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Meschugge

Deutschland Schweiz 1997/1998 Spielfilm

The Giraffe

"The Giraffe" is a thriller... and the story of a love - the love of David and Lena who meet up in New York without realising how much their lives are already connected with each other. David, the son of a traditional Jewish family from Brooklyn, feels at home in and yet alien to the conventions of his parents.

Lena, the daughter from a liberal-secular Jewish home in Hameln, has come to New York to escape the spiritual narrowness of her family home and the middle-class values of the German provinces. But their love is over-shadowed by a crime, a murder, where David′s mother was the victim and both families are involved. This is where the lawyer Kaminski comes onto the scene. His speciality is divorces, but his calling is the solving of crimes against the Jewish people. He isn't impressed by the love affair between David and Lena, he obstinately pursues the traces which point directly to Lena's family.

"The Giraffe" is a film about the perpetrators of crimes and victims and the realisation that even the victims are not immune from becoming perpetrators of a crime.

Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH

 

Credits

Director

  • Dani Levy

Screenplay

  • Dani Levy
  • Maria Schrader

Director of photography

  • Carl-F. Koschnick

Editing

  • Ueli Christen
  • Dani Levy
  • Sabine Hoffmann

Music

  • Niki Reiser

Cast

  • Dani Levy
    David Fish
  • Maria Schrader
    Lena Katz
  • David Strathairn
    Charles Kaminski
  • Nicole Heesters
    Lenas Mutter
  • Jeffrey Wright
    Win
  • Lynn Cohen
    Davids Mutter
  • Lukas Ammann
    Eliah Goldberg
  • Erin Rakow
    Slavie Fish
  • Stephanie Roth
    Rahel Fish
  • R.J. Cutler
    Rahels Ehemann

Production company

  • X Filme Creative Pool GmbH (Berlin)
  • Extrafilm Produktion GmbH (Berlin)
  • DOCMINE Productions AG (Zürich)
  • Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) (Köln)
  • Arte G.E.I.E. (Straßburg)
  • Schweizer Fernsehen für die deutsche und rätoromanische Schweiz (SF DRS) (Zürich)

Producer

  • Dani Levy
  • Stefan Arndt

Alle Credits

Director

  • Dani Levy

Assistant director

  • Arndt Wiegering (1. Regie-Assistenz)
  • Julia Willmann (2. Regie-Assistenz)

Screenplay

  • Dani Levy
  • Maria Schrader

based on

  • Kenneth Abel (Roman)

Director of photography

  • Carl-F. Koschnick

Still photography

  • Christine Fenzl

Lighting design

  • Joe Quirk

Set design

  • Volker Schäfer
  • Teresa Mastropierro (New York)

Make-up artist

  • Sabine Lidl

Costume design

  • Ingrid Bendzuk

Editing

  • Ueli Christen
  • Dani Levy
  • Sabine Hoffmann

Sound

  • Raoul Grass

Audio mixing

  • Hubert Bartholomae

Casting

  • Lou Digiaimo
  • Brett Goldstein

Music

  • Niki Reiser

Cast

  • Dani Levy
    David Fish
  • Maria Schrader
    Lena Katz
  • David Strathairn
    Charles Kaminski
  • Nicole Heesters
    Lenas Mutter
  • Jeffrey Wright
    Win
  • Lynn Cohen
    Davids Mutter
  • Lukas Ammann
    Eliah Goldberg
  • Erin Rakow
    Slavie Fish
  • Stephanie Roth
    Rahel Fish
  • R.J. Cutler
    Rahels Ehemann
  • Daniel Mastroianni
    Menachem Fish
  • Paul Butler
    Lieutenant Lynch
  • Mario Giacalone
    Detective Pucci
  • Mark Zimmermann
    Bregman
  • Marcia Jean Kurtz
    Rita Teichmann
  • Francine Beers
    Martha Galinski
  • Sylvia Kauders
    Sarah Singer

Production company

  • X Filme Creative Pool GmbH (Berlin)
  • Extrafilm Produktion GmbH (Berlin)
  • DOCMINE Productions AG (Zürich)
  • Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) (Köln)
  • Arte G.E.I.E. (Straßburg)
  • Schweizer Fernsehen für die deutsche und rätoromanische Schweiz (SF DRS) (Zürich)

Producer

  • Dani Levy
  • Stefan Arndt

Co-Producer

  • Martin Fueter

Producer (TV)

  • Andreas Schreitmüller (Arte)
  • Susann Wach Rósza (DRS)
  • Gebhard Henke (WDR)
  • Martin Schmassmann (DRS)

Line producer

  • Milanka Comfort
  • Tom Spieß
  • Margot Bridger (New York)

Unit production manager

  • Gretchen McGowan (New York)

Production coordinator

  • Andrea Ashton (New York)
  • Regine Otto

Original distributor

  • Jugendfilm-Verleih GmbH (Berlin)

Subsequent distributor

  • STUDIOCANAL GmbH (Berlin)

Funding

  • Film- und Medien Stiftung NRW (Düsseldorf)
  • Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH (Potsdam)
  • Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) (Berlin)
  • Eidgenössisches Departement des Innern (EDI) (Bern)
  • FilmFernsehFonds Bayern GmbH (FFFB) (München)

Shoot

    • 1997 - September 1997: New York, Berlin (?)
Duration:
2975 m, 109 min
Format:
35mm
Video/Audio:
Eastmancolor, Dolby Stereo Digital
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 02.11.1998, 80920, ab 12 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (DE): 30.10.1998, Hof, Internationale Filmtage;
Aufführung (DE): 13.02.1999, Berlin, IFF - Neue Deutsche Filme;
Kinostart (DE): 11.03.1999;
TV-Erstsendung (DE FR): 08.03.2002, Arte

Titles

Additional titles
  • Originaltitel (DE) Meschugge
  • Weiterer Titel (ENG) The Giraffe

Versions

Original

Duration:
2975 m, 109 min
Format:
35mm
Video/Audio:
Eastmancolor, Dolby Stereo Digital
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 02.11.1998, 80920, ab 12 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (DE): 30.10.1998, Hof, Internationale Filmtage;
Aufführung (DE): 13.02.1999, Berlin, IFF - Neue Deutsche Filme;
Kinostart (DE): 11.03.1999;
TV-Erstsendung (DE FR): 08.03.2002, Arte

Awards

Deutscher Filmpreis 1999
  • Lola, Beste Filmusik
  • Lola, Beste Hauptdarstellerin
Source-URL: https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/meschugge_ea43d4a73edb5006e03053d50b37753d