Surprise Film 2005: Mutterseelenallein by Bernd Böhlich with the awarding of the Berlinale Camera to Katrin Sass

This year’s Berlinale Surprise Film is Mutterseelenallein, directed by Bernd Böhlich. This feature film debut recounts, with harrowing precision, the situation of a woman who learns that her son has become a murderer. Bea (Katrin Sass), the female protagonist, lives through all imaginable extremes of human behaviour and ends up herself on the periphery of society.

Mutterseelenallein will screen at the "International" film theatre on February 11 at 11.30p.m. where Katrin Sass, the lead in the film, will be presented the Berlinale Camera for her contribution to German cinema.

The Berlinale Camera is awarded to film personalities or institutions to which the Berlin International Film Festival feels particularly indebted and wants to express its gratitude and appreciation. The Berlinale Camera was first awarded in 1986. Since 2004 the award has been donated by the jeweller Georg Hornemann from Düsseldorf.

Katrin Sass
Born in 1956 in Schwerin, Katrin Sass was one of the most popular and important performers in the former GDR and played in numerous noteworthy DEFA films. Her very first performance in a film was in the marital drama Bis dass der Tod Euch scheidet (Until Death Do Us Part), directed by Heiner Carow in 1979, which saw her immediate success and her soon rise to one of the most sought after character actors.

Many of her films have screened in the Berlinale Competition, including Roland Gräf’s Fallada – letztes Kapitel (Fallada – The Last Chapter, 1987) and Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye, Lenin! (2002).

In the year 1982 Katrin Sass was awarded the Silver Bear as Best Actress for her role in the film Bürgschaft für ein Jahr (1981) by Herrmann Zschosche.