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Japan

Film Series: Sandra Hüller
 The Art of Ambivalence

Filmreihe Sandra Hüller © Goethe-Institut Tokyo

About the film series

In 2023, two films starring Sandra Hüller were honored at the Cannes Film Festival. Since then, the German actress has been in the spotlight of the international film world, inspiring filmmakers far beyond Germany’s borders.
The Goethe-Institut Tokyo, in cooperation with German Films, presents a film series showcasing just a few of the many shades of Sandra Hüller’s exceptional presence as an actress. Alongside four films returning to the big screen years after their Japanese theatrical release, we present three Japan premieres that highlight new, unknown facets of this extraordinary actress:
Two to One  (2024), a profound summer comedy set during the German currency union, Sisi & I, a satire that challenges common stereotypes of the Austrian empress, and Requiem, Hüller’s powerful screen debut from 2006 in Hans-Christian Schmid’s award-winning drama.
We invite you on a journey of discovery into the acting universe of Sandra Hüller!

Cancellation of Live Talk Event with Sandra Hüller on October 5(PDF, 111 KB)

 

Trailer

Sandra Hüller

Actress

Sandra Hüller, born in 1978 in Suhl, studied acting at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin from 1996 to 2000. After her graduation, she worked as an ensemble member of several major theatres in the German speaking area. In 2003 she was voted Young Actress of the Year by the theatre journal Theater heute and four times, in 2010, 2013, 2019 and 2020 Actress of the Year.
Her film roles - including Requiem, Toni Erdmann and In den Gängen - have won her numerous awards, including the Silberner Bär at the Berlinale, the German Film Awards 2006, 2014 and 2017, the Bavarian Film Award 2006 and 2017 and the European Film Award 2016 as best leading actress.
In 2020 she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her commitment since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic to point out social grievances in the theater, in the cultural industry and with regard to all those whose professional existence is at risk.
In 2023, Sandra Hüller received the European Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the film Anatomy of a Case. In the same year, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) also honoured her for her roles in Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest. Both films were awarded major prizes in the Academy Awards 2024. She is currently one of the most acclaimed German actresses active in international cinema.
The kind of depth, authenticity, and strength she brings to her characters is breathtaking.
Justine Triet (Director of "Anatomy of a Fall")

Lineup

  • Anatomy of a Fall

    German writer Sandra lives with her husband Samuel and their visually impaired son Daniel in a remote village in the French Alps. One day, Samuel is found dead in the snow at the foot of their house. Was it murder? Suicide? A tragic accident? Sandra quickly becomes the prime suspect, though the evidence is thin. A year passes before the trial begins, leading to a gripping circumstantial case. In the struggle to uncover the truth, Justine Triet’s film evolves into a compelling relationship drama. Private contradictions are set against the harsh realities of the justice system, putting the mother-son relationship to a severe test.

    France, 2023, 152 min, French and English with Japanese subtitles

    Cast: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner, Antoine Reinartz, and others
    Director: Justine Triet
    Screenplay: Justine Triet, Arthur Harari

  • The Zone of Interest

    In 1943, Rudolf Höß lives with his wife Hedwig and their children in a large house with a manicured garden and swimming pool. At first glance, the setting appears idyllic—but the home borders directly on the Auschwitz concentration camp. Rudolf is the camp commandant, issuing daily orders to kill and burn people. The family has grown accustomed to their privileged life next to the extermination camp, as well as the gunshots and screams beyond the wall...
    This juxtaposition of cozy domesticity and mass murder makes Jonathan Glazer’s multi-award-winning film deeply disturbing. Rarely has Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil” been so powerfully translated into cinematic language.

