Christopher Kühne Adapts Lorca’s 'Yerma'
Christopher Kühne is an internationally acclaimed screenwriter and co-writer of the feature length film Yerma: Barren, directed by renowned poet/film director Emilio Ruiz Barrachina. Yerma: Barren features an internationally diverse, award-winning cast including Spanish actress Miriam Díaz-Aroca and British actress Rebecca Grant.
Yerma: Barren is the first adaptation of Federico García Lorca’s play ever to be set in present day. Kühne worked closely with Barrachina on adapting the play from 20th century Andalusia to 21st century London, while remaining loyal to Lorca’s message: the still-present oppression on women and the unfairness of domestic abuse.
He explains, “The film comes at a time when oppression and misogyny have resurfaced in society as a persistent problem that certainly hasn’t changed much. Stories have always offered a powerful medium to change people since the beginning of humankind. They come from mythology. This is why films have become so important in treating social issues now more than ever.”
Kühne’s 2015 short film, Death of a Government Clerk, which he co-wrote with director Mykyta Samusiev, received several awards including winner of the 2015 Accolade Global Film Competition as well as Best Short Film at the Best Shorts Competition. The film also received three nominations for Best Film, Best New Filmmakers, and Best of 2015 Award at the 2015 New Filmmakers Los Angeles Film Festival.
In 2016, Kühne collaborated with veteran writer and Hollywood producer, Dr. Kenneth Atchity, with whom he developed the feature film The Book of Leah, set to be released at the end of the year, as well as an upcoming horror feature film slated to be produced this spring. He also co-wrote the short film Camarillo St. that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner.
Kühne was recently invited to serve as a judge for the Film Empire’s Diversity Mentorship Screenplay and Film Contest. Also an avid arts advocate, he served as a mentor for Young Storytellers, a non-profit organization that provides public school students with an opportunity to write stories and help to see them brought to life.
As a professional writer and advocate of the power of story, Kühne’s mission is to carry on the work and legacy of such great luminaries as Theodor Gaster, Carl G. Jung and Joseph Campbell, to create stories that resonate with the universal unconscious for the nourishment of our essence as human beings. He is currently putting together a virtual reality project that taps on this topic, as well as developing a feature film of his own.
