A new home in Hamburg

When Directors Kai Stänicke and Executive Producer Andrea Schütte met in a Berlin café in the summer of 2017, neither of them had any idea that nine years later they would have a film together at the Berlinale that was extraordinary in every respect: "Kai pitched me the story for 'Trial of Hain' and I was incredibly impressed by all his ideas. However, it took a lot of imagination to visualise the whole thing on the big screen," says the Hamburg-based Executive Producer. The story is about a returnee who is no longer recognised by anyone in his village and has to prove his identity in a trial. A backdrop on the beach consisting only of artificial house facades. A shoot that was supposed to take place entirely outdoors. Anything but a simple debut film. Can it be managed? Andrea Schütte and Dirk Decker were cautious at first and did not get involved in the project with their company Tamtam Film - but remained in dialogue with Stänicke.

The writing process

The story was born out of a feeling that many people probably know: "Whenever I visited my hometown in NRW back then, I had the feeling that I had led a completely different life there. To have been someone else. And that I could never go back to that old life," says Directors Kai Stänicke, who now lives in Berlin. The writing process then took several years with numerous treatment versions - with Corona helping him: "Suddenly the whole world stood still and I travelled to my parents, who own a farm, more often. That's when I sat down in the barn and started writing the script."

The big reunion followed in 2023: "In the summer, Kai suddenly turned up on our doorstep in Hamburg with his script. The homeless man was looking for a home," says Andrea Schütte and laughs. The story was now much more sophisticated than in 2017, but remained true to the basic idea. This time, Tamtam was on board. And filming could begin in northern Germany in September 2024.

The shoot on Sylt and Norderney

"The big unknown was the weather, but we were very lucky by northern German standards," says Directors Stänicke. Most of the time it stayed completely dry. In other words, the best conditions for a film that is only shot in the fresh air. During the seven days of filming on Sylt, the team concentrated on all the scenes set on the beach or by the sea. The crew spent a further 18 days on Norderney, where the village for the film was built surrounded by dunes.

In order to be prepared for all eventualities, Stänicke and his crew used the set design in a clever way: "There are chests all over the village in which we had placed water-repellent tarpaulins," reveals Andrea Schütte. And using and stretching these tarpaulins in the rain in such a way that there were no sound problems was another masterstroke by the film team. Even getting to the islands was not always easy due to the size of the cast. In the edit, there are around twelve people in front of the camera of Florian Mag, who has also worked with Oscar-nominated filmmaker İlker Çatak several times and studied cinematography at the Hamburg Media School. Seth Turner (set design) and Stefanie Bieker (costume design) are two other Hamburg residents involved in the project.