Shooting begins in Berlin today for German filmmaker Hans-Christian Schmid's first major international English-language project Storm (Sturm) [working title] with a cast including Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane, Rolf Lassgard and Alexander Fehling.

Fox plays a prosecutor at the war tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia in The Hague who is trying to persuade a witness, a Bosnian woman living in Berlin (4 Months star Marinca), to come to the court to give evidence against a suspected Serbian war criminal. The woman not only has confront her past trauma, but also meets resistance both from within the tribunal and outside to this evidence being made public.

The $10m (Euros 6.4m) project by Schmid and Britta Knoeller's Berlin-based company 23/5 Filmproduktion will be co-produced with Zentropa International Koeln, Zentropa Entertainments Berlin, Zentropa Entertainment5 in Denmark, Zentropa International Netherlands and the Dutch production house IDTV Film.

Production support has already been granted by the German funds Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmstiftung NRW and German Federal Film Board (FFA), the Council of Europe's Eurimages as well as backing from the public broadcasters SWR, BR, WDR and Arte.

After shooting this week in Berlin, the production will shoot on location near Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Netherlands and Spain as well as interiors in North Rhine-Westphalia, wrapping on Oct 6.

Piffl Medien will release the political thriller in Germany, with TrustNordisk handling international sales.

Speaking to ScreenDaily.com, producer Britta Knoeller pointed out that the project had now assumed particular topicality since the arrest of Radovan Karadcic in Belgrade just a week ago.

Storm reunites director Schmid with Bernd Lange, the screenwriter of his Berlinale competition film Requiem as well as with many of his 'regular' collaborators behind the camera such as the Polish DoP Bogumil Godfrejow, production designer Christian M. Goldbeck and editor Hansjoerg Weissbrich.

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