Private Project

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...

  • Sabrina Mertens
    Director
  • Sabrina Mertens
    Writer
  • Sabrina Mertens
    Producer
  • Jan Fabi
    Producer
  • Vera Paulmann
    Producer
  • Nadia Zimmermann
    Producer
  • Hannah Buhr
    Producer
  • Zelda Espenschied
    Key Cast
    "Stephanie (as a child)"
  • Miriam Schiweck
    Key Cast
    "Stephanie (as an adult)"
  • Freya Kreutzkam
    Key Cast
    "Mother"
  • Bernd Wolf
    Key Cast
    "Father Reinhardt"
  • Jan Fabi
    Camera
  • Jonathan Rösch
    Sound Design
  • Ole Ohlendorf
    Sound Design
  • Jonathan Rösch
    Audio Mix
  • Stefano Zordan
    Grading
  • Marco Rottig
    Editor
  • Larissa Helwig
    Make Up Artist
  • Susanne Steiger
    Make Up Artist
  • Sabrina Mertens
    Costumes
  • Sabrina Mertens
    Set Design
  • Willibald Wonneberger
    Sound on Set
  • Isabella Forster
    Sound on Set
  • Johann Meis
    Sound on Set
  • Judith Quast
    Set Design Assiatant
  • Christina Binder
    Assistant Camera
  • Valentin Becker
    Assistant Camera
  • Adrian Wagner
    Lighting Assistant
  • Florian Kontny
    Foley Artist
  • Christina Binder
    Boom Operator
  • Johannes Buchholz
    Boom Operator
  • Yukon Benner
    Unit Manager
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Fellwechselzeit
  • Project Type:
    Feature, Student
  • Genres:
    Drama, Horror, Psychodrama, coming-of-Age, Family Drama, Episodic Movie
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 21 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 15, 2020
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Germany
  • Language:
    German
  • Shooting Format:
    1:85
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
  • Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis
    Saarbrücken
    Germany
    January 21, 2020
    World
    Feature Film Competition
  • International Film Festival Rotterdam
    Rotterdam
    Netherlands
    January 23, 2020
    International
    Bright Future Competition
  • Fantasia International Film Festival
    Montrèal
    Canada
    North America Premiere
    Camera Lucida Official Selection
  • Randfilmfest
    Kassel
    Germany
    September 19, 2020
  • NIGHTSTREAM Festival
    Online/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 Festival
    Sevilla
    Spain
    November 8, 2020
    Spanish premiere
    PERMANENT REVOLUTIONS Competition (winner PERMANENT REVOLUTIONS BEST FILM AWARD )
  • Cucalorus Festival
    Wilmington, NC
    United States
    November 11, 2020
    North Carolina Premiere
  • Nordic Film Days Lübeck
    Lübeck
    Germany
    November 5, 2020
  • Final Girls
    Berlin
    Germany
    February 4, 2021
  • ARC Film Festival
    Mainz
    Germany
    September 18, 2021
    -
    Best Visual Storytelling Award
  • Filmfest Bremen
    Bremen
    Germany
    April 14, 2021
    Innovation Competition
  • REAKTOR International Film Festival
    Vienna
    Austria
    October 8, 2022
    Austria Premiere
Distribution Information
  • Media Luna New Films
    Sales Agent
    Country: Worldwide
Director Biography - Sabrina Mertens

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.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

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?