Distant Lights is a 2003 Germany film directed by Hans-Christian Schmid

Hans-Christian Schmid

Hans-Christian Schmid is a German film director and screenwriter.-Life and work:Hans-Christian Schmid has collaborated with Michael Gutmann on several of his the film that he has directed. Gutmann wrote screenplays for 23 - Nichts ist so wie es scheint , and Crazy...

. The film takes place on the Polish-German border at Słubice and Frankfurt (Oder)

Frankfurt (Oder)

Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...

. It features an ensemble cast

Ensemble cast

An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...

, and the various threads illustrate the daily life between the two countries. Its original German title is Lichter, which means "Lights".

Plot

Unlike many ensemble films, the subplots of the film mostly do not interconnect with each other, and the film ends without a finale. Instead, the story threads illustrate life on the border between two countries; what appears to be poverty and desperation to some is a promised land for others, worth risking their lives to reach. The threads are:

• Kolya, a Ukrainian, has paid to be smuggled into Germany illegally; he finds he has been left on the Polish side of the border. When he is caught, a German interpreter agrees to smuggle him herself; he reaches Berlin.
• Ingo, a German mattress salesman, finds business in Frankfurt to be minimal and the people self-interested. He is humiliated and becomes desperate, but may have found love in Simone.
• Antoni, a Polish taxi driver, struggles to find the money to buy a communion dress for his daughter. By the time he is able to afford it, he is too late. (This subplot pays homage
  Homage
  Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
  
   to Ken Loach
  Ken Loach
  Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
  
  's film Raining Stones and Mike Leigh
  Mike Leigh
  Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
  
  's All or Nothing.)
• Philip, a young German architect, runs into his Polish former girlfriend while working on a building project in Słubice. Neither the romance nor the project works out.
• Anna and Dimitri, a young Ukrainian couple, are swindled out of their money and try with Antoni's help to cross the river Oder, almost drowning in the attempt.
• Andreas, a young German orphan who smuggles cigarettes, attempts to take the money and run away with a girl from the children's home.

Cast

• Iwan Shwedoff as Kolya
• Devid Striesow
  Devid Striesow
  Devid Striesow is a German actor. He starred as "Sturmbannführer Herzog" in Stefan Ruzowitzky's 2007 film The Counterfeiters, which was awarded the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for that year.-External links:...
  
   as Ingo
• Alice Dwyer as Katharina
• Zbigniew Zamachowski
  Zbigniew Zamachowski
  Zbigniew Zamachowski is a Polish actor.Zamachowski graduated the actor's faculty in "PWSFTViT" in Łódź. He began his acting career in 1981 and in 1989 had a co-starring role in Part Ten of director Krzysztof Kieślowski's film series, The Decalogue...
  
   as Antoni
• Maria Simon
  Maria Simon
  Maria Simon is a German actress.- Family and background :Simon is the sister of the actress Susanna Simon. She was born and brought up in the former East Germany but moved to New York in 1990 to live with her father, a computer expert with the UN, and sister Dalena Simon...
  
   as Sonja
• Michael Gerber as Rainer Petzold
• Herbert Knaup
  Herbert Knaup
  Herbert Knaup is a German film and television actor.-Selected filmography:* Run Lola Run * Marlene * Distant Lights * Jerry Cotton * In Darkness -External links:...
  
   as Klaus Fengler
• August Diehl
  August Diehl
  August Diehl is a German actor, known for playing SS-Sturmbannführer Dieter Hellstrom in Inglourious Basterds and Michael "Mike" Krause, Evelyn Salt's husband, in the movie Salt.-Life and career:...
  
   as Philip
• Henry Hübchen
  Henry Hübchen
  Henry Hübchen is a German actor who played the title character in the award-winning 2004 film Go for Zucker. That performance earned him a Lola, Germany's equivalent of an Oscar and critical praise at home and abroad...
  
   as Werner Wilke

Reception

• The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2003 Berlinale
• 2002 Bundesfilmpreis in silver
• Best Direction, Best Script, 2003 Bavarian Film Prize