Remote Area

"Remote Area" is a "Heimatfilm" about a strange world in front of our own doorstep. Only 20 minutes away from the Cologne Cathedral into the foothills by tram – one of those areas you drive through in order to spend some time somewhere else. Squeezed in between Cologne and Bonn, neither urban nor rural – unsightly, faceless, arbitrary.

The area only dazzles at night when the oil refineries on the Rhine give off a ghostly glow.

For the people who live there, of course, these foothills are the centre of the world. It is there that they have to stake out their claim. Which isn’t always easy, especially not for the four protagonists of this film: Hans Wilhelm Dümmer, the parson of two neighbouring villages that have been bitter enemies for centuries; his mission: their reconciliation. Sophia Rey, the selfpublishing foothills detective story writer whose books remain unread in her own village, of all places. Mark Basinsky, the youngest and tenderest member of the bachelor’s club; his dream: to study fashion one day in Milan. And Giuseppe Scolaro, the passionate leader of a local marching band, who, to his own regret, is an Italian.

"Remote Area" accompanies the protagonists for a year and paints a very personal portrait of an area which only at first glance appears inconspicuous. A typical slice of provincial German countryside whose inhabitants have preserved their rituals, myths and stories with defiant pride, hanging on to them even as the dingy outskirts of the big cities are pushing their way ever closer…

Source: 55. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)