Kino Lorber has set an April 17 theatrical debut for Fatih Akin’s World War II coming-of-age tale Amrum at the Quad Cinema in New York City.
The film starring Diane Kruger, Laura Tonke, Jasper Billerbeck and Lisa Hagmeister will expand to select markets including LA’s Laemmle Royal the following week.
Amrum world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival (see Deadline review). It’s the latest by the German-Turkish filmmaker behind Venice Golden Bear winner Head-On (2004); Cannes Best Screenplay-winner The Edge of Heaven (2007); and Golden Globe-winner In the Fade (2017).
Akin wrote the screenplay with Hark Bohm. Set in the waning days of WWII on the German island of Amrum, the synopsis reads, 12-year-old Nanning spends days working the farm and nights fishing. Despite the hardship, life on the windswept isle seems idyllic. When farmer Tessa (Kruger) mentions to Nanning that the war will soon be over, the boy, too young to understand the political implications, is pleased to imagine that his Nazi officer father might soon be coming home. But word of Germany’s imminent defeat sends his mother into decline, and as Nanning looks to his community for support, he learns that the true enemy is far closer than he imagined.
Kino Lorber is currently out with Oscar-nominated documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin.
