''Stella. A Life.'' () is a 2023

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

. This is based on the true story of

Stella Goldschlag Stella Ingrid Goldschlag (10 July 1922 – 26 October 1994), also known by her married names Stella Kübler, Stella Kübler-Isaaksohn and Ingrid Gärtner, was a German Jewish woman who collaborated with the Gestapo during World War II, operat ...

, who delivered hundreds of fellow Jews to the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

from September 1943 until the end of the war. Paula Beer plays Stella. The film premiered at the 2023

Zurich Film Festival Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival that has been held in Zürich, Switzerland, since 2005. The festival's main focus is to promote emerging filmmakers from all over the world. In three competition categories only first, secon ...

. It went on to be shortlisted as the German submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for the

97th Academy Awards The 97th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly r ...

Plot

In 1940

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Stella Goldschlag is a vivacious, talented young woman in

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

Berlin working as a Jazz singer despite the repressive climate and the risk of passing as a non-Jew. When tides turn and she is forced into hiding with her parents, Stella begins working with a passport forger. Exposed and captured by the

, she faces the most dire and deadly of choices: face deportation to

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

for herself and her parents or become an informant for the Gestapo identifying Jews hiding in Berlin. After the war, Stella is put on trial.

Cast

* Paula Beer as

Jannis Niewöhner Jannis Niewöhner () (born 30 March 1992) is a German actor known for his role in the ''Timeless'' trilogy of films: ''Ruby Red'', ''Sapphire Blue'', and ''Emerald Green'', based on a book series A book series is a sequence of books having certa ...

as Rolf Isaaksohn *

Katja Riemann Katja Hannchen Leni Riemann (, born 1 November 1963) is a German actress. The daughter of two teachers, Riemann grew up in Weyhe, near Bremen. After high school she went to Hamburg to study music and theater. She is the mother of actress Paula ...

as Toni Goldschlag *Lukas Miko as Gerhard Goldschlag *Bekim Latifi as Aaron Salomon *

Damian Hardung Damian Hardung (/ˈdeɪ.mi.ən ˈhɑːr.dʊŋ/; born September 7, 1998) is a German actor known for his starring roles as Daniel Riffert in the German Netflix series '' How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)'' and James Beaufort in the Amazon Prime Vide ...

as Manfred Kübler *

Joel Basman Joel Basman (born 23 January 1990) is a Swiss actor best known for having played Franz Kafka in the ARD Miniseries ''Kafka'' (2024) Early life Basman was born in Zurich, Switzerland, to a Swiss Christian mother and an Israeli-Jewish father ...

as Peter *Maeve Metelka as Inge *Julia Anna Grob as Hansi Meyer *Rony Herman as Heinz Gottschalk *Max Krause as Günther Abrahamson *Joshua Seelenbinder as

Cioma Schönhaus Samson "Cioma" Schönhaus (28 September 1922 in Berlin – 22 September 2015 in Biel-Benken) was a German graphic artist and writer who lived illegally as a Jew in hiding in Berlin during World War II. He forged hundreds of identity documents t ...

* Jeanette Spassova as Ms. Rotholz

References

External links

* *
Stella. Ein Leben. - filmportal.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stella. A Life 2023 films 2023 biographical drama films 2020s historical drama films 2020s war drama films 2020s German films German biographical drama films German historical drama films German war drama films German World War II films War drama films based on actual events Films about Jews and Judaism Holocaust films Films set in the 1940s Films set in Berlin German-language biographical drama films German-language war drama films