Arri Media International will handle world sales for writer/director Lukas Rinker’s feature debut, the “confined space” comic thriller Ach Du Scheisse! (working title), which began shooting in Offenbach near Frankfurt on Monday (March 1).
The action takes place in real time over 90 minutes, as architect Frank (Thomas Niehaus) regains consciousness in a locked portaloo – known in German vernacular by local brand name Dixi Klo – on a building site where a detonation is being prepared.
As he seeks to escape this prison in a race against time before being blown to smithereens, he realises who put him in this predicament: none other than the town mayor (Gedeon Burkhard), who has lecherous designs on Frank’s pregnant girlfriend (Olga von Luckwald).
The production by Tonio Kellner and Jakob Zapf’s Frankfurt-based Neopol Film received €290,000 ($350,000) in funding from HessenFilm und Medien’s dedicated programme for debut filmmakers as well as financial support from the fund’s Step initiative to give five interns work experience on a film production.
It also attracted in-kind support from service providers MBF Filmtechnik, the FunDeMental music and audio post-production studios, Trachten Drescher and Arri Media as well as sponsorship from Dixi and Toi Toi portaloos.
Principal photography of Ach Du Scheisse! – which translates as “Holy Shit!” or “Bugger It!” in English – will continue in Offenbach and Frankfurt until the end of March. Studio Hamburg Enterprises will handle distribution in Germany.
Rinker’s filmography includes award-winning short films, social spots and commercials. He is also known in Germany’s genre film fan community for a trailer and teaser he made promoting exploitation movie Laserpope, which Neopol has been trying to get off the ground.
The company, which Kellner and Zapf founded in 2014, served as co-producer on Winfried Oelsner’s children’s title Max And The Wild Bunch and Eliza Schroeder’s feature debut Love Sarah, starring Cela Imrie and Rupert Penry-Jones.
Neopol is currently developing the thriller series Influence with French production partners La Belle Affaire Productions.
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