Thursday, January 26, 2023

From Leipzig to Hollywood: The MDR/Arte production "Homesickness - Childhood Between Fronts" has been nominated for an Oscar for best documentary fil

t Online • Yesterday at 17:00 From Leipzig to Hollywood: The MDR/Arte production "Homesickness - Childhood Between Fronts" has been nominated for an Oscar for best documentary film. Great joy in the south of L.E.: The cheeky abbreviation that people from Leipzig like to use to name their hometown and to illustrate the megalomania typical of Leipzig could now become an omen. A good omen, mind you - if there is one. Because a co-production of the Leipzig-based Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) has been nominated for the Oscar, which is known to be awarded to Los Angeles, the real LA. Together with the broadcaster Arte, MDR produced the documentary film with the touching title "Homesickness - childhood between the fronts", in which the story of the residents and employees of an eastern Ukrainian children's home is told. There, near the front line to the separatist areas, fighting has been going on since 2014. The TV premiere is on February 14th at Arte, then it's off to Hollywood In the home, children from broken families find refuge and security for a while. A group of committed educators work tirelessly for them. The documentary was shot between 2019 and 2020, and the home has since been evacuated. The film, which also has the much nicer English title "A House made of Splinters", can be seen in the Arte media library from February 12th and celebrates its TV premiere on February 14th at 10:30 p.m. in the Arte Program. And then it's straight to Hollywood, because the Oscars start there on March 12 in the famous Kodak Theatre. MDR program director Jana Brandt wishes the filmmakers the best of luck: "Director Simon Lereng Wilmont has put his heart and soul into the subject and has received intensive support from the MDR history and documentaries department in order to give the children in eastern Ukraine an authentic voice. I fingers crossed and thanks to everyone involved," she wrote in a statement. Thomas Beyer from Leipzig took over the editing of the film for MDR.