Film Archive
Effi Briest
At her parents' urging, Effi Briest, a free-spirited 17-year-old girl, marries Baron von Innstetten, nearly 20 years her senior – and a former admirer of Effi's mother. The arranged marriage spells the beginning of a monotonous existence for Effi far away from her hometown: Innstetten is entirely pre-occupied with his political career and the sleepy artist town of Kessin on the Baltic Sea shore offers little excitement. That is until Major Crampas arrives – one of Innstetten's military comrades and a charming womanizer. Effi starts a passionate affair with him and finally discovers what love is. But it comes at a steep price: The affair proves fatal for Crampas. Effi, on the other hand (unlike in Fontane's novel) deals with the consequences of her decisions and embarks on a new chapter in her life...
Hermine Huntgeburth was born in Paderborn as one of nine siblings in a family of doctors. She began studying Film at the Hamburger Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste in 1977. With a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst in 1983, she continued her film studies in Sydney. After working on a few short films and documentary films, she was awarded the German Film Award in Gold for Best New Director in 1991 for her directorial feature film debut Im Kreis der Lieben. Television films such as Ein falscher Schritt (1994), Gefaehrliche Freundin (1996), Und alles wegen Mama (1998), Der Hahn ist Tot (1999) and Die Stunde des Wolfs (1999) followed. Her TV movie Romeo earned the prestigious Adolf Grimme Award. Among more recent television projects are Eva Blond und der Zwerg im Schliessfach (2003) and Der Boxer und die Friseuse (2004), which won the 2005 German Television Award for Best Director. Her two-part TV series Teufelsbraten, based on Ulla Hahn's novel, was awarded the VFF TV Movie Award at the 2007 Munich Film Festival and the Bavarian TV Award for Best Director. Her most recent TV project was Koras Hochzeit. Among her feature film credits are popular hits such as Trio (1998), Bibi Blocksberg (2002), The White Masai (2005), and Effi Briest (2009).Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2008
Director Hermine Huntgeburth
Screenplay Volker Einrauch
Director of Photography Martin Langer
Editor Eva Schnare
Music by Johan Soederqvist
Production Design Thomas Freudenthal
Producer Guenter Rohrbach
Production Company Constantin Film Produktion/Munich
Principal Cast Julia Jentsch, Sebastian Koch, Misel Maticevic, Juliane Koehler, Thomas Thieme
Casting Simone Bär
Length 118 min
Format 35 mm, color, cs
Original Version German
Subtitled Versions English
Sound Technology Dolby Surround 5.1
Festival Screenings Berlin 2009 (Berlinale Special Gala), Moscow 2009
With backing from German Federal Film Board (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFoerderung Hamburg
German Distributor Constantin Film Verleih/Munich
World Sales
Beta Cinema / Dept. of Beta Film GmbH
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