X-Filme Creative Pool continues production on their latest feature tentatively entitled, Meine schöne Bescherung, at Studio Babelsberg through May 9th.
Filming is taking place at the studio complex in House 3. During an intense three-week construction, various interior sets were built on sound stages “Neue Ost” and “Neue West” that resulted in the creation of the inside of a villa of main characters, Sara (Martina Gedeck) and Jan (Heino Ferch). The highlights of the set include a garden covered in “fresh” (artificial) snow and a 65-foot long photo backdrop. Carpenters, painters and plasterers of Art Department Studio Babelsberg were involved in creating the extravagant stages, which incorporate intricate materials worked into the interior designs. Set decorators furnished the sets using a number of props, paintings and porcelain from the Studio’s own props house.
We were therefore able to execute the requirements and wishes of the team within our budget.
Michael Düwel
Managing Director, Art Department
Studio Babelsberg and Production Designer, Peter Menne, established a constructive cooperation in the early phases of the project. “We were therefore able to execute the requirements and wishes of the team within our budget”, lauds Michael Düwel, Managing Director of Art Department Studio Babelsberg. “This project and its classical sets allow us to apply all of our skill and craft to meet our high standards, 100%.”
After successful cooperation between Studio Babelsberg AG and X-Filme on box-office-hit Good Bye, Lenin!, the current X-Filme production is the first joint project to shoot on the lot. “We are excited to welcome Manuela Sehr and her team and thank them for their trust”, says Christopher Fisser, board member responsible for studio and stage rental. “We continue our efforts to bring more German producers and their film- and television productions to Babelsberg. Aside from the current X-Filme project, Studio Babelsberg is currently involved in German productions such as Ausbilder Schmidt (Hofmann & Voges) and Hexe Lilli (blue eyes fiction), also investing reference subsidies awarded for the Studio’s box-office-success of previous international co-productions.”
Meine schöne Bescherung is a tumultuous comedy with a great deal of black humor: Sara and her three children from three different men live under one roof together with her fourth husband and his son. For Christmas, the fest of love, Sara decides to invite the entire extended family: husbands and wives, ex-husbands and ex-wives, children, adopted children, and children from former marriages as well as potential new partners. And as a special surprise, Sara plans to announce her new pregnancy to Jan, her husband. What she doesn’t know: Jan can’t possibly be the father…
Producer Manuela Stehr and director Vanessa Jopp were able to attach Martina Gedeck and Heino Ferch for the main roles, supported by Jasmin Tabatabai, Alexandra Neldel, Meret Becker, Roeland Wiesnekker, Andreas Windhuis, Rosa Enskat, Matthias Matschke, Ursula Doll, Rainer Sellien, Bjarne Ingmar Mädel, Feo Aladag, Petra Kelling, Eva Löbau and Günther Kaufmann.
