Der Pamir Premier . . .A Night ro Remember
by Karen Pecota

I was studying the program of the Hamburg Filmfest to make selections for my schedule during the festival. My eye caught the category: films made in Hamburg. I was intrigued reading the descriptions of two film débuts investigating the sinking of a German sailing vessel called the Pamir. One film was a documentary from Karsten Wohlrab (see review in Festival coverage) and the other was a dramatization made for TV from Kaspar Heidelbach (see review in festival coverage).

I planned to attend the showing of the documentary and then purchased two tickets so that my husband and I could attend the premier of the film made for TV. On the day of premier, we arrived as they were opening the doors to the theater where the film would appear. We approached the attendant, handed in our tickets and walked into an empty room. We were very early, and therefore had a wonderful selection of seating. As we entered, we noticed the first row of the middle section was all reserved. We headed straight into the second row of the middle section and took our seats. We chit-chatted in English (our mother tongue) about our luck and then continued conversing like two giddy teenagers, thrilled to have tickets to a Hamburg premier. We had the perfect marking of a fun date. The whole time we were talking to each other the seats were filling up around us and we noticed that people were attentive to us and our conversation. We politely smiled and nodded and they returned the gesture. My husband went to get some snacks and when he returned to the enter our row, the attendant asked him to show his blue wrist band. Opps! It turned out that we were sitting in the section reserved for the cast and crew. He simply stated that we did not receive one but showed the attendant where we were sitting. Fortunately, we were both dressed in fine attire, and looked like we belonged plus, our seats were right next to the woman who was the costume designer for the production. Aaah-Hhaaa! There were no further questions and he was allowed to re-enter! My husband was beaming!

Our lucky seats allowed us to be up close and personal with some of the most talented people in German film. How cool is that? One by one the film’s entourage entered the theater without pomp and circumstance to find seats. They appeared to be delighted to have the chance to rejoin their colleagues for this eventful afternoon. Everyone was excited to be together which created the feeling of a big happy family (including us!).