‘Nico’: A Brave and Furious Feature Film Directed by Elaine Gering | NDR.de – Culture – Film

by Anna Woolner

For a year, the film has been moving from festival to festival and winning awards – at the Max Ophüls in Saarbrücken, at the First Step Prize in Berlin, at Braunschweig, Dortmund, Cambridge, Biberach and, most recently, in Zurich. Now, director Elaine Gering’s first feature film “Nico” is coming to cinemas.

“Say, did you just push me? – Do you have an anger problem or what? – You’re about to have an anger problem. Man, shut up.”
A scene from the movie “Nico”

It’s a short encounter for Niko, and she can’t let go of it. A racist attack under the S-Bahn bridge in Berlin. Helpless and beaten, the young woman ends up in the hospital.

Niko’s life changed suddenly. The young German-Persian, who loved her job as a nurse for the elderly, who enjoyed life and embraced it to the fullest, realizes that she doesn’t belong in the way she always thought she belonged, and begins to do karate to express her anger.

Eight years into the process of creating “Niko”

Director Ellen Gering, prominent actress Sarah Fadlatt, and cinematographer Francie Fabritz wrote the script together and combined their own experiences as a person of color and as an outsider. The process of creating “Niko” took eight years, according to Sarah Fadelat and Elaine Gering in an interview:

Sarah Fadilat: “The initial attitude was that we naturally say different things that were important to us and how women are simply portrayed. Women are always half naked or half dead. It sounds very funny and a lot of people laugh, but it’s actually true. You see this on TV everywhere time “.
Eileen Gerling: Or they talk about men and romance.
Sarah Fadilat: “Exactly. That’s why it’s so important to us that we simply want to make a difference there.”

Nico intentionally breaks stereotypes

“Nico” is different, and the film deliberately plays and abandons stereotypes. A woman can be anything here. men too. In one scene, a white man is cleaning the background while two Bi-Poc women are speaking in the foreground. It’s often the other way around in movies. To get there, Gehring and the co-authors had to start with themselves.

In “Nico” by Elaine Gering, Sarah Fadelat plays a life-affirming geriatric nurse whose life is suddenly changed after a racist attack.

“As a filmmaker, I once again faced the struggle of my own bathroom throughout this whole debate,” says Elaine Gerling. “It wasn’t right from the start that I sat there and said, ‘Okay, guys, let’s throw everything from the back and change everything. But on the way there were a lot of discussions and then developing the scenes differently and different characters I had to face myself first. In my cliched and petite forms, and I think that’s crazy when you first admit that a lot of the required socialization is happening in your head and then you’re responsible for it.”

A powerful and important film for a new generation of filmmakers.

“Niko” means diversity in all things. Character names are intentionally gender-neutral. Age, body shape, presumed origin, religion and sexual orientation are quite diverse and varied. “Nico” is not only brave, Ellen Gering’s feature film debut is also grumpy. Fury leaped into this powerful and important film for a new generation of filmmakers.

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