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The Ecstatic
Germany, 29'51min, 2005

Director: Till Passow

Script: Till Passow
Cinematography: Lars Lenski
Sound: Roman Strack, Ulrich Breimesser
Editing: Sudip Chattopadhyaya
Music: Arib Khan a. m. m.
Production: Imram Qureshi, Jan Phillip Lange
Produced by: University for Film and Television (HFF) Potsdam-Babelsberg, Gop03, Till Passow
Executive Producer: Holger Lochau, HFF Potsdam-Babelsberg
Supported by: Heinrich Boell Foundation

Synopsis: According to the belief of ‘Sufis’, the mystical Islamic, ‘Mast’ is someone who walks the road of love to reach his beloved Saint, one who is in a state of ecstasy, absorbed in an inner rhythm of meditation and trance in his search for spiritual love. ‘Mast Qalandar’ was a Sufi Saint, who settled down in Sehwan Sharif in the south of Pakistan at the beginning of the 13th century to spread his preaching of love, tolerance and ecstasy. Soon he became one of the most legendary mystical Islamic Saints of the Orient. Those who are in extreme love with the Saint wish nothing but meeting Him in an obliteration of the conscious self and even give up their own existence to reach the Saint. During the annual celebration of reunion of the Saint with Allah, around one million devotees, from all over Pakistan, India and Afghanistan pilgrim to his Shrine at Sehwan Sharif in search of individual and collective ecstasy. The film “Mast Qalandar” (“The Ecstatic”) experiences the traditional socio - cultural spirit of the ancient mystic Islamic way of life, far removed from fundamental tendencies, through portrayal of this gigantic and magical festival of faith and love.

Till Passow
Born in Munich in 1968

Educated Rudolf-Steiner-Schule Munich
1988 - 90 Trainee in the props department of the Frankfurt/Main City Theatres
1992 - 94 TV-ads copywriter at Hirche Kommunikation Frankfurt/Main
1993 Assistant Director of Prof. Hans Joachim Berndt at Filmhaus Munich
1996 Assistant and trainee interviewer on the Steven Spielberg project "Survivors of the Shoah"
1996 - 2004 Study on the film and television directing course at the HFF "Konrad Wolf" Potsdam-Babelsberg (Diploma)
2000 - 2001 Shoot and post-product of the Documentary Film „Howrah Howrah“ in Calcutta. Grant sponsored by the Goethe Institute (German Festival in India, 2000/2001) and by DAAD
2002- 2003 Assistant director of Florian Gallenberger in the Helmut Dietl production „Shadows of Time“ in Calcutta
2003 Shooting of the Short Documentary Film "Mast Qalander" in Sehwan Sharif, Pakistan
2004-2005 Project coordinator of "HFF goes Calcutta", in Co production with arte and the Goethe-Institute. Entailed with the lectureship ("Introduction in Indian Film culture") at the HFF

Filmography (Selection):

MY FATHER MRS. HILLER (1998, 16mm, colour, 32')

BOY RACER (1999, 35mm, colour, 45'')
- 1. Prize (KURZ & SCHON 99, Cologne intern. Short Film Competition for Film Students)

ADI AND THE REST (1999, 16mm, colour, 58')

HOWRAH HOWRAH (2001, 35mm, 1:1,85, colour, 26‘, Dolby SR)
- Best Documentary & Best Editing (IX. Chilean International Festival of Short Films 2001 in Santiago de Chile)
- Nomination & Special Mention (Fipresci) (14. IDFA, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2001, Netherlands)
- Best National Short Film (14. Filmfest Dresden, International Festival for Animations- und Short Film 2002, Dresden, Germany)
- 1. Price (The Strange and the Other, Short Film Festival BestBefore2002, Hildesheim)
- Best Short Documentary (Woodstock Film Festival 2002, USA)
- Best Documentary (Interfilm 2002, 18. International Short Film Festival, Berlin)
- Best Documentary + Special Nomination: Best Cinematography (3rd Sleepwalkers Student Film Festival (SSFF) 2002, Tallinn, Estonia)
- Jury Special Mention (12th DaKINO International Film Festival 2002, Bucharest, Romania)
- Le prix de la meilleure Image (Festival du Film Universitaire 2002, Beirut, Lebanon)
- 1. Price (21st International Amateur Film Festival Kelibia, 2003, International Film School Competition, Tunisia)
- Le Grand Prix Cinerail 2003 + Prix du Public (Cinerail 12th Festival Trains on Films 2003, Lille, France)

LARRY WILD MAN FISCHER (2002, DV, colour, 20‘) (arte/ORB)

MAST QALANDER (2005, 35mm, 1:1,66, colour, 30’ Dolby Digital, engl. ST)

Golden Gate Award
- Best International Short Documentary (48th San Francisco International Film Festival 2005, San Francisco, USA)

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