DR. Illegal in the United States
In September 2015 Dr. Illegal traveled to Washington DC. For the firs time we were able to present our project to a wide international audience. The DC-Shorts is one of the most popular short-film-festivals in the United States. The lineup for the festivals program is well thought trough and the audience is of a very interested but also critical nature.
Especially productions from Germany are looked at very closely. German productions are often regarded as being to longwinded through out the US. This made us even more anxious. The moaning audience through out the theatre, due to another German production that was shown just before ours, didn’t help.
We were the last film to be shown and it was fantastic. The three hundred viewers were mesmerized and we laughed and trembled together with excitement. It was a great relief to us. After the screening we were given the chance of interviews and conversations about our movie. We weren’t familiar with this from German festivals but were very appreciative of this fact. We were mesmerized by the energy we were able to take in at this festival and it gave us the boost of energy we needed to move on to our main goal, the festival a few weeks later in New York. We wanted to make a good appearance in NYC and Washington was the best trial we were able to get. The funniest thing was having our names changed from Jan Galli and Martin Rohé to “John Gallian” and “Mortan Roar”. Finding more and more parallels between our project DR.ILLEGAL and the situation in the USA and now going international gave us the self-assurance we needed. From the beginning we had a strong belief in the quality of our project and this was now confirmed. The characters we had created were credible and universally acknowledged. This gave us the courage and strength we needed to move on.
The New York television-festival is known as one of the biggest in its kind and has been around for more than ten years. Here series-pilots are presented and partners for further funding and development are found.
Following members f our crew were present at this event, Jan Galli ( script ), Marlen von Heydenaber (production design), Leonie Pokutta (production) and Martin Rohé ( idea and production). The festival took place at Helen -Mills – Theatre not far away from Times Square in the heart of Manhattan. This screening must have been the best we ever had with Dr. Illegal up till now. The audience was fascinated and we felt we must have hit a nerve.
Our main characters Dr.Omid Afarid and the social-worker Uwe Wollner found great approval. The audiences’ favorite must have been the character of Omid Afarid, played by Mehdi Nebbou. This must boil down to the fact that he embodies the cliché dream of the dishwasher to billionaire career. The audience strongly sympathized with him and hoped for the best for him and his family. The stubborn character of Uwe Wollner played by August Schmölzer, sometimes more drunk than somber but always having faith in God, also found a solid place in the hearts of the audience. Many wanted to know how the story will continue. This will remain an adventures and long ride.
We have a whole cosmos of future characters and story-constellations in store. Next to Canadian team, we were the only other foreign team to have been nominated from over 2000 signers of which only 100 were nominated. What a fantastic feeling. We were welcomed accordingly. It was great to see that the US market is on the lookout for true entertainment with content. We were able to organize several meetings with production companies, broadcasting corporations and journalists, who were all eager to support us in our cause. Thank you very much. This has surely given us the feed back we had hoped for to make us carry on. We will keep you updated on this page with any news concerning our project.