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Helene Hegemann, born 1992 in Freiburg, grew up in Berlin and started to write screenplays at the age of 14. She managed to convince Bundeskulturstiftung with her screenplay for "Torpedo" – and so Hegemann was able to finish her first feature film already at the age of 15. The teenage drama "Torpedo", that stars well-known actors Alice Dwyer and Jule Böwe, premiered at the 2008 Hog international film festival, received extremely favourable reviews, and won the award of "Best mid-length film" at the 2009 Film Festival "Max Ophüls Preis".
The same year, Helene Hegemann had a leading role in Nicolette Krebitz' segment of the compilation film Deutschland '09 - 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation" ("Germany ′09 – 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation", 2009).
In 2010, her debut novel "Axolotl Roadkill" was published and got rave reviews – until it was revealed that Hegemann had borrowed several phrases and passages of her coming-of-age story from the Berlin blogger and writer Airen without marking them as quotes. This led to controversial newspaper articles about Hegemann herself, but also to a debate about what plagiarism is in contrast to intertextuality. Despite the dispute, "Axolotl Roadkill" was nominated for the award of the Leipzig Book Fair. Hegemann's sophomore novel "Jage zwei Tiger" followed in 2013.
In 2015, Hegemann appeared in the documentary "Wer hat Angst vor Sibylle Berg?" and had a cameo in the comedy "Traumfrauen". She also began working on the screen adaption of her novel "Axolotl Roadkill", which she completed under the new title "Axolotl Overkill". The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award.