SYNOPSIS
SYNOPSIS
In 1972, the young Stasi officer Fritz arrives in Havanna. He is on a mission during the ceremonial handover of "Isla Ernesto Thälmann". This uninhabited Caribbean Island off the Cuban coast was gifted by Fidel Castro to the GDR as a gesture of friendship between the two Communist states. Fritz's mission is to foil a CIA assassination plot against the Máximo Líder, which is plotted to take place during the handover. But Fritz's mission does not go according to plan. Under the Caribbean sun, nothing works in the way he’s used to back home. What’s more, Fritz meets a mysterious Cuban woman Lola. Thanks to Lola, the war is suddenly less “Cold” for Comandante Fritz than perhaps it should be...
BIOGRAPHY
Pavel Giroud
Pavel Giroud (b. 1972) is a Cuban director based in Madrid. Trained in design at the Instituto Superior de Diseño, he began his career as a designer and art director. His debut film, THE SILLY AGE (2006), premiered at TIFF, was Cuba’s Oscar submission, and won several international awards. In 2020, it was named one of Cuba’s top ten films for cinematography and artistic direction by the Cinemateca de Cuba.
In 2007, he presented OMERTÀ at the San Sebastián Film Festival to critical acclaim. His 2014 documentary PLAYING LECUONA won Best Documentary at both the Montréal and New York International Film Festivals. He followed with THE COMPANION, another Cuban Oscar submission. His latest documentary, THE PADILLA AFFAIR, premiered at Telluride, won the Platino Award, and screened at major festivals including San Sebastián, Rome, and BAFICI.
COMMENTS
of the director
Throughout my career as a filmmaker, my ambition has been to revisit Cuba's past in order to reflect on the presence of my country. This is also the case with COMANDANTE FRITZ, which deeply corresponds to my sense of humour. From the first scenes it is clear what it is about: a deeply political satire in which we laugh at the seriousness of the protagonists' lives, enriched with elements of thriller and espionage and with the absurd atmosphere that Cuba - and only Cuba - can bring to any story told there. There is a murder and a love story, there is a clash of cultures and a look at the past with more irony than nostalgia and a historical rigour that is played with from beginning to end. The historical parody is an important point that speaks for the film. It is not a lack of respect for history, but a balance between humour and rigour that sometimes makes for great films, and that is what we are aiming for. If ‘TITANIC’ can be described as the story of Romeo and Juliet on board the most famous ocean liner, we would like to call COMANDANTE FRITZ the story of Romeo and Juliet in the middle of the Cold War, but with a lot of irony, music and an ending diametrically opposed to Shakespeare's tragedy.
MAIN CAST
Dennis Mojen
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Dennis Mojen (*1993) is an actor based in Berlin. His acting was greatly influenced by his study of the Meisner Method in Los Angeles in 2011. First and foremost, however, Mojen describes himself as an autodidact, based on the principle that ‘life itself is the best school’. For Mojen, it is clear that each of his characters should be perfectly prepared and elaborated. This approach proves him right and ultimately earns him his first successful credits: among others, he was honoured with the New Faces Award for ‘Best Young Actor’ in 2015 for his lead role in the first episode of Tatort Franken DER HIMMEL IST EIN PLATZ AUF ERDEN.
The films in which Mojen has played his roles since 2007 could not be more different. After the coming-of-age cinema movie SUMMERTIME BLUES (2009) and the cinema drama POLL (2010) by Chris Kraus, many other cinema and television productions followed, including NIRGENDWO (2016), the female friendship story WANN ENDLICH KÜSST DU MICH (2016), the terrorism drama BRÜDER (2017) and the highly acclaimed coming-of-age road movie, written and directed by Kim Frank, WACH (2018).
In the romantic drama TRAUMFABRIK (2019), produced by Studio Babelsberg, Mojen got his first leading role in a movie and established himself in the premier league of the German acting scene after numerous supporting and leading roles .
His international breakthrough came shortly afterwards with the first German Netflix film ISI & OSSI (2020) under the direction of renowned writer and director Oliver Kienle, with whom he worked again on the Netflix film 60 MINUTES (2024). Dennis Mojen gave his English-language debut in the Belgian Netflix series INTO THE NIGHT (season 2).
Most recently, he appeared in the lead role in the international Netflix blockbuster SPIELEABEND (2024), which achieved No. 1 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, among other countries, as well as reaching the weekly top 10 in 58 countries.
Yany Prado
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Yany Prado was born in Havana in 1991. In 2002, her family moved to Mexico. She went to Televisa's Centro de Educación Artística where she studied acting. Her first television role was in 2010 in the Mexican series LA ROSA DE GUADULUPE as Carolina, which gave her a nomination for Best Young Lead Actress at the 36th TV Novelas Awards. She is best known for playing Génesis in LA DOBLE VIDA DE ESTELA CARRILLO and Irma in LA REINA SOY YO. In 2021, Prado starred in the Netflix series SKY ROJO as Gina.
