PODCAST | Federica Scarpa interviews Sonja Heiss, director of the film When will it be again like it never was before.

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The opening film of the Generation 14Plus section, the new film by Sonja Heiss, is based on the autobiographical novel by Joachim Meyerhoff. The director tells us what convinced her to make this adaptation, how she decided to develop other characters, the songs chosen and the work done on the casting.

When will it be again like it never was before: The household Josse grows up in hardly corresponds to the typical notions of family: his father is the director of a psychiatric clinic, on the premises of which their family home is located. Josse spends his childhood and adolescence with two brothers and liberal parents whose bourgeois life is threatening to break up their marriage. Again and again, Josse is plagued by fits of anger and sadness. He finds a sympathetic ear, consolation and the feeling of not being an oddball primarily among the psychiatric patients. The adaptation of Joachim Meyerhoff’s bestseller is carried by a well-known cast and tells a tragicomic tale about growing up in the 1970s. A soulful celebration of life in all its absurdity and transience.

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