North American Premiere
After his family is deported, Cioma Schönhaus, a young Jewish man living in 1942 Germany, ekes out a living at a munitions factory and enjoys Berlin’s nightlife under a fake naval officer ID. He puts his skills as a graphic artist to use for a former Nazi bureaucrat, forging passports and IDs to help Jewish people escape the country. Adapting the story from Schönhaus’ memoir, director Maggie Peren gives her film the same immaculate attention to detail as Cioma does his forgeries, contrasting the dimly lit Berlin of Jewish people struggling with food rations with the decadence of the Nazis.
Cioma (played with winsome charm by Louis Hofmann) waltzes through the city with reckless abandon, impersonating military personnel to dance with women at bars, and endeavouring to live life to its fullest instead of hiding. The film balances the playful atmosphere of his ingenuity and aplomb against the sombre backdrop of Nazi Germany and the looming danger Cioma faces with each forgery and elegant lie.
Media Partner
Louis Hofmann, Jonathan Berlin, Luna Wedler, Nina Gummich, Marc Limpach, André Jung
Germany/Luxembourg
2022
In German with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
There's Still Tomorrow
A critical and box office sensation in Italy, Paola Cortellesi's triumphant directorial debut is the tale of a Roman housewife in 1946, who stands up against the routine sexist abuse she suffers. Funny, heartbreaking and inspiring.
The Way, My Way
All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.
The Stand
This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.
Resident Orca
Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.
No Other Land
Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.
Misericordia
Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.
Credits
Producer
Alexander Fritzemeyer, Martin Kosok
Screenwriter
Maggie Peren
Cinematography
Christian Stangassinger
Editor
Robert Sterna
Production Design
Eva-Maria Stiebler
Original Music
Mario Grigorov
Director
Maggie Peren
Maggie Peren is an award-winning writer and director born in Heidelberg, Germany. After studying literature and psychology in Munich, she wrote her first screenplay Forget America (2000). In 2003, she received the German Film Award for Before the Fall (2004), followed by numerous screenplays for which she won national and international awards. In 2011, she presented her second directorial work, The Color of the Ocean. The refugee drama premiered in Toronto and was awarded several prizes worldwide. Her thriller short film Nocebo (2014) won the Student Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
Filmography: Stellungswechsel (2007); The Color of the Ocean (2011); Hello Again – A Wedding a Day (2020)