Austrian filmmaker Rosa Friedrich is currently shooting her debut fiction feature, Who Is Afraid of God (Wer hat Angst vor Gott), a coming-of-age comedy about an 18-year-old influencer who transforms a shy outsider into an internet sensation and pseudo-saint.

The film follows smart and ambitious influencer Bella, who turns dreamy outsider Maria into something approaching an online saint after discovering mysterious wounds resembling the stigmata of Jesus. Amid online healing sessions, likes and heavenly merchandise, an unexpected friendship develops between the two girls. But as Maria begins to believe in her own healing powers, they gradually lose control of the persona they have created for her, putting their friendship at risk.

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Katharina Hirschberg (Bibi & Tina – Just Different) plays Bella, with Lena Urzendowsky (Sound of Falling, Cocoon) breathing life into Maria. The cast also includes Heike Makatsch (The Most Beautiful Girl in the World), Inge Maux (The Garden), Hubert Kramar and Sabine Timoteo (Transamazonia).

Friedrich directs from a screenplay she co-wrote with Joshua Jádi. Born in East Berlin, the filmmaker took Philosophy, Psychology and Film Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin before studying under Michael Haneke and Jessica Hausner at the Vienna Film Academy. Her graduation film, Potted Palm Trees (see the interview), screened at Karlovy Vary and Nouveau Cinéma Montréal, and was nominated for the First Steps Award, while her experimental, no-budget feature Wander was invited to the Max Ophüls Festival. Her debut documentary, My Friend the Porn Star, premiered this year in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima competition.

The film began shooting in Leipzig on 23 September and will continue in Hannover before wrapping in Vienna. The production comprises 28 shooting days and is scheduled for completion in winter 2027/2028. Jakob Wiessner serves as director of photography, with Nadja Götze as production designer, Laura Yasemin Schäffler on board as costume designer, Dörte Dobkowitz and Lena Damm as make-up artists, Patrick Dadaczynski as sound recordist, Flora Rajakowitsch as sound designer, Matthias Writze as editor, and Daniel Castoral as composer. Klara Pollak and Lena Krins serve as production managers.

Who Is Afraid of God is being produced by Sabine Moser, Oliver Neumann and Klara Pollak for Vienna-based FreibeuterFilm, with Nicole Gerhards producing for Berlin-based NiKo Film. The movie is a 50/50 German-Austrian co-production. ORF is participating, while the German side of the production sees the involvement of Saarländischer Rundfunk. The project received development support from Creative Europe - MEDIA, and is supported by the Austrian Film Institute and Filmfonds Wien, as well as the German Federal Film Board (FFA), nordmedia, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF).