Stefanie Kremser

english

	Film & Literatur


	The New York Times on TATORT

english

Stefanie Kremser, born in Germany in December 1967, grew up in a German-Bolivian family in São Paulo, Brazil. At the age of twenty she moved to Munich and studied documentary film at the University of Television and Film (HFF). Her early documentaries were invited to several international film festivals and broadcasted on television. She lives as a screenwriter and novelist in Barcelona and Munich.

novel

2011

"Die toten Gassen von Barcelona" a crime novel set in Barcelona

© kiwi

Publisher: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, August 2011

Anna Silber travels to Barcelona, the birth town of her deceased mother, to live with friends: Rafael, a journalist, and Quim, a police inspector. She wants to write an alternative travel guide book on Barcelona. No sooner has she arrived than a dead man is lying on the street in front of her friends´ house and a little boy presses a small piece of lead into her hand that could have belonged to the dead person – or to the murderer? The dead man is not the only victim – a serial killer seems to be on the prowl, but where’s the pattern, what’s the motive? Purely by accident Anna gets on to the track of the killer, and while she follows his path, she explores the city and takes a look behind its glossy façade: poverty, immigration problems, architectural speculation… At last, she is able to track down the killer and brings herself into grave danger. A tantalizing crime novel which leads the reader through the squares and alleyways of Barcelona, and at the same time casts a glance behind the scenes of this fascinating Mediterranean metropolis.

“A crime novel that shows a totally different side of Barcelona than the one presented to tourists. A new detective who wins the heart of her readers with her self-critical humour and her vulnerability. After this debut one will without a doubt hear more from this author who lives both in Barcelona and in Munich. And that’s a good thing.” - WDR 5 Radio

„[Kremser] offers us an unadorned insight into a tragic part of Spanish culture. And she does that in such an overwhelmingly laconic way, with such an empathetic language rich in symbols, that one wants to become outraged. From the beginning she creates sympathy for her insecure and yet strong-willed heroine and she has developed a clear crime novel plot. A terrific book for a rainy summer!” - FOCUS weekly

"... a debut with plenty of rythm and wit, social critique and commitment ... a refined crime novel that delivers best entertainment with a weird charm and a diabolically cryptical deliberate confusion." - Mannheimer Morgen

"Stefanie Kremser impresses with an illustrous and poetic language." - Sachsen Zeitung

screenplays

2010

"Unsterblich Schön" Undying Beauty

TATORT (Scene of Crime - German police drama 90 min./celluloid, Bayerisches Fernsehen BR for the ARD 2010). Shown also at "40 years Tatort - lessons about Germany" Dec. 10th 2011, German House at the NYU in New York. Director: Filippos Tsitos →

Desirable spa owner Kontanze is found dead in a chocolate beauty bath. On the same day she planned to leave her husband, the twenty years older male model Andreas - also on the same day her never as perfect sister Dorothea found out that her husband is cheating on her - with Konstanze. A novelesque family drama and, at the same time, an intense and intimate play with characters lost in superficiality, scared of age and rejection.

"It's tragic and comical how here Munich's rich and beautiful fight against ageing - a battle they can only lose, in the end. Director Filippos Tsitos and screenwriter Stefanie Kremser, who, with "Six to Dinner" and "Young Hearts", have made some of the formally strongest Tatort-episodes for the BR, find exactly the right tone for their parade of true or supposedly Best Agers. The melancholy over the irretrievably fading youth and the aggressivity of the anti-wrinkles business are finely tared." - taz

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2009

"Escríbeme: Postales a Copacabana" Write me: Postcards to Copacabana

Adaptation for the screen from the novel "Postcard from Copacabana" (96 min./35mm, Spanish original language), co-produced by Bayerisches Fernsehen & Avista Film (Munich) with Pegaso Producciones (La Paz) 2009. 13th Shanghai International Film Festival, Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival 2011. Released in Germany (August 2009) and Bolivia (October 2009) See Trailer Director: Thomas Kronthaler →

On the edge of the world, at an altitude of 4,000 metres on the banks of Lake Titicaca, lies the small Bolivian village of Copacabana. Here fourteen-year-old Alfonsina lives with her mother Rosa and her grandmother Elena. Together with her best friend Tere, Alfonsina has vowed to leave this boring place in the back of beyond in order to see the world. But till the girls are ready to do so they collect picture postcards from countries all over the globe. A student from Munich and a businessman from La Paz turn up in Copacabana. Little do any of them know, but for Elena, Rosa, and Alfonsina this marks the beginning of their final days together.

