Content

They appear small and fragile – until they put on their gear and chest protector. They seem to drown in their knee-long ichockey jerseys, as if they had borrowed them from their bigger brothers.

Reinforced with a helmet and batsman, they go onto the ice, where the children in preliminary and primary school chase after the puck. They do nott give anything away for free and pushing, falls and broken thugs are common. This is the offspring of the MEKJ, the Munich Ice Hockey Association for children and young people.

For the winter, the film accompanies the children in training, tournaments and competitions. It traces different sensitivities of the young players and the special nature of the sport from different angles. The comments of the coach, who threw the parents out of the cabin to be able to talk with the small fighters, are loving and at the same time strict ...

 

Play, don't fight

Apparantly size and strength are the most important features of an ice hockey player. But the sport is much more than just spoiling and beating, the children learn team spirit, discipline and fun in sports. Without the primary goal of victory, all children have the opportunity to play, whether good or bad, small or large.

 

Hockey as a lifestyle

Many of the players, who were initially rather shy and less confident, became self-assured children through training. On the ice, they learn to keep their balance and react quickly. No matter how many times they fall, they get up again and carry on, an attitude that is also valuable for everyday life.

For as harsh as the gameplay can be, as soon as the children take off their protective armor, they are children again, vulnerable and loveable at the same time.

Unlike the adult players with their "poker faces", the children are still quite emotional. And the coaches are also required to have a different quality than usual. Thus, the film opens up new perspectives and accompanies the children through rain, wind and snow, until in the spring again an Icing-Season ends.

 

Technical Data

• Titel: Icing (Documentation)
• Status: Production
• Director: Mathias Allary
• Script: Mathias Allary

 

 

Stab

Camera & Director	Mathias Allary	Editor	Rainer Standtke
Camera-Assistent	Jochen Löbbert	Music	Raimund Rennebaum
Sound	Gottfried Junker	Lab	Geyer München

 

A Produktion by Allary Film, TV & Media

 

 

Press Reviews

 

Funk-Korrespondez:

“... an extremely impressive, dense and successful biography. Which coherent, supportive or contrasting pictorial associations capture the viewer is not to be seen every day. In this regard, Allary ventured into new cinematic territory. Calm, atmospheric camera positions give the film an impressionistic timbre, allow the rarely conveyable dimension of a person's thoughts and feelings to be experienced. "

Josef Nagel

 

Stuttgarter Nachrichten

“With this portrait, Allary has succeeded in making a beautiful, committed, human film in which everything that is usually recognized becomes questionable, only not respect for life. - In Allary's pictures, the facades of our affluent cities become brittle and repellent at the same time: Babylonian towers, behind whose apparent order hides chaos and loneliness adorned with junk and glitter. 'Polster-Willi' thus became a film about the cold in our cities and about trying to find a place to survive where everything has come to an end. "

Thomas Thieringer

 

Badische Zeitung

“Mathias Allary's“ Documentary Tale ”about the Willi upholstery from Düsseldorf posed a riddle to the viewer in living images. - A film with a completely new perspective. "

 

Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Allary juxtaposes, assembles opposing things: for example the shop windows of the shopping streets and the garbage landscapes of the junkyards, or the mirror-smooth office towers and the silhouettes of the industrial plants. The difference dismantles terms like 'beautiful' or 'ugly'. In 'Polster-Willi' you can see what is so often lacking in German film: the description of processes, of how something is done. "

Michael Althen

 

Münchner Merkur

“With unobtrusive, expressive images, Allary shows who he thinks is the more conscious, more intense person. In changing the narrative levels, the viewer learns to understand but also to criticize their own 'throw-away mentality', which is only able to apparently cover up loneliness through luxury and consumption. "

Olaf Kracht

 

 

Der Film begleitet die Hardrocker Burkhard, Florian, Ben und Flo durch zwei Jahre voller Höhen und Tiefen. Ausgangspunkt für die sehr individuellen Lebenswege ist ihre Band "Shoot Dolores", mit der sie gemeinsam "nach oben" rocken wollen. Doch alles soll ganz anders kommen ... aus einem Film über eine Rockband wurde ein Film über das Leben.

