2015 MSPIFF OFFICIAL SELECTION
One City, One Night, One Take
Victoria, a young woman from Madrid, meets four local Berliners outside a nightclub. Sonne and his friends promise to show her a good time and the real side of the city. But these lads have gotten themselves into hot water: they owe someone a dangerous favor that requires repaying that evening. As Victoria’s flirtation with Sonne deepens into something more, he convinces her to come along for the ride. And later, when things become more ominous and possibly lethally dangerous for Sonne, she insists on coming along. As the night takes on an ever more menacing character, what started out as a good time quickly spirals out of control.
As dawn approaches, Victoria and Sonne address the inevitable: it’s all or nothing and they abandon themselves to a heart-stopping race into the depths of hell.
Shot in one single two-hour-and-eighteen-minute take with no cuts, no CGI, and no cheap tricks, Victoria is not just a movie about a bank robbery. It is bank robbery.
"An eye-opening new take on suspense thrillers... Its breathtaking duration creates a primal appeal that keeps you on the edge of your chair." - Star Tribune
"This terrifying, seductive and adrenaline-fueled movie has found a new form of freedom for cinema." - Salon
"There’s no release, no exhale. Here is a crime drama that punches you in the gut, full on, and dares you not to blink." - Miami Herald
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Sebastian Schipper joined his first theatre group at the age of 16 and began studying to become an actor at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich shortly after completing his A-levels. Employment at Munich’s Kammerspeile Theater followed his studies where he simultaneously wrote and directed his first short films and ultimately his first feature-length film, Absolute Gigantic, produced by Tom Tykwer and X-Films. The film Ein Freund vonmir (A Friend of Mine), with Daniel Brühl and Jürgen Vogel followed in 2004, and in 2008 Mitte Ende August (Sometime in August), an adaptation of Geothe’s Elective Afffinities with Marie Bäumer and Milan Paschel. Since Sebastian played one of the leads in Tykwer’s film 3, he has had a steady stream of roles. In 2013 he established the production company MonkeyBoy with Jan Dressler. Their first feature under this company, Victoria was selected for Competition at the 2015 Berlinale.
NEW RELEASES
Extraordinary foreign films, must-see American indies, and groundbreaking documentaries from around the world, screening weekly at the Film Society.