Deutschboden

German Film Critics Award

Jury statement

»The distinction between an original screenplay and a screenplay based on an original is now commonplace, not least because of the Academy Awards. But: Does this only apply to feature films, or also to documentaries? What can a documentary film based on a literary model achieve? Is this not merely the illustration of a non-fiction book?

André Schäfer teaches us otherwise. His film 'freely adapted from Moritz von Uslar's long-term observation of the same name' sends Moritz von Uslar back to the Brandenburg province to search for clues. Just as ambivalent as the film title, which also refers to a place of residence within the municipality of Zehdenick, is the relationship of the Berliner from the Rhineland to Brandenburg, the city dweller to the province, where rockers, chavs and supposed neo-Nazis are at home.

André Schäfer skilfully plays with the transfer of a reportage novel into the medium of film, but in doing so creates an independent work: a documentary film based on an adapted screenplay. The German Film Critics' Award 2014 for the best documentary film goes to "Deutschboden" by André Schäfer.«