A likeable family man with Iranian roots and a professor of Islamic studies. One asks the other to a conversation about faith and disbelief, good and evil and about the question of whether the precepts of the Koran are compatible with violence. What seems to begin harmlessly in the film ‘Martin Reads the Koran’ by Jurijs Saule develops into a mental showdown when the professor realises that his visitor is planning an attack – and is already arming the bomb. Nothing is certain, nothing is as it seems in this drama, which raises urgent questions about hatred and reconciliation, the causes of radicalisation, mutual respect and a world with and without God…
Martin is a 35-year-old family man with Iranian roots who has only been studying Islam for a year. He visits Professor Neuweiser, a professor of Islamic Studies, to tell him about the exciting terrorist attack he initiated this morning. Martin is confused when criticising terrorists because he believes that they only follow what is written in the Quran. Or can Professor Wise show Martin a passage that clearly forbids killing people with bombs? If not, Martin’s bomb will logically kill many people. The professor has no other weapon than the Koran itself, the word of God, to prove that violence is forbidden.
But did Martin really just visit the professor to get the advice of a ‘wise man’ or is there something else behind the unannounced visit? Martin himself is the big mystery throughout the film, which only unfolds in its full emotional depth at the end – only to finally detonate in the hearts of the audience.
Can a professor of Islamic Studies prove to a crazed bomber named Martin that the Koran forbids violence? Can he stop a terrorist using only the word of God as a weapon, or will he have to use violence himself?
“The challenge of this film was to go beyond the mere telling of a thriller: at its core is a real-time chamber play, actually a duel on an intellectual and emotional level. A seeker and a knower, locked in a physically and emotionally defined space that is also permeated by a real and growing threat. As a director, the challenge was to create the tension not only through external action, but through the subtle dynamics of the dialogues, the interaction of question and answer – thesis and antithesis.
The “narrowness” of the scope, which is essentially reduced to the place of teaching (university), becomes an important dramaturgical tool: in this cramped setting, every camera movement, every glance, every gesture determines the emotional progress. The camera becomes a silent observer of this intellectual exchange, a seismograph of attitudes, assertions and hopes, repeatedly finding uncomfortable or unusual images, axes, framings. The aim is to make the invisible visible – the claim to absoluteness of beliefs and the doubts associated with them, and at the same time to ask general questions about faith, radicalization and moral limits – without slipping into didactic platitudes.
Wo verläuft die Grenze zwischen Wahnsinn und Überzeugung, zwischen Behauptung und einer Ungewissheit, dass religiöse Schriften Gewalt vielleicht doch nicht rechtfertigen? In einer Welt, in der alles unsicher scheint, bleibt die größte Herausforderung, das Verborgene mit der gleichen Spannung zu enthüllen wie das Offensichtliche. Das haben wir mit „Martin liest den Koran“ versucht.
Original title: Martin liest den Koran
Director: Jurijs Saule
Screenplay: Michail Lurje, Jurijs Saule
Producers: Michail Lurje, Jurijs Saule
Executive producer: Julia Rovnik
Actors: Ulrich Tukur (Prof. Dr. Neuweiser), Zejhun Demirov (Martin Harirat), Sarah Sandeh (Aliyah Harirat), Alissia Krupsky (Jannetta Harirat), Prince Chughtai (Fahid Amrosi)
Cinematography by: Arsenij Gusev
Film editor: Jurijs Saule
Assistant film editors: Camilo Correa Costa, Mascha Kokina
Sound: Michael Kaczmarek (re-recording mixer) Adrian Lo (re-recording mixer / sound design), Jonas Vicent (recording/dialogue editor / Foley artist)
Music: Raphael Schalz
Genres: Drama, Thriller
Production company: Blobel Film
Country of production: Germany
Year of production: 2024
Language: German
Subtitles: English, German (partial subtitles)
Rating: FSK 16 (descriptors: violence, injury)
Length: 106 minutes
Aspect ratio: 1.5:1
Resolution: 3240×2160 (1620×1080)
Sound: 5.1 (DCP)
Premiere:
58th Hof International Film Festival 2024, Germany
Other titles:
German: Martin liest den Koran
English: Martin Reads the Quran
Spanish: Martin lee el Corán
Film label: Artkeim²
Distribution: UCM.ONE
Theatrical release: November 7, 2024
On July 5, 2022, the Minister of State for Culture and the Media, Claudia Roth, presented the “Golden Lola 2022 for the best unfilmed screenplay” to Jurijs Saule and Michail Lurje for “Martin reads the Quran”. The high-profile award was presented at the reception of the Association of German Screenwriters (VDD) for the film, which is a thriller and a discourse that, according to the jury, “poses pressing questions about hatred, reconciliation, the causes of radicalization, mindfulness, and a world with or without God.”
