{ "id": "ep5w5bzrag", "slug": "yella-2007-film", "title": "Yella (2007 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films", "label": "2005–2009 films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films.yr-2005-2007", "label": "Released 2005 to 2007", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films.yr-2005-2007" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Yella is Christian Petzold's 2007 German drama-thriller starring Nina Hoss as an East German woman who apparently survives her ex-husband driving their car into the Elbe and starts over in Hannover venture capital; Hoss won the 2007 Berlinale Silver Bear.", "snippet": "Yella is Christian Petzold's 2007 German drama-thriller starring Nina Hoss as an East German woman who apparently survives her ex-husband driving their car into the Elbe and starts over in Hannover venture capital; Hoss won the 2007 Berlinale Silver Bear.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2005-2009-films.yr-2005-2007", "markdown": "# Yella (2007 film)\n\n**Yella** is a 2007 German drama-thriller directed and written by Christian Petzold, starring [Nina Hoss](https://www.edgepedia.org/nina-hoss) as a young East German woman who flees her hometown and failed marriage for a new job in the West, only to find that the life she is building may not be real.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff) The film premiered in competition at the 57th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival), where Hoss won the Silver Bear for Best Actress, and it is widely read as an allegory of [German reunification](https://www.edgepedia.org/german-reunification) and the world of venture capitalism.[2](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/942915) • [3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writer | Christian Petzold, his eighth feature; screenplay credited to Petzold, with Simone Bär on some listings[4](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/125356.html) • [5](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/71843/) |\n| Lead cast | Nina Hoss (Yella), Devid Striesow (Philipp), Hinnerk Schönemann (Ben)[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff) |\n| Premiere and release | World premiere 14 February 2007 in the Berlinale competition; German theatrical release 13 September 2007[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff) |\n| Running time | 89 minutes (the German release print is listed at 88 min)[6](https://pifflmedien.de/filme/yella/) • [1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff) |\n| Major honors | Silver Bear for Best Actress (Nina Hoss, Berlinale 2007); Preis der deutschen Filmkritik for Best Feature Film and Best Cinematography (2008); German Film Award Lola for Best Actress (2008)[2](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/942915) • [7](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/1135710) • [1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff) |\n| Production | Schramm Film Koerner & Weber with ZDF and ARTE; shot 22 May to July 2006 in Hannover and Wittenberge[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff) • [8](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/930396) |\n| Box office | $754,485 in Germany, $999,588 worldwide[3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nYella is a young businesswoman from Wittenberge, a declining town in former East Germany, who leaves her hometown to take a job in Hannover in the West.[3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034) On the day of her departure her obsessive ex-husband Ben drives their car off a bridge into the Elbe River; Yella appears to survive the crash and continues her journey.[3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034) • [9](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/yella/)\n\nIn Hannover the new job falls through: the company that hired her is bankrupt, and her supervisor sexually harasses her.[3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034) By chance she meets Philipp, an executive at a private equity firm, who hires her as his assistant.[3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034) Yella proves a capable player in the ruthless world of venture capital, scrutinizing balance sheets and confronting company executives in a series of tense negotiations, and a close bond with Philipp develops into romance.[3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034) • [10](https://petersonreviews.com/2025/10/16/yella-2007-movie-review/)\n\n**The turn.** Yella's past returns in the form of the violent Ben and through nightmarish visions, including a ghostly image of a business executive soaked in water who later drowns himself after she blackmails him.[3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034) When the police arrest her, the film reveals that the visions were echoes of her own death: she did not survive the crash into the river at the beginning of the film, and the events since can be read as her imagination racing as she drowns.[3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034) • [11](https://www.the-cinematograph.com/movies/yella/) The ending mirrors the opening: the first time Ben steers the car off the bridge, Yella tries to grab the wheel; at the end she does not reach for it.[11](https://www.the-cinematograph.com/movies/yella/)\n\n## Origins and production\n\nPetzold conceived the idea during the shoot for *Something to Remind Me* (*Toter Mann*, 2001) in and around Wittenberge, when he first worked with Nina Hoss; both were struck by the landscape and by the town draining of life as people moved west for work.[12](https://www.screendaily.com/germany-rebel-yella/4031274.article) The film was his sixth collaboration with the Berlin-based production company Schramm Film Koerner & Weber and his third with Hoss, who had become his regular leading actress.