Rote Sterne überm Feld (film)

Rote Sterne überm Feld is a yet unreleased film, in which Till Lindemann is playing the role of the Erlkönig.

Information

• Summary of the movie:

Germany in spring - and Tine (Hannah Ehrlichmann) has to go into hiding. Because her political group's latest protest action could be categorised as an act of terrorism. Without further ado, she returns to her home village of Bad Kleinen and takes up residence on the dilapidated farm of her reclusive father Uwe (Hermann Beyer). But the peace and quiet in the East German province comes to an abrupt end when a well-preserved skeleton is pulled out of the bog right on Tine's doorstep. The whole village is in turmoil: who sank here and when - and why?
The unsolved disappearances of the last 100 years are reopened, fuelling the rumour mill. And all the threads miraculously come together at Tine's father's house. Without further ado, she starts her own investigations and delves into the deep layers of the village's collective memory. What begins out of pure curiosity slowly takes hold of her and suddenly Tine finds herself confronted with her own history.

• The movie was shown for the first time at the Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis on 21 January 2025, where it won the prize for the best movie.
• In an interview director Laura Laabs was asked about Till's appearance in the movie:

Till Lindemann appears as the Erlkönig. How did this come about?
He grew up in this area and I assume it is also close to his heart. He and Rammstein, one of the biggest East German success stories ever, play an important role for many local people. I was also artistically interested in how Rammstein have always managed to show the Germans their own abysses. That's why casting Lindemann as the character of the Erlkönig, who stands for the unprocessed, unhealed and monstrous in the film, seemed logical to me. Filming was completed in the winter of 2022. Then came the accusations. Of course, we thought about how to deal with them for a very long time. Ultimately, however, it seems to me that it is more productive not to eliminate irritations, questions and pain points and thus avoid the debate. I prefer to expose them and put them up for discussion. My film attempts in various ways to reveal the structures, layers and abysses that underlie our society and cause suffering. It is not least a film about history and coming to terms with it. I believe that a film like this must also stand by its process and not clit its own history.