A THOUGHT OF ECSTASY

Love is immortal. Seduction is inevitable. Revenge is irresistible.

California, in the year 2019. A country paralyzed by a heatwave and lost in suspicion and paranoia. Frank recognizes his own story of years ago in a recently published book. A memoir by Marie – a past love with whom he lived before she moved to America and disappeared from his life. Caught in a maelstrom of memories he cuts all ties to his civic life and hits the interstate highway towards the desert to retrace her last known journey according to the roadmap of the diary. When he meets the young stripper Nina, the sheer words of the book seem to materialize in his present reality. Or is Frank just becoming a character in a story? Then, like a haunting spirit, Marie reappears.

RP Kahl sends a foreigner into the territory of seduction and the yearning for death. Set in the near future of a country, where the Big Wall erected along the southern border has become an accepted part of everyday life, as are student uprisings that are put down violently by the police. A dystopian fever-dream.

Trailer
Director

RP KAHL was born in 1970 and studied Acting at the Ernst Busch School of Dramatic Art in Berlin-Rostock. He then founded the production company Erdbeermund Filmproduktion and directed his first short AUSGESPIELT (1995). In 1997, he produced and starred in SILVESTER COUNTDOWN, directed by Oskar Roehler. ANGEL EXPRESS was his feature debut as a director. In 2002, he produced and directed episodes of the cycle of shorts 99EURO-FILMS, followed by EUROPE – 99EURO-FILMS (2003), SUNDAY GIRLS (2005), BEDWAYS (2010), and A THOUGHT OF ECSTASY (2017).

RP Kahl Foto copyright Markus Hirner
RP Kahl (photo © Markus Hirner)
photos © Studio RPK
  • Genre
    Neo Noir, Erotic, Psycho Thriller, Science Fiction
  • CATEGORY
    Feature
  • YEAR OF PRODUCTION
    2017
  • DIRECTOR
    RP Kahl
  • SCREENPLAY
    RP Kahl, Torsten Neumann
  • CINEMATOGRAPHY
    Markus Hirner
  • CAST
    RP Kahl, Deborah Kara Unger, Ava Verne, Lena Morris, Joel Cairo, Buddy Giovinazzo
  • PRODUCERS
    P Kahl, Torsten Neumann
  • CO-PRODUCERS
    Daniel Schlösser, Deborah Kara Unger
  • PRODUCTION COMPANY
    Studio RPK, in co-production with Independent Partners Film, ZDF/3sat
  • RUNTIME
    90 min
  • LANGUAGE
    English
  • FESTIVALS
    Munich 2017, Oldenburg, 2017, Black Nights Tallinn 2017
  • SALES
    Paul Thitges Distribution
    paul@ptd.lu
    www.ptd.lu
  • Press book (Download PDF)