Right from its opening moments, Austrian director Elisabeth Scharang’s Woodland is visually arresting, commanding one’s attention. Which is fortunate as the film is light on dialogue and primarily concerns the isolating experience of a woman living alone in wooded country. Through jagged memories that pierce the placid exterior of the film and our protagonist, we uncover the buried traumas and demons she is running away from. Or running towards, as it turns out. In her native hometown, a reckoning awaits her, that just might set her free.
Adapted from Doris Knecht’s novel Wald and inspired by Scharang’s personal experience, Woodland charts Marian’s (Brigitte Hobmeier) return to the small agrarian town she grew up in. She sets up camp in her abandoned family home––cobwebbed, without electricity, and freezing––and only occasionally charges her cell phone at the local pub. Her desire to disconnect from the world seems paramount.
Adapted from Doris Knecht’s novel Wald and inspired by Scharang’s personal experience, Woodland charts Marian’s (Brigitte Hobmeier) return to the small agrarian town she grew up in. She sets up camp in her abandoned family home––cobwebbed, without electricity, and freezing––and only occasionally charges her cell phone at the local pub. Her desire to disconnect from the world seems paramount.
- 9/25/2023
- by Ankit Jhunjhunwala
- The Film Stage
Berlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has picked up “Woodland” (“Wald”), written and directed by Elisabeth Scharang, which has its world premiere in the Centrepiece section at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film’s trailer has also just been launched.
Picture Tree Intl. also handled world sales on Scharang’s sophomore feature film, “Jack,” which also played at Toronto.
“Woodland” is inspired by the novel “Wald” from bestselling author Doris Knecht, and the personal experience of Scharang, who witnessed the attack of a terrorist shooter in Vienna in 2020 in which four people were killed and 23 others were injured. The film marks Scharang’s second collaboration with Dop Jörg Widmer, who is a frequent collaborator with Terrence Malick.
Brigitte Hobmeier as Marian Malin in “Woodland”
In “Woodland,” Marian Malin (Brigitte Hobmeier) has everything she could wish for — a passion, a job and love — until she and her husband (Bogdan Dumitrache...
Picture Tree Intl. also handled world sales on Scharang’s sophomore feature film, “Jack,” which also played at Toronto.
“Woodland” is inspired by the novel “Wald” from bestselling author Doris Knecht, and the personal experience of Scharang, who witnessed the attack of a terrorist shooter in Vienna in 2020 in which four people were killed and 23 others were injured. The film marks Scharang’s second collaboration with Dop Jörg Widmer, who is a frequent collaborator with Terrence Malick.
Brigitte Hobmeier as Marian Malin in “Woodland”
In “Woodland,” Marian Malin (Brigitte Hobmeier) has everything she could wish for — a passion, a job and love — until she and her husband (Bogdan Dumitrache...
- 8/10/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
“Snow,” an Austrian-German co-production and one of 16 titles presented in the Berlinale Series Market Selects showcase, weaves the timely issue of climate change and local folklore into a suspenseful mystery drama set in the picturesque Austrian Alps.
Brigitte Hobmeier stars as Lucia, a physician who with her husband and children moves to the village, where she is replacing the local doctor, who is retiring. Things take a troubling turn when her daughter is visited by a strange woman at night.
The series presentation at the EFM event brings the title back to Berlin, where it came together in 2020 at the Berlinale Co-Production Market’s Co-Pro Series event.
Based on an idea by Michaela Taschek about the impact of climate change and old secrets that come to light, the series was initially developed early on by late producer Ursula Wolschlager of Vienna-based Witcraft and filmmaker Barbara Albert, who initially planned to...
Brigitte Hobmeier stars as Lucia, a physician who with her husband and children moves to the village, where she is replacing the local doctor, who is retiring. Things take a troubling turn when her daughter is visited by a strange woman at night.
The series presentation at the EFM event brings the title back to Berlin, where it came together in 2020 at the Berlinale Co-Production Market’s Co-Pro Series event.
Based on an idea by Michaela Taschek about the impact of climate change and old secrets that come to light, the series was initially developed early on by late producer Ursula Wolschlager of Vienna-based Witcraft and filmmaker Barbara Albert, who initially planned to...
- 2/21/2023
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Following their collaboration on short “When the Hurlyburly’s Done” and “Killing All the Flies,” Alex Eslam and Hanna Maria Heidrich share directorial duties on eight-episode German Sky Atlantic series “Souls,” which competed at Canneseries this week.
Produced by Geißendörfer Pictures and Sky Deutschland, its complex plot combines the concept of reincarnation, the kind of love that cheats death and even sees one of its characters, played by Julia Koschitz, caught in a time loop à la Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day.”
“It was always clear to me that this topic was way too big to focus on just one storyline,” explains Eslam, who created the series.
