Die Saat

Ambitious construction manager Rainer, his pregnant wife, and their 13-year-old daughter Doreen move out of the gentrified city to the suburbs. When Doreen meets her neighbor Mara, an ambivalent friendship begins that soon becomes too much for Doreen to handle. Rainer also comes under increasing pressure, because when he is replaced on the construction site by the profit-oriented Jürgen, the family is in danger of losing their livelihood. The new friendship quickly becomes a dangerous game. Mara incites Doreen to play nasty pranks and involves her in a theft. Meanwhile, Rainer is demoted at work and replaced by the cool pragmatist Jürgen, who has only the interests of the investors in mind and ruthlessly focuses the construction project on profit. When an older employee is about to be fired, Rainer stands up to his new boss and unwittingly becomes the leader of a burgeoning resistance. With unrelenting pressure mounting, director Mia Mariel Meyer's second feature film depicts a world dehumanized by capitalism, where the struggle for justice and integrity becomes a test of endurance. DIE SAAT premiered at the 2021 Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section, where it was praised for its authenticity and emotional power. Lead actor Hanno Koffler received the German Film Critics' Award for his powerful performance. The film also won the First Steps Award in the feature film category and screened at other international festivals, including the Göteborg Film Festival and the Munich Film Festival. Produced by Kurhaus Production in cooperation with rbb and funded by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, DIE SAAT marks one of the most important German contributions of the year on the topic of social justice.