German director and visual artist AKIZ gained recognition already in the beginning of his directing career when his graduation film was nominated for a Student Academy Award. However, his feature debut Der Nachtmahr (Nightmare) was, as he mentioned yesterday during KVIFF Talk, the first film he truly wanted to make. At the same time, it was the most difficult one in terms of directing.
A great source of inspiration for AKIZ was the cult film of Steven Spielberg E.T., the Extraterrestrial: “I saw it in the cinema when I was as old as the main protagonist, Elliot. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the idea that these two creatures could be connected in such a way.” As in Spielberg's film, in the center of AKIZ's Der Nachtmahr stands a fictitious character called Nachtmahr who resembles a mutilated embryo.
The film is an idiosyncratic, hallucinatory audiovisual journey, which, nevertheless, differs from David Lynch's films: “Lynch is my favourite director and I know his work more than anyone else's, but I didn't want to direct like him. In his world, it is as if everything is slowly sinking. I make strong transitions from comfortable scenes to uncomfortable ones.”
It is not an easy task to provide an interpretation of AKIZ's film. „I have already heard a lot of readings of the film, such as bulimia, unwanted pregnancy or a materialization of the Greek God Hadus, however, it is not up to me to say which one is correct. I stand by my decision to leave the film unexplained. As David Lynch once said: “When you acknowledge your version, you kill all the other – all the other versions are immediately rendered incorrect.”
For AKIZ, the film became a heart matter – he spent 13 years working on it before finally finishing it the year before last. “The entire crew worked for free, they had a contract, but whether they are going to get paid for it depended on the success of the film. Still, no one complained,” added the director.
The film eventually made it in the world, it travelled to many festivals and two sequels are planned already. “Der Nachtmahr was something of a flagship for the underground culture. In Germany today, we have social dramas or comedies, but there are no projects in-between,” AKIZ commented. Producer Amir Hamz added “I think this film has the potential to become a cult movie.“
