Forty nights. That is all the time Farasha and Faris get. Fatih Akin’s Geister / Ghost Song opened the San Sebastián Film Festival on September 18 with a romance built around a deadline no couple can negotiate. It is the festival’s opening film and part of the competition for the Golden Shell, not an out-of-competition gala screening.
Mariam Dawoud plays Farasha and Eren M. Güvercin plays Faris. They meet at a graduation party when both are 20. A single glance starts something, but Farasha dies that same night. She finds a way back to him through dreams, with one cruel limit: she can meet him for only 40 nights. The festival’s synopsis follows their growing love toward the final visit, where the promise of seeing each other becomes inseparable from the fear of running out of time.
A ghost story built around a young couple
The title might suggest shocks or a mystery to solve. The confirmed premise points first toward loss and longing. Farasha is not simply remembered by Faris; she continues to make choices after death. Faris, meanwhile, gets a love story that can only happen while he sleeps. That gives every meeting a built-in tension even before the film reveals how its last night unfolds.
The official teaser gives a glimpse of the couple, intimate interiors and night-time city images. It does not settle whether the film will play as fantasy, romance or something darker at every turn, and the festival has not published a plot breakdown beyond its synopsis. We are keeping the ending out of this preview.
Why this premiere matters
The 74th San Sebastián festival runs September 18 through 26. Its programmers chose Geister / Ghost Song to open the official competition, placing Akin’s film at the front of the event rather than saving it for a later slot. The festival lists it as a German production running 106 minutes, with dialogue in Arabic, German and Turkish. Ruth Toma and Akin share screenplay credit; Frank Griebe shot the film and Malakoff Kowalski composed its music.
Those details give a clearer picture of the project than a generic “new Fatih Akin movie” announcement. It is a multilingual love story led by two young performers, built around a supernatural rule that should make each scene together feel precious. Carlotta von Falkenhayn and Gabriel-Winner Amorim are also in the listed cast.
Warner Bros. Germany’s official teaser announces a November 5 German theatrical release. A US release date has not been confirmed in the cited festival and distributor material. For now, San Sebastián is the place where this 40-night romance meets its first audience.
