04/08/2025 - Following up her Locarno-premiering hit Piaffe, the Berlin-based director returns with another outré and risqué-sounding project

The cast and crew of Objet a on set (© Johannes Päch)

After turning heads with her 2022 Locarno competition title Piaffe [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ann Oren
film profile], which had a wide festival run, Ann Oren has recently completed shooting on her new feature, Objet a, in Germany and Luxembourg. With the Berlin-based filmmaker also penning the screenplay, it appears a tonal companion piece to her prior film, following two hand surgeons and fetishists whose seemingly controlled world unravels when a new assistant enters their lives. The principal cast members are Aenne Schwarz (Every You Every Me [+see also:
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interview: Michael Fetter Nathansky
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interview: Sebastian Meise
film profile], recognisable for his roles in Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl movies, such as The Piano Teacher [+see also:
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interview: Ulrich Seidl
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The project participated in Locarno’s Alliance 4 Development lab and FIDMarseille’s FIDLab in 2023, and a synopsis shared from around that time reads as follows: Ingeborg and Adam live and work together as hand surgeons. Ingeborg is a kleptomaniac. During a fit, she hurts her ankle and gets a walking aid. As she becomes attached to her new, sensitive body part, the envious Adam finds his own object of desire. While they explore their objectophilias, the mysterious Gaia begins working for them. She has unusually wild armpit hair, and she uses dried mushrooms to soak up her sweat. Gradually, she lures the couple into a surreal dialogue with nature. The title refers to Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory of an unattainable object of desire, specifically a projection or reflection of the “ego”.

“Objet a is a tale about control and the hidden power in letting go of it,” said Oren in a statement. “It’s structured like a triangle of desire but with a twist. Objectophilia and fetishism in Objet a are a commentary on our modern, desensitised body. We touch flat screens more than our lovers’ skins, and so we miss out on touching and being touched.” The film’s producers expanded to say that it “explores themes of desire, control and bodily autonomy in a modern world that seems to have lost touch with its own senses”.

The picture is being produced by Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens and Fabian Altenried, of Germany’s Schuldenberg Films (which also has Jaume Claret Muxart’s Strange River in the upcoming Venice Orizzonti – see the news); Donato Rotunno, of Luxembourg’s Tarantula; and Vicky Miha, of Greece’s Asterisk*. Further backing comes from Creative Europe – MEDIA, Deutscher Filmforderfonds, Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung fur Kultur und Medien, Hessen Film & Medien, Filmforderungsanstalt and Film Fund Luxembourg.