16.02.2023 | Meyerhoff film adaptation at the Berlinale
Script Writer Joachim Meyerhoff landed one of THE bestsellers in Germany in 2013 with "When Will It Again Like It Never Was Before". Directors Sonja Heiss has now brought the funny, bizarre and touching story to the big screen. The film celebrates its world premiere in the youth section of the 73rd Berlinale and opens in German cinemas on 23 February.
When Iris Meyerhoff calmly starts sawing up boxes, chocolates and books with an electric knife - her Christmas present - on Christmas Eve and her family looks on in disbelief, the viewer doesn't quite know whether to laugh, cry or look into the corner in shame. A scene that is exemplary for the entire film - and one of Sonja Heiss' favourite scenes. With her film adaptation of "When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before", the Berlin-based Director and Script Writer has managed to skilfully strike a chord with Joachim Meyerhoff's autobiographical novel, while still creating something of her own. "The novel has a lot of wit and humour, but at the same time an incredible depth. A mix that is rather rare for a German book. Reading it in bed, I laughed out loud several times on my own. That was the moment when I thought it should be made into a film," says the Berliner.
The coming-of-age story of an extraordinary childhood and youth in the old West Germany centres on the bizarre family life in the middle of a psychiatric institution. The film was shot over 47 days in 2021 in Berlin, Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Canada - and of course Schleswig-Holstein. This is where the Meyerhoff family lives on the grounds of Schleswig-Holstein's largest child and adolescent psychiatric hospital on the Hesterberg. Father Richard Meyerhoff is the director of the facility. For Joachim, the youngest of his three sons, the patients are practically part of the family. A childhood that is anything but normal. But in the words of his father: "What is normal"?
Like the novel, Sonja Heiss lets the decades pass by the characters. And so three different actors were needed for the main character Joachim: seven-year-old "Josse" is played by up-and-coming actor Camille Loup Moltzen, Arsseni Bultmann ("Die Wolf-Gäng") slips into the role of 14-year-old Josse and Merlin Rose takes on the role of 25-year-old Joachim. An elaborate casting process - but the Directors raves about her young leading actors: "Little Joachim, played by Camille, is an incredibly talented child, with a fantastic energy and at the same time a rare depth. Arsseni Bultmann, who plays Joachim Meyerhoff for the longest part of the film, is an incredibly great actor, completely in the moment, he has a strong presence and is very touching. He plays the humour deadly serious, he doesn't find himself funny - I think that ruins humour. Arsseni is a natural talent."
The parents are played by Devid Striesow and Laura Tonke - who lend the couple, who have not been happy for a long time, the necessary tragedy. The mother longs for the lukewarm summer nights of Italy, while the father tries to keep his affairs a secret. But the secret stars of the film are the non-professional actors, for whom a special casting team was put together. "We travelled to many facilities for people with disabilities in the run-up to the film - such as residential communities and theatre workshops. We had great encounters on location, which also influenced the script. And, of course, great advisors who accompanied us throughout the entire shoot," says Heiss.
Speaking of scripts: Script Writer Joachim Meyerhoff read the script versions by Sonja Heiss and her co-author Lars Hubrich, gave feedback and also the odd bit of information about the novel. He also sent them pictures of his parents and siblings and tried to convey a more accurate picture of his family at the time. However, he was not on set during filming: "Joachim only saw the finished film at the end - and he really liked it. That was a little heart-stopping moment for us," reveals Heiss.
Perhaps there was also a heart-stopping moment or two during the filming in Schleswig-Holstein. Here, the crew filmed most of the sailboat shots in the Baltic Sea off Fehmarn. To make the world outside the psychiatric ward look as North German as possible, the team also filmed several streets and brick buildings in Lübeck. However, the psychiatric ward and the Meyerhoffs' villa were not filmed at the original locations in Schleswig - according to the Director, the buildings were too different and fragmented for that. They finally found what they were looking for in North Rhine-Westphalia on a real hospital site and in Brandenburg.
You can see all of this from 17 February in the Berlinale section "Generation 14plus", where the film will celebrate its world premiere. But everyone else won't have to wait long: "When Will It Be Again Like It Never Before" opens in German cinemas on 23 February.
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