Fish in the Fur | Fisch im Fell:

About director Dean Benzin

Having grown up in Thuringia and Rhineland-Palatinate, Dean Benzin completed his studies in directing in Berlin. Since the age of 15, he has choreographed stage shows in the martial arts field and shot various short films and music videos. In addition to several image film and music video productions, he is also active as an author.

Director’s note by Dean Benzin

“Six young people live in Allerode, a small town in the Harz mountains. A rural area, a loving idyll with lots of nature. A place where tourists find peace and serenity. Allerode, a backwater in the middle of nowhere. No clubs or shopping miles, crap internet. That’s how Allerode looks in the eyes of the young people. With this attitude we meet the teenagers Lydia, Theo, Johanna, Luka, Sarah and Finn at the beginning of a special journey. Triggered by an event that touches them deeply, we follow them on their mission. During their common task to reach the set goal, they not only face external difficulties that have to be overcome. We quickly sense that a strong group dynamic pushes the young people to different limits.

We experience how everyday relationships we know or have experienced ourselves pull at the group’s cohesion. The ups and downs of interpersonal relationships bring one or the other character to personal limits. It took a lot of work and time to work out the relationships of the young characters with each other and with their environment. This allowed for natural emotions and feelings. The interaction through experience and lived experience was not merely predefined, but in part directly co-developed by the young people themselves.

The roles offer the actors, in addition to a natural and realistic manner, the possibility to show themselves sensitive and fragile; but also wordplay and humour, which makes the characters seem more authentic. We sympathise with their individualities and draw comparisons with our own experiences. This is what makes this ‘coming-of-age’ story so exciting and unique. FISH IN FUR inevitably confronts its characters, and by extension the audience, with a concentrated form of pervasive relational structures that people have to live through. It is a metaphor for the real and a parable for the everyday, which not only creates love, hope, fears and sadness, but also resolves them in the sense of a catharsis.

I have noticed that many young people have a lot of knowledge in a wide variety of areas through our multimedia networking. But this also made it clearer that young people were less concerned with more serious problems and issues that affect their environment and/or even themselves. This contributes to the fact that many of them feel left alone or misunderstood. The pandemic in particular has obviously reinforced this process. It turned out that the approach of involving them from the beginning, developing characters, roles and character traits, was all the more important. In addition, there was the teaching of basic and craft knowledge in the field of film, since media stimuli have a very strong impact on the young generation in the most varied forms. The aim of FISH IN FUR was and is to see the genesis more through the eyes of a younger audience so that they can find and recognise areas of identification so that they don’t have to feel alone in the current zeitgeist.”

The young characters are all dreamers and real people at the same time, who also stumble upon the beautiful things in life through their encounters with each other. This positive mindset helps them to cope with naïve longings and self-doubt and to grow beyond themselves.

Background to the film

Together with Dean Benzin, director and companion of Michael Marintschak and Martin Widiger‘s cinematic steps, the trio created visions to take media education work to a new level. Previously, young people developed a six-part series for the educational sector. On this basis, the parameters for the continuation were redefined: Filming location abroad, feature film, cinema. Challenge accepted!

Six young people take us on an entertaining and unpredictable journey as silent observers. A mission to solve the mystery behind a time capsule. The characters are narrated multidimensionally and anchored in the most diverse relationship structures to each other. Here, the personal confrontation with the narrated life themes plays a decisive role. Faith and identity come together here on a level that supports young people in their personal maturity.

As part of Protestant youth work, the film project is a novelty to integrate young people into cast & crew to participate intensively in the genesis and to see themselves as part of a great team pursuing a common goal. The professional guidance in the technical and artistic departments honour the aspect of empowering young people to be agents of their ideas. Acquiring competences and developing talents are real-life and educationally relevant contents that can contribute decisively to professional decisions.

A light-hearted atmosphere, the nature-loving sounds in the mountains and the epic, poignant feeling on a summit “I did it!”: this combination of adventure and ‘coming of age’ with modern elements makes “Fish in the Skin” an original work with a stirring story. The holistic approach of the high-quality concept unites the human longing “For me and others!” (sustainability). Young people become multipliers of successful church youth work.

A first-class and modern story with clear characters on a nerve-wracking journey. “Fish in the Fur” is an intense and lively ‘coming of age’ story that is in keeping with the current zeitgeist. In combination with the extraordinary vision of the director, youth work and church, this film has the potential to be something outstanding in the German film landscape and especially for the perception of church in society and the life-relevant issues of (young) people.

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