(Variety) Berlin Competition Film ‘The Ground Beneath My Feet’ Sold to Germany’s Salzgeber
Salzgeber has acquired the German rights for Berlin Film Festival competition title “The Ground Beneath My Feet” from sales agent Picture Tree International. Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer. Salzgeber will release the film, directed by Marie Kreutzer, mid-May.
Picture Tree describes the movie as a “contemporary female led drama touching on complex family ties and the way we deal with long buried secrets.” The film, which incorporates thriller and suspense elements, follows Lola, a jet-setting business consultant who excels at the aggressive tactics and nonstop work her job requires. She travels back and forth from Vienna, where her tasteful apartment serves more as mailbox and laundromat than home, to the headquarters of the latest corporation she’s restructuring. Her routine is one of late nights at the office, fancy client dinners and brief nights of sleep in sterile hotel rooms.
Approaching 30, Lola is beautiful, works out, and her career seems on a fast track to success. She manages her personal life with the same ruthless efficiency she uses to optimize profit margins. She keeps her relationship with her boss Elise secret, as well as the existence of her older sister Conny, who has a long history of mental illness. But when she receives the news that Conny has attempted suicide, Lola’s secrets threaten to explode into the open. As she tries to do what’s best for her sister without jeopardizing all she’s worked so hard for, Lola slowly finds her own grip on reality slipping away.
The film stars up-and-coming Austrian actress Valerie Pachner, who starred in 2016’s “Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden.” Pachner is featured in Terrence Malick’s “Radegund,” which will be released this year, and is also rumored to have signed on to an English-speaking role in an upcoming major production.
“The Ground Beneath My Feet” is produced by Vienna-based Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion. Austrian rights to the film were acquired by Filmladen, which will release it at the end of March.
Kreutzer’s first feature length film, “The Fatherless,” premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama Special sidebar in 2011, receiving Special Mention for best first feature. Her second film, “Gruber Is Leaving” (2015), was nominated for the Austrian Film Award and won Special Mention as best film at the Zurich Film Festival. In 2016, her third feature film, “We Used to Be Cool,” also premiered at the Zurich Film Festival in competition. Her first TV movie, “Emergency Lies,” starring Josef Hader, appeared in 2017.