German Short Film Award

Jury statement: "... The film's rhythm is as complex as the historical events and mythical narratives that intertwine within it. It gives us space to read the landscape, records the vibrations on its surface, glides searchingly along the horizon, scans the sky, and suddenly dives into the depths of a lake. It seems as if the film is attempting, through these movements, to trace the extent and gravity of a history of repression, expulsion, and genocide that continues to reverberate in this place to this day, thereby hinting at what transcends the limits of comprehension. In the filmmaker's fictional dialogue with this landscape, it becomes clear that her search for the legendary monster of a mythical past always leads back to politics: to the powerful who need antagonists in order to be heroes themselves, to the confidants who refuse to call a spade a spade, to the victims who do not want to become perpetrators themselves. Through detours that take us far back into the past, this film tells of our present and how it extends into the future."

"All hatches closed. Between escape and refuge, Fire Drill tells a story that is as fragile as it is moving, about the trials of growing up and the search for hope. Director and writer Maximilian Villwock has deeply immersed himself in the world from which he draws his stories. In the apparent lightness of his precise observations, we sense the months of intensive research into the milieu of life at sea. Over 156 days, a profoundly human narrative unfolds, where fiction becomes truth and the life stories of the people on board are transformed into a distilled reality. The visual language of Marco Müller and the extraordinary score turn the raw impressions of everyday life on a container ship into impressionistic inner images that deeply move their audience. Fire Drill is not a radical film, but a quiet, lyrical work full of hope. It draws from reality the poetic power of cinema."