Film Archive

Cattolica

Stefan is someone who likes to enjoy all the pleasures in life; he is curious, playful and always a little ironic. If at all possible, he avoids any effort and strain, he drinks a lot, loves smoking and occasionally works at a trendy club. One evening, Stefan spots a stranger sitting at the bar, a man who is carefully checking him out.

Martin appears quiet and cool ­and he is wearing a wedding band. Stefan smiles. He assumes that a married man is looking for a little variety and invites Martin back to his place. However, the supposed adventure comes to an abrupt end when Martin takes a letter out of his jacket pocket, a letter written by Martin's mother shortly before she passed away. The letter is addressed to Stefan, her second son, who she gave up for adoption after giving birth to him. Stefan and Martin are brothers, and together they travel to the Italian town Cattolica in search of their pasts and the place where the story all began...

Rudolph Jula was born in 1965 to an Italian father and Swiss mother. After graduating from school, he was a trainee director at both the Zurich Theater and the Zurich Opera House. In 1988, he visited London, where he wrote Conquest, a collection of narratives. Between 1989 and 1992, he lived in Rome and worked on his novel Giulios Schlaf (Guilio’s Sleep), which was published in 1997. Between 1993 and 1998, he studied Directing and Script Writing at the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berin. He graduated with the short Three Wishes (Drei Wuensche, 1999), for which he received the German Short Film Award. His other films include: the shorts The Night Full of Flowers (Die Nacht voller Blumen, 1988), The Last Socialist (Die letzte Sozialistin, 1993), You Remember (Erinnerst Du Dich, 1995), Turkish Delight (Tuerkischer Honig, 1997), My Russian Summer (Mein russischer Sommer, 1998), and Cattolica (2003), his first feature-length film.