Among the festival’s official 14 title competition is Doris Dörrie’s The Fisherman and His Wife – why women never get enough also known under the name of Der Fischer und seine Frau – warum Frauen nie genug bekommen. Starring Alexandra Maria Lara (whom international audiences discovered with this year’s The Downfall), this takes fairy tale formula into a more contemporary context. The director was in town along with her feature.
Writer/director: Doris Dörrie
In this modern variation on the Grimm Brothers fairy tale, Ida and Otto fall in love at first sight in rural Japan. She’s there to find inspiration for her fabric designs and he’s a veterinarian buying koi for German collectors. They marry in a traditional Japanese ceremony, but back home in Germany the bloom quickly goes off the rose of their romance. Otto is content with helping Ida further her career, to the neglect of his own, while Ida wants it all: motherhood, – Otto stays home to care for the baby – a flourishing design business and an ambitious, successful husband. The more Otto gives up for her, the more she wants and the more forlorn he becomes. Their once perfect love is on the verge of self-destructing…
