German Readings – The Best Movies That Were Never Made

Initiated by director and screenwriter Christian Klandt and actor Peter Kurth, the series is dedicated to a special treasure of the film world: unfilmed and rejected screenplays.

In staged readings, actors and actresses will present selected screenplays to a live audience for the first time. The texts will be accompanied by live music composed specifically for the evening.

Film composer Johannes Repka has been enlisted to provide the musical accompaniment for the first German Readings. Repka has composed the music for films such as “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush,” “Timm Thaler, or The Sold Laugh,” “Cleo,” and the hit series “Waiting for the Bus.” Together with other musicians, he will provide live accompaniment for the evening.

To kick off the series, renowned writer and screenwriter Torsten Schulz is making his previously unfilmed screenplay *NILOWSKY* available; in 2018, it was nominated for the German Screenplay Award “Goldene Lola” as one of the three strongest screenplays of the year.

The story is set in a desolate industrial district along the railroad embankment. There, 16-year-old Markus falls under the spell of the charismatic outsider Reiner Nilowsky. Amid a chemical plant, a bar, and a shack housing Africans, Nilowsky draws him into a world of revolutionary ideas, violent fantasies, and obsessive love. Together, they fight for the enigmatic Carola, while the boundaries between reality and delusion become increasingly blurred.

NILOWSKY is a darkly poetic coming-of-age story full of black humor, quirky characters, and powerful imagery—a film about friendship, longing, and growing up in a broken world.