Future Destination Through the Night

At a dimly lit provincial disco, the unemployed appetizer chef Nick falls in love with film student Anna who is more or less asynchronous, depending on her emotional state. They share a fairly adventurous first night together, under the culinary spell of river crab-coated asparagus. Until at some point she leaves him. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, time is reversed – that is, for everybody but lovesick Nick. He finds himself in a world that is moving backwards. Everybody, except him, talks, walks, and eats backwards. He eventually adjusts to the situation – when he realizes Anna will return to him...

Kalt´s perhaps most beautiful film is an intelligent and humorously told parable about the difficulties of interpersonal communication, the impossibility of love and the laws of cinema. Kalt: “The shoot was hellish, because we didn´t have the technical means to watch the scenes we filmed as they were going to appear on screen, namely backwards. The language on set was also backwards.” The result is a fantastic romance full of surreal comedy and absurd heartache, in which the two main actors seem to float through the universe like astronauts, and us with them. (Jury “First Steps Award 2002”)

Orig. Title
Richtung Zukunft durch die Nacht
Year
2002
Country
Austria
Duration
59 min
Director
Jörg Kalt
Category
Short fiction
Orig. Language
German
Subtitles
English
Credits
Director
Jörg Kalt
Script
Jörg Kalt
Cinematography
Eva Testor
Music
Bernhard Fleischmann
Sound
Mario Kojetinsky, Emily Artmann
Production
Jörg Kalt
Actor/Actress
Simon Schwarz, Michael Tanczos, Margarethe Tiesel, John F. Kutil, Nicholas Ofczarek, Georg Friedrich, Kathrin Resetarits
Art Direction
Hannah Landes
Supported by
Stadt Wien, Land Niederösterreich
Available Formats
35 mm (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,66
Sound Format
Dolby digital
Frame Rate
24 fps
Color Format
colour
Digital Betacam (Distribution Copy)
Sound Format
Dolby digital
Color Format
colour
Betacam SP (Distribution Copy)
Sound Format
Dolby digital
Color Format
colour
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)