When the Locarno Film Festival unveiled the program for its 79th edition, it promised an “adventurous” lineup.
German filmmaker Nicolaas Schmidt’s debut feature film, September Afternoon, which will world premiere on Aug. 10 in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition of the Swiss festival, is perhaps the perfect case in point.
“If you don’t know anything about what’s to come, you are probably at risk of leaving the room,” Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro tells THR. “I’m aware of that, but if you stick with it, you will be completely surprised” and enjoy a cinematic journey you won’t forget any time soon.
What he means is that, just like in Schmidt’s short- and medium-length films, there isn’t much traditional “action” or even dialogue in September Afternoon. “The film uses ‘dead time’ as raw material,” the filmmaker highlights in a director’s note. “I stretch mundane moments until they collapse in their emptiness — an invitation to the viewer. In an age of arbitrary extraordinariness, plain banality is stimulating as fuck.”
Schmidt, who was born in Leipzig and lives and works in Hamburg as a filmmaker, video and conceptual artist, tells THR that he is most interested in images, sounds, music and moods, putting a spotlight on the passage of time in everyday situations, repetition and silences.
