Hande Erçel To Star In Nader Saeivar’s Berlin-Set Drama ‘Diaspora’
EXCLUSIVE: Turkish star Hande Erçel has been unveiled as the lead actress in Iranian director and screenwriter Nadar Saeivar’s upcoming Germany-set drama Diaspora ahead of an early 2027 shoot.
Berlin-based director Saeivar, whose recent directorial credits include No End (2022), The Witness (2024) and Hijamat (2026), is also known internationally for his work with Jafar Panahi.
He shared an original screenplay Oscar nomination this year with Panahi for Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Just An Accident, and has also collaborated with the director on a number of other works.
Saeivar’s upcoming feature in the director’s seat will star Erçel as Merve, an educated, middle-class Turkish woman trying to rebuild her life and that of her 12-year-old son in Germany after the tragic death of her husband in Turkey.
As she attempts to move on from a painful past, she finds works in the language school of a German family expecting their second child. After a meet-up between Merve, her son and the German family, she falls victim to inappropriate physical contact by the family’s 15-year-old son named Luca.
Torn between remaining silent and speaking out, she decides to inform the boy’s father after the harassment recurs. However, the family refuses to believe Merve and turns the accusations against her, making her the target of severe slander.
As a widowed immigrant living alone with her 12-year-old son in a foreign country, she is forced into a gruelling battle against both the justice system and societal prejudices. The family’s refusal to accept their child’s wrongdoing deepens Merve’s isolation. Striving to stay strong for her son, the young woman finds herself dragged into an exhausting struggle between law and conscience to prove her innocence.
Erçel, who is known for her roles in Turkish box office hit Intoxicated by Love and Netflix show Chasing the Wind, will travel to Berlin about a month prior to shooting to begin character development, language training and creative rehearsals.
She will be joined in the cast by Moritz Bleibtreu as the father of the German family with further international cast members due to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
Produced jointly by Said Nur Akkus at Berlin-based Arthood Films and Emre Oskay at Istanbul-based Sky Films, Diaspora will take place entirely in Berlin, and the production will be in German, English, and Turkish.
“Diaspora is born from an urgent need to re-examine the intricate, often silent dynamics between the East and the West, a relationship too frequently shaped by systemic misunderstandings, subtle prejudices, and historical projections,” said Saeivar in a director’s note.
“For decades, the Western gaze has tended to view the East through a lens of either exoticism or perpetual trauma, reducing individual human complexities to mere cultural stereotypes or political statistics. When individuals from the East arrive in the West seeking peace, they often find themselves navigating an unwritten social hierarchy where their voices are muted, their boundaries violated under the guise of “cultural differences,” and their dignity traded for survival.”
“This film is not merely a story of displacement; it is a call for a profound shift in perspective. True coexistence cannot be built on passive tolerance or structural superiority. A peaceful shared future demands authentic empathy.”
