Thomas Stuber Talks Tallinn-Bound ‘The Frog and the Water’

World premiering in main competition at Tallinn,”The Frog and The Water” by Thomas Stuber, a student Oscar winner for his 2012 short ”Of Dogs And Horses,” sounds like a fairytale. 

And it is. A warm-hearted story about the most unlikely characters, two drifting souls, who unexpectedly and almost magically, create a bond and become friends. The upbeat mood and playfulness is revealed in the first clip from The Match Factory, which handles global sales.

The feature, produced by long-standing German arthouse player Pandora Film Produktion, marks a fresh beginning for Stuber. Best known internationally for “A Heavy Heart”, Toronto-selected in 2016, the Golden Bear entry ”In the Aisles” (2018) and ”Dark Satellites” (2022), all co-penned by Clemens Meyer, Stuber’s ”The Frog and the Water” is based on an idea by Gotthart Kuppel, co-writer with Stuber and Hyoe Yamamoto. The pic is also the German helmer’s first multi-country-set feature, shot in German, Japanese and English-language.

The central-character Stefan Busch– known as Buschi –  lives in an assisted living facility, where routine activities fill the days. When on a group outing, he suddenly takes a different route and follows a group of Japanese tourists travelling through Germany. An unexpected bond and intriguing wordless friendship develops with Hideo Kitamura, one of the tourists, a man in black, on a journey of his own. Their connection transcends cultural barriers and takes Buschi to new adventures. 

The German-Swiss co-production between Pandora Film Production, Hugofilm Productions, Lomotion and Gretchenfilm is due to open in Germany April 30, 2026, via Pandora Film.  

We caught up with Stuber ahead of the film’s world premiere at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival Nov. 19. He told Variety about getting lost in translation with Japanese – unlike his main character Buschi who communicates without words. Instinctively, and through mimicry.  

What was the genesis for this heart-warming buddy road movie?

It all started in 2018. I was at the Berlinale in the main competition with “In the Aisles,” and Pandora Film approached me with this script by Gotthart Kuppel. Then I worked quite intensively to get the script in shape. This is a leap from my earlier films “Heavy Heart,” “In the Aisles” and “Dark Satellites” that were all connected in a way to Eastern Germany, the period before reunification.

Here I just loved the core idea. I felt it was so unique, so never heard of, and that instantly drew me to it. Again, It’s a story about outsiders, the kind of stories I like – and perhaps why I was handed out the script. You have those two main characters, outside of society, outsiders of a group who kind of take their fate, in a small scale, in their own hands. I felt it was so magical, warm-hearted, almost fairytale like, but set in a realistic world.

How was it to dive into this story and create a bridge between Western and Japanese culture? I guess it was crucial for you to have Hyoe Yamamoto as a co-writer?

My first connection with Japan came when “In the Aisles” was distributed there in 2019. I went to Tokyo with the main actor, Franz Rogowski, and our guide, our helping hand was Hyoe Yamamoto. That’s when our friendship and collaboration kicked off. We had our own idea for the material, but the script needed Japanese eyes to make it authentic and culturally relevant. I personally always wanted to find out more about Japan, so I travelled there quite extensively, and through research for this project came a strong bond for Japanese culture, people and society.

That said, the deeper I get into Japanese culture, the more I feel that I don’t know anything at all! That’s something to acknowledge and accept. And going back to “The Frog and the Water,” perhaps that’s the power of this story. You have this character Buschi who doesn’t question that [cultural difference]. He just is. He looks for the right place for him to be and he finds it close to Hideo Kitamura. That’s the magic and beauty of it.

How was the casting process to find Aladdin Detlefsen for the lead character of Buschi?

The casting was the most intense I’ve ever experienced. What’s special about Buschi is that except for one word in the end, he does not speak. Not because he is mute, but because he chooses not to. Since he doesn’t speak, we didn’t have to look only in Germany. We contacted many theatre groups with people with disabilities in Switzerland, in the Netherlands, in France, all over Germany and did different stages of casting calls. We found amazing professional actors, and kept some for the supporting roles. We narrowed it down to three-four people, until we went for Aladdin [from the Blaumeier-Atelier] in Bremen. I mean – just listen to that name! He kind of nailed it.

How did you help him prepare for his character?