    USA, UK, Poland, 2023, 105 min
    German with Japanese subtitles
    Cast: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Johann Karthaus, Luis Noah Witte, and others
    Director: Jonathan Glazer
    Screenplay: Jonathan Glazer, Martin Amis

    Selected Awards:
    Grand Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival, 2023
    Best International Film and Best Sound, Academy Awards 2024
     

  • In the Aisles

    Christian is new at the wholesale market. Silently, he immerses himself in this unfamiliar universe: the long aisles, the eternal order of the storage shelves, the surreal mechanics of the forklifts. Bruno, a colleague from the beverage section, takes him under his wing, showing him tricks and becoming a fatherly friend. Then there’s Marion from the sweets department, who teases Christian with playful jokes. When he falls in love with her, the whole market is rooting for him. But Marion is married—not happily, as rumors suggest. Suddenly, she goes on sick leave. Christian falls into a deep hole, so deep that his old, miserable life threatens to catch up with him.
    Thomas Stuber’s film adaptation of Clemens Meyer’s short story succeeds in portraying people in post-reunification East Germany in a sensitive and poetic way, whose lives have been unsettled by the sweeping social changes.

    Germany, 2018, 125 min, German with Japanese subtitles
    Cast: Franz Rogowski, Sandra Hüller, Peter Kurth, Gerdy Zint, Henning Peker, Michael Specht, Sascha Nathan, Andreas Leupold, Ramona Kunze-Libnow, Steffen Scheumann, Matthias Brenner, and others
    Director: Thomas Stuber
    Screenplay: Clemens Meyer, Thomas Stuber

    Selected Awards:
    Official Competition Film, Berlinale 2018
    Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actress (Sandra Hüller), German Film Awards 2018

  • Toni Erdmann

    At the heart of the story is a father-daughter relationship: Ines Conradi is a successful business consultant traveling the world, currently working in Bucharest. Her father Winfried, a former 1968 activist, pays her a surprise visit, disrupting her orderly business life. Unable to connect, he leaves early—only to reappear in a new role. Disguised and under the name “Toni Erdmann,” he poses as a coach and ambassador, turning Ines’s social life upside down. Though she finds him mostly annoying, she begins to realize how much they actually have in common.

    Germany, 2016, 162 min
    German and other languages with Japanese subtitles
    Cast: Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller, Michael Wittenborn, Trystan Pütter, Lucy Russell, and others
    Director: Maren Ade
    Screenplay: Maren Ade

    Selected Awards:
    FIPRESCI Prize, Cannes Film Festival, 2016
    Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Academy Awards 2017

  • Japan Premiere

    Sisi & I

    Irma Countess von Sztáray does not have it easy. Shortly before her application to become lady-in-waiting to Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Queen of Hungary known as “Sisi”, Irma gets a bloody nose from her strict mother in all the excitement. Then, at court, she is put on display like a prize cow and interrogated. At Sisi’s summer residence on Corfu, Irma first has to prove her athleticism in sadistic exercises and is then put on a diet of cocaine extracts before she finally meets the moody and erratic empress in person. In between laxative teas and watery soups, hikes and beauty treatments, the two very different women quickly become close – though only as close as Sisi will allow, naturally. But every summer has an end, and when they return to Vienna, the lives of Sisi and Irma change drastically….

    Germany, 2023, 132 min, German with Japanese subtitles
    Cast: Susanne Wolf, Sandra Hüller, Georg Friedrich, Stefan Kurt, Sophie Hutter, Maresi Riegner, Johanna Wokalek, u.a.
    Director: Frauke Finsterwalder
    Screenplay: Frauke Finsterwalder, Christian Kracht

    Selected Awards:
    Panorama Section, Berlin International Film Festival, 2023
    Best Costume Design, German Film Awards 2023

    エリザベートと私 ©2023 Frauke Finsterwalder / Walker + Worm Film / MMC Independent / C‑Films AG / Dor Film Produktionsgesellschaft ©2023 Frauke Finsterwalder / Walker + Worm Film / MMC Independent / C‑Films AG / Dor Film Produktionsgesellschaft

  • Japan Premiere

    Two to One

    Halberstadt (GDR) summer 1990. Maren, Robert, and Volker have known and loved each other since childhood. By chance, they discover millions of East German marks stored in an old shaft, left to rot. The trio smuggles backpacks full of money out and, together with friends and neighbors, devises a clever system to exchange the now worthless currency for goods—outsmarting the incoming Westerners and their capitalism. With a little ingenuity, this summer could be not only a grand adventure but also a financial turning point in their lives. Two to One is a profound summer comedy about money and justice, love and friendship—and a tribute to a unique time when anything seemed possible.

