Cannes: Studiocanal Boards Sales On Volker Schlöndorff’s ‘Visitation’

EXCLUSIVE: Studiocanal has boarded sales and unveiled a first image for Volker Schlöndorff’s Visitation, which was announced as having been selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection on Thursday.

The film, which is Schlöndorff’s first fiction feature in close to a decade, will debut in the Cannes Premiere section.

The historical drama revolves around a house on a lakeshore near Berlin which has borne witness to a century of events that reshaped the world around it: the rise of Nazism and the devastation of war, Soviet occupation, the reunification of Germany, and the dawn of a new era.

Carrying the marks of each new regime, generations come and go — a Jewish family, an opportunistic architect and his wife, an idealistic writer, and her granddaughter. Twelve destinies searching for peace and belonging, while the house remains a haven through decades of turmoil.

Lars Eidinger, Martina Gedeck, Susanne Wolff, Michael Maertens, Ulrich Matthes, Detlev Buck, Angela Winkler and Wigand Witting feature in the ensemble cast.

Schlöndorff – who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 1979 for The Tin Drum, ex aequo with Apocalypse Now – and has been a regular guest of the festival throughout his career. He was last at the festival for its 70th anniversary celebrations in 2017, while his last new work in selection was the Central Asia Steppes set drama Ulzhan, which debuted as a Special Screening in 2007.

“To be back at “the mother of all festivals”,  60 years after I started there with my Young Toerless, must be the greatest satisfaction for any filmmaker, a joy and an honour. Free from all competition I’ll enjoy the company of new and old collegues from all over the world, walking down memory lane, for the 8th time on the Croisette, 47 years after the Golden Palm – what a privilege it is to be a filmmaker!,” said Schlöndorff.

Visitation is produced by legendary veteran producer Regina Ziegler at Berlin-based Ziegler Film, in coproduction with Studiocanal which is handling international sales.