Goethe Institut Ghana drew a collective of creatives and brilliant minds on Monday, January 13, 2024, to the atrium of the institute for its inaugural event of the year, Artist Talk, featuring Anna Winger and Bilal Qureshi.
The Director of Goethe Institut Ghana, Maximilian Röttger, indicated that the Artist Talk conversation was organized to shed light on the compelling history of Germany, which has been expertly curated by Anna Winger. It also highlighted the role of expats in filmmaking and screenwriting, as well as the significance of the elements involved in creating a cinematic masterpiece.
“I knew Bilal, and he also knew Anna, so he just brought her onboard. Since Anna has lived in Germany for more than 20 years, we thought it best to have her here with us. Putting this together and seeing how well it turned out; as a matter of fact, it exceeded my expectations,” he noted in an engagement with yfmghana.com’s Kobina Baidoo.
The engaging space was moderated by globally recognized radio journalist and culture writer Bilal Qureshi, who explored the multifaceted and dynamic work of Anna Winger through the lens of screenwriting and production.
The award-winning screenwriter shared her experiences, starting with her transition from photography to screenwriting, describing it as a profound period in her life. “I’m a photographer, and I have been into photography for most of my life,” she said.
“It all started for me when I made a trip to Denmark some years ago and discovered this show titled ‘Borgen’ that I grew addicted to. I did not know how to speak Danish and knew nothing about being President of any country, as the show talked about, but I really just admired how I was able to understand all that was happening. I told myself, this is something I would like to do,” Winger shared.
The unwavering passion of the Berlin-based screenwriter and producer birthed television dramas like Deutschland 83, Deutschland 86, Deutschland 89 – a trilogy – and Unorthodox, which gained international acclaim after its release in March 2020 during the pandemic.
However, she pointed out that the bow for making these masterpieces cannot be taken by herself alone, rather together with a group of like-minded individuals who pictured the same goal as she did right from her very first production until now. A notable collaborator she mentioned was her husband, Joerg Winger who is in the same line of work as she is. “I collaborate with my husband. He is my first reader, my editor and has played an impactful role in all you see today.”
“It really involves a lot of people’s jobs and a lot of people’s lives. It takes people who are interested in the same thing as you are. It’s more of a labor of love for everybody, and then from there, you just keep on working with the same people again and again. It’s important to work with other people and other writers; I am interested in healthy debates with writers who also have different skill sets as we work on bringing out the best of that initial idea.”
Anna Winger also shared her experiences as an expat artist, emphasizing her understanding of diverse cultures comes from living in various parts of the world, including Kenya, Germany, and South Africa. She believes strongly in the “specificity of the piece,” which focuses on the intentional introduction of detail and other key elements to enhance originality. “I believe strongly in the specificity of screenwriting. All the projects I’ve made come from the specificity of my research. I just firmly believe that if a story is really specific, it can travel. But I really think it is important to be intentional while you write rather than patching together what you think people want to watch.”
By: Kobina Baidoo