His protagonists, who seemingly have nothing in common, represent the past, present and the future connected to one tragic event: a passenger plane accident that left many questions unanswered. Until teenage boy Jacob, fresh off a traumatic incident of his own, announces that in a previous life,...
Produced by Geißendörfer Pictures and Sky Deutschland, its complex plot combines the concept of reincarnation, the kind of love that cheats death and even sees one of its characters, played by Julia Koschitz, caught in a time loop à la Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day.”
“It was always clear to me that this topic was way too big to focus on just one storyline,” explains Eslam, who created the series.
His protagonists, who seemingly have nothing in common, represent the past, present and the future connected to one tragic event: a passenger plane accident that left many questions unanswered. Until teenage boy Jacob, fresh off a traumatic incident of his own, announces that in a previous life,...
- 4/6/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
The fifth edition will see the TV festival return to its original springtime slot to run alongside MipTV.
French Oscar-winning director Xavier De Lestrade’s investigative thriller The Inside Game, Seeds Of Wrath and Danish bio-series The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen are among the 10 new series selected for competition in the upcoming edition of French TV festival Canneseries (April 1-6).
The fifth edition sees the event return its traditional springtime slot coinciding with the MipTV content market (April 4-6), after the festival moved to September in 2021 due to the Covid-pandemic.
Political thriller The Inside Game, Seeds Of Wrath stars Alix Poisson...
French Oscar-winning director Xavier De Lestrade’s investigative thriller The Inside Game, Seeds Of Wrath and Danish bio-series The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen are among the 10 new series selected for competition in the upcoming edition of French TV festival Canneseries (April 1-6).
The fifth edition sees the event return its traditional springtime slot coinciding with the MipTV content market (April 4-6), after the festival moved to September in 2021 due to the Covid-pandemic.
Political thriller The Inside Game, Seeds Of Wrath stars Alix Poisson...
- 3/8/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Sky’s German original Souls has wrapped production and producer Geißendörfer Pictures has dropped first-look images of the eight-part series.
Souls tells the story of Allie, Hanna, and Linn, three women whose lives are turned upside down when Hanna’s son, Jacob, is involved in a serious car accident and claims he remembers his earlier life as a pilot of a lost passenger plane.
Premiering next year, the series stars Brigitte Hobmeier as Hanna; Aaron Kissiov as Jacob; Julia Koschitz as Allie; Lili Epply as Linn; Aleksandar Jovanovic as Sebastian; Selam Tadese as Eddie; Godehard Giese as Vincent; Abak Safaei-Rad as Emma; Derya Dilber as Mathilda; and Laurence Rupp as Leo.
Souls is directed by Alex Eslam and Hanna Maria Heidrich. The writers are Eslam, Lisa van Brakel, Erol Yesilkaya, and Senad Lisa Halilbašić. Executive producers for Sky are Lucia Vogdt, Frank Jastfelder, and Marcus Ammon.
Vogdt said: “Souls extraordinary premise,...
Souls tells the story of Allie, Hanna, and Linn, three women whose lives are turned upside down when Hanna’s son, Jacob, is involved in a serious car accident and claims he remembers his earlier life as a pilot of a lost passenger plane.
Premiering next year, the series stars Brigitte Hobmeier as Hanna; Aaron Kissiov as Jacob; Julia Koschitz as Allie; Lili Epply as Linn; Aleksandar Jovanovic as Sebastian; Selam Tadese as Eddie; Godehard Giese as Vincent; Abak Safaei-Rad as Emma; Derya Dilber as Mathilda; and Laurence Rupp as Leo.
Souls is directed by Alex Eslam and Hanna Maria Heidrich. The writers are Eslam, Lisa van Brakel, Erol Yesilkaya, and Senad Lisa Halilbašić. Executive producers for Sky are Lucia Vogdt, Frank Jastfelder, and Marcus Ammon.
Vogdt said: “Souls extraordinary premise,...
- 6/29/2021
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- That oft-revisited theme of alienation, German-style, is given a unique spin in Living Films' "Identity Kills", a movie combining docudrama and thriller elements with interesting, if mixed, results.
A second feature by writer-director Soren Voigt, the story of a young woman's unsuccessful re-entry into society after being released from a psychiatric hospital takes a little while to engage the viewer, but once the Patricia Highsmith-type thriller aspect kicks in, the balance turns out to be quite watchable.
Resembling a young Isabelle Huppert (in the type of offbeat role that could easily fit into her resume), Brigitte Hobmeier is the troubled Karen, who has returned to her Berlin apartment to discover that her carousing boyfriend (Daniel Lommatzsch) has moved his ex-girlfriend into the place.
Determined to start making positive changes in her life, she gets a job at a factory that manufactures cutlery with the intention of eventually forking over enough savings to take a dream trip to the Caribbean.
As fate would have it, one day Karen is mistaken by resort manager Mr. Sanchez (Antonio Sanchez-Camera) for another young woman (Mareike Alscher) who has applied for a job at his Caribbean hotel. Karen quickly becomes obsessed with her, to the point of posing as Sanchez's assistant with the ultimate intention of fully assuming the woman's identity.
