Leonie Benesch | WatchedThis
Leonie Benesch
Acting
Biography
Leonie Benesch (born April 22, 1991) is a German actress who has played roles in major productions including Babylon Berlin and The Crown, as well as Around the World in 80 Days. She is currently based in London. In 2009, Benesch played the role of Eva in the film The White Ribbon, which won the Golden Palm. Film critics singled out her performance as "a discovery". She received the American "Young Artist Award" for her work, as well as a "New Faces Award". In 2010, she performed in Philip Koch's drama Picco and in Sophie Heldman's film Colors in the Dark (Satte Farben vor Schwarz), where she worked alongside Senta Berger and Bruno Ganz. In 2017, Benesch performed in Babylon Berlin as Greta Overbeck, winning the "German Acting Prize". Benesch also performed in The Crown as the sister of Prince Philip, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark. In 2020, she was cast in the BBC miniseries Around the World in 80 Days, alongside David Tennant as Phileas Fogg and Ibrahim Koma as Passepartout. Benesch grew up in Tübingen, and attended the Freie Waldorfschule. She also attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She is of French and Transylvanian descent.
Filmography Movies
Acting
The White Ribbon
An aged tailor recalls his life as the schoolteacher of a small village in Northern Germany that was struck by a series of strange events in the year leading up to WWI.
Picco
Kevin is new in youth prison. Due to over-occupancy he has to share a cell with Tommy, Andy and Marc. A partnership of convenience in a system where only the strong prevail and which is dominated by violence and latent aggression. Oppression and beatings are a daily occurence. It is hard for Kevin to establish himself. Especially Marc and Andy are after him. He's afraid of not sticking it out. Only Tommy gives him an amicable advice: In this system, you're either a victim or a culprit. If he doesn't want to be a loser anymore, he has to start fighting... A piece of advice that will trigger most dire consequences
George
The last years of Heinrich George's life are reconstructed with documentary footage and play scenes. His son Götz, named after Heinrich's favorite role of the peasant war hero from Goethe's play "Götz von Berlichingen", plays scenes from his father's life and allows his enormous creative power to shine through. Nothing is left out, nothing glossed over in this story of a man with many facets. Götz George, one of Germany's best-known actors, is at the center of this homage, which is also a reappraisal of the contradictions in his father's life. As the only follower from the acting profession, Heinrich George had to pay with his life. He was not officially rehabilitated until 1998.
Das Jerusalem-Syndrom
A young pregnant woman who lives in Jerusalem believes she is going to bring the son of God into the world. Her older sister tries to convince her to return with her to Germany. Then the young woman disappears.
Die Flut ist pünktlich
A corpse is washed up on the beach of the North Sea. The deceased is Alexander, husband of the beautiful Bettina. They have been coming to the island for a long time and possess a cottage there. At first no one doubts that Alexander died of an accident, but the young policewoman Maike, who has known the family since her childhood, thinks that Alexander should have been familiar with the mudflat. Did he kill himself?
The Teachers' Lounge
When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.
Beautiful Bitch
The story opens with Bica, a solvent abusing waif, trying in vain to evade the Romanian police with her infant brother in tow. Separated from her sibling she is taken to Germany, concealed in the trunk of a car. There she is trained as a thief, picking the pockets of strangers to fill those of her patron. One of her victims is the separated father of Milka, a brat with razor sharp tongue. From this unlikely start a friendship forms and Bica gets a glimpse into a world of material security, if not emotional closeness...
September 5
During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.
Viking Women
"VIKING WOMEN" gives completely new insights into a fascinating culture, about which it seemed everything was already known. Exclusive interviews with experts from around the globe draw an authentic picture of the Viking world according to the latest scientific findings. High quality recreations with an international top-class cast will lead us to the early medieval world of the Vikings and revive this fascinating, long-lost era. Based on characters of the Nordic sagas, the mini-series displays the life stories of two Viking women: those of Sigrun and Jova.
The Hero of Friedrichstrasse Station
All his life, Michael Hartung, owner of a hopelessly debt-ridden video store, has bet on the wrong horse. When an ambitious journalist confronts him with the results of his research, everything changes for the charmingly melancholy Micha. Many years ago, as an employee of the Reichsbahn, he is said to have organized the largest mass escape in the GDR. Stasi files prove the case. He was apparently even imprisoned and then deported to an open-cast lignite mine. Seduced by a lavish salary, Micha confirms the story, although only fragments of it are true.
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