Florian Gallenberger, it has to be said, is a good storyteller. Be it the plots in his films or when it comes to his own career. The screenwriter, director and producer takes the time to tell his stories. He is a little annoyed when the parcel delivery service rings his doorbell in the middle of an interview and he is torn out of his story. Perhaps this is another reason why he prefers to stay far away from friends and social obligations when writing a new screenplay.  

Mr. Gallenberger, what have you done recently?

I would say a time on Mallorca.

So you were on vacation.

That's not quite the right word. Because part of my work consists of writing and you can do that anywhere, it's not like I just went to Malle and held my stomach in the sun. I rented a very nice house there for several months last year, which is right by the sea and there are no neighbors. I really afforded it: Firstly, because the house isn't cheap, and secondly, because it takes courage to simply be away for two months.

Do you completely isolate yourself from the outside world there?

Writing only ever works for me when I get a bit of distance from everyday life. It's difficult for me to participate fully in social life and then put myself back into my story every day. I have to go into a tunnel to do that. Of course, that works better on an island than in Berlin.

You certainly couldn't afford this luxury at the beginning of your career. How did you come up with the idea for your first well-known film "Quiero ser", with which you immediately won an Oscar?

As is so often the case, the important things in life happen by chance. I had previously made two other short films as a film student at the Munich Film Academy and they were shown at a festival in Mexico City. One of our students was invited. But surprisingly, he couldn't go because he was Syrian and couldn't get a visa. Then the university called me and asked if I would like to fly to Mexico two days later. I jumped at the chance. At the time, Mexico was considered the largest city in the world, with over 20 million inhabitants - I had never seen anything like it. I was completely flattened but also completely fascinated by this city. I thought to myself: there are so many stories happening right in front of my eyes that are actually worth telling.

Your movie is about two street kids who try to make something of their lives. One of them succeeds, but only because he breaks up with his boyfriend.

I made my first notes on it during the ten days I was there. I came up with it because I met two guys on the subway who could have been exactly the two characters in my movie. I also loved the idea of shooting abroad. And then both the Munich film school and a Mexican film school decided to collaborate on it.

That sounds like a pretty big challenge, especially for a student. Weren't you worried that your project was doomed to failure?

We slid into the project pretty naively. Of course, it was completely underfunded, which is quite normal for student films. But this naivety also saved us. Because if you had looked at it soberly with experience, we would probably never have done the project. In this city, with this crime, this corruption and the logistical challenges, everyone would have advised us not to make the film.

You even ended up in prison during the shoot. What happened?

Back then, there were still three different police forces in Mexico City. We weren't aware of that. We were told that we had to make a bribe deal with the police. Unfortunately, we only bribed one police force, which we thought was the decisive one and thought that was the end of it. We only shot outside on the street, sometimes in the worst neighborhoods and at night. Then suddenly a policeman stood in front of us and asked what we were doing here. I then explained to him that we had a filming permit and had also made a deal with the police. He said that they hadn't received anything. Then I more or less said to him "you don't need to come to us like that, we've paid". The policeman then left. Three hours later, in the middle of the night, black emergency buses arrived with police officers with machine guns, who closed down our set and took us and our equipment away. Fortunately, the next morning I was able to call the film commissioner of Mexico, who was a friend of mine. He got us out of there again. When I look back at that time, there were so many things we hadn't thought about, we just set off. At some point, we didn't even have the money to pay for the hotel. I left the country in a hurry.

You escaped at the end of the shoot?

In retrospect, we were able to pay for everything. But at some point during the shoot, our production manager had no overview at all. Our first checks bounced, we were broke. When the movie was shot and we were back in Germany, I was devastated. I thought it would never be a good movie. But then somehow it started winning one award after another. There are quite a lot of prizes for graduation films in Germany, which are intended to make the transition from university to professional filmmaking easier. They are also well endowed, which helped me immensely. I had produced the film myself. It was 80,000 marks over budget, which for me as a film student wasn't just "a lot of money", it was wealth. I was only able to finance it thanks to the numerous awards. Then it continued to develop like an avalanche: in 2000, the film won the Student Oscar for Best Foreign Language Student Film, and a year later it won the award for Best Short Film at the real Oscars.

How has your life changed since then?

It basically happened overnight. First I was a film school graduate, then an Oscar winner. It all came together. It was a shock, a huge joy, an incredible opportunity. Because I had a free pass for what I wanted to do next. At the same time, the expectations were completely different. As a film student, no one is interested in what you do. Now everyone wanted to know what I was going to do next. I wasn't used to that. That created pressure, that created worries.

How did you deal with the pressure?

I guess I'm basically an ambitious person, someone who wants to perform at my best. My first success naturally spurred me on. I didn't feel liberated afterwards, I actually wanted to build on that. I'm not complaining at all, I'm enormously grateful that the Oscar went the way it did. But it did restrict me at first. The maximum freedom, I only realized afterwards, is actually to be unnoticed.