VDD board member Nicole Mosleh emphasized: “Screenwriters reflect the world and sometimes show how it could be. We tell how things can continue despite everything.”
The German Screenplay Award is the most important and most highly endowed award for screenwriters in Germany and has been presented since 1988.
Jury statement: “A highly suspenseful, provocative psychological tightrope act that plays with the audience’s expectations in a virtuoso manner and consistently subverts them.”
The jury consisted of screenwriter Brigitte Drodtloff, director, writer and film producer Florian Eichinger, author Susanne Finken, director, screenwriter and film producer Uwe Janson, screenwriter Sven Poser and author and screenwriter Vanessa Walder.
Directors, writers and producers
Jurijs Saule was born in Riga, former USSR, in 1985 and studied Slavic languages and literature as well as mathematics (MA) at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Jurijs Saule is a member of the German Film Academy.
Filmography (selection)
| 2024 | Martin liest den Koran (feature film) |
| 2019 |
Souls for Sale (short film)
|
| 2009 |
Chaconne (short film), Film adaptation of the novel by Franz Kafka |
Michail Lurje was born in the former USSR in 1985 and studied literature and philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin. Michail Lurje is a member of the German Film Academy.
Born in Viernheim, Hesse, in 1957, Ulrich Tukur initially began studying German and English at the University of Tübingen. After being discovered for the theatre, he switched to the State University of Music and the Performing Arts in Stuttgart in 1980 to study acting. While still a student, he landed his first film role through Michael Verhoeven: in 1982, he played resistance fighter Willi Graf, a member of the circle around the Scholl siblings who opposed the Nazi regime, in ‘The White Rose’.
During a performance in Munich of Ferdinand Bruckner’s ‘Krankheit der Jugend’ (Youth’s Disease), the renowned director Peter Zadek became aware of Ulrich Tukurr, which led to a long-standing artistic collaboration. This collaboration led to Tukur‘s breakthrough in theatre in 1984. Under Peter Zadek’s direction, he first played the role of SS officer Kittel in Joshua Sobol’s Ghetto at the Freie Volksbühne Berlin. Subsequently, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg became the artistic home of both of them from 1985 to 1995, with Ulrich Tukur excelling in numerous leading and supporting roles. He received particular acclaim for his performances in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’, as Marc Antony in ‘Julius Caesar’, as Alwa Schön in Frank Wedekind‘s ’Lulu’ and “Hamlet”, directed by Michael Bogdanov. In 1986, he was named Actor of the Year by German theatre critics.
From 1995 to 2003, Ulrich Tukur and Ulrich Waller co-directed the Hamburg Kammerspiele. He opened the theatre in the role of Beckmann in Wolfgang Borchert’s The Day Outside the Window, Everyman at the Salzburg Festival.
Ulrich Tukur achieved international fame in the film world in 2006 for his role as Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz in the Oscar-winning The Life of Others. In August 2009, it was announced that Ulrich Tukur would take on the role of Felix Murot, a detective in the crime series Tatort, for the Hessischer Rundfunk. On 28 November 2010, the 40th anniversary of the ‘Tatort’, the first episode with him in this role was broadcast.
