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In Berlin ist jetzt die letzte Klappe zur Fortsetzung des Historienepos aus dem Jahr 2013 gefallen, die am 25. Dezember kommenden Jahres von Constantin Film in die Kinos gebracht wird.

Tom Payne als Rob Cole in „Der Medicis 2″ (Credit: Gordon Muehle / Constantin Film Verleih)

Nach Dreharbeiten in Ungarn und Köln ist jetzt in Berlin die letzte Klappe zu „Der Medicus 2“ gefallen. Wie schon bei „Der Medicus“, der 2013 mehr als 3,6 Mio. Besucher in die deutschen Kinos gelockt und bei seiner TV-Premiere im Dezember 2014 auf rund 7,5 Mio. Zuschauer gekommen war, führte Philipp Stölzl Regie; das Drehbuch schrieb Stölzl zusammen mit Stewart Harcourt, Caroline Bruckner, Jan Berger und Marc O. Seng.

Im im elften Jahrhundert spielenden „Der Medicus 2“ verkörpert Tom Payne den Medicus Rob Cole, der mit seinen Weggefährten nach seiner Flucht aus Isfahan in seiner alten Heimat London strandet, um dort sein medizinisches Wissen zu verbreiten. Bald wird er in die Intrigen...

Director Lars Kraume knows a bit about the hidden corners of German history. His award-winning 2015 drama The People Vs. Fritz Bauer looked at the role played by the eponymous German Jewish state Attorney General in tracking down and bringing Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann to justice. And his 2018 The Silent Revolution followed the true story of a group of grade 12 pupils in 1956 East Germany who defy the authority of their teachers and state authorities by staging a silent protest in solidarity with the victims of the 1956 Hungarian uprising.

But until he visited Africa himself in the early 1990s, Kraume had never heard of the darkest chapters in German history: the massacre, between 1904 and 1908, of tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people by officials and soldiers of the German colonial empire in what is now Namibia. The killings of the Herero (now often known as the Ovaherero) and Nama is widely...

Picture Tree Intl. has boarded Berlin Film Festival title “Measures of Men,” which focuses on the genocide committed by the German army against the Ovaherero and Nama tribes in Southwestern Africa. The trailer debuts (below).

The film is written and directed by Lars Kraume, whose credits include Berlin’s “The Silent Revolution” and Toronto’s “The People vs. Fritz Bauer.” It stars Leonard Scheicher, Namibian actor Girley Charlene Jazama and “Toni Erdmann” star Peter Simonischek.

The film has its world premiere on Feb. 22 in the Berlinale Special section, and will be released in Germany by Studiocanal in late March.

The film begins in Berlin at the end of the 19th century when a delegation of the Ovaherero and Nama tribes travels to the city. Alexander Hoffmann, a student of ethnology, is impressed by the intellect of their translator Kezia Kambazembi, and begins to question the racial theories of white supremacy.

Sky has released the first look trailer for the third series of multi-award winning Sky Original drama ‘Das Boot,’ as well as announcing the commission of series four which will begin production in June.

The series follows the tense struggles of a young U-boat crew as they engage in the Battle of the Atlantic whilst being hunted down by an obsessed Royal Navy Commander in a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse. They are sent on a dangerous mission to the Southern Hemisphere under the command of Robert Ehrenberg (Franz Dinda) who finds redemption and the family bonds he thought he’d lost forever.

Meanwhile, in the climes of neutral Lisbon, where exiles, spies and criminals rub shoulders with allies and enemies alike, Hagen Forster (Tom Wlaschiha) discovers a lethal plot to steal a fortune in plundered wartime gold. This discovery and dark experiences on the Eastern front lead him to question...

Based on real events, Netflix miniseries “The Billion Dollar Code” – created by Oliver Ziegenbalg and Robert Thalheim, and set to be released exclusively on Netflix on Thursday – shows the German inventors of 1994 Terravision and their fight to be acknowledged as creators of the Google Earth algorithm. In 2014, Berlin-based Art+Com sued Google for patent infringement, claiming that the system bore remarkable similarities to Google Earth.

