ISLANDS, the third feature film by director Jan-Ole Gerster (OH BOY, LARA), celebrated its world premiere as a "Berlinale Special Gala" at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival. The film team – including director Jan-Ole Gerster, lead actors Sam Riley, Jack Farthing and young actor Dylan Torrell – presented the multilayered neo-noir thriller at the Zoo Palast cinema. In the face of freezing outdoor temperatures, the premiere audience was greeted by dazzling sunlight on the cinema screen in the internationally produced thriller, which was entirely shot on Fuerteventura. ISLANDS will be released in cinemas on 8 May 2025 by LEONINE Studios.
Tom (Sam Riley) works as a tennis coach at an all-inclusive hotel on Fuerteventura. What at first appears to be the dream of endless summer has long since become monotonous routine for the former professional. While the tourists come and go in an endless stream, he plays hundreds of balls over the net, week after week, and fills the void with fleeting affairs and alcohol. But then the mysterious Anne (Stacy Martin) appears at the hotel. She, her husband Dave (Jack Farthing) and their seven-year-old son Anton (Dylan Torrell) do not fit the image of the usual package tourists. Tom quickly gets closer to the family: he gives Anton tennis lessons and invites them on an excursion to show them the rugged beauty of the island. The next day, Dave has disappeared without a trace. Anne’s behavior, which puzzles Tom, is as mysterious as Dave’s disappearance. A suspicion begins to grow in him...
The screenplay was written by Jan-Ole Gerster together with Blaz Kutin and Lawrie Doran, cinematography is by Juan Sarmiento G. (AMPARO, nominated for the Camera d'Or), production design by the award-winning Cora Pratz (I'M YOUR MAN, THE PEOPLE VS. FRITZ BAUER), costume design is by Christian Röhrs (THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE), sound recordings by Stefan Soltau (BABYLON BERLIN), and the exceptional score by composer Dascha Dauenhauer, who was awarded the German Film Prize for BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ.
ISLANDS is a production of augenschein Filmproduktion (Maximilian Leo, Jonas Katzenstein) in co-production with LEONINE Studios and Schiwago Film. The film was funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, German Federal Film Board (FFA), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).
