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The Day of the Sparrow
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The Day of the Sparrow


Film Partner: Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art

Winner of the 2011 German Documentary Prize, DER TAG DES SPATZEN (day of the sparrow) is an audacious homage to a bird whose heroic death took place on the day that a German soldier died in Afghanistan.

Credits

Original Title: Der Tag des Spatzen
Language: English version, German version
Country of Origin: Germany
Year : 2010
Duration: 100 Min.
color
Director: Philip Scheffner
Script: Merle Körger, Philip Scheffner
Camera: Bernd Meiners
Editing: Philip Scheffner
Sound: Pascal Capitolin, Volker Zeigermann
Sound Mix: Pierre Brand
Starring/Featuring: CW Kees Moeliker, Arie den Hertog, Harry de Groot, Sigrid Scheffner, Dieter Scheffner, Jörg Heydemann, Mr. Schmidt, Lutz Wagner, Hermann Kesseler, Michael Trossen, Family van Dun, Dieter Sprunk, Dieter Stadler, Andreas Scherer, Matthias Bogutzki, Axel H., Lee Robin H.
Production: pong, Blinker Filmproduktion, Worklights Media Production, ZDF, arte
Festivals: 2011: FICUNAM Festival International de Cine (MX); Ljubljana Doc Film Festival (SI); MARFICI (AR); 2010: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin/Forum (D); Hamburger Dokumentarfilmwoche (D); FID Marseille (F); Duisburger Filmwoche (D); World Film Festival Bangkok (TH); Clair-Obscur Filmfestival Basel (CH)
Awards: 2010: Klaus Wildenhahn Preis, Hamburger Dokumentarfilmwoche (D)
Narrated by: Kai Hoffmann Supported by: Medienborad Berlin-Brandenburg, MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, NRW Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, FFA, Werkleitz
Film Partner: Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art Since the Arsenal’s establishment in 1963 (known from that time until 2008 as Freunde der deutschen Kinemathek) films from the Forum Section of the Berlin Film Festival as well as through the Arsenal Kino’s decades of cinema exhibition have found their way into our collection... ...more


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About the Film

A passionate birdwatcher in his spare time, director Philip Scheffner creates an audacious homage to a sparrow whose death brought international fame. Scheffner 
sets out on a fantastic search for clues with the meticulousness of a detective. His search takes him from the murder of the sparrow by a Dutch media concern to a nearly forgotten holiday resort on the Baltic Sea, and finally to the gates of off-limits military installations in both eastern and western Germany. Led by an obsessively precise camera and an almost overly attentive soundtrack, this cinematic investigation eventually turns into a contemporary political thriller. Was it only coincidence that the sparrow’s heroic death took place on the same day that the 18th German soldier died in Afghanistan? The Day of the Sparrow

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