Rabbit A La Berlin

Rabbit a la Berlin
Bartek Konopka
Poland/Germany, 2009, 39'

Language: German, Polish

WEBSITE
www.deckert-distribution.com/films/deckert_269

AWARDS and FESTIVALS
Award for Best Mid-Length Doc, Hot Docs Toronto, 2009
Magic Hour Award for Best Mid-Length Film, Planete Doc Review Warsaw, 2009
Nominated for an Oscar in the Category of Short Docs, 2009
Golden Hobby-Horse in National Competition / Bronislaw Chromy Sculpture for Best Producer of Polish Short and Documentary Films, Cracow International Film Festival, 2009

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
"This documentary is a fascinating history lesson told through the eyes of animals." ~ Bartek Konopka

SYNOPSIS
It's an important lesson of history that a system of order intended to produce one result will often give birth to something entirely unexpected. So it was with the Berlin Wall, which was, in fact, two separate walls, one on the east and one on the west with a 120-kilometre strip of land between them. The enclosed patch was unintentionally converted into a kind of rabbit reserve as the walls encircled the lush green meadows of Potsdamer Platz and cut its rabbit population off from both escape and predators. But then one day the walls came down and the rabbits were suddenly freed from their restrictive system, albeit one which they had become accustomed to. Told in the style of a nature documentary, with a captivatingly dreamy tone and a tongue-in-cheek nod to the story's allegorical significance, Rabbit à la Berlin provides a fascinating history lesson told through the eyes of animals.