"Land unter" in Schleswig-Holstein

From Daniel Szewczyk

"Land under water" - that doesn't sound like a desirable thing in the context of a film shoot. Unless you need the flooding for the plot of the film. "We had actually already planned to use elaborate VFX effects in post production, as a storm surge during a three-week shoot is rather unlikely. But on the fourth day of filming, we suddenly had winds of 150 km/h and a large part of the Hallig was flooded. An impressive natural spectacle - and a stroke of luck for us," says Ameer Fakher Eldin. The Director and Script Writer spent around three weeks on the Hallig Langeneß in Schleswig-Holstein in 2023 to shoot his second feature film "Yunan" there. The drama is about the exiled Script Writer Munir, who has been living in Hamburg for a long time but has never really arrived. One day, he decides to travel to a lonely Hallig island to put an end to his life.

Eldin's first multi-award-winning film "The Stranger" is already about the feeling of home and foreignness - about a family man who does not feel at home in his own country due to the political situation, but still does not want to leave. His second film builds on this and shows a character who has left his country and is now unable to return. "A feeling that is very familiar to me. I grew up in the Golan Heights, a small strip of land between Syria and Israel. It's very easy to feel alienated and cut off here because of the political tensions. I didn't even have to go to another country for this," says the Director, who came to Hamburg four years ago for the post production of "The Stranger" and subsequently made the city on the Elbe his new home. Love at first sight, so to speak.

Shortly after his arrival in Hamburg, Eldin started work on "Yunan" and travelled regularly to Hallig Langeneß for over two years, which seemed to be made for his plot. "A place where the sea swallows up the land. It seemed like a very fitting metaphor for my film," says Eldin. "It really is an incredible place, a world heritage site with impressive nature."

In the process, he not only got to know the motifs better, but also the Hallig inhabitants and their culture bit by bit. "The people are like the landscape, calm, relaxed and generous. I received a really warm welcome," says Eldin. Some of them even made it into the finished film and virtually play themselves. However, the main focus is on the star cast that Eldin was able to engage for his second feature film. The cast includes Hanna Schygulla, Sibel Kekilli and Tom Wlaschiha, with the Lebanese actor Georges Khabbaz slipping into the leading role of Munir. How do you manage to land such big names for your second film? "I work without casting agencies, but write a letter to all the actors I would like to have in the film. For example, I had Hanna directly in mind when I was writing the script - she's a real legend," Eldin reveals. He met with Hanna Schygulla just a few days later in Paris and she agreed straight away.

The actual filming was then a real logistical challenge, as there are only two small hotels and a few Airbnb accommodations on the island. The film crew literally had to use all the beds available on the Hallig and split up between several houses. Things became even more complicated when the storm tide announced itself. "Nobody could really tell me how the "landfall" would go, as it is always different. We divided ourselves up between the houses so that we had a core team ready for action - in the end, we had 20 minutes to shoot the masses of water, it all happened incredibly quickly," says Eldin. But in the end, the effort was worth it and the "land under sequence" is a central element in the film. In addition to Hallig Langeneß, several scenes were also filmed in Hamburg and Apulia (Italy).

Yunan" was produced by Dorothe Beinemeier and her Hamburg-based production company Red Balloon Film, which was also on board for his debut film "The Stranger". "Doro is really unique - she put a lot of trust in me very early on. And she never wants to read my scripts! We meet for a wine in the evening and I tell her the story and then she asks lots of questions," says Eldin and laughs. Apparently a recipe that has proved its worth.