Skip to main content

Joséphine Demerliac

ActorDirector
Joséphine Demerliac, born in Paris in 1992, is a French director, screenwriter, producer, editor, and actress who also releases music projects under her stage name Zou. Her feature film debut, DIE SONNE BRENNT (The Sun Burns), was released in 2021. Demerliac directed, wrote the screenplay, handled the camera, editing, and music for this essay film, and also played one of the leading roles. The film tells the story of a summer love triangle in Berlin. It was shot in German, English, and French on a budget of less than €10,000 in just 13 days and premiered in the feature film competition at the 2021 Max Ophüls Prize. This hybrid film combines fiction with music video aesthetics and paints an unvarnished coming-of-age portrait of a generation.

Films

The Sun Is Burning

The Sun Is Burning

By Joséphine Demerliac

2021 | 75 min | Independent

It's summer. Zou and Anselm are newly in love and spend their afternoon at the lake. A fairy tale seems to have come true.

Recommended for you

Love Me!

Love Me!

2014 | 83 min | Independent

Featuring Lilli Meinhardt, Christian Ehrich, Mumblecore icon Axel Ranisch and indie star Peter Trabner. “Fresh take on the Bildungsroman.“ (Jury Decision Tirana International Film Festival) Produced with mere 4,000 EUR (by a production company whose name translates to “sponsored by Grandma”), LOVE ME! is the story of Sarah who chucks her super expensive Macbook out of the window when sex with her best friend doesn't lead to declarations of true love. Sarah's rude and crude exterior masks a deep-rooted ...

For Nothing

For Nothing

2014 | 95 min | Drama

Aziza lost interest in her internship in Portugal so she returned to Germany. But her room in Berlin had already been sublet to Zach, who came from New Zealand on a one-way ticket. Now life in Berlin is now pretty cramped - especially since her new roommate doesn't know how long he'll be staying. And Aziza isn't enjoying Kreuzberg anymore. She feels alienated by all All the hipsters just looking to chill out. "A political as well as sociological -and at the same time highly sensitive - Berlin ...

Philipp

Philipp

2010 | 41 min | Drama

Winner of the First Steps Award, PHILIPP is Fabian Möhrke's diploma film from the Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam. Philipp suffers from not being able to detach himself from his cool and friendly (and hovering) father. Philipp is fifteen. Bernd, Philipp’s dad, does what he can to be a good buddy to his son. He’s even full of understanding when Philipp steals from him. And it’s not just Philipp’s friends who think Bernd’s a really cool dad; even Caro, Philipp’s new girlfriend, takes a shine ...

Night Shifts

Night Shifts

2010 | 97 min | Documentary

Some people work and live at night by choice, others because fate has compelled them to do so. Still others use darkness to operate in secret. At time when most of the city is asleep, the film accompanies the night active as they go about their business and sheds light on the essence of night in today’s big cities. Director Ivette Löcker's declaration of love for the night. The film looks at the many the different angles of what it means to live and work in darkness.

Hinter der Tür

Hinter der Tür

2004 | 16 min | Shorts

Based on a true story, it tells the story of a Turkish woman living illegally in Germany who becomes the target of a police detective who goes after illegal aliens in Berlin. Alexander Kamensky's Chief Inspector of the Police Directorate 4 in Berlin-Kreuzberg. His job: foreigners. For fifteen years he has been scanning the neighborhood to find illegal aliens. If a suspect can't produce a residency permit, Kamensky starts deportation proceedings. Last year alone, he donated free flights to over over ...

Only One Blink

Only One Blink

2020 | 10 min | Shorts

Bastian meets Isabell by chance in an elevator and secretly writes his phone number on one of her cigarettes. But she accidentally smokes it and loses that chance to contact him. Isabelle goes to a radio station she knows Bastian likes and goes on the air to give an 'I'm searching for' call, but the very second she is live on the radio, which he is listening to, he gets a phone call and doesn't hear her. She waits for him but of course he won't appear, or is there a chance of a replay, a chance ...

Everyday

Everyday

2002 | 91 min | Drama

"In ALLTAG things are on the brink of exploding and the stakes are truly high (with none of bad movies pretenences). There's palpable risk in the air, just as in in Scorsese's Bronx." (WELT) 'You don't get something for nothing' and 'Those who take risks, fall the furthers or rise the highest' are 2 of Veit's favorite mottos. And he decides that today will be unlike every other. Determined to go and never return, Veit has the girl of his dreams, a brother full of good intentions and a friend with ...

After Effect

After Effect

2006 | 75 min | Independent

The Carl Celler (CC) Culture Institute sells art projects to big companies. Carl Celler has assembled an group of young artists to develop his newest idea: LOGOS and ANIMALS. Furnished with a sufficient budget and set loose in Berlin art world, the group set out to produce ad campaigns and art objects based on the LOGOS and ANIMALS theme. Diva Rena becomes infatuated with (anti-)model Kai. But Kai is thrown off balance. Is he now in love? Or is he just a body eroticized by this dazzling experience? ...

The Sound of Unexpected Death

The Sound of Unexpected Death

2019 | 30 min | Independent

A young, frustrated couple are on their way home from a night out. Three friends are in the middle of birthday celebrations at a nightclub. A drunk young man crawls into bed with his girlfriend. A young woman decided to stay home, chatting with a guy on Facebook. Two parents put their children to bed. All of them hear sirens and loud noises in the background. In the end, a policeman walks into the nightclub; however, nothing could prepare him for the scene that greets him inside.

Thirty

Thirty

2019 | 114 min | Drama

Twenty-four hours in the life of a clique of friends on a Friday in October... All six live in Berlin, are in their early thirties, and single. Today, one of them is celebrating a birthday. Writer Övünç has writer's block. Pascal, professionally successful, is plagued by the desire to throw away his current life for a new one - which one, he himself is not quite sure. He and actress Raha have recently separated. She hopes for her career to grow day by day. Kara prefers to spend the night at friends' ...