WORTH WATCHING

First Trailer for German Thriller 'The Forger' Premiering at Berlinale

by Alex Billington
January 31, 2022
Source: YouTube

"Don't go looking at anybody but me." A festival promo trailer has been revealed for this German film The Forger, premiering at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival in just a few weeks playing in the Special Gala section. Based on a true story, German filmmaker Maggie Peren's new film centers on 21-year-old Cioma Schönhaus, a Jewish person living in Berlin in the 1940s. His very existence is threatened by the Nazis, but he won't let anyone take away his zest for life, especially not the Nazis. So he decides to "hide in plain sight" using the identity of a marine officer he creates, throwing himself into the city's nightlife. By day he makes fake IDs to save the lives of others, but it gets riskier and riskier. The filmmaker says this is "the story of a person who rebels against stigmatization. The regime of terror is present, but we do not offer the Nazis a platform. We see them through Cioma's eyes as we see everything through his eyes." That is a much better pitch for this than the official synopsis. This stars Louis Hofmann (from "Dark)" as Cioma, Jonathan Berlin, Luna Wedler, Nina Gummich, Marc Limpach, André Jung, & Yotam Ishay. Hopefully it should be good.

Here's the festival promo trailer for Maggie Peren's The Forger, originally from Variety:

21-year-old Cioma Schönhaus (Louis Hofmann) won't let anyone take away his zest for life, especially not the Nazis. He wants to discover life, but has the misfortune of living as a Jewish person in Berlin in the 1940s. Since the best hiding spots are found in plain sight, Cioma decides to go out into the light to escape deportation. Using the identity of a marine officer he created for himself, he throws himself into the city's nightlife and even finds a fragile hope for love during the darkest moments of the war. Throughout the day he forges IDs with just a brush, some ink and a steady hand - and saves the lives of many others. His talent puts him in more and more danger, though, and at some point Cioma's only hope to survive is a last forged ID - with his own name on it. The Forger, originally known as Der Passfälscher in German, is both written and directed by German writer / filmmaker Maggie Peren, director of the films Special Escort, Color of the Ocean, and Hello Again - A Wedding a Day previously. This will be premiering at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival this winter. No other US release date has been set yet - stay tuned. Anyone interested?

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