Teststand 7
(2002)
Starring Inga Busch, Matthias Fuchs, Peter Lohmeyer, Mario Mentrup,
Robert Forster, Helmut Höge, Stefan Heidenreich, and others.

On October 3, 1942 the first rocket took off into space. The Germans had no idea that they had launched the birth of a ghost. It is called Bianca and she is the ghost of the rocket. In search of her origins, Bianca travels all over Germany and through time – from the cradle of space travel in Peenemünde to her planned future in Bremen. Tracing Bianca’s path, the film presents a character study of the rocket.

As the film proceeds, documentary merges with fiction, essential facts are mixed with minor trivia, earnest themes mingle with the comic, technology rubs shoulders with literature. The film is aimed at the heart of our fascination with modern technology, for which the rocket stands as its towering emblem. For Prüfstand 7 the US cultauthor Thomas Pynchon has for the first time given permission for a partial filming of his rocket novel Gravity’s Rainbow.

Writer, Director: Robert Bramkamp
Writers-Support: Andreas Goldstein, Ute Hirschberg, Anja Neraal, Olga Fedianina
Camera: Jakobine Motz
Sound: Robert Gräf, Hubertus Müll
Editing: Anja Neraal
Production manager: Andreas Goldstein
Set director: Ernst Sprenger, Hans Jörg Kapp
Soundtrack: Max Knoth, Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg unter der Leitung von Bernd Wefelmeyer
Theme song: Robert Forster
Starring: Inga Busch, Matthias Fuchs, Peter Lohmeyer, Mario Mentrup, Robert Forster, Helmut Höge, Stefan Heidenreich, Hanjo Berressem, Jeff Caster, Christin König, Jörg Kulbe, Gerhard Motz, Hubertus Müll. Michael Röhrenbach
Production: Next Film Filmproduction (Laurens Straub, Clementina Hegewisch), Robert Bramkamp, VCC Perfect Pictures AG (Michael Goritschnig)
Format: 35 mm, Farbe
Length: 112 Minuten
Sound: Dolby SR
In Cooperation with: HFF "Konrad Wolf"
In Coproduction with: 3-sat Redaktion Udo Bremer
Funding: State Media Authority of Bremen, Filmoffice Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, MDM Film comisson, Filmfunding Hamburg
Premiere: 35. Hofer Filmtage, 5. Duisburger Filmwoche,
1. Internationales Frankfurter Filmfest

Distribution:
Salzgeber & Co. Medien GmbH

On DVD out now