Since the very beginning, patron Ronald Zehrfeld has supported FILM OHNE GRENZEN with great dedication. He has a very special connection to Bad Saarow.

This year the town is celebrating an extraordinary anniversary. Surrounded by meadows, forests, and fields, Lake Scharmützelsee with its clear water and clean air has been attracting people for more than 100 years. They come to its shores to live, work, spend their leisure time, and relax here.

Among them are a number of prominent artists, scientists, architects, industrialists, and athletes. They all leave their mark and continue to shape the spa town to this day.

By Ronald Zehrfeld

Whenever I am in Bad Saarow, I breathe a sigh of relief. I spent a large part of my childhood here. My holidays. Bad Saarow is home to me. And with that, I associate not only wonderful landscapes, but also a feeling. It is the interpersonal connection, the intense exchange with one another, inspired by the special magic of this place. Above all, at the film festival, which has become an indispensable part of Bad Saarow. And it is precisely this so-called interpersonal connection that I want to „promote.“ In my capacity as the patron of FILM OHNE GRENZEN, but also as a regular guest of the festival. As a visitor, you can „experience“ here what I mean by home.

I experience Bad Saarow as a place of communication and of „encounter.“ It offers a perfect setting to question one's view of tomorrow with the help of the medium of film and to constantly realign it. And that is important. Especially in these times, which in some ways exhibit quite a few parallels to the 1920s—the era when Bad Saarow transitioned from an estate district to a rural municipality. If one thinks of nothing else than the global political situation and inflation.

The extent of our worries is certainly not comparable. We have a developed democracy that can rise to the challenges. Nevertheless, external circumstances can also make us fearful. In this sense, the theme of this year's festival is also so important: confidence.

For me, there is no alternative to confidence! By talking about confidence, we have already understood what confidence is actually all about.

Photo: Boris Trenkel/FILM OHNE GRENZEN