Nadja`s Legacy - Go East Media

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NADJA’S LEGACY
a (female-lead) character-driven thriller
by writer/director Nic Penrake
‘Don’t count on your past to give you a better future.’
Status: August 2016
LOGLINE
SYNOPSIS
A broke photographer returns to Frankfurt for her
aunt’s funeral to discover she’s been left a legacy,
which, if accepted, must draw her back to a business
that nearly killed her.
The film opens with a suicide in Frankfurt: Marlene,
a sick drug dealer in her sixties, goes into her
daughter’s bedroom with a revolver and shoots
herself.
GENRE
CHARACTER-DRIVEN THRILLER
A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY
Nadja’s Legacy is one of those rare thrillers that is driven
by its female lead. A headstrong woman with a checkered
past and no martial arts fighting skills. A woman whose
upbringing taught her how to act strong and manipulate
men and who must finally learn the value of kindness and
humility.
Audiences are crying out for more movies with strong
female characters. Yet if you were to run a search for ‘femalelead thrillers’ and you’d struggle to find more than a handful
of titles that support that view.
When they do come along - ever so rarely - there’s a big
demand for them and they very often elicit favorable reviews
and film festival success. The recent German movie, Victoria,
is leading the way and provides the perfect wave on which
Nadja’s Legacy can travel.
THEME
This is one of those archetypal stories about an
individual who has run from a dark and dangerous
past only to be pulled back into it by a violent event.
In the past lurks treachery and death. Do you want to
go back there and try your luck again?
The theme centres around home and identity and
facing up to the truth of where you came from. You
have to know who you really are, and what you stand
for, before you can relate and become a true friend,
a good daughter, a good mother.
PAGE 2
Marlene’s niece, Nadja, a former drug addict
and drug dealer, now clean and working as a
photographer in London, receives news that her
aunt has killed herself. This sad news arriving
just as a big contract falls through, she rows with
ineffectual musician boyfriend, Simon, and calls
on Ryan, her previous, dependable ex, with whom
she’s still very friendly.
Nadja flies home and is met by her mother, Hanna,
Marlene’s older sister and a surgeon, at Frankfurt
airport, who is still shocked by what has happened:
why had her sister, who was not terminally ill,
decided to shoot herself in her daughter’s house?
the key to a storage unit... a heap of cash
and a little black book...
Back at her apartment, Hanna tells her daughter
she wants Nadja’s ex, Max, out of their co-owned
apartment: he’s not only very behind on the rent,
he’s dealing cocaine - he’s out of control.
She also hands Nadja an envelope that arrived the
day after Marlene’s death. In it Nadja finds a letter
and a key to a storage unit on the outskirts of the
city.
NADJA’S LEGACY
After Marlene’s funeral, Nadja goes to see Max at
the café where he works. She tells him she and
her mother want him out. Max, a good looking bisexual, a dilettante artist and drug dealer, makes
excuses and they argue.
Meanwhile, Hanna lets herself into Max’s
apartment to check the itinerary. She’s disgusted
at the state the place is in. When she chances upon
a small but telling stash of coke in Max’s toilet, she
flushes it down the toilet.
a turkish connection and one last drug
deal to make all their problems go away
After her visit to the café, Nadja takes Marelene’s
key and finds the storage unit it belongs to.
Marlene has left her a heap of things in boxes and,
among them, two attaché cases stuffed with cash,
and a ‘little black book’ with all details and contacts
for her drug connections. And there’s a note to the
effect that if she makes a few calls to people she’s
been working with she can make a quick deal and
double her legacy.
Max calls Nadja, beside himself with rage, and
tells her he could now be killed because of her
mother’s meddling – he owes big time to a Serbian
loan shark! Hanging up Max, sees a man in a car
outside, watching his place. When he goes outside
to see who it is the car drives away.
Nadja calls on Max that same evening and finds
him wired on coke. They quickly get into a fight,
which Max wins by dragging Nadja into the
bathroom and banging her head against the
bathtub.
Minutes later, Max has an epileptic fit in the
kitchen. In the aftermath Nadja tells Max he can’t
go on like this. Max complains he’s never been the
same since she went away and left him alone to
fend for himself.
Nadja stops over that night, sleeping in the other
room. In the morning, she tells him about the
storage unit and little by little Max persuades her
that with Marlene’s contacts they could get rid of
their money problems in a couple of short trips.
‘LOOK BOOK’ 2016
Nadja calls her aunt’s Turkish connection, Ahmed,
whom she hasn’t spoken to in several years. He
remembers her and agrees to a meeting in Little
Istanbul in Munich. She also calls Daniel, a Russian
she knows from years ago, when she herself was
dealing, and they agree to a meeting.
