DOMINIQUE LIENHARD
Project: Along The Main Road
Scr: Dominique Lienhard
Estimated budget: $2.3m (Eu1.7m)
Funds in place: $526,000 (Eu382,000)
Dominique Lienhard's debut film, Muetter, was an understated look at a young man's journey back to his childhood village. The film resonated at festivals as critics praised Lienhard's ability to express the delicate emotions unleashed by the impending death of an elderly loved one.
For his second project, Along The Main Road, the director is set to examine the impact of war. Lienhard says the project was inspired by a photograph from the Second World War.
'There was a picture in a book that I occasionally saw at a German friend's house, a book on the death walks, the evacuations from the concentration camps,' he explains. 'You could see a scattered column of prisoners, dragging along the streets of a village, under a lashing rain, surrounded by desolate scenery.
Some of the prisoners have a blanket on their head and shoulders - they look like ghosts.'
For Lienhard, the angle from which the photo was taken says everything: it 'oozes' the fear of the photographer. It was taken from above and the photographer is evidently hiding inside the house. The director says it is the starting point for his film.
'With Along The Main Road, I want to explore the other side of the scenery, what we don't see, those that we can't see. What happens on the other side of the wall, inside the house' What happens to the very core of our society, the family when submitted to the turbulence of history, to the final fragments of a war''
Pierre-Francois Bernet's Butterfly Productions, which worked with Lienhard on Muetter, is producing with Francois Scippa Kohn of France's Short Movies.
Project: Along The Main Road
Scr: Dominique Lienhard
Estimated budget: $2.3m (Eu1.7m)
Funds in place: $526,000 (Eu382,000)
Dominique Lienhard's debut film, Muetter, was an understated look at a young man's journey back to his childhood village. The film resonated at festivals as critics praised Lienhard's ability to express the delicate emotions unleashed by the impending death of an elderly loved one.
For his second project, Along The Main Road, the director is set to examine the impact of war. Lienhard says the project was inspired by a photograph from the Second World War.
'There was a picture in a book that I occasionally saw at a German friend's house, a book on the death walks, the evacuations from the concentration camps,' he explains. 'You could see a scattered column of prisoners, dragging along the streets of a village, under a lashing rain, surrounded by desolate scenery.
Some of the prisoners have a blanket on their head and shoulders - they look like ghosts.'
For Lienhard, the angle from which the photo was taken says everything: it 'oozes' the fear of the photographer. It was taken from above and the photographer is evidently hiding inside the house. The director says it is the starting point for his film.
'With Along The Main Road, I want to explore the other side of the scenery, what we don't see, those that we can't see. What happens on the other side of the wall, inside the house' What happens to the very core of our society, the family when submitted to the turbulence of history, to the final fragments of a war''
Pierre-Francois Bernet's Butterfly Productions, which worked with Lienhard on Muetter, is producing with Francois Scippa Kohn of France's Short Movies.
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