NEELE LEANA VOLLMAR
Born 1978, Bremen (Germany). From 2000 to 2005 she studied at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy in Ludwigsburg. In 2003 she participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus. During her studies, she made the short films WATTENMEER (1999), ZU ZWEIT (1999), EINE REISE (2000), SANS UNE PAROLE (2001), WEISS (2001), TOTE FISCHE SCHWIMMEN OBEN (2002), MY PARENTS (MEINE ELTERN, 2003). In 2005 she directed her first feature film, which was the graduation work at the Film Academy, VACATION FROM LIFE (URLAUB VOM LEBEN, 2004). Later she directed the feature films PEACEFUL TIMES (FRIEDLICHE ZEITEN, 2008), WEDDING FEVER IN CAMPOBELLO (MARIA, IHM SCHMECKT'S NICHT!, 2009), a Italian-German co-production, and three children films: THE PASTA DETECTIVES (in competition in Giffoni 2014), RICO, OSKAR AND THE MYSTERIOUS STONE (2015) and MEIN LOTTA-LEBEN - ALLES BINGO MIT FLAMINGO (2018).

Director's statement
"As a filmmaker, I am interested and moved by people who want to be different, who want to break out of the routine. It is such people that are the focus of the film AUERHAUS: a group of six youngsters teaming up to prevent their friend from committing suicide. Already in the novel by Bov Bjerg, I was intrigued by the tension between the humoristic momentum of youngsters from the country side trying to live the wild life in their tiny village and the depth of their struggles of friendship, coming of age, love and death on the other side – yet all of this interlaced with irony and humor. The AUERHAUS stars a gang of boys and girls on their way to independency who stand up to fight for their dreams, but then fail to live up to the huge responsibility and are forced to grow up way faster than they wanted. The plot takes place in the German back country in the 1980s – everybody knows everybody else – and the longing for distance and world out there is more than understandable. For most of the locals, an attempted suicide is just not acceptable – a disgrace for the entire family. Weakness is not talked about. A matter just as relevant today as back then. Their position as outliers in school and the entire community allows the inhabitants of the AUERHAUS a life with little checks and boundaries. But it also means that they are on their own. Already the title points out the distance between these two worlds: Madness’ „Our house“ roars into the street, but the villagers do not know any English and thus the groups house is named „AUERHAUS“ just as the German word for wood cock – the Auerhahn. Our protagonists live just like on an island, each one on their own search for their true self, trying to find a place in the world. A challenge that everyone of us has already encountered!"