Rohfilm to reunite with Hagar Ben Asher

Berlin-based production house Rohfilm is to reunited with Israeli film-maker Hagar Ben Asher (The Slut) on her next feature Deadsea which is set to shoot at locations in Israel from this autumn.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, co-managing director Benny Drechsel said that the co-production will be made with France’s Les Films du Poisson and Israel’s Cinema Group.

Drechsel and his business partner Karsten Stöter were the German co-producers on Asher’s debut feature The Slut, which had its world premiere at Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2011, and they returned to this sidebar last year with Ritesh Batra’s international bestseller The Lunchbox.

Beforehand, this summer will see Rohfilm rolling principal photography on Axel Koenzen’s feature film debut Deadweight set completely on a container ship.

“Koenzen’s short films Firn and the previous Wax’n’Wane were both invited to the festival in Cannes,” Drechsel said. “As he had shown in Firn, Axel Koenzen is able to tell special and impressive stories with an atmosphere coming from extreme situations.”

Films Boutique will handle international sales.

While Rohfilm is not in Cannes with a film this year - they showed seven there in the past six years - Stöter and Drechsel will be in town to discuss their development slate, with Drechsel also serving as one of the jury members of the Sony CineAlta Discovery Prize for the best short in the Critics’ Week sidebar.