Her coming-of-age drama PRÉLUDE tells the story of the young piano student David who enthusiastically rushes into the world of music and his first true love. However, he increasingly loses control over his life as he succumbs to growing pressure. The
portrait of an individualized generation by the graduate of Cologne’s prestigious Academy of Media Arts congregates an astounding roster of talents including European Shooting Star Louis Hofmann (LAND OF MINE at TIFF15; DARK at TIFF17), Liv Lisa Fries (one of the leads of the BABYLON BERLIN TV series and previously in THE WAVE and 2011 transgender drama ROMEOS), Johannes Nussbaum (in Terrence Malick’s upcoming RADEGUND) and Saskia Rosendahl (LORE, TIFF12; NEVER LOOK AWAY, TIFF18) alongside Ursina Lardi (THE WHITE RIBBON) and Jenny Schily (SLEEPING SICKNESS).
Since I met her at TIFF last year as the revengeful lead of Fatih Akin’s IN THE FADE, I have had a girl crush on the uber-smart and astute
Diane Krüger. Must-see her in this year's TIFF’s closing film JEREMIAH TERMINATOR LEROY. Meanwhile, the Cannes Best Actress is preparing for her producer debut (plus a baby), a mini-series on the life of Austrian screen siren and influential inventor Hedy Lamarr.
Lamarr (1914-2000) developed the so-called frequency hopping technology which today is used in Bluetooth and WIFI technology. Diane Krüger will portray Hedy Lamarr in this
literary adaptation. “I want to create stories not only for myself but also for other women. We have a lot of stuff to say,” she told THR in the spring.
Also in the ones-to-watch category is Anne Zohra Berrached, who presented her tough debut, the sensitive late-term abortion drama 24 WEEKS in the Berlinale competition two years ago. She is working on THE PILOT’S WIFE, which tells the love story of two students, ultimately affected by the historic tragedy of 9/11.
In mid-career,
Angela Schanelec (THE DREAMED PATH) is in post-production for ICH WAR ZUHAUSE, ABER… (I was home, but…). After a 13-year-old student disappears without a trace for a week and suddenly reappears, his mother and teachers are confronted with existential questions that change their whole view of life.
Starring Franz Rogowski (at TIFF18 with TRANSIT), Lilith Stangenberg (WILD, see below), and David Striesow.
Katrin Gebbe (NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN) is planning PELICAN BLOOD, starring Nina Hoss, Murathan Muslu, and Katerina Lipovska. Horse trainer Wiebke decides to adopt five-year-old Raya from Bulgaria as a sibling for her older adoptive daughter Nicolina. Raya appears to be suffering from an attachment disorder and is incapable of establishing an emotional connection to anyone around her. As the girl becomes increasingly aggressive, Wiebke has to decide whether she is willing to keep Raya.
Un Certain Regard darling Jessica Hausner (AMOUR FOU) will return next year with LITTLE JOE, an Austrian-German-British co-pro. A mother and son who fall under the spell of a mutated plant able to influence the behaviour and perception of humans and animals. In a game of several different realities, the mother is in danger of losing her own identity. Starring Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox and others.
Can’t wait but still way to go:
Actress-director Nicolette Krebitz (WILD) is in development for fantasy film HUNTER SCHAEFER, planned as the first in a trilogy. “Too often in genre films, the roles are patriarchally and traditionally assigned. But younger audience’s lives look different nowadays. And there’s more and more men who have no problem identifying with female protagoniststs,” Krebitz told Frankfurter Neue Presse, adding that she had no problem identifying with James Bond when she was younger.
On to the elder stateswomen of German film. Oscar winner Caroline Link (NOWHERE IN AFRICA) is working on two films. DER JUNGE MUSS AN DIE FRISCHE LUFT (The boy has to get some fresh air), slated for a December 27 release, is the adaptation of German comedian Hape Kerkeling’s honestly funny autobiographical novel, set in his early 1970s childhood. Joachim Król and Maren Kroymann support 9-year-old newcomer Julius Weckauf, who plays the young Kerkeling. The book sold over 1 million times, let’s see whether that translates onto the screen.
