''The Circle'' (german: Der Kreis) is a 2014 Swiss docudrama film.
["The Circle"]
'' Screen Daily'', February 11, 2014. Written and directed by
Stefan Haupt
Stefan may refer to:
* Stefan (given name)
* Stefan (surname)
* Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname
* Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname
* Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer
* Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...
, the film concerns the social network of gay men that developed in
Zurich in the 1940s and 1950s, centered on ''
The Circle'', a gay publication, and the social events it sponsored. As the police investigate three murders of gay men by
rent boys, they
scapegoat ''The Circle'' and its subscribers for making Zurich an international center of gay tourism.
The film focuses on the story of Ernst Ostertag and
Röbi Rapp, a schoolteacher and a
drag entertainer, who met through their participation in the publication inner circle and began a lifelong romantic relationship. Interviews with them and other survivors and experts on the era are interspersed with documentary film and photographs as well as a scripted dramatic enactment of the story. The lack of legal proscription against homosexuals and Zurich's growing notoriety provide the context for the growth of a publication that overtly catered to a gay readership while avoiding explicit materials, both in prose and illustrations, in order to meet the standards of Swiss censorship.
The couple are portrayed by Matthias Hungerbühler and Sven Schelker, with documentary interviews with the real Ostertag and Rapp.
Cast
* Matthias Hungerbühler - Ernst Ostertag
* - Röbi Rapp
*
Anatole Taubman - Felix
* - Principal Dr. Max Sieber
*
Marianne Sägebrecht
Marianne Sägebrecht (; born 27 August 1945) is a German film actress.
Her background included stints as a medical lab assistant and magazine assistant editor before she found her calling in show business. Claiming to be inspired by Bavaria's ma ...
- Erika
*
Antoine Monot, Jr.
Antoine Monot Jr. (born 22 June 1975 in Rheinbach, West Germany) is a Swiss-German actor and film producer with both German and Swiss citizenship. He had his breakthrough with the film ''Absolute Giganten'' in 1999 and became known to a wider audi ...
- Gian
* - Gabi Gerster
* Stefan Witschi - Rolf
Release
The film won the
Teddy Award
The Teddy Award is an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival (the Berlinale). In the most part, the jury consists of organisers of gay ...
for Best Documentary at the
2014 Berlin Film Festival, as well as the Panorama Audience Award. North American distribution rights were subsequently acquired by
Wolfe Video
Wolfe Video is the oldest and largest exclusive producer and distributor of LGBT films in North America.
Founded in 1985 in New Almaden by Kathy Wolfe, the company began as a consumer mail order distribution company for lesbian VHS videos but ha ...
.
"Wolfe Video Acquires 'The Circle,' Winner of Berlin's Teddy Award"
''Indiewire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
'', February 18, 2014. It was selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the 87th Academy Awards
The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best 2014 in film, films of 2014 and took place on February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, ...
, but was not nominated.
See also
* LGBT history in Switzerland
*
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Circle, The
2014 films
2014 documentary films
Swiss drama films
Swiss documentary films
Swiss German-language films
2010s German-language films
2010s French-language films
Docudrama films
2014 LGBT-related films
Documentary films about LGBT topics
LGBT-related drama films
Swiss LGBT-related films
LGBT-related films based on actual events
Gay-related films
2014 drama films