Film Archive

Miracle of Bern, The (Wunder von Bern, Das)

Summer, 1954. The Soviet Union is sending its prisoners of war home. Among them is the father of a quiet, football-loving 11-year-old, Matthias, who lives with his mother, sister and brother in a West-German mining town. The boy has long found a surrogate father in the local football player Helmut Rahn, who has "adopted" Matthias as his mascot. The return of the boy's father Richard casts a shadow over the once-happy family: broken by his years in captivity, Richard has trouble adapting to life in post-war Germany and alienates his family through his severity. For Richard, football is pointless, and so is the World Cup that's about to be held in Bern, Switzerland. Matthias, however, longs to be there with his idol, who's been chosen to play on the German team. Through his passion for the game and his fighting spirit, Matthias rekindles a love of life in his dad's heart. And so, as the final match of the World Cup begins, a little miracle of love and generosity leaps across borders to help another miracle occur - the victory of Helmut Rahn and the German team, the miracle of Bern.

With The Miracle of Bern, director and ex-football player Soenke Wortmann has brilliantly succeeded in setting an intensely emotional and touching family drama against the exhilarating, authentic background of West Germany's miraculous World Cup victory in 1954.

Soenke Wortmann was born in Marl in 1959. He attended Munich's Academy for Television & Film (HFF/M). After his first term assignment Nachtfahrer (1985), he was invited to London's Royal College of Art. His graduation film, Drei D (1988), received the Eastman Promotional Award at the Hof Film Days and was nominated for a Student OSCAR in 1990. The same year, he made his first TV movie, Eine Wahnsinnsehe. His comedy Alone Among Women (Allein unter Frauen, 1991) won the Hypo-Award at the Munich Filmfest in 1991. His other films include: Little Sharks (Kleine Haie, 1992), Mr Bluesman (1993), Maybe, Maybe Not (Der bewegte Mann, 1994), The Superwife (Das Superweib, 1996), Campus (Der Campus, 1998), St. Pauli Night (St. Pauli Nacht, 1999), The Hollywood Sign (2000), and Das Wunder von Bern (2003).
 

Genre Drama, History, Sports
Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 2003
Director Soenke Wortmann
Screenplay Rochus Hahn, Soenke Wortmann
Director of Photography Tom Faehrmann
Editor Ueli Christen
Music by Marcel Barsotti
Production Design Uli Hanisch
Producers Tom Spiess, Soenke Wortmann, Hanno Huth
Production Company Little Shark Entertainment/Cologne, in co-production with Senator Film Produktion/Berlin, SevenPictures Film/Unterfoehring
Principal Cast Peter Lohmeyer, Louis Klamroth, Peter Franke, Lucas Gregorowicz, Katharina Wackernagel, Johanna Gastdorf, Sascha Goepel
Casting Anja Dihrberg
Special Effects Das Werk/Munich
Studio Shooting MMC Studios/Huerth/Cologne
Length 118 min, 3,218 m
Format Super 35, color, 1:1.85
Original Version German
Subtitled Versions English, French, Spanish
Sound Technology Dolby Digital
Festival Screenings Locarno 2003 (Piazza Grande), Montreal 2003 (Out of Competition), Warsaw 2003, The Hamptons 2003, Sevilla 2003, Havana 2003, Goteborg 2003, Berlin 2004 (German Cinema), Shanghai 2004, Denver 2004, Goa 2004, Pyongyang 2006 (Opening Film)
Awards Prix du Public UBS Locarno 2003, German Film Awards 2004 for Best Picture (Silver), German Film of the Year, Actor of the Year
With backing from German Federal Film Board (FFA), BKM, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Filmstiftung NRW
German Distributor Senator Film Verleih/Berlin

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