BILLIE

Two mothers and best friends are stuck in a bank for 300 euros and are mistaken for bank robbers. The police are hot on their heels and it is only thanks to their solidarity and a good dose of chaos that they manage to get out of their predicament.

  • Sheri Hagen
    Director
    Blue Window, At Second Glance
  • Sheri Hagen
    Writer
    At Second Glance, Stella And The Storks
  • Sheri Hagen
    Producer
    Blue Window, At Second Glance, Stella And The Storks
  • Ruby Commey
    Key Cast
    "NINA"
  • Thelma Buabeng
    Key Cast
    "ANGIE"
  • Timo Jacobs
    Key Cast
    "MARC"
  • Sannrae Rehnström
    Key Cast
    "MAYA"
  • Joy Ewulu
    Key Cast
    "RAHEL"
  • Cal Ola
    Camera
    Debut
  • Ella Sade
    Production Design
    Debut
  • Beatrace Oola
    Costume Design
  • Aminata (Amy) Lindenau
    Hair and Make Up
  • Lisa Neumann
    Hair and Make Up
  • Marisa Dikta
    Editing
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    BILLIE
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 48 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    May 20, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    600,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Germany
  • Language:
    German
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:2.39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Sheri Hagen

SHERI HAGEN - Producer, director and actress based in Berlin. In addition to numerous works for film and television, she has appeared in various theatre productions.
She first attracted attention as a screenwriter and director in 2007 with the short film STELLA AND THE STORKS. The children‘s short film screened successfully at international festivals (including the mo&friese Children Short Film Festival Hamburg, Chicago Int. Children‘s Film Festival).
In 2012, the 23rd International Film Festival Emden-Norderney awarded Sheri Hagen the special prize A Desk by the Sea for her debut feature film AT SECOND GLANCE. In 2013,
AT SECOND GLANCE won the 4th Kirchen Filmfestival Recklinghausen. In the fall of 2013, Barnsteiner-Film released the feature film in German cinemas.
In 2015, Sheri Hagen founded the production company Equality Film GmbH. Since then, the production company has pursued the goal of telling films with relevant and powerful stories that show a multi-laye- red and diverse society. In her feature film FENSTER BLAU (2016), Sheri Hagen adapted the play Muttermale Fenster Blau by author Sasha Marianna Salzmann.
Sheri Hagen is currently finishing BILLIE and preparing MOTHERHOOD (AT) and is also developing the series KEHINDE, which received Setzkasten-funding by Hessenfilm & Medien.
In 2023, she was honored by the BKM as a cultural and creative pilot with her company Equality Film. In 2024, she was part of the 74th Berlinale EFM Fiction Toolbox program with her next film MOTHERHOOD thanks to further training funding from the Austrian Film Institute (ÖFI). She recently received the Digital Female Leader Award -DFLX24.

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Director Statement

BY SHERI HAGEN
That is what love is: two lonely people protecting, touching and talking to each other.
Rainer Maria Rilke
If you had to label the narrative form of the film, it would be a drama. Even though BILLIE can be classified as a social drama in the narrower sense, this film is both drama and comedy. BILLIE will not mix comedy and drama elements as usual, but tell the drama (around Nina) and the comedy (around Angie) in parallel, as the two close friends live on two separate genre planets.
The audience is to be drawn into their respective orbits. Drama and comedy will reinforce each other in BILLIE. There will be humorous ex- aggeration in moments of drama and despair.
BILLIE is intended to be a touching and fast-paced film, with hard cuts that combine the difficult with the easy, laughter with crying and pain with each other. BILLIE is fiction and reflects the theme of self-liberati- on, which is interwoven with domestic violence. An everyday reality. One in three women in Germany has been the victim of violence within a partnership at least once in her life. The Berlin organization BIG e.V. - Berliner Initiative gegen Gewalt an Frauen (Berlin Initiative against Violence against Women) has supported me.
If you want to understand and see BILLIE, you have to watch the follo- wing films: “PRECIOUS” by Lee Daniels, which reflects on power and powerlessness in a painful and toxic way and shows how precious life is.
“HAPPY GO LUCKY” by Mike Leigh, whose protagonist ‘Poppy’ does not lose her light-heartedness and cheerfulness despite hard and absurd events.
“THELMA AND LOUISE” by Ridley Scott, in which the two protago- nists selflessly rise above themselves because of their unwavering friendship and solidarity.
It‘s a fine line that I dare to tread by combining an existential topic like domestic violence with lightness and humor, but these elements are encouraging moments that give hope. Life in violent relationships is not one-dimensional, but just as multi-faceted with absurd aspects. With BILLIE, I want to show a part of our reality that cannot be ignored. BILLIE is also an encouragement for all women.
BILLIE also wants to show how diverse families with an immigrant back- ground are, without stigmatizing them. We will meet Nina and Angie in their everyday lives and experience how natural they are.
BILLIE – a film that unadorned and straightforward reflects a part of German society that exists in reality but is rarely seen on our screens.