Haunritz

“STUMM VOR SCHRECK is based on my short film JESSAS from 2016. I was in the final round of applications for the directing course at the Film Academy Vienna. Michael Haneke set a final film task for the remaining applicants. The sentence ‘My God, just believe me’ was to be the theme of the short film. So I opened the Bible, and the idea of the Immaculate Conception captivated me. In the end, it wasn’t enough for a place at the Film Academy in Vienna. However, Haneke’s feedback that the material could be something for a longer film still resonated with me four years later.

In 2020, in just under four days of shooting in a Bavarian village, without a script and with two actors improvising, I made my first film STUMM VOR SCHRECK. Johanna and Thomas have a relationship that is not all that rare. They don’t talk; silent conflicts in everyday life, intrigues, and lies from their common past determine the present. Everyone would like harmony, but many avoid an honest exchange of words. I put this apparent harmony to the test between my two protagonists – in the end, they either go their separate ways or lead an honest relationship again. To be (happy) or not to be (happy). But nothing in between.”

Daniel Popat