New Film: German South West Africa (now Namibia)

[Klaus Hoefs]

German South West
is the wicked title of my new film project.

It's the true story of a confectionist and his wife running away from cold Wilhelmshaven to Swakopmund and Windhoek to build a new life for themself with trying to establish a simple chocolate factory with a shop in the 60s/70s.
The situation and the surroundings are full of history (colonial period and first genocide of the century,-renowned historian predicate connections to Ausschwitz...).
Also their project is suffering from the climate - delivery vehicles only arrive with liquid chocolates.
And they are misunderstanding the african culture - there is no appreciation for chocolate Santa Claus.
Finally they managed the cooling issues and the sales problem - curiously enough chocolate Easter Bunnies are selling very well at xMas and Grossadmiral von Dönitz sends a christmas card.
But suddenly Apartheid Era begins, and their factory is bombed.

I think the film will have something about 10-12 minutes.

So here are six screens from the Intro/"cold" Wilhelmshaven:

[VGmaster9]

Definitely has the Ralph Bakshi vibe.

[schwarzgrau]

I can't see that, but maybe cause I never was a big Ralph Bakshi fan, but I really like Klaus loose drawings. But maybe exactly this looseness is the similarity.

[Klaus Hoefs]

I am not such a Ralph Bakshi -fan.
Influences are from art (Kentridge, Constable, Julião Sarmento) and from comic/cartoon (Sempé, Loustal) - and Paul

Here are screens fro Chapter #2, in which the young confectioner tries to set up his own small chocolates-manufactory in a backyard nearby centre of Windhoek. He is together with his young wife, Helga. driving in the Beetle to their place.

[Benjamin Cerbai]

Hello Klaus,

I really like your drawings ! When will the film be available to watch ?

Can I save some of your drawings made in TVPaint for us to share on the TVPaint Développement Facebook page ?
If you can upload one or two "drawings into the software interface" it would be great.

[Klaus Hoefs]

Hi Benjamin,
thank you !

Anyway I think it will take 1 year for this project. I have a storyboard (which I don't follow too much) the film will have 4 chapters. Five minutes (intro and chapter one) are almost finished so far.

I'll send a pm to you with a Dropbox-Link for downloading screenshots.