A film by Ulrich Köhler. "Sleeping Sickness" celebrated its film premiere at The 61st International Film Festival in Berlin in competition and won the Silver Bear for Best Director
"No; I am Kim, this is the great world and I am only Kim. Who is Kim?" He considered his own identity, a thing he had never done before, till his head swam. He was one insignifant person in all this roaring whirl of India, going southward to he knew not what fate.
Kim, R. Kipling
Ebbo and Vera Velten have been living in Africa for a long time. Ebbo is managing a sleeping sickness program. His work is fulfilling. In contrast, Vera feels increasingly uncomfortable with her life in the expat community of Yaoundé and the separation from her daughter Helen, 14, who is attending boarding school in Germany.
Ebbo Velten has to give up his life in Africa or he loses the woman he loves. But he has become a stranger to Europe. His fear of returning increases from day to day.
Years later. Alex Nzila, a young French doctor of Congolese origin, travels to Cameroon to evaluate a development project. He hasn’t been to Africa for a long time. But instead of finding new prospects, he encounters a destructive, lost man: like a phantom, Ebbo slips away from his evaluator.
Produced by Komplizen Film in co-produktion with ÖFILM (Germany), Why Not Productions (France), IDTV Film (Netherlands), ZDF/Das Kleine Fernsehspiel in collaboration with Arte, sponsored by FFA, BKM, DFFF, Medienboard, Filmförderung Hamburg-Schleswig Holstein, Hessen Film Fund, The Netherlands Film Fund, CNC and Media.
Ebbo Velten
Pierre Bokma
Alex Nzila
Jean-Christophe Folly
Vera Velten
Jenny Schily
Gaspard Signac
Hippolyte Girardot
Helen Velten
Maria Elise Miller
Elia Todorov
Sava Lolov
Written and directed by
Ulrich Köhler
Director of Photography
Patrick Orth
Editing
Katharina Wartena
Eva Könnemann
Production Design
Jochen Dehn
Costume Design
Birgitt Kilian
Casting
Kris Portier de Bellair
Ulrike Müller
Original Sound
Julien Sicart
Sound Design
Tobias Peper
Commissioning Editors
Christian Cloos (ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel)
Anne Even (ZDF/ARTE)
Birgit Kämper (ARTE)
Co-producer
Frans van Gestel (IDTV Film)
Producers
Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade (Komplizen Film)
Katrin Schlösser (öFilm)
Berlinale, 61. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin
Silver Bear for Best Directing
Festival des deutschen Films
Film art award 2011
Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin
Competition
Istanbul International Film Festival
Buenos Aires International Film Festival (BAFICI)
Copenhagen Film Festival - CPH:PIX
Festival des deutschen Films Madrid
Sydney International Film Festival
Festival des deutschen Films
Competition
Midnight Sun Film Festival
New Zealand International Film Festival
Durban International Film Festival
Melbourne International Film Festival
Wellington International Film Festival
Transatlantyk International Film and Music Festival
Espoo Ciné International Film Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
New York Film Festival
Busan International Film Festival
Films from the South Festival
BFI London Film Festival
Kinofest Lünen
Festival International du Film La Roche-sur-Yon
Mumbai International Film Festival
Sao Paulo International Film Festival
Tokyo International Film Festival
Human Right Film Festival Costa Rica
Chennai International Film Festival
Panazorean Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival
Shanghai International Film Festival
