“Martin reads the Quran” by Jurijs Saule takes part in the international innovation competition of the 10th Bremen Film Festival. UCM.ONE is distributing the psychological drama starring Ulrich Tukur in German-speaking countries on its film label Artkeim².
Filmfest Bremen is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and has established itself as one of the most exciting platforms for innovative cinema in Germany since it was founded in 2015. From 19 to 23 March 2025, the festival will present 115 films from 30 countries, including 33 German premieres from four different continents, which will be shown at six venues in five competitions.
A special feature of the festival throughout Germany is the Innovation Competition, which honors films that surprise with unconventional narrative styles, new technical approaches or bold ideas. In this way, the festival focuses on fresh cinematic impulses – regardless of genre or production budget.
In addition to the Innovation Award, Filmfest Bremen also presents other awards, including the Heimat competition, which deals with cultural identity and social change. The humor/satire sections as well as national and international feature-length and short film competitions round off the diverse programme. With premieres, retrospectives and special events, the festival offers a broad spectrum of film experiences.
A special highlight in 2025 is the presentation of the Bremen Film Prize to the renowned British director Stephen Frears, known for works such as Dangerous Liaisons and The Queen. Following the award ceremony, his new BBC series Brian and Maggie will celebrate its German premiere.
In Filmfest Bremen’s 2025 Innovation Competition, “Martin Reads the Quran” will compete against four other films: “Dreaming & Dying ” (Singapore, 2023, directed by Nelson Yeo), “Avant-Drag!” (Greece, 2024, directed by Fil Ieropoulos), “Invention ” (USA, 2024, directed by Courtney Stephens) and “Olivia & the Clouds” (Dominican Republic, 2024, directed by Tomás Pichardo Espaillat).
An eleven-member jury selected 21 short films and five feature-length films from the 290 films submitted. The spectrum ranges from artistic animations and documentary insights into drag art to essayistic films that reflect on social and political issues. Experimental documentaries, found-footage aesthetics and imaginative dramas open up new cinematic perspectives.
The film “Martin Reads the Quran” will be shown as part of Filmfest Bremen 2025 on the following dates:
- Saturday, March 22, 2025, at 18:00 in the Atlantis Filmtheater.
- Sunday, March 23, 2025, at 12:00 noon at Kommunalkino City 46
Tickets for the screenings can be purchased via the film festival website.
The film “Martin Reads the Quran” (2024) tells the story of Martin Harirat (Zejhun Demirov), a 35-year-old family man with Iranian roots who is intensively studying Islam. Plagued by the question of whether the Quran justifies violence, he seeks answers from Professor Dr. Neuweiser (Ulrich Tukur), a respected Islamic scholar. The encounters between the two men lead to in-depth conversations about faith, culture and personal convictions – discussions that offer no easy answers. While Martin increasingly struggles with his own world view, Neuweiser proves to be an intellectually challenging but also empathetic interlocutor.
Ulrich Tukur, internationally known for films such as The Lives of Others and John Rabe, lends the character of the professor an impressive depth that credibly reflects the inner conflict and the search for truth. “Martin Reads the Quran” is a multi-layered film about identity, religion and the difficult path to knowledge.
The film was directed by Latvian filmmaker Jurijs Saule, who wrote the screenplay together with Michail Lurje – a work that was honored with the German Screenplay Award in 2022. But “Martin Reads the Quran” is much more than a cinematic debate about theology and culture. It refuses to provide simple answers and thus becomes an intellectual tightrope walk between doubt and insight.
With a keen eye for the nuances of dialog and the fine cracks in personal convictions, the film unfolds a reflection on faith, identity and the struggle for understanding. The conversations between Martin and Professor Neuweiser become more than an academic debate – they are a reflection of our times, in which dialog between cultures all too often fails at the limits of fear and prejudice. It is in this confrontation that the true tension of the film lies: not in the question of what is right or wrong, but in whether we are prepared to listen.
More information about the movie: Martin reads the Quran
Further information about the film label: Artkeim²
