With the magic of a fairy tale

26.09.2024 | Film adaptation of the novel "Der Buchspazierer" at Filmfest Hamburg

As soon as the novel "Der Buchspazierer" was published, Hamburg-based Executive Producer Daniel Hartmann discovered the cinematic potential in the material and the tragic moments in the comedy. Directors Ngo The Chau's film adaptation, which was partly shot in Hamburg and stars the enchanting duo Christoph Maria Herbst and Yuna Bennett, will celebrate its premiere at Filmfest Hamburg (3 October).

From Britta Schmeis

When Daniel Hartmann reads a novel or even a script, a film has to start playing in his head. "For me, it's crucial that the characters touch my heart and that there's an exciting plot with a few twists and turns." Carsten Henn's "Der Buchspazierer" fulfilled all of these requirements when it was published in November 2020. It is also about isolation, friendship and solidarity, topics that were on many people's minds during the second lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic. And that's not all. "The novel simply has a great tone, something fairytale-like that reminded me directly of 'The Fabulous World of Amelie'," says Daniel Hartmann. He is an Executive Producer at the Hamburg-based film production company Wüste Film. He has developed and supervised crime thrillers for many years, and with "Buchspazierer" he has dedicated himself to a completely new genre;

"The Bookwalker" is a fairy tale and that's how Director and Script Writer Ngo The Chau has staged it. Fairy tales are known to end well, which is what makes them so cosy, heart-warming and comforting. That makes them predictable, you might think. The trick is not to let this predictability turn into boredom. And it is precisely this art that Ngo The Chau has mastered. "I think it's the enchanting characters that you want to follow and for whom you want their story to end well," says Executive Producer Daniel Hartmann.

"You just want to follow these enchanting characters and wish that their story has a happy ending."

Daniel Hartmann, Executive Producer of "Der Buchspazierer"

And indeed, every single character is full of love, always with a little comedy and tragedy thrown in. First and foremost, there is the oddball Carl Kollhoff, the bookseller that nine-year-old Schascha will soon christen the bookseller. Carl's days as a traditional bookseller are numbered; a finalist from Hamburg has already set the takeover in motion. But Carl continues to deliver a personalised copy to some customers' homes every day. He never steps in, he always has the books carefully selected and neatly wrapped.

Lovingly drawn characters with quirks

Carl has given each individual person a name from an important literary work: He calls the rich but lonely aristocrat Mister Darcy, the frightened teacher Mrs Longstocking who lives in a colourful villa, the unhappily married young woman Effi Briest and the bodybuilder Hercules who lives in a small, not very cosy one-room flat. All these people are as full of quirks as Carl himself and Carl lets them all be who they are;

This changes when Schascha enters his life, who joins him without being asked, buys a similar outfit from the flea market - everything is beautifully old-fashioned - and talks to the customers, asks them questions, asks to be let in. She inherited her love of books from her recently deceased mother, who, like Carl, always rubbed her fingers and smelled the book before she opened it. It is one of the many sensual moments in the film when the camera gets very close to Carl.

High-calibre ensemble with great enthusiasm

However, Shasha's father is not at all happy about his daughter's friendship with the old man and forbids it - out of insecurity and fear of losing her too. All the characters have to struggle with their inner demons, which they sometimes hide, sometimes repress and some even live out. With their deep emotional wounds, they offer everyone a projection surface. Despite all her grief, the girl Shasha has the healthiest way of dealing with her grief - and the many different people.

The production, cast and Directors were able to recruit an extraordinary ensemble for the cast: Christoph Maria Herbst, otherwise known for more cynical roles, embodied the deeply sad Carl, who withdraws into the solitude of books, sometimes rickety and old, sometimes exuberantly cheerful and infected by Schascha's childlike light-heartedness. Yuna Bennett is the ideal sparring partner. They are joined by Ronald Zehrfeld as Schascha's father, Edin Hasanović as Mr Darcy, Maren Kroymann as the teacher, Hanna Hilsdorf as Effie Briest and Tristan Seith as Hercules. You can see the joy of playing in all of them;

Heart-warming idyll and kitsch full of hope

Ngo The Chu constantly bathes this small town, where all these characters live, in warming sunlight, colourful garlands are strung across the streets, people stroll through the alleyways with huge baskets full of fresh fruit and vegetables, only here and there is a new building to be seen, some bulky rubbish, otherwise this place with all its people seems to have fallen out of time. Everything is always - despite some very individual threats - colourful and full of sensual lightness cast in pictures.

This idyll was filmed in Velbert-Langenberg in Niederberg, between Düsseldorf, Essen and Wuppertal, and in Stolberg near Aachen. "We didn't want to localise the stories," says Executive Producer Daniel Hartmann. This not only gives the film a fairytale-like quality, but also a universal appeal. The interior shots of this film, which was supported by MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, were mainly shot in Hamburg. For example, the bookshop was set up in a building on Stresemannstraße. "As a Hamburg production company, we simply have a home advantage here, we have a large network, short distances and great production conditions," he enthuses;

"Der Buchspazierer" is a film that touches the heart, moves us to tears and sometimes lapses into kitsch, telling a magical fairy tale that inspires hope and is often not so far removed from reality.

This article has been translated by an AI