[12](https://www.screendaily.com/germany-rebel-yella/4031274.article) • [13](https://www.filmportal.de/node/97377/material/540421) It was produced by Schramm Film with ZDF in cooperation with ARTE, with funding from the FFA, Medienboard Berlin-[Brandenburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/brandenburg), BKM, and nordmedia.[8](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/930396) Shooting ran from 22 May 2006 to July 2006 in Hannover and Wittenberge.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff)\n\nPetzold has said the film is not strictly an East/West story: reunification happened 17 years before the setting, and Yella, at 29, was about twelve when the Wall fell, so the East is not deeply rooted in her.[14](https://outnow.ch/en/News/2007/02/16/Yella-Interview-with-Christian-Petzold) Wittenberge really was as deserted as the film shows it; during filming the crew hardly ever had to block off streets.[14](https://outnow.ch/en/News/2007/02/16/Yella-Interview-with-Christian-Petzold)\n\nThe business negotiations are authentic in their language: Petzold stated that they were taken from real negotiation material, and a scholarly analysis notes that the actors' script in the film's five negotiation scenes is taken word-for-word from Harun Farocki's documentary on venture capital, *Nicht Ohne Risiko*. Farocki also served as dramaturgical consultant on the film.[14](https://outnow.ch/en/News/2007/02/16/Yella-Interview-with-Christian-Petzold) • [15](https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstreams/e8769561-57e9-49d0-83f9-4e9e07d5633b/download) • [6](https://pifflmedien.de/filme/yella/)\n\n## Sources and structure\n\nThe film is a loose remake of Herk Harvey's cult horror *Carnival of Souls* (1962), in which a woman who may already be dead moves through a world that does not quite register her; Petzold has acknowledged the connection, saying he knew *Yella* had something to do with the earlier film, which he had seen several times in the 1980s.[16](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-christian-petzold) • [17](https://criterion-v2.herokuapp.com/current/posts/6088-missed-connections-a-conversation-with-christian-petzold)\n\nGerman critics group the film with Petzold's work on ghosts and lost souls, though they place it differently: critic.de calls it the conclusion of a trilogy with *Wolfsburg* (2003) and *Ghosts* (*Gespenster*, 2005), while European Screen describes it as the middle panel of a \"ghost trilogy\" after *The State I Am In* and *Ghosts*.[18](https://www.critic.de/film/yella-804/) • [19](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/yella/) The title character's name is an anagram of Leyla, the role Hoss played in *Toter Mann*, and it also echoes the German word for wave, \"Welle\".[11](https://www.the-cinematograph.com/movies/yella/)\n\n## Themes\n\nThe film is read as an allegory of reunification and capitalism. Critics have described it as a story of former East Germans yearning for capitalist success and finding disillusionment in an economy of mergers and layoffs, and as a metaphor for the complexities of German reunification.[20](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yella) Scholarly readings extend this: the film maps the East-West political division onto a temporal one between a rooted provincial past and a nomadic present of Autobahn motels and anonymous corporate cities, and it makes Yella's East German ex-husband and her West German lover visually indistinguishable, so that past and future haunt her alike.[21](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10194914/1/Trifonova_Pensiero%20debole%20ACCEPTED%20VERSION.pdf) Petzold's own director's statement frames Yella as a woman crossing the river to the West, into lightness and loneliness, while the old, heavy ballast she fled keeps surfacing in her new world and threatens to pull her down.[22](https://websitedownloadspiffl.s3.amazonaws.com/film_assets/047_YELLA/005_Presseheft/YELLA_PH_finM2.pdf)\n\nThe film also works through genre. Petzold deploys horror tropes, in the lineage of *Carnival of Souls*, to critique contemporary capitalist Germany, and he has advocated a union between genre cinema and art-house filmmaking against the divide created by the German Autorenkino tradition.[3](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034) A recurring device he has called *Todesstille*, deathly stillness, blurs the boundary between real and unreal through a suggestive disparity between image and sound.[15](https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstreams/e8769561-57e9-49d0-83f9-4e9e07d5633b/download)\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nAt the 57th Berlinale the jury under [Paul Schrader](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-schrader) awarded Nina Hoss the Silver Bear for Best Actress; the film competed for the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear), which went to Wang Quan'an's *[Tuya's Marriage](https://www.edgepedia.org/tuyas-marriage)*.[23](https://www.filmportal.de/nachrichten/berlinale-baeren-vergeben) • [24](https://www.zeit.de/online/2007/08/Goldener-Baer) Hoss said at the press conference that she had been astonished to win for a performance she described as \"very 'interior', delicate and not expansive, with no big shouts or tears\".[25](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/73287/) In February 2008 the Association of German Film Critics named *Yella* Best Feature Film and gave Hans Fromm its cinematography prize; the association describes the award as the only German film prize given exclusively by critics.