutes Format: PAL 16:9 Language: German Stereo