FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY A SHORTFILM BY FLORIAN HEINZEN-ZIOB SYNOPSIS Jonas works at the hand baggage screening at an airport. He is obsessed by preventing the next terrorist attack. But neither his colleagues, nor his boss appreciate his commitment. His attention is raised by the suspicious behaviour of a Muslim colleague. Is this Jonas chance to finally get the recognition he deserves? WORLDPREMIERE Tribeca Film Festival, New York USA, 2016 LENGHT: 15 minutes LANGUAGES: German with English subtitles FORMAT: 2K DCP, 5.1 DolbyDigital COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Germany DATE OF PRODUCTION: 2016 2016 by polyphem Filmproduction DIRECTOR Florian Heinzen-Ziob Eifelstrasse 37 50677 Cologne, Germany heinzenziob@polyphemfilm.de PRODUCTION polyphem Filmproduktion Florian Heinzen-Ziob & Georg Heinzen Schorlemerstrasse 30 40545 Duesseldorf, Germany heinzenziob@polyphemfilm.de WORLD SALES Interfilm Berlin Management GmbH Alexander Stein Tempelhofer Ufer 1a 10961 Berlin, Germany sales@interfilm.de www.interfilm.de
DIRECTORS STATEMENT DO YOU WANT TO BE THE ONE WHO LETS MOHAMMED ATTA ON THE PLANE? Some time ago I was riding on a local train in Germany. Beside me was sitting an Arabic looking guy with a red backpack. At one point the man left his seat, leaving his red backpack behind. I started to become nervous. Why did the man left his backpack here? Did he got off the train? Alarming images of detonations and dead bodies were coming to my mind. Should I leave the train? Should I contact someone from the train crew? I was still thinking, when the man returned. The restroom was occupied, he said with a smile, I had to wait. I was deeply troubled after this experience. A totally innocent person had just become the projection screen of my paranoia, just because he looked in a certain way. I talked to friends about this experience and almost everyone could recall to have made similar experiences. This was the moment when I began to work on FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY. into suspects, just because of the way they look. And at the same time, the ambivalence between a justified longing for security and how this security creates its very own dangers. Having this ambivalence in mind I created Jonas, the main character of the movie. Working at the hand baggage screening of an international Airport, Jonas goal is to stop the next Mohammed Atta. And while he s the only one of his team who takes his job serious, neither his colleagues, or his boss, or the passengers give him the recognition he deserves. In his frustration, Jonas moslemic co-worker Tarek becomes the projection screen to Jonas paranoia. And in the end, Jonas himselve turnes into the villain. For me the most important aspect making this movie was, how innocent people turn
CREDITS WRITER, EDITOR, DIRECTOR Florian Heinzen-Ziob PRODUCTION Florian Heinzen-Ziob & Georg Heinzen CAST Steffen Will Philippine Pachl Hanno Friedrich Stephan Ganoff Damon Arsalan Zolfaghari Eskindir Tesfay Panagiota Dimareli Nina Vorbrodt CINEMATOGRAPHER Enno Endlicher PRODUCTION DESIGN Andras Blazsek SOUND DESIGN Tim Elzer SOUND MIXING Karl Atteln MUSIC Andreas Köcher LINE PRODUCER Daniela Dieterich ASSISTENT DIRECTOR Igor Novic FUNDED BY Film- und Medienstiftung NRW Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien Filmförderungsanstalt COSTUME DESIGN Angela Hölzle SOUND RECORDING Jonathan Kastl
DIRECTORS BIO-/FILMOGRAPHY FLORIAN HEINZEN-ZIOB Born 1984 in Düsseldorf, Germany. After highschool he worked as assistant director at the Düsseldorf theatre and as editor and animator in Hamburg. 2006 2012 he studied media arts and film directing at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. There he wrote and directed a range of fictional, documentarian and animated films, which were shown in the competition of several international festivals. 2012 2015 he produced and directed his first feature-length documentary film Original Copy in Mumbai, India. Meanwhile he founded his production company polyphem. Florian Heinzen-Ziob lives and works in Cologne. FILMOGRAPHY FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY shortfilm / screenplay, director and producer / 2016 Worldpremiere: Tribeca Film Festival, USA 2016 ORIGINAL COPY documentary film / concept, director and producer / 2015 Worldpremiere: Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival, Canada 2015 TOMO shortfilm / screenplay and director / 2013 Worldpremiere: exground International Film Festival, Germany 2013 GROWTH shortfilm / screenplay and director / 2011 Worldpremiere: Festival Internacional de Cine du Huesca, Spain 2011 KONSERWACJA shortfilm / idea and director / 2008 Worldpremiere: Documenta Madrid, Spain 2008