Filmography (selection)
| 2024 | Martin liest den Koran (R: Jurijs Saule) |
| Letzte Spur Berlin (R: Günther Machmann) | |
| 2022 | Die Geschichte der Menschheit – leicht gekürzt (R: Erik Haffner) |
| Mehr denn je (Plus que jamais) (R: Emily Atef) | |
| 2021 | Es ist nur eine Phase, Hase (R: Florian Gallenberger) |
| 2020 | Der Überläufer (R: Florian Gallenberger) |
| 2019 | Und wer nimmt den Hund? (R: Rainer Kaufmann) |
| Adults in the room (R: Costa-Gavras) | |
| 2018 | Grüner wird’s nicht, sagte der Gärtner und flog davon (R: Florian Gallenberger) |
| 2017 | Aus dem Nichts (R: Fatih Akin) |
| 2016 | Gleißendes Glück (R: Sven Taddicken) |
| 2014 | Wochenenden in der Normandie (Week-ends) (Regie: Anne Villacèque) |
| 2013 | Exit Marrakech (R: Caroline Link) |
| Houston (R: Bastian Günther) | |
| 2012 | Zettl (R: Helmut Dietl) |
| 2011 | Das Schwein von Gaza (R: Sylvain Estibal) |
| Largo Winch II – Die Burma Verschwörung (R: Jérôme Salle) | |
| 2010 | Der große Kater (R: Wolfgang Panzer) |
| 2009 | Mitten im Sturm (R: Marleen Gorris) |
| Das weiße Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (R: Michael Haneke) | |
| Eden is West (Eden à l’Ouest) (R: Costa-Gavras) | |
| Das Vaterspiel (R: Michael Glawogger) | |
| John Rabe (R: Florian Gallenberger) |
| 2008 | Séraphine (R: Martin Provost) |
| Nordwand (R: Philipp Stölzl) | |
| 2007 | Ein fliehendes Pferd (R: Rainer Kaufmann) |
| 42plus (R: Sabine Derflinger) | |
| 2006 | Das Leben der Anderen (R: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) |
| 2005 | Die Axt (Le couperet) (R: Costa-Gavras) |
| 2002 | Solaris (R: Steven Soderbergh) |
| Der Stellvertreter (R: Costa-Gavras) | |
| 2001 | Taking Sides – Der Fall Furtwängler (R: István Szabó) |
| 2000 | Heimkehr der Jäger(R: Michael Kreihsl) |
| 1996 | Beim nächsten Kuß knall’ ich ihn nieder (R: Hans-Christoph Blumenberg) |
| Charms Zwischenfälle (Regie: Michael Kreihsl) | |
| 1995 | Tränen aus Stein (R: Hilmar Oddsson) |
| utters Courage (R: Michel Verhoeven) | |
| 1994 | Rotwang muß weg! (R: Hans-Christoph Blumenberg) |
| 1993 | Wehner – die unerzählte Geschichte (R:Heinrich Breloer) |
| 1992 | Die Spur des Bernsteinzimmers (R. Roland Gräf) |
| er demokratische Terrorist( R. Peer Berglund) | |
| 1988 | Felix (Episodenfilm; Regie: Christel Buschmann, Helke Sander, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Margarethe von Trotta) |
| Ballhaus Barmbek (R: Christel Buschmann) | |
| 1984 | Die Story (R: Eckhart Schmidt) |
| 1983 | Die Schaukel (R: Percy Adlon) |
| 1982 | Die weiße Rose (R: Michael Verhoeven) |
Born in Düsseldorf in 1992, he began his acting career under the direction of Petra Lammerts and Jean-Luc Bubert in the youth club of the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. From 2009 to 2016, he played the student Mehmet Yilmaz in the RTL series ‘The Teacher’. He appeared in a supporting role in a feature film for the first time in 2011, in the ORF production ‘Kebab’.
In 2018, he was awarded the Götz George Young Talent Award of the First Steps Film Prize for his acting performance in the film ‘Oray’, in which he played the role of the young Muslim Oray. In 2020, he was in front of the camera during the shooting of the Tatort episode ‘Rettung so nah’.
