Benjamin Quabeck

Born 1976, Wuppertal (Germany). He studied Film Direction at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg starting in 1996. He has worked as a freelance film editor during that time. He was awarded a promotion prize in the federal competition Youth and Video for the short film WIND. His animated short film HÖHLENANGST won several prizes and was screened on SWR television. His graduation film NICHTS BEREUEN, for which he also wrote the novel, was presented at the GFF 2002 (Y GEN section) and was awarded the Promotion Prize in Directing at the Munich Filmfest and the German Film Prize as Best Debut Film of 2001. He has also made numerous of music clips, most recently for the group Virginia Jetzt!

Director’s statement

“I wanted to make a fast and straight film. In a visual style that corresponded to the music of the early eighties and the clothes of the protagonists. But there is another point that was really important for me. Harry is a bit different to all the guys he hangs around with. He tries to be cool as them, but he isn’t. He feels that style can’t be everything. He has a yearning for some kind of bigger interest. He wants to get people moving. He is a visionary. He is a bit like a preacher of the German new wave movement that started a year after the time our film is set and became famous worldwide in the end (with songs like 99 RED BALLONS by Nena and DA DA DA by Trio). And Harry has a yearning for love, he falls in love with the wrong girl at the wrong time. He has no time for her because of that new wave concert. And his friends don’t like that girl because she’s definitely not cool. So it’s up to Harry to find his own way”.