Thomas Stuber on His Fairytale-Like Buddy Road-Movie ‘The Frog and the Water,’ Which Gets a First Clip From the Match Factory (Exclusive)

World premiering in main competition at Tallinn,”The Frog and The Water” by Thomas Stuber, a student Oscar winner for his 2012 short ”Of Dogs And Horses,” sounds like a fairytale.

And it is. A warm-hearted story about the most unlikely characters, two drifting souls, who unexpectedly and almost magically, create a bond and become friends. The upbeat mood and playfulness is revealed in the first clip from The Match Factory, which handles global sales.

The feature, produced by long-standing German arthouse player Pandora Film Produktion, marks a fresh beginning for Stuber. Best known internationally for “A Heavy Heart”, Toronto-selected in 2016, the Golden Bear entry ”In the Aisles” (2018) and ”Dark Satellites” (2022), all co-penned by Clemens Meyer, Stuber’s ”The Frog and the Water” is based on an idea by Gotthart Kuppel, co-writer with Stuber and Hyoe Yamamoto. The pic is also the German helmer’s first multi-country-set feature, shot in German,…