When Ines, a businesswoman for a major German company based in Bucharest, sees her father turn up unannounced, she makes no secret of her exasperation. Her perfectly organised life doesn’t suffer the slightest disruption, but when her father asks her the question “Are you happy?” her inability to answer is the beginning of a profound upheaval. This cumbersome father, of whom she is ashamed, does everything he can to help her find meaning in her life by inventing a character for himself: the funny Toni Erdmann. In competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Toni Erdmann was the German nominee at the Academy Awards.
All my films are partly autobiographical in the sense that I take something I know as a point of departure … Winfried’s impulsive transformation is a bold attempt to break out of the mold of the father-daughter relationship. Toni Erdmann is born out of desperation. Humor is often a way of coping with things, and as such it is always also a product of pain. Winfried is unable to get through to his daughter any other way… Humor is his only weapon…” (M. Ade)
Sceneggiatura / Screenplay: Maren Ade
Fotografia / Photography: Patrick Orth
Montaggio / Editing: Heike Parplies
Suono / Sound: Patrick Veigel
Scenografia / Art Director: Silke Fischer
Costumi / Costume Designer: Gitti Fuchs
Interpreti / Cast: Sandra Hüller, Peter Simonischek, Michael Wittenborn, Thomas Loibl, Trystan Pütter, Hadewych Minis, Lucy Russell, Ingrid Bisu, Vlad Ivanov, Victoria Cociaş
Produzione / Produced by: Komplizen Film
Coproduzione / Co-produced by: Coop99, knm, Missing Link Films, SWR/WDR/Arte, HiFilm
Con il sostegno di / Supported by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Eurimages, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Filmförderungsanstalt, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, Austrian Film Institute, Filmlocation Austria, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Filmfernsehfonds Bayern, MEDIA
Distribuzione internazionale / World Sales: The Match Factory
Distribuzione per l’Italia / Distributed in Italy by: Cinema Srl
Maren Ade
Film director, writer and producer, Maren Ade was born in 1976 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Her graduation film from HFF University of Television and Film Munich The Forest for the Trees won the Special Jury Award at Sundance 2005. Maren Ade‘s second feature Everyone Else won two Silver Bears at the 2009 Berlinale. In 2000, she founded with Janine Jackowski the film production company Komplizen Film.
Selected filmography
2003 Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen (The Forest for the Trees); Premi / Awards: Sundance FF – Premio speciale della giuria / Special Jury Prize 2009 Alle Anderen (Everyone Else); Premi / Awards: Berlinale – Orso d’argento per la Migliore attrice, Gran premio della giuria / Silver Bear for Best Actress, Grand Jury Prize 2016 Toni Erdmann (Vi presento Toni Erdmann); Premi / Awards: Cannes – Premio FIPRESCI / FIPRESCI Prize; EFA – Migliore attrice, Migliore attore, Miglior regista, Migliore sceneggiatura, Miglior film / Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenwriter, Best Film
