A psychological horror drama
Unter demSchafspelz
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
Matthew 7:15How much harm can we justify in the name of go(o)d?
Unter dem Schafspelz is a psychological horror drama rooted in religious symbolism and biblical imagery. Through an intimate and unsettling narrative, it explores how deeply held beliefs can blur the boundaries between faith, morality, and obsession, and asks a timeless question: how far can a person go when they believe they are acting in the name of righteousness?
- Genre
- Psychological Horror / Drama
- Format
- Short film, 20–25 min.
- Language
- German
- Status
- In development
- Written & directed by
- S. Utku Yanbay
- Produced by
- Tüvana Savaş
- Cultural partner
- RIIK Berlin e.V.
- Based in
- Berlin, Germany
As devout nurse Marta becomes increasingly influenced by the tapes containing the dark teachings of the amputee man Elias Krüger in her care, her hands meant to heal transform into an instrument of bloody atonement.
Marta, a devout nurse living in an isolated monastery, spends her days caring for Elias, a handless, severely disfigured man wrapped in bandages who believes himself to be a new prophet and records sermons rejecting faith, compassion, and humanity. As his words gradually erode her convictions, Marta becomes trapped between religious devotion and an unsettling new belief. Drawing on biblical imagery and psychological horror, Unter dem Schafspelz explores the dangerous consequences of absolute conviction and asks how far a person can go when they believe they are doing the right thing.
Who is the sheep,
and who is the wolf?
Three figures
One threshold
The Sheep?
Marta
Marta is a 25-year-old nurse living in an isolated monastery, where faith has shaped every aspect of her life. Quiet, compassionate, and deeply devoted, she believes that caring for others is both her duty and her purpose. When she is assigned to care for Elias, a severely disfigured man whose body is wrapped in bandages and who proclaims himself a new prophet, she begins recording his sermons as part of their daily routine. As his words slowly undermine everything she has ever believed, Marta finds herself torn between religious devotion and an unsettling new conviction. What begins as an act of compassion gradually becomes an obsession.
The Wolf?
Elias Krüger
Elias is a 50-year-old man living in complete isolation, his hands amputated and his severely disfigured body concealed beneath layers of bandages. Believing himself to be a new prophet, he rejects faith, compassion, and humanity, preaching instead a radical new truth through the sermons he records each day. Though physically frail and entirely dependent on Marta’s care, Elias exerts a profound psychological influence over her. As his ideas slowly take root in her mind, he becomes both her greatest temptation and the catalyst for her transformation.
The Omen.
Death
An enigmatic presence that enters Marta’s world as her devotion begins to give way to obsession. Appearing as a towering figure with black wings, it never speaks, never intervenes, and never reveals its true nature. Whether guardian, witness, or harbinger, Death silently accompanies Marta’s descent, embodying the invisible consequences of absolute conviction.
Record 55:5.
Two winters ago. Night.
The door knocked. Three times.
I said: Look at me.
Look at what remains of you.
From the tapesEvery visit ends the same way. Marta sets up the camera, and Elias records another sermon onto a numbered tape.
The true horror does not lie in the existence of wolves, but in our unwavering confidence that we are capable of recognizing them.
Unter dem Schafspelz was born long before Marta existed. It all began during a walk through the forests of Riedelbach, a place that felt suspended in time. As my shoes slowly became caked in mud, the image of a severely disfigured man suddenly entered my mind: both hands amputated, his face beyond recognition, his entire body wrapped in white bandages. His name would become Elias Krüger.
Like every storyteller, I became obsessed with understanding where this image had come from. At first, I believed the film was about him. My disgust at the mud clinging to my shoes somehow began to shape Elias in my imagination. But as I continued writing, I realized that Elias was merely the manifestation of a much deeper unrest. That unrest eventually gave birth to Marta, and with her came the real story.
Theology has long been a personal interest of mine, something I almost regard as a childlike hobby. While listening to the New Testament as an audiobook before falling asleep, I found myself returning again and again to Matthew 7:15:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”
At first, it struck me as an almost overly simple, even childish metaphor. Yet over time, it grew into the question that ultimately gave birth to this film: Are the truths we idealize really so absolute that we can follow them without question? I realized that the true horror does not lie in the existence of wolves, but in our unwavering confidence that we are capable of recognizing them.
