“Arresting” appears an applicable phrase to explain Hamburg writer-director Steffen Goldkamp’s characteristic movie debut Rain Fell on the Nothing New (Regen fiel auf nichts Neues), starring Noah Sayenko in his first appearing function. No pun supposed!
In spite of everything, the German film, which world premieres within the Proxima Competitors lineup of the 59th version of the Karlovy Range Worldwide Movie Pageant (KVIFF) on Saturday, July 5, confronts us with questions on what detention and jail do to people, particularly younger ones.
The pageant guarantees “surgically exact course, rigorously constructed ambiance, and likewise the discreet empathy with which the filmmaker discovers the intimacy of his antihero hovering on the sting of society.” And its highlights: “Together with his softly nuanced efficiency, Noah Sayenko excels in the principle function.”
He performs David, who “has served his time in juvenile detention. His honest makes an attempt to restart his life as a free particular person with higher prospects, nevertheless, are hindered by a society that may’t overlook the truth that he has a prison file, neither is it notably prepared to offer him a second probability,” reads a synopsis on the KVIFF web site. “Will David be capable of cope together with his rising emotions of frustration?”
Rain Fell on the Nothing New comes from manufacturing agency Tamtam Movie and producers Andrea Schütte, Dirk Decker, and Paulina Toenne, with Tom Otte serving as director of images and Jelena Maksimović as editor.
THR talked to Goldkamp and Sayenko forward of the world premiere about how they got here to work collectively on the movie, its themes and what could also be subsequent.
“I made the same movie, a brief movie set in a younger jail in 2019, which was known as After Two Hours, 10 Minutes Had Handed,” Goldkamp highlighted in describing his inspiration for his characteristic. “On the time, I used to be someway focused on discovering out what jail was actually like — what sort of place it actually was. You understand the place so properly from the films. However what does the comparability appear like in actuality? I used to be in a position to analysis after which movie it, and we made this movie. And after it was completed, most of the individuals who had truly lived there had relapsed.”
That made the filmmaker surprise. “I requested myself how and why that truly occurred,” he advised THR. “After which I watched a court docket case and dove just about headfirst into analysis, which was primarily about rehabilitation. One of many nonprofessionals I filmed with had dedicated a sequence of robberies, and a few of that is additionally on this movie. And I had discussions with judges and social staff.”
Goldkamp initially thought-about that includes all these folks in his film. “However then it turned clear that you just couldn’t solid the movie authentically with these folks, as a result of it could be too tough for everybody concerned,” he defined. “I assumed maybe there’s somebody we may work with for whom enjoying somebody who’s a prison isn’t an impediment. So, we seemed round and searched.”
Rain Fell on the Nothing New
Courtesy of Tamtam Movie
Casting director Katrin Vorderwülbecke met Sayenko, who was 17 again then, by coincidence, specifically exterior a martial arts health club when asking him for instructions to a college — earlier than turning round and welcoming him to a casting. “I assumed it was for some sort of YouTube video or one thing,” Sayenko advised THR. “Then she filmed me briefly, I launched myself, after which she confirmed it to Steffen, after which Steffen known as me, and a month later, I received the casting name someplace on a playground.”
The 21-year-old returned to his ardour for appearing with the movie. “I had theater in highschool. It was enjoyable for me, however the trainer wasn’t actually a fan,” he recalled. “Once I was youthful, I had this dream of changing into an actor, however solely as a result of I used to be impressed by a Russian actor [Maksim Averin] whose efficiency I noticed. However that someway disappeared.”
Making ready for Rain Fell on the Nothing New, the director and his main younger man rapidly developed a robust bond and connection that helped their collaboration. “I attempt to implement what Steffen desires to do. And I believe that has to do with the self-discipline I’ve in martial arts,” Sayenko tells THR. Since I even have considerably of a place of authority in martial arts, as a result of I’m additionally a coach for kids and adolescents, I believe self-discipline is essential, particularly in relation to belongings you need to have. And I additionally really feel I’ve good management of and feeling for my physique.”
