Picture Tree Intl. has acquired the rights to “Chasing the Line,” which follows the fortunes of downhill skiing legend Franz Klammer during the 1976 Winter Olympics. Variety has been given exclusive access to the first teaser trailer.
After shooting wrapped in April, the film is now in postproduction. It is scheduled for an Austrian release by Constantin Film Austria for late fall 2021, with Pti representing Germany, Switzerland and international territories.
Directed by Andreas Schmied, “Chasing the Line” stars up-and-coming Austrian actor Julian Waldner as Klammer. Valerie Huber, who will be starring in the upcoming Netflix original series “Kitz,” plays Klammer’s girlfriend and later wife Eva.
Klammer himself advised on the project since its early development.
Author Elisabeth Schmied, who penned the screenplay together with Schmied, said: “We want the story to take moviegoers right up to the starting gate. They should feel the weight that almost crushed Franz pressing down...
After shooting wrapped in April, the film is now in postproduction. It is scheduled for an Austrian release by Constantin Film Austria for late fall 2021, with Pti representing Germany, Switzerland and international territories.
Directed by Andreas Schmied, “Chasing the Line” stars up-and-coming Austrian actor Julian Waldner as Klammer. Valerie Huber, who will be starring in the upcoming Netflix original series “Kitz,” plays Klammer’s girlfriend and later wife Eva.
Klammer himself advised on the project since its early development.
Author Elisabeth Schmied, who penned the screenplay together with Schmied, said: “We want the story to take moviegoers right up to the starting gate. They should feel the weight that almost crushed Franz pressing down...
- 6/22/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The Hamburg Cell
Screened
Edinburgh International Film Festival
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- It's Sept. 11, 2001, and a man whispers into a telephone: "I love you. I love you". But it's neither a victim of that dreadful day nor a survivor. It's one of the perpetrators. In Channel 4's riveting drama about the events leading up to the atrocities of Sept. 11, Ziad Jarrah and his cohorts are portrayed as ordinary mortals whose fanaticism emerges from everyday lives that are otherwise quite mundane.
The decision by director Antonia Bird and writers Ronan Bennett and Alice Perman not to demonize the men who committed the most heinous crime in recent memory is a brave one. Indeed the film's evenhandedness may offend some. It's unhelpful, however, to dismiss the men as monsters and instructive to be reminded that great evil may be rooted in heartfelt delusion. This is a film of great intensity and should find a wide audience for its considerable cinematic merit and worthwhile contribution to understanding the incomprehensible. It airs Thursday on the U.K.'s Channel 4.
As in Channel 4's previous docudramas Sunday, The Deal and Omagh, the script for The Hamburg Cell is based on "known facts and actual events" and strives to portray them objectively. It follows the development of a cell of Muslim revolutionaries established in the German city of Hamburg five years before the World Trade Center's twin towers were brought down.
At the center is Jarrah, a rich man's son from Lebanon who is studying dentistry. More secular than Muslim, Jarrah falls for Aysel (Agni Tsangaridou), an independent Turkish student who objects when an Islamic group targets him for induction.
Karim Saleh plays Jarrah with the soulful innocence that Al Pacino brought to the young Michael Corleone. Like the Godfather's son, Jarrah's bland features and timorous smile mask an inner turmoil hinted at only in his haunted eyes.
Gradually, he is drawn into the clutches of a mosque whose members espouse violence as the proper means to wage the jihad they see as a requirement of their interpretation of Islam. He remains ambivalent, seemingly earnest in his affection for Aysel and confessing that, having attended Catholic school, he was an indifferent Muslim. But the imam tells him sharply that he must say his prayers. He was in an infidel society, and he must not let himself be alone.
As he becomes closer to fellow initiates Mohamed Atta (Kamel) and Ramzi bin al Shibh (Omar Berdouni), the incessant radicalization begins to take hold. The modern world is a confusion. The modern world wants to take God from him. Every able-bodied man must train for the jihad.
Atta in particular is convinced. A Palestinian, he is a lonely and ascetic man who chides his friends for taking a beer or even wearing their shirts open. He longs to return to his homeland but when he visits, his cold and distant father scolds him for not pursuing a doctorate, having just obtained his master's degree, and his mother pines for grandchildren. Back in Germany, whatever drives his anger occupies him fully.
Soon the three students are in Afghanistan being trained by al-Qaida. When they return, the Hamburg cell leaders flatter and cajole them to join their violent plans. With growing and devastating suspense, the film shows the tragic path of fanatics who have lost sight of their objectives and redoubled their efforts to get there.
Throughout the building tension, the film offers reminders of how evidence of the impending assault was overlooked and how warnings of the dangers were not heeded. With the terrible Sept. 11 images seen only fleetingly at the beginning, the film ends with the perpetrators disappearing through an airport departure enclosure.
THE HAMBURG CELL
A Mentorn/Inner Circle Pictures GmbH/Simply Committed GmbH co-production for Channel 4 produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Credits:
Director: Antonia Bird
Co-writers: Ronan Bennett, Alice Perman
Producer: Finola Dwyer
Executive producers: David Aukin, George Carey
Cinematographer: Florian Hoffmeister
Editor: St. John O'Rorke
Production designer: Richard Hoover, Phil Roberson
Art director: Ulrich Schroder
Nicholas Scott, Iris Trescher
Costume designer: Antje Gebauer
Cast:
Ziad Jarrah: Karim Saleh
Mohamed Atta: Kamel
Aysel: Agni Tsangaridou
Ramzi bin al Shibh: Omar Berdouni
Marwan Shehhi: Adnan Maral
Abdulrahman Al-Makhadi: Kammy Darweish
No MPAA rating...