For me, Unter dem Schafspelz is not a film about religion; it is a film about certainty. It explores the origins of our beliefs, how easily idealized ideas can evolve into fanaticism, and whether we can ever truly know if we are being manipulated or, perhaps more disturbingly, manipulating ourselves. Through psychological horror and biblical symbolism, I hope to invite audiences into an endless sandbox where questions matter more than answers. Rather than leaving the cinema with certainty, I hope they leave confronting the sandcastles they have built from their own beliefs, fears, and convictions.
Restraint/Silence/Tension
Our visual approach is guided by restraint, silence, and psychological tension. We aim to create an isolated rural world that feels suspended in time: ritualistic, damp, and quietly oppressive.
Cold, desaturated exteriors contrast with the fragile warmth of practical interior lighting, creating spaces that feel intimate yet deeply confining. Rather than relying on conventional horror imagery, we seek to evoke a constant sense of unease through stillness, natural light, and carefully composed frames.
Mud paths · Bandages · Candlelight
A monastery · A rural house · The woods
Numbered tapes · Old televisions · Moonlight
Who decides who is the sheep, and who becomes the wolf?
Impact
Rather than offering answers, Unter dem Schafspelz invites audiences to question certainty itself. Where do our beliefs originate? How dangerous can idealized ideas become? And how do we know whether we are being manipulated or manipulating ourselves? The film leaves every viewer alone with one final question.
The Audience
The film speaks to viewers drawn to psychological horror, arthouse cinema, and morally complex storytelling. It is intended for audiences who appreciate slow-burning narratives that value atmosphere, ambiguity, and philosophical reflection as much as suspense.
There is a quiet intensity in the way the story unfolds, where faith, care, and violence slowly begin to overlap.
What first drew me to Unter dem Schafspelz was its atmosphere: complex characters placed within an isolated, pastoral environment, layered with mythological and biblical undertones.
At its core, the film speaks to universal questions around belief, morality, and the thin line between devotion and obsession. Because of this, I believe it can resonate with both horror audiences and viewers of independent, character-driven cinema.
As a close friend of the director, I have already stepped into the process with him through our earlier collaborations in filmmaking. We worked together on several projects, including his latest short film Natural Transmission. Having followed his creative vision closely over time, and already being a fan of it, I had a clear sense of the world he tends to build. When Utku told me he had a new script, I knew it would carry a certain unease. Something dark, symbolic, and emotionally unsettling.
From a production perspective, the film immediately presents both a challenge and an attraction: the need to translate its psychological world into something tangible. This includes finding authentic locations that can hold its isolation, designing the physical transformation of Elias Krüger through makeup and prosthetics, and carefully shaping the visual language so that it supports, rather than illustrates, the inner states of the characters.
Working on a film like this also means thinking beyond logistics. It requires a sensitivity to atmosphere and rhythm, and a production approach which avoids over-defining the story through design, performance, or visuals. Our aim is to complete the film while preserving the creative vision of everyone involved and supporting a collaborative process among the independent Berlin-based artists contributing to the project.
Intercultural communication is not an outcome of filmmaking. It is the way filmmaking begins.
Unter dem Schafspelz is more than a short film. With RIIK Berlin as its cultural partner, it brings together independent Berlin-based artists from diverse cultural backgrounds in a spirit of artistic freedom and collaboration.
Through filmmaking, we aim to transform intercultural communication into a living creative practice. We hope this project will lay the foundation for a growing network of future productions, where every film strengthens the community behind the next.
RIIK Berlin is a non-profit institute based in Berlin, dedicated to fostering intercultural communication through integration, education, artistic collaboration, and collective cultural production. We create spaces where people from diverse cultural, linguistic, and professional backgrounds can learn, collaborate, and create together.
- 01Hosts the film team and provides a workspace during pre-production.
- 02Connects the team with artists, cultural institutions, and potential collaborators in Berlin.
- 03Helps the project reach audiences through its events and communication channels, during production and after the film’s completion.
- 04Supports the production with institutional correspondence and administrative matters.
The story has already met its first audience.
Before a single frame is shot, Unter dem Schafspelz has been presented in public. At a public pitch evening, the team shared the film’s world, its characters and its questions with an audience, and opened the conversation this project is built on. Thank you to everyone who joined us.
Will you walk this path with us?
Unter dem Schafspelz is currently in development. We are looking for partners who believe in independent cinema, artistic freedom, and intercultural collaboration. If this story resonates with you, we would be honoured to continue the journey together.
- Producers
- Co-producers
- Institutions
- Funding partners
- Creative collaborators