Alison Kuhn’s The Matriarch to celebrate world premiere in Tallinn’s Main Competition
Alison Kuhn’s gripping and genre-driven The Matriarch is selected for this year’s 30th anniversary edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival where the film is to receive its world premiere as part of the Official Selection Competition. The Matriarch marks the first German film with an all-Vietnamese cast.
SYNOPSIS
Seventeen-year-old Kim longs for nothing more than her mother’s approval. Every week, strangers pass through their small apartment near the German Baltic Sea as Kim’s mother runs an agency trafficking people from Asia to Europe, supporting her entire family back in Vietnam.
When her mother’s most trusted associate leaves to start a rival agency just as she falls seriously ill, Kim takes over his role. It brings mother and daughter closer together. At the same time, however, Kim is confronted with the brutality and personal sacrifices her mother faces in her daily work. Gradually, Kim begins to push her own boundaries, neglecting her adolescent needs, including her budding romantic and sexual curiosity, and acting in ways far more radical than her sensitive nature would normally allow.
TOPICS
Family; mother-daughter relationship; a child’s search for approval, recognition and respect; communication; first love; loss of innocence; preserving one’s moral compass; pushing boundaries; migration; human trafficking…
ALISON KUHN ABOUT HER FILM
“I’ve always felt the urge to tell a story set within the German-Vietnamese community I was born into and to explore the complex, often unspoken, dynamics of mother-daughter relationships within it. Through extensive conversations with members of the diasporic community in Berlin, I encountered recurring emotional patterns: intergenerational tensions, inherited trauma and, to my surprise, the persistent presence of human trafficking - a subject that remains largely unnoticed by the wider German public.”
ABOUT ALISON KUHN
Alison Kuhn (born 1995) is a German-Vietnamese director, writer and actress. Her student films at the Film University Babelsberg received attention through numerous awards and screenings at A-list and Oscar-qualifying festivals. During her studies, she was hired as a director and writer for acclaimed series such as Druck and Skam Germany or for Shadow Leaks, the adaptation of a bestselling novel that ranked in Netflix’s Top 10 in May 2026. Her first narrative feature Holy Meat won the Jury Prize at Cinequest in the US, and was released in German cinemas this year. Alison has also served as an ambassador for “Face to Face with German Films“.
TALLINN BLACK NIGHTS SCREENINGS*
- 18 November, 21:30, Apollo Kino Plaza, 1st Lux Hall (world premiere with Q&A)
- 19 November, 19:15, Electric Cinema, Church Hall, Tartu
*Always check the official festival channels for any last‑minute programme changes or additions
DOWNLOAD ALL AVAILABLE ASSETSGENERAL INFO
Directed and written by Alison Kuhn, The Matriarch stars Tuyen Do, Lissy-Marie Nguyen, Viet Pham, Trang Le Hong, Marlon Minh-Hai Leyck, Viet Long Hoang, Yung Ngo and Long Dang-Ngoc. Director of Photography is Jan Mayntz, with Christian Zipfel as editor and Christian Dellacher as composer. Producers are Martin Lehwald, Philipp Goeser for Schiwago Film, with Paula Klossner and Stephan Buske of Tidewater Pictures as co-producers. The Matriarch received support from ZDF – Das Kleine Fernsehspiel, MV Filmförderung, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Nordmedia.
INTERNATIONAL SALES: PLUTO FILMMAIN PRODUCER: SCHIWAGO FILM
Christian De Schutter
