The acclaimed German director Tom Tykwer, popular for Run Lola Run, Cloud Atlas and Drei will open the 75th Berlin International Film Festival with his new feature, Das Licht (The Light).
The German-French production will be presented as a Berlinale Special Gala in the Berlinale Palast.
The Festival Director Tricia Tuttle said that they wanted the film to open the 75th edition when they saw it.
"Tom Tykwer finds beauty and joy in our often fractured and challenging world, and magically captures the essence of our modern life on screen. It is our great pleasure to welcome Tom back to the Berlinale with Das Licht (The Light)”.
The film tells the story of the Engels family. It stars internationally acclaimed German actor Lars Eidinger (Dying, About Joan, Babylon Berlin) and the renowned actor and director Nicolette Krebitz (A Cloud in Our House, A E I O U - A Quick Alphabet of Love).
Tim (Lars Eidinger), Milena (Nicolette Krebitz), their twins Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer) and Jon (Julius Gause) and Milena`s son Dio (Elyas Eldridge) are a family that lives more side by side than together and nothing holds them together until the housekeeper Farrah (Tala Al-Deen) enters their lives. The mysterious woman from Syria puts the Engels’ world to an unexpected test and brings to light feelings that have long been hidden. In the process, she pursues a plan all of her own that will fundamentally change the family’s life.
Director and screenwriter Tom Tykwer shows the everyday life of a German middle class family in a world that is spinning fast and has become unstable.
Tom Tykwer has opened the Berlinale twice previously: in 2002 with his first international production Heaven and in 2009 with the political thriller The International.
The film was produced by X Filme Creative Pool, in co-production with ZDF, ARP Séléction, Gold Rush Pictures, Gretchenfilm and B.A. Filmproduktion. Beta Cinema is handling world sales.
K. Gjozev