Matthias Schweighöfer, star of Fatih Akin’s “Amrum,” wanted to work with the acclaimed “Edge of Heaven” and “In the Cut” director for years before an opportunity presented itself, he told Steve Pond during TheWrap’s Cannes Conversations in partnership with Brand Innovators.
The German Schweighöfer had been building a career of his own not just as an actor in projects like “Valkyrie” and Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead,” but as a director in his own right with films like “The Manny” and “You Are Wanted.”
Things worked out for Schweighöfer and Akin to work together after “he called me again and said, ‘Matthias, there is this one cool thing called ‘Amrum.’ I didn’t want to direct it. I only would produce it, but now I have to direct it. And I would love you to play a part in this,’” Schweighöfer recalled.
The resulting film explores the story of a family that struggles to cope with the death of Adolf Hitler during World War II, a topic that raised eyebrows among those who questioned if the timing of the film’s release is wise, given the rise in antisemitism around the world.
The movie is also Schweighöfer’s first to premiere at Cannes.
It is “very important that people watch this film,” the actor said, “because this story has this kind of small approach, but it’s huge.” In the film, 12-year-old Nanning, a member of the Hitler Youth, attempts to comfort his mother, a Nazi devotee, following Hitler’s death by suicide.
“A young boy tries to make his mother honey bread because he doesn’t want her to die, ” Schweighöfer said, “but at the end, it tells so much about our time that you really have to fight for the right things.”
“You have to look to your left and to your right, what is really happening and what’s the future? What could you do? What is your part?”
The Cannes conversation with TheWrap also broached the subject of Tom Cruise, who’s also at Cannes for “Mission: Impossibe – The Final Reckoning,” but with whom Schweighöfer worked on 2008’s “Valkyrie.” He said the two struck up a friendship on the set of that WWII film. “I mean, to be honest, I love Tom … We had, like, every day together, and we shared a makeup trailer together. So I asked him all the stories [about his career,]” Schweighöfer explained.
One story in particular that he shared was about asking Cruise how he and Cameron Crowe landed the rights to the Sigur Rós song “The Nothing Song” for “Vanilla Sky.” Cruise told Schweighöfer that he actually flew to Reykjavik to convince the band to let them use the song.
He also worked with Zach Snyder for 2021’s “Army of the Dead,” an experience that led to him directing the prequel, “Army of Thieves.” Snyder called him about the opportunity to direct, something Schweighöfer was eager to try.
“And then Hans Zimmer came on board, and Hans and me, we did the post on the film, which was fantastic,” he recalled. “I have screenshots of the Zoom calls, because it was a pandemic, and it was Zack Snyder, Hans Zimmer and me, I have a lot of pictures of that. That was pretty cool.”
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