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Sieger sein

Winners
Generation Kplus 2024
© Stephan Burchardt / DCM
Eleven-year-old Mona and the rest of her seven-member Kurdish family have fled Syria and ended up in Berlin. Or, more precisely, the neighbourhood of Wedding where Mona is sent to a notorious primary school attended by 90 percent “foreigners”. Chaos reigns in the school. Most of the teachers are having a nervous breakdown and frustration levels amongst the pupils are growing by the day. Mona feels it, too. She can barely speak German, but she can speak football. In her hometown, she often played street football with her mates. She misses her home, her friends and especially her aunt Helin. She was Mona’s hero who always supported her passion for football. Everything is different in Germany. Then a dedicated teacher called Mr Che recognises Mona’s special talent and selects her for the girls’ team. But this well-intentioned gesture fails to make things any easier. Mona is quickly identified as an outsider and playing in a team with the other girls turns out to be more difficult than expected. Each of them is fighting their own battles but one thing soon becomes clear: they will only win if they all play together.
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by Soleen Yusef
with Dileyla Agirman, Andreas Döhler, Sherine Ciara Merai, Tamira Bwibo, Halima Ilter, Hêvîn Tekin, Peri Baumeister, Alireza Ahmadi, Carina Wiese, Fatima Hamieh, Samira Hamieh, Heidi Tebroke, Yumin Hannah Cho, Carlotta Su Ipsen, Artemis Kostopoulou, Anisa Perk, Rankin Duffy, Manasse Kiefer, Matteo Mermer, Dominic John Brandl, Ceci Chuh Germany 2024 German, Kurdish 119’ Colour World premiere recommendation: 9 years and up

With

  • Dileyla Agirman (Mona)
  • Andreas Döhler (Herr Che)
  • Sherine Ciara Merai (Jasmin)
  • Tamira Bwibo (Terrry)
  • Halima Ilter (Nada Sabri)
  • Hêvîn Tekin (Aunt Helin)
  • Peri Baumeister (Ms Abbel)
  • Alireza Ahmadi (Jagar)
  • Carina Wiese (Ms Burchardt)
  • Fatima Hamieh (Aysel)
  • Samira Hamieh (Ayla)
  • Heidi Tebroke (Gina)
  • Yumin Hannah Cho (Thi-Le)
  • Carlotta Su Ipsen (Nadine)
  • Artemis Kostopoulou (Funda)
  • Anisa Perk (Rania)
  • Rankin Duffy (Harry)
  • Manasse Kiefer (Hussein)
  • Matteo Mermer (Vedat)
  • Dominic John Brandl (Food)
  • Ceci Chuh (Commentator)

Crew

Director Soleen Yusef
Screenplay Soleen Yusef
Cinematography Stephan Burchardt
Editing Marty Schenk
Music David Menke, Boris Rogowski
Sound Design Sebastian Schmidt, Marty Schenk
Sound Johannes Hampel
Sound Mixing Olaf Mehl
Production Design Nadja Götze
Costumes Saskia Richter
Make-Up Virginie Thomann
Casting Liza Stutzky, Jacqueline Rietz
Producers Sonja Schmitt, Marc Schmidheiny, Christoph Daniel
Co-Producers Dario Suter, Claus Boje, Joel Brandeis, Detlev Buck
Commissioning Editors Anke Lindemann, Nicole Schneider, Lene Neckel, Jens Opatz
Co-Production Boje Buck Produktion Potsdam
MDR Leipzig
SWR Stuttgart
WDR Köln

World sales

DCM Film Distribution

https://dcmstories.com https://dcmstories.com

Produced by

DCM Pictures

https://dcmworld.com https://dcmworld.com

Photos

Soleen Yusef

© Leo Lokai

Born in Duhok in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in 1987, she fled with her family to Berlin when she was a child. Whilst training in fashion, singing and acting, she worked as an assistant in production, directing and distribution at mîtosfilm. In 2008, she began studying fiction directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Her third-year film Trattoria premiered at the 2012 Berlinale. Since making her debut feature film Haus ohne Dach (2016), for which she won awards including the First Steps Award, she has been working on international productions for Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+.

Filmography

2012 Trattoria 2014 Der NSU-Prozess – Das Protokoll des ersten Jahres; documentary 2015 Der NSU-Prozess – Das Protokoll des zweiten Jahres; documentary 2016 Haus ohne Dach (House Without Roof) 2017 SOKO Leipzig (Leipzig Homicide); episodes 366–367 2018 Meiberger – Im Kopf des Täters (Meiberger: Chasing Minds); episodes 5–8 2019 Skylines; episodes 4–6 2020 Deutschland 89; episodes 1–8 2023 Sam – Ein Sachse (Sam – A Saxon); episodes 1–4 · Sieger sein (Winners)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2024