He was born in Prague, studied film directing in Cologne and now lives in Germany. No wonder, then, that 40-year-old documentary director Ivan Fila (Schritte im Labyrinth, 1990) tells a story of two worlds apart in his feature film debut Lea, an intense and timeless love story of two outsiders caught in their respective imaginary worlds and struggling to come back to normal life.
The story centres around Lea, the mute village girl from East Slovakia, who is sold in 1991 by her step-parents to the aggressive loner Strehlow, a German with a dubious past. After a hasty marriage in Denmark the two move to Strehlow's farm in the isolation of the Bavarian forest, where their relationship gradually changes from one of hate and despair to one of understanding, friendship and love.
'Ivan Fila's script was so good, we just had to do it. He almost had the required money together, so we jumped in to come up with the missing sum,' says Herbert Rimbach of Avista Film about the US$1.5 million production. Rimbach co-produced Lea along with Fila's own production company, several German film subsidies, ZDF and Arte.
As in Avista's 1990 Abraham's Gold, Hanna Schygulla once again heads the strong cast, which unites famous German stage actor Christian Redl (Strehlow) with newcomer Lenka Vlasákova (Lea).
Lea was shot in Slovakia and Bohemia and Denmark, as well as on the German island of Sylt. Due to the different locations, shooting was divided into two periods: the first took place in November 1995, the second from March until end of April 1996.
'So far nobody has seen the film,' comments Rimbach. 'The first print has just arrived from the Barrandov Studios.' Lea will have its first public screening in Venice. Silke Schütze
Prod co: Ivan Fila Filmproduktion and Avista Film
Prod: Ivan Fila, Herbert Rimbach
Dir/scr: Ivan Fila
Ph: Vladimir Smutny
Prod des: Milan Bycek
Cos: Dana Chaloupková, Jana Smetanová, Jitka Novotná
Mus: David Fotier
Ed: Ivana Davidova
Cast: Lenka Vlasakova, Christian Redl, Hanna Schygulla, Udo Kier
Running time: 100 mins
Int sales: Avista Film
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