SHOOTING START FOR THE PRANK, TWO GLOBO D’ORO FOR GLORIA!, THE TASTERS IN POST-PRODUCTION

Start of principal photography of THE PRANK by Benjamin Heisenberg

Since July 1st, filming has been underway in Berlin and Zurich for the family and children's feature film THE PRANK by Benjamin Heisenberg

Twelve-year-old Lucas Roosen and his family live together in the daily grind. Until an April Fool's joke by their Chinese exchange student Xi Zhou gets completely out of hand and catapults them out of their well-worn structures. What is actually a harmless prank becomes the starting point for a crazy chase that brings haphazard policemen, gangster rappers and musclemen onto the scene, exposes a protection racket, jeopardizes one love affair and starts another.

At the set of THE PRANK (left to right.): Noèl Gabriel Kipp, Katrin Renz (Producer tellfilm), Benjamin Heisenberg (author & director), Max Zheng, Lukas Miko, Jana McKinnon, Jasmin Saunders (Producer Kundschafter Film) and Timon Schäppi (DoP) © Kundschafter Filmproduktion

THE PRANK is a production of Kundschafter Filmproduktion, Germany, in co-production with tellfilm and SRF. The film is supported by the Federal Office of Culture, the Canton of Lucerne and Suissimage. The film was developed and funded as part of the initiative “Der besondere Kinderfilm”, production partners are KiKA (lead) and MDR, BR and HR. Filming will continue until mid-August 2024, with the cinema premiere planned for spring 2025.

Two globo d'oro for GLORIA!

Being nominated in four categories with her debut feature GLORIA!, director Margherita Vicario has won the globo d'oro for best debut film and for best music. – We congratulate the incredibly great, unique, diverse, impressive power woman! We are proud of you, dear Margherita, and happy to have co-produced this wonderful feature film!

director Margherita Vicario © Svetlana Lisichnikova
musicians Margherita Vicario e Dade

The film celebrates the hidden talent of female composers forgotten by History and tells the story of Teresa, nicknamed La Muta, set near Venice in the early 19th century. Teresa, who possesses extraordinary musical talent, discovers a hidden piano and begins to compose music. She, along with other young women musicians from the Istituto Sant'Ignazio, form a small all-female orchestral group that will make Pope Pius VII hear innovative, unexpected and rebellious music.

GLORIA! will be in cinemas in German-speaking Switzerland and Germany from August 29! Distributed by Neue Visionen in Germany and by Filmcoopi in Switzerland

Further information for both Germany and Switzerland can be found here:

THE TASTERS by Silvio Soldini in post-production

The filming of Silvio Soldini’s new movie, THE TASTERS has been completed successfully. The film is based upon Rosella Postorino’s novel "Le assaggiatrici" – an international bestseller published in 46 countries, with over a million copies sold throughout the world – which is inspired by the testimony of Adolf Hitler’s last food taster.

German actors Elisa Schlott (DAS BOOT, TV series), Max Riemelt (SLEEPING DOG) and Alma Hasun (CORSAGE) are starring in Silvio Soldini’e new feature film.

The film follows in the wake of young Rosa who flees bomb-stricken Berlin in the autumn of 1943 and heads to a small, isolated village near the eastern border. This is where her in-laws live and where her husband, who’s deployed on the front, has advised she take shelter until the war ends and he returns. Rosa soon discovers that this seemingly sleepy village conceals a secret: in the forest bordering the hamlet is Hitler’s headquarters, the Wolf’s Lair. The Führer sees enemies everywhere and is obsessed with the thought of being poisoned. One morning, at dawn, Rosa is taken away, alongside several other young women in the village, to taste the food that’s made for Hitler. Torn between their fear of death and the hunger that consumes them, these “tasters” forge alliances, friendships and agree secret pacts with one another. The “Berliner” struggles to gain acceptance. But when she finally wins their trust, something happens which makes her feel like a traitor: an SS officer turns up who, against all reason and in spite of herself, reawakens loving feelings in her, or maybe the simple need to feel alive, in spite of it all.

Director Silvio Soldini and the film's cast during the rehearsals of Le assaggiatrici © Vision Distribution

THE TASTERS is an Italian-Belgian-Swiss co-production between Lumière & Co., Tarantula and tellfilm. Distribution in Italy and worldwide is entrusted to Vision Distribution.