What was your goal with your next movie?

I shot a movie in India next. Perhaps out of concern that this second movie might go wrong, I wanted to make something that was cut from the same cloth as the movie in Mexico. Again, it's set in a distant country, in a foreign culture. This time it was a great love melodrama. The differences to the Mexico film were basically that there was a decent budget and the production was much bigger. I don't regret making this movie at all, but from a commercial and career point of view, the choice to make a movie in India in Bengali with Bengali actors was unusual to say the least. West Bengal may have a population of 230 million, but there are hardly any cinemas there. And even if the movie does well there, nobody here will care.

You haven't won another Oscar since your first. Does that bother you?

The desire to make good films is always there, of course. But that doesn't mean that only an Oscar counts. For example, my other films have won four Lolas, i.e. German Film Awards, including Best Film, five Bavarian Film Awards and several international festivals. Success doesn't just mean an Oscar. For me, success is also when the movie is successful and has a lot of viewers. When people laugh or cry in the movie theater and really get involved with the film.

Your best-known film is probably Colonia Dignidad with Emma Watson and Daniel Brühl in the leading roles. What expectations did you have of the film when you started production?

I had known the story of Colonia since I was a child. When I came across the subject again later, I was incredibly disturbed that such an offense was in danger of disappearing into the quicksand of history. People suffered, some died and there was no way of coming to terms with it. That's why I wanted to tell this story, to bring it out of oblivion. I wanted to initiate something. I am very proud that we succeeded in doing that. It is rare for films to achieve a change in political reality. First Martin Schulz, then President of the EU Parliament, then the then Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier took up the film. Steinmeier then screened it at a large gala at the Federal Foreign Office and changed his ministry's stance on the Colonia Dignidad case by ministerial decree. The then Federal President Joachim Gauck then took me and the film with him on his state visit to Chile. The film premiered there in the presidential palace, which was incredible.

All three films had something profound about them, they are far removed from "popcorn cinema". Is that what appeals to you about making films?

I believe that movies can be a real experience, not just entertainment. Just like a book. I remember books and reading experiences that have shaped my life. I think movies can do that too. The difference between a movie and a book or a TV movie is that I can't interrupt it. I have no control, I have to surrender to the movie. If the movie is great, it has an incredible intensity.

When did you realize that you wanted to produce films yourself?

I'm not one of those people who held a camera in my hand as a child. Ambitious as I was even then, I always wanted to do a double degree in law and business studies. When I was 16, I met my first girlfriend, whose family came from a very cultural household. They would discuss movies and plays over dinner in the evening, which was something I didn't know. That made me question my plans to study law and business studies. In 1989, I had to do my subject paper in German at school. At that time, the school had just bought its first VHS camera. It was "the hottest shit" back then, a huge piece of equipment. My German teacher offered me the chance to make a short film for my subject paper. I then chose a Kafka parable and filmed it. It was so much fun, we had 14 days of filming in the Alps, we walked around with lots of people. That was my impetus.

You then ended up at the Munich Film Academy, what was that like for you?

I have to admit, I had no idea when I started there. On my first day of study, the professor said: "Film exposes 24 frames per second. That means the film stops 24 times a second." I turned to my neighbor and said, "That's crazy!" I was completely fascinated. And he looked at me, completely surprised that I didn't know such a simple thing.

It wasn't foreseeable that you would immediately take off with an Oscar. Did you think about money back then?

Not for a second, and that didn't play a role when I first thought about studying law or business administration. I've always earned money without really thinking about it. When I was a three-year-old boy, I worked as an actor, first of all in a commercial. Then I appeared in various series for ten years. When I was 14, I started giving tennis coaching lessons. I always had enough money. When I finished college and wanted to make my first movie after the Oscar, Helmut Dietl approached me and offered to produce my first movie. He gave me a free ride, so to speak. He then transferred money to me when I started writing. That was the first money I received for my film work. That blocked me so much at first that I transferred the money back to him because I couldn't think of anything else.

How do you deal with money now?

Fortunately, I've gotten used to earning money by now [laughs]. The competition in the film business is brutal. Every year, over 100 directors are sent to the market in Germany, all of whom are very well trained. But only 200 films are made each year. So the pie is pretty small. If you want to make a secure living, you can't become a director or actor or anything like that. The difficult thing about film is that you have to factor in the periods when you're not earning anything. While I'm making a movie, I earn well, of course. But I don't make one movie after another. Writing the script, sorting out the financing, all that sometimes takes years.

You now have your own production company to get away from it all.

That's true, of course, it helps me to be more independent. But earning money in our job isn't just about money anyway. The real wealth is the stories, the characters and worlds that you can create. From your first notes to the finished movie, it's incredibly fulfilling.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details: Florian Gallenberger is a director, screenwriter and producer. He celebrated his greatest success right at the start of his career. He was awarded the Oscar for best short film for the graduation film at his university. Since then, he has been in demand on the scene - even if he has not been able to build on this success.

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