RICH BROTHER

Documentary D 2009 (95 min./58 min.)
Director: Insa Onken
Production:Twenty-Twenty Vision - Thanassis Karathanos
World Sales: Rise and Shine World Sales UG

Ben, a young Cameroonian, is sent to Germany by his family to bring back money and wealth to his home village. Torn between his wish to rise up to his family's expectations and the few opportunities he has, he cleaves through Berlin's shady boxing business, dreaming of rejoining his family as a world champion one day. He relentlessly tries neither to lose his family's respect nor his own dignity, while being spurned in the real and dirty world of boxing. The pressure is high on him when after years he returns for a visit to his family. Eventually, the big showdown is not the world championship fight but the family tribunal in Cameroon. A film that shows a migrant not as a victim of political circumstances but as an individual with his own story, challenging deep-seated prejudices about foreigners on both sides.

FESTIVALS
DOKLeipzig (Wettbewerb)/D, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Images of the 21st Century (Wettbewerb)/G, Novi Sad Cinema City/SRB, Festival Noveau Cinéma Montréal/CDN, Reykjavik IFF/IS, New York Festival International Television & Film 2010/USA, Achtung Berlin Filmfestival 2010/D

AWARDS
Golden Dove (DOKLeipzig)/D, Special Jury Award "Bester Dokumentarfilm" (Achtung Berlin)/D