“ ‘The Social Network’ was told from the perspective of the winner, or the antagonist: Mark Zuckerberg. We tell our story from the perspective of the Winklevoss brothers, the beautiful losers,” Ziegenbalg tells Variety at Zurich Film Festival following the show’s world premiere, referencing David Fincher’s 2010 take on the troubled origins of Facebook.

“Also, in that film, you don’t really love the guy. You look at him from the outside. We wanted to have characters you would want to accompany through this entire process,...

In today’s bulletin, Olivia Colman leads the cast of BBC’s pantomime “Cinderella”; season 3 of “Das Boot” commences production; Discovery Plus orders a Dutch adaptation of ITV Studios format “Sex Tape”; and Amazon India reveals Hindi-language anthology “Unpaused.”

Olivia Colman (“The Crown”) and Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”) will headline a virtual version of popular Christmas pantomime “Cinderella,” on BBC Two.

“Cinderella: A Comic Relief Pantomime,” is executive produced by Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”). Colman will make her pantomime debut as the fairy godmother while Taylor-Joy plays the title role. The cast also includes Guz Khan (“Man Like Mobeen”), Tom Hollander (“The Night Manager”), Helena Bonham Carter (“The Crown”), Rege-Jean Page (“Roots”), Jimmy Akingbola (“Rev”) Daisy May and Charlie Cooper (“This Country”).

The show is written by the Dawson Brothers, based on an original script by Ben Crocker, and directed by Matt Lipsey for Crook Productions. It airs on the BBC Dec.

As production gets underway for the third season of ‘Das Boot’ Sky have released a number of first-look images and the latest additions to the cast.

The 10-part third season follows the tense struggles of a young U-boat crew as they engage in the Battle of the Atlantic whilst being hunted down by an obsessed Royal Navy Commander in a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse. They are sent on a dangerous mission to the Southern Hemisphere under the command of Robert Ehrenberg (Franz Dinda) who finds redemption and the family bonds he thought he’d lost forever.

Scene 135 – Kiel Docks

Ehrenberg enters the U-boat

Scene 669A Refugee Hideout – Lisbon

Forster encounters Levi and Rachel who invite him to eat

Meanwhile, in the climes of neutral Lisbon, where exiles, spies and criminals rub shoulders with allies and enemies alike, Hagen Forster (Tom Wlaschiha) discovers a lethal plot to steal a fortune in plundered wartime gold.

Berlin-based company to move into international co-productions and branch out into fiction.

Berlin-based production outfit Achtung Panda! Media has appointed Jamila Wenske and Melanie Blocksdorf as new heads of the company. Wenske will served as producer and managing director and Blocksdorf as producer.

Carli Hameder joins as the company’s project manager.

These hires follow the departure of previous head Helge Albers, who has started in his new position as CEO of Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein.

Achtung Panda! was launched in 2015 by Danny Krausz and Oliver Damian. The pair remain shareholders but aren’t involved actively in productions.

The company has...

Jamila Wenske and Sol Bondy’s Berlin-based One Two Films, co-producer of this year’s Efm buzz title “Persian Lessons,” has scored another early winner with comedy-drama “Franky Five Star.”

The project, from writer-director Birgit Möller, won the Junior Entertainment Talent Slate (Jets) pitching competition at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday, securing it industry support from a broad range of international participants.

“Franky Five Star” stars Jella Haase, who shot to fame in the “Fack ju Göhte” franchise, as a young woman dealing with her often meddling multiple personalities as she navigates a blossoming romance.

The Jets initiative, organized by William Peschek’s German-u.K. group Wep Films, unites up-and-coming filmmakers and their feature film projects with producers, sales agents, financing companies and distributors from Germany, Canada, Ireland, Britain, Finland, Norway and the U.S.

