DER NACHTMAHR

It’s a hot, humid and sweaty summer. Like every year, this season seems likely to become one endless, sexy and gorgeous party under the open sky. Tina and her friends are living the dream of a whole generation of decadent Berlin-party-kids. But after one excessive night, she’s haunted by a mysterious ugly creature which visits her in her nightmares. The only person she talks to about her fears is her psychologist. He advises her to confront her fears and to reach out to the creature. At first Tina refuses, but after she hears about her parents plans to put her in a mental hospital she overcomes her panic and starts talking to the creature. Slowly she realizes that the creature is more of an incarnation of her fears and that the Nachtmahr has her exact same feelings. Out of fear of being called a freak, she starts hiding the creature in her room. She feeds it, with time she even gets close to it. It is almost like a relation­ship to a wild stray animal. It almost seems as if Tina has the courage for the first time in her life to be herself. But then her parents and her friends get to see the creature themselves…

Trailer

Director

ACHIM BORNHAK (aka AKIZ) studied Directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. His short film DER MARIANENGRABEN (1995) and his graduation film JOHN & LUCIE (1996) were both nominated for an Oscar^® in the Foreign Film category of the Student Academy Award. In 1995, he attended the University of Southern California for post-graduate studies. He produced docu­mentaries and worked as a freelancer until 2004. At the same time, he worked on sculptures, paintings and other art projects. His short film PAINTING REALITY (2010) was featured in Banksy‘s film THE ANTIC‘S ROAD SHOW. AKIZ founded the production company OOO-Films in 2012 which produced DER NACHTMAHR as its first feature film. Kim Gordon presented AKIZ’s work within “PopRally” at the MoMA in New York together with AdRock (Beastie Boys) in 2014. DER NACHTMAHR is the first part of the “demoniac trilogy“, which deals with the triptych “birth/love/death“ as a cinematic cycle.

photos © OOO-Films