Producer's Portrait:

Now over a decade in business, the Hamburg-based company Relevant Film of Peter Timm and Heike Wiehle-Timm has built up a respectable track record of production for the cinema and television and is now toying with the idea of working on projects outside of Germany after its experiences on Rolf Schuebel's Blueprint.

«I came to film via the theater and art,» recalls producer Heike Wiehle-Timm who worked for three years at the Bayerisches Schauspielhaus in Munich before deciding that «theater was a great playground, but I wanted to be involved in stories for a wider audience.»

After moving with husband Peter to Hamburg she worked as a producer for Polyphon for five years and, whilst there, produced her first feature film, Timm's adaptation of the Hera Lind bestseller Ein Mann fuer jede Tonart, starring Katja Riemann.

«Producing this film gave me the feeling that this was the direction I wanted to go in and so we founded Relevant Film in 1993,» she says. «We started small, producing feature films as co-productions with other companies, like Avista Film on Die Putzfraueninsel.» Over the years, Relevant has been able to cater for both cinema and television production: «commissioned television productions are important for the company's operations - the bread and butter - and we have developed strong links to all of the stations. RTL has become an important partner although we have felt the station's cuts in commissions as have other independents in the market.»

«Nevertheless, we developed other collaborations, such as with SAT.1 for the upcoming Dennis Satin comedy Was waere wenn (working title) and now with NDR for the Marianne Saegebrecht project Charlotte und ihre Maenner. The struggle has become harder, but a precise development of the stories will guarantee our success in the future, too.»

Working for the cinema, on the other hand, is described by Wiehle-Timm as «a luxury». »Every project is a challenge, but that is even more so with cinema. The 'TV child' comes into the world much quicker and you can entrust them to a kindergarten. Moreover, those projects are developed very specifically for an audience and time slot. But with feature films, you are pregnant with the project for a long time and you have to look after them until the wedding day!»

Initially, the company began just with projects by Peter Timm, but then opened up to working with other directors and Timm is also free to work with other production companies as well (his latest feature Mein Bruder ist ein Hund was made last year with Tradewind Pictures). «It is fun to work with other people and to see which films suit which station and schedule,» Wiehle-Timm explains. «One of our goals was to make quality programs for television which appeal to audiences and can also be shown at festivals. What was important for me were comedies and melodramas which give an insight into the human situation.»

Seeing herself very much as a creative producer, Wiehle-Timm points out that she likes to be involved in the story development: «I enjoy bringing the various elements together - the writer, director, cast and financing - and of being the 'nerve center' of this creative potential. I come from the content side, so my business knowledge of how to run a company was acquired on the job. That was a challenge I wanted to take on rather than stay and work in the world of subsidized theater.»

To date, the production of Rolf Schuebel's Blueprint, starring Franka Potente in a double role as mother and daughter, was Relevant's biggest challenge, being some four years in the making from the original idea through to the completion due to the size of the budget and having locations in Canada as well as Germany. In addition, there was the question of how to adapt Charlotte Kerner's novel and to present the issue of cloning in a way that would be interesting for lots of people."

Unfortunately, the makers' own expectations didn't coincide with commercial reality: «Opinions were divided on the film: the audience reactions were positive. But what some people didn't like was that our idea had been to take a conventional genre approach rather than an arthouse one in order to reach a wider audience.»

At the same time, Wiehle-Timm could imagine Blueprint opening doors for other opportunities outside of Germany for Relevant, as they have only produced for the German market until now. Indeed, she has already spoken with some Polish producers about a possible collaboration. Moreover, since the original novel by Charlotte Kerner is known internationally, there would seem to be a likelihood that the film could also have a career abroad.

Back home, Wiehle-Timm says that it is still an uphill struggle for German films in their own market despite the box office successes of such films as Good Bye, Lenin! and Manitou's Shoe. «I am pleased about every success our cinema has, but we need to work on the acceptance of German films among the younger cinemagoers,» she argues. «I have an 18-year-old daughter and know how they prefer US mainstream films. But we have many good stories to tell and we have to put up a fight to get German films into the cinemas against the big US competition. We don't have to copy them, but we should increase our efforts on the targeting and marketing of our own projects.»