Toyland is a German 2007 short film

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 directed, co-written and co-produced by Jochen Alexander Freydank

Jochen Alexander Freydank

Jochen Alexander Freydank is a German film director. He was born in 1967 in East-Berlin. After the fall of the Berlin wall he started his film career as an editor. He then worked as first assistant director for film and TV. Jochen Alexander Freydank wrote screenplays for TV-series and movies. In...

. It won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film

Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film

This name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. For the three preceding years it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films." The term "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects" was used from 1957 until 1970. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate...

.

Cast

• Julia Jäger (Marianne Meissner)
• Cedric Eich (Heinrich Meissner)
• Tamay Bulut Öztavan (David Silberstein)
• Torsten Michaelis (Herr Silberstein)
• Claudia Hübschmann (Frau Silberstein)
• David C. Bunners (SS-Obersturmführer Falke)
• Gregor Weber (SS officer Werner)
• Jürgen Trott (Policeman)
• Klaus-Jürgen Steinmann (Blockwartt)
• Heike W. Reichenwallner (neighbor)Nachbarin
• Matthias Paul (Gestapo officer)

Synopsis

The film is set in Nazi Germany in 1942. An Aryan family, the Meissners, and a Jewish family, the Silbersteins, are neighbors and friends. The respective sons in each family, Heinrich Meissner and David Silberstein, discreetly take piano lessons together. The deportation of the Silbersteins to a concentration camp is imminent, and when Heinrich asks why they may have to go soon, Frau Meissner does not tell Heinrich the truth. She instead invents a story that the Silbersteins will go to a new place called "Toyland". Heinrich says that when the Silbersteins go, he wants to go with them, so that he can still be with his friend David, which terrifies Frau Meissner.

After the Silbersteins are taken away for deportation, Heinrich is found missing from his room one morning. Marianne Meissner begins to search for Heinrich. She encounters ridicule from Gestapo officers after she explains her situation, because they think that she is Jewish. However, after she shows her papers that prove that she is Aryan, they accept her story about Heinrich and assist in searching for him. The search continues until the last moment before the train with the Silbersteins on it must leave.

Production

According to Freydank, it took two years to secure financing for the production, whose costs totaled 30,000€. The actors and production crew initially received no salary. Starting on 22 January 2007, the film was shot in 5 days in and around the Berlin area. Exactly one year later, on 22 January 2008, the film received its German premiere at the Saarbrücken

Saarbrücken

Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....

 "Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis". The nominations of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

of the 2008 short subjects were announced on 22 January 2009, with Spielzeugland on the list. On 22 February 2009, Spielzeugland received its Oscar for Best Short Subject (Live Action).