BILLIE

Sheri Hagen, Germany, 2025, 108 Min., feature film, German with English subtitles

Two mothers, two best friends: Nina, trapped in a marriage with a violent man, and Angie, a single mother who is constantly struggling financially. When Angie asks Nina’s husband for a small loan for her daughter’s school trip, the story takes an unexpected turn: what begins as a misunderstanding develops into an involuntary hostage situation. With the police already on their trail, the situation threatens to escalate and Nina takes charge. Aware of her own vulnerability and that of her daughter, she makes the necessary decisions to protect everyone. Dramatic and funny at the same time, full of harrowing reality—a film that breaks the silence on domestic violence while highlighting encouraging moments of self-liberation and female empowerment.
Sheri Hagen (director)
Sheri Hagen is a German director, screenwriter, and actress from Berlin. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised in Hamburg, she trained at the Hamburg Stage School of Dance and Drama and at the Studio Theater an der Wien in Austria. In addition to numerous film and television projects (including Das Leben der Anderen, Baal, Tatort, Sperling, On The Inside), she has also appeared in various theater productions.
As a screenwriter and director, she first gained attention in 2007 with the short film STELLA UND DIE STÖRCHE. The children’s short was successfully screened at international festivals, including the mo&friese KinderKurzfilmFestival Hamburg and the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.
At the 23rd International Film Festival Emden-Norderney in 2012, Sheri Hagen was awarded the Special Prize “Schreibtisch am Meer” for her debut feature AUF DEN ZWEITEN BLICK. In 2013, AUF DEN ZWEITEN BLICK won the 4th Church Film Festival Recklinghausen Prize. In the fall of 2013, Barnsteiner-Film released the feature in German cinemas.
In 2015, Sheri Hagen founded the production company Equality Film GmbH. Since then, her goal has been to tell films with relevant and powerful content that reflect a multi-layered and diverse society. In her feature film FENSTER BLAU (2016), Sheri Hagen adapted the play Muttermale Fenster Blau by the author Sasha Marianna Salzmann.
In 2023, she was recognized as a Culture and Creative Pilot by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) with Equality Film, and in 2024, her project MOTHERHOOD was part of the Berlinale Fiction Toolbox Program, selected by the Austrian Film Institute (ÖFI).
Tickets: Sa, 01. 11., 21:00 Uhr 
In the presence of: Sheri Hagen (director)
Berlin premiere

Tickets: Mo, 03. 11., 19:15 Uhr
In the presence of: Sheri Hagen (director)
BILLIE celebrated its world premiere at the Hamburg Film Festival.

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