Adamstown

Patrick Merz & Henning Wötzel-Herber
GER 2019

»If Wes Anderson adapted a German comic book about a Wild West town filled with talking animals and then cast amateur actors — many of them recent refugees — to play the leading roles, the result might look something like Patrick Merz and Henning Wötzel-Herber's Adamstown. Oh, and it's a musical, too.«

The Hollywood Reporter

 

»Henning Wötzel-Herber and Patrick Merz adapted a graphic novel by the Hamburg artist Verena Braun and are bringing 'Adamstown' to the screen—a humorous and imaginative Western musical that disregards genre boundaries and casually brushes aside apparent physical limitations and language barriers.«

Kino-Zeit 

 

Adamstown is a human stronghold. Animals and strangers are unwanted – the signs at the city limits make that abundantly clear. This ideologically deepened feud has been going on for centuries, though nobody knows its real origins. Only the old myths can shed light on the truth between humans and animals, hate and charity, brought up from the deepest corners of history. Merz und Wötzel-Herber adapted a graphic novel by Hamburg-based artist Verena Braun and bring with »Adamstown«, a wonderfully humorous and imaginative Western musical to the screen that ignores genre boundaries and does away with alleged physical and linguistic barriers. Shoot-outs, saloon scenes and lone riders are light-handedly moved into the North German plains and the musical numbers are flat-out impressive. Genre-archetypes from »Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid« to »Cat Ballou« are paid homage to and give this film an inclusive force that is also mirrored in the diverse cast. The ease with which this societally controversial subject is being presented was long overdue in German cinemas.

Producer
Andrea Keller, Henning Wötzel-Herber
Cinematographer
Jeremy Boschung
Editor
Patrick Merz, Henning Wötzel-Herber
Screenwriter
Patrick Merz, Henning Wötzel-Herber
Cast
Fawad Falzi, Fares Wadi, Marie Zibell, Rayan Farousi
Runtime/Version
88 min, OmeU
Headshot 3bc6e709da headshot

Patrick Merz & Henning Wötzel-Herber

For »Adamstown«, Wötzel-Herber and Merz are working together for the first time on a feature film. Wötzel-Herber, a graduate social economist and education consultant, combines social commitment with media education. As a freelance director, author and lecturer, Merz contributed his filmmaking skills to the creation of their inclusive feature film.