Veteran German director praises the 3D format at the Berlin film festival, which he had previously used on his dance documentary Pina, and has now employed for the harrowing drama Every Thing Will Be Fine

A film shot in 3D by the veteran German director Wim Wenders, about guilt and a painful search for forgiveness, is a leading contender for the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival.

Everything Will Be Fine, starring James Franco and Charlotte Gainsbourg played to packed cinemas throughout the day with festival organisers relenting to pressure to provide extra screenings of Wenders’ latest film as festivalgoers fought over too few seats.

After the screening Wenders explained the use of 3D, describing it as a revelation to him that it helped “bring out the emotions” of his main character, a writer who accidentally kills a child, and of the boy’s family who are crippled by grief. “I discovered that 3D had more potential than just for dance and architecture,” said the 69-year-old director. “I could see it created a whole different presence in close-up. It has a magnifying effect, it’s like a magnifying glass, making everything stand out.”

Marie Josée Croze and James Franco in Every Thing Will Be Fine Photograph: PR

Everything Will Be Fine is Wenders’ first full-length solo film in four years, since his acclaimed Oscar-nominated 3D documentary hit Pina, about the German choreographer Pina Bausch. It tells the story of the death of a child in an accident involving novelist Tomas (played by James Franco), who is at the wheel when the boy’s sledge crashes into his car. The film, shot in Canada and Norway, explores the feelings of both Tomas and the boy’s mother, Kate (Charlotte Gainsbourg) over the subsequent 12 years and the effect of the tragedy on them and Christopher, the surviving sibling.

Franco, who has basked in the limelight at this year’s Berlinale, where he appears in three films, said he enjoyed Wenders’ “light touch” as a director. “When we’re on set he’s very precise about composition. But as an actor it felt like he gave us a lot of room to develop the character. But even with that room, I felt like I’m acting a Wim Wenders character and it came with a very light touch. He’s very good at that.”

Gainsbourg added: “I felt quite blessed that he asked me to do this film. I felt like he was touched by the character. He gave me another vision and he took me to another place.”

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Wenders said the film was a deliberate mix of fairytale and hyperreality. “The title already indicates a little of a fairytale,” he said. “Everything will be fine ... happy ever after. But it is very real – about how you can heal wounds and trauma.”

He added that central to the film was Tomas having to “come to terms with the responsibility he has towards a family he doesn’t even know. “Kate’s character is very generous and invites him into their lives and he realises he needs to start forgiving himself.

“Healing is part of our lives but the way to it is not always that obvious,” Wenders said.

The director had been in part attracted to the screenplay – by the Norwegian Bjørn Olaf Johannessen – for its Nordic sparseness. “Us Germans have something Nordic,” he said. He had met Johannessen at Sundance when he had presented him with an award some years ago. “I told him to send his next script to me. It only took him about five years.”

Asked about his relationship with Berlin, his adopted city, Wenders said: “I’ve been having an epic experience with Berlin for the past 40 years.”