Voice Over
2018 · 9m · Germany
Directed by Emily Manthei, Jörn Linnenbröker
Genres: dark comedy, experimental, thriller
Tones: absurdist, surreal, theatrical
A German dubbing actor recording the voice of an English-speaking noir hero finds his session derailed when the on-screen actor starts changing his rhythm and dialogue to keep his voice from being stolen.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A premise that shouldn't work—a voice actor versus his on-screen ghost—becomes a meta-thriller about ownership and presence that laughs at its own absurdity while actually being unsettling. This is exactly the kind of genre-splice other scouts file under 'too weird' and miss entirely.
The film executes a formal dialogue between sound and image that recalls the Surrealists' play with doubling and erasure, anchoring its theatrical conceits in rigorous compositional choices that reward close attention to rhythm and frame.
The decision to make the on-screen actor's physical performance the active threat—constantly shifting to thwart the voice—transforms what could be a clever concept into something tactile and genuinely tense, all on what's clearly a minimal budget.