Hysteria

The 1993 arson attack in Solingen, which killed five members of a family of Turkish origin, is to be staged for a feature film. When a burnt copy of the Koran is discovered among the props, the production begins to break apart behind the scenes: Footage from the shooting day mysteriously disappears, and assistant director Elif comes under fire from director, producer and extras, whose mutual allegations increasingly escalate the situation.

Hysteria is a fast-paced thriller that deals intensively with social attributions and projections, navigating casually and confidently between genres and social criticism. Many things are different than they seem at first. What is said — and also what remains unsaid — in turn shapes the images that people have of each other: ideas that are often distorted and do not correspond to the truth, but are still difficult to discard. As the characters are drawn ever deeper into a web of secrets, lies and ambiguity, the result is a multi-layered film that uncovers opportunism and performative wokeness while also drawing the audience into the midst of the fire of conflict.