Australian/German co-production Lore, set in the spring of 1945 as the German front collapses and the Allied forces take control over Hitler’s country, has started filming.
Directed by Cate Shortland – best known for her highly-acclaimed, coming-of-age drama Somersault starring Abbie Cornish (Sucker Punch) – the film is an epic story based on the Man Brooker Prize-nominated novel The Dark Room, by Rachel Seiffert.
To be distributed locally by Transmission Films, the story follows Lore – a 16-year-old whose Nazi parents have been imprisoned and in turn is left in charge of her four young siblings. Embarking on a journey across the devastated country, the children struggle to survive. And Lore has to learn to trust a person whom she had always been told was the enemy.
“Lore is an incredibly cinematic and emotionally-powerful story,” Transmission Films managing director Andrew Mackie said in a statement.
“Cate Shortland showed the world with her first feature that she is a director with a strong and distinctive vision and we firmly believe that Cate and the producers of Lore will deliver a film that will enthral audiences here in Australia and around the world.”
Produced by Australia’s Liz Watts (Animal Kingdom), Germany’s Karsten Stöter (Russian Ark) and Benny Drechsel (A Mysterious World), and Britain’s Paul Welsh (Skeletons), the film was adapted by Shortland and UK writer Robin Mukherjee.
Watts said she was captivated from the moment she read the story several years ago.
“We have drawn together a wonderfully-talented international cast and crew to bring this powerful story to the screen,” she said.
Funding was provided by Screen Australia, Screen NSW, Creative Scotland, and German providers the MDM Film Commission, Hessen Invest Film, FFA, FFHSH, MFG and DFFF.
A scene from Australian/German co-production Lore