‘Josephine’ Producer David Kaplan Sets Gabriel Nussbaum’s ‘Triumph of the Will’ With ‘Unorthodox’ Star Shira Haas (EXCLUSIVE)
David Kaplan, the Brooklyn-based independent producer whose latest film, “Josephine,” won a pair of awards at Sundance and will next compete at the Berlinale, has set his next ambitious project, “Triumph of the Will,” with a cast led by Shira Haas (“Unorthodox”).
Currently in post, “Triumph of the Will” is a sprawling period movie set during WWII, written and directed by American filmmaker Gabriel Nussbaum.
Haas, best known for her performance in the Netflix limited series “Unorthodox” and “Shtisel,” leads the film as a woman who leaves her husband in Amsterdam in 1937 to start a new life with her daughter in Berlin. She takes up with a firebrand rabbi on a mission to help Jews get out of the country.
Samuel Levine, Tony-nominated Betsy Aidem (“Irrational Man”), Simon Helberg (“Big Bang Theory”), John Carroll Lynch (“The Walking Dead”) and Philip Ettinger (“Josephine”) complete the cast. Kaplan Morrison, which he founded with Andrew Morrison three years ago, is producing the film with Nussbaum and Elizabeth Wood at Bank Street Films.
“This good man is trying to help people get out of Berlin, but he is perhaps more focused on doing good work than he is on saving himself or his new family,” Kaplan tells Variety. “It starts as a romantic drama about somebody trying to find happiness, have the life they want, even if it’s slightly irrational.”
Ultimately, the film is not just about survival, it’s also a morality tale, says Kaplan. As in “Josephine,” “Triumph of the Will” has a child at the center of the story. Here, it’s a four-year-old. As the new couple sets off to flee Berlin, they’re faced with an impossible choice. “Since they don’t have the papers for her because he’s not her father, they we have to decide whether or not they leave her behind in Berlin and survive themselves, and try and have her sent to America after they get there, or whether they’re all going to stay behind and die,” Kaplan says.
“Triumph of the Will” shot entirely in New York, where the producers managed to re-create Amsterdam, Berlin, Lisbon and Oklahoma.
“We’re all New Yorkers and we wanted to shoot there for casting and also for the crew,” he said. “If you can make a movie in the place you live, it’s great because then you’re spending money on your friends, on your community, on your tax base. I understand the economic argument of going somewhere else, but we got to spend money and it goes right back into our city,” said Kaplan.
Besides “Josephine,” Kaplan Morrison has so far produced Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” and Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee.” The banner is now developing Corbet’s and Fastvold’s next films, as well as the sequel to “It Follows” with Neon.
Currently in post, “Triumph of the Will” is a sprawling period movie set during WWII, written and directed by American filmmaker Gabriel Nussbaum.
Haas, best known for her performance in the Netflix limited series “Unorthodox” and “Shtisel,” leads the film as a woman who leaves her husband in Amsterdam in 1937 to start a new life with her daughter in Berlin. She takes up with a firebrand rabbi on a mission to help Jews get out of the country.
Samuel Levine, Tony-nominated Betsy Aidem (“Irrational Man”), Simon Helberg (“Big Bang Theory”), John Carroll Lynch (“The Walking Dead”) and Philip Ettinger (“Josephine”) complete the cast. Kaplan Morrison, which he founded with Andrew Morrison three years ago, is producing the film with Nussbaum and Elizabeth Wood at Bank Street Films.
“This good man is trying to help people get out of Berlin, but he is perhaps more focused on doing good work than he is on saving himself or his new family,” Kaplan tells Variety. “It starts as a romantic drama about somebody trying to find happiness, have the life they want, even if it’s slightly irrational.”
Ultimately, the film is not just about survival, it’s also a morality tale, says Kaplan. As in “Josephine,” “Triumph of the Will” has a child at the center of the story. Here, it’s a four-year-old. As the new couple sets off to flee Berlin, they’re faced with an impossible choice. “Since they don’t have the papers for her because he’s not her father, they we have to decide whether or not they leave her behind in Berlin and survive themselves, and try and have her sent to America after they get there, or whether they’re all going to stay behind and die,” Kaplan says.
“Triumph of the Will” shot entirely in New York, where the producers managed to re-create Amsterdam, Berlin, Lisbon and Oklahoma.
“We’re all New Yorkers and we wanted to shoot there for casting and also for the crew,” he said. “If you can make a movie in the place you live, it’s great because then you’re spending money on your friends, on your community, on your tax base. I understand the economic argument of going somewhere else, but we got to spend money and it goes right back into our city,” said Kaplan.
Besides “Josephine,” Kaplan Morrison has so far produced Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” and Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee.” The banner is now developing Corbet’s and Fastvold’s next films, as well as the sequel to “It Follows” with Neon.