"Sterben" and "L'Empire" in the Berlinale Competition

Hamburg-born Matthias Glasner returns to the Competition of the Berlinale with his new drama Sterben (Port au Prince Films, Hamburg). The film was shot in the Hanseatic city and in Schleswig-Holstein for almost three weeks last winter. Corinna Harfouch, Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Anna Bederke, among others, can be seen in the star-studded film about the intensity of life in the face of the impertinence of death.

The Hamburg-based company Red Balloon Film is the German co-producer of the new science fiction film L'Empire by Bruno Dumont. The film with French superstar Camille Cotin in one of the leading roles is in the running for the Golden Bear alongside "Dying". Part of the post production took place in Hamburg.

Julia von Heinz's new comedy Treasure (Seven Elephants, Berlin) is screening in the "Berlinale Gala Special" section. In the film, American Ruth (played by Lena Dunham) travels to Poland with her father Edek (Stephen Fry) to get to the bottom of her Jewish family's legacy. Part of the post production took place in Hamburg. The literary film adaptation is based on the novel "Too Many Men" by Lily Brett.

The drama The Outrun, produced by Weydemann Bros. and directed by Nora Fingscheidt with Hollywood star Saoirse Ronan in the leading role, can be seen at two major festivals this year: In January with the world premiere at Sundance and immediately afterwards in the Berlinale section Panorama.

In the same section is the Documentary My Stolen Planet (Jyoti Film, Hamburg) by Farahnaz Sharifi, in which the Iranian Farah is forced to flee into her own world; part of the post production took place in Hamburg.

The short film Porzellan by Annika Birgel (Problemkind, Berlin) can be seen in the Generation Kplus section. The film was shot in Lübeck and on the Halligen islands in Schleswig-Holstein in 2023.

Two funded productions have made it into the Forum of the Berlinale: In Reproduktion (fünferfilm, Hamburg), filmmaker and former HFBK professor Katharina Pethke sheds light on the compatibility of motherhood and artistic work.

In Traces of movement before the ice, filmmaker René Frölke travels to a Zurich cellar containing the remains of the Pendo publishing house founded in 1971.