[7](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/1135710) Hoss also received the German Film Award (Lola) for Best Actress in 2008.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff)\n\nAnglophone critics responded to the film's atmosphere and its star. Rotten Tomatoes records an 82 percent Tomatometer from 55 reviews, with a critics consensus calling the film chilly and haunting.[20](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yella) Jonathan Romney, reviewing for *The Independent*, called it a chilly European drama that is \"distinctively uncanny,\" comparing it to a German take on Antonioni with the toughness of a [David Mamet](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-mamet) con-game story, and praised Hoss as \"charismatically scary\".[26](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/yella-12a-464618.html) Peter Bradshaw in *The Guardian* welcomed Petzold to full UK distribution with an \"utterly involving thriller,\" while noting a slightly hackneyed dénouement.[27](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/21/thriller.worldcinema) Reviews have divided over the ending: some found the mirrored final scene gimmicky or a cop-out, while others saw the expansion of *Carnival of Souls*' premise as the film's strength.[10](https://petersonreviews.com/2025/10/16/yella-2007-movie-review/) • [20](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yella) The film was screened again in the Berlinale Special section in 2025, where it received the Berlinale Camera.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Yella, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/film/yella_858072f1186645419f942b299f7953ff)\n2. [Silberner Bär für \"Yella\", ZDF via Presseportal](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/942915)\n3. [Yella, 2007, Mapping Contemporary Cinema, Queen Mary University of London](https://mcc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/?p=2034)\n4. [Yella, FILMSTARTS.de](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/125356.html)\n5. [Yella, Cineuropa film profile](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/71843/)\n6. [Yella, Piffl Medien](https://pifflmedien.de/filme/yella/)\n7. [Preis der deutschen Filmkritik: ZDF-Koproduktion \"Yella\" ist \"Bester Spielfilm\", ZDF via Presseportal](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/1135710)\n8. [ZDF und ARTE stellen deutschen Beitrag im offiziellen Wettbewerb der 57. Berlinale, ZDF via Presseportal](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/930396)\n9. [Review: Yella, Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/yella/)\n10. [The Slippery, Enigmatic 'Yella', Peterson Reviews](https://petersonreviews.com/2025/10/16/yella-2007-movie-review/)\n11. [Yella, The Cinematograph](https://www.the-cinematograph.com/movies/yella/)\n12. [Germany - Rebel Yella, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/germany-rebel-yella/4031274.article)\n13. [\"Filme, die Sicherheiten beschwören, sind langweilig\", filmportal.de interview](https://www.filmportal.de/node/97377/material/540421)\n14. [Yella: Interview with Christian Petzold, OutNow](https://outnow.ch/en/News/2007/02/16/Yella-Interview-with-Christian-Petzold)\n15. [New Realisms, Cornell eCommons](https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstreams/e8769561-57e9-49d0-83f9-4e9e07d5633b/download)\n16. [Where to begin with Christian Petzold, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-christian-petzold)\n17. [Missed Connections: A Conversation with Christian Petzold, Criterion Collection](https://criterion-v2.herokuapp.com/current/posts/6088-missed-connections-a-conversation-with-christian-petzold)\n18. [Yella – Kritik, critic.de](https://www.critic.de/film/yella-804/)\n19. [Yella, European Screen](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/yella/)\n20. [Yella, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yella)\n21. [Trifonova, Pensiero debole (accepted version), UCL Discovery](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10194914/1/Trifonova_Pensiero%20debole%20ACCEPTED%20VERSION.pdf)\n22. [Yella press kit, Piffl Medien](https://websitedownloadspiffl.s3.amazonaws.com/film_assets/047_YELLA/005_Presseheft/YELLA_PH_finM2.pdf)\n23. [Berlinale-Bären vergeben, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/nachrichten/berlinale-baeren-vergeben)\n24. [Berlinale: Goldener Bär nach China, Die Zeit](https://www.zeit.de/online/2007/08/Goldener-Baer)\n25. [Golden Bear to Tuya's Marriage, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/73287/)\n26. [Yella (12A), The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/yella-12a-464618.html)\n27. [Yella, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/21/thriller.worldcinema)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2005–2009 films › Released 2005 to 2007*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/yella-2007-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/yella-2007-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Yella (2007 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/yella-2007-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Yella (2007 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/yella-2007-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/yella-2007-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/yella-2007-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Yella (2007 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/yella-2007-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Yella is Christian Petzold's 2007 German drama-thriller starring Nina Hoss as an East German woman who apparently survives her ex-husband driving their car into the Elbe and starts over in Hannover venture capital; Hoss won the 2007 Berlinale Silver Bear." }