Ameer Fakher Eldin on Directing Hanna Schygulla in Berlin Competition Title ‘Yunan’: ‘You Feel That She’s Really True to Herself’

variety.com:

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Berlin-based helmer Ameer Fakher Eldin, who was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, to Syrian parents from the Golan Heights, is in the Berlinale competition with “Yunan,” the story of a prominent Arab author Munir, who is living in exile in Berlin and going through some heavy inner turmoil.

Burdened by “an unforgettable past and an unidentifiable future,” as the director puts it, Munir embarks on a journey to a remote island to contemplate suicide.

There, he meets a wise elderly woman named Vaselka, played by German cinema icon Hanna Schygulla, whose simple acts of kindness rekindle his desire to live. “Yunan” is the second film in Fakher Eldin’s planned trilogy “Homeland” that began with his well-received 2021 feature debut “The Stranger.” In that film, which made a splash in Venice, a middle-aged man returns from Russia to the Golan Heights to work as an unlicensed doctor. “Yunan” stars Lebanese multi-hyphenate George Khabbaz as Munir, Schygulla, Palestinian actor Ali Suleiman (“Paradise Now”) and Sibel Kekilli (“Game of Thrones”).

The director spoke to Variety about why “Yunan” can help counter Germany’s increasing anti-immigrant sentiment. How did the trilogy germinate? The idea of the trilogy came because I felt like there is a theme of estrangement and exile that was somehow part of my identity in a way, or the world I grew up into.