A lot has been said about Berlin writer-director Helene Hegemann of Sundance hit AXOLOTL OVERKILL (
trailer). If you want to get to know the current TIFF filmmaker-in-residence better, Germany's WIRED magazine asked her to introduce herself based on her current data.
Your last five web searches:
1. “Luca Guadagnino”
2. “holistic dentistry berlin”
3. “what to do about a crooked jaw?”
4. “gibraltar news”
5. “homunculus, goethe, genetic engineering” (a little out of the ordinary).
Your most active chat right now:
With Jasna Fritzi Bauer, the lead in AXOLOTL OVERKILL.
The last thing you purchased online:
A grey t-shirt from a skateboard vendor. It didn’t suit me. Rather than send it back, I cut off the sleeves. Still looks stupid. If anyone wants it, get in touch!
An algorithm that recommended something to you that was completely wrong:
For weeks on Facebook I was getting ads about bridal apparel and prostate cancer at the same time. I still can’t explain it. At the moment, they are going over the top advertising for Levis – probably because I googled how to bleach jeans the day before yesterday.
The three songs you’ve streamed most often over recent weeks:
“Take It Easy My Brother Charles” by Jorge Ben, “Rot” by Yung Hurn and “U” by Kendrick Lamar.
The app that one wouldn’t expect to find on your phone:
The German Roadside Assistance hiking tour scanner.
courtesy WIRED Germany 2017
Mifti (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) is 16, looks like 12, behaves as if she was in her mid-30s. Since her mother's death, she has been living with her half-siblings in a Berlin flat share. Her father considers terrorism to be a contemporary profession and is more interested in art than people; going to school in this setting makes less sense than spending one's time between parties, drugs, affairs and kitchen table politics. She is wild, sad, rational and in love. However, the adults she comes across are just one thing: desperate -- either because the world will soon come to an end or because they don't know what to wear. So, Mifti has to become an adult herself, one way or another.
Helene Hegemann’s debut film AXOLOTL OVERKILL, based on her novel AXOLOTL ROADKILL, is currently in German cinemas. "What is AXOLOTL OVERKILL? A disaster or a challenge? Perhaps even a small cinematic wonder following in the footsteps of TONI ERDMANN & WILD?" asked German film mag Film-Dienst recently. 25-year-old writer-director-actress Helene Hegemann was chosen to be in the Sundance World Dramatic Competition with AXOLOTL OVERKILL earlier this year (the second female German director in a row --after Nicolette Krebitz with WILD).
image: AXOLOTL OVERKILL poster (Match Factory)
