The number combination 7500 is an international air travel emergency code for a plane hijacking. A flight from Berlin to Paris. Business as usual in the cockpit of an Airbus A319 before take-off. Co-pilot Tobias Ellis expertly goes through the routine flight preparations. The take-off is smooth as usual. But then, suddenly, screams can be heard from the cabin. A group of men, the young Vedat (18) amongst them, try to enter the cockpit.
A fight between crew and terrorists ensues, and a psychological struggle between saving individual lives and preventing even greater harm is under way. The cockpit door becomes a battle zone and Tobias finds himself in the position of having to decide between life and death.
DIRECTOR: Patrick Vollrath
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sebastian Thaler
PRODUCER: Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo, Franz Novotny, Alexander Glehr
LENGTH: 90min
YEAR: 2019
COUNTRY: GERMANY │ AUSTRIA
FORMAT: 2,40:1
SHOT ON: ARRI Alexa Mini (RAW)
LENS: Zeiss Ultra Prime, Celere HS
PRODUCTION: Augenschein Film Produktion │ Novotny Film
CAST: Joseph Gordon Levitt, Aylin Tezel, Omid Memar
FESTIVALS
● 73th Locarno International Film Festival (Nominee: Variety Piazza Grande Award)
Variety:
"Lenser Sebastian Thaler, son of Ulrich Seidl’s regular cinematographer Wolfgang Thaler, lights and shoots with a crisp, limpid immediacy that makes him a talent to watch. His work gives even the simplest shot a vivid yet pensive effect, whether he’s filming a nightclub scene, a yoga routine, a wide shot of salmon-colored tower blocks in Kiev, or resting on one of the principals’ faces to catch their quicksilver expressions." by Jessica Kiang (view orginal critic)
Diagonale '17:
"In a fragmentary film with few dialogues, in which much is not pronounced, the imagery takes over an important part of the narrative. In "Ugly", the audience is given a lot of space, in wide tableaus as well as in intensive close-ups. Through the symbiosis of spontaneous and unkitted, but at the same time highly composed images, the film develops a veritable pull that is difficult to avoid. Due to the variety of subjects, lighting scenes and compositions and the always surprising new perspectives, the film is always in motion despite its quiet narrative style." by Julia Drack, Michael Loebensetin & Holger Stern
Michael Ballhaus Awards:
"An intelligent and intuitive cameraman accompanies two outstanding actors, in long moving sequences, with an instinct for body language and facial expression" by the Jury of FIRST STEPS