German basketball junkies will have an extra avenue to get the kick of the hardwood as the documentary film “Phoenix in der Asche” will enter German theaters starting on November 10, 2011.
The film – titled “No Ashes – No Phoenix” in English and made by Jens Pfeifer – brings filmgoers on an 88-minute odyssey during the German club Phoenix Hagen’s promotion season 2009-10 in the German BBL league, which ended in a relegation battle to stay in the top flight.
“Phoenix in der Asche” offers a unique glimpse of the everyday on-goings at a professional basketball club in Germany – with everything that includes from hope to doubt, praise to criticism, frustration to happiness, conflict to togetherness, drama to suspense and top level sports.
The film premiered at the 2011 Munich Film Festival on June 29, 2011 in German and was shown on July 1 in English.
The film – released by the Cologne-based film distributors Real Fiction Filmverleih – will have its big screen premiere in Pfeifer’s home town Hagen on November 8. Further dates and locations for the showing of the film will be available on the website www.phoenixinderasche.de.
Pfeifer told heinnews that he plans on sending the film to festivals abroad but there are no plans yet to have the film shown in theatres outside of Germany or the rights sold to a foreign film distributor. He does, however, hope the film can be shown in small art cinemas in the United States.
Here is a full review of the film.
And here is the trailer – in German