Jeanne Goursaud, Aurel Mertz Co-Star In Child Custody Drama ‘Unfit’

EXCLUSIVE: German-French actress Jeanne Goursaud (Exterritorial) and German actor Aurel Mertz (Neo Tropic Tonight) have been unveiled as the co-stars of Austrian-American director Jason B. Kohl’s short film Unfit (Unfähig), which is already being developed into a feature film.

Mertz plays a struggling single father who gets a surprise visit from his daughter’s estranged mother (Goursaud). As they rehash the past, she makes a troubling request that will change their lives forever.

“I was inspired to make this film by my family’s history with custody disputes, a rich territory for drama,” Kohl says.

Unfit is among a number of projects on the boil for Kohl who broke out with his 2013 short The Stranger, which played in SXSW and Locarno.

His first solo feature was New Money, a crime thriller starring Louisa Krause ( Barry) and Emmy Award nominee Robin Weigert (Big Little Lies), screened at the Newport Beach and Tallinn film festivals among other festivals.

Executive producers include Henning May, of the hit German Band AnnenMayKantereit, as well as Korbinian Hamberger (Apple’s German TV Prize Winner Berlin ER).

The new short is produced by Joscha Stracke (Ich Ich Ich), and Berlin-based Zoo Productions in collaboration with Kohl and Hamberger’s newly launched Sunset Riot banner.

It has completed postproduction and is eyeing a winter festival premiere, while a feature film version is already in development. It sparked competition among several major Germany-speaking producers, with Austria’s Epo Film (SKY’s Pagan Peak) winning the rights.

Kohl is also currently developing series and features for companies including Gaumont, Iconoclast and UFA.

He is repped by Roy Ashton and Jeff Greenberg at Gersh in Los Angeles, as well as Susan Colak and Gesine Pagels at FBE in Berlin. Goursaud is represented by Gina Müser at Above the Line, and Mertz is represented by Oliver Meske at 190A.