Nadja pays a visit to her first boyfriend, Uli,
another former drug dealer, at his struggling car
repair business. Uli is ten years her senior, wiry
and quietly self-effacing in his manner. He lends
her his ear over her problems with Max, also a car
to use. As she drives back into town to visit Max,
Nadja gets a call from Ryan reminding her of his
planned visit to Frankfurt.
Serbian tough guys, Stefan and Milos, visit Max
and rough him up, demanding repayments of their
money. While Max is on the floor, winded, Milos
takes Max’s mobile and inserts a tracking device in
it.
Nadja and Max meet Ahmed in Munich. Ahmed
passes her a sample and they agree provisionally to
arrange a bigger shipment. But Milos and Stefan are
watching. They then follow them as they return to
Frankfurt to do the deal with Daniel and his Russian
friends at a warehouse in a business park.
All parties happy, Nadja sets up a second exchange
with Ahmed and Daniel, and returns to the storage
unit. Opening the attaché case she reads a note
Marlene included informing her that a couple of the
money bundles contain an ESP tracker. She’s left
her a phone already set up with the relevant app
that will enable her to track the money with GPS.
Nadja packs one of the attaché cases into a suitcase
and sets off.
Max and Uli wait for Nadja at Uli’s place, which
is being watched by Stefan and Milos in their car
farther down the street.
As Nadja heads for Uli’s, she gets a call from Ryan
to say he’s at the airport and has been waiting for
her for over an hour. She completely forgot! She
apologizes and promises to go pick him up.
PAGE 3
Stefan and Milos run into a roadblock. As a police
officer leans in asking for ID, Max sneezes blood
all over Milos’s arm and papers. The officer grows
alarmed and draws his gun, prompting Milos to
reverse hard and peel away in a frantic U-turn.
Hanna comes across a box stacked with wigs… and a
handgun.
Nadja returns to Uli’s to find her friend has been shot
dead. No sign of Max or her suitcase.
Arriving at Uli’s, Nadja is struck by memories of her
time with Ryan, the only boyfriend who ever made a
single-minded effort to help her get off heroin - a trial
that had cost them their relationship.
She takes the case inside to Uli’s but tells Max she
doesn’t want to go through with the deal. She must
also go to the airport to pick up Ryan. Max is hugely
pissed off. Uli, who is also hard up and has come in
on the deal, proposes they sleep on it, and so Nadja
sets off for the airport leaving the case in Uli’s safekeeping.
While Stefan and Milos are busy replacing the tyre,
Max makes a run for it. Stefan gives chase, trips and
falls and accidentally shoots Max in the back. Now
with a second corpse on their hands, Stefan decides
to head into the woods and bury Max.
Nadja arrives at Max’s apartment. She tells her mum
the terrible thing she’s just seen – Uli dead, a drug
deal gone wrong. Hanna shows her a gun she’s found,
which turns out to be a prop Max must have used on
a short film he made.
Stefan and Milos get out of their car and break into
Uli’s. Finding the money in the case, they begin asking
questions. But when Max has another epileptic fit,
Milos thinks he’s going for a gun and shoots him,
wounding him in the shoulder.
Uli seizes the distraction and attacks the Serbs.
Though small and skinny, he’s a former black belt in
karate and is about to come out on top when Milos
recovers and shoots him in the head.
Meanwhile, Hanna calls in on Max’s place to pick up
a mirror she’s afraid Max will soon trash, and Nadja
meets Ryan at the airport.
Stefan and Milos bundle the wounded Max into their
car and set out for Max’s apartment where they
believe they will find more money and/or drugs.
Nadja arrives at Hanna’s apartment and asks Ryan if
he’ll be OK for a short time while she pays Uli a quick
visit.
PAGE 4
When Hanna begins to vent over Nadja’s rash
decisions and Marlene’s disastrous influence, Nadja
breaks off to call Daniel, who is in the middle of a
card game with his friends. She tells him what has
happened and asks for his help. Daniel, however,
isn’t impressed – he’s disappointed in her and doesn’t
want to get involved.
When he loses the next round at cards, Daniel bows
out and reverses his decision. Driving up to Max’s
block he sends Nadja a text asking her to step out
onto the balcony so he can see her.
NADJA’S LEGACY
Nadja picks up her suitcase from Milos’s trunk and wheels it
back to her car and drives off. Daniel and Hanna follow on.
That night Nadja decides to spend the night at a hotel with
Ryan, who is completely bemused by what is going on. In the
early hours of the morning, Nadja jumps him and they have
sex - like she’s never had before.
Moments later Milos and Stefan arrive at Max’s.
They see a light on and decide to go on up. Daniel
follows them. He buzzes the apartment below
Nadja’s pretending to be the emergency services
and gets inside.
Milos and Stefan enter Max’s apartment using Max’s
keys, surprising Nadja. Hanna is in the bathroom
and remains quiet when she hears voices in the
living room.
