Eingeschlossen Frei Zu Sein

Is there for Franz, a young prisoner, the possibility of realizing his dreams and wishes after escaping from prison? Franz steals a scooter, meets a girl, named Andrea, who was hitchhiking, and spends with her a short period of time. But not a normal love story, according to the usual film canons has started; on the contrary, the meeting with Andrea unleashes in Franz the memory of his past experiences, of that past that he wanted to leave behind. The images of the film, shot in black and white, and the sweetness of his poetry try to reflect the emotional state of the boy. The film strives to analyze the conceptual chain dream / escape from reality / change using a a concrete case.


When, after two years of work, you want to say something about your film, the first thing that comes to mind is to compare the original project and the result. Many things have happened in between. What remains is the set of many memories and many experiences that the viewer may not be interested in at all. In the beginning there was the dream of shooting a film in 16mm, making a movie about dreams. From the music of Andreas Vollenweider, images of motorbike racing were born in my imagination for free spaces, images of happiness and joy, images of Franz, who finds his freedom in this movement and in the speed of a motorbike. But at the same time it was clear that the film should not become a kind of Easy Rider, that is a transfiguration and an idealization. And so a black-and-white film came out, which uses these images of happiness very sparingly. In the background, however, there was a destiny that did not allow to represent a simple swing between happiness and pain, between joy and sadness. Franz is not a fictional character. He is currently serving his sentence in a German prison. Following numerous attempts to escape, all failed, the penalty has risen to 5 years. At 7 he began his "career". Franz was afraid of the beatings that his father, returning drunk in the evening, distributed to the whole family. With a gang of children he stole candy and toys. In time, thefts became bigger. When he was 10 his parents divorced. His mother began to work again, and Franz stayed alone with his brothers. At the age of 15, he appeared for the first time before a court. They sent him to work at the zoo. The second time he was sentenced for theft to a year in prison without parole. After nine months he was released for good behavior. When he wanted to go back to his mother, she did not accept him; his father, meanwhile, had remarried. He welcomed Franz; but without a job, his freedom lasted only three months. He was sentenced to a sentence between 2 and 4 years, depending on his future conduct in prison. After the second escape attempt, he was arrested and sentenced, also because of the criminal actions carried out during his escape, to 4 years and 8 months in prison. (...)


In the film, I focused on Franz's inner life on how Franz faces his destiny, his condition, his feelings of guilt. In the inner life of a person I am interested in those elements that can not be understood from the outside and that must not be ignored. Those disturbances that sometimes go back a long time before, those facts that make Franz desperate. The fragility of men has deep roots, and the danger that they fail, that they can fail, is very big. Franz finds himself, objectively, in a spiral from which it is difficult to get out. It is not a matter of judging, but of showing what is hidden beneath the surface. And to give rise to a kind of understanding that has nothing to do with compassion. Eingeschlossen is my first film in 16mm, and was produced without subsidies whatsoever, thanks only to the commitment of all the collaborators. Despite all the difficulties, it contains scenes and images that represent for me a starting point towards the achievement of a filmic language that can show men and their feelings with attention and understanding (Christian Wagner)

Director and screenplay: Christian Wagner.
Director of photography: (16mm, b/n): HeinzPeter Geissler, HeinzGünter Weber.
Music: Florian Müller.
Sound: Michael Meier, Thomas Gehring.
Editor: Sylvia Regelin, Christian Wagner.
Cast: Günter Burger (Franz), Anke Günzel (Andrea), Heinz Tandler (Seeber), Rudolf Hübner (Paul), Gebhard Geduld (ragazzo che dorme), Ingolf Kumbrink (ragazzo sulla moto), Manfred Beer (guardiano), Ylmaz Hilda, (primo detenuto), Manfred Choutka (secondo detenuto), Axel Muck (giudice).
Production company: Christian Wagner & q.e.d. Lillebonner Strasse 51, D897 Immenstadt.