Cologne director Burhan Qurbani, while not winning a bear, was the Berlinale’s big winner in that his Competition presentation "Berlin Alexanderplatz" led to 11 German Film Award nominations. At the 70th awards show in Berlin on 24 April, we will find out how many Lola trophies Qurbani will take home.
Not resting on his laurels, he told Screendaily already in February that
“I want to make three films about the political situation, the change, the gaps in our society, with each of these films have these three words, unity, justice or freedom as a topic”. His new trilogy, inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski’s famous "Blue" (1993), "White" (1994), and "Red" (1994), will be named after the German national colours black, red and gold, representing unity, rule of law, and freedom.
Christian Petzold, in the Berlinale Competition with "Undine", which won lead
Paula Beer a Silver Bear as Best Actress, also announced
that this is the first in a new trilogy of fairy tale-themes dramas.
Paula Beer will soon be back with “Last Song for Stella” by Kilian Riedlof (albeit still in pre-production, let’s see how the year in film continues). This is the story of a young woman in 1930s Berlin (
think Beer in Petzold’s "Transit"), who wants to be a musician. Since her family is Jewish, she has to go into hiding. She is found out and tortured. To save her parents from being deported, she agrees to become a so-called
Greiferin, a catcher to find other Jews in hiding for the Gestapo, the secret Nazi police. The original Stella Goldschlag is said to have betrayed hundreds from 1943 to the end of the war two years later. After the war she was prosecuted and sentenced to 10 years in prison and committed suicide in 1994. The historical drama also stars Katja Riemann (von Trotta’s "The Misplaced World") and is based on Goldschlag’s (later Stella Kübler-Isaacksohn’s) 1992 biography by Peter Wyden. Stella already featured in Claus Räfle’s 2017 docu drama "The Invisibles -- We Want to Live". The recent literary treatment of the subject matter in
Takis Würger's novel "Stella" was met with considerable controversy.
Also in Competition at this year’s Berlinale was Petzold’s former muse Nina Hoss ("
Barbara"; "
Phoenix") in "My Little Sister". She will be back on screen later this year in “Violence Of Action” by Tarik Saleh. The US action thriller features Chris Pine as a man who has been involuntarily discharged from the Marines and now joins a paramilitary organization in order to support his family. He travels to Poland with his elite team on a black ops mission to investigate a mysterious threat, then finds himself alone and hunted in Eastern Europe, where he must fight to stay alive long enough to get home and uncover the true motives of those who betrayed him, according to Variety. Pine and Hoss star alongside Eddie Marsan, Ben Foster, Gillian Jacobs. Filmed in the USA, Germany and Romania, the film was scheduled to be previewed in Cannes, we’ll see what the current crisis will do to its festival launch and release date.
Hoss’ co-star in "My Little Sister" is Berlin Schaubuehne’s Hamlet, Lars Eidinger as her brother -- hard to believe the two German mega stars had never played together before. Eidinger’s next film is already in post-production: Franziska Stünkel’s “Nahschuss” (potshot) should still be out this year (TIFF?). The story is set in 1981, eight years before the fall of the Wall. The film tragically references real-life character Dr. Werner Teske, on whose life the film is based. Teske was assassinated in East Germany for political reasons by a close-range gunshot. Inspired by his fate, the protagonist of the upcoming drama is engineer Franz Walter (Lars Eidinger), who is recruited by the Stasi (the GDR’s State Security Service) as an undercover informant. He quickly finds himself in trouble because of his increasingly critical attitude towards the system and is accused of espionage. In order to render the historical atmosphere as realistically as possible, the film has been shot in original locations such as the former ministry building of the State Security Service in Berlin-Lichtenberg and GDR prison Hohenschönhausen. Eidinger is supported by Luise Heyer "
The Most Beautiful Couple") as his wife and Devid Striesow (of Petzold+Hoss’ "Yella"), who plays one of his colleagues.
Both director Nora Fingscheidt as well as her 11-year-old lead Helena Zengel were the big winners of Berlinale 2018, in more than one way (a Silver Bear) – both immediately jumped from German debut to major English-language US productions. Fingscheidt has been hired by Netflix to create a still untitled US-German co-production adapted from the British mini series "Unforgiven" and shot in Vancouver. The plot: Released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime, Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past. Facing severe judgment from the place she once called home, her only hope for redemption is finding the estranged younger sister she was forced to leave behind. Also starring Viola Davis, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Richard Thomas.
Helena Zengel, now 12, who I just heard deliver an Oscar-worthy award acceptance speech at the Goethe-Institut Berlin, is fresh off shooting with Tom Hanks (pre-Covid-19). Paul Greengrass’ "News of the World", based on the best-selling 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles, should be out this fall. Set in the days following the Civil War, the historical western charts the unlikely friendship between Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks), an early precursor to today’s newscasters, and the 10-year-old girl (Zengel) he is tasked with bringing to her relatives. Zengel wasted no time -- "News of the World" went into production while "System Crasher" was premiering in Germany.
And last but not least Sandra Hüller --at Berlinale 2020 with "Exile" and "Sleep"-- had a good but sad reason not to join us in Toronto in May: She is shooting “The Black Square”. The crime comedy tells the story of two art thieves who have stolen the iconic avant-garde painting “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich. The handover of the $60 million ransom is set to take place on a cruise ship, but things go wrong from the moment the crooks board the ship with the stolen tickets of two cruise-ship entertainers: an Elvis and a Bowie impersonator. With the thieves trapped on board with far more public attention than they had expected, and chased by various interested parties trying to get hold of the painting, a breathless game of cat and mouse begins. Stars Sandra Hüller ("
Toni Erdmann"), Bernhard Schütz ("A Most Wanted Man"), and
Jacob Matschenz ("Never Look Away"; and you just saw him in "Stronger Than Blood" in last fall's GOETHE FIMS). I am hoping for an entertaining mix of "Knives Out" & "Toni Erdmann" humour.
Is this a good time to tell you that we secured the Canadian premiere rights for Visar Morina's Sundance Competition & Berlinale title "Exile" as the highlight of
our next GOETHE FILMS series, which will be an homage to Sandra Hüller?
Stay tuned for screening and new production updates!
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