Daniel knocks on the door of the apartment below
Max’s and barges straight through, frightening a
large family of immigrants, to the balcony. From
here he climbs up to Max’s balcony.
Hanna creeps into the spare room and picks up
Max’s decommissioned gun. She creeps toward
the living room and points the gun at Milos. As she
shouts, “Stop!” Milos freezes. Stefan draws his gun
and getting to his feet points it at Nadja.
Four weeks later Nadja says goodbye to Ryan at the airport.
She plans to stay on in Germany. As she gets in her mum’s
car, the trauma catches up with her and she finally breaks
down.
There’s a rap on the window. Daniel is there, beckoning.
Four years later, back in London, we see a little boy playing
with Ryan’s cat. Nadja is at his place – she’s flown over from
Germany and has just dropped the bombshell that the
little boy is Ryan’s son. Nadja reveals that not long after she
last saw Ryan she realized that the photo she’d found in
Marlene’s ‘little black book’ was not of Hanna breast-feeding
her as a baby, it was in fact Marlene; the photographer, her
name written on the back of the photo in pencil, was Hanna,
not the person in the photo. Marlene had given Nadja to
her sister to look after because she felt she would be a bad
mother.
Ryan is so overwhelmed he can barely process the
information, and being the laid back guy that he is, he
decides the only way of dealing with this life changing news is
to pull a bottle of champagne from his fridge.
Milos spots Daniel’s reflection in the balcony window - but
too late. Daniel bursts into the room and shoots Stefan,
wounding him. Hanna throws her gun at Milos, hitting him
on the head. As Stefan turns to return fire, Nadja cracks him
over the head with a glass ashtray. Daniel shoots Milos and
then Stefan as he makes a desperate lunge for Nadja.
Daniel rearranges the scene to look like the Serbs fell out
and killed each other, then ushers both women from
the apartment. But as Nadja gets into Daniel’s car, she
remembers her money and rushes back inside to get Milos’s
car keys. The police arrive and head up the stairs just as
Nadja is coming back down wearing a wig (another of Max’s
props) that makes her look forty years older in the dark.
‘LOOK BOOK’ 2016
PAGE 5
NADJA’S JOURNEY
SIMILAR TITLES
Nadja’s journey is a test – to what degree has she
changed? The men in her life, what do they really
mean to her? Who is her real mother? Can she learn
that being cool isn’t all it’s made out to be and that
being kind makes for a happier existence?
AUDIENCE
The core audience is male from 15 + upwards, but also
females in the same age range, especially as the story features
a relatable and strong female lead whose quest is part love,
part identity; added to which, the female audience tends to be
more drawn to psychological thrillers like this one as opposed
to (more male-oriented) action thrillers.
Nooni Rapace
LOCATION
UK 5%, Germany 95%. (The UK portion of the film could be
relocated to e.g. a Scandinavian country, depending on logistics
and other production partners).
BUDGET
It is estimated that the film’s budget will range between $2-3M.
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NADJA’S LEGACY
SUGGESTED CAST
MAX
NADJA
Violetta Schurawlow
‘LOOK BOOK’ 2016
Daniel Brühl
Katharina Schuttler
Max Riemelt
Palina Rojinski
Frederick Lau
PAGE 7
HANNA
RYAN
Garett Hedlund
Gitta Schweighfer
STEFAN
DANIEL
Danila Koziovsky
Dragan Mićanović
Greg Kolpakchi
Slobodan Beštić
PAGE 8
NADJA’S LEGACY
WRITER/ DIRECTOR/ PRODUCER
Nic Penrake
Besides having written a few million words for major ad
agencies in London and freelanced as a CD, Nic Penrake has
written, produced and directed s everal highly distinctive films
including The Stray, Bunking Off, The Prowler, Mud Boy and
What Goes Around and a full length play, Virtually in Love.
He heads up development at Film Engine in the UK, working
alongside film financier, Phil Taylor, where he has another 4
projects on the slate there.
His showreel and films can be seen at Nic Penrake &
Associates.
Nic’s IMDB profile is here.
PRODUCER
Jeff Solema
As former VP of Magic Elevator LLC and one of its Producers,
Jeff helped managed Magic Elevator’s International Sales and
Marketing Department at most major film markets such as
Hong Kong Film Market, Cannes Film Market, AFM, EFM and
MIPTV.
Former founder and Former Director of Filipino International
Film Festival L.A.
Producer of over 20 feature films such as Jaguar, Downside of
Bliss, Ghost Goggles, The Broken Ones and Monster & Me.
His films have been distributed in almost 30 countries around
the world.
Jeff now runs his own company Go East Media in LA.
To check out Jeff’s film credits visit his IMDB.
‘LOOK BOOK’ 2016
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NADJA’S LEGACY
Like what you see? Get in touch:
Jeff Solema
[email protected]
Nic Penrake
[email protected]
+44 7779 102 348
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NADJA’S LEGACY