Cobain runs away from his new foster family because he is worried about his mother Mia, who is heavily pregnant and lives on the street. When Cobain demands that Mia get help for herself and the baby, the two argue bitterly. Cobain finds shelter with Wickmayer, Mia’s ex and a pimp. When Mia contacts Cobain again, Wickmayer sends her away. But Mia keeps pulling Cobain in and Cobain can see that she is deteriorating. Cobain realizes that something needs to be done. He takes Mia to a remote, abandoned place where he locks her up to kick her drug habit. Although Mia resists at first, she slowly recovers. Then, as Cobain and Mia are finally becoming closer, disaster strikes…

Direction: Nanouk Leopold

Script: Stienette Bosklopper

Production: Stienette Bosklopper

Co-Production: Lisette Kelder

Cinematography: Frank van den Eeden

Editing: Katharina Wartena

Production Design: Elsje de Bruijn

Costume Design: Manon Blom

Make-Up: Elke Hahn

Sound: Andreas Hildebrandt

Original Score: Harry de Wit

Cast: Bas Keizer, Naomi Velissariou

Original Title: COBAIN

Original Languages: Dutch, English

Film Production Countries: Netherlands, Germany, Belgium

Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/cobainafilmbynanoukleopold/

Statement of the Director/s
I will always prefer stories about outcasts, imperfect humans who must struggle to make something of their lives, stories in which the meaning of life is held in the details.

The unconditional love Cobain feels for Mia prevents him from getting his own life in order. He feels responsible for his unstable, pregnant mother and wants to rescue her. He is only able to choose life once he realizes that Mia cannot be saved. I think this is a very powerful dramatic concept. During the film, Cobain develops from a child into a man. He learns to take care of himself and make up his own mind, with all the consequences this entails.

Life through the eyes of a fifteen-year-old boy. He lives in exceptional circumstances, but is not always aware of this. Cobain’s mental journey is also a literal journey through the worlds he - temporarily - inhabits; the worlds in which he must make sense of himself. As the landscape changes, so does Cobain. He gets to know himself and the world in a new way.

Cobain has had a false start in life. His addicted, pregnant mother is unable to take care of him. Their roles are reversed: she is the child, he the adult. To prevent history from repeating itself, he must save himself by saving his unborn brother.

Cobain does not view his life as particularly hard or troubled; he takes things as they come. I am not so much concerned with the circumstances that can ruin a man, but rather with the life force that will not be slowed or tamed. It is the light that wriggles through the tiniest hole in the curtains, projecting an array of images onto the wall. In that moment, when you see it, there is happiness.

Nanouk Leopold

Biography of the Director/s
Nanouk Leopold (Rotterdam, 1968) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam in 1992 and from the Dutch Film and Television Academy in 1998. Her graduation film WEEKEND won the Tuschinski Award for best student film. Her first feature ÎLES FLOTTANTES was selected for the IFFR Tiger Competition in 2001. GUERNSEY was selected for the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes in 2005. WOLFSBERGEN premiered at the Forum of the Berlinale 2007 and was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival in the same year. BROWNIAN MOVEMENT premiered in Toronto in 2010 and had its European premiere at the Forum in Berlin in 2011. In 2013 IT’S ALL SO QUIET was the opening film of the Berlinale Panorama Special. She became a member of the Society of the Arts of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences in 2016. In 2017 Leopold directed her first play, From the Life of the Marionettes, for the prestigious Amsterdam theatre group TGA. In 2018 her sixth feature film COBAIN had its world premiere at the Berlinale in the Generation section.

Filmography of the Director/s
2017
COBAIN
Feature, Circe Films, 94 min.
Co-production with A Private View (BE), COIN Film (DE), VPRO Television (NL) and The Film Kitchen (NL). BNL distribution: Cinemien, DE distribution: W-Film, world sales: Beta Cinema.
World premiere: Generation IFF Berlin 2018
Awards: Best Screenplay Lecce European Film Festival 2018, Best Film Crossing Europe Film Festival 2018

2013
IT’S ALL SO QUIET (BOVEN IS HET STIL)
Feature, Circe Films, 100 min.
Co-production with N279 Entertainment (NL), COIN Film (GE), VPRO Television (NL). BNL distributie: Cinéart, world sales: Films Distribution.
World premiere: Opening film Panorama Special Berlinale 2013
Awards: Best Feature Film Torino GLTB Film Festival 2013, Bildrausch-ring Award Basel IFF 2013, Outstanding International Dramatic Feature Film Award LA Outfest 2013, Silver Hugo Award Chicago IFF 2013

2010
BROWNIAN MOVEMENT
Feature, Circe Films, 97 min.
Co-production with COIN Film (GE), Serendipity Films (BE), VPRO Television (NL). BNL distribution: Cinéart, DE distribution: Filmlichter, world sales: Films Distribution.
World premiere: Visions program Toronto IFF 2010, Forum IFF Berlin 2011
Awards: 6 nominations and Golden Calf Best Screenplay and Golden Calf Best Director Netherlands Film Festival, International Film Guide Award New Horizons Film Festival 2011, Best Actress Festival des Deutschen Films 2011

2007
WOLFSBERGEN
Feature, Circe Films, 93 min.
Co-production with Cosmokino (BE), VPRO Television (NL). BNL distribution: A-Film, world sales: Films Distribution.
World premiere: Forum, IFF Berlin 2007, Toronto IFF 2007
Awards: Special Mention Caligari Caligari Film Award, 6 nominations and Golden Calf Best Camera and Golden Calf Best Male Supporting Act Netherlands Film Festival 2007, Audience Award Festival du Cinéma Nordique, Rouen 2008, Jury Award Teplice IFF

2005
GUERNSEY
Feature, Circe Films, 92 min.
Co-production with Cosmokino (BE), VPRO Television (NL). NL distribution: A-Film, BE distribution: Cinélibre, FR distribution: ASC Distribution.
World premiere: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs Cannes 2005
Awards: Golden Calf Best Director and Best Actress Netherlands Film Festival 2005, Dutch Film Critics Award 2005, Best Film Alba Regia Festival

2002
LA GRANDE GUERRE
TV-adaptation of a theatre play by Hotel Modern, AGAT Film/Arte, 50 min.

2001
ÎLES FLOTTANTES
Feature, Circe Films, 85 min.
Co-production with Motel Films (NL), VPRO Television (NL). NL distribution: A-Film.
World premiere: International Film Festival Rotterdam - Tiger Award Competition 2001
Awards: Utrecht Prize City of Utrecht 2001, J. Jordaan Award from Art Foundation of Amsterdam

1999
MAX LUPA
TV film, VPRO television, 45 min. 16mm.

1998
WEEKEND
Graduation film, 27 min. 16mm.
Tuschinski Award for Best Student Film Netherlands Film Festival, Kodak Award Munich Film Festival

Awards Won
Berlinale: Caligari Film Award - Special Mention (Wolfsbergen, 2007),
Netherlands Film Festival: Golden Calf Best Director (Guersney, 2005 and Brownian Movement, 2010), Bildrausch Filmfest Basel: Best Director (It's all so quiet, 2013), L.A. Outfest: Outstanding International Narrative Feature (It's all so quiet, 2013), Crossing Europe Filmfestival: Best Film (Cobain, 2018)

World Sales:
Beta Cinema
Cosima Finkbeiner
Gruenwalder Weg 28d
Oberhaching / Munich, 82041, Germany
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +4989673469823
Website: https://www.betacinema.com/

Press:
Circe Films
Daya de Jongh
Da Costakade 176 HS
Amsterdam, 1053 XE , Netherlands
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +31206253591
Website: http://circe.nl/