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FILMS Germany / Norway

Liv Ullmann on German screens in the fall

by 

- In the German-Norwegian coproduction Zwei Leben by Georg Maas, Liv Ullmann plays the mother of Juliane Köhler, an East German spy who started a new life in Norway

Liv Ullmann on German screens in the fall

The German-Norwegian coproduction Zwei Leben (lit. Two Lives), the second fiction feature film by Georg Maas (nine years after NewFoundLand) which was in the Cannes line-up of Beta Cinema, will be released in German theatres on September 19th, distributed by Farbfilm. It arrived on Norwegian screens last October after being presented in Haugesund and Bergen.

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A back-to-front path was followed by Katrine, the heroine of this thriller with a 3.4 million euro budget which reunites Dieter Zeppenfeld from Zinnober Film, his German colleague Rudi Teichman from B & T Film and Norwegian producer Axel Helgeland from Helgeland Film (the film is actually one of the first coproductions shared by the two countries in 35 years). In fact, Katrine (Juliane Köhler, known on the international scene for her role in Aimée & Jaguar), originally from the GDR, now leads a quiet life on the Norwegian coast with her family, who know nothing of her past. When the Berlin wall comes down and a lawyer turns up investigating a Nazi war crime, her past rises to the surface and forces Katrine to return to the life of a spy that she had abandoned, in order to protect her secrets.

In this disturbing drama, which is inspired by real events and brings together two delicate chapters in the recent history of Germany, the role of the Norwegian mother is played by Liv Ullmann, the legendary muse of Bergman. She and Köhler play opposite Ken Duken (Inglourious Basterds [+see also:
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]
), Sven Nordin (Sons of Norway [+see also:
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trailer
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]
) and Rainer Bock (Barbara [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Petzold
film profile
]
).

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(Translated from French)

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