If 2016 was the year for female German directors --Ade, Schanelec, von Trotta et al.--, 2017 is back with the established male stars (for now).
The first exciting prospect: Fatih Akin’s new film IN THE FADE, with Diane Kruger in lead, is rumoured for a Cannes premiere.
For the German actress, who is used to starring in international productions in English and French, from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS to TROY to SKY, it is the first feature film in her native tongue. In Akin’s political thriller, Katja loses her husband and son in a bomb attack. Feeling devastated and alone, she somehow gets through the funeral and formalities as well as the search for the assassins. The court proceedings against the two neo-Nazi suspects become essential to her survival.
But as more and more details about her husband’s criminal past are revealed and Katja is found under the influence of drugs, the situation becomes less and less clear. Siir Eloglu, who you might know from ALMANYA: WELCOME TO GERMANY (which we showed you in 2011 at the EUFFTO, and which won its Audience Award) is also part of the cast.
Akin will move right into his next project, a literary adaptation of Heinz Strunk's real crime thriller "The Golden Glove", based on police reports and Strunk's insider knowledge of an infamous episode in Hamburg's seedy club scene. The story investigates notorious killer Fritz Honka, who was imprisoned in 1976 after killing four women he met in Hamburg's bars. Shooting starts this fall.
3x WW.
Wim Wenders had to renege on his 3D convictions with his new film SUBMERGENCE, as the US producers didn’t think the film was a good fit for the 3D market, the cinematographer revealed. Based on the bestseller by J.M. Ledgard, the film version stars James McAvoy and Alicia Vikander. Not ready for this year’s Berlinale,
it also is rumoured to debut at Cannes (or Wenders' favourite Venice). The romantic thriller is the story of water engineer James More and bio mathematician Danielle Flinders. They meet and fall in love on the French Atlantic coast, where both are preparing for their dangerous missions. A few weeks later, James is taken hostage by Jihadist fighters in Somalia. Thousands of miles away on the Greenland Sea, Danielle is about to descend to the ocean floor, not knowing if the love of her life is still alive.
Will Wenders also finally return to Japan to finish a literary Adaptation he has been associated for nearly a decade? Ryû Murakami’s thriller THE MISO SOUP is set in Tokyo, where a young Japanese guide unknowingly shows a serial killer around the city. Wenders is also said to be in development for REBEL IN PARADISE about the life and times of Dennis Hopper and his long-time buddy Satya.
After a mixed reception of his latest film RETURN TO MONTAUK at the Berlinale earlier this year,
Volker Schlöndorff is about to finish shooting his next project: DAY WITHOUT A NAME is the screen adaptation of Friedrich Ani’s eponymous novel. Seven years after the suicide of a 17-year-old girl, Chief Inspector Franck, who then delivered the sad news, is asked to reinvestigate the case. Thomas Thieme (THE LIFES OF OTHERS) is leading the cast, Devid Striesow (YELLA) plays the girl’s father.
What attracted Schlöndorff to the adaptation: "Fantastic material: skeletons in the closet, a child strung from a tree, an eerily harrowing family story."
Yet another Berlinale participant is keeping busy. Arthouse crime specialist Dominik Graf (who did not deliver his best with made-for-TV drama AM ABEND ALLER TAGE at the Hof Film Festival last fall) is in Berlin shooting the sci-fi thriller GOLEM: THE RETURN, starring Bruno Ganz (DOWNFALL), Max Riemelt (THE WAVE), Hannelore Elsner (CHERRY BLOSSOMS) and Hannah Herzsprung (THE READER). It is a remake of the famous 1920 silent and a reinterpretation of the mystical Jewish story of the Golem, a clay giant created by a rabbi in 16th-century Prague. Using sorcery, he brings the creature to life in order to protect the Jews from persecution.
Next up: Henckel von Donnersmarck, Schwochow, Köhler, Petzold.
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
image: promo Image Akin, Kruger, Acar 2016 courtesy Bombero International/Warner Bros Entertainment/Boris Laewen
