A great departure

“A Great Departure” receives the Golden Camera 2016 in the category: Best Film.

The jury: “A moving drama with polished dialogues, fine irony, brilliant ensemble.”

Matti Geschonneck’s film is also nominated for the 52nd Grimme Award 2016 in the Fiction/Special competition.

Ina Weisse was awarded the 2016 German Television Award for Best Actress for “Ein großer Aufbruch.” Magnus Vattrodt received the German Television Award for Best Screenplay.

At the 27th FernsehfilmFestival in Baden-Baden, the film was awarded the Student Jury Prize.

The jury’s reasoning: “The mental blinkers of convulsively producing films for a young audience have to be taken off,” said the student jury in justification, and further: “Our winning film shows that it’s worth it. It captivates with a truthful and honest examination of a topic that transcends generations.”

About the content:

Holm Hardenberg (Matthias Habich) does not want to suffer. After his cancer diagnosis, he has made the decision to seek euthanasia. That’s why he invites the most important people in his life – his daughters Marie (Ina Weisse) and Charlotte (Katharina Lorenz), his ex-wife Ella (Hannelore Elsner) and his best friends Adrian (Edgar Selge) and Katharina (Ulrike Kriener) – to his house on Lake Chiemsee to say a proper farewell and toast to a successful life. But the family reunion turns into a day of reckoning. Soon, all relationships of trust between family and friends are put to the test.

In addition to Matthias Habich, the top-class cast of this ensemble film also includes (in alphabetical order): Matthias Brandt, Hannelore Elsner, Ulrike Kriener, Katharina Lorenz, Edgar Selge, Ina Weisse. The screenplay was written by Magnus Vattrodt. The author and director had most recently worked together successfully on “Das Zeugenhaus,” “Helen Dorn” and the multiple award-winning ZDF television film “Das Ende einer Nacht.”

Filming took place from February 25 to the end of March 2015 in Munich, on Lake Chiemsee and in Upper Bavaria. “Ein großer Aufbruch” is a ZDF commissioned production by Network Movie Film- und Fernsehproduktion Cologne, the producers are Wolfgang Cimera and Silke Schulze-Erdel. The ZDF editors are Reinhold Elschot and Stefanie von Heydwolff.