Support for Martina Ebm as a single mother in the ORF/MDR comedy directed by Rupert Henning
Graz (OTS) – Cinema premiere for a selected ORF TV production as part of the Diagonale: Yesterday, on Friday, April 5, 2024, the ORF/MDR comedy “Deep Water Divers Under the Roof” was presented in Graz. In the film directed by Rupert Henning, Martina Ebm (“Vorstadtweiber”, “Alles finster”) shows, as a single mother, that you don’t always have to overcome difficult situations alone. The history of the old tenement house in the Vienna suburbs, in which Annie Breuer, played by Ebm, lives with her two children, is as moving as the fates of its residents. But no matter how different they may be, they have one thing in common: When it comes down to it, they come together and prove that humor can make even dark times easier. Other roles in the film, shot in August and September 2023, included Hanno Koffler, Leopold Pallua, Ariana Stöckle, Marcel Mohab, Safira Robens, Emma Filipović, Neda Rahmanian, Rainer Egger, Skye Macdonald, Benjamin Spindelberger, Olivia Goschler, and Veronika Polly the camera. Rupert Henning is responsible for the direction and script. “Deep Water Divers Under the Roof” is a production commissioned by ORF and MDR made by Gebhardt Productions and WHee Film and is scheduled to be shown on ORF in 2024.
Among the premiere guests were director, screenwriter and producer Rupert Henning, the actors Martina Ebm, Hanno Koffler and Skye MacDonald, the producers Florian Gebhardt, Gregor Schmalix and Isabelle Welter, and the Diagonale directors Claudia Slanar and Dominik Kamalzadeh as well as many others. ORF television film director Katharina Schenk hosted the ORF evening in the Schubert cinema.
ORF television film director Katharina Schenk: “Family history that can hardly be told in a more emotionally intelligent and sensitive way”
“In a time of conflict and division, Rupert Henning has created a deeply humanistic film. The issue of mental health, which affects so many people, is at the center of a family story that can hardly be told in a more emotionally intelligent and sensitive way. ‘Deep water diver under the roof’ takes a look and shows how easy solidarity and mutual support can be. A heartwarming film with a complex female character at the center, who is impressively embodied by Martina Ebm.”
Producer, director and screenwriter Rupert Henning: “Solidarity between people who are very, very different”
“’Deep water divers under the roof’ – these are people who live among other people in a house in a big city and yet sometimes threaten to sink in a sea of smaller and larger everyday worries, problems and hardships. In such situations, an old saying often comes true: ‘You go down by yourself. You can’t always go up on your own.’ It’s very easy to get lost alone in the big ocean. So you need help every now and then. And that’s what our film is about – in the broadest sense, it’s about togetherness, about solidarity between people who are very, very different. This requires a lot of good will – and above all a lot of humor. To paraphrase Werner Finck: ‘If you can laugh when you could have cried, you will feel like living again.'”
More about the content
Annie Breuer (Martina Ebm), a single mother in her mid-30s, lives with her two children Lena (Ariana Stöckle) and Tino (Leopold Pallua) on the top floor of an old apartment building in the suburbs of Vienna. Sometimes she doubts whether she can master the various tasks and hurdles in life. She has better and worse days, sometimes a dark shadow hangs over her mind and the whole world – at least that’s how Annie feels. But when it almost seems as if she can no longer fulfill her duties as a mother, an old saying comes true: To raise a child, or two, you need a village – or in this case, a rental house. With combined forces you can easily overcome the various obstacles that fate has in store for you.
Further information about ORF on the Diagonale is available online at presse.ORF.at.