INSTITUTE: KHM – Academy of Media Arts Cologne
YEAR: 2022
LANGUAGE: German
SYNOPSIS: Exhausted from alcohol abuse, MMA fighter RUNAU senses: he can no longer play his role in which the betting mafia pays him to participate in manipulated fights. Meanwhile, AMELIE, under the influence of amphetamines, cares for her sick mother. When she leaves the house to pick up her gambling sibling JONAS, they return to find their mother lifeless. Catalyzed by pain and violence, the three protagonists experience a parallel evolution of their addictions.
PROFILE: Simon Baucks was born in 1990 and raised in Berlin. After studying philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Witten/Herdecke, he attended the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. There he attended directing as well as cinematography and screenwriting classes. He graduates in 2022 with the film Die Verlorenen. In 2014, his short film Inmotion was awarded Best Student Short at the American Dance Festival in North Carolina. In 2018, he received the Best Experimental Cinematography Special Mention Award at the Zsigmond Vilmos Film Festival in Hungary for his cinematography work on MONOSCAPE. In 2020, the film DIE SCHÜTZIN, directed by Simon Baucks, won the German Cinematography Award. He also works as a cinematographer and video artist in theater, including for Frank Castorf Ein grüner Junge; Aus dem bürgerlichen Heldenleben) and Daniel Foerster (Götz; Eleos)
