GOETHE FILMS @ TIFF Lightbox is looking at love from all sides with five recent young films on 7+9+14 March 2023. $10 tickets on sale now. In Nico, the self-confident German-Persian nurse Nico enjoys the Berlin summer with her best friend Rosa until a racist attack suddenly tears her out of her carefree life.
When Nico eventually meets the Macedonian woman Ronny, a
connection develops between the two that causes Nico to question
the path she has chosen.
Meet the creative team:
producer, screenwriter and lead actor as Nico, Sara Fazilat
After graduating from high school in Bremen, Germany, Sara attended RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 2012 Sara moved back to Germany to study film production at the DFFB in Berlin and at Columbia University in New York. In 2015, her co-written film Not Too Early, Not Too Late (co-screenwriter) premiered at Cannes. At the 64th San Sebastian International Film Festival, Sara was a member of the student jury for the category International Film. In 2017 she was selected for the Berlinale Talents. In 2018, Sara was selected for the VGF International Producers Programme in Cannes. The film Revolvo, which she produced, won various prizes in 2020 and was invited to Cannes by German Films. Her film Jiyan won, among other international awards, at the Max Ophüls Festival 2020. The same year, she founded the production company THIRD CULTURE KIDS. Nico is Sara's graduation film at the DFFB, which premiered at the Max Ophüls Film Festival 2021, where Sara received the award for Best Young Actress. Later that year, she received the First Steps No Fear as a producer.
director and screenwriter ELINE GEHRING
Born in Haan, Germany, in 1984, Eline Gehring began her career in 2006 as a camerawoman and editor for German news in Paris, Prague, Kiev and Berlin. She shot a documentary in St Petersburg and worked for Deutsche Welle in Cairo. Her career also took her to South Africa, where she shot a series of short films, documentaries and social spots. In 2013, she began to study directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. In 2016, she co-directed the documentary Helmut Berger, My Mother and Me while developing her feature film debut Nico.
cinematographer and screenwriter FRANCY FABRITZ
Francy Fabritz is a Berlin-based cinematographer and director. Her films deal with queer-feminist topics told in a humorous way. Her latest works as a director are the short films Etage X (2016) and Revolvo (2019). Both premiered at Hof International Film Festival and were selected for the Cannes presentation of Short Tiger Next Generation by German Films. Etage X celebrated its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. Ever since the film has been invited to over 120 film festivals
worldwide and won several awards. In 2021 she was selected for Berlinale Talents. Nico is her first feature film as a cinematographer and coscreenwriter. Her latest work as cinematographer is the innovative queer talk show Tomorrow TV.
Francy is currently working on her graduation feature film screenplay.
image: Darling Berlin/UCM.one