# We Are the Night
**We Are the Night** (German: *Wir sind die Nacht*) is a 2010 German vampire horror-drama film directed by Dennis Gansel, about a 20-year-old Berlin petty thief who is turned into a vampire by the leader of an all-female vampire trio living in the city's nightclub scene.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/155912/) • [2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/wir-sind-die-nacht_780cc75bfb1be05ae040007f01001bcf) It was produced by Rat Pack Filmproduktion in association with Constantin Film AG, with Christian Becker as producer, and received funding from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Medienboard Berlin-[Brandenburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/brandenburg), the Filmförderungsanstalt, and the Deutscher Filmförderfonds.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/wir-sind-die-nacht_780cc75bfb1be05ae040007f01001bcf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Wir sind die Nacht* (Germany, 2010)[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/155912/) |
| Director and writers | Directed by Dennis Gansel; screenplay by Jan Berger and Dennis Gansel[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/155912/) |
| Principal cast | Karoline Herfurth (Lena), Nina Hoss (Louise), Jennifer Ulrich (Charlotte), Anna Fischer (Nora), Max Riemelt (Detective Tom Serner)[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/wir-sind-die-nacht_780cc75bfb1be05ae040007f01001bcf) |
| Technical data | 100 minutes (2,742 m), 35 mm, color, Dolby; FSK rating 16 and up, examined 18 October 2010[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht_ed752d8bb84b415eacc4fe657ad2939b) |
| German release | 28 October 2010 (Constantin Film Verleih); 105,237 admissions by January 2011[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht_ed752d8bb84b415eacc4fe657ad2939b) |
| Awards | FBW rating "besonders wertvoll" (2010); Sitges Film Festival 2010 Special Jury Award; Deutscher Filmpreis nominations for editing and music[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht_ed752d8bb84b415eacc4fe657ad2939b) • [4](https://www.mfdb.eu/en/film-wir_sind_die_nacht_c83790) • [5](https://www.deutscher-filmpreis.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht/) |
| Critical scores | 60% Tomatometer (15 reviews) and 52% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes; 6.2/10 on IMDb[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/we_are_the_night/) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692504/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Lena (Karoline Herfurth) is 20 years old, lives in Berlin, has no job, and gets by poorly through small thefts. During a nighttime raid on an illegal club she meets the mysterious Louise ([Nina Hoss](https://www.edgepedia.org/nina-hoss)), the club's owner, who is in fact several centuries old and the leader of a female vampire trio that also includes the elegant Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich) and the exuberant Nora (Anna Fischer). Louise falls in love with Lena and bites her on their first night together, making her immortal.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/wir-sind-die-nacht_780cc75bfb1be05ae040007f01001bcf) • [8](https://constantin.film/home-entertainment/wir-sind-die-nacht/)
At first the newborn vampire enjoys the luxury, the parties, and the seemingly boundless freedom, but the blood thirst and the murderous impulses of her new companions soon weigh on her. When Berlin police begin investigating the deaths the women cause, and Lena develops feelings for the detective on the case, Tom Serner (Max Riemelt), events spin out of control.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/wir-sind-die-nacht_780cc75bfb1be05ae040007f01001bcf) Supporting roles include Arved Birnbaum as Detective Lummer, Steffi Kühnert as Lena's mother, and Jochen Nickel as her probation officer.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/wir-sind-die-nacht_780cc75bfb1be05ae040007f01001bcf)
## Development and production
**A long-gestating idea.** Gansel has said he first had the idea for a story about a group of power-hungry female vampires in 1996 and wrote a first draft of the script in 1997, before the vampire revival in popular culture. The project began as a love story and evolved into an action-driven one; an early treatment was titled *The Dawn*. He cited Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novella *Carmilla*, which predates [Bram Stoker](https://www.edgepedia.org/bram-stoker)'s *Dracula* and concerns a female vampire seducing a young woman into her world, as a key influence, saying he wanted to show female vampires as strong and sexy creatures who are also tragic in their own ways.[9](https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/24783/exclusive-dennis-gansel-talks-we-are-the-night/) In a 2010 interview with *Die Zeit*, Gansel traced the idea to a night in autumn 1996 at Berlin's Tresor techno club and the walk home afterward through the derelict industrial area near Schlesisches Tor.[10](https://www.zeit.de/kultur/film/2010-10/dennis-gansel)
The script sat in development for years; according to one account, the actress and director [Franka Potente](https://www.edgepedia.org/franka-potente) was at one point attached to direct, and the project only moved forward after the commercial success of the *Twilight* films and of Gansel's own *The Wave* (2008).[11](https://www.netflixmovies.com/we-are-the-night-2010) Gansel himself was dismissive of the teen-vampire wave, saying in a 2011 interview, "I hate those teen vampire films. They revived the genre but also kind of ruined it, in a way."[12](https://www.moviemaker.com/dennis-gansel-the-wave-we-are-the-night-vampires-german-20110525/)