This year the 13-member Jets jury, which included Sophie Green of Bankside Films; Antonio Exacoustos of Arri Media Intl.

World War II drama series Das Boot, co-produced by Bavaria Fiction, Sky Deutschland and Sonar Entertainment, has been sold to more than 100 territories worldwide. Hulu has picked up rights for the U.S. The series will premiere in Sky territories Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK and Ireland beginning November 23 and Italy in December.

Territories sold to date include StarzPlay in France; AMC in Spain and Portugal; Epix/Viasat in Russia, Central & Eastern Europe; Di and Ma in Serbia; Czech TV in the Czech Republic; Vrt in Belgium; Nrk in Norway; Svt in Sweden; Yle in Finland; Ruv in Iceland; Mnet in South Africa; StarzPlay in Latin America; Sbs in Australia; and Tvnz in New Zealand.

Inspired by Wolfgang Petersen’s Oscar and Golden Globe nominated film, and Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s bestselling novel, the series was produced on a budget of $33 million. A story of choices and survival, Das Boot explores the...

World War II drama series “Das Boot,” which was produced on a budget of $33 million, has been sold to more than 100 territories worldwide. The show will debut on Hulu in the U.S. and pay TV operator Sky across Europe.

The series is produced by Bavaria Fiction, Sky Deutschland and Sonar Entertainment, which distribution rights for the world, except for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, U.K., Ireland and Italy, where Sky holds the rights.

Territories sold to date include StarzPlay in France; AMC in Spain and Portugal; Epix/Viasat in Russia, Central & Eastern Europe; Di and Ma in Serbia; Czech TV in the Czech Republic; Vrt in Belgium; Nrk in Norway; Svt in Sweden; Yle in Finland; Ruv in Iceland; Mnet in South Africa; StarzPlay in Latin America; Sbs in Australia; and Tvnz in New Zealand.

Inspired by the Oscar-nominated movie by Wolfgang Petersen, and Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s bestselling novel, the series filmed in Munich,...

The Berlinale has revealed the first films within its Competition and Berlinale Special lineups.

Source: Amazon

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot

The Berlin Film Festival (15 - 25 Feb) has revealed the first films within its Competition and Berlinale Special lineups.

Directors including Benoit Jacquot, Gus Van Sant, Alexey German Jr., Małgorzata Szumowska, Philip Gröning, Thomas Stuber and Laura Bispuri will compete in this year’s Competition while Isabel Coixet and Lars Kraume feature in the Berlinale Special strand.

Alongside the previously announced opening film, Isle of Dogs by Wes Anderson, seven productions and co-productions from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Serbia, the Russian Federation, and the USA are announced for the Competition.

Gus Van Sant’s drama Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far, which will debut at Sundance, is the only film announced today which is not a world premiere. Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill,...

The Berlinale has revealed the first films within its Competition and Berlinale Special lineups.

Source: Amazon

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot

The Berlin Film Festival (15 - 25 Feb) has revealed the first films within its Competition and Berlinale Special lineups.

Directors including Benoit Jacquot, Gus Van Sant, Alexey German Jr., Małgorzata Szumowska, Philip Gröning, Thomas Stuber and Laura Bispuri will compete in this year’s Competition while Isabel Coixet and Lars Kraume feature in the Berlinale Special strand.

Alongside the previously announced opening film, Isle of Dogs by Wes Anderson, seven productions and co-productions from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Serbia, the Russian Federation, and the USA are announced for the Competition.

Gus Van Sant’s drama Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far, which will debut at Sundance, is the only film announced today which is not a world premiere. Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara and [link...

Production on the big-budget television series is set to commence this summer.

Bavaria Fernsehproduktion, Sky Deutschland and Sonar Entertainment have announced that filming on the Das Boot sequel will begin this summer, and have revealed its cast.

The eight-episode series is a sequel to Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s novel and 1981 film of the same name and will premiere in autumn in 2018 in Sky territories Germany, Austria, Italy, the UK and Ireland. Co-producer Sonar Entertainment will handle international distribution in the rest of the world.

