We Are Next of Kin
Once a month, the Goethe-Institut collaborates with the Cinémathèque québécoise to present a significant work of contemporary German cinema: fiction films, documentaries, bold and entertaining productions by established and emerging filmmakers.
One day in 1996 everything changes for 13-year-old Johann. For the first time in his life, he experiences true fear when his father is kidnapped. Johann and his mother are forced to go through 33 days of a living nightmare. After the police move into his family's home, it increasingly seems that their investigative skills leave much to be desired. Desperate letters from his father reach Johann between various failed attempts at money drops. It gradually becomes clear that his father's life can only be saved if the family doesn't follow the police's lead. The story of the kidnapping of Jan Philipp Reemstma, one of the richest men in Germany, from the perspective of the family. Based on the autobiographical book written by his son Johann Scheerer.
Hans-Christian Schmid
Hans-Christian Schmid is a German film director. He studied documentary film at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München in Munich until 1992. He then collaborated with writer-director Michael Gutmann on several scripts, including Nach Fünf im Urwald. In 2004, Hans-Christian Schmid founded the production company 23/5, with which he made his first feature film, Requiem in 2006, winning Best Film at the Berlinale. He then produced Am Ende kommen Touristen by Robert Thalheim in Poland in autumn 2006. The film was presented in 2007 in the "Un Certain Regard" category at Cannes. In 2012, Schmid received his fourth invitation to the Berlinale for his feature film Was bleibt, for which Bernd Lange was the screenwriter.
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