PLANET PLANET is a playful short film about the long-term consequences of unsustainable development. Though the set design that Nikolai Kinski moves through is fantastical, the background of this environmental film is very real (written and directed by The Vikings). The viewer follows the adventures and misadventures of a temperamental simpleton day after day, as he sets out to explore his unusually small world. Even as he s marvelling at the planet s pristine and natural beauty, the man thoughtlessly begins to destroy its very foundations through reckless behaviour. And eventually, this behaviour comes back to haunt him. Without realising it, our man has soon walked around the entire planet on his daily tour. He s literally back where he started. Although he complains bitterly about the increasing pollution he begins to encounter, he doesn t recognise it as his own. Singlehandedly, the man transforms the planet of his dreams into his own worst nightmare: the forest becomes a charred wasteland, the once-idyllic sheep meadow an oily, apocalyptic marsh, and his swimming pond becomes a huge landfill. 1
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS 18th International Environmental Film Festival Barcelona: Golden Sun award as Best Short Film 2011 11th International Environmental Film Festival Toronto: nominated as Best Short Film 2010 27th FESTROIA International Film Festival Setúbal: nominated as Best Short Film in 2011 FESTIVAL SCREENINGS 11th PLANET IN FOCUS, International Environmental Film Festival Toronto, Canada, 13 17 October 2010 http://planetinfocus.org/ BERLIN NEXT FESTIVAL at Gaite Lyrique Paris, France, 29 March 3 April 2011 http://www.gaite-lyrique.net/ 8th International Green Film Festival, Seoul, Korea, 18 25 May 2011 http://en.gffis.org/ 2
18th Festival International Environmental Film Festival, Barcelona, Spain, 1 8 June 2011 http://www.ficma.com/ 27th FESTROIA International Film Festival, Setúbal, Portugal, 3 12 June 2011 http://www.festroia.pt/ 5th PICURT International Environmental Film Festival, Ortedo, Spain, 21 25 June 2011 http://www.picurt.org/ 12th BUSTER, Copenhagen International Film Festival for Children & Youth, Copenhagen, Denmark, 21 25 September 2011 http://www.buster.dk 3
CREDITS Starring Written and directed by NIKOLAI KINSKI THE VIKINGS/BJÖRN RÜHMANN & MATTHEW BRANNING Produced by In cooperation with Post production INTERPOL + BERLIN BIGFISH FILMPRODUKTION GMBH PICTORION DAS WERK GMBH Director of photography Editor Additional editors Production design KOLJA BRANDT RAIN KENCANA KAI KNIEPKAMP MARTY SCHENK SVEN GESSNER TECHNICAL DATA Short, 2010 Country of production Germany Exact running time 25 min. 56 sec. Shooting format RED/colour Frames per second 25 Screening format 1080 ps Film sound Stereo Original language English 4
BJÖRN RÜHMANN AND MATTHEW BRANNING (THE VIKINGS) The Vikings are a multi-discipline creative collective based in Paris and New York. Founded in 2007 by Björn Rühmann and Matthew Branning. The Vikings have since established an international reputation in several different creative fields, including directing (both advertising and short film), photography and illustration. Among The Vikings best-known projects is POWER OF WIND, a short film/long-format TV commercial created in participation with Nordpol + and the German Environmental Ministry. In addition to receiving an honourable mention at Sundance Film Festival in the short film category, POWER OF WIND was also the world s second most awarded television commercial in 2007 (Gunn Report). The Vikings have also received international recognition for THE RAMP, (a mockumentary written and filmed for BMW North America) and TELETHEATER (a format-busting advertisement/theatre play for Nordpol+ and Renault Germany). Before creating The Vikings, Rühmann and Branning worked as creatives at the advertising agency TBWA/Paris. Together, the duo has won over 150 major international awards. 5
NIKOLAI KINSKI Nikolai Kinski was born in 1976 in Paris and grew up in France and California/USA. At the age of eleven he acted in his first film alongside his father Klaus Kinski in KINSKI/PAGANINI. At 18 he attended the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Los Angeles, California/USA, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in acting, following which he began working on independent films and performing off-broadway. In 2004, Nikolai moved to Berlin and began learning German. Since then he has appeared in numerous German and international film and television productions. He starred in ÆONFLUX alongside Charlize Theron in 2005. In 2006, Nikolai won the Romy Award for Best Newcomer for his portrayal of Egon Schiele in KLIMT with John Malkovich. The film TWO LIVES OF DANIEL SHORE was Nikolai s first lead role in a German feature. The film was premiered at the Hof International Film Festival and was released in German cinemas in the spring of 2010. On the side of John Hurt and Tim Roth, Kinski will appear in the upcoming 2012 film THE ABSINTHE DRINKERS. 6
INTERPOL + INTERPOL + is based in and between the creative poles Hamburg and Berlin. The creative laboratory was set up in 2009 to develop new formats of creative media ranging from literature to short films and from video installations to exhibitions, among many others. All projects are driven by INTERPOL + s intent to broaden the current understanding of creativity and to develop a body of work that is authentic and original in its truest sense. In 2009, INTERPOL + produced the interactive soap opera ZEIT DER ENTSCHEIDUNG (Time of Decision) for the Bundestag elections. Young people experienced the differences between Germany s main parties, as each soap episode had five different endings based on the parties manifestos. ZEIT DER ENTSCHEIDUNG was nominated for the Grimme Online Award 2010 and won Bronze Direct Lions at the Cannes Lions Festival 2010. PLANET is the first short film produced by INTERPOL + The environmental film creates a humorous mirror to our own lack of perspectives and our myopic vision. After being selected at international film festivals in Toronto, Seoul, Paris and Copenhagen, PLANET has won the Golden Sun Award as best short film 2011 at the International Environmental Film Festival in Barcelona. In September 2010, INTERPOL + designed a box at FC St. Pauli s Millerntor Stadium in Hamburg: the Gegenpol (Counter Pole). As an alternative design to conventional glass- or concrete-enclosed box seats in modern football stadiums, the Gegenpol represents a homage to the football club and the neighbourhood of St. Pauli. On the outside of the upper container there is a terrace with 26 seats installed, offering fans the best view over the pitch. Gegenpol was invited to take part in the German Architecture Day 2011 and won Silver at Cannes Lions 2011(Outdoor). 7
In May 2010, DER WIND EIN KURZES NATURSCHAUSPIEL was performed by INTERPOL + in Hamburg. It was produced by INTERPOL + in cooperation with Deutsches Schauspielhaus. While the audience was sitting behind the showcase, the actors, under the direction of Samuel Weiss, performed on the sidewalks facing unpredictable reactions of people passing by. The play is based on the short film THE POWER OF WIND, which was produced by Nordpol + in 2007. In August 2011, INTERPOL + presented an alternative design for the conversion of the home stretch strands in the FC St. Pauli Millerntor Stadium, developed in collaboration with the engineering firm osd. The INTERPOL + team took the initiative to develop an architectural concept that takes the special importance of the home stretch stands into account as the centre of fan culture and club history. www.gegen-gerade.de 8
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT INTERPOL + Kreativlabor PUBLIC RELATIONS FRANS STUBER Linienstraße 144 10115 Berlin Tel +49 151 156 76 653, Fax +49 30 24 63 047 10 frans@interpol-berlin.com, www.planet-the-film.com 9