“Call of the Toad“ is a serene, melancholy love story between a German man and a Polish woman, a tale which portrays the advent of modern capitalism in Poland with biting satire. The film is based on the outstanding novel of the same name by Günter Grass, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In 1989, while visiting Danzig, the city where he grew up, art historian Alexander Reschke meets the vivacious Polish art restorer Aleksandra Piatowska. He is a widower, she is a widow, and like him she has been driven out of her homeland; she originally comes from Vilna in Lithuania. Over dinner together one evening they have a brainwave: how would it be if they founded a charitable trust which allowed exiled people to be buried in the countries they came from? A few months later the idea has been put into action, and the two of them are a couple. They have launched a joint foundation with Polish and German board members. When the first burial takes place at the Danzig Reconciliation Cemetery, Aleksandra and Alexander are so moved that they have tears in their eyes. However, there is one problem: the Russians in Vilna have not yet reacted positively to the idea. On top of which, before too long the Reconciliation Cemetery is being marketed on an increasingly commercial basis, while the basic idea that Aleksandra and Alexander have always cherished - a reconciliation of the people involved - is pushed into the background. The power of capitalism is stronger, and hard currency vanquishes the purely idealistic concept.
Matthias Habich, Krystyna Janda, Dorothea Walda, Bhasker Patel, Mareike Carrière, Zbigniew Zarmachowski, Joachim Król, Udo Samel
Regie
Robert Glinski
Drehbuch
Klaus Richter, Cezary Harasimowicz, Pawel Huelle
Kamera
Jacek Petrycki
Schnitt
Krysztof Szeptmanski
Ton
Gregor Voigt
Szenenbild
Jochen Schumacher, Robert Czesak
Licht
Jacek Kurowski
ProducerIn
Ursula Vossen
ProduzentIn
Regina Ziegler, Henryk Romanowski, Filmcontract Ltd.
Redaktion
Renate Michel, Degeto