I stumbled into HOUSE 4. How exactly I ended up with a key to Berlin youth prison in one hand and a permit to film in the other, I can't fully explain. But I did, and was able to work inside prison walls with the trust of both inmates and staff. Building this trust and keeping it from the research period, through the shoot and until today is something I am proud of. Making HOUSE 4 was tough, because it's set in a very tough world, and tensions can rise high here (sometimes only to ebb down again briefly after). But long time collaborator DP Leon Hörtrich and I kept looking for moments of absurdity, of clarity and of levity amidst the heaviness, hoping to let the light of our troubled protagonists shine. The film is an encounter at eye level with young inmates. It does not pass judgement, even when that's hard and asks more questions than it answers. Any other approach would have felt imposing here.

HOUSE 4 premiered at Slamdance 2026, winning an Honorable Mention and went on to DokFest Munich as Signature Film of the Young Perspectives Programme.