Status: 08/26/2023 11:00 p.m
His short film “Kippa”, Lukas Nathrath’s graduation film at the Hamburg Media School, has already received several awards. The young director shot his first feature film “Last Evening” in Hanover without any financial means. Now he’s winning big festival prizes.
A hit, big Hollywood film said: The strongest weapon you can have is an idea. In any case, the director and author Lukas Nathrath had shown strength when he stuck to his idea of finally shooting again after the Corona break. Even if nobody wanted to support the project financially. That’s how “Last Evening” became an independent film, says Nathrath: “It’s an independent film that hardly exists in Germany in this form, and that’s why we didn’t really have any references,” says the young director. “But we knew we really wanted to shoot this August, when it was possible again, and then we asked various funding bodies. They said: No, no, no, this is all far too short notice, you can do it so soon before don’t ask that.”
Nobody wanted to invest
So he didn’t ask any more, he just did it. Together with his friend and one of the actors, the theater actor Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer, Lukas Nathrath developed the story, which was then shot in seven days in an empty apartment in Hanover. “Last Evening” is about a couple who moves from Hanover to Berlin and whose farewell dinner gets out of hand with invited and uninvited guests. Film role models are “The Festival” by Thomas Vinterberg or “Hannah and her sisters” by Woody Allen.
An idea becomes a worldwide success
The film received the First Look Award at the Locarno Film Festival. Thus began the journey of a small film around the big world: to festivals in Rotterdam, Shanghai, Melbourne. At home he received the Max Ophüls Prize for best director. In addition to the merits, there were also monetary benefits: “We received prize money,” says Nathrath happily, “but that in turn is being invested in the theatrical release now. So far we haven’t earned anything from this film. Actually, everyone took part for free. We hope, of course that at some point something will come back through the theatrical release.”
Lukas Nathrath personally brings his audience to the cinema
The chances are not bad, the film has already been sold internationally in twelve countries. Lukas Nathrath and his team are currently on a cinema tour in Germany to promote the film and to attract people to the cinema. A few days ago they were able to arouse so much enthusiasm in a pedestrian zone with a song played live and the distribution of flyers that Lukas Nathrath took a fundamental boost of motivation with him.
Best prospects for the cinema landscape
“In fact, in Karlsruhe, when it was 30 degrees, we brought 20 people to the cinema for an early evening screening,” says the director proudly. “I really thought to myself, someone should tell me that cinema is dead. If it works like that and you can inspire people like that, that’s great. They stayed and were totally touched by the film, they agree approached us with thanks. Then I thought to myself: There is still hope for cinema. And for German cinema. And for arthouse cinema!”
Further information
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NDR Culture | The Morning | 08/25/2023 | 7:20 a.m
2023-08-26 23:26:56
#Evening #started #cinemas #worldwide #success
