DirectorJan EilhardtCountryGermanyYear2025World premiereBerlinale Forum 2025Length74 minLanguageGerman Original TitleJanine zieht aufs LandWriterJan EilhardtProduction companyEilhardt ProductionsProducer(s)Jan Eilhardt, Santiago Gómez RojasCastJanine Lear, Maximilian Brauer, Adrian Wenzel, Kathrin Angerer, Pierre Emö, Susanne Bredehöft, Daniel Zillmann, Beatrice CorduaDoPIrene CruzEditingVerena Neumann, Jan EilhardtMusicUlf Wrede, Peter Uehling, Sanaa SchlaegerKeywordsQueer Identity, LGBTQIA+, Sexuality, Toxic Masculinity, Past Trauma, Acceptance, Rural Community

Her partner’s asthma forces Janine to move back to the country. As a queer person, she leaves behind the safe space of the city and is confronted with the ghosts of her past in her new home: insults, hostility, assaults. The glances of her neighbour Peter, who still lives with his mother and looks after his disabled brother, awaken dark memories in Janine yet pull her closer at the same time. A game of naive inappropriate acts, full of sexual energy, then ensues between the two. As Janine and Peter grow closer and he lets her see behind his front of toxic masculinity, his jealous brother takes drastic measures to win back Peter.

press kit
  • World Premiere: Berlinale Forum
  • Filmfest Emden
  • Queer Film Festival (10 German & Austrian cities)
  • Hamburg International Queer Film Festival
  • Pornfilmfestival Berlin - Best Feature Film
  • Pink Screens Film Festival Brussels
  • Univerciné allemand Nantes
  • Itaewon Film Festival Seoul - Best LGBT+ Feature Film
  • Braunschweig International Film Festival
  • Queer Film Week Görlitz
  • QueerCineMad LGBTIAQ+ Film Festival Madrid
  • Barcelona Queer Film Festival
  • Chéries Chéris, festival du film LGBTQIA & +++ de Paris
  • 56th IFFI 2025 Goa International Film Festival 
  • Transcinema Festival Internacional de Cine Lima 
  • Écrans Mixtes Lyon 

About the Director

Jan Eilhardt studied Film and Performance at the HFBK Hamburg (including classes with Marina Abramović) and was an assistant to Heiner Müller at the Berliner Ensemble. His films and experimental projects have screened in international film festivals, cinemas, and museums. His feature debut, Scherbengericht, premiered in 2013 at the Slamdance Film Festival. Sanaa, Seductress of Strangers (2022), a queer-activist Super 8 short film, was shown in international festivals and won many awards. It is being followed in 2025 by his autobiographically inspired feature Janine zieht aufs Land, supported by mediatalents (nordmedia), which premiered at the Berlinale Forum.

Copyright © Johanna Meyer

Filmography (Selection)

2025 Janine zieht aufs Land (Janine Moves to the Country); Feature

2025 Bad Luck; Short

2022 Fremdenverführerin (Sanaa, Seductress of Strangers); Short

2014 Gun Street Girl Sings Tom Waits

2013 The Last Night of Baby Gun; Short

2012 Scherbengericht (The Court of Shards); Feature

2012 Moby Dick Piece; Short

2007 CDF 2; Short

2006 CDF Short

2005 Quasar; Short

2004 Tertiär; Short

2003 Dance; Short

2002 Straße der Revolution (Streets of the Revolution); Short