 

Rocker zu sein ist ein Lebensgefühl fernab geregelter Tagesabläufe und Normen. Dazu gehören Tattoos, Piercings, enge Hosen, Motorräder, sowie ungewöhnliche Jobs fürs Überleben. Doch all diese äußeren Insignien verbergen nur dürftig die sensiblen Musikerseelen, die um einiges vielschichtiger sind als die Sandwiches, von denen sie sich im Proberaum ernähren.

Einige ihrer Songs hätten das Zeug zum Hit, bis dahin müssen noch so manche Hürden genommen werden. Da ist der Verlust des Probenraums das kleinste Problem, schon bald findet sich ein freier Keller unter einem Waschsalon, wo sich fortan lautstarke Schlagzeug,- und Stromgitarren-Sounds unter das Rotieren der Wäscheschleudern mischen.

 

 

Schwerer wiegen da schon künstlerische Differenzen, welche die heterogene Musikergruppe auf eine harte Probe stellen. Kalkulierte Erfolgsstrategien treffen auf eigensinnigen Willen zu künstlerischer Freiheit. Rocker sind eben auch und vor allem Menschen - unterschiedlichste Vorstellungen, Ziele und Sehnsüchte prallen ungebremst aufeinander.

Und was noch viel schwerwiegender ist - der Alltag macht mit all seinen unerwarteten Wechselfällen auch bei Hardrockern keine Ausnahme und macht "Nicht das Leben" zu einem vielschichtigen und emotional berührenden Film. Existenzängste, starke Vater-Sohn Beziehungen, Krebserkrankung und überraschende Babys ergreifen wie Naturgewalten Besitz von den Protagonisten.

Schicksalhaftes wird sichtbar an Menschen, von denen man das so nicht erwartet. "NICHT DAS LEBEN" ist ein Film über die Träume einer Band und das Unkalkulierbarste, womit Menschen konfrontiert werden - das Leben.

 

 

Premiere

Welturaufführung

• 2011 auf dem Münchner DOKFest im Atelier-Kino

Internationale Premiere

• Solothurner Filmtage 2012, Landhaus Kino, Palace-Kino

 

 

Pressestimmen

"Nicht das Leben" ist ein Dokumentarfilm, und er braucht eine Weile, um auf den Punkt zu kommen. Aber das scheint Teil des Konzeptes zu sein, spiegelt das Verfahren doch letztlich die Lebensperspektive der Protagonisten des Films. Im letzten Drittel kommt es dann um so dicker ...

... Am Ende ist einmal mehr alles anders und natürlich wird auch der Titel ins seiner Mehrdeutigkeit noch polyvalenter. Das ist ein beharrlicher Dokumentarfilm, der auf ein Kinopublikum setzt, das sitzen bleibt und auf die Ernte wartet, die schließlich eingefahren wird. TV-tauglich ist das nur bedingt. Und das ist für einmal durchaus gut so." - (Sennhauser Filmblog)

 

• Originaltitel: Nicht das Leben
• Länge: 63 Minuten
• Format: 720p 50p Farbe
• Schnitt: Sabine Rodrian
• Regie: Christine Repond
• Kamera & Produzent: Mathias Allary
• Aufnahmeformat: DVCPRO HD (P2)
• Ton: 5.1 Surround
• Tongestaltung: Jörg Elsner
• Tonmischung: Michael Hinreiner

 

 

Since his studies in documentary film and television journalism at the HFF Munich, documentary filmmakers and all kinds of hybrid forms with this genre have been at least as important to company founder Mathais Allary as are scenic works. Already his first work for German television in 1984 was the documentary "Polster-Willi", which was voted down with the editorial team "Kleines Fernsehspiel" at ZDF.

 

Overview

 

Taro - el eco de Manrique

Spanish-German co-production about the artist César Manrique, his life and his artistic work.

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Not as Life

Long-term documentation about a Munich hard rock band

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Fridays at Three

Long-term documentary on five seniors who play soccer every Friday afternoon on the banks of the Isar River, directly in front of the Sendling Süd cogeneration plant

more

 

Icing

Documentary about a children's ice hockey team

more

 

Tunnel-Dancer

Art documentary about a performance by an Indian dancer

 

Movement in Color

Art documentary about the creation of an Art-Car, designed by César Manrique

more

 

Scrapyard-Willi

Documentary about a headstrong scrap collector in Düsseldorf

more