production design beatrice schultz

familie is nich, tv movie, 2023, 89 min.

written and directed by nana neul

cinematographer bernhard keller

produced by julia rappold, lieblingsfilm gmbh (münchen)

opening movie at the 20th festival of german cinema, ludwigshafen, 2024 

mother and daughter, anne and julia, are more similar than both of them think.

anne lives outside of society as a self-sufficient person, in an enchanted house, a castle in a deep sleep, surrounded by seemingly insurmountable walls.

julia maintains an alternative lifestyle in the city, both live outside of social conventions and are neither at all bourgeois and conformist, and it happens, that they clash with those around them, or come into conflict with the law.

the connecting element is julia's child tilda and the family-owned forest.

“family is not” is an old-fashioned story and at the same time a modern legend or fairy tale.

it is the story of the healing power of forgiveness.

the forest takes on a mythological role, it is a place of longing for anne and a link to jan and their previous life as a family.

in addition to fairy-tale elements of the film, we integrated western elements like the duel. the entire family over three generations do solve their challenges of life by duels. a new film genre was born, the western fairy tale.

kitchen and extension / winter garden / entrance area

bedroom anne

bedroom tilda, which was former julia's bedroom

the design process begins while reading the script. after a longer phase of research and initial ideas and sketches, the creative process intensifies even more during the location inspection, when i have the chance to work closely with one of my most important partners. during this valuable time with the director and the dop on the places we're considering for the story/characters, i find from time to time furniture, pictures, curtains, props that inspire me and i would love to include in the picture, rather instinctive

sometimes there are finds, like in this case the inflatable paddling pool, which i am allowed to take with me straight away, without knowing exactly where i would use the pool. i just thought, this could be a great relic of julia's, that's left over in her mothers house. it could appear somewhere and always remind anne of her daughter, who she hasn't spoken since 10 years. thanks to the amasing collaboration together with director and dop, the pool was integrated into the plot, so that the production design could support the story in a subtle way.

when anne's gate get destroyed by the postman and falls off its hinges, life enters the yard and she is defenselessly exposed to it.

the finished dressed set

groß ziehthen is our western town with wild animals at the entrance to the town. we were interested in the theatrical aspect of this place and the possibility of playing with well-known western elements (duel, horizon, perspectives)

a lot of things were designed, and built for this film. it started with the winter garden that was built to replace the living room, which was described in the script. the new space served as an extension to the kitchen and giving it something mysterious and created beautiful depth, perspectives and light possibilities. the technical drawings by the art director: fabienne müller i realy love. first, they fulfill all technical aspects and at the same time they breathe my design.

and in terms of the sustainable aspect of green shooting, we worked almost exclusively with existing material. in relation to the amount that was built, a maximum of 10% of new material was purchased. we found the rest on eBay classifieds and collected elsewhere.

then we built the bus stop from rusted steel, the swing for the forest and our western village festival, as well as construction and color work in jail. the job center and youth welfare office we built as a studio building in "anne's farm".
including job center and youth welfare office in the main motiv, created a more flexible shooting schedule, because of the small amount of shooting hours per day with a child on set.

draft

finished set

further we built the half-height wood panel walls in anne's kitchen, the sink with fittings and the wallpaper.

with a tv project like this, there isn't really enough time to make drawings, nor is there a budget to get a concept artist involved.

nevertheless, a draft is of great importance for the entire process. i have adopted a quick method, something between collage and drawing, which ideally includes surfaces, colors, details and lighting moods.

the fence that keeps the outside world "away" from anne and runs around anne's property with a length of around 55 meters and was supposed to have a walkable gap. it was built from everything that was "left over", such as old corrugated iron, old wood or rusted panels.

finally, we built a wall in julias's yard in correspondence with anne's fenced-in area, so that it seemed just as "closed in", as anne's home and didn't let anyone in. eva weymann painted this wall with a forest motif. the real path that leads through the yard continued in the painted picture. in julias fantasy world, she painted a way out of her predicament. a hopeful ending. thoughts and wishes can become material, and in the end forgivness is possible in the family.