Edinburgh International Film Festival
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- It's Sept. 11, 2001, and a man whispers into a telephone: "I love you. I love you". But it's neither a victim of that dreadful day nor a survivor. It's one of the perpetrators. In Channel 4's riveting drama about the events leading up to the atrocities of Sept. 11, Ziad Jarrah and his cohorts are portrayed as ordinary mortals whose fanaticism emerges from everyday lives that are otherwise quite mundane.
The decision by director Antonia Bird and writers Ronan Bennett and Alice Perman not to demonize the men who committed the most heinous crime in recent memory is a brave one. Indeed the film's evenhandedness may offend some. It's unhelpful, however, to dismiss the men as monsters and instructive to be reminded that great evil may be rooted in heartfelt delusion. This is a film of great intensity and should find a wide audience for its considerable cinematic merit and worthwhile contribution to understanding the incomprehensible. It airs Thursday on the U.K.'s Channel 4.
As in Channel 4's previous docudramas Sunday, The Deal and Omagh, the script for The Hamburg Cell is based on "known facts and actual events" and strives to portray them objectively. It follows the development of a cell of Muslim revolutionaries established in the German city of Hamburg five years before the World Trade Center's twin towers were brought down.
At the center is Jarrah, a rich man's son from Lebanon who is studying dentistry. More secular than Muslim, Jarrah falls for Aysel (Agni Tsangaridou), an independent Turkish student who objects when an Islamic group targets him for induction.
Karim Saleh plays Jarrah with the soulful innocence that Al Pacino brought to the young Michael Corleone. Like the Godfather's son, Jarrah's bland features and timorous smile mask an inner turmoil hinted at only in his haunted eyes.
Gradually, he is drawn into the clutches of a mosque whose members espouse violence as the proper means to wage the jihad they see as a requirement of their interpretation of Islam. He remains ambivalent, seemingly earnest in his affection for Aysel and confessing that, having attended Catholic school, he was an indifferent Muslim. But the imam tells him sharply that he must say his prayers. He was in an infidel society, and he must not let himself be alone.
As he becomes closer to fellow initiates Mohamed Atta (Kamel) and Ramzi bin al Shibh (Omar Berdouni), the incessant radicalization begins to take hold. The modern world is a confusion. The modern world wants to take God from him. Every able-bodied man must train for the jihad.
Atta in particular is convinced. A Palestinian, he is a lonely and ascetic man who chides his friends for taking a beer or even wearing their shirts open. He longs to return to his homeland but when he visits, his cold and distant father scolds him for not pursuing a doctorate, having just obtained his master's degree, and his mother pines for grandchildren. Back in Germany, whatever drives his anger occupies him fully.
Soon the three students are in Afghanistan being trained by al-Qaida. When they return, the Hamburg cell leaders flatter and cajole them to join their violent plans. With growing and devastating suspense, the film shows the tragic path of fanatics who have lost sight of their objectives and redoubled their efforts to get there.
Throughout the building tension, the film offers reminders of how evidence of the impending assault was overlooked and how warnings of the dangers were not heeded. With the terrible Sept. 11 images seen only fleetingly at the beginning, the film ends with the perpetrators disappearing through an airport departure enclosure.
THE HAMBURG CELL
A Mentorn/Inner Circle Pictures GmbH/Simply Committed GmbH co-production for Channel 4 produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Credits:
Director: Antonia Bird
Co-writers: Ronan Bennett, Alice Perman
Producer: Finola Dwyer
Executive producers: David Aukin, George Carey
Cinematographer: Florian Hoffmeister
Editor: St. John O'Rorke
Production designer: Richard Hoover, Phil Roberson
Art director: Ulrich Schroder
Nicholas Scott, Iris Trescher
Costume designer: Antje Gebauer
Cast:
Ziad Jarrah: Karim Saleh
Mohamed Atta: Kamel
Aysel: Agni Tsangaridou
Ramzi bin al Shibh: Omar Berdouni
Marwan Shehhi: Adnan Maral
Abdulrahman Al-Makhadi: Kammy Darweish
No MPAA rating...
- 8/30/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Brits' 9 noms top Int'l Emmys
CANNES -- U.K. productions again dominated the nominations of the 30th annual International Emmy Awards, with British shows earning nine nominations, more than twice that of second-place nation Germany, which received four noms. The International Emmy nominations were announced Monday at MIPCOM in Cannes by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, a division of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which represents broadcasters in more than 50 countries. The awards honor excellence in non-U.S. television programming. U.K. productions were nominated in every International Emmy category except best documentary, with Yorkshire Television's At Home With the Braithwaites making the cut for the best drama series nom, Gaslight Prods.' Sunday and Talkback's Perfect Strangers nominated in the best TV movie or miniseries category and CBBC/Childplay Prods.' Stig of the Dump nominated in the best children's program section.
- 10/8/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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