Filmography (selection)
| 2024 | Martin liest den Koran (R: Jurijs Saule) |
| 2022 | Zimmer mit Stall – So ein Zirkus |
|
Axiom (R: Jöns Jönsson) |
|
| 2021 | Krass Klassenfahrt – Der Kinofilm (R: Felix Charin) |
|
Tatort: Rettung so nah (Fernsehreihe) (R: Isabel Braak) |
|
| 2019 |
M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (Fernsehserie, Folgen 1×01, 1×03–1×06) |
| 2015 |
Die Kleinen und die Bösen (R: Markus Sehr) |
| 2012 | Ein Fall für zwei (Fernsehserie, Folge 31×12) |
|
Little Thirteen (R: Christian Klandt) |
|
| 2011 |
Kebab mit alles |
| 2009 – 2016 |
Der Lehrer (Fernsehserie, 23 Folgen |
Born in Darmstadt in 1980, she is the daughter of Iranian parents. Even before graduating from high school, she passed the acting entrance exam at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Ohio, USA, where she was able to take acting lessons alongside her academic studies on a scholarship in 1998/99.
After graduating from high school, she first studied psychology and theatre, film and media studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.
In 2003, Sarah Sandeh transferred to the Westphalian School of Drama in Bochum, where she graduated with a diploma in acting in 2007. In 2011, she completed a course in film acting at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg that was specially tailored to young talents who had completed classical acting training.
In addition to her work as a theatre actress, Sarah Sandeh, who cites Rainer Werner Fassbinder as a particular influence in terms of film, has appeared in front of the camera for various series and films, including the feature film ‘Hey Bunny’ and the ARD feature film ‘Hit Mom’. In the Tatort episode ‘Greed and Fear’, which aired for the first time on 2 January 2022 and stars investigators Faber and Bönisch, she played the widow of the murder victim, Corinna Lembach.
Sarah Sandeh played the role of Aliyah in the film ‘Martin liest den Koran’, which won the German Screenplay Award in 2022. She played Miriam Kubitschek in episodes 73 and 74 of the crime series ‘WaPo Bodensee’, which aired on Das Erste in January 2023.
Filmography (selection)
| 2024 | Martin liest den Koran (R: Jurijs Saule) |
| 2023 | WaPo Bodensee, Krimiserie, ARD (Regie: Saskia Weisheit) |
| 2022 |
Tatort: Gier und Angst (Regie: Martin Eigler) |
| 2017 | Hit Mom – Mörderische Weihnachten, Spielfilm (Regie: Sebastian Marka |
| 2016 | Hey Bunny, Spielfilm (Regie: Barnaby Metschurat) |
| 2016 |
Voodoo Lily, Spielfilm (Regie: Aleksey Lapin) |
| 2013 |
Herz Spiele, Spielfilm (Regie: Michael Burghardt) |
| 2010 |
Die Stein, Fernsehserie, ARD (Regie: Bettina Wörnle) |
| 2005 |
Mein Leben & Ich, Fernsehserie, RTL |
Press reviews of the film
‘Young German cinema can be so brave and moving.’ (kinokino – BR Fernsehen)
‘This film is absolutely worth seeing.’ (Kulturnews)
‘Martin liest den Koran’ is an uncompromising film that goes where it hurts.” (Jüdische Allgemeine)
‘Martin himself is the big mystery throughout the film, one that only unfolds in its full emotional depth at the end, finally detonating in the hearts of the audience.’ (Indiekino)
‘The tense debate duel develops more and more into an emotional tour de force.’ (TV Today)
‘A paranoia chamber play between hatred, radicalisation and reconciliation.’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
‘A film develops that swings between an exposed state of paranoia and a deliberate theatricality, building up to a stylistically subversive and controversial two-person chamber play.’ (EPD)
‘A provocative chamber play that asks many questions.’ (3Sat Kulturzeit)
‘A fusion of genre and discourse.’ (MagazIn)
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The psychological religious thriller about a family man of Iranian descent (Zejhun Demirov) who wants to get an assurance from a professor of Islamic studies (Ulrich Tukur) that the Quran allows the killing of third parties under certain circumstances had its Berlin and theatrical premiere in front of a sold-out house at the traditional Berlin…
The psychological thriller “Martin liest den Koran” (Martin Reads the Quran) by Jurijs Saule celebrates its German premiere today at the Hof International Film Festival. The theatrical release premiere will be celebrated on Wednesday, 6 November 2024 with a screening at Babylon Mitte in Berlin with the film team and guests. The regular theatrical release…
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