11/02/2026 - The ambitious German-Belgian feature adapts Nils Westerboer’s award-winning novel, blending sci-fi crime with philosophical and emotional elements

Emma Nova and Maximilian Mundt in ATHOS 2643 (© Constantin Film/Paul Hepper)

Principal photography wrapped late last year on ATHOS 2643, the new sci-fi thriller directed by German hitmaker David Wnendt, marking the filmmaker’s return to genre cinema following the success of Sun and Concrete [+see also:
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film profile]. The feature is a big-screen adaptation of the prize-winning novel of the same name by German author Nils Westerboer, often described as The Name of the Rose set in space, and the first images of the film have now been unveiled.

Set in the year 2643, the story unfolds after the destruction of the Earth, with humanity surviving in scattered colonies across the solar system. On the remote and hostile Neptunian moon Athos, a secluded monastery becomes the site of a brutal murder. Suspicion soon falls on the monastery’s life-sustaining artificial intelligence. An inquisitor specialising in the interrogation of AIs is dispatched to investigate, accompanied by Zack, his holographic partner bound by strict security protocols. As the monks appear to be hiding something, while the monastery’s AI reveals itself to be a cunning tactician, skilfully concealing its actions, another murder escalates the inquiry into a battle over trust, control and survival. The inquisitor soon realises that without Zack, he could lose not only the case, but also his life, and thus he has to make an important decision.

The cast is led by Maximilian Mundt (How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) [+see also:
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Wnendt directs from his own screenplay, adapted from Westerboer’s novel, intertwining questions of faith, technology and human nature. The director has described ATHOS 2643 as “a love story – only one told in a world where there is no place for tenderness. Love is the final glow of humanity in the darkness of space.”

Filming took place between October and December 2025, and was carried out entirely in Germany, a rarity for large-scale European science fiction. Shooting locations included Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia and Bavaria, as well as Studio Babelsberg. The creative team includes cinematographer Jakub Bejnarowicz (Dying [+see also:
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ATHOS 2643 is being produced by Fabian Gasmia and David Wnendt through their banner Seven Elephants, and co-produced by Oliver Berben and Viola Jäger for Constantin Film, Lasse Scharpen for Berlin-based Studio Zentral, and Bastien Sirodot and Cédric Iland for Brussels-based Umedia Production. The project is supported by an extensive funding package, including backing from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), Creative Europe – MEDIA, the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), FFF Bayern, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, FFA – German Federal Film Board, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MFG Baden-Württemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and the Belgian Tax Shelter. ATHOS 2643 is slated for a German theatrical release on 25 February 2027, to be handled by Constantin Film.