The Veteran Dramedy | 30min | Drama / Comedy | 2022 |  Germany/Ukraine
Director: Rainer Ludwigs

After fighting in the Donbas, Bogdan, a young Ukrainian, visits his mother in Germany. Here, he finds unexpected opportunities: university, a new job, an old new love. He would love to stay. But he struggles with German bureaucracy and his trauma of war. So will he return to his comrades at the front?

 

About the Director

After completing his degree in Graphic Design at the college of Arts in Bremen/ Germany in 1992 with the emphasis on animation and cartoon films, Rainer Ludwigs created television spots at the Grey Global international advertising agency in Düsseldorf. From 1995, he has worked as an independent director and producer in the field of image and company films as well as documentaries. In recent years, he has produced several narrative animated sequences for TV documentaries. THE VETERAN DRAMEDY is his short narrative film debut.

Director’s Statement

In 2014, the people of Ukraine opted for Europe. To this day, they pay for this with a simmering war in the Donbas and the threat of a Russian invasion. Around 14,000 people have already lost their lives in the process. After their frontline service, veterans find it hard to return to everyday normality. Even more so, if, like Bogdan, they find themselves confronted with the intact world in Germany, where the war, only about 2000 km to the East, has hardly registered in people’s minds. Like so many other migrants, Bogdan is mercilessly confronted with the reality of German bureaucracy and continues to be influenced by his wartime trauma.
The film addresses these problems now confronting a whole generation of Europeans and those want to become Europeans, in a dramatic, sad, thrilling, emotional and humorous manner.

the veteran dramedy veterans film festival 2022