Acting
Jun 9, 2008
Berlin, Germany
Helena Zengel
Acting
Biography
Helena Zengel is a German actress. She is best known for her roles in the films System Crasher (2019) and News of the World (2020). After System Crasher won a number of international awards, Zengel was cast by Universal Pictures to play a leading role in the American Western film News of the World directed by the British film director Paul Greengrass, which was her first international film. In this adaptation of the 2016 novel of the same name by Canadian-American writer Paulette Jiles, which starred Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kidd, Zengel stars as a 10-year-old German orphan named Johanna Leonberger who was raised by the Kiowa; most of her performance is in the Kiowa language. For her performance, Zengel received nominations for a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Zengel also dubbed herself in the Italian, German, French and Spanish versions; the dubbing is limited to the lines she spoke in English.
Feature Films (13)
In a remote village on the island of Carpathia, a shy farm girl named Yuri is raised to fear an elusive animal species known as ochi. But when Yuri discovers a wounded baby ochi has been left behind, she escapes on a quest to bring him home.
The Legend of Ochi
Meg, a music manager, travels from New York to London to manage a boy band, Five Together, and find them a Christmas number one to bolster their flagging career. She finds a song on the internet posted by an ailing thirteen-year-old girl, Nina, and tries to obtain permission to have the song re-recorded by Five Together, but she discovers she has competition from the songwriter, Nina’s uncle Blake. What follows is a romantic comedy about two worlds colliding – with a young woman at the centre who desperately wants her uncle to find love and for his song to hit the number one spot by Christmas Day.
A Christmas Number One
Rebecca, the daughter of missionary Lawrence Byrne, was declared a “miracle” after she survived a plane crash as a child, deep in the Amazon Forest. Years later, Rebecca, who became a famous healer in the region, and her father find themselves embroiled in an escalating conflict when illegal loggers invade the land belonging to the indigenous people they are evangelizing.
Transamazonia
Luca is a strong-willed, soulful seven-year-old. After a two-year separation, her parents take her on a trip to pack up and sell their vacation home on a quiet island in the Aegean. Once there, her parents’ romantic connection is reignited. This newfound intimacy unsettles the family dynamic, as Luca suddenly ceases to be the center of attention. With childish cleverness and determination, she plays her parents against each other, intent on keeping her place as the center of their worlds.
Dark Blue Girl
Three women, three different stories, one room in a psychiatric clinic. A strong and tumultuous relationship erupts among them, evolving into an energetic, honest and erotic bond. This takes them to a point where their hopes may be fulfilled… in very different ways.
Looping
"You can take a man out of the small town - but you can't take the small town out of the man." Clemens Wolf plays bass in a US band and takes advantage of a break from touring to pay a visit to his hometown on the Brandenburg B96.
Route B96
Wherever 9-year-old Benni ends up, she is expelled. She has become what child protection services call a “system crasher.” But she is not looking to change her ways, and has one goal: go back home to her mother. When anger management trainer Micha is hired to help, suddenly there is hope.
System Crasher
A Texan traveling across the wild West bringing the news of the world to local townspeople, agrees to help rescue a young girl who was kidnapped.
News of the World
A small paper umbrella attracts the attention of Fredo Schulz when chief detectives Milan Filipovic and Lola Karras visit him at the North Sea. A seven-year-old girl has disappeared. Ashley Bols is already the third missing girl. Schulz was unable to rescue the other two. They have still not been found, but Schulz simply knows that they are dead. He also knows who the perpetrator is: Roland Bischoff.
Der gute Bulle
Sascha lives in Berlin. She is 23 years old and doesn't really know what to do with herself. She has been walking the streets of Berlin for days and nights. She only wants one thing - to forget.
Baby Bitchka
Sophie joins a prestigious tennis academy, where the brutality of competitive sports is taken to its extreme and only the hungriest survive.
Bloody Tennis
Television & Series (8)
With no witnesses, no traces, and no corpse, Josy, the 13-year-old daughter of well-known psychiatrist Viktor Larenz, has disappeared in unexplained circumstances. Two years later, a mysterious woman appears. She forces Viktor to face up to his daughter's disappearance and pushes him to his psychological limits.
Sebastian Fitzek's Therapy
Series written by Christiane Sadlo about writer and journalist under the pseudonym "Inga Lindström" and her family. Characterized by impressive landscapes, all of which are shot on location in Sweden. Series has no continuous storyline, and each episode is filled with new characters.
