October 11 2006
A Summer Fairy Tale: German film to benefit 6 villages for 2006!
10/10/2006 - Sönke Wortmann's motion picture Germany: A Summer Fairy Tale, which chronicles the German national football team's adventures in the 2006 FIFA World Cup™, opened last weekend in theatres around Germany. Proceeds from the documentary will be donated to SOS Children's Villages' 6 villages for 2006 campaign.
6 villages for 2006 was a joint campaign between FIFA and SOS Children's Villages to raise funds for the construction and five-year operation of six new SOS Children's Villages, one each in Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, the Ukraine and Vietnam. The campaign lasted two and one-half years, culminating with the 2006 FIFA World Cup™.
During the games, German director Sönke Wortmann was given unprecedented access from FIFA and the German football association to film the German national team at meetings, training sessions, bus rides, in hotels and on the football pitch. More than one million people have seen the film so far.
Georg Willeit, Executive Director of the German SOS Children's Village association, remarked, "For 800 orphaned or abandoned children, this film helped make another fairy tale come true: the dream of a new family and a home in one of the six new children's villages."
Michael Kölmel, founder of film distributor Cinema World, presented a cheque for more than 100,000 Euros to Georg Willeit on behalf of the film's producers, and said the donation was an "advance", and he was certain that a significantly larger amount would be donated in the weeks ahead. German television station WDR co-produced the film, and together with Cinema World, will donate part of the proceeds from ticket sales, DVD sales and the film's soundtrack to SOS Children's Villages.
Wortmann worked on this project free-of-charge, which was his unique and very special contribution to SOS Children's Villages.