He had never done a feature film production of that length, so we had to think of basic stuff: how long can we work per day? How many days a week can we do it? But he worked long hours, every day that was needed. This was really astonishing. It took around two years for Aladdin to rehearse, to make him adapt to his character and get acquainted with the story. At the same time, we made sure he had a fresh way of acting.

Buschi has a unique way of mimicking Hideo Kitamura. There are lovely scenes in a restaurant and in the countryside, where the choreography of their movements takes a new dimension. That must have taken quite some time to rehearse…

The mimicry is a very important part in the film. Something that I studied and researched as I’m very fond of that. How nature does it, how we do it as humans. I find that very interesting. How do we get acquainted with each other or with somebody we don’t know. Mimicking is one way of communicating. Without words. And here again, I think that the character of Buschi is so far ahead of us who communicate in a normal way. Maybe we need to learn from him. First do not judge, look closely, maybe mimic, maybe copy. Try out something for yourself. That’s the way Buschi creates this magic bond with Kitamura.

Regarding the two scenes that you mention, well it’s not “La La Land,” perfectly choreographed. That’s not what we wanted. We were looking for the narrow path, to have some pieces that are set up, but with imperfection. That was the soul of it.

Kanji Tsuda is also wonderful as the mysterious man-in-black Kitamura, who accepts Buschi in the most natural way. How did you cast him?

Well it was a huge process again. Firstly, we wanted to find Buschi, then a Japanese actor who would be ideal to create that odd couple with him. Kanji is a versatile and very experienced professional actor. I saw him in “Onoda – 10,000 Nights in the Jungle.” I was very impressed by that. He’s also great in “Tokyo Sonata.” But again, it was a whole new world for me to dive into casting Japanese actors, communicating with Japanese casting agencies. You have to speak English of course, but you always need to translate everything. And as in the film – how much actually gets lost in translation?

There are lovely touches of humor, although it’s also a story about grief. You gradually unlock Kitamura’s inner secret. Could you discuss your character development?

Well throughout all my works, my way of storytelling is not to give too much background on the characters, not to explain too much, and let the audience find out by themselves. With Buschi, we understand few things about his background, but enough I believe, to go on that journey with him. You discover things along the way. It’s the same with Kitamura. Why he’s traveling alone. When he meets Buschi, that unexpected encounter fills a void. Buschi has this gift of touching everybody he encounters. Nobody can really explain why, but that’s the way.

Another third major character is Buschi’s caretaker [played by Bettina Stucky], who keeps running after him and adds a kind of slapstick element to the story. How would you describe her?

Well, I thought about “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and I wanted to create my own caretaker. In the Milos Forman film, Jack Nicholson’s caretaker evolves into a very dark and evil character. I felt that’s O.K., great, for that film, but definitely wrong for us. We need to create something else, much lighter.

I think that in most of my films, I don’t have antagonists and no real obstacles that need to be overcome. In “The Frog and the Water,” all the characters are good people.And even Buschi’s caretaker only wants the best for him.  She just needs to find out on that journey that this guy thinks big and cannot be stopped. It’s like parents with their children. It’s about learning to let go.

Could you detail your visual style and camera work?

This was my first collaboration with Swiss cinematographer Filip Zumbrunn. I wanted to let the frames stand, not cut away, combine handheld camera with fixed images, where Buschi could just walk along, then we would jump next to him. I think it added to the humor. And the other thing is the framing. We have this very narrow frame, four by three in the beginning, which kind of states the world he’s in, somehow not quite right for him. He wants to get out of this frame. And when he meets Kitamura, the frame widens to the widescreen.

For you what is the meaning of the title “The Frog and the Water”? 

The title was my co-writer Gotthart Kuppel’ s choice from the early stages of the project. Although it is not real Haiku poem it has a nice Haiku touch to it. Gotthart made it up and I think it fits the story very well, in a gentle, mysterious way. The frog in its natural environment, simple but not so simple at the same time. 

In today’s world where there’s bigotry, so much intolerance, was it important for you to simply remind people to be kind, and open to different encounters in life?

For sure.I see a lot of great heavy dramas about the state of the world. But I think you’re right. Somebody has to come up with the other stories, and those are the kind of arthouse film experiences that I want to create. 

What’s next for you?

Right now I’m finishing the post-production on the last instalment in a three-part crime show, “Poliizeiruf 110.” I’m also in the early stages of my next feature film which will dive into the theater world in the late 1980s, early ‘90s.