DEATH IN BERLIN

 

A film by Claude Mangold

Based on the novel by Sarah Schulman "The Sophie Horowitz Story"

 

Narrative feature, 90 min, DE/FR, currently in development.

 

 

WHEN A CLEVER SCOOP TURNS INTO A FLIRT WITH DEATH AND DESTRUCTION: A wave

of bombings and political murders sweeps through Berlin. SOPHIE, a journalist, is first to catch on to the terrorist’s identity. She feels inexorably drawn to the woman, G.G., who exercises a fatal attraction on the young writer and rekindles a troubled past.

BEYOND RELENTLESS ACTION AND THRILLS, lies the core of the premise: Sophie’s obsession with the beguiling G.G.– an erotomaniac quest that sweeps all before it. It goes against sense, good taste, it’s taboo - but it reflects a basic truth of the human condition which is that sexuality is always in revolt, anarchic, and that transgression is part of human nature.

BERLIN-FILM MEETS VILLAGE FEEL: what makes this ultra-edgy film unique, is the convergence of 1980’s Greenwich Village charm and 2015 Berlin scene.

Claude Mangold chose Sarah Schulman’s «The Sophie Horowitz Story, 1984» as underlying novel, for its apology of political violence by those who should be the furthest remote from it: the LGBT. And for the cool main characters. And for the melancholy descriptions of Greenwich Village in full mutation, which resembles today’s Berlin. 

 

Sarah Schulman wrote her successful thriller in 1984. It was translated into several languages. Sheteaches sociology at NYU and is an acclaimed scientific and underground author. As a screenwriter, she’s a regular guest at major festivals.