A grieving Uber driver picks up an elderly passenger on a routine ride that slowly unravels into a quiet confrontation about endings, control, and what it means to let go.
Jale, a young Uber driver in emotional suspension after a sudden personal loss, picks up an elderly passenger, Mrs. Rieken, for a routine
trip from the outskirts of Berlin toward Potsdam. What begins as an ordinary journey slowly shifts when Jale discovers that her passenger is on her way to a facility for medically assisted suicide. Confined within the car, the two women - strangers with radically different relationships to control, grief, and mortality are forced into an increasingly intimate encounter.
As the drive continues, their conversation and silence begin to unravel assumptions about autonomy, responsibility, and what it means to choose one’s own end. When the boundaries between professional distance and personal trauma collapse, Jale becomes unwillingly entangled in Mrs. Rieken’s decision. The journey turns into a fragile confrontation between resistance and acceptance, where neither woman can fully remain unchanged.
WHAT REMAINS WHEN STILLNESS TAKES HOLD is a contained, character-driven short film about humane dying, unresolved grief, and the uncomfortable proximity between life that cannot continue and death that has already been decided.
Sheri Hagen s a German director, screenwriter and actress from Berlin. Born in Lagos/Nigeria and raised in Hamburg, Sheri Hagen completed her training at the Hamburg "Stage School of Dance and Drama" and at the "Studio Theater an der Wien" in Austria. In addition to numerous works for film and television (including 'Das Leben der Anderen', 'Baal', 'Tatort', 'Sperling', 'On The Inside'), she has acted in various theater productions.
She first attracted attention as a screenwriter and director in 2007 with the short film STELLA UND DIE STÖRCHE/STELLA AND THE STORKS. The children's short film screened successfully at international festivals (including the mo&friese KinderKurzfilmFestival Hamburg, Chicago Int. Children's Film Festival).
In 2012, the 23rd International Film Festival Emden-Norderney awarded Sheri Hagen the special prize A Desk by the Sea for her debut feature film AUF DEN ZWEITEN BLICK/AT SECOND GLANCE. In 2013, AUF DEN ZWEITEN BLICK/AT SECOND GLANCE won the 4th Kirchen Filmfestival Recklinghausen. In the fall of 2013, Barnsteiner-Film released the feature film in German cinemas.
In 2015, Sheri Hagen founded the production company Equality Film GmbH. Since then, the production company has pursued the goal of telling films with relevant and powerful stories that show a multi-layered diverse society and highlights underrepresented voices. In her feature film FENSTER BLAU/ BLUE WINDOW (2016), Sheri Hagen adapted the play Muttermale Fenster Blau by author Sasha Marianna Salzmann.
In 2023, she and her company Equality Film were honored as Cultural and Creative Pilots by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
In 2024, Sheri Hagen won the DIGITALE FEMALE LEADER EXCHANGE AWARD for her work with Equality Film
