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LEARNING TO LIE - still #1

LEARNING TO LIE

(Liegen Lernen)
East Coast Premiere

Director: Hendrik Handloegten

Germany, 2003, 94 min

Festival Year:2004

Category:Narrative Feature

WINNER: Best Cinematography

Cast:Fabian Busch, Susanne Bormann, Fritzi Haberlandt, Sophie Rois, Anka Lea Sarstedt, Birgit Minichmayr

Crew:Producers: X Filme - Screenwriter: Hendrik Handloegten - Editor: Elena Bromund BFS - Cinematographer: Florian Hoffmeister - Original Score: Dieter Schleip - Sound: Gebrueder films

Sales:Andreas Rothbauer - Beta Cinema, Germany - T: +49-89-99 56 27 19 - F: +49-89-99 56 27 03

Email:beta@betacinema.com

Web:www.liegenlernen.de

Synopsis

Helmut is a shy, awkward kid...and a bit naïve when it comes to girls. When Britta, the most gorgeous girl in his high-school class, finally notices him one day, he falls for her hard. Then she suddenly announces that she is moving to America to live with her father, and he is devastated. After months of writing letters to her, he finally accepts that she'll never reply - but deep inside his heart he is unwilling to let her go. Years later, Helmut stumbles from one failed love affair into the next. He's become more confident, but never does he come close to realizing that the hurt he suffered at Britta's hands and the pedestal on which he has placed her has made him incapable of committing himself to another woman...until Tina. A sharp, independent woman, Tina doesn't fall for the hustle. She sees Helmut for who he really is...she's got him pegged. After two blissful years together Tina becomes pregnant. Helmut panics and runs without even understanding why. What he does understand is Tina's ultimatum... it's all or nothing, and he cannot imagine losing her. In this decisive moment it is to Britta that Helmut runs. Overwhelmed by the sense that there is still something needing to be finished, he needs to see her one last time...

Trailer

About the director

Hendrik Handloegten was born in 1968 and studied at the German Academy of Film & Television (dffb) in Berlin. His graduation film, Paul is Dead, went on to win numerous awards including the prestigious Adolph-Grimme Award in 2001, as well as earning him an invitation to the highly renowned Slamdance Festival that same year. In 1999, together with Achim von Borries, Handloegten also worked on the screenplay with Bernd Lichtenberg and Wolfgang Becker for Becker's global success Good Bye, Lenin!. Learning to Lie was adapted to the big screen by Handloegten from Frank Goosen's best-selling novel Liegen Lernen.

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