SYNOPSIS Greed grabs hold of the young man who lives alone with his mother as he dives head first into the fresh dough laid out on the kitchen table. Permanently trying to escape from the smothering symbiosis that his mother is trying to maintain, he dreams himself away. TEAM CAST: Achim Schauffele, Michaela Tschubenko, Astrid Rieger SCREENPLAY, DIRECTOR: Astrid Rieger CO-DIRECTOR: Bernd Thiele PRODUCTION: Astrid Rieger CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mark Liedtke SOUND: Alexander Dumitran SET DESIGN: Mechthild Seidemann EDIT: Astrid Rieger SPECIAL EFFECTS: Stefan Ringelschwandtner SOUND MIX: Jochen Engelke / Herold Studios DISTRIBUTION & SALES KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg e.V AWARDS "predicate: particularly valuable" by the German Film Rating Office (FBW) 2007 FBW's short film of the month April 2007 jury's main award at the 2nd International Short Film Festival Straubing 2006 award (ex aequo) in the German Competition at the 53rd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2007 audience award at Vienna Independent Shorts 2007 arte-award at the 23rd International Short Film Festival Hamburg 2007 jury's award at International Videofestival Bochum 2007 photography award at 14th Capalbio Cinema International Short Film Festival 2007 Lorenzo Vecchio Prize 2007 at Magma, International Short Film Festival in Acicastello 2007 Grand Prize at Platforma Video- International Film Festival Athens 2007 award for the best experimental movie at Feminafilm in Ústí 2008 jury's award at Alternative Film/Video Belgrade 2008 special mention at the 11th International Video Festival Videomedeja in Novi Sad 2007 special mention at SlowfoodonFilm Bologna 2008 nominated for the Hessian Student's Award 2007 JURY STATEMENTS FBW - "predicate: particularly valuable" The symbiotic relationship between a mother and her grown-up son is being described in compellent pictures. The buttered bread is diced, to facilitate eating. Bathing becomes a nightmare for the son, who subsequently hides under the carpet, to plunge into his fantasies. But there again he meets a female, that wants to drag him off and protect him. He retrieves himself and flees. In the end he is a giant and watches his dwarfishly shrunk mother through the window. Examples for a relationship that was possibly distorted by a disease are being shown in impressive pictures. The actors are well chosen and create their roles convincingly. Through fantastic transitions the inverted world is being turned into the mythical. When the second mother ends up in the soup, together with the vegetables there is a reason to smile but also to get creeped out. The thoroughly staged film is perfectly composed and with it's fantastic twist it develops an additional layer, that adds depth. FBW - short film of the month - april 2007 Compelling and impressive pictures describe the symbiotic relationship between a mother and her son. The perfectly composed movie creates an elaborate combination of naturalistic and surrealistic elements. Memories of Salvador Dalí's psychoanalytical film drafts for Alfred Hitchcock are flashing up. 2nd International Short Film Festival Straubing - jury's main award The film unpretentiously describes the distressing symbiotic relationship between a mother and her son, using images that are of a surprisingly narrative nature and consummately mythological. Obsessive dream images and harsh sensuality deepen the impending root conflict between the son's attempts to escape and the overprotective maternal instinct. The film narrative dispenses with dialogue and retains it's surreal power throughout. 23rd International Short Film Festival Hamburg - arte-award Through an intelligent edit the filmmaker leads us into a world, where reality and fantasy are constantly interfering with each other. These shifts reflect the relationship between a mother and her son. The reserved interpretation of the actors as well as the absence of dialogues emphasize the film's topic. Platforma Video7 Athens - grand jury prize The Grand Prize of PLATFORMA VIDEO7 International Film Festival was awarded to the German fiction film Mammal by Astrid Rieger, "because it guided us through a subconscious journey by creating it's own language using dream logic and a clever play with expectation". 