Directed by:
Melanie WaeldeScreenplay:
Melanie WaeldeCinematography:
Fion MutertCast:
Marie Tragousti, Sammy Scheuritzel, Michelangelo Fortuzzi, Luna Schaller, Paul Michael Stiehler, Markus von Lingen, Luna Arwen Krüger, Xenia Tiling (more)Plots(1)
Katja, Sascha, Benni, Laila and Schöller. These five young people have more in common than just the fact that they are living in provincial Germany free of parental interference. They have one last winter together before they finish school, then they are supposed to know what they want to do: stay or leave. In between homework and smoking dope, martial arts training and gossiping about deflowering people, they explore their feelings in all kinds of different relationships, searching for each other, hiding, kissing and fighting. They want to live, to conquer the world and find out who they really are. They are young and exude an enviable naturalness when it comes to gender identities and roles, above all Katja, played by Marie Tragousti with a lot of new female power. Melanie Waelde’s feature debut is tremendously intense and vibrant. Going beyond cuteness, she draws these “naked animals” with a raw, sensual and sensitive openness rarely seen in German cinema. On the cusp between the end of childhood and burgeoning maturity, body and soul are still more or less united. Just like loneliness and intimacy. We are vulnerable – and that’s a good thing. (Berlinale)
(more)Cast
Marie Tragousti
Best movies:
Drifter - Welcome to Berlin! (2023)
Naked Animals (2020)
Sammy Scheuritzel
Germany
Best movies:
Sense8 (2015) (series)
Sources of Life (2013)
Vicky the Viking (2009)
Michelangelo Fortuzzi
Best movies:
Tatort (1970) (series)
Pinocchio (2013) (TV movie)
Naked Animals (2020)
Luna Schaller
Best movies:
Naked Animals (2020)
The Perfumier (2022)
Paul Michael Stiehler
Best movies:
The Ordinaries (2022)
Tatort (1970) (series)
Skin and Bones (2019) (TV movie)
Markus von Lingen
West Germany
Best movies:
Exodus to Shanghai (2015)
Operation Mincemeat (2022)
Naked Animals (2020)
Luna Arwen Krüger
Best movies:
Wunderschön (2022)
Sweethearts (2019)
Der süße Brei (2018) (TV movie)
Xenia Tiling
Best movies:
Polizeiruf 110 (1971) (series)
Hochzeitsstrudel und Zwetschgenglück (2020) (TV movie)
Naked Animals (2020)
Ulrike Hübschmann
East Germany
Best movies:
Praxis mit Meerblick (2017) (series)
Polizeiruf 110 (1971) (series)
Tatort (1970) (series)
Florian Schmidtke
West Germany
Best movies:
Blood & Gold (2023)
War Sailor (2022)
Praxis mit Meerblick (2017) (series)
Gustav Stolze
Best movies:
Naked Animals (2020)
Marianna Linden
Best movies:
Naked Animals (2020)