News

The international trailer for “A Whole Life,” which will have its world premiere in the Gala section of the Zürich Film Festival (Sept. 28 to Oct. 8), has debuted with Variety (below). Picture Tree Intl. is handling world sales.

The film, which will be released in Germany on Nov. 8 by Tobis Filmverleih, will have its North American premiere at Newport Beach, followed by its Canadian premiere at Whistler.

“A Whole Life” is based on the bestselling novel by Robert Seethaler, and was adapted for the screen by Ulrich Limmer, whose credits include Oscar nominee “Schtonk.”

The book, first published in 2014, has been translated into 40 languages and was described as a “novel of the century” in several reviews. In German-speaking countries, it has sold more than 1.6 million copies.

John Williams of the New York Times said the book is “one of those stripped-down everyman stories that is transparently, self-consciously about Much More: The encroachment of modernity,...

Berlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has debuted the trailer (below) for Austrian horror movie “Smother” by up-and-coming director Achmed Abdel-Salam.

The film centers on Michi, a young mother and former alcoholic. After the sudden death of her estranged father, she decides to stay in the inherited summer house for a few days with her small daughter Hanna, hoping to regain the motherly trust she lost.

During the first night, long repressed memories of her childhood overshadowed by her mother’s suicide start to haunt her. Trying to numb herself again with alcohol only drives her daughter Hanna further away and accelerates Michi’s paranoid state. When her demons also start to threaten her daughter, Michi must finally confront them to save her.

The Glitter and Doom production is tentatively set for a local theatrical release in early 2023.

The film is one of several new titles on Picture Tree’s AFM slate.

Picture Tree Intl. has picked up the global sales rights to Austrian horror movie “Smother” by up-and-coming director Achmed Abdel-Salam. The Glitter and Doom production is tentatively set for a local theatrical release in early 2023.

After the sudden death of her estranged father, Michi, a young mother and former alcoholic, decides to stay in the inherited summer house for a few days with her small daughter Hanna, hoping to regain the motherly trust she lost.

During the first night, long repressed memories of her childhood overshadowed by her mother’s suicide start to haunt her. Trying to numb herself again with alcohol only drives her daughter Hanna further away and accelerates Michi’s paranoid state. When her demons also start to threaten her daughter, Michi must finally confront them to save her.

Picture Tree Intl.’s AFM slate features a variety of new international films, including a first visual pitch...

Love story is written and directed by Slovakian writer-director Mariana Čengel Solčanská.

Berlin-based sales outfit Picture Tree International (Pti) has boarded period drama The Chambermaid by leading Slovak writer-director Mariana Čengel Solčanská.

Pti is handling international sales for the film produced by Slovakia’s Bright Sight Pictures and the Czech Republic’s Cinemart TV Prague. It is set in the period of social and political disruption around World War I and the collapse of the Austria-Hungary empire in Eastern Europe.

It tells thte story of a teenage girl who arrives in Prague from a small Slovak...

Picture Tree Intl. has acquired international sales on “A Whole Life,” which is based on the bestselling novel by Robert Seethaler, and was adapted for the screen by Ulrich Limmer, whose credits include Oscar nominee “Schtonk.”

The film is directed by Hans Steinbichler, whose films include Berlin Film Festival entry “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and the third season of pay TV operator Sky’s TV series “Das Boot.” Austrian actor Stefan Gorski takes the lead role.

“A Whole Life,” produced by Germany’s Tobis Film and Austria’s Epo-Film, is shooting now and is scheduled for release in the summer or fall next year.

The film tells the story of Andreas Egger over eight decades of the last century, a life marked by poverty, war and violence, but also moments of bliss and love. His experiences make him a humble man, happy with the little things life has to offer.

German cinema looks set for a major boost this year from some of the country’s most commercially successful and critically acclaimed directors tackling such eclectic subject matter as U.S. torture in Guantánamo, the impact of bipolar disorder on family, and a folkloric love story about the Grim Reaper.

The pandemic postponed a number of scheduled 2020 productions, which will likely make 2021 a busy year as production companies make up lost time.

Andreas Dresen, Til Schweiger, Michael Bully Herbig, Hans-Christian Schmid, Sönke Wortmann and the late Joseph Vilsmaier all have high-profile projects in the works or set to hit theaters (when they reopen) this year.

Dresen explores the injustice of America’s war on terror in the tentatively titled “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush.” Dresen, who enjoyed a major hit with the award-winning 2018 biopic “Gundermann,” reteamed with writer Laila Stieler on the fact-based pic about Rabiye Kurnaz (Meltem Kaptan), a Turkish housewife in Bremen,...

Exclusive: StudioCanal to handle world sales on Kai Wessel’s wartime drama.

StudioCanal is to handle international sales on Kai Wessel’s Fog In August (Nebel im August), the first feature film to address the Nazis’ euthanasia programme.

Based on Robert Domes’ 2008 eponymous historical novel, Fog In August centres on the authentic life story of 13-year-old Ernst Lossa who was committed to a mental hospital in Sargau in 1942 because of his origins in a family of travellers.

However, Ernst soon discovered the truth behind the hospital’s facade and sabotaged its euthanasia programme to help his new-found friends. But his actions did not go unnoticed by the institution’s administration.

The role of Ernst is played by the young Berliner Ivo Pietzcker who played the central character in Edward Berger’s Berlinale 2014 competition film Jack, which won a German Film Award last month.

The hospital’s staunch Nazi chief physician Werner Veithausen is played by Sebastian Koch who came...

COLOGNE -- Proving there is life after bankruptcy even in the sickly German market, former managing director of Kinowelt Filmproduktion Ulrich Limmer and ex-VIF International Films head Wolfram Tichy have set up new production companies. Kinowelt filed for insolvency late last year and VIF went bust in June (HR 6/20). Limmer's new firm, Collina Film, will produce the sequel to hit German children's film Das Sams (The Slurb), which was released last year and made €7.7 million ($7.8 million) at the boxoffice. The film, based on best-selling children's books by Paul Maar, won German Film Awards for best children's film and best supporting actress for Eva Mattes. The sequel, Das Sams 2 -- Sams in Gefahr (The Slurb 2 -- Slurb in Danger) is set to begin production next year.