German indie powerhouse The Match Factory will handle world sales on two Berlin Film Festival competition titles: German director Fatih Akin’s serial-killer chiller “The Golden Glove” and Turkish director Emin Alper’s family drama “A Tale of Three Sisters.”
Akin, a Hamburg native whose “Head-On” won the Golden Bear in 2004, is returning to the Berlinale with provocative “Glove,” which is based on a bestselling book. It chronicles the true story of Fritz Honka, a physically and psychologically scarred serial killer who murdered four women in Hamburg’s red-light district between 1970 and 1975. Akin has told Variety that the killer, played by rising German actor Jonas Dassler (“Lomo: The Language of Many Others”), used to live a couple of streets from where he grew up.
Honka picked up his victims at a dive bar called Zum Goldenen Handschuh (The Golden Glove in German), where he was a regular. The chiller’s cast also includes Margarethe Tiesel (“Paradise: Love”) and Hark Bohm.
“A Tale of Three Sisters” is the third feature by Turkish auteur Alper, who won Venice’s Jury Special Prize in 2015 with his politically charged drama “Frenzy,” set in a dystopian Istanbul.
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His new film unfolds in central Anatolia, where three sisters who had been assigned as foster children to affluent families are made to return to their father’s house in his poor village. “Deprived of their dreams of a better life, they try to hold on to each other,” promotional materials say.
“Three Sisters” is a co-production between Liman Film (Turkey), NuLook Production (Turkey), Komplizen Film (Germany), Circe Films (Netherlands) and Horsefly Productions (Greece).
“The Golden Glove” is co-produced by Akin’s shingle, Bombero International, with Warner Bros. Germany and Pathé. Warner Bros. will release the film in Germany. The film was scripted by Akin and lensed by his regular cinematographer, Rainer Klausmann.
Akin won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Film last year for his terrorist-attack film “In the Fade,” starring Diane Kruger, who won the best actress prize at Cannes for her performance. For his next project, Akin is set to direct an adaptation of Stephen King’s classic sci-fi thriller “Firestarter” for Universal.
The 69th Berlin Film Festival runs Feb. 7-17.