Marlene Bischof and Nicolai Zeitler on how they made buzzy Hamburg title ‘I Am The Greatest’

German filmmakers Marlene Bischof and Nicolai Zeitler, partners in work and life, have been making short films since 2018 and now take the leap to feature films with I Am The Greatest, launching at Filmfest Hamburg this month, as part of the Große Freiheit programme. 

The seven-part anthology film follows seven characters as they struggle to deal with their anxieties and insecurities. The cast is comprised of rising local stars led by Katharina Stark, Ben Felipe, Mark Waschke, Peter Trabner, Christian Erdt and Bischof and Zeitler’s toddler son Tyll, who they say is keen to star in the couple’s next film.

Produced by BerghausWöbke Film alongside ZDF - Das kleine Fernsehspiel and ARTE in collaboration with University of Television and Film Munich (HFF Munich), the €625,000 film will be broadcast as a seven-part series on ARTE later this year.

BerghausWöbke is handling international sales.

Filmfest Hamburg director of programming Kathrin Kohlstedde described Bischof and Zeitler as part of “a new generation [of German filmmakers with] the courage and confidence to tell stories in a different way”. They talk to Screen about they pulled together their first film together, their stream of consciousness style, how they divide the filmmaking workload.

How did the film come about?

Nicolai Zeitler: We’d always wanted to make a film that dives into people’s daydreams and fantasies, showing how they reveal our fears, insecurities, and desires. It’s what we talked about on our very first date.

Marlene Bischof: Unspoken fear separates us, while spoken fear brings us together. That’s why we need to show more vulnerability.

NZ: It was the basis of our short film Everything Wrong With The World which we shot in 2021 with a crew of five over three days in Munich on no budget. There was such a great energy on the shoot that we wanted to explore this style further so that short became the opening section of I Am The Greatest.

The film is dominated by interior monologues that blur the lines between reality and each characters’ imagination, that replay scenes again and again. Why did you make this stylistic choice?

NZ: We’re big fans of stream-of-consciousness novels and we wanted to make a film showing how people experience the world. We preferred to keep it as snapshots of each characters’ lives which, when seen together, create an experience where audiences can feel how similar our inner struggles really are.

MB: Replaying scenes is how we remember things. We always replay situations in our minds and every time they change and that has huge significance. I really enjoy writing inner voices and it gives an ambiguity to the stories.

How did production and financing come together?

NZ: [Commissioning editor] Lucia Haslauer at ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel was excited by the short. We are also very grateful for the funding from FFF Bayern and ARTE and the collaboration with HFF Munich and post-production house Pharos. We had already been developing a series with BerghausWöbke and they agreed to produce. They are a fantastic company to work with, truly passionate film people.

MB: Lucia gave us complete creative freedom and encouraged us to push boundaries. We shot the film in Munich in 2023 over 36 days with a small team with short breaks in between each episode because we have two small children and we were writing the scripts at the same time.

How did you cast the film?

NZ: It was an exciting process because we were fortunate renowned actors like Mark Waschke and Katharina Stark wanted to be involved and we also cast real people and friends in smaller roles which allowed us to create a truly authentic environment.

MB: For the segment One, Two Three…And Now? about an insecure father with his son in a playground, we shot it round the corner from our house and asked all the families we knew to take part.

You write and direct your films as a team. How do you divide the workload?

MB: When it comes to the script, normally Nicolai sits in the kitchen and I run through and throw dialogue in the air and he integrates it into the structure! During the shoot, he was on set directing the actors while I focused on the script and creative decisions to do with the design and costumes.

NZ: If it were a series, Marlene would be the showrunner and I would be the director.

What are you working on now?

MB: I’ve written a film about motherhood which is called Ich Geh Ein, Ich Geh Aus [literally ‘I Go In, I Go Out], and was funded by the Kuratorium junger deutscher Film.

NZ: We are also developing a story about a female stalker which looks at the story from the perspective of both stalker and the person stalked.

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