HERZHAFT, “DisArmed” Questions answered by producer Kathrin Tabler

Indie Express: Tell us about your film?

Kathrin: My film “HerzHaft” was produced 2007 in Germany. It was part of my studies in film directing at the German filmschool Filmacademy Baden-Wuerttemberg. The film was financed by the school. We were free in choosing the film’s topic but we had to shoot on 16mm and within 5 days and the film wasn’t allowed to be longer than 20minutes.

This is the synopsis:

Ralf is a 33-year-old football coach and he has fallen in love.

Felix is 15 years old, he loves football and his coach Ralf.

The forbidden love between Ralf and Felix is not longer a secret. Felix’ mother finds out everything. She calls Ralf a pervet, a children rapist and says that he is ill because of feeling attracted by teen boys. Ralf is desperated, he tries to convince Felix’mother of his true love relationship with Felix.

Finally he even breaks up with Felix. But despite this Felix’ mother calls the police to get Ralf arrested.

IE: How did you come up with the idea for the film?

K:  I was inspired by own experiences I made and by stories my friends told me and there experiences they had made.

IE: How did you assemble your production team?

K:   Most of the heads are students of the Film academy as well. I got to know them in different courses and asked them if they would like to take part in the project. Others I found by the Internet or from different local universities or schools or other students recommended them.

IE: How did you find your cast? 

K:  It was very difficult to find the cast, because the topic of our film is hot. So we really had problems to find the cast for the role “Felix”. Actor’s agencies didn’t support us and boys at that age are difficult to convince to play such a role particularly if they are not gay. At that age to be gay is absolutely not cool. So we started to contact gay boys to invite them to a casting. For Ferdinand who finally got the job it was the first time working as an actor. 

IE: How long did the film take?  (From conception to final edit)

K:  We started in May 2006 with the development, the shooting was in July 2006, but because of another project we had to develop and shoot at the same time we couldn’t finish the post production before October 2007.