{"id":32455,"date":"2019-08-09T13:46:43","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T13:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ucm.one\/datsche\/"},"modified":"2023-08-04T22:32:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T22:32:59","slug":"datsche","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ucm.one\/en\/datsche\/","title":{"rendered":"Datsche (2018) by Lara Hewitt | Darling Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Datsche<\/h1>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]For those looking for refuge from troubled times, the last safe haven might be\u2026Germany. But Europe\u2019s new superpower is a land of strange habits and rules that are not there to be broken.<\/p>\n

The film “Datsche<\/strong>” by Lara Hewitt<\/strong> is “Great cinema in a small garden”: a summer, many barbecue sausages and open garden doors are sometimes all it takes to remember that much more connects us than separates us. A film for everyone who longs for home or has already found it. A declaration of love to Germany and the strength that lies in the community … and all this in a film for which a native Englishwoman is responsible for.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1561290391124{border-right-width: -15px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”32468″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”32444″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/h3>\n

Valentine Hermann, an out-of-work\u00a0New York actor has travelled to Berlin to the summer to discover his German roots and stay at the ‘datsche’ or summer cottage that his dead grandfather has left to him. Only the datsche isn\u2019t actually in Berlin, it\u2019s out in in former East Germany on a garden allotment colony that’s full of old people who seem to think the\u00a0Berlin Wall never fell, and where not everybody is foreigner-friendly.\u00a0Especially not Gregor, a neighbour with passions for hedge-trimming and nationalism. Which\u00a0is a problem for Valentine, since he happens to have a refugee hiding in his\u00a0datsche attic.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner css=”.vc_custom_1561290391124{border-right-width: -15px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”32432″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Adam blames the bad timing of his arrival in Germany as the reason why his application for asylum has been\u00a0denied. But\u00a0now he faces deportation \u00a0– that is if he is\u00a0found.\u00a0Valentine allows Adam to stay at the datsche and promises not to tell anyone about him.\u00a0But it\u2019s not long before Valentine tires of the quiet allotment\u00a0life and accidentally invites some random people from the internet to join him in his garden.\u00a0Cue Maria, a beautiful and mysterious Greek woman; Zorro, a charming Argentinian drug dealer, and Stefan, a bumbling blond Bavarian who travels with his own tent and gun.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Adam is not happy about the new arrivals, and nor is Gregor\u2026.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1561290391124{border-right-width: -15px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”32428″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”32430″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

About Lara Hewitt:<\/h3>\n

Lara Hewitt<\/strong> grew up in Lancastershire, England, and early on discovered her passion for all forms of artistic expression, from pantomime to theatre to singing, always with the aim of constructive exchange between young and old, disabled and non-disabled people, across all cultural boundaries. After completing her university degree in theatre and education, she worked internationally as an artist and settled in Berlin in 2012.\u00a0Here she brought a punk adaptation of “Allice in Wonderland<\/strong>” to the stage, wrote and sang in a jazz musical and began “Datsche<\/strong>“, her first feature film project, shot in her allotment garden near Potsdam.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1561290391124{border-right-width: -15px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”32409″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text]Back in England, in 2017 she took over the direction of the over 100-year-old cinema “The Palace<\/strong>” in her hometown, now a meeting place for artists of all styles.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]From here she plans her new projects, for example her first documentary work “Love, Europe: The Goodbye Letters<\/strong>“, which accompanies her on the last stage of a relationship of more than twenty years… with Europe.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1565469362448{margin-top: 10px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

About the movie:<\/h3>\n

“Datsche<\/strong>” is an independent film made by an international group of film-lovers and film-makers.\u00a0Datsche was filmed in English and German (with a smattering of Spanish) and with a cast of professional and non-professional actors on a garden allotment in Potsdam, Germany.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1561286315715{margin-top: 15px !important;background-color: #efefef !important;}”]