MARIJA photo Pandora Film

MARIJA

Marija, a young Ukrainian woman, earns her living as a hotel maid in Dortmund, but dreams of owning her own hair salon. She puts money aside each month, but when she is fired without notice, her dream seems out of reach. Without work and under financial pressure, she finds herself forced to look for other opportunities. Her body, her social relationships and her own feelings take a secondary importance to her goal.

Michael Koch’s feature film debut is the portrait of a young woman who lives on the periphery of our production and consumer-oriented society, but does not accept the ascribed role of the victim. Demanding, determined and uncompromising, she fights to live a freer, self-determined life.

Director

MICHAEL KOCH was born 1982 in Lucerne/ Switzerland. He studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and also worked as an actor. During this time he made the following short films: WIR SIND DIR TREU (WE ARE THE FAITHFUL, 2005), BECKENRAND (2006) and POLAR (2008). All three films were very successful at international festivals and won numerous awards. POLAR received a Special Mention at the Berlin International Film Festival, the German Camera Award, as well as the German Short Film Award 2009. After his studies he worked as a director for the theater Kaserne Basel. Michael Koch celebrates the world premiere of his feature film debut MARIJA (2016) in the International Competition at the 69th Locarno Film Festival.

Michael Koch
Michael Koch
photos © Pandora Film
  • Locarno 2016 (International Competition)

    Genre
    Drama
  • CATEGORY
    Feature
  • YEAR OF PRODUCTION
    2016
  • DIRECTOR
    Michael Koch
  • SCREENPLAY
    Michael Koch, Juliane Großheim
  • CINEMATOGRAPHY
    Bernhard Keller
  • CAST
    Margarita Breitkreiz, Georg Friedrich, Sahin Eryilmaz, Olga Dinnikova
  • PRODUCERS
    Christoph Friedel, Claudia Steffen
  • CO-PRODUCERS
    Christof Neracher, Tom Spieß
  • PRODUCTION COMPANY
    Pandora Film Produktion, in co-production with Hugofilm Productions, Little Shark Entertainment, in cooperation with WDR, ARTE, SRF
  • RUNTIME
    100 min
  • LANGUAGE
    German, Russian
  • FESTIVALS
    Locarno 2016 (International Competition)
  • SALES
    LUXBOX
    info@luxboxfilms.com
    www.luxboxfilms.com