A panoramic vision of martial Hollywood dreams and bizarre everyday village life. The tiny village of Wiesenwalde is actually dead boring, at least it was until Hollywood came knocking, looking to shoot a series about World War Two. Local mayor Susanne is especially excited for an opportunity to put her hometown on the map as a potential way of reversing demographic trends. Meanwhile, the villagers attempt to chase their dreams – until a sudden blackout threatens to dash their plans, old stories resurface and a journalist goes all in hoping to land a big story. To top it all off, there’s a tank in front of the mayor’s house too.

Kiefer, who previously won awards at exground filmfest with several short films, returns to the festival with his quirky, magnificently cast feature-film debut, which celebrated its world premiere at Shanghai International Film Festival in 2024.

Jannis Alexander Kiefer grew up on his family’s farm and studied audio-visual media at Berlin University of Applied Sciences and Technology after completing various internships. He studied feature-film directing at Film University Babelsberg until 2023. In 2021, he presented his graduation film KOLLEGEN at Max Ophüls Film Festival, in Clermont-Ferrand and at the Warsaw International Film Festival. KOLLEGEN treats the difficulties of dealing with our history and the Holocaust. During the Covid lockdown, he wrote and directed the home office short film MEETING, which won the Short Film Lola in Gold.

Filmography: 2019 EMPEROR, 2020 MEETING, 2020 GOOD GERMAN WORK (all short films), 2024 ANOTHER GERMAN TANK STORY

Awards: Big Audience Award (First Steps – The German Young Talent Award, Berlin/Germany 2024)