Benjamin Heisenberg’s 2005 film Schläfer / Sleeper - giving some of the most accurate cinematic representations of laboratory life - shows actors Bastian Trost, Mehdi Nebbou and Loretta Pflaum in a story of rivalry and treachery set in a triangle of love, science and politics. Conceived in the aftermath of 9/11 and the ensuing security legislation, it paints an intimate picture of an unsettled society undermined by a silent epidemic of suspicion.

Johannes, a new assistant at the university, is asked to provide reports on Farid, an Algerian Postdoc - who is suspected of being a sleeper. He refuses, but a seed of doubt has been planted. A fragile friendship overshadowed by competition in the lab and rivalry in their relationship with Beate, a joint friend, eventually leads to betrayal. „My approach to the story was to interweave the political level in a delicate way with the characters’ private conflicts in order to make the subtle corruption of the characters perceptible.„ (B. Heisenberg, 2005)

Schläfer / Sleeper received numerous awards, among them the Midas Prize, EuroPAWS, for the best fiction drama set in science and technology, and was screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2005 in the category "Un Certain Regard". The Cinema Bernstein screening of the film, a special public event of the Bernstein Conference 2017, will feature a discussion with artist, author and filmmaker Benjamin Heisenberg.

Born 1974 in Tübingen, Heisenberg grew up near Würzburg and studied sculpting (1993-1999) and filmmaking (1997-2005) in Munich. He has directed three feature films, numerous short films and is a founding editor of the film magazine Revolver. Most recently, he co-designed the public artwork “Brienner 45” at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism.