Producers frame this as a 'perfectly formed' universal story about the digital nomad dream, leveraging Marczak's 'sublime' visual sense to capture the zeitgeist of 2010s Berlin.
Insiders whisper that the bidding war for the book rights was fierce, won by Italy's Marta Donzelli, who is now banking on Marczak's niche appeal to sell a story about 'boycotting Uber' as high art.
Marczak won the 2016 Sundance Directing Prize for 'All These Sleepless Nights'; 'Perfection' was shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize; Marczak's latest doc 'Closure' hits U.S. theaters Oct. 28 via 1-2 Special.
It’s a bold pivot from documentary to dialogue-driven fiction, betting that Marczak’s eye for authenticity can make millennial ennui look cinematic rather than just cringe.
If you thought the era of the hybrid documentary was dead, think again—but this time, the hybrid is the director, not the format. Michal Marczak, the Polish filmmaker who won the 2016 Sundance World Cinema Directing Prize for “All These Sleepless Nights,” is officially making his narrative feature debut with “Perfection.” The project, announced by Variety on October 23, 2026, adapts Italian author Vincenzo Latronico’s novel of the same name, a book that didn’t just sell in 40 countries but also snagged a spot on the 2025 International Booker Prize shortlist.
This isn’t some small-time indie gamble; it’s a high-stakes entry into the narrative arena for a director known for blurring the lines between reality and fiction. The plot of “Perfection” is basically the bingo card for every millennial expat who ever posted a photo of their avocado toast in Kreuzberg. It follows Anna and Tom, a couple living the “dream” in 2010s Berlin, where life revolves around “slow cooking, Danish furniture, sexual experimentation and the city’s 24-hour party scene.” But as the synopsis brutally notes, the Instagram feed hides a rotting core: “dissatisfaction and ennui burgeon.” When their “progressive politics amount to little more in practice than boycotting Uber, tipping in cash, or never eating tuna,” the couple takes “ever more radical steps” to find authenticity.
It’s a scathing look at the digital nomad lifestyle, and Marczak is the guy to dissect it, having previously shot the 2012 doc “Fuck for Forest” about a Berlin NGO funding environmental causes through eco-pornography. The production team behind this pivot is a multinational power trio. German producer Roman Paul of Razor Film (known for “Quo Vadis, Aida?”), British producer Andrea Calderwood of Potboiler Productions, and Italian producer Marta Donzelli of Vivo Film are all in.
Donzelli was reportedly instrumental in winning the bidding war for the book’s rights, negotiating with Latronico’s agent, Claire Sabatié-Garat. Paul, speaking from the Rome MIA Market, claimed the team had been “looking for an original IP about what went on there in the 2010s when Berlin really meant something to the world.” Calderwood added that because the novel is “perfectly formed,” they believe they can make a “perfectly formed film” with “universal access and appeal.” Here is the twist that has industry insiders raising an eyebrow: Marczak is writing the screenplay himself.
Unlike Latronico’s atmospheric, internal novel, the film will include actual dialogue—a first for the director’s feature work. While the producers are in “constant dialogue” with Latronico, who is “very supportive” of Marczak’s hiring, the author will not be directly involved in the script. The project is currently in early development, with the next steps being a treatment and then a screenplay.
With Marczak’s latest documentary, “Closure,” hitting U.S. theaters on October 28 via 1-2 Special, he is clearly riding a wave of critical acclaim into this risky narrative territory. Can a man who built his career on the unscripted chaos of real life handle the structured demands of a scripted millennial drama? The receipts say he’s got the eye; the jury is still out on the ear.
