Theatre Obsessed

The famous documentary maker Veiel drew attention to himself in 1995 when he shot the film Those, Who Survive / Die Überlebenden and later in 2000 with the film Black Box BRD. This time he presents his audience with a long-run study in which he watched for seven years four students of acting from the Ernst Busch School in Berlin. He watches people that have decided to study a subject full of myth; the way they get more and more tired, how they stand against the old structures, what becomes of their dreams and especially what does the institution of school make of them. The audience can witness how students face their doubts and how the true talent wins over the rest. Veiel spent a lot of time and gave a lot of effort to choose sometimes even problematic students that he often even boosted. Naturally also the approach of the four students towards Veiel changed during the filming. But the director (and his actors) stood up to everything. One does not get the feeling that the director would want to make the reality sweeter or that he would over dramatize things. The differentiating reactions of the young people make the film even more realistic. That is the reason why this film is as lively as a feature film and rightly won the prize of the audience for the best documentary at Berlinale 2004.