Germany 2020Language:GermanDirector:Michael VenusWriter:Thomas Friedrich, Michael VenusCinematographer:Marius von FelbertEditor:Silke OlthoffSound:Tim Stephan, Kevin Krauß, Anders WasserfallWith:Gro Swantje Kohlhof, Sandra Hüller, August SchmölzerProducer:Kivik KuvikProduction Company:Junafilm Produktion, ZDF – Das kleine FernsehspielDistributor:Salzgeber & Co. Medien GmbH102 min, Colour

Marlene is haunted by recurring morbid nightmares about a hotel in the village of Stainbach. When her distress becomes so intolerable that she falls into a comatose sleep, her daughter Mona decides to visit the provincial community in order to uncover the source of Marlene’s nightmares and to help her. „SCHLAF is my antithesis to the genre 'Heimatfilm' (homeland film). My film confronts the genre with its own suppressed aspects, with its inherent horror, and the foreboding of a dark, afflicted heart. Here, homeland is faced with its own texture and history, and with its horror – homeland horror”, says screenwriter Thomas Friedrich about the film that is reminiscent of David Lynch’s TWIN PEAKS.

Director's Biography:Michael Venus, born 1976 in Jena, studied visual communication at the Bauhaus University Weimar. SCHLAF is his feature film debut.

Regional reference:

SLEEP was filmed in the Harz mountains with Clausthal-Zellerfeld as the film’s fictious village Stainbach. The former sanatorium “Erbprinzentanne” provided the location for the bigger part of the set, in SLEEP it becomes the nightmarish “Hotel Sonnenhügel“.