As of today, it’s official: Laura Balzer is one of three nominees for the Götz George Young Talent Award at this year’s First Steps Awards! We congratulate her and keep our fingers crossed for the award ceremony on 21 June. “Trümmermädchen – Germany Year Zero” by Oliver Kracht is a very exceptional feature film with an impressive, mainly female ensemble, which is expected to be released in Q4 2021 or Q1 2022 by UCM.ONE on the Artkeim² label.
Since 2017, with the establishment of the Götz George Foundation, it has been awarding the young talent prize of the same name to young, outstanding acting talent. The foundation has set itself the goal of continuing what was a great concern of Götz George‘s during his lifetime, including the promotion of young talent. For him, it was both a joy and an obligation to pass on his own experience to younger colleagues. He knew that they need time and opportunities to develop their personalities, skills and artistic awareness.
From the jury statement:
„Among the feature films of all lengths submitted, we nominated three outstanding acting performances. They all demonstrate a power that resonates with us beyond the films, and show promise for up-and-coming talent. “Trümmermädchen” offers a melodramatic, epochal glimpse into the backdrop of an emancipation story. In the middle of it all is a stunning Laura Balzer, who draws on her enormous range of acting skills and increasingly strips the stuttering Charlotte of all role models. She takes us on a virtuoso journey of the character burned by trauma and oppression, and with a tailwind from the female ensemble, carries the entire film.”
The film “Trümmermädchen – Germany Year Zero” also has the further working title “Die Geschichte des Trümmermädchens Charlotte Schumann“, under which it is currently listed at IMDb.
Synopsis:
Germany, 1946. Hunger, rubble, returning soldiers. Charlotte is pregnant, but her beloved homecomer wants neither her nor his child. To win him over and escape the threat of disgrace, she enrols in the “Fräulein Course” run by actress Gloria Deven, who was an aspiring film starlet under fascism and is now banned from working. But Gloria, with her merciless teaching, is not interested in reviving the girls’ coquetry, which had become unnecessary during the war. Instead, she awakens in Lotte a longing for something that she has been denied for too long: Freedom.
More information about the nomination: First Steps Awards 2021