    Germany, 2024, 100 min, German with Japanese subtitles
    Cast: Sandra Hüller, Max Riemelt, Ronald Zehrfeld, Peter Kurth, Ursula Werner, Martin Brambach, Uwe Preuss, Kathrin Wehlisch, Olli Dittrich
    Director & Screenplay: Natja Brunckhorst

    Selected Awards:
    Official Entry, Munich Film Festival, New German Cinema Section

    二対一　東ドイツ通貨統一の夏に発見した大切なこと © 2024 Row Pictures GmbH, Zischlermann Filmproduktion GmbH, Lichtblick Film & TV Produktion GmbH, ZDF, ARTE © 2024 Row Pictures GmbH, Zischlermann Filmproduktion GmbH, Lichtblick Film & TV Produktion GmbH, ZDF, ARTE

  • Japan Premiere

    Requiem

    Inspired by a true story, the film tells the tale of Michaela Klingler, a young woman torn between family, faith, and illness, who becomes the victim of an exorcism in the early 1970s. Raised in a strictly Catholic household, Michaela moves to Tübingen at the age of 21 to study education. While her father supports her, her mother—who tries to wrap her epileptic daughter in a cocoon of prohibitions and precautions—views the move with concern. Happy to have left behind her small-town environment, Michaela enjoys her newfound freedom and quickly makes friends at university with Hanna and Stefan.
    But her past catches up with her: despite medical treatment, she increasingly suffers from epileptic seizures and delusions. Her parents, desperate to help their increasingly aggressive daughter, turn to the church and call in priests…

    Germany, 2006, 93 min, German with Japanese subtitles
    Cast: Sandra Hüller, Burghart Klausner, Imogen Kogge, and others
    Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
    Screenplay: Bernd Lange

    Selected Awards:
    Silver Bear for Best Actress (Sandra Hüller), Berlinale 2006
    German Film Award in Silver: Best Actress (Sandra Hüller), Best Costume Design, 2006

They should invent a separate category just for Sandra Hüller.
Jonathan Glazer (Director of "The Zone of Interest") at the Cannes Film Festival, 2023

Screening Schedule & Talk Events

Tickets  can be purchased online three days prior to the respective screening.
 

 
Date Start Title Duration Talk
03.10.2025 16:00 Anatomy of a Fall 152 min  
  19:00 Two to One 100 min with Minako Yoshikawa (Subtitle Translator), expected end of the talk: 21:10
04.10.2025 16:00 Requiem 93 min  
  19:00 The Zone of Interest 105 min  
05.10.2025 13:00 Requiem 93 min Screening of Online-Interview with Sandra Hüller & Lecture by Rie Tsukinaga (film journalist)
  16:00 Toni Erdmann 162 min  
06.10.2025 16:00 In the Aisles 125 min  
  19:00 Sisi & I 132 min with Yuzu Murakami (Author and Researcher in Photography and Art Criticism), expected end of the talk: 21:45
07.10.2025 16:00 Two to One 100 min  
  19:00 Anatomy of a Fall 152 min  
08.10.2025 16:00 Sisi & I 132 min  
  19:00 In the Aisles 125 min with Miho Matsunaga (Professor at the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University; German Literature Scholar and Translator) and Hiroki Kinefuchi (Translator of Clemens Meyer's "All the Lights", Professor at the Tokyo Women's Christian University) , expected end of the talk: 21:45
09.10.2025 16:00 Toni Erdmann 162 min  
  19:00 Requiem 93 min  
10.10.2025 16:00 Sisi & I 132 min  
  19:00 Two to One 100 min  
11.10.2025 16:00 The Zone of Interest 105 min with Madoka Yamazaki (Columnist)
  19:00 Toni Erdmann 162 min  
12.10.2025 16:00 Two to One 100 min  
  19:00 Sisi & I 132 min  
13.10.2025 16:00 Anatomy of a Fall 152 min  
  19:00 Toni Erdmann 162 min  
14.10.2025 16:00 Requiem 93 min  
  19:00 Sisi & I 132 min  
15.10.2025 16:00 Two to One 100 min  
  19:00 The Zone of Interest 105 min  
16.10.2025 16:00 In the Aisles 125 min  
  19:00 Requiem 93 min  

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