German-Turkish director Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay has completed production on his second feature film, Hysteria [+lire aussi :
interview : Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
fiche film]. In 2019, the helmer debuted with his first feature-length effort, Oray [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
fiche film], in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of the Berlinale, where it received the Best First Feature Award. He has not only directed his new effort, but also devised the narrative and served as producer.

The project is being staged by his production company, Filmfaust, which he founded in Cologne in 2020 together with fellow producer Claus Reichel. The firm has lately been particularly successful with the release of the documentary Love, Deutschmarks and Death [+lire aussi :
critique
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interview : Cem Kaya
fiche film] by Cem Kaya. The film celebrated its premiere at the Berlinale in 2022, where it won the Audience Award in the Panorama section, and subsequently embarked on a fruitful global festival run.

Hysteria is a thriller-drama, the action of which takes place on a film set. Things spiral out of control when a Quran is burned on set, but the records of the event mysteriously disappear. The assistant director is then drawn into a convoluted scenario, seeking clarifications as to what actually happened. The different people working on set, such as the producer of the film, its director and some of the actors, who come from a home for refugees, all have their own perspective on what happened.

Starring in the role of assistant director Elif is German actress Devrim Lingnau (Auerhaus [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film]), who can currently be seen playing the main character of Sisi in Netflix’s historical series The Empress. In Hysteria, she is supported by actress-director Nicolette Krebitz (A E I O U - A Quick Alphabet of Love [+lire aussi :
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interview : Nicolette Krebitz
fiche film], Wild [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]) in the role of the producer, Serkan Kaya (Planet Ottakring [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film]) as the director, plus Mehdi Meskar (Prophets [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], Samad), Nazmi Kirik (Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush [+lire aussi :
critique
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interview : Andreas Dresen
interview : Meltem Kaptan
fiche film]) and Aziz Capkurt (In the Blind Spot [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ayşe Polat
fiche film], Whispers of War [+lire aussi :
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interview : Florian Hoffmann
fiche film]), who play three of the extras on set.

Hysteria is now in post-production. Shooting ended earlier this summer after taking place over the course of 35 days in Rüsselheim, Cologne and Hürth, cities located in the regions of Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It was also the film funding from these two regions that supported the movie financially. The feature is a co-production between Filmfaust and ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel. Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, HessenFilm, the FFA and the DFFF have provided funding.

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