**The shoot.** [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) ran in Berlin from 11 October to 16 December 2009, a 48-day shoot.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/wir-sind-die-nacht_780cc75bfb1be05ae040007f01001bcf) • [13](https://studylibde.com/doc/2148902/--path%C3%A9-films-ag-z%C3%BCrich) The film was conceived from the start as a large-scale Berlin production, and digital effects work continued into July 2010.[13](https://studylibde.com/doc/2148902/--path%C3%A9-films-ag-z%C3%BCrich) The crew included cinematographer Torsten Breuer, editor Ueli Christen, production designer Matthias Müsse, costume designer Anke Winckler, and composer Heiko Maile.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/155912/) Alex Lemke served as VFX supervisor.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/wir-sind-die-nacht_780cc75bfb1be05ae040007f01001bcf)
## Release
The film premiered at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival on 14 October 2010 and opened in German cinemas on 28 October 2010, distributed by Constantin Film Verleih.[14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692504/releaseinfo) • [3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht_ed752d8bb84b415eacc4fe657ad2939b) It reached Austria on 29 October 2010, France on 29 December 2010, Spain on 21 September 2012, and the United Kingdom on 26 October 2012.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/155912/) German television premiered it on ProSieben on 14 July 2013.[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht_ed752d8bb84b415eacc4fe657ad2939b) In the United States it was released by IFC Entertainment.[12](https://www.moviemaker.com/dennis-gansel-the-wave-we-are-the-night-vampires-german-20110525/) German admissions totaled 105,237 as of January 2011.[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht_ed752d8bb84b415eacc4fe657ad2939b)
## Reception
**Awards.** The Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW) awarded the film its highest rating, *Prädikat besonders wertvoll* (especially valuable), in 2010; the jury praised its craftsmanship and performances and called it possibly one of the high points of current German film production.[3](https://www.filmportal.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht_ed752d8bb84b415eacc4fe657ad2939b) • [15](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/wir_sind_die_nacht) At the Sitges Film Festival 2010 it won the Special Jury Award in the Official Fantàstic section.[4](https://www.mfdb.eu/en/film-wir_sind_die_nacht_c83790) The German Film Academy nominated Ueli Christen for Best Editing and Heiko Maile for Best Music at the Deutscher Filmpreis.[5](https://www.deutscher-filmpreis.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht/)
**Critics.** On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 60% Tomatometer from 15 reviews and a 52% Popcornmeter from more than 5,000 audience ratings.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/we_are_the_night/) Reviews were mixed. Jeannette Catsoulis of *The New York Times* called it "a love triangle with fangs but no bite" that is "mostly infatuated with its own stylish excesses."[16](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/we-are-the-night/critic-reviews/) The *Village Voice*'s Mark Holcomb credited Gansel with compensating for the story's lack of emotional heft through chase scenes and "near-poetic CGI set pieces," while *Variety*'s Ronnie Scheib wrote that the film "trades politics for acrobatics."[16](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/we-are-the-night/critic-reviews/) Some reviewers read the film through a feminist lens; a What Culture review called it "a better feminist vampire yarn than Twilight, but still problematic in itself."[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/we_are_the_night/) On IMDb it has a user rating of 6.2/10 from about 9,300 votes.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692504/)
## Berlin as setting and subject
An academic study of films about Berlin treats *Wir sind die Nacht* as a case study of "industry-insider" films that depict the city's media world. The thesis argues that the film's production background exemplifies the growth of bigger-budget German-language films shot in Berlin, while its narrative of hedonistic nightlife plays with vampiric otherness to offer a darker view of the city, one that critiques the commoditization accompanying the maturing of Berlin's creative industries.[17](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/10758/1/Thesis%20v3.2%20-%20redacted.pdf) Gansel's own account of the film's origin, a night at the Tresor club and a walk through the abandoned riverside factories near Schlesisches Tor, ties the vampire setting directly to the city's post-industrial landscape.[10](https://www.zeit.de/kultur/film/2010-10/dennis-gansel)
## References
1. [We are the Night (Wir sind die Nacht), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/155912/)
2. [Wir sind die Nacht, filmportal.de (English page)](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/wir-sind-die-nacht_780cc75bfb1be05ae040007f01001bcf)
3. [Wir sind die Nacht, filmportal.de (German page)](https://www.filmportal.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht_ed752d8bb84b415eacc4fe657ad2939b)
4. [Wir sind die Nacht, Mediterranean Film Festival Database](https://www.mfdb.eu/en/film-wir_sind_die_nacht_c83790)
5. [Wir sind die Nacht, Deutscher Filmpreis](https://www.deutscher-filmpreis.de/film/wir-sind-die-nacht/)
6. [We Are the Night, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/we_are_the_night/)
7. [We Are the Night (2010), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692504/)
8. [Wir sind die Nacht, Constantin Film](https://constantin.film/home-entertainment/wir-sind-die-nacht/)
9. [Exclusive: Dennis Gansel Talks We Are The Night, Dread Central](https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/24783/exclusive-dennis-gansel-talks-we-are-the-night/)
10. [Dennis Gansel: "Ich würde gerne ewig leben", Die Zeit](https://www.zeit.de/kultur/film/2010-10/dennis-gansel)
11. [We Are the Night (2010) on Netflix, NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/we-are-the-night-2010)
12. [Dennis Gansel Directs The Wave, MovieMaker Magazine](https://www.moviemaker.com/dennis-gansel-the-wave-we-are-the-night-vampires-german-20110525/)
13. [Pathé Films AG Zürich press materials (studylib)](https://studylibde.com/doc/2148902/--path%C3%A9-films-ag-z%C3%BCrich)
14. [We Are the Night (2010) Release info, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692504/releaseinfo)
15. [Wir sind die Nacht, Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW)](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/wir_sind_die_nacht)
16. [We Are the Night critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/we-are-the-night/critic-reviews/)
17. [Doctoral thesis on Berlin in film, White Rose eTheses](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/10758/1/Thesis%20v3.2%20-%20redacted.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Vampire and werewolf films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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