BERLIN: German cinema veteran Wim Wenders unveiled his first feature film in seven years Tuesday, the 3-D drama “Every Thing Will Be Fine” starring James Franco as a writer who accidentally kills a child.

Wenders, 69, has focused mainly on documentaries of late and his most recent, “Salt of the Earth” about Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, is up for an Academy Award later this month.

“Every Thing Will Be Fine,” screening out of competition at the 65th Berlin film festival, took three years to make and was finished just before the 11-day event.

It is Wenders’ first drama since 2008’s “Palermo Shooting” and tells the story of Tomas, a Canadian author (Franco) who runs over a child when the boy’s sledge unexpectedly slides onto the road in front of his car.

The devastated mother, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, tells him that the accident was not his fault and the two forge a bond in grief and guilt.

Tomas’ subsequent novels, which incorporate some of the details from the accident, become runaway bestsellers and critical successes. But as the dead boy’s brother grows older, he confronts Tomas and accuses him of capitalizing on the tragedy.

Wenders said the 3-D effects, which he first used in his 2011 documentary “Pina” about the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, brought a dramatic depth to the story.

“3-D has a magnifying effect on everything, also emotions,” he told reporters after a press preview, saying his aim had been to “tell a dramatic story in pictures.”

“Towards the end of ‘Pina’, I realized that just having a human being in front of the camera without anything, just a person, was mind-blowing, and that you had different relationship to this close-up and could see a whole different presence.”

Franco, 36, said the third dimension helped reveal “the soul of the character in a new way and to engage the audience with the character or all of the characters in a much closer way than we’re used to.”

Franco, who is also an author, visual artist, director and producer, said he had long hoped to work with Wenders, best known for his 1980s classics “Wings of Desire” and “Paris, Texas.”

Wenders will accept a Golden Bear prize for his life’s work during the Berlinale, which runs until Sunday.