Directed by Andreas Prochaska, the 104-day shoot on the $28 million production is set to begin on August 31 in La Rochelle, France and will contine in Prague, Malta and Munich.

In addition, the cast has been announced for the event series, including including Lizzy Caplan, August Wittgenstein and Rainer Bock.

Also starring are Rick Okon, Vicky Krieps, Jonathan Zaccaϊ, Leonard Scheicher, Robert Stadlober, Franz Dinda and Stefan Konarske.

Tony Saint and [link...

Well over a year ago, it was announced that an 8-hour, TV sequel to Wolfgang Petersen‘s 1981 WWII German U-boat drama classic “Das Boot” was in the works. It was interesting news, and it made us curious, but as with anything else that happened eighteen months ago, we totally forgot about. Well, the project is headed to sea with some interesting developments.

“Masters Of Sex” and “Party Down” star Lizzy Caplan is the lone Hollywood name boarding the project, that has lined up an ensemble which includes August Wittgenstein, Vicky Krieps, Jonathan Zaccaϊ, Leonard Scheicher, Robert Stadlober, Franz Dinda, and Stefan Konarske.

Continue reading Lizzy Caplan Joins ‘Das Boot’ TV Sequel at The Playlist.

Novelist/screenwriter, Christian Kracht, gives a Paddington hard stare before his conversation on Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas with Daniel Bowles and Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: David Netto

Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.

In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...

Dutch writer-director Feike Santbergen and actors Lisa Smit and Jelmer Ouwerkerk are in Toronto for the world premiere of their 18-minute short "The Last Day Of Summer," which was selected for the Short Cuts International Competition at Tiff. The film premiered Sunday, September 7th at the Scotiabank Theatre.

In "The Last Day of Summer" three friends are spending a quiet day at the beach when one of them is called with tragic news. “While making the film we examined what happens in those first few moments, when care and the inability to cope, connect with each other; the result is intensely portrayed by the actors, the selection for Toronto a fantastic reward,” says Santbergen.

For Lisa Smit (20) it is the second time one of her movies is screened at Tiff. The first time she played a co-starring role in "Lena," by Belgian director Christophe van Rompaey, which had its world premiere at the Festival in 2011. Lisa also recently starred in the German drama " Sources of Life"(Quellen des Lebens) by director Oskar Roehler, in a role for which she was praised in Germany by the Süddeutsche Zeitung and in the Us by the Hollywood Reporter, who labeled her and co-star Leonard Scheicher's performance as 'something of a miracle'.

“I want to make movies that have an international appeal,” says Smit, who has been acting since age 10 and is already a star in her native Holland. “I look for movies that explore human conflict among real people, and also translate that conflict into the characters themselves,” says Smit.

At Tiff the filmmakers are working hard to promote the short film, but also looking ahead. Together with American producer Sophie Kohn, they are busy putting together the finances for Santbergen's feature film debut, "Life is a Start," which they hope will go into production next year. The film will be shot mainly on a rural island in Greece and will be produced by Kohn, directed by Santbergen, while Smit will play a starring role.

"Life is a Start" is about a young woman suffering from a nervous breakdown who travels alone to a remote Greek island. Like "The Last Day of Summer," it is about overcoming mental agony through connecting to others.

Santbergen, Kohn and Smit are excited to continue their adventures at Tiff, and hope to be back in the future.

Playing at the Museum of the Moving Image and the Quad Cinema in New York June 13-19 the Kino! Festival Of German Films returns for its 36th year. Once again, the festival continues to offer the best in German cinema produced in the last year. The program features documentaries and narratives that not only focus on the German experience but also on its filmmakers’ points of view on what happens around the world. Quality is always a given with Kino and these wide-ranging stories are no exception. Some revisit the country’s historical past, others travel to distant lands in search of images, and there are also those that feel specific to our time. Here are some highlights of what we've seen so far with some additions to come soon.

