Sandra Hüller Stars in Maria Schrader's Arbeit und Struktur, German Drama Filming in Early 2027

One of the most anticipated European art-house productions on the horizon is taking shape, and the creative team alone makes this one worth tracking. Arbeit und Struktur, a German feature film adaptation of Wolfgang Herrndorf's celebrated autobiographical memoir, is currently in pre-production with principal photography scheduled to begin in early 2027. The film brings together director Maria Schrader, screenwriter Jan Schomburg, and Oscar-winning actress Sandra Hüller in what promises to be a prestige production with significant international reach, backed by a formidable consortium of European financiers and distributors.

Schrader and Schomburg are reuniting here, which will immediately register for anyone familiar with their previous collaboration. The two worked together on the acclaimed I'm Your Man (2021), Schrader's science fiction romance that earned Germany's submission for the Academy Awards and introduced Schrader to a much wider international audience after years of distinguished work as both an actress and filmmaker. Schrader is also widely recognized as the director of Unorthodox, the Netflix limited series that swept the Emmy Awards in 2021 and announced her as a major global voice in prestige drama. Her instinct for intimate, character-driven storytelling with an undercurrent of wit and philosophical weight makes her a natural fit for Herrndorf's source material. Schomburg, a German writer-director in his own right, brings sensitivity to literary adaptation and has a track record of collaborating on projects that resist easy emotional categorization. Their working shorthand, already established on I'm Your Man, is a real asset for a project this emotionally complex.

Sandra Hüller takes the lead role of Wolfgang Herrndorf in what the production describes as a gender-swapped performance. Hüller is arguably the most celebrated German actress working today, coming off an extraordinary two-film run in 2023 that included Anatomy of a Fall, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest, which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Her ability to convey immense interior life with extraordinary restraint is precisely what a role of this nature demands. Portraying a real person navigating a terminal brain tumor diagnosis while continuing to write and create is a performance challenge of the highest order, and Hüller is as well-suited to it as any actress working in world cinema right now. For crew assessing the caliber of this production, her attachment alone signals a project that will be handled with care and artistic seriousness.

The production infrastructure behind Arbeit und Struktur is robust by any standard. Komplizen Film, the Berlin-based production company founded by Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dornbach, and Maren Ade, is one of Germany's most respected independent production houses, responsible for films including Toni Erdmann and the work of filmmakers like Maren Ade and Christian Petzold. Their productions are known for rigorous creative environments and a commitment to quality over commercial compromise. Studiocanal serves as a co-producer and will handle worldwide sales, giving the film significant distribution muscle across Europe and beyond. Haut et Court, the French production and distribution company with a long history of supporting auteur cinema, is also aboard, alongside German public broadcaster ZDF. The film has secured public funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the Film and Media Foundation NRW, the Federal Government's cultural film funding programme, and Creative Europe MEDIA, a combination of regional, national, and European support that reflects the high regard the project commands in the funding community and suggests a well-resourced, professionally managed shoot.

While specific filming locations within Germany have not been confirmed in current production data, the involvement of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Film and Media Foundation NRW as lead funders is a strong indicator that principal photography will take place primarily in Berlin and potentially in North Rhine-Westphalia, both of which are contractual obligations tied to regional funding grants. Berlin has one of Europe's strongest local crew bases, with a deep talent pool across all departments and well-developed studio infrastructure including Studio Babelsberg in nearby Potsdam. Productions working out of Berlin that are backed by Medienboard funding are generally expected to spend a significant portion of their budget in the region, meaning local crew and vendors are well-positioned to pursue this one. Additional filming in other German cities connected to Herrndorf's life and work is possible, and European co-production obligations with Haut et Court may bring some element of the shoot to France, though nothing has been confirmed on that front.

As a literary drama rooted in a single individual's interior experience over several years, this production will lean heavily on its art department to create the lived-in environments of Herrndorf's real life. Expect meaningful work in production design and set decoration to reconstruct the Berlin creative milieu of the early 2010s. The film's emotional and philosophical tone, combined with Schrader's visually precise sensibility as a director, suggests a thoughtful and deliberate cinematographic approach, making this a desirable project for a DP looking to collaborate on something with genuine artistic ambition. Costume design, given the contemporary period setting and the specificity of Herrndorf as a real public figure, will require careful research-based work. The production is virtually certain to be a union shoot under German collective agreements, in line with the standards maintained by all of the companies involved. With theatrical releases planned for Germany, France, and Italy in 2028, the post-production timeline suggests a shoot window in early-to-mid 2027 with considerable runway for editorial and finishing work.

With production nearly a year and a half out, formal crew staffing is still in its early stages, but this is precisely the moment to get on the radar. Key department heads on European co-productions of this scale are typically identified six to twelve months before cameras roll, meaning the hiring pipeline for Arbeit und Struktur will begin in earnest well before the end of 2026. The full production listing on ProductionList.com will be updated as production contacts, office addresses, and department head attachments are confirmed. If you are a Berlin-based or Germany-based crew member working in any above-the-line adjacent department, bookmarking this listing now and checking back regularly is the smartest move you can make. For international crew with European co-production experience, this is the kind of project worth a proactive inquiry well ahead of the formal staffing window.

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