ZWEI HERREN IM ANZUG

Bavaria, summer 1984. It is the day of mother’s funeral. The funeral reception is over, the guests have left. An embittered father and his estranged son are staying behind. The two aren’t particularly close, actually they never have been. Still the father decides that it’s time to tell his son the whole story – all of the memories, all of the experiences, his entire life. The son responds with his own version of the events and together they bring their individual and shared moments back to life.

Josef Bierbichler’s adaptation of his novel inspired by his own family history portrays around 100 years of cross-generational German history. The representation of the generation of two wars, which had been kept from pursuing their dreams due to external circumstances, forms the central pillar of the film. From the revolution against the king, the rise of the Nazis and capitalism, to the protagonist’s personal experiences with the Catholic Church, abuse, refugees and economic miracles, TWO MEN IN SUITS tells a very personal story within a universal historical context.

Director

JOSEF BIERBICHLER was born in 1948. He graduated from the Otto Falckenberg Drama School in Munich. When Bierbichler met the director Herbert Achternbusch in the mid-70s, the two formed a creative alliance and worked together on the films THE ATLANTIC SWIMMERS (1975), BEER CHASE (1977) and BYE-BYE BAVARIA (1977). In 1987 he made his script writing and directorial debut with TRIUMPH OF THE JUST, after a story by Oskar Maria Graf. Furthermore he worked with directors such as Werner Herzog, Michael Haneke, Jan Schütte and Tom Tykwer. Bierbichler is successful both in film and on stage. He was awarded Actor of the Year multiple times by the industry magazine Theater heute and was awarded, amongst others, the Gertrude-Eysoldt-Ring. For HIERANKL (2003), directed by Hans Steinbichler, he was nominated as Best Actor at the German Film Awards and won the Adolf-Grimme-Preis in Gold. For his role in WINTERREISE (2006), Bierbichler won the German Film Award for Best Actor in 2007. In 2009 he was nominated as Best Actor at the German Film Awards again for his role in A YEAR AGO IN WINTER by Caroline Link. TWO MEN IN SUITS is his newest directorial work, based on the novel Mittelreich also written by Josef Bierbichler.