JULIA VON HEINZ

Project: The Preserver
Scr: Julia Von Heinz
Estimated budget: $2.7m (Eu2m)

Love and how to overcome social barriers are the themes of the second film by Berlin film-maker Julia Von Heinz.

The Preserver (working title) is about a 35-year-old woman brought up in the German aristocracy who is a staunch upholder of her family's traditional values.

But when she falls in love with a man from a different social class, everyone involved is put to the test as outdated concepts come into conflict with social realities.

Von Heinz says: 'The aristocratic scene has preserved nearly all of their taboos from the last centuries. The resulting conflicts are of an existential nature one rarely finds elsewhere. The whole issue is about nothing but a name. And yet the result for many women is a lonely life.'

Von Heinz is presently making a documentary on the same theme, focusing on three single women in their thirties. Berlin's Credo Film is producing both projects.
Earlier this year, Von Heinz's first film, Nothing Else Matters, about a young woman who runs away from home to work in the fashion industry, won the Crystal Gryphon at Italy's Giffoni Film Festival for children and young people.