On the big screen:
»A Better Place« (Episodes 1 & 2)
(Series, D/AT 2024, 8x45 min, original with english subtitles, Directing: Anne Zohra Berrached, Konstantin Bock, Headwriters: Alexander Lindh, Karin Kaçi)
Followed by a film talk with Karin Kaçı, moderated by Mar B. Alves (scriptwriter)
To mark its 25th anniversary, ifs is presenting graduates with a selected film project in its series ifs Encounter: 25 Years of ifs throughout the year. In the subsequent discussion, the focus will be not only on the film project but also on the graduates' professional careers after their time at ifs.
A world without prisons – groundbreaking progress or a dangerous mistake? Is it an opportunity to truly rehabilitate offenders or an incalculable risk to society?
The high-end drama series ‘A Better Place’ challenges viewers to take a stand: Could the world truly become ‘a better place’ if prison sentences were abolished?
It is an ambitious project launched by Mayor Amir Kaan and criminologist Petra Schach in the fictional city of Rheinstadt. With the TRUST rehabilitation programme, they are pursuing the visionary goal of a "world without prisons": offenders are released from prison to receive support in the form of work, housing and therapy instead of prison sentences.
The head writer of the fictional eight-part series is ifs alumna Karin Kaçi, together with showrunner Alexander Lindh.
The production was handled by Komplizen Serien, Studiocanal Series and FILM AG in close cooperation with WDR and ARD Degeto Film, with funding from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, among others. The series celebrated its premiere at the 2024 Cologne Film Festival.
Karin Kaçi studied screenwriting at the ifs in the first year of the bachelor's degree programme in film. Since then, she has been working as a freelance screenwriter for cinema, series and TV. Her feature films have been screened at national and international festivals and have won several awards, including the Best First Feature Award at Tallinn Black Nights and a Grimme Prize nomination.
The ZDF film ‘Der Fall Marianne Voss’ (dir. U. Havemann) won the prestigious ABU Prize from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union in the TV Drama category in 2024. Karin Kaçi has written young adult novels (including ‘Homevideo’, based on the award-winning TV film) and numerous narrative texts for film radio plays. She is currently developing various series projects.
Mar B. Alves completed a master's degree in Serial Storytelling at the ifs and has since developed films and series for production companies such as Schiwago Film, Bavaria Fiction, UFA Fiction, G5 Fiction and U5 Filmproduktion. He has also worked as a staff writer and story editor on daily formats (e.g. ‘Alles was zählt’). The miniseries ‘Husk,’ which Mar B. Alves wrote together with ifs alumni Dominik Hochwald and Christoph Mathieu, is currently being produced for ZDF.
