Original Title: Kriegerin
Synopsis
Marisa, a 20-year-old German girl, hates foreigners, Jews, cops, and everyone she finds guilty for the decline of her country. She provocates, drinks, fights and her next tattoo will be a portrait of Adolf Hitler. The only place she feels home is the Neo-Nazi gang she belongs to, where hate, violence, and heavy parties are the daily rules. When 14-year-old Svenja joins the group, Marisa appears like a role model to her: she fits the purest idea of a combat girl fighting for the group’s ideology. But Marisa’s convictions will slowly evolve when she accidentally meets a young Afghan refugee. Confronted to him, she will learn that the black and white principles of her gang are not the only way. Will Marisa ever be able to get out of this group?
Technical Information
2011; Germany; Drama, Coming of age; 103 minutes; DCP, HDCAM-SR; 1:2.35; Dolby SRD; Original Language: German; Subtitles: English
DIRECTOR
David Wnendt
WRITER
David Wnendt
D.O.P.
Jonas Schmager
EDITOR
Andreas Wodraschke
MUSIC
Johannes Repka
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Mafilm
PRODUCER
Eva-Marie Martens, Alexander Martens, René Frotscher
Marisa
Alina Levshin
Svenja
Jella Haase
Rasul
Sayed Ahmad Wasil Mrowat
Sandro
Gerdy Zint
Markus
Lukas Steltner
Oliver
Uwe Preuss
Andrea
Winnie Böwe
Bea
Rosa Enskat
Clemens
Haymon Maria Buttinger
Großvater Franz
Klaus Manchen
DAVID WNENDT
David Wnendt was born in 1977 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. His parents were moving a lot, so he was living in Islamabad, Miami, Brussels and Meckenheim. After his studies at the University of Berlin – Business Administration and Communication- and Massmedia with a specialisation on Journalism – he applied for the master at the Film and Television University “Konrad Wolf” in Potsdam-Babelsberg. During his studies he has been working for several TV, film and theater productions and tried different positions within the industry, like being the driver for a director from Hong-Kong or interviewing Janet Jackson. He gained some work experience at a theater in Paris as well. “Combat Girls” is his degree dissertation for the Film and Television University.
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2008 Kleine Lichter
Short
2007 California Dreams
2006 Hannas Hobby
2000 Hanging On
2017
CAMPUS WEEK – OREGON STATE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Nov 03 – 07
2016
Feb 25 – Mar 03
2013
Apr 18 – 25
STARKE FRAUEN – LA FORZA DELLE DONNE
Feb 13 – 15
Feb 01 – Dec 31
KINO – MOSTRA DE CINEMA DE EXPRESSAO ALEMA
Jan 24 – Feb 03
2012
Dec 13 – 16 (in competition)
Nov 15 – 20
CINEDAYS FESTIVAL OF EUROPEAN FILM
Nov 15 – 25
Nov 08 – 18
KINO/12 – RECENT GERMAN FILM PRODUCTIONS
Oct 25 – Nov 05 (opening movie)
Oct 05 – 10
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT FILM FESTIVAL
Sep 27 – Oct 04 (in competition)
FESTROIA
Sep 21 – 30
Sep 20 – 27 (in competition)
Sep 13 – 23 (in competition)
Sep 13 – 23 (in competition)
Sep 13 – 19
Aug 25 – 30 (in competition)
Jul 10 – 15
Jul 06 – 10 (in competition)
FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS IN MADRID
Jun 05 – 09
May 18 – 18
Apr 20 – 29 (in competition)
Apr 18 – May 06
ROME INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
Apr 13 – 19 (in competition)
MAMERS EN MARS FF
awarded with the Youth Jury Award
Apr 01
Mar 30 – Apr 01
DISCOVERY ZONE LUXEMBOURG CITY FILM FESTIVAL
Mar 01 – 09
Feb 06 – 26 (in competition)
2011
BAVARIAN TV-PRIZE 2011
J. Haase Best New Actress & D. Wnendt Best New Director”
Dec 30
JERUSALEM JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
Dec 17 – 23
Dec 07 – 14
TALLINN BLACK NIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL
Nov 16 – 30
PRIX GENEVE-EUROPE
Best TV Fiction Script 2011
Nov 15
LÜNEN FILMFEST
“Youth Director’s Award” & “Best Scenography”
Nov 13
Nov 10 – 17
FIRST STEPS AWARD
Best Feature-Length Film
Nov 09
Nov 04 – 09 (in competition)
Sao Paulo –
SAO PAULO INT’L FILM FESTIVAL
Award for Alina Levshin as Best Actress
Nov 03
MOLODIST KYIV INT. FILM FESTIVAL
Oct 22 – 30
Oct 21 – Nov 03 (in competition)
Oct 07 – 16 (in competition)
Zürich –
ZÜRICH FILM FESTIVAL (SEP 22 – OCT 02)
honourably mentioned by the jury
Oct 02
PRIX GENEVE-EUROPE
Best TV Fiction Script
Sep 01
Munich –
FILMFESTIVAL
A. Levshin “Best New Actress” & D. Wnendt “Best New Screenwriter”
Reinhard Kleber
David Wnendt’s Combat Girls want to provoke, and they do, but they also make the audience think.
ZDF Aspekte January 13th
This movie knows what it is talking about… impressive performance
dpa
Director David Wnendt filmed a drama, which is currently a hot topic because of the Zwickauer Nazis.
WochenSpiegel
Combat Girls …. an alarmingly good film. The movie abstains from claptrap and allows insights to the soul.
subway
The sight is what makes the film outstanding. It is unconfinedly told from a female point of view and offers the audience a welcome change
Der Tagesspiegel
David F. Wnendts “Combat Girls” caused quite a stir. Alina Levshin from Odessa mimes in this good investigated Neonazi-drama the hateful supermarket cashier Marisa, somewhere in eastern Germany. By listening to songs called “holocaust reloaded” she and her friends try to get in the right mood for acts of violence. But then the ideological assurance fades. “Combat Girls” is a bold, authentic film.
Süddeutsche
Combat Girl is not the sort of film, the audience feels immediately sympathy for . Even the milieu in which his main character – a young woman of 20 – is involved, seems unappetizing. The social drama set in the Neo-Nazi scene of some small city somewhere in Germany. From [the Filmfest] Munich it feels so far away, as if there is still an iron curtain between. Director and writer David Falko Wnendt takes a close look at the world of rune-tattooed skinheads and their lives. It would be missleading to say, that the images are authentic, but Wnendt knows how to draw a picture of the sub-hatred (anti-) culture
trailerseite
Plus factor of the film are the phenomenal performances of the actors, in particular by Alina Levshin and Gerdy Zint, whose intensity is scary.
Rolling Stone
A masterful debut feature illuminates the fascination with violence among young people in the right-wing scene and goes where it hurts
2012-01-19
Alina Levshin was born September 10th, 1984 in Odessa, Ukraine. From 2006 to 2010, she studied acting at the College of Film and Television “Konrad Wolf” in Potsdam. Levshin was one of the main cast members in Dominik Graf’s television series Im Angesicht des Verbrechens who collectively received the German Television Award in 2010. She won the German Film Prize for her performance in Combat Girls and she was awarded at the São Paulo International Film Festival.
