Menemsha Films has picked up North American rights to The Conference, a German docu-drama from Constantin Film that depicts the infamous 1942 Wannsee Conference in Berlin, where Nazi officials met to plan the systematic genocide of European Jews.
Directed by Matti Geschonneck (In Times of Fading Light), produced by Reinhold Elschot (The Dark Valley) and Friederich Oetker (3096 Days) and executive produced by Oliver Berben (Carnage) at Constantin Film, The Conference is based on the minutes of the Wannsee meeting, recorded by Adolf Eichmann.
The film plays out in close to real-time, following the seemingly routine events of the meeting, for which there was just one item on the agenda: the “final solution to the Jewish question.”
“The filmmakers’ authentic approach to the rendering of this event only underscores how easily this can happen again,” said Menemsha Films’ president Neil Friedman. “This understated approach screams out to all of us to be constantly on “high alert.”
Global Screen, which is handling world sales for The Conference, closed deals in multiple territories for the film, including with Pivot Pictures in Australia, The Klockworx in Japan, RAI in Italy and Red Cape in Israel.
“This is a restrained, dramatic reconstruction of one of the most horrific events of the Third Reich — the technically orchestrated meeting to organize the killing of human beings on an industrial scale,” said Global Screen head of acquisitions and sales Julia Weber. “The Conference is a drama that global audiences should be aware of and will watch in disbelief.”
Global Screen is presenting The Conference to buyers at the virtual European Film Market in Berlin this week.
