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Black and white image of men at table, cigarette smoke curling around them. An older man stands behind the table, watching.

The Universal Theory Die Theorie Von Allem

  Timm Kröger

  Germany, Austria, Switzerland     118 minutes

Synopsis

Not content to let Oppenheimer ask all of the big questions, German director Timm Kröger combines old Hollywood style with heady metaphysical substance in the intellectual thriller The Universal Theory. Set in 1962 at a quantum mechanics conference in an isolated lodge nestled amid the towering landscapes of the Swiss Alps, The Universal Theory is the story of a gifted young physicist, his curmudgeonly mentor, and an enigmatic jazz pianist who knows things about our wunderkind scientist that he’s never told another living soul.

Driven by mind-bending twists, improbable coincidences, and Hitchcockian suspense, The Universal Theory is a captivating nesting doll of a film that nods to the German masters of old Hollywood and considers the metaverse theory from a refreshingly intelligent point of view. Kröger — himself also a cinematographer — films his tale with an eye for the majestic natural beauty that surrounds our characters, effectively evoking both the paranoid postwar era and the brain-tickling complexity of theoretical physics.

 French, German, Swiss-German with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Film Credits

  •   Heino Deckert, Tina Börner, Viktoria Stolpe, Timm Kröger, Lixi Frank, David Bohun, Sarah Born, Rajko Jazbec, Dario Schoch
  •   Roderick Warich, Timm Kröger
  •   Jann Anderegg
  •   Roland Stuprich
  •   Jan Bülow, Olivia Ross, Hanns Zischler, Gottfried Breitfuss, David Bennent, Philippe Graber
  •   Diego Ramos Rodríguez
  •   Ma.ja.de Fiction, The Barricades, Panama Film, Catpics

Sponsors

International Competition Program Sponsor

John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation

Film Supporter

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