Amidst the turmoil of the Thirty Years´ War, somewhere in Germany, a mysterious soldier appears in a secluded Protestant village. Small and quiet, his face disfigured by a scar, this stranger declares himself the heir of a long-abandoned farmstead and produces a document to support his claim to the suspicious villagers. With time, he overcomes their doubts and shows himself to be a hard-working, God-fearing man, becoming part of the community in a quest for acceptance made up of impossible deceit. The true and twisted tale of a deceiver of land and folk, who, defying her birth as a woman, comported herself as a man and committed many a wicked deed.
Markus Schleinzer, born in Vienna, spent 17 years as a casting director shaping the international success of Austrian cinema through his close collaborations with Jessica Hausner, Ulrich Seidl, and Michael Haneke. For the Golden Globe winner and Oscar-nominated film The White Ribbon, he was responsible not only for casting the child actors but also for directing their performances on set. His two debut feature films, Michael (2011) and Angelo (2018), premiered and won awards in the main competitions at the Cannes, Toronto, London, Mumbai, and Japan film festivals, among others. Schleinzer also works as an actor and teaches directing, currently at the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg.