With the famous world premiere of Weinstein’s film »She Said«, German director Maria Schrader is on the path to international success. The 57-year-old’s drama (“Unorthodox”, “I am your human”) was greeted with long applause and standing ovations from the New York audience on Thursday evening (local time).
Schrader’s work should, partly because of the argument that illuminates a dark chapter in Hollywood history, be a hot candidate in film awards season.
»She Said« follows two »New York Times« reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) who in 2017 reported the sexual assault of the now convicted sex offender and former US film magnate Harvey Weinstein .
The film shows reporters meeting intimidated victims, visiting Weinstein employees, arguing with lawyers, being followed up and discussing with supervisors whether the story can be published.
“This is very exciting,” said Schrader, beaming on stage at the New York Film Festival. “This is my first time at the New York Times Film Festival,” she explained – until she noticed the mistake in the name of the film festival and joked, “I’m still in a different cosmos.”
It will certainly not be the last international stage on which the director will find himself. Born in Hanover in 1965, Schrader has made a name for herself as an actress in German films since the 1990s. She was celebrated for her role in the drama »Aimée & Jaguar« (1999). A few years later she started working as a director.
His directorial work »Vor der Morgenrote – Stefan Zweig in Amerika« with Josef Hader in the lead role, released in 2016, was a great success. In 2020 he received a lot of attention for the Netflix miniseries »Unorthodox« about the escape of a young woman from an ultra-religious environment. His feature film »I am your human« (2021) has finally become the German candidate in the race for the foreign Oscar.
The story of a woman starting a relationship with a robot first caught Hollywood attention, even though I Am Your Human didn’t make the latest round of nominations for Best International Film. This will certainly increase with »she She Said«.
The work of a German director at the center of the international film industry is a rarity. The film received largely positive, if not enthusiastic, reviews from the US press after its premiere. “Maria Schrader’s feature film describes investigative research into Harvey Weinstein with care and restraint,” wrote Vanity Fair. The “Hollywood Reporter” claimed that “she She Said” describes the work of reporters in a sensitive way.
For the New York Times investigative article, actress Ashley Judd and other women publicly described Weinstein’s abuse for the first time. Twohey and Kantor, along with Ronan Farrow of New Yorker magazine, won a Pulitzer Prize for their revelations.
Allegations of abuse against Weinstein made by dozens of women sparked the global MeToo movement in 2017. The producer was sentenced in New York in 2020 to 23 years in prison for rape, among other things. He is currently on trial in another sexual assault trial in Los Angeles.
Judd and other activists attended the New York premiere of She Said. After the US start in mid-November, the film will hit German theaters on December 8.