For more information on the festival visit Here

West

Dir. Christian Schwochow

In search of a more promising and free life for her and her son, Nelly Sneff (Jördis Triebel) a young East German chemist flees to the more modernized West side. Even though she speaks the same language and is as German as everyone else living in the communal living facilities for refugees, Nelly finds it difficult to adapt to the new system. Ironically, she comes to realize that she is seen as the enemy on this side of the wall. The constant questioning about the whereabouts and affiliation of her Soviet partner, who until now she believed dead, take a toll on her already complex life putting her in a state of paranoia. Her son Alexej (Tristan Göbel), who is bullied at school, befriends a neighbor, Hans ( Alexander Scheer) whose good intentions will put Nelly on the edge. Distrust is at the core of Schwochow’s film that plays as thoughtful answer to films like “The Lives of Others” and “Barbara.” While those examples condemned the system enforced by the Stasi, in “West” the tables are flipped. Nelly feels unsafe, watched, and harassed in a land that was supposed to be against those practices. Triebel's intense performance escalates from hopeful to enraged in a marvelously directed story about an unexamined subject within German history.

Nan Goldin : I Remember Your Face

Dir. Sabine Lidl

In a concisely executed documentary that runs just over 60 minutes, director Sabine Lidl manages to capture the essence of renowned photographer Nal Goldin. Given that her friendships are the inspiration and subjects for her work, the filmmaker follows the eccentric artist as she visits old friends and reminisces about their youth, her failed attempts at seducing attractive gay men, and their role in her career. Her photos are raw and vivid. They shine with colorful nuances that only intimacy can provide. Drunk, naked, and unique people experience sadness and joy in front of her camera. Goldin’s extravagant collections and her turbulent past with drugs and alcohol also make an appearance in this short portrait of a fascinating woman across her beloved Berlin and other European cities.

Art War

Dir. Marco Wilms

While shot by a German filmmaker, the film is very similar to the Academy Awards-nominated film “The Square.” It follows the revolutionary youth of Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that brought down the Mubarak regime. While the aforementioned film tries to depict a holistic picture of the events, the deaths, and the shaky political processes that followed, Wilms decides to focus on the artistic expression that emerged from the movement. Including politically charged rap songs, and more extensively graffiti, the documentary advocates for the youth’s effort to protests by peaceful means. However, it also points at the non-stop attacks by Islamist conservative groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Among their many undertakings, the art on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near the iconic Tahrir Square is of particular importance because it is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the carnage. Young Egyptians turned martyrs are immortalized on the city’s walls as constant reminder of an incessant struggle. There are clearly a great number of similarities between the two films, and though this is less achieved in scope, it can definitely work as a complementary piece.

Finsterworld

Dir. Frauke Finsterwalder

With a multi-story concept that scrutinizes modern German society, the tonally eclectic “Finsterworld” provides some vexed assumptions about the country’s history of violence. A high school class is taking a fieldtrip to a concentration camp, Dominik (Leonard Scheicher) and his unofficial girlfriend Natalie (Carla Juri) are enjoying the day despite having to deal with obnoxious spoiled kid Maximilian (Jakub Gierszal). Meanwhile Franziska (Sandra Hüller), an pretentious aspiring filmmaker wants to capture something profound, inevitably her egocentric personality crashes with her loving boyfriend police officer Tom (Ronald Zehrfeld), who is also a closeted “furry.” Then there is Claude (Michael Maertens), a lonely masseur specialized in feet, and his friendship with elderly woman Frau (Margit Carstensen). Lastly, there are the Sandbergs (Corinna Harfouch &Bernhard Schütz), a wealthy couple on the road who encounter a difficult situation. Touching on the subject of German identity having Hitler as only representative figure and being a nation defined by guilt, Finsterwalder’s feature is heavily provocative. It’s strange tone that shifts between absurd comedy and gruesome violence can come across as uncomfortable or even offensive, but there are a handful of brilliant moments that make the film rather compelling.