Shooting start of HERKUNFT

21.05.2026

Since its publication, Saša Stanišić's novel "Herkunft" has not only conquered bestseller lists and won countless literary awards, including the German Book Prize 2019, but has also deeply touched many readers. Now the successful book is being adapted for the cinema by UFA Fiction in co-production with LEONINE Studios and ARD Degeto Film. Since mid-April, filming for HERKUNFT has been taking place in North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Croatia under the direction of Clara Zoë My-Linh von Arnim. The theatrical release is planned for 2027, distributed by LEONINE Studios.

f.l.t.r.: Robert Gehring (MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg), Kerstin Nommsen (LEONINE Studios), Claudia Grässel (ARD Degeto Film), Sinah Swyter and Leslie-Alina Schäfer (both executive producers UFA Fiction), Jieun Yi (DOP), Clara Zoë My-Linh von Arnim (director), Saša Stanišić (novelist), Gordana Boban-Herović (role Kristina), Maro Lovrić (role Saša 10 years), Slavko Popadić (role Saša), Marija Škaričić (role Saša's mother), Steffi Ackermann (co-producer LEONINE Studios), Victoire Velarde (LEONINE Studios), Sebastian Werninger (Executive Producer UFA Fiction)

with

Slavko Popadić, Gordana Boban-Herović, Marija Škaričić, Carlo Ljubek, Maro Lovrić, Arsseni Bultmann, Stipe Erceg, Bjarne Mädel, Anke Engelke, Karoline Herfurth, Max Riemelt , Nina Kunzendorf and many more.

Direction

Clara Zoë My-Linh von Arnim

Screenplay

Senad Halilbašić

based on the novel of the same name by Saša Stanišić

Camera

Jieun Yi

Executive Producers

Sinah Swyter, Leslie-Alina Schäfer

Executive Production

Sebastian Werninger

Co-production

Steffi Ackermann, Cosima von Spreti, Quirin Berg

and Max Wiedemann

Editorial office:

Sebastian Lückel and Claudia Grässel

Cinema release: 2027

distributed by LEONINE Studios

About the movie: Višegrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Writer Aleksandar, known as Saša, actually picks up his resolute grandmother Kristina, who suffers from dementia, to take her to a nursing home. But Kristina is firmly convinced that a trip to her home village of Oskoruša is on the cards. Aleksandar doesn’t have the heart to disappoint her. And so begins a road trip for both of them that turns into an unplanned journey into the past – even for Aleksandar, who everyone called Saša as a child. After the outbreak of the Bosnian war, he fled with his family from Višegrad to Germany as a child and ended up in a refugee home in Heidelberg. The story of his departure and new beginning and that of Kristina’s return to her home village merge into a tragicomic tale about the present and the past, memory and forgetting, the impossibility of arriving and the first and decisive coincidence in our biography – our origins.

Based on the acclaimed novel “Herkunft” by Saša Stanišić. Senad Halilbašić wrote a touching screenplay, which was directed by Clara Zoë My-Linh von Arnim (“The Doubters”, “Marzahn, Mon Amour”). The leading roles are played by Slavko Popadić (“Krank Berlin”, “Schwarzes Gold”), Gordana Boban-Herović (“Tatort”), Marija Škaričić (“Mare”), Carlo Ljubek (“Schlafende Hunde”) – in other roles are Bjarne Mädel (“25 km/h”), Anke Engelke (“Eingeschlossene Gesellschaft”), Karoline Herfurth (“Wunderschön”), Max Riemelt (“Bonn”), Stipe Erceg (“Asbest”) and Nina Kunzendorf (“Phoenix”).

HERKUNFT is a production of UFA Fiction in cooperation with LEONINE Studios and ARD Degeto Film. Produced by Sinah Swyter (UFA Fiction) and Leslie-Alina Schäfer. Executive Producer is Sebastian Werninger. Co-produced by Steffi Ackermann, Cosima von Spreti, Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann. Sebastian Lückel and Claudia Grässel are responsible for editing.

The film is supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg, the German Federal Film Board, the German Federal Film Fund and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).

The novel “Herkunft” by Saša Stanišić was published by Luchterhand Literaturverlag in 2019.

The first press material will be available soon at:

www.leoninedistribution.com

JUST PUBLICITY has taken over the press support for HERKUNFT.

Print/TV/Radio

Anja Oster & Linda Heckel

Phone: +49 30 – 263 959 590

Email: team@just-publicity.com

Online

Nina Schattkowsky

Phone: +49 30 – 50 93 13 420

Email: info@just-publicity-online.com