Oscar pedigree is stacking up behind “The Lüneburg Variation”, the chess-world noir now shooting in Italy. Sebastian Koch, the star of Oscar-winning German film “The Lives of Others,” and Toni Servillo, the face of Italy’s Oscar winner “The Great Beauty,” have been set to topline the picture, directed by Gabriele Salvatores, himself an Academy Award winner for “Mediterraneo.”
Sebastian Koch and Toni Servillo (Credits: Variety)
Salvatores has already started filming in Trieste, with nine weeks of principal photography planned between Trieste and Rome. The film adapts the novel by Italian author Paolo Maurensig, which has been translated into 25 languages and explores the haunting legacy of the Holocaust through a deadly game of chess.
What “The Lüneburg Variation” is about
The story unfolds around a tense, symbolic duel. A young musician receives a letter from Tabori, a former Hungarian chess master, who in Vienna recounts his wartime ordeal: a once-celebrated Jewish chess player deported to a concentration camp during World War II, Tabori was forced to play chess for the amusement of his Nazi captors. Among them was Hans Meyer, then known as Ludwig, a gifted but sadistic player. Their games become symbolic duels of intellect and spirit against power and cruelty, and Tabori claims he did not just defeat Meyer at chess, but dismantled him morally and spiritually, before being compelled to face his nemesis in one final match with the highest stakes imaginable.
In adapting the novel, Salvatores has rooted part of the story in Trieste, giving the protagonist Jewish-Triestine roots in a nod to the city’s historically significant Jewish community, while Vienna and Munich remain key settings. The script is multilingual, shot in both Italian and German, reflecting the film’s cross-cultural scope.
A stacked European ensemble
Servillo is reuniting with Salvatores after “The Return of Casanova,” and the cast also includes Andrea Avagliano, known for “La storia” and “My Brilliant Friend.” Leading the German cast is Damian Hardung, the breakout star of Netflix’s “How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)” and Prime Video’s “Maxton Hall,” who recently headlined the Holocaust drama “Stella: A Life” and previously starred in the global series “The Name of the Rose.”
RAI Cinema International Distribution is handling international sales on the project, which, with this level of talent on both sides of the camera, is shaping up to be one of the most-watched European productions of the year.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