Voigt, who developed his screenplay through improvised scenes with his cast of professional and nonprofessional actors, delivers a picture that lacks the artistic polish of conventional thrillers, but in exchange, there's a random aspect to Karen's behavior that makes her closing-act behavior all the more unexpected.
TORONTO -- That oft-revisited theme of alienation, German-style, is given a unique spin in Living Films' "Identity Kills", a movie combining docudrama and thriller elements with interesting, if mixed, results.
A second feature by writer-director Soren Voigt, the story of a young woman's unsuccessful re-entry into society after being released from a psychiatric hospital takes a little while to engage the viewer, but once the Patricia Highsmith-type thriller aspect kicks in, the balance turns out to be quite watchable.
Resembling a young Isabelle Huppert (in the type of offbeat role that could easily fit into her resume), Brigitte Hobmeier is the troubled Karen, who has returned to her Berlin apartment to discover that her carousing boyfriend (Daniel Lommatzsch) has moved his ex-girlfriend into the place.
Determined to start making positive changes in her life, she gets a job at a factory that manufactures cutlery with the intention of eventually forking over enough savings to take a dream trip to the Caribbean.
As fate would have it, one day Karen is mistaken by resort manager Mr. Sanchez (Antonio Sanchez-Camera) for another young woman (Mareike Alscher) who has applied for a job at his Caribbean hotel. Karen quickly becomes obsessed with her, to the point of posing as Sanchez's assistant with the ultimate intention of fully assuming the woman's identity.
Voigt, who developed his screenplay through improvised scenes with his cast of professional and nonprofessional actors, delivers a picture that lacks the artistic polish of conventional thrillers, but in exchange, there's a random aspect to Karen's behavior that makes her closing-act behavior all the more unexpected.
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- That oft-revisited theme of alienation, German-style, is given a unique spin in Living Films' "Identity Kills", a movie combining docudrama and thriller elements with interesting, if mixed, results.
A second feature by writer-director Soren Voigt, the story of a young woman's unsuccessful re-entry into society after being released from a psychiatric hospital takes a little while to engage the viewer, but once the Patricia Highsmith-type thriller aspect kicks in, the balance turns out to be quite watchable.
Resembling a young Isabelle Huppert (in the type of offbeat role that could easily fit into her resume), Brigitte Hobmeier is the troubled Karen, who has returned to her Berlin apartment to discover that her carousing boyfriend (Daniel Lommatzsch) has moved his ex-girlfriend into the place.
Determined to start making positive changes in her life, she gets a job at a factory that manufactures cutlery with the intention of eventually forking over enough savings to take a dream trip to the Caribbean.
As fate would have it, one day Karen is mistaken by resort manager Mr. Sanchez (Antonio Sanchez-Camera) for another young woman (Mareike Alscher) who has applied for a job at his Caribbean hotel. Karen quickly becomes obsessed with her, to the point of posing as Sanchez's assistant with the ultimate intention of fully assuming the woman's identity.
Voigt, who developed his screenplay through improvised scenes with his cast of professional and nonprofessional actors, delivers a picture that lacks the artistic polish of conventional thrillers, but in exchange, there's a random aspect to Karen's behavior that makes her closing-act behavior all the more unexpected.
TORONTO -- That oft-revisited theme of alienation, German-style, is given a unique spin in Living Films' "Identity Kills", a movie combining docudrama and thriller elements with interesting, if mixed, results.
A second feature by writer-director Soren Voigt, the story of a young woman's unsuccessful re-entry into society after being released from a psychiatric hospital takes a little while to engage the viewer, but once the Patricia Highsmith-type thriller aspect kicks in, the balance turns out to be quite watchable.
Resembling a young Isabelle Huppert (in the type of offbeat role that could easily fit into her resume), Brigitte Hobmeier is the troubled Karen, who has returned to her Berlin apartment to discover that her carousing boyfriend (Daniel Lommatzsch) has moved his ex-girlfriend into the place.
Determined to start making positive changes in her life, she gets a job at a factory that manufactures cutlery with the intention of eventually forking over enough savings to take a dream trip to the Caribbean.
As fate would have it, one day Karen is mistaken by resort manager Mr. Sanchez (Antonio Sanchez-Camera) for another young woman (Mareike Alscher) who has applied for a job at his Caribbean hotel. Karen quickly becomes obsessed with her, to the point of posing as Sanchez's assistant with the ultimate intention of fully assuming the woman's identity.
Voigt, who developed his screenplay through improvised scenes with his cast of professional and nonprofessional actors, delivers a picture that lacks the artistic polish of conventional thrillers, but in exchange, there's a random aspect to Karen's behavior that makes her closing-act behavior all the more unexpected.
- 9/23/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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