Offenes Herz

Overview

Katrin greets every client, human or animal, with the same open eyes and unhurried presence. It's hard to imagine that this is a woman who once burned out completely, ground down by a system that didn't fit her. But that's exactly where her story starts.

Offenes Herz is a documentary portrait of Katrin, an energy healer in Berlin who found her way to this work through burnout, a career she had to leave behind, and , unexpectedly, a tiny tortoise. The film follows her through sessions, quiet rituals, and an extended interview where she reflects on what it actually took to rebuild a life around something the world doesn't always take seriously.

It's not a film about whether energy healing works. It's about what happens when someone stops pretending to be fine with a life that doesn't fit them, and what they find on the other side of that.

Challenges & Approach

Offenes Herz was the most peaceful set I've ever been on. People said it afterwards too, that they couldn't remember a shoot that felt so organized, so unhurried. Which I was glad to hear, because a lot of work went into making it feel that way.

We shot over three days across two locations, an apartment and an outdoor session with a horse, with a crew of five and a proper lighting setup. Working around animals for the first time turned out to be less chaotic than expected. Even they seemed to settle into the rhythm of it.

For the interview, we used an eye-direct for the first time. Katrin speaking straight into the lens, straight at the viewer. It was the right choice for a film this personal. We shot across three cameras, two Sonys and a Panasonic Micro Four Thirds, which gave us enough coverage to let the conversation breathe without it ever feeling staged.

The result

A portrait of a woman who rebuilt her life from the inside out, and somehow made it look like the most natural thing in the world. Offenes Herz is quiet, warm, and genuinely hard to shake. It doesn't ask you to believe in energy healing. It just asks you to sit with someone who found her way back to herself.

Currently in post-production.