After studying directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, Christina Friedrich, who was born in Nordhausen, directed numerous plays, including at the Theater Bremen and the German National Theater Weimar. For the drama “Zone” (in cinemas from October 3rd), which combines the story of a youth in the GDR with the death of a girl at the end of the Second World War and the horror in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, she filmed her own novel “Keller “at locations in and around Nordhausen.
Christina from Nordhausen
Friedrich is making a film of her own
Buch. Photo: Vincenzo Laera
When did you write “Keller” and how did you come up with the idea of making a film of your novel?
In 2008 and 2009 I wrote “Keller” – a book that deals with the topography of the Harz, Nordhausen and the biography of the people who grew up there. But it obviously wasn’t that easy to find a publisher for it. There was a lot of interest in the language, but the publishers mostly said: It’s too dark for me. Although German history is not brighter.
What happened next?
Then the book sat there for a few years and I worked on the theater performance “Keep Me In Mind” in Haifa, researched it in countries like Israel, Canada, Lithuania, Poland and France – and also made a film about it with the same title . As a result, I made another film, “Sons of a Bitches – A Requiem”. And I gradually changed the medium, from theater to performance – and then came back to “Keller,” which still hadn’t been published. Then I decided to make a film out of it too. At the same time as this decision, there was a publisher who published “Keller”. This is the origin story. But all materials correspond or act in the area of the southern Harz, in Nordhausen, i.e. this concrete and precise as well as mythological and historical survey area.
What mythological significance do Nordhausen, the Harz or the nearby Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp memorial have for you?
Mittelbau-Dora was a camp in which the prisoners died of exhaustion and exhaustion or were murdered. Over 20,000 forced laborers worked in the V1 and V2 production tunnels and did not survive. These are not mythical places, they are places of death. And then there is this Harz, which is not really a bright mountain range. It has echoes of German Romanticism, Heinrich Heine and Goethe – but there are also death marches that went through the Harz Mountains. Growing up in such an environment does something to you. The Dora camp was right next to the Salzaquelle outdoor swimming pool. From there you can look directly at places called Totenberg, Ascheberg or Crematorium. It’s not such a long way to encounter this material and have to tell it. It arises, so to speak, from the topography of this origin.
In “Keller” you deliberately avoid certain punctuation marks: there are only periods and commas, no question marks or exclamation marks, and no introduction or execution marks, even in dialogues. Is there a concept behind this?
When writing, the form comes from the content. It is a chronicle, a description – and there are no questions or exclamation marks that evaluate it emotionally. There are statements that come from the descriptive field of this protagonist – and the language and the form arise from the object. But I also avoid question marks and exclamation marks in all other novels.
Do “Keller” or “Zone” have autobiographical traits?
There are definitely connections between me and the protagonists. There are moments, or situations and emotions that I know. Not everything that happens there fictionally – but the psychogram, the landscape, the stories, and above all the atmosphere and mood are familiar to me. This form of oppression or oppression. I didn’t find growing up in the GDR to be a consistently happy event.
Personally, I found “Zone” unwieldy. Would you like to give the audience something to help them find access?
It would be best to watch the film with your eyes closed – although of course you should watch it. You should go into the film as if you were stepping into a river or unknown body of water, hoping that the water would carry and there would be moments of unknown passages. Moments when you drift away. But you can rely on it: it’s a film that you can watch with your heart. You don’t necessarily have to understand it – you can feel it.
I read that you did the catering yourself on the set of “Zone” for budget reasons…
Not consistently. The chef left on the first day and we formed cooking groups and all cooked for each other – for ten, twelve or 25 people. But I like to cook and some days I actually did it alone, yes.
What was on the table?
There was banana bread, various extraordinary soups, homemade spreads… Oh my God, I can’t even remember, it was a long time ago. There are other recipes in my head now.
Will you ever write a cookbook?
I write cookbooks in every book! Every book I write is always connected to food. Careful readers would always find a lot of recipes and a lot of dishes in the books. All the books are very much about food. Food is important.
In addition to Berlin, your second residence is in Limlingerode in the Nordhausen district…
That’s right, I live in the rectory, in the former Sarah Kirsch poet’s place – and there’s a lot of peace and quiet there for concentration. It’s a bit monastic; here I can write (screenplays) in peace. The stories all take place in this lonely landscape, examined from different perspectives. There is forest, there are deer, there are falcons – and there is my Vespa.
What is your relationship with Nordhausen today?
It’s not a really nice city. It is the city in which I grew up, which was scary to me due to the presence of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp and which I found oppressive – even though I spent a lot of time in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross as a child and still enjoy visiting it today.
If you look at the high level of support for right-wing parties in Thuringia: Do you miss an appropriate culture of remembrance when dealing with the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp?
There was no lack of a culture of remembrance – but it was a numerical culture of remembrance that called for its rituals to mark anniversaries and holidays, but was not anchored in memory or in the form of a discourse. The laying of wreaths and the clichéd remembrance terms of “never again” or the like are completely empty. As we can see, they simply swept away and apparently did not take effect because the context of violence, contempt, the exclusion of strangers and a certain proximity to a body of thought was maintained. The rituals of remembrance often did not sufficiently touch on this deep foundation. (short pause) I’m not surprised.
Is there a play that you would like to direct for the stage?
Definitely something from Kleist. Kleist’s language is dizzyingly fascinating – and it always has something to do with dreams, with battle, with pain and love.
Those are the big topics!
Yes, exactly. Unfortunately I can’t do that.
Hard Facts:
- “Zone” opens in cinemas on October 3rd.
- If you want to find out more about the film: www.madonnenwerk.de
More cool news for you:
Nordhäuserin comes to the cinema with her first film “Zone” was last modified: October 7th, 2024 by takt Magazin