Link’s other just-announced project will be less amusing, a coming-of-age story of a different kind.
WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT will be the adaptation of Judith Kerr’s 1971 autobiographical novel, based on the Kerr family’s real-life flight from Nazi Germany in the 1930s, taking them from their home in Berlin to Zurich, Paris, and finally London. According to Screendaily, newcomers Riva Krymalowski and Marinus Hohmann star alongside Carla Juri (WETLANDS; PAULA).
Eerily, Riva attends the same Berlin school that Judith Kerr did nearly a century before her. Set to be released on December 26, 2019.
Doris Dörrie returns to Japan to pick up the story of her acclaimed CHERRY BLOSSOMS. CHERRY BLOSSOMS AND DEMONS, announced for 2019, continues 10 years after the death of Karl’s parents Trudi and Rudi (the protagonists in the prequel). Karl is at a low point in his life, no longer living with his wife and son and jobless. Struggling to deal with his losses, Karl has developed a drinking problem. Then Yu shows up at his doorstep and changes his life by forcing Karl to work through his troublesome childhood memories and fight his inner demons – by inviting them to a cup of tea. Elmar Wepper and Hannelore Elsner return, joined by Birgit Minichmayr (strong yet again at Berlinale in 3 DAYS IN QUIBERON).
Ulrike Ottinger (FREAK ORLANDO), who we just dedicated a GOETHE FILMS series to, is unstoppable at 76. While we’re waiting for her autobiographical documentary PARIS CALLIGRAMMES to come out, she is still in pre-production for LA BELLE DORMEUSE or THE BEAUTIFUL SLEEPING WOMAN, written by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek (THE PIANO TEACHER). Following other surreal stories the grande dame of feminist, gender-fluid film has told, here Countess Báthory, notorious both amongst the living and the undead, steps out of Vienna’s labyrinthine subterranean canals and back into the Upper World to track down a dangerous book that resurfaces through the ages, moving humans to tears and transforming vampires into ordinary mortals. Together with her lady’s maid, the “Beautiful Sleeper”, “la Comtesse Sanglante”, begins searching for the book. They follow hidden clues, forging a bloody path through eerily beautiful Vienna and its surroundings. The two ladies are followed by the Countess’ pale nephew, Rudi Bubi von Strudl zu Buchtelau, a vegetarian vampire terrified by the sight of blood and flesh, and his opportunistic, Freudianism to Behaviourism-converted psychotherapist. I cannot wait for this German-Austrian-French-British co-production, as it would be Ottinger's first fictional narrative in 15 years. The project has been in the air for a decade, at some point said to have Isabelle Huppert and Tilda Swinton attached.
Which gets us on a quick detour to Julie Delpy, who shot essentially the same story as THE COUNTESS in 2009, with Daniel Brühl. Delpy just finished shooting her MY ZOE in Berlin, starring Daniel Brühl, Gemma Arterton, and Richard Armitage. Berlinale 2019? The plot: Isabelle, a geneticist recovering from a toxic marriage, is raising her only daughter Zoe with her ex-husband. Zoe means everything to her mother, but when tragedy strikes the fractured family, Isabelle takes matters into her own hands.
Julie Delpy recently drew attention to the discrimination against female directors when one of the financers for MY ZOE pulled out a couple months before shooting was scheduled to begin. According to the Guardian, the investor’s lawyer advised his client “not [to] invest in a women’s movie” --take a deep breath-- because women are emotional.
Leaving you with this Delpy quote to go
into TIFF18: "It’s exhausting dealing with the stupidity,” but she is “fighting, fighting, fighting.”
by
Jutta Brendemühl
image: Director Caroline Link with DOP Bella Halben on the set of WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT, source La Siala Entertainment/Sommerhaus
TIFF will bring us female filmmakers who have been producing for 50 years (Margarethe von Trotta) and directors who fairly recently left film school (Carolina Hellsgård, who is coming with her all-female team of producers, writer, camerawoman, designer, editor, and composer). Here are some of the female-made or female-centric German films beyond this crop, from veterans to mid-career artists to newcomers, to be seen in cinemas or at festivals next year.
