Oscar-nominated actress Sandra Hüller is set to star as late acclaimed German writer and artist Wolfgang Herrndorf in the upcoming feature Work and Structure (Arbeit und Struktur) by Maria Schrader.
The production brings together two of Germany‘s most celebrated female cinema professionals with Sandra Hüller seen this year in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cannes winner Fatherland as well as opposite Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary, having previously won international acclaim for her performances in Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest.
Schrader’s credits include the 2021 Berlinale selected She Said, I’m Your Man, for which star Maren Eggert won best acting performance, as well as Unorthodox and Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe.
Herrndorf began documenting his life after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour in 2010. Published posthumously in 2013, the subsequent Work and Structure became a literary phenomenon in Germany and is now regarded as one of the defining works of contemporary German literature.
Schrader, who is adapting the original work for the big screen with Jan Schomburg, said: “’Arbeit und Struktur’ is a solitary and intimate record of what it means to be alive. A man fights with words against his disappearance and, in the face of death, becomes more alive than ever before. Through his uncompromising honesty, his intelligence and irony, we follow Herrndorf into the bright, the dark and the secret corners of the human condition. Bringing that to the screen is one of the most exciting tasks I can imagine.”
Hüller added of her involvement: “Ever since my first encounter with Wolfgang Herrndorf’s work, I have been unable to let go of his writing. His texts are at once surprising, unsettling, and comforting. To encounter him as a person through this film: at a moment when his life changed abruptly, seemed on the verge of falling apart, and when he was simultaneously discovering his voice as a writer before it was tragically silenced, is both a great honour and a profound challenge for me.”
The synopsis for the planned film reads: “A powerful and deeply human story about creativity, friendship, love and mortality, Arbeit und Struktur follows an artist confronting the certainty of his own death with extraordinary honesty, wit and imagination. Through a profoundly personal journey, the film explores what remains when time becomes life’s most precious resource.”
The feature is being produced by Komplizen Film, Studiocanal, Haut et Court and ZDF, with with production set to begin in early 2027.
Studiocanal will handle world sales and release the film in Germany, France and Italy in 2028. The film is backed by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the Film- and Media Foundation NRW, the Federal Government’s jury-based cultural film funding programme, the German Federal Film Board FFA (Minitraité), and Creative Europe MEDIA Slate Development.
