After their hit film “25 km/h”, director Markus Goller (“Friendship!”, “Frau Ella”) and screenwriter Oliver Ziegenbalg (“Frau Müller muss weg”, “My blind date with life”) founded the production company Sunny. Side Up founded – and produced the tragicomedy “One For The Road” as their first joint project. In it, Frederick Lau plays the construction manager Mark, who after losing his driver’s license has to take a preparation course for the “idiot test” – and only slowly realizes that he may have an alcohol problem after all. Fortunately, it is less educational in the film and incredibly funny and moving (more about this in the 4-star FILMSTARTS review).
We met the duo for an interview in a Berlin hotel on Potsdamer Platz:
FILM START:
Markus Goller: I have no idea why that is. But maybe it’s because we think less about marketing and the film as a brand when we source and develop our material, and instead let ourselves be guided by the characters and their themes. We’ve always talked about it: ““This is extremely important to us. If no one is watching, we don’t have to make the movie. We want to make a difference with it. ‘One For The Road’ is largely inspired by Oliver’s journeys through life. The story comes from his heart, from his feelings about things. For me it is important to connect with the universal theme of the character in the performance. To feel her the way I feel. Honestly, that’s the only thing I rely on when making films. It took a while to believe it. But it helps me a lot.
Oliver Ziegenbalg: The idea for the company actually came from the desire to be able to work more independently and not necessarily from wanting to create a brand. As an author, I am less driven by the product at work than by the things that concern me at the moment – such as the topic of alcohol based on personal experiences, but also by stories from the circle of friends I was with at the time. That didn’t let me go. For ten years I have wanted to make a film about alcohol, with a main character who seems to have no problems and with whom you would like to be friends. Together with Markus we then look for a way to tell the story in such a way that it really becomes a film that we enjoy watching. You don’t always want to do the same thing. So far I simply haven’t been able to write a second part on “25 km/h”. Maybe it will happen – and people would certainly have been happy about it. But I had an inner block to get started, because other things simply occupied me more at that moment.
FILM START:
Oliver Ziegenbalg: There are certainly clichés in there too. I even believe that the comedy genre is based on working with clichés – but you can’t just leave it at that, you have to keep surprising people with refractions. At the same time, much of the film is real. They are personal experiences or stories that someone told me. My twin brother had to do an MPU when he was young – and his reports about it were now the blueprint for entire conversations in ‘One For The Road’. These are very specific moments, as if taken from life…
FILM START:
Markus Goller: Super cool when that happens. Life is always a comedy and a tragedy at the same time – and that’s why I try to take all the characters seriously. I don’t put something in someone’s mouth just because it’s a funny joke, even if they would never say something like that. The same goes for the situations – here too I try not to exaggerate, but to stay close to the characters, because that is often just more tragic: Mark goes on foot to the bar to get drunk – and then he quickly parks at home, but he lost his driver’s license anyway. To me this is really comical because it is not so exaggerated as to make it implausible, but because each of us can relate to it in some way.
FILM START:
Oliver Ziegenbalg: We wanted to portray this ride on the sharp edge of alcohol: you dance, it’s super beautiful and fun, but you know you also pay a price for it – there are both sides. But what you said was exactly the thought: for me, the worst thing would have been to just let him drunkenly crash into cars – because then you’re really just living up to expectations. But then let him go about his business and even express his satisfaction with it, before suddenly the blue lights come on behind him… This is a story from an acquaintance that sounds a bit like an urban legend, but has actually happened to several people . The same goes for the red lights in the movie: they run red lights repeatedly and nothing ever happens – until we break this expectation again.
FILM START:
Markus Goller: Not at all. I haven’t even seen the movie.
Oliver Ziegenbalg: Well, I saw it while we were filming – and it’s absolutely fantastic. But our film simply didn’t work with a family man: when Mark messes up, you forgive him because most of all he’s hurting himself – but as a husband and father of two, the character would soon be ruined forever. That wouldn’t work, we would have lost the audience. But it was a process to understand that – and then there was a hint from Markus’ wife, who said that the topic was much more important and interesting for younger people than for 50-year-olds, who probably won’t change much anymore.
FILM START:
Markus Goller: Of course you also feel the responsibility, especially when the filming is extreme. You really have to be brave. But there are also good sides: on the one hand, we can have more say – and apparently our way of dealing with topics or experiences is often very well received by the public. On the other hand, you have more freedom: in ‘One Of The Road’ we have many songs that we would never have gotten with ‘normal’ producers, simply because they are way too expensive – but it is extremely important to We have here a high budget item planned in advance. This just had to happen!
FILM START:
Markus Goller: Because it’s super important that these kinds of topics are told in this way – we don’t want to lecture, we want to encourage communication. And we saw again and again how people started talking to each other more openly after the film – about alcohol, drugs, but also about completely different things. Even if you go for a drink right after the movie, that’s fine, but suddenly people start talking about it…
“One For The Road” is currently showing in German cinemas:
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