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Edgar – a short film by Fabian Busch
By Tanja Meding | May 17, 2010
Internationally, German actor Fabian Busch may be best known for his role in Hans-Christian Schmid’s 23 (1998), playing opposite August Diehl, in Oliver Hirschspiegel’s Academy Award-nominated Downfall (Der Untergang, 2004), and, most recently, as Kate Winslet’s defense lawyer in Stephen Daldry’s Oscar winner The Reader (2008). Besides an impressive list of feature film and television roles, Busch recently added further credits to his name by writing and directing the short film Edgar.
Edgar (Wilfried Dzallas) is lonely, sad, and desperate for something to do. Anything to get him out of his house – an empty and gloomy place ever since he retired and his wife passed away. One day, just to kill some time, Edgar enters the local department store, looks around and finally musters up the courage to ask the sales assistant for a job.
Although seemingly touched by Edgar’s story, the assistant turns him down. Depressed and deep in thought, Edgar leaves the store, still holding on to an umbrella he just picked up. The store’s detective catches this unintentional theft and, during his interrogation, Edgar learns that, rather than being punished by being sent to prison, petty theft is punished with work. And with this new insight, nothing will stop Edgar….
Told in clear and concise images with just the right amount of dialogue to set the scene and tell it all, Fabian Busch’s debut is a moving short film, starting on a sad note, but coming full circle to end on a high one.
Edgar premiered internationally at last year’s Locarno Film Festival in the Leopards of Tomorrow International Competition and received a Special Mention. Since then, this short has been on a roll and won numerous additional awards, including the prestigious certificate of exceptional merit from Germany’s Filmbewertungsstelle in Wiesbaden, the national film evaluation agency. The North American premiere of Busch’s short at the Tribeca Film Festival was set to be just the first step on Edgar‘s journey across the USA.
Busch and his producer Tidi von Tiedemann of the Mainz-based production company Kontrastfilm are now working on a feature-length project. So watch out for more to come from this talented actor-turned-director.
For more information on Edgar, please visit: www.kontrastfilm.de/edgar/
Tanja Meding
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