Paris-based sales company Alpha Violet has taken international sales on teen mental health drama “How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World,” a first feature by Austrian filmmaker Florian Pochlatko, ahead of its Berlin Film Festival bow.
The film, about a young woman’s search for sanity after leaving a psychiatric hospital, will premiere in the festival’s new Berlinale Perspectives section dedicated to first features.
In “How to Be Normal,” Pia – played by Austrian actor Luisa-Céline Gaffron (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”) – moves back in with her parents after being discharged from a psychiatric hospital. “Juggling jobs, heartbreak, meds, and stigma, she stumbles into a world that feels as unsteady as she does,” says the provided synopsis.
Alpha Violet co-founder Virginie Devesa in a statement praised “How to Be Normal” as “an inventive and energetic movie,” noting that “Florian Pochlatko‘s vision of the world we live in is so playful.”
“How to Be Normal” producer Arash T. Riahi – who is a member of Austria’s Golden Girls Film collective of writers, directors and producers – described the film “as an explosive blend of drama, satire, and supernatural action movie, primarily aimed at a young audiences that see themselves reflected in many of the film’s themes.”
“The strong protagonist, played by Luisa Gaffron, serves as an identification figure for the struggles of young people driven by constant self-optimization, living in a world where you can buy everything —except a secure future,” he went on to note.
Florian Pochlatko studied directing under Michael Haneke at the Film Academy Vienna. Prior to his feature film debut with “How to Be Normal,” which he also wrote, he made several shorts.