KRUX

A remote village in northeastern Germany, ten days before the end of the Second World War. Most of the men are at the front; those who remain are a handful of women, children, and the few men allowed to stay behind the lines: a mayor, a priest, a teacher. Everyone still believes the war will end well. Then the river gives up bodies no one can identify. No one knows when the enemy will arrive, or what will happen when it does. Finally, an order comes: “No living Germans for the enemy to find.” Everyone is left alone to face the same dilemma: keep living without knowing what comes next, or obey the order and put an end to it all, simply to have the certainty of something?

“I wanted to tell this story because of the German word “Kadavergehorsam” – corpse-like obedience. Obedience so total that a person stops being a person, and just follows orders, like a body without a will. This frightens me. A state trained people to give up their own will completely – their body, their voice, even their right to ask ‘why,’ claiming power over the bodies of its inhabitants.”

DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: Tony Vahl. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Piotr Sobociński Jr. EDITING: Nikodem Chabior. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Katarzyna Sikora. COSTUME DESIGN: Aleksandra Staszko. MUSIC: Lorenz Dangel. SOUND: Johannes Hampel, Sebastian Schmidt, Olaf Mehl. CAST: Jella Haase, Frida-Lovisa Hamann, Clemens Schick, Lukas Miko, Martin Wuttke, Steffi Kühnert, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Marlene Franzone, Phileas Heyblom, Hugo Goers, Simon Jonathan Gierlich, Agathe Rusch, Lilly Marie Tschörtner, Axel Werner. PRODUCTION: Martina Haubrich for CALA Filmproduktion, Ewa Puszczyńska for Extreme Emotions. COPRODUCTION: Claudia Schröter for CALA Film Central, Peter Hartwig for Kineo Film, Grupa Moderator, DI Factory, Bayerischer Rundfunk in cooperation with Arte. CONTACT: Kasiyana Angelova, Global Constellation kasiyana@globalconstellation.eu