Ilona Schulz Movies
- 2008
A handful of people are forced to come to terms with their lives and their actions in this drama from German filmmaker Ulrike Grote. Sophie Hellwig (Naomi Krauyss) is married to Joachim (Ulrich Noethen), a journalist. Joachim's work often takes him away from home, and while he's away Sophie has become involved with Paul Wolff (Eckhard Preuss), a respected physician. Paul, meanwhile, is married to Nele (Jana Striebeck), a fellow doctor who has fallen into a deep well of depression and guilt since the death of their child. Shortly before Joachim arrives home, Sophie learns she's been diagnosed with cancer and has only a short time to live. Sophie checks into a hospital on Paul's advice, where male nurse Hanns (Peter Jordan) helps look after intensive care patients. Hanns is also caring for his elderly mother Marie (Monica Bleibtrue), who is suffering from the early stages of senile dementia; the strain is becoming too much for him, and Hanns is considering putting Marie in a nursing home. However, when Marie finds a brochure for one of the facilities Hanns is investigating, she flies into a rage and runs away, ending up in a graveyard. There she meets Fritz (Willem Menne), a funeral director who has become disenchanted with his life and is pondering suicide. Was Wenn Der Tod Uns Scheidet? (aka What If Death Do Us Part?) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
A recent college graduate on her first teaching assignment finds her initial optimism quickly dashed due to the indifference of her students and the bitter cynicism of her fellow educators. Melanie (Eva Löbau) is a fresh-faced teacher who's eager to get in the classroom and share her enthusiasm for learning, but in order to get her career off the ground she'll first have to leave all of her loved ones in the country and establish herself in the city. Despite being exceptionally well-read on all the latest educational theory, however, Melanie quickly finds herself caught up in a hopeless wave of loneliness after arriving at the high school and getting a harsh dose of reality; not only are her students more unruly than she could have ever imagined, but the worn-down staffers seem intent on ensuring that she is dragged directly down to their level of misery and general malaise. Later, Melanie attempts to strike up a relationship with her neighbor Tina (Daniela Holtz), only to find herself unable to abide by the strict social codes of her strange new surroundings. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eva Löbau, Daniela Holtz, (more)
- 1988
This musical is combined with a belated (by over four decades) condemnation of Nazi sympathizers. The travelers of a main Berlin subway line are profiled as they go through the daily struggles of life in a hopeless world. A young woman searches in vain for the rock star who promised he would always be there to help her. She encounters sadistic schoolgirls and street people of all ages driven to desperation. Nazi war widows keep the memories of their husbands' brutalities hidden while living off the military pension that rewarded their atrocities. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ilona Schulz, Dieter Landuris, (more)
- 1970
This feature combines fictional and documentary styles to examine the changing roles of women in society. They battle prejudice from narrow minded males as they struggle for their rightful places in the world. A man is shot at the end of the film in a symbolic gesture of defiance. This would indicate that both genders are equally capable of the senseless violence that has plagued humankind throughout the ages. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ilona Schulz
