Polish director Agnieszka Holland is set to direct a biopic of legendary German star Marlene Dietrich, titled Berlinweh – Yearning For A Home.
Berlinweh reunites the producer teams behind Holland’s most film Franz - Berlin-based X Filme Creative Pool, the Czech company Marlene Film Production, and British/Irish producer Mike Downey. World sales are handled by Films Boutique.
Based on a screenplay by Ingo Rasper, Berlinweh tells the story of Dietrich, who spent much of her life standing in opposition to her home country, while at the same time struggling with a deep longing to return.
It follows Dietrich across four decisive days in four different decades, portraying her in shifting cultural and political contexts: Paris in 1937, Bergen- Belsen in 1945, Tel Aviv in 1960, and once again Paris in 1983.
The film is set to go into production in autumn 2027. No cast has yet been attached.
Holland was Oscar nominated for 1992’s Europa, Europa and won Venice’s jury prize for 2023’s Green Border.
“Every time I tell myself I won’t make films about real, famous people anymore… and then someone emerges from the past who asks me the most important, most timely questions, in whose choices I can find my own choices and anxieties,” said Holland.
“Marlene Dietrich was a tangle of contradictions: a glamour star, yet an outstanding actress, singer and soldier; a selfish egocentrist and a loyal, magnanimous friend and lover; a fighter for human rights, full of fears and uncertainties; a German who, in the eyes of many of her countrymen, became a traitor. We do not tell her life in a continuous, linear narrative. We look for those few turning moments in which what was most important and most universal — what resonates most strongly today in her fate — is reflected. The fate of a woman, an artist, a citizen, a human being.”
Berlinweh is produced by Uwe Schott and Josephine Blume for X Filme Creative Pool, Šárka Cimbalová for Marlene Film Production, British/Irish producer Mike Downey and Jean-Christophe Simon as co-producer for Parallel45 on the French side.
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