Simon Verhoeven wraps the filming of Ach, diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke

by Olivia Popp

25/07/2025 - The German director brings Joachim Meyerhoff’s best-selling novel to the screen; it is set for a local release in January 2026

Simon Verhoeven wraps the filming of Ach, diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke

Back, l-r: Magdalena Prosteder (Warner Bros Film Productions Germany), director and author Simon Verhoeven, Judith Erber (co-head of Funding Department, FFF Bavaria) and producer Janine Jackowski; front, l-r: Michael Wittenborn, Bruno Alexander and Senta Berger (© Frédéric Batier/Komplizen Film/Warner Bros Entertainment GmbH)

Munich-born director Simon Verhoeven has concluded principal photography in Munich, Cologne and Berlin for his next feature Ach, diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke (lit. "Oh This Gap, This Horrible Gap"), based on the novel of the same name by Joachim Meyerhoff. The story is inspired by the third instalment in a best-selling five-part semi-autobiographical series by Meyerhoff, known as the Alle Toten fliegen hoch (lit. "All the Dead Fly High") series. Verhoeven is perhaps best known for the German box-office phenomenon Welcome to Germany [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and most recently directed the successful comedy Old White Man [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Jan Josef Liefers.

Ach, diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke follows the 20-year-old Joachim, who is accepted into the Otto Falckenberg School of the Performing Arts in Munich in the 1980s and 1990s. He moves into the upper-class villa of his eccentric grandparents Inge and Herman in Nyphenburg, located on the outskirts of the Bavarian city, where the two new settings symbolise the start of dramatic shifts for the young man.

The film will star Bruno Alexander, Senta Berger and Michael Wittenborn, with a supporting cast made up of Katharina Stark, Laura Tonke, Devid Striesow, Anne Ratte Polle, Friedrich von Thun, Tom Schilling, Johann von Bülow, Moritz Treuenfels, Karoline Herfurth, Victoria Trauttmansdorff, Michael A Grimm, Maeve Metelka, Dana Herfurth, Max Wolter, Benedikt Kalcher, Momo Beier, Mouataz Alshaltouh and Frida Lang. Frequent Verhoeven collaborator Jo Heim has joined as the DoP.

Alle Toten fliegen hoch began as a six-part stage play, which Meyerhoff then wrote into the five-part book series. The first story to be adapted from the novels was the second instalment, a tragicomedy titled When Will It Be Again Lit It Never Was Before [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sonja Heiss
film profile] (2023) by Sonja Heiss. This will be the second story from Meyerhoff’s series to be adapted for the screen. The script was penned by Verhoeven and co-written by Lars Hubrich.