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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Germany

Shooting starts for the directorial debut by German actor Charly Hübner, Sophia, Death and I

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- The road movie is an adaptation of the best-selling novel by German author and musician Thees Uhlmann, toplined by Anna Maria Mühe, Marc Hosemann and Dimitrij Schaad

Shooting starts for the directorial debut by German actor Charly Hübner, Sophia, Death and I
l-r: Actors Marc Hosemann, Anna Maria Mühe, Dimitrij Schaad and Johanna Gastdorf with director Charly Hübner (© Niklas Marc Heinecke/DCM)

In mid-March, principal photography kicked off for Sophia, Death and I in Berlin. The shoot will shortly continue to Brandenburg, Hamburg and the south of the country, reaching as far as Bavaria. German actor Charly Hübner (Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush [+see also:
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) is well known in the world of German TV and cinema. He has starred in a string of youth and children’s films, such as the Bibi & Tina [+see also:
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franchise, but also in a considerable number of independent productions, often playing rather comical or melancholic characters, such as in Arne Feldhusen's recent adaptation of the novel Magical Mystery by Sven Regener.

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Hübner is now daring to switch roles and is directing his first feature. With Sophia, Death and I, he is adapting the successful novel by German author and musician Thees Uhlmann. The screenplay has been written by young actress-producer-writer Lena May Graf, who comes from a family of prominent filmmakers, her mother being Sherry Hormann (A Regular Woman [+see also:
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) and her father Dominik Graf (Fabian – Going to the Dogs [+see also:
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). The cinematography will be entrusted to Martin Farkas, who has worked with Annekatrin Hendel on her last two documentaries, Banished to Paradise [+see also:
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and Beauty and Decay [+see also:
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.

For the three main roles in this comedy-road movie, the director has called upon the services of Anna Maria Mühe (The Path, Lassie Come Home [+see also:
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), the daughter of the late Ulrich Mühe, who is best known for his last role in The Lives of Others [+see also:
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]
by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; Marc Hosemann (Cortex [+see also:
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, The Golden Glove [+see also:
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); and Dimitrij Schaad (JGA: Jasmin. Gina. Anna., The Kangaroo Chronicles [+see also:
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). Among the supporting cast are Lina Beckmann (Do You Sometimes Feel Burned Out and Empty? [+see also:
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), Gina Haller (The Death of My Mother [+see also:
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), Carlo Ljubeck, Falilou Seck (I'm Your Man [+see also:
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, Precious Ivie [+see also:
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), Rocko Schamoni (00 Schneider: Im Wendekreis der Eidechse) and Josef Ostendorf (Eden).

The film tells an absurd story: Sophia (Anna Maria Mühe) wants to pick up her friend Reiner (Dimitrij Schaad) in order to travel with him to his mother's place on the occasion of the latter's birthday. When she arrives at Reiner's in the morning, there is someone else waiting for her. Morten de Sarg (Marc Hosemann) is Death and has come to take Reiner away with him. But for some mysterious reason, he can't make Reiner die. So the three of them embark on a trip that brings them to several points in Reiner's life. They are secretly observed by God (Josef Ostendorf) himself as well as the Archangel Michaela (Lina Beckmann).

Sophia, Death and I is a production by DCM, in co-production with Bucket and German TV channel ZDF. It has been funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MOIN Filmförderung, FFF-Bayern, MDM (Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung), FFA (Filmförderungsanstalt) and DFFF. The feature is planned to be released in German cinemas in spring 2023 and will be distributed by DCM.

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