Filmmaker Markus Weinberg was once a professional cyclist. He remains very fit. If he wasn’t in such good trim himself, it’s hard to see how he could possibly have made his new film, Jonas Deichmann – The Limit Is Just Me, which has been screening this week in DOK.fest Munich.
Deichmann is the extreme athlete’s extreme athlete. He holds multiple world records for his feats. Weinberg follows him as, during the pandemic, he travels thousands of miles around the world, swimming, cycling and running. His epic journey takes him through Turkey, Croatia, Romania, pre-war Ukraine and Russia, eventually to Mexico and then back to Portugal and home to Germany. The documentary, produced by Ravir Film, is sold by Berlin-based Rise And Shine World Sales.
As a child, the Dresden-born director Weinberg was often taken mountain and rock climbing by his parents. He was an adventurer. Cycling was his passion. When he was 19, he had an accident which seemed to have put paid to his sports career. Instead, he hitchhiked through Africa for a year. However, when he returned to Germany, his old coach called him and gave him the chance to get back in the saddle. He then managed to race at a high level. That experience gave him an understanding of Deichmann – and enabled him to keep up with his subject. He cycled for 7000km alongside Deichmann while making the documentary.
“I still can go with him. I am still in shape enough to do it…and for me it is also a big adventure,” he tells BDE.
The idea from the outset was to stay close to his subject and to try to understand what Deichmann was feeling as he pushed his body to extremes.
“Of course, I am looking for stories about people who impress me. It [the documentary] was not only about cycling and doing a triathlon around the world. It was also a story about Jonas’s lifestyle,” Weinberg explains. “Since he was 17, he lived alone when his parents were divorced. When he was 19, he started travelling around the world…he never had a home any more. He went his own way.”
Weinberg recognised Deichmann as a kindred spirit – a maverick doing what he loved and making a living from it. They had first met at a bike fair in Germany. He had been told by a friend that the extreme athlete was “a really cool guy; he loves adventure like you. He is a little bit crazy like you.”
When they spoke together, the filmmaker and the athlete struck up an immediate rapport. Deichmann confided in Weinberg about a project he was hatching, to go around the world. The filmmaker in turn told his producers about the trip and asked if they might be interested in making the documentary. They only had four months before Deichmann was due to set off.
Covid intervened. The trip had been due to start in March 2020, but once the pandemic hit was postponed until later in the year. That gave the filmmakers more time to raise money but it caused problems too. Borders were sometimes closed. Early in his journey, Deichmann was stranded in Turkey, unable to continue with his journey because of the Covid restrictions. Weinberg had planned to be with him “one or two weeks every month” throughout the trip.
Alongside the footage of the trip, Weinberg also includes interviews with Jonas’ family.
One way the director financed the film was to sell clips, video diaries, photographs and stories, to media during the trip. There was also sponsorship support from the cycling world.
Although Weinberg was an accomplished cyclist, he couldn’t help but slow Deichmann down. It took him time to use his equipment and unpack the drone which he used to shoot certain parts of the journey.
On the solo parts of th
e trip, Deichmann filmed himself with a GoPro.
The director speaks in admiration of Deichmann’s resilience. “He never sees problems. He is really such a positive guy…everything is positive, also in the moments when it is bad.” Whether he was stuck in a rainstorm or had trouble with his bike, or visas hadn’t come through or he had fallen dangerously behind schedule, the athlete would never become downhearted. If jellyfish stung his face while he was swimming, he just shrugged it off. He’d always find some reason for optimism.
Ride And Shine will be releasing the film in Germany this month. Weinberg, who works as an editor and video journalist as well as directing documentaries, already has several new projects on the boil including another film with Deichmann. He makes this one seem like a bit of light relief after the epic adventure of their previous film together. They’re going to go to Alaska for a few weeks together next winter. It may be cold and it may be far away but, compared to the film they’ve just done together, it promises to be a bit of a cake walk.
