Manga Bell

by Antonia Gronau | Feb 17, 2023

Manga Bell – A good German

Cameroon, 1914: The head of the Duala, King Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, is on trial. The charge is high treason. The accusation is made in connection with the German colonial administration’s expropriation plans, which were driven forward by one man in particular: District Commissioner Hermann Röhm.

Duala Manga attended grammar school in Ulm with the very same Hermann Röhm around 20 years earlier. In the course of the Court Room drama, Rudolf Duala Manga Bell emerges as a perfect example of the “cultural uplift” that the German colonizers ostensibly had in mind when they subjugated the “protectorates”. However, his perfect German, his comprehensive knowledge of German customs and the German legal system and, last but not least, his outstanding intellect meant that he was by no means safe, but was targeted by the colonial administration and its representative Röhm. Against the historical backdrop, the painful story of this friendship, which ends in fatal betrayal through the process of unfriending, forms a metaphor for German behavior as a colonial power.

The story of Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, who loved German culture and whose persistent belief in justice ended in a German judicial murder, is still little known. It is time to tell the story of this special man.

Credits

Screenplay & Director: Lisa Charlotte Friederich
Producer: Philipp Goeser
Production Company: Schiwago Film (Martin Lehwald, Marcos Kantis)

In cooperation with: SWR
Funded by: the German Federal Film Board (FFA)

Production year: 2026

Rukis erster Sommer

by Antonia Gronau | Feb 17, 2023

Rukis first summer

9-year-old Sarah spends the summer holidays alone with her dad in Tunisia for the first time and rescues a chicken from the oven. Together they have an adventure in the desert and in the middle of an impenetrable sandstorm Sarah begins to see clearly for the first time.

Credits

Director: Frédérique Veith
Written by: Zazou Röver
Producer: Philipp Goeser
Producer: Schiwago Film (Martin Lehwald, Marcos Kantis)
Fundings: Kuratorium junger deutscher Film und Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM)

Göggingen

by schiwagofilmadmin | Feb 13, 2023

Göggingen

Screenplay: Christoph Silber, Dörte Franke, Martin Lehwald
Director: Martin Lehwald

An emigrated German returns in 1947 as an officer in the U.S. Army and is assigned to oversee the denazification camp at Göggingen. There he befriends the wife of a high Nazi chargé, who uses him to escape with her husband.

Eunuch

by schiwagofilmadmin | Feb 13, 2023

Eunuch

EUNUCH (25), a transgender woman, lives in a remote coastal village in India. Like most of her kind, she is an outcast, shunned by society and family alike. Therefore, her relationship with MRINAL (30), an heir to a powerful political family, can only exist behind veils – a deadly secret known only to themselves. When Mrinal marries a wealthy woman from a high caste, Eunuch accepts it as her fate and is content with the clandestine trysts that continue after his marriage. But as his bond with his family grows, Eunuch realises that their love means little to Mrinal. One day, overcome by rejection and rage, she kills him.

She makes her way to Mumbai. SANDEEP (19), a friend from the village, helps her settle in. She joins a clan of Kinnars and goes in search of her missing sister MALTI, who was trafficked to the city by HARI (51) when Eunuch was a child. The hope of reuniting with Malti is short-lived: Eunuch is rejected by the woman she believes to be her sister.

It is at this point that Mrinal returns. As a ghost. She sings to bring him back to
life. He is her reason for living. Unwilling to lose him again, but unable to bear
his presence because he reminds her of the misdeed she has committed, she collapses. To live, she must exorcise his spirit and all that is buried in her past. The reappearance of the evil Hari sets her off on this path: to accept, admit and seek forgiveness. She sings again; through singing she can explore the depths of her dark past and find the thread that connects her to life and others. At first, she sings for her own community, then for larger crowds. She becomes a beloved singer, singing for those invisible, rejected and deprived, who, like herself, wander through our cities every day.

Credits

Director and screenplay: Udita Bhargava
Producer: Martin Lehwald
Co-producers: Eaux Vives Productions, Amour Fou
Producer: Stella Wejchert

Atrocity

by schiwagofilmadmin | Feb 13, 2023

Atrocity

In search of a secret SS documentary on the genocide, “Atrocity Film” travels to archives in Germany, America and Russia, as well as Holocaust sites in Eastern Europe, and looks at the practice of using footage of the murder of Jews today.

More information about the project and the background can be found here.