German director Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s Hysteria has been awarded the Europa Cinemas Label for Best European Film in the Panorama section at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.
The behind-the-scene conspiracy thriller follows the drama on a German film shoot, a production about real-life arson attacks on a Turkish family by German skinheads, that kicks off when a copy of the Quran is burnt on set. That kicks off a cleverly plotted whodunit that also examines the issue of who benefits from fictionalizing real-world violence. “Imagine Knives Out meets François Truffaut’s Day for Night, but set in a present-day Germany rife with tensions about immigration and Islam,” The Hollywood Reporter critic Jordan Mintzer said in a rave review.
The Europa Cinemas jury—comprising Klaudia Elsässer (Art+ Cinema, Hungary), David Kelly (Light House Cinema, Ireland), Constanze Oedl (Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus, Austria), and Cenk Sezgin (Cinemarine Cinemas, Turkey)—praised Büyükatalay’s film for its tightly constructed narrative and provocative themes.
“Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s Hysteria is a well-crafted conspiracy thriller,” the jury said in a statement. “There are plenty of twists and turns, and the film builds towards a very exciting climactic final ten minutes. The audience here in Berlin was clearly relishing the ride. But beyond the enjoyment to be had with the film, we feel that its incendiary subject matter can really promote dialogue and a greater insight into the tensions in our society today.”
Hysteria follows Elif (Devrim Lignau), an intern on a film set that is thrown into chaos after a burned Quran is discovered. As tensions rise, Elif finds herself caught in a web of suspicion, deception, and escalating paranoia. The ensemble cast includes Devrim Lingnau, Mehdi Meskar, Serkan Kaya, Nicolette Krebitz, and Aziz Çapkurt. Büyükatalay also wrote the screenplay and produced the film together with Claus Herzog-Reichel through their Filmfaust shingle.
International sales for Hysteria are being handled by Pluto Films.