German filmmaker Nicolaas Schmidt has developed a following with his unique film language. If you haven’t seen any of his short- and medium-length movies yet, now may be the time.
After all, his feature-length debut, September Afternoon, will world premiere on Aug. 10 in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition of the 79th editionof the Locarno Film Festival.
It marks a return to Locarno for Schmidt, whose First Time [The Time for All but Sunset — Violet] got its world premiere at the Swiss festival in 2021, where it received a Pardi di Domani special mention.
Here is what we know about September Afternoon. “A couple refuses to accept that summer is over,” a synopsis tells us. “One last time, they head to the coast, to be together between sand dunes and sea water. But the blustery autumn wind is no substitute for the cozy rays of a summer sun. Desperate struggles against the encroaching elements become a brief interlude before the situation unravels into a disaster of a different magnitude. A contemporary cosmic catastrophe.”
In his work, Schmidt lets images, sounds, music and moods do the talking, while spoken words are rarely necessary. The slow passage of time in everyday situations, repetition and silences are what interest the filmmaker. And it is what he presents to the viewer in ways that make you observe and wonder. His new cinematic experience, for example, turns romantic ideas of the summer on their head to paint a contemporary portrait of longing for connection steeped in resignation.
Produced by Maxi Haslberger and Balthasar Busmann, September Afternoon features cinematography by Thomas Oswald. Schmidt, who was born in Leipzig in 1979 and lives and works in Hamburg as a filmmaker, video and conceptual artist, directed and edited the film based on his own screenplay. The cast is made up of Amin Motallebzadeh, Katharina Grossmann, Hedi Grossmann and Ada Kurzhöfer. Kino Rebelde is handling international sales.
“The film uses ‘dead time’ as raw material,” Schmidt says about September Afternoon in a director’s note. “I stretch mundane moments until they collapse in their emptiness — an invitation to the viewer.” And he concludes: “In an age of arbitrary extraordinariness, plain banality is stimulating as fuck.”
What can we add to that? It seems like this is the perfect time to simply mention that The Hollywood Reporter can premiere an exclusive clip from September Afternoon. Watch it right here.