Germany, producer: Niko von Glasow, Xiaoxiao Sun
Producer: Niko von Glasow, Xiaoxiao Sun
Country: Germany
Production Company: Palladio Film
Director: Niko von Glasow
Writer: Niko von Glasow
Format: /
Genre: Coming of age/Romantic comedy
Company and contact details
Palladio Film
Stadtwaldgurtel13
50935 Koln (Germany)
www.palladiofilm.com
Logline
A modern day Heidi: A Tibetan girl is inadvertently delivered in a box to a rich, neurotic, Jewish family in New York City. She needs the help of the weak, neuroses-riddled son to face the vast, dangerous, but also entertaining, journey home.
Synopsis
A remake of Heidi: A rich, neurotic, Manhattan, Jewish family orders a statue of Buddha from Tibet. A Tibetan girl, Tashi, witnesses the theft of the statue from a monastery, takes the Buddha’s place and is delivered to New York City. The presence of this uninvited stranger in their home brings extra tension to the already-feuding family, but could also heal the family’s wounds if they would only allow it. Tashi is desperate to return to Tibet, and needs the help of the weak, neuroses-riddled son to face the vast, dangerous, but also funny journey home.
Niko von Glasow
Niko von Glasow studied film at New York University and at the academy in Lodz. His first feature film Weddingguests won the German Critics Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. In 1994 Niko shot Marie’s Song starring Sylvie Testud. The film won three German Film Awards. Edelweisspirates was directed by Niko in 2004. More recently Niko made Nobody’s perfect (German Film Prize 2009), Everything will be alright and the Paralympics Documentary My way wo Olympia.
Xiaoxiao Sung
Xiaoxiao Sun received her Master’s Degree at Royal Holloway, University of London. Since then she has produced a large number of award‐winning short films, including a series of high profile WildAid documentaries that were broadcasted internationally, watched by over a billion audiences. In 2007 Xiaoxiao founded and became the director of the Filming East Festival, which has now grown to become the largest UK‐based film festival dedicated to Chinese films. Xiaoxiao is also the curator of BAFTA Global Spotlight on China and panel member at various international film festivals. For her latest feature Missing Summer Xiaoxiao has travelled between Beijing and London.
Palladio Film
Palladio Film is an international production company based in Cologne and London, specializing in theatrical feature films and documentaries.
Palladio Film was founded in 1990 by Niko von Glasow. At the end of 2005 Palladio Films Ltd. was founded in London, focusing on the development of English-language projects.
Palladio Film has taken its name from the famous Italian architect Andrea Palladio who according to Niko von Glasow was responsible of the “renaissance of the renaissance”. Palladio Film concentrates on artistic and historical feature films, often focused on the individual, as well as unusual documentaries such as Nobody’s perfect, which is about personal tales of people living with the harm thalidomide has done to them.
Palladio Film’s productions hav won numerous prizes, including the German Film Award for Best Documentary.
Currently Palladio Film is developing a number of projects, including three documentaries for the German and European market, and fiction films in English.
Running the Tibetan Film school for many years,I learned a lot about the life of Tibetans, their dreams and desires. Coming from a rich, neurotic,Jewish family, I also know their peculiarities. So in all of the characters I wrote there is a little bit of me to be found. My Tibetan students always said, their biggest dream is to go home. This is a dream I and most other people can identify with. Even if the events are quite drastic in this film, I want to direct this story in a way that is as light‐hearted as possible. I want to make a very intimate film, enabling the actors to improvise and discover their characters. My sincere belief is: Whatever happens, life goes on – and that’s a good thing. (Niko von Glaskow)
I would like to make films to explore what lies in every person’s heart. People are defined by their past. Once trapped in the continuum of time and situation, they become lost, lonely and dangerous, as everyone in the super-rich and neurotic New York family in The girl from Tibet. The story unfolds around the ‘good’ that lives inside everyone’s soul and takes the audience through ‘the way back home’. This film will be an excavation of the mind, infused with Niko Von Glasow’s signature style. As a London based Chinese film producer/director I also believe this film could make a link between the East and West. (Xiaoxiao Sun)