One factor that Goldkamp requested his star to bear in mind was that he needed “as a lot actual habits as potential relatively than appearing. “Steffen advised me early on that he didn’t need me to be an actor,” he recalled. “He simply advised me, ‘OK, you’re on this and that scenario.’ Or: ‘You might have this and that in your previous.’ He didn’t inform me all the things in regards to the movie, however he all the time gave me temporary steering earlier than every scene. So, I principally simply freestyled, improvised and was in a position to match into the function of David.”
Goldkamp additionally didn’t need to current an in depth narrative all through the movie. “It’s extra of a kaleidoscopic factor, one thing fragmentary, in that it doesn’t have a declare to be an entire narrative,” the director advised THR. “However it’s very a lot about discovering sure locations and displaying conditions that I could not have skilled myself, however that I can perceive or really feel.”
For instance, “you possibly can sit within the kitchen and let your head grasp, and that contributes one thing,” he defined. “After which Noah contributes lots to that with how he performs and interprets issues for himself and transforms this into motion and language.”
Rain Fell on the Nothing New
Courtesy of Tamtam Movie
Jail feels claustrophobic in Rain Fell on the Nothing New, not that the skin world looks as if a a lot safer place for David. Did the inventive workforce shoot these two worlds in several methods? “The jail is shot on 16mm, and the world exterior is shot on 35mm,” talked about Goldkamp. “There’s this distinction that the movie makes between freedom on 35, a barely wider format with extra depth, and the jail on 16, which is possibly a bit noisier and a bit rougher and the place you don’t really feel the depth of the world a lot.”
Additionally, “the idea of sunshine modifications,” he added. “Typically you lean extra into the style, typically you attempt to be just a little bit clearer.”
With out spoiling the expertise of watching Rain Fell on the Nothing New, the framing of pictures and the pace of the digital camera and folks’s actions additionally play vital roles in bringing the movie, its characters and its themes to life.
Given the significance of visuals and ambiance within the film, together with a small manufacturing finances, the self-discipline talked about by Sayenko, planning and preparation had been key elements of the inventive course of. “We rehearsed lots, and once we turned on the digital camera, there have been usually simply two or three takes,” Goldkamp advised THR. “I believe the final scene we shot 4 or 5 occasions. However total, we didn’t actually shoot that a lot.”
Sayenko lauded Goldkamp for speaking him by scenes and permitting for moments of “easy stillness” to get him into the character and his temper. “Within the course of, you actually begin feeling this despair and monotony and getting inside the top of that individual,” he defined.
Talking of monotony, don’t count on a number of heist or motion scenes as Goldkamp was extra within the psychological and social points that result in a excessive threat of reoffending. “Nothing a lot occurs within the movie and, sadly, additionally in actuality,” he highlighted in that regard.
Rain Fell on the Nothing New
Courtesy of Tamtam Movie
Each the actor and his director shared that they usually ended up feeling the emotion and ambiance of a scene intensely throughout the shoot, including to the sense of authenticity that they needed to create.
The unique working title of the movie was Der Optimismus, or Optimism. Goldkamp modified it to Rain Fell on the Nothing New, a variation of the opening line in Samuel Beckett’s Murphy, which says: “The solar shone, having no different, on the nothing new.” Stated Goldkamp: “I used to be on the lookout for a title that signaled a way of inevitability, such because the climate, and one thing uncomfortable, like wetness, that no person can do something about. So, there’s something that has been round for a very long time and that isn’t altering.”
After the extreme expertise of Rain Fell on the Nothing New, what’s subsequent for the 2? Whereas he additionally has objectives exterior of appearing, Sayenko shared that the work on the film has ignited his ardour for the craft, and he’s excited to tackle extra challenges in entrance of the digital camera. “Appearing has been my favourite work to date, so I undoubtedly need to proceed,” he advised THR, including that he additionally simply completed a brief movie. “I stay up for future alternatives.”
In the meantime, Goldkamp expects to do extra work within the style he has labored in, including: “I’d like to shoot a heist film.”
Their present focus, although, is on Karlovy Range and the world premiere of Rain Fell on the Nothing New, which is prone to create debate — and never solely again house in Germany.