IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM
FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN
2009 – 35mm – color - 90’
Direction: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Screenplay: Guy Hibbert
Cinematography: Ruairi O'Brien
Editing: Hans Funck
Set design: Mark Lowry
Original musics: David Holmes, Leo Abrahams
Costumes: Maggie Donnelly
Cast: Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Anamaria Marinca
Producer: Eoin O'Callaghan
Production: Pathé Pictures, Ruby Films and BBC in association with Element Films, Northern Ireland Screen
World sales: Pathé Pictures International, Kent House, Market Place, London W1W 8AR, UK, Tel: +44 207 462 4427, Fax: +44 207 436 7891, e-mail: sales@patheinternational.com, www.patheinternational.com
SYNOPSIS
The lives of two Ulstermen; the one a murderer, the other the brother of the man he killed. Since 1975 both men have lived in dread of encountering the other. One, Alistair, feels he dare not ask forgiveness, the other, Joe, feels incapable of giving it. But when they do eventually meet, something extraordinary happens - something that will change their lives forever.
THE DIRECTOR: OLIVER HIRSCHBIEGEL
Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1957, Hirschbiegel left high school and worked as a cook on a boat. He then studied painting and graphics in the Academy of Arts in Hamburg where he also started experimenting with video and photography. Hirschbiegel became popular thanks to his TV movies (especially dramas and thrillers) and in 2001 he shot his first movie for cinema: Das Experiment, an intense investigation of the aggressive behaviour in a simulated prison environment. The film won several awards at festivals around the world.
His second movie, Mein letzter Film, released in 2002, is a 90 minute monologue about a woman in her fifties who wants to re-start her life. In 2004 Downfall was released, focusing on the last 12 days of life of Adolf Hitler narrated from the point of view of his young secretary, Traudl Junge. Nominated for an Oscar, the film has won several major awards including a British Independent Film Award for Best Foreign Film.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“The tale is as universal as any Greek tragedy. It examines the universal patterns that in any given conflict lead into spirals of violence (…).
Even when a script is already very tight and clear, there are always many traps waiting to lure a director into using clichés — the "has been worked before" — and falling into sentimentality, which are means that I, in my regard for the audience, find unfaithful and dishonest. They often seem to me like playing games with the audience, which in a political drama must be an absolute no-go. Hence, one of my main goals was to avoid any of the above and stay straight, neutral and faithful to the material and the characters and, in doing so, leave the choices to the audience.”
FILMOGRAFIA
2001 Das experiment (The Experiment)
2002 Mein letzter film
2004 Der untergang (Downfall)
2005 Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Jude
2007 The invasion
2009 Five minutes of heaven
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
2009 Sundance Film Festival
2009 Munich Film Festival
2009 Jerusalem International Film Festival
2009 Zurich Film Festival
2009 Rio Film Festival
2009 Pusan Film Festival
2009 Tokyo Film Festival
2009 Megabox Film Festival (Korea)
2009 San Sebastian Film Festival
