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Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, January 9th. (Synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.) Beloved Sisters Director: Dominik Graf Cast: Florian Stetter, Henriette Confurius, Hannah Herzsprung, Claudia Messner, Ronald Zehrfeld, Andreas Pietschmann, Maja Maranow, Peter Schneider, Michael Wittenborn, Anne Schäfer, Philipp Oehme, Thomas Kornack, Klaus Lehmann Synopsis: "The summer of 1788 in Rudolstadt. Rebellious poet Friedrich Schiller and two penniless sisters, members of the Thuringian aristocracy, experience an unforgettable period together which will eventually bind them forever. Unhappily married Caroline von Beulwitz and her shy sister Charlotte von Lengefeld take seriously their oath to share everything – even the author of ‘The Robbers’. Charlotte marries Schiller so they may pursue their ménage à trios under the guise of convention. Caroline, whose novel Schiller publishes anonymously,...

Beloved Sisters producer Uschi Reich on Dominik Graf at the New York Film Festival: "It was very important for Dominik to work with the language." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Dominik Graf's Beloved Sisters (Die Geliebten Schwestern) starring Florian Stetter, Henriette Confurius and Hannah Herzsprung alongside Claudia Messner, Ronald Zehrfeld, Michael Wittenborn, Maja Maranow and Andreas Pietschmann, sharply re-invents the costume drama with an historical fiction centered around the ménage-à-trois love story between writer Friedrich Schiller (Stetter) and the sisters Caroline (Herzsprung) and Charlotte (Confurius) von Lengefeld.

I met up with producer Uschi Reich during the New York Film Festival to discuss her role in bringing the story to the screen. We also discussed Dominik Graf's voice and music, his relationship to Christian Kracht's novel Imperium and Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld film, Caroline Link, the connection between Veit Heiduschka to Michael Haneke and Helge Sasse with Anton Corbijn's...