Nearby Faraway
Date:
December 15, 2022
Nearby Faraway
Nearby Faraway
by Sonia Liza Kenterman
BYRD | Greece
Deal Productions | Luxembourg
Elemag Pictures | Germany
Live-action feature | 2nd feature
*the access to our meeting platform and director’s previous works will start from January 10, 2025
Logline
A Jewish woman’s sense of identity is shattered after she seeks out and meets the German father who abandoned her and discovers that her family history was fabricated: who she thought she was is not who she is.
Synopsis
Nearby Faraway is a poetic exploration of a young woman’s quest to find her long-lost father who abandoned her as a child. Anna clings to the few memories of him and devotes her life to preserving her father’s legacy as a Jewish survivor from the Holocaust. After her mother’s death leaves her grief stricken and orphaned, Anna finds renewed purpose in traveling to Germany in the hopes of finding the only parent she may still have.
Anna locates Hans in Dresden: he’s still alive! The two spend tender but fragile time together. Hans is a charismatic storyteller and moody eccentric. Anna finds herself drawn to him despite her anger. A relationship between them seems possible. Yet, on the very day they are to visit the Synagogue together, Hans disappears. Anna searches for her father to no avail: each bit of information she uncovers about him capsizes her world. Anna discovers a devastating, incomprehensible truth: her grandfather was a Nazi who euthanized and conducted unspeakable experiments on blind children. Her family isn’t Jewish. Her father is an imposter. Anna’s entire sense of self is smashed into irretrievable bits. Who she thought she was, is not who she is.
There’s one thing left to her: the truth. We witness her at the end of the film, now part of a chosen family, rather than the one dictated by birth. Anna will glimpse a future ahead, the possibility of life, of healing. She will live fully, not just survive.
Director’s Profile
Sonia Liza Kenterman is a Greek/German Film Director and Writer. She studied at The London Film School. Her graduation short film NICOLETA won 15 awards and entered 41 festivals worldwide. Her first feature film TAILOR is a Greek/German/Belgian co-production. It participated at the MFI, Cinemed, Crossroads and Sofia Meetings. Tailor premiered at Tallinn Black Nights. It’s been selected by 47 festivals and won 16 awards. Tailor released in cinemas in Germany, Austria, Japan (nominated for Best Foreign Film) Spain and Hong Kong. It will be distributed also in China, Taiwan, Switzerland, Brazil, Slovenia, Turkey and South Korea. It’s streaming on HBO, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and MUBI.
Company Profile
BYRD is the newly founded Film and TV development and production arm of Topcut Modiano, one of the oldest production houses in Greece. It has also co-produced a number of features that were screened in top tier film festivals including Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinetta” [Toronto International Film Festival 2005, Berlin International Film Festival 2006], Babis Makridis’ “L” [Sundance Film Festival 2012, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2012], Phedon Papamichael’s “Arcadia Lost” [São Paulo International Film Festival 2010] and his most recent “Light Falls”[PÖFF 2023].
Continuing the company’s legacy in cinema and co- productions and under the new structure, BYRD has completed documentary “Dogwatch” (Gregoris Rentis, 2022) [Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival – Silver Alexander award, Visions Du Réel, True/False, Raindance] and short films “Pendulus” (Dimitris Gotsis, 2022) [4 awards at Drama International Short Film Festival] and “Super” ( Nikolas Kouloglou ,2023) [ Busan International Short FF, PÖFF Shorts, Brussels IFF, HollyShorts, Young Jury Award for best Short film in Cinema Jove Valencia IFF]. BYRD is continually investing in bringing creative minds together to tell engaging stories and is currently developing a slate of feature films and TV series set to be filmed in 2025/2026. BYRD 2023 slate has been funded by Creative Europe Media.