Time of Moulting
The still life of a family in 57 pictures.
Germany in the 1970ies and 80ies: Stephanie is an intelligent and lively child. But she leads an isolated life with her parents, marked by the symbiotic bonding with her mentally unstable mother. A mother who has never really left her own childhood behind and who lives amidst things of the past and the memories connected to them. Stephanie's relationship with her father is one of mistrust. The passing years only bring them ageing, but no future. Diffuse oppression of something unspeakable lies under the surface of this everyday life. So Stephanie escapes into a dark world of barbaric fantasies, what are nourished by the traces of the past and only belong to her alone. One day, however, Stephanie's secret invades the family‘s reality...
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Sabrina MertensDirector
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Sabrina MertensWriter
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Sabrina MertensProducer
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Jan FabiProducer
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Vera PaulmannProducer
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Nadia ZimmermannProducer
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Hannah BuhrProducer
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Zelda EspenschiedKey Cast"Stephanie (as a child)"
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Miriam SchiweckKey Cast"Stephanie (as an adult)"
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Freya KreutzkamKey Cast"Mother"
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Bernd WolfKey Cast"Father Reinhardt"
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Jan FabiCamera
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Jonathan RöschSound Design
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Ole OhlendorfSound Design
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Jonathan RöschAudio Mix
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Stefano ZordanGrading
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Marco RottigEditor
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Larissa HelwigMake Up Artist
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Susanne SteigerMake Up Artist
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Sabrina MertensCostumes
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Sabrina MertensSet Design
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Willibald WonnebergerSound on Set
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Isabella ForsterSound on Set
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Johann MeisSound on Set
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Judith QuastSet Design Assiatant
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Christina BinderAssistant Camera
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Valentin BeckerAssistant Camera
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Adrian WagnerLighting Assistant
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Florian KontnyFoley Artist
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Christina BinderBoom Operator
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Johannes BuchholzBoom Operator
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Yukon BennerUnit Manager
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Project Title (Original Language):Fellwechselzeit
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Project Type:Feature, Student
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Genres:Drama, Horror, Psychodrama, coming-of-Age, Family Drama, Episodic Movie
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Runtime:1 hour 21 minutes
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Completion Date:January 15, 2020
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Country of Origin:Germany
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Country of Filming:Germany
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Language:German
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Shooting Format:1:85
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:Yes - Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
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Film Festival Max Ophüls PreisSaarbrücken
Germany
January 21, 2020
World
Feature Film Competition -
International Film Festival RotterdamRotterdam
Netherlands
January 23, 2020
International
Bright Future Competition -
Fantasia International Film FestivalMontrèal
Canada
North America Premiere
Camera Lucida Official Selection -
RandfilmfestKassel
Germany
September 19, 2020 -
NIGHTSTREAM FestivalOnline/USA
United States
October 8, 2020
U.S. Premiere -
New Horizons (Nowe Horyzonty)Wroclaw
Poland
November 5, 2020
Polish Premiere
Third Eye Competition -
Seville European Film FestivalSevilla
Spain
November 8, 2020
Spanish premiere
PERMANENT REVOLUTIONS Competition (winner PERMANENT REVOLUTIONS BEST FILM AWARD ) -
Cucalorus FestivalWilmington, NC
United States
November 11, 2020
North Carolina Premiere -
Nordic Film Days LübeckLübeck
Germany
November 5, 2020 -
Final GirlsBerlin
Germany
February 4, 2021 -
ARC Film FestivalMainz
Germany
September 18, 2021
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Best Visual Storytelling Award -
Filmfest BremenBremen
Germany
April 14, 2021
Innovation Competition -
REAKTOR International Film FestivalVienna
Austria
October 8, 2022
Austria Premiere
Distribution Information
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Media Luna New FilmsSales AgentCountry: Worldwide
Sabrina Mertens was born in Hamburg (Germany) in 1985. She studied Audiovisual Media Design in Berlin and Brandenburg and worked for a German television broadcaster (DW-TV) in Berlin. Mertens started making short films in 2011.
Since 2015 she has been enrolled in the study course Directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. Mertens writes screenplays and develops concepts for innovative film forms. Her work ranges between experimental, documentary, comedy and feature film and has been shown at numerous film festivals. Fellwechselzeit (Time of Moulting) is her feature debut.
With this movie, I would like to explore the possibilities of making mental states and processes perceptible and intuitively understandable with cinematic language.
The scenes give a diffuse impression of how the past affects the future, how supposedly repressed traumas influence the lives of the next generations and of interpersonal impositions that cannot be precisely put into words, but which do exist. If the child once still had hope, the adult finds herself in isolation without perspective. An existence like under a leaden blanket and an escape route that leads nowhere but into inner abysses. The unconscious manifests itself, as a secret staging or drastic reality. Destructive drives, nourished by the traces of past times, take on a life of their own in the psyche of Stephanie. Devoured and disappeared, who would wish for that?
Between the distant, static snapshots, questions and gaps remain. Portrait of a condition that lasts a decade. Elapsed time, marked only by the repetition of everyday life without purpose. Speechlessness. No one here can or wants to really communicate. And what for, if no help is ever to be expected?
Three people trapped together and within themselves, and the question of what chance a child whose parents are incapable of being parents has in a society in which the family background decides the fate of each life?