CONCRETE LOVE
- THE BÖHM FAMILY

by Maurizius Staerkle Drux
GERMANY / SWITZERLAND / 2014 / 88´

PRESS


"A FILM ABOUT LIFE, LOVE AND FAITH. IT IS LIBERATING AND ELEGANT."
- cineurope

"THIS IS NUMBER ONE OF ANY FILM YOU MUST SEE THIS YEAR!"
- archdaily

"CINEMATIC EXPLORATION OF AN EXCEPTIONAL FAMILY. HIGLY EMOTIONAL."
- ARTE



CREW


Cinematographer Rapahel Beinder Editor Anika Simon Music Jonas Bühler Sound Manu Gerber, Remie Blaser, Maurizius Staerkle Drux Producer Carl-Ludwig Rettinger, Lisa Blatter, Jan Gassmann Company Lichtblick film Köln, 2:1 Film Zürich Supported by WDR, BR, NRW Filmförderung, DFFF, Alexis V. Thalberg Stiftung, BAK, Zürcher Filmstiftung


SYNOPSIS


Gottfried Böhm is widely regarded as Germany’s preeminent architect. The son of a master builder of churches, he is the patriarch of a modern architecture dynasty to which his three sons Stephan, Peter und Paul now belong. By realizing outstanding prominent buildings of their own, the Böhm fils have managed to step out of the shadow of their famous father. But the ongoing crisis in the German construction industry, among other things, has stoked the fires of competition between the brothers.

Gottfried, now 94, still contributes daily to the work on current planning and construction projects. With the death of his wife Elisabeth, also an architect and a key source of inspiration for all four Böhms, the family loses its emotional lodestone. Can the fragile architecture of the family business a viable model for the future? The film paints an intimate and pointed portrait of the complexity and inseparability of life, love, faith, art and architecture.


STATEMENT OF THE DIRECTOR


„A connection between my relatives in Cologne and the Böhms meant that I already had a long-standing friendship with the Böhm family. I saw in Gottfried Böhm a formidable artist full of youthful curiosity – a contemporary in spirit despite the great disparity in our ages. From the very beginning I was interested in the way the Böhms meld family with work life almost seamlessly. For a span of over two years I lived with the Böhms in Cologne while I shot the film. I wanted to explore the personal aspects that lie behind the façades of the buildings and to show that these mighty constructions also express emotions."


AWARDS


*GOETHE FILM PRIZE, INT. FILMFESTIVAL LEIPZIG
*JURY AWARD, INT. FILMFESTIVAL SUR L´ART MONTREAL
*BEST DIRECTOR, SICHUAN FILMFESTIVAL CHINA
*AUDIANCE AWARD, DESIGN FEST PORTUGAL
*JURY AWARD, INT. FILMFESTIVAL ISTANBUL
*BEST FILM, BOZNER FILMTAGE ITALY
*SPECIAL MENTION, MAX OPHÜLS PREIS GERMANY
*NOMINATED FOR LOLA, GERMAN FILM AWARD
*NOMINATED FOR PRIX DE SOLEURE, SWITZERLAND




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