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Nackte Tiere

Naked Animals
Encounters 2020
© Czar Film
Katja, Sascha, Benni, Laila and Schöller. These five young people have more in common than just the fact that they are living in provincial Germany free of parental interference. They have one last winter together before they finish school, then they are supposed to know what they want to do: stay or leave. In between homework and smoking dope, martial arts training and gossiping about deflowering people, they explore their feelings in all kinds of different relationships, searching for each other, hiding, kissing and fighting. They want to live, to conquer the world and find out who they really are. They are young and exude an enviable naturalness when it comes to gender identities and roles, above all Katja, played by Marie Tragousti with a lot of new female power. Melanie Waelde’s feature debut is tremendously intense and vibrant. Going beyond cuteness, she draws these “naked animals” with a raw, sensual and sensitive openness rarely seen in German cinema. On the cusp between the end of childhood and burgeoning maturity, body and soul are still more or less united. Just like loneliness and intimacy. We are vulnerable – and that’s a good thing.
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by Melanie Waelde
with Marie Tragousti, Sammy Scheuritzel, Michelangelo Fortuzzi, Luna Schaller, Paul Michael Stiehler Germany 2020 German 83’ Colour World premiere Rating R12

With

  • Marie Tragousti (Katja)
  • Sammy Scheuritzel (Sascha)
  • Michelangelo Fortuzzi (Benni)
  • Luna Schaller (Laila)
  • Paul Michael Stiehler (Schöller)

Crew

Written and Directed by Melanie Waelde
Cinematography Fion Mutert
Editing Jessica Schneller
Sound Robert Fuhrmann
Production Design Marcel Bonewald, Isabelle C. Schnabel
Costumes Alina Bader, Sophie Leypold
Make-Up Franziska Mayntz
Assistant Director Lotta Schwerk
Production Manager Paul Dehn
Producer Anja Wedell
Executive Producers Thorne Mutert, Jan Fincke

World Sales

Media Luna New Films

Produced by

Czar Film

Photos

Berlinale Meets | Interview

Melanie Waelde

© Jan Ernsting

Born in Dachau, Germany in 1992, she graduated with a degree in screenwriting from the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB) in 2017. She works as a freelance writer and filmmaker, and her short films have screened at several festivals. Her short documentary, Like in Africa, won the Young German Filmmaker Award at the Up-and-Coming International Film Festival Hannover. Alongside her film work she also writes experimental short stories and poetry. Nackte Tiere is her feature-length debut.

Filmography

2012 Großer starker Bruder; short film · Irrdisch; short film 2014 Like in Africa; short documentary 2016 Motten; short film 2018 Ohne Euch; short film 2020 Nackte Tiere (Naked Animals)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020