11th International Video Festival videomedeja - special mention It succeeds in depicting a psychological conflict, that arises from the symbiotic relationship from a son to his mother, which is visualised through shifts in between symbolic registers and imaginary fields in an organic flow, backed up by excellent sound design. FESTIVAL PARTICIPATION 9th Kyoto International Student Film and Video Festival, 2nd International Film Festival Frankfurt, 2nd International Short Film Festival Straubing, 6th Shortmoves International Short Film Festival Halle/S, FILMZ German Cinema Festival Mainz 2006, 3rd Film Festival Helmstedt, Independent Days 8 Karlsruhe, 30th Grenzland-Filmtage Selb, Nippon Connection 2007, 53rd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 7th Soester Kurzfilmtage, VIS Vienna Independent Shorts 2007, Plattform no budget #5 Tübingen, Weltentheater Karlsruhe, 23rd International Short Film Festival Hamburg, No Budget Video + Film Festival Heilbronn, Kinosommer Hessen, International Video Festival Bochum 2007, 14th Capalbio Cinema International Short Film Festival, "Die lange Nacht des Kurzfilms" Bonn, 10th Festival Internacional de Cine Expreción En Corto San Miguel de Allende, malescorto 8th International Short Film Festival Malesco, 6. Dokufest - International Documentary and Short Film Festival Prizren, 31st Open Air Filmfest Weiterstadt, Palm Springs International ShortFest, 8th Circuito OFF Venice International Film Festival, 7th Filmkunstmesse Leipzig, Nordkapp Film Festival 2007, AnToni Fest Weissensee, Mecal International Short Film Festival Barcelona, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, 6th Magma International Short Film Festival 2007, IX International Short Film Festival Tinklai, EDIT 10th Filmmaker's Festival, International Digital Film Festival Kinofest Bukarest, Bunter Hund - International Short Film Festival München, Film Festival Münster 2007, 52nd Corona Cork Film Festival, Blitzfilm - German Film Screening in Chongqing und Shanghai, Short Film Live Music 2 Weimar, KunstFilmBiennale Köln 2007, Molodist Festival Kiev, Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival Curta Cinema 2007, London Film Festival 2007, AISFF - Asiana International Short Film Festival Seoul, Formula Mundi Schwäbisch Hall, 6th International Short Film Festival "Wie wir leben" München, 4th NoWords International Short Film Festival Bolzano, interfilm - 23rd International Short Film Festival Berlin, 21st International Filmfest Braunschweig, Kasseler Dokumentary Film- und Videofest 2007, Festival of European Films on Wheels Ankara, 18th Stockholm International Film Festival, Chroma audiovisual art festival Jalisco, Encounters International Short Film Festival Bristol, visionale07 Frankfurt, Taipeh Golden Horse Film Festival, 6th International Short Film Festival "Wie wir leben" Hamburg, Brest European Short Film Festival, Interregional Film Festival Hessen - Aquitaine, "jung + frisch" Darmstadt, PLATFORMA VIDEO7 International Film Festival Athens, 25th Festival Tous Courts Aix-en-Provence, 5th Kalpanirjhar International Short fiction film Festival, 11th International Video Festival Videomedeja Novi Sad, Film Friends Forever London, 50 Days Of World Cinema Florenz, 13th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival, Premiers Plans Film Festival Angers, kontrast08 Bayreuth, Chelsea Arts Club London, Miami International Film Festival 2008, Birds Eye View Film Festival London, Future Shorts Berlin, Hamburg, Köln, ambulart 2008 Quito, Guayaquil, Guadelajara, moves08 Manchester, UNinviteD Paris, EMAF 2008 Osnabrück, Wolverhampton Disability Film Festival, Cyprus International Short Film Festival, Slow Food on Film Festival Bologna, 2ANNAS Riga, "Move!" Ljubljana, CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival Toronto, LOOX 20 der Wacker Kunst Mühltal, OpenEyes Filmfestival Marburg, 14th AYE AYE International Film Festival Nancy, The Other Film Festival 2008 Melbourne, look&roll Olten, Zürich, Luzern, Feminafilm Usti 2008, Waterpieces festival Riga, xsff Moskau 2008, Alternative Film/Video 2008 Belgrad, 7th KaraFilm Festival Karachi International Film Festival 2009, Image Forum Festival Tokyo, 8th Sommerwerft, Kunsttage Detmold 2009, "Tomorrow City Open Theater" Incheon, Seoul, Brazilian Slow Food Festival Pirenopolis, MOCA Taipei, Message to Man St. Petersburg 2010, NOVA Festivals in Sao Paulo, Iranian disabled Scientific & Artistic Creation, disability festival Latrobe. PRESS Schnitt - Das Filmmagazin #48 - 04.2007 For these three euros, for instance, you can purchase from the Short Film Agency Astrid Rieger's Mammal, a cleverly assembled and imaginative selection of pictures about the complex, or rather simple relationship between mother and son. Mammal illustrates humorously, poetically and in a quick run the initiation of the endotherms that we are.