Wolfskinder

"In retrospect, it was lucky that they all rejected me," Rick Ostermann says. The 36-year-old director had applied several times to relevant film academies from Munich to Berlin, but none of them wanted him. And so he worked his way up, from office intern with Tom Tykwer to being a sought-after assistant director. In this way he learned the profession right from scratch from colleagues like Matthias Glasner and Lars Kraume.

In 2012 he made the first film of his own, which was promptly invited to the Venice International Film Festival a year ago. The director, who now lives in Berlin, chose some rather difficult material for his debut. "Wolfskinder" is about two small brothers who fled through forests and fields from Sovietoccupied Eastern Prussia into Lithuania during the summer of 1946, losing sight of themselves on the way.

He worked on this material for seven years, inspired by his own family history. As a small child, his mother fled from Eastern Prussia with her parents to return only decades later with her husband and then ten-year-old son – in a caravan. It was a journey that made a lasting impression on Rick Ostermann. He began to do some research and came across various studies of so-called "wolf children", orphaned war refugees.

They did not talk about this much in the family, which is something Ostermann also experienced during his research. Very few of the refugees wanted to recount their traumatic experiences. His mother has seen the film in the meantime and was "very impressed," Ostermann says. "Above all, she was very moved by the endless Lithuanian landscape, which reminded her of her own childhood."

It is a film with very little dialogue about children in nature, reminiscent of the great cinematic mystics Andrei Tarkowski and Terrence Malick. "When you see my film, it’s not really surprising to hear that I think Malick is very good. I am fascinated by the archaic, by the connection between man and nature."

He does not want his film to be understood as a political comment, however; he is concerned with the trauma experienced by those innocent children. Nevertheless, he observes a fresh debate with the horrors of the Second World War and Nazi dictatorship among his generation. "There is a different perspective – on the victims that also existed in the German population, like in "Lore" and also the mini-series "Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter" ("Generation War"), and I find that extremely interesting."

Since its world premiere the film has been shown at many more festivals in Chicago, Italy and Germany. "It has been on a wonderful journey," Ostermann says. "I was particularly pleased about its invitation to Lithuania. At first we were very nervous, because there were wolf children there, too, and we were uncertain how they would take the film. But they were all very grateful that the film generated new awareness of their fates."
Abroad, "Wolfskinder" has met with a tremendous response. "Often, the screenings were so packed that we had to lay on extra ones. A lot of young people also came to the cinemas and discussions with the audience often lasted for three quarters of an hour or longer."

Ostermann believes that what makes the film interesting, outside Germany as well, is "its exemplary quality, which can be understood everywhere. At the same time it deals with an exciting, little known aspect of history."
At the end of August the film will be launched officially in German cinemas; at Filmfest Munich in July it was awarded the Peace Prize of German Film, "Die Brücke", named after Bernhard Wicki’s anti-war drama. Ostermann remembers well the moment when he heard about the prize: "I was just on the way to Bolzano to the film festival and I had missed my plane. Then the telephone rang and it was Bernhard Wicki’s widow in person calling to tell me the news." He is delighted about this first award, which he believes is "very fitting and a great honor."

It seems that airports are good places in general for Ostermann. When he was flying to the film festival in Chicago last year, he bought himself a novel to read before boarding the plane; and he found it so exciting while reading on board that he met with the author afterwards and secured the film rights. He has a first version of the screenplay already but refuses to reveal what it’s all about. Perhaps a time schedule? "The quicker, the better! But the wheels of funding turn slowly, and so I would be thrilled if we managed to shoot it in spring 2016. That would give us another year to make the screenplay really good."

In between, he is working as an assistant director once again. Until September he is making a several-part TV series together with Matthias Glasner, and following that a film with Lars Kraume. Ostermann grins: "So ‘film school’ continues." Over the years he has learned a lot from them. "They love their actors and cooperate with them intensely. And both are hooked on film but manage to retain great humility. That impresses me."

In the coming years he sees himself predominantly "as an independent director and writer." He has no reservations about this. "It doesn’t always have to be arthouse, I can imagine being commissioned to make a television film, as well." At any rate, he has no need to be worried about the future following a successful debut like "Wolfskinder". At the beginning of November he will be presented with the Franz Werfel Human Rights Award from the Stiftung Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen ("Center Against Expulsions") in the Paulskirche Frankfurt for his first film.

Author: Thomas Abeltshauser