Man hängt halt so an dem,
was man hat
('Well, you are so attached
to what you have, after all')
Letters to Jörg Fauser's parents
So many stories abound about the author Jörg Fauser's short but eventful life that you simply don't know where to start. What is remarkable, however, is that he, of all people, who was considered an outsider and a rebel, had such a close relationship with his parents. He shared all of his highs and lows with his parents – his father was a painter, his mother an actor – in letters. The only thing he held back on is the drugs.
Over thirty years, he regularly told especially his father about everything that was happening in his private and professional life, and did not withhold his opinions on art, artists and politics, either. Fauser knew right from the start what it means to eke out a living in reduced circumstances; it is the subtext and motto of all of his stories.
Jörg Fauser is one of the league of geniuses of German literature who died young. He was only in his early forties when he lost his life in a car crash in 1987. His style was influenced by 'cool' American authors such as Chandler or Bukowski and the German writer Hans Fallada. He was an author who courageously dived into the murkier sides of life and lived like a rock musician, in some ways. His novels, poems, features and stories are remarkably unique in German literature. The myth lives on and sometimes, the myth threatens to overshadow his works. Fauser – cowboy, fighter, junkie, drinker, lonely death on the motorway – sure. Nothing is sure. Read the books!
After studying drama at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art in Berlin, Charly Hübner performed at the Schaubühne Berlin, at the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt am Main, at the Theater am Turm Frankfurt, at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, at the Schauspiel Koeln and, most recently, at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In over 20 years, he has appeared in more than 100 movie and TV productions. He has won the prestigious Goldene Kamera film and television award, the Bayerischer Fernsehpreis television award, the Grimme-Preis television award, the Deutscher Fernsehpreis German television award and the Ernst-Lubitsch-Preis award for the best comedy performance in a German movie, and has also been awarded the Gertrude-Eysoldt-Ring prize. His first project as a director was the TV channel ARD documentary 16 x Deutschland – Mecklenburg/Vorpommern. His cinema documentary Wildes Herz about the band Feine Sahne Fischfilet has won numerous prizes, such as the Goethe-Institut's documentary film award at the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, the award for the best film at the Bolzano Film Festival Bozen and the DEFA-Förderpreis at the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. His successful documentary film Element of Crime – Wenn es dunkel und kalt wird in Berlin will be screened in Neuhardenberg on 16 November.
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