Christina Große
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Christina Große is one of the most frequently booked actresses in Germany. After studying at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, she started her career with various theatre engagements in Berlin, including the GERMAN THEATRE, BERLINER ENSEMBLE and the VOLKSBÜHNE, while also shooting TV films and series and appearing in numerous movies. These include leading roles in multiple award-winning cinema productions such as NETTO, DIE FRISEUSE, FÜR ELISE, ICH FÜHL MICH DISCO, ALKIALKI, SAG DU ES MIR and ALASKA. One of her most important television roles is Dr Eckart in the role of ‘Head of the Goethe Institute’ in DAS INSTITUT -OASE DES SCHEITERNS. Christina Große has received various nominations and awards. The PREIS DER DEUTSCHEN FILMKRITIK as best actress for the film ALASKA is her most recent and most important award to date. Since 2023, she has been part of the main cast of the most successful German cinema film series THE SCHOOL OF MAGICAL ANIMALS as MISS CORNFIELD. COMMANDANTE FRITZ is her first international motion picture.
Rainer Reiners
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Rainer Reiners, born in 1959, is a well-known German film, television, and theater actor who initially pursued various career paths before landing in acting. In 1985, he began studying advertising at the HdK Berlin, followed by acting training at the ETAGE School of Performing Arts, which he completed in 1991 with a stage performance exam. Since then, Rainer Reiners has appeared in various theater, film, and television productions. His television appearances include a total of nine episodes of “Tatort” from 2002 to 2021 and nine episodes of the award-winning comedy series "Das Institut – Oase des Scheiterns" (The Institute – Oasis of Failure) from 2017 to 2019. He has also appeared on the big screen in German and international productions such as DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX (2008), GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014), WERK OHNE AUTOR (2018), and BLOOD RED SKY (2021).
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Alexis Valdés
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Alexis Valdés was born in Havana, Cuba on August 16, 1963. His father, Leonel, was a renowned Cuban actor. He graduated from the Polytechnic José Antonio Echeverría with a degree in thermal engineering.
In 1981, Alexis Valdés began working in the Cuban TV show Los pequeños fugitivos, where he played Bandurria, a tragic, yet funny character that captivated Cuban audiences and earned Valdés popular acclaim. Bandurria later inspired some of Valdés' own characters, such as Cristinito, a goofy character who is convinced he is a genius. Cristinito is quite popular in the Cuban and Cuban-American communities.
Over the next decade, Valdés continued to make a name for himself in the Cuban scene, before finally moving to Spain in 1991. Once in Spain, Valdés continued his career mostly as a comedian, performing stand-up in shows such as El Club De La Comedia (The Comedy Club), a popular Spanish show where comedians perform monologues for a live crowd. In 2005, he moved to the United States, where he has worked as a TV host and comedian on shows such as Seguro que yes, Esta noche tu night, and El show de Alexis Valdés. Also in 2005, he wrote and directed his first film, Un rey en La Habana, in which he also starred. Valdés has acted in many other films throughout his career.
In recent years, Valdés has written, acted, and directed numerous plays, such as Oficialmente gay and El juicio del PDO.
Vladimir Cruz
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Vladimir Cruz Marrero (born 26 July 1965) is a Cuban actor, screenwriter, playwright, film and theatre director.[1] He is perhaps best known for his role in the film Strawberry and Chocolate (1994).
Cruz made his acting debut on the stage as an amateur actor in 1981. He then began to study at the Instituto Superior de Arte in 1983 and graduated in 1988 with a licentiate degree in performing arts.
He became well-known for his supporting role in the film Strawberry and Chocolate(1994), which received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and many awards.
He also wrote plays and screenplays as well as directed plays and films, notably Afinidades (2010).
He has an extensive career in film, theater and television. He has recently appeared in the film Los buenos demonios (2018) and the television series Narcos: Mexico (2018), the former of which earned him the Silver Biznaga for Best Supporting Actor at the Málaga Spanish Film Festival.
MAIN CREW
Pavel Giroud
Director: Pavel Giroud
Scriptwriters: Arturo Infante und Pavel Giroud
With: Dennis Mojen, Yany Prado, Christina Große, Alexis Valdes, Vladimir Cruz, Fidel Betancourt, Laura Ramos, Rainer Reiners, Lena Kalisch
Produced by: FassB Filmproduktion GmbH & Co KG
Producer: Ernst Fassbender
Co-Producer: Dagmar Rosenbauer, Paul Zischler, Argyris Papadimitropoulos