Actor Matthias Hermann stands in a kitchen wearing a priest costume, holding a bowl of apples in his left hand and smiling as he offers an apple toward the camera with his right hand, while also holding a rosary.
"Adam's Apples" | Matthias Hermann
© SLT / Christian Krautzberger

Adam's Apples

Based on the film by Anders Thomas Jensen

Black comedy

Austrian Premiere: November 26, 2025 / Kammerspiele

Synopsis

A seemingly perfect country priest, Ivan devotedly takes care of his small community with unconditional mercy and boundless optimism. At his church, he also runs a rehabilitation programme for dangerous criminals on parole, including the Saudi gas station robber Khalid, who likes to shoot people at random, and Gunnar, a former professional tennis player, who is an alcoholic and a compulsive eater and has a preference for illegal sexual practices. They are joined by Adam, a violent Neo-Nazi. Ivan is trying to find a positive personal goal for Adam, and when Adam sarcastically announces that he wants to bake an apple pie, Ivan takes him at his word. Adam is assigned the task of grooming the apple tree in the churchyard, so he can later use its apples to make the pie. Reluctantly, he sets to work, but first the tree is besieged by crows, then it is infested with worms, and eventually it is hit by lightning and catches fire… Ivan, the do-gooder, versus Adam, the Neo-Nazi: “Adam’s Apples” is an explosive duel, a dark fairy tale full of black humour about the fine line between faith and fanaticism, about the power of self-deceit and about redemption by apple pie…

Anders Thomas Jensen was born in Frederiksværk, Denmark, in 1972. He works as a director, screenwriter and actor. He won the Nordisk Film Award in 2005. Five films to which he had contributed have been nominated for Academy Awards, with two wins. He is considered one of Denmark’s most important screenwriters. The grotesque film “Adam’s Apples” was released in 2005, and the stage version premiered in Oldenburg three years later.

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