FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kelly Hargraves
Phone: 1-323-662-1930
kelly.hargraves@firstrunfeatures.com

 
 
     

Renowned German Filmmaker Monika Treut's New Feature Film

Opens in NY Theatres on July 31st

Click here for current Playdates
Click here for Press Materials

**Interview Oportunities**

Director Monika Treut, long renowned as a documentary filmmaker, marks her return to feature films with Ghosted. Actress Ting-Ting Hu (in the lead role as Mei-li) is an emerging Taiwanese ‘celebrity’ as an actor and the daughter of a respected diplomat. Both Monika and Ting Ting will be in the U.S. this summer and are available for interviews, so please let me know if you think you could find space for coverage!


Fresh from playing America’s most prestigious gay and lesbian film festivals, Monika Treut’s Ghosted marks a return to narrative filmmaking for the director after nearly a decade of documentary work.

Shot beautifully in both Hamburg and Taipei, Ghosted is a mysterious love story centered around Hamburg artist Sophie Schmitt (Inga Busch), who is trying to come to terms with the murder of her young Taiwanese lover, Ai-ling (Huan-Ru Ke). To ease her pain, Sophie creates a video installation dedicated to Ai-ling and takes the exhibit to Taipei, where she meets the ambitious, seductive journalist Mei-li (Ting-Ting Hu). Intrigued at first but still in grief over Ai-ling, Sophie rejects Mei-li’s attempts at seduction and returns immediately to Hamburg.

When Mei-li suddenly turns up on her Hamburg doorstep, Sophie can no longer deny her attraction and risks opening up her heart once more. But soon Sophie begins to suspect that the beautiful and mysterious Mei-li is not all that she seems.

Monika Treut has written, directed and produced award-winning independent features and documentaries that have screened at film festivals all over the world and enjoy international distribution. Retrospectives have been held in Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Taipei, Toronto, Cambridge, Helsinki, Hamburg, Thessaloniki, Los Angeles and Lisbon. Treut's first feature, co-directed with Elfi Mikesch, was the controversial Seduction: The Cruel Woman (1985), which since has become a cult classic. Other films include The Virgin Machine, My Father is Coming, Female Misbehavior, Didn’t Do It For Love, Gendernauts, Warrior of Light and Tigerwomen Grow Wings. Since 1990, Treut also has been teaching and lecturing at colleges (Vassar, Hollins, and Dartmouth), art institutes (SFAI) and universities (UI Chicago, UC San Diego and Cornell) in the United States. She founded Hyena Films, a film production company, in Hamburg in 1992.

Ghosted
2009, 89 minutes, color, 35mm & digital/video, in English, German & Mandarin w/English subtitles
Directed & Produced by Monika Treut
Screenwriters: Astrid Ströher, Monika Treut 
Director of Photography: Bernd Meiners
Recording Mixers: Andreas Pitann, Chiao-Hao Yang 
Editor: Renate Ober
Costume Design: Petra Kilian
Original Music: Uwe Haas
Production Design: Isolde Rüter, Cheng-Yi Yang
Line Producer: Patrick Brandt 
Unit Manager: Christoph Heitmann
Assistant Director:  Bruno Grass
Co-producers: Li-Fen Chien, Aileen Li
Production: Hyena Films 
Co-production: Chi & Company and ZDF/3SAT and PTS
Supported by: Film Förderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, BKM and GIO/Taiwan 
Cast: Inga Busch (Sophie Schmitt), Huan-Ru Ke (Ai-ling Chen), Ting-Ting Hu (Mei-li Wang), Jana Schulz  (Katrin Bendersen), Marek Harloff  (Leon), Jack Kao (Chen Fu), Yi-Ching Lu (Ya-Ching), Kevin Chen (Patrick)

More information, including the press kit, photos, and additional playdates, is available at www.firstrunfeatures.com