''Unterwerfung'' ("submission") is a 2018 German television drama film directed by Titus Selge and starring

Edgar Selge Edgar Selge (born 27 March 1948) is a German actor and writer. Selge was born in Brilon in 1949, the son of a prison warden, grew up in Herford. He studied philosophy and German in Munich and Dublin as well as classical piano in Vienna. He gradu ...

. It is based on the 2015 novel ''

Submission Deference (also called submission or passivity) is the condition of submitting to the espoused, legitimate influence of one's superior or superiors. Deference implies a yielding or submitting to the judgment of a recognized superior, out of re ...

'' by

Michel Houellebecq Michel Houellebecq (; born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1956 or 1958) is a French author, known for his novels, poems and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer ...

and a German stage adaptation of the novel.

Cast

as François *

Matthias Brandt Matthias Brandt (born 7 October 1961) is a German actor and audiobook narrator. He has appeared in more than seventy films since 1989. Early life Brandt was born in West Berlin. He is the youngest of the three sons of the former German Chancel ...

as Rediger *

Alina Levshin Alina Levshin (born September 10, 1984) is a German-Ukrainian actress. She moved with her parents from the Soviet Union to Germany when she was six.Jörg Thomann''Sie kann auch anders.''In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 15 Januar 2012 ...

as Myriam * André Jung as Alain Tanneur *

Florian Stetter Florian Stetter (born Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city ...

as Godefroy Lempereur * Bettina Stucky as Marie Francois Tanneur * Michael Wittenborn as Walter Zobel * Valerie Koch as Alice *

Jean-Yves Berteloot Jean-Yves Berteloot (born 27 August 1958) is a French actor. Theater Filmography References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berteloot, Jean-Yves 1958 births Living people People from Saint-Omer French male film actors French ma ...

as Steve

Production

The film was produced by

Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (; "Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting"; abbreviated: RBB , stylized as rbb) is an institution under public law (national broadcaster) for the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg, based in Berlin and Potsdam. RBB ...

. The screenplay by Titus Selge is based on

's 2015 novel ''

'' and

Karin Beier Karin Beier (born 1965 in Cologne) is a German theatre director. After studying English in Cologne, Karin Beier moved into theatre. She established an English language theatre and staged Shakespeare plays in their source language. Theatres began ...

's stage monologue based on the novel.

who performed the monologue at the

Deutsches Schauspielhaus The Deutsches Schauspielhaus is a theatre in the St. Georg quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany. It was established in 1901 by the renowned stage actress Franziska Ellmenreich. Theatre managers Notable actors Marco Albrecht, Ingrid ...

in Hamburg also stars in the film. The film combines conventional film scenes with excerpts from the monologue. The theatre scenes were recorded in July 2017 while principal photography for the rest of the film began on 10 October 2017, with scenes shot in Paris and Berlin.

Release

The film premiered on ARD on 6 June 2018.

Reviews

The ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

'' called the adaptation "remarkable."

References

External links

* 2018 films 2018 television films Films based on French novels Films based on works by Michel Houellebecq Films set in 2022 Films set in Paris Films shot in Berlin Films shot in Paris German films based on plays German drama television films Films based on adaptations Films based on science fiction novels 2010s German-language films 2010s German films Das Erste original programming {{2010s-Germany-film-stub