02/06/2025 - Moritz Geiser's graduation film from the DFFB will star a series of up-and-coming actors alongside veteran German thesp Eva Löbau

Fitness and Despair is the working title of Moritz Geiser’s new drama film, which boasts an experimental edge. The film is the German director’s graduation piece from the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie (DFFB) in Berlin. Shooting took place in the German city over the course of 25 days between February and March this year. Post-production is under way.

Geiser is the writer and director of this so-called “genre-blending” love story. At its core are Berlin-based local politicians Wanda and Faraz, who, in their long-term relationship, constantly try to strike a balance in their recurrent “troublesome small-scale negotiations in love and democracy”. The official synopsis goes on: “But what happens to a contemporary, egalitarian relationship when one partner’s career is taking off while the other’s is not? Can love as a communist island, essentially unselfish and irrational, survive in a free-market environment based on self-interest and economic rationality?”

Fitness and Despair is also the graduation film for Daria Wichmann, who studies production at the DFFB. She is getting support from producer Margarita Amineva-Jester, who is an alumna of the DFFB herself and founded her own company, Voices Films, in 2022. “Voices Films supports emerging artists on their journey to creating thought-provoking, universally relevant and aesthetically valuable, auteur-driven films, both fiction and documentaries. The main focus of Voices Films is on high-quality co-productions in Germany with international voices, including filmmakers from post-Soviet countries,” says the website of the young firm. Several feature-length films, as well as a series, are in development at present.

Behind the camera, director Geiser is supported by Hannes Schulze (Slackers [+see also:
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interview: Annika Pinske
film profile], The Massacre of Anröchte, Toubab [+see also:
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interview: Anna Maria Mühe
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interview: Sarah Winkenstette
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interview: İlker Çatak
interview: Leonie Benesch
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film profile]).

Fitness and Despair is a production by the DFFB in co-production with Voices Films. It was supported through the Leuchtstoff programme for newcomers, and was funded by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg and TV channel RBB. The release is planned for 2026/2027, although the movie has no distributor attached as yet.

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