German director Alireza Golafshan has wrapped his AI-themed courthouse thriller Zoma after a shoot in and around Munich.
Leonie Benesch, who made waves internationally in Oscar-nominated The Teachers’ Lounge and Munich Olympics hostage drama September 5, stars as an ambitious young lawyer who takes on a seemingly hopeless case against a powerful tech corporation.
Zoma is the first production to come out of fledgeling production company Story Garden, since its launched by former Wiedemann & Berg Managing Director and producer Justyna Muesch and ex-colleague Sofie Scherz with Golafshan in the 2024.
It is coproduced with Studiocanal as well as with Munich-based broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk in collaboration with Arte. The film is supported by FFF, FFA (jury‑based cultural production funding), and the German Federal Film Fund DFFF.
Studiocanal will release the film theatrically in Germany on January 28, 2027 and is also handling worldwide rights sales of the movie.
Benesch is joined in the cast by Barbara Sukowa (Hannah Arendt), who plays a grieving mother seeking answers over her son’s death, which she believes may be linked to AI therapy app Zoma.
Defying her boss, Benesch’s character, the ambitious young attorney Elli Schreiber, takes on the case. She soon finds herself battling not only the tech firm NuvoMind and its formidable legal team but also an algorithm that seemingly understands the human psyche better than humans themselves.
The cast also features Tom Schilling (Murder Mindfully), Tobias Moretti (The Dark Valley), Frederic Linkemann (The Conference), Julian Looman (Pagan Peak), Florian Geißelmann (Sound of Falling), Devid Striesow (Ah, This Gap, This Appalling Gap).
It is the fourth feature collaboration between the Story Garden founders, after Golafshan’s comedy Alles Fifty Fifty, which won the Bavarian Film Award for Best Director in 2024; JGA: Jasmin.Gina.Anna in 2021 The Goldfish in 2019.
“In an era defined by the rise of AI, Alireza stages a courtroom drama of striking urgency, exploring what it means to be human. Supported by a brilliant ensemble, the film reveals a new facet of his versatile creative profile. As a newly founded production company, we are proud to celebrate our debut with this work,” said Muesch and Scherz.
Golafshan co-wrote the screenplay with German writer Moritz Binder, who was Oscar-nominated alongside Tim Fehlbaum and Alex Davidl who was Oscar nominated for the screenplay September 5.
“Alireza Golafshan’s and Moritz Binder’s screenplay captivated us from the first to the last page and is exactly in tune with the zeitgeist,” Studiocanal Co-CEOs Hooman Afshari and Lutz Rippe.
Zoma is a film that moves us deeply and raises questions we as a society can no longer postpone. We are delighted to collaborate with the newly founded Story Garden Film and the renowned producers Justyna Muesch and Sofie Scherz – and thrilled to work with an exceptional ensemble whose intensity goes straight under the skin.”