"(...) An enchanting, funny story about the power of faith" - Financial Times Deutschland

"(...) the lovely, lushly visual Copacabana has a charming cross-cultural, magical realist sensibility." - hollywoodprogressive

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2007

„Kleine Herzen“ Young Hearts

© br

TATORT (Scene of Crime - German police drama 90 min./celluloid, Bayerisches Fernsehen BR for the ARD 2007) - nominated for the Adolf-Grimme-Award 2008 in the category "Best TV Movie". Director: Filippos Tsitos

18-year-old Anne lives alone with her four-year-old son Tim. Her everyday life is not easy - coping with irregular working times, not enough money and the responsibility for a lively child. However, Tim's father Marc, also 18, is only interested in getting good results in his exams, in football and in his aim to study in America. Nor are Anne's parents much help to the young, overburdened mother. Only Katrin, Marc's elder sister, concerned for little Tim, constantly intervenes in Anne's affairs and gives her good advice. When, once again, this causes a quarrel between the two young women, a fateful scuffle ensues in which Katrin is killed. Detective Inspectors Batic and Leitmayr now have to unravel the circumstances that led to this death and find themselves in a tangled web of excuses, half truths and lies - all safety nets of overburdened children, who already have a child. And in all this the Detective Inspectors have no idea that beyond their investigations another drama is being played out....

Newcomer Sponsorship Award (Nachwuchspreis) from the Bavarian Television Award (Bayerischer Fernsehpreis) as well as the New Faces Award from the German Film Award (Deutscher Filmpreis) 2008 for Janina Stopper in her leading role as a teenage mother, who is about to break down under the pressure of her responsibilities.

"Director Filippos Tsitos and screenwriter Stefanie Kremser have created an extremely silent, quiet Television film, where apparently nothing much happens... in cinematographical minimalism, without any effort. This has something moving. Something shocking." - Der Tagesspiegel

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2004

„Sechs zum Essen“ Dinner for Six

TATORT (Scene of Crime - German police drama 90 min./celluloid, Bayerisches Fernsehen BR for the ARD 2004); also screened at the screenwriter's festival "Els èxits Alemanys - German Successes" in Barcelona 2007. Director: Filippos Tsitos

A dark comedy about single men and women trying to find love - at least sort of - at a Running Dinner. But then the evening's most wanted bachelor is killed... with Merab Ninidze ("Nowhere in Africa") playing the irresistible victim:

At a dating event for singles, Detective Inspector Carlo Menzinger tries his luck in vain. For Korinna, the woman he fancies, is beguiled by the charming Peter. And Peter would have won the battle for Korinna if he hadn't been run over by a car and killed - evidently a premeditated attack.
The Munich Detective Inspectors Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr have no choice but to plunge into the jungle of big-city single life, where money and success count for more than love and security, and where the desire for private happiness is to be fulfilled all the more quickly, even rashly. They soon find out that Peter was a poacher in the hunting ground of the unattached: a philanderer who, at the same time, lived in a steady relationship with Sofie. And a number of his countless lovers - including the unhappy Rafaela - knew just how much Peter enjoyed this game of deceit.
Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr are now forced to confront longings and bitter insights, which they - being single themselves - would have prefered to evade. Moreover, they are not to neglect the lovelorn Carlo who, once in search of happiness, now seems to be a real walking disaster area.

"Finally another Tatort from Munich. And apart from the fact that the Tatorts from Munich are the best, apart from that: this one is so delicate, so subtle, with so little blood - but all the more sophisticated." - Frankfurter Rundschau

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2002

„Wolf im Schafspelz“ Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

TATORT (Scene of Crime - German police drama 90 min./celluloid, Bayerisches Fernsehen BR for the ARD 2002); also screened at the film festival "Criminale" in Munich 2002; adapted to an audio book (Der Audio Verlag 2007). Director: Filippos Tsitos

On the last sheep farm in Munich, the battle between archaic life and modernization leads to terrible sacrifices. With Franz-Xaver Kroetz as a farmer who is about to loose everything he has lived for.

"This constitutes the class of this remarkable screenwriter's debut: the balanced game between images and reflections, of things - and things behind." - Süddeutsche Zeitung

novel

2000

"Postkarte aus Copacabana" Postcard from Copacabana

Published by Piper Verlag 2000, Munich and Club Editor 2007, Barcelona. Film adaptation in 2009. A life changing walk through a lake and the question, if one has to move until the other end of the world to find something new.

„Those who followed, breathtaken, how a postcard from Bavaria transformes itself into a splashing lake, want more – more from Stefanie Kremser“ - Frankfurter Rundschau

"With a delicious irony" - El País

"Stefanie Kremser has the ability to transform the extraordinary into something natural" - Time Out Barcelona

„She achieves an expressive impact with this positive feeling for linguistic values... a book full of grace and humour.“ – Südwestdeutscher Rundfunk

grants, fellowships and screenplay funding*

2006 FilmFernsehFonds Bayern*

2003 Casa Baldi/ Villa Massimo - Olevano Romano, Rome

2001 Ledig House/Artomi - Ghent, New York

1999 Literarisches Colloquium Berlin