Gegenschein
3 a.m. in one of those anonymous cities: in the echoes of an exuberant party, a young man and a young woman meet in the red glow of a traffic light. The disappointed expectations for an exciting evening are quickly transferred to the unexpected encounter and soon the way home becomes a journey through the deserted urban night. Playful flirt turns serious when the man‘s eyes wander to a faint light in the sky. Despite her initial fear that he is romantically gazing at the stars, his eyes are searching the sky for Gegenschein: „the sun casting its shadow in the night“. From a brief moment of intimacy, a mercilessly honest game of questions and answers emerges, which finally ends in a confession: „What‘s the worst thing you‘ve ever done?“
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Kai KröscheDirector
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Kolja BurgschuldDirector
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James StansonWriter
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Kolja BurgschuldProducer
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Victoria HalperProducer
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Kai KröscheProducer
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James StansonProducer
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EINZELKIND PRODUCTIONSProducer
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Tobias ArtnerKey Cast"Him"
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Victoria HalperKey Cast"Her"
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Rupert KasperDirector of Photography
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Alma KugicCostume Designer
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Arthur FussyMusic
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Project Title (Original Language):Gegenschein
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Project Type:Short
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Runtime:14 minutes 59 seconds
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Completion Date:July 29, 2020
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Production Budget:2,500 EUR
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Country of Origin:Austria
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Country of Filming:Austria
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:2.39:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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Flickers' Rhode Island International Film FestivalProvidence, RI
United States
August 5, 2021
World Premiere -
Five Lakes Film Festival - International Festival of Central-European FilmsStarnberg
Germany
August 24, 2021
European Premiere
Official Selection - Nomination Best Short Film -
Minikino Film Week 7Bali
Indonesia
September 5, 2021
Asian Premiere -
Festival of NationsLenzing
Austria
September 9, 2021
Austrian Premiere
Official Selection -
FilmetsBadalona
Spain
October 26, 2021
Spain Premiere -
REAKTOR International Film FestivalVienna
Austria
October 9, 2021 -
Canada Shorts - Canadian & International Short Film Fest.Ottawa
Canada
Finalist
KAI KRÖSCHE , *1985 Düsseldorf, Germany (right in the picture)
is a film and theater director, video artist, writer, and musician. After assisting film and theatre maker Christoph Schlingensief at the Volksbühne Berlin ("Kunst und Gemüse", 2004), he studied Theatre, Film and Media Studies as well as Philosophy at the University of Vienna. Since 2005 he has been working as a freelance artist within various fields such as music composition, sound design, video, dramaturgy, and performance at Schauspiel Köln, State Theatre Lower Austria, Volkstheater Vienna, WERK X, WERK X-Petersplatz (Vienna), WUK performing arts (Vienna) and HochX (Munich), among others.
2010 to 2016 he worked as a film critic for the Wiener Magazine and as theatre critic for "nachtkritik.de" and the Wiener Zeitung. In 2018 he received the Newcomer Scholarship for Performing Arts from the Austrian Federal Chancellery. He is Founder and Artistic Director of the performance collective DARUM - their multidisciplinary performance projects "Ungebetene Gäste" and "Ausgang: Offen" were nominated for the prestigious Austrian Theater Prize the NESTROY in 2019 and 2020. The collective's debut film "Ausgang: Offen "(idea, producing, directing, music, sound design) was a part of the Official Selection at the 54th Hof International Film Festival in Bavaria, Germany. In 2021, he received the Dramatist Scholarship from the City of Vienna for his upcoming feature-length screenplay "Bilder Schießen" (engl. "Shooting Pictures").
www.kai-kroesche.net
2021/2012. HEY SUCKER (Student Short Film, 30 Min., HD)
Co-Direction with Kolja Burgschuld and Roman Mintert
2020. GEGENSCHEIN (Short Film, 15. Min., 4K)
Co-Direction with Kolja Burgschuld
World Premiere: 39th Flickers' Rhode Island Film Festival, USA.
European Premiere and Nomination for Best Short Film: 15th Five Lakes International Film Festival, Germany.
Asian Premiere: 7th Minikino Film Week Bali, Indonesia.
Regional Premieres: 49th Festival of Nations (Austria) & 47th Filmets Badalona Film Festival (Spain)
2020. AUSGANG: OFFEN (Hybrid-Documentary, 99 Min., 4K)
Co-Direction with Victoria Halper & Laura Andreß (DARUM Kollektiv)
World Premiere: 54th Hof International Film Festival, Germany
Official Selection at the 15th Five Lakes International Film Festival, Germany
Official Selection at the 26th Split Film Festival / International Festival of New Film, Croatia
Nomination "Corona Special Prize" at the 21st NESTROY Awards (Vienna, Austria)
2017. GREENHAND (Micro Short Film, 1 Min., HD)
World Premiere: 4th Landjäger Shortest Film Festival (Vienna, Austria)
2016. GROANING BONES (Music Video, 4 Min., 4K)
Co-Direction with Kolja Burgschuld
Opening Music Video / MY Sound of Music Film Festival (Salzburg, Austria)
2010. KASIMIR UND KAROLINE (TV Short Film, 2 Min., HD)
TV-Premiere: May 2010 on 3Sat, (Germany/Switzerland/Austria)
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KOLJA BURGSCHULD, *1985 Düsseldorf, Germany (left in the picture)
is a film and theatre director and curator. Studied theatre, film and media studies in Vienna with a focus on screenplay dramaturgy, directing and the theory of genre film. Between 2005 and 2011 he worked as a freelance theatre artist on numerous theatre productions, video installations and performances. 2011-2013 he was head of the umbrella organisation of the performing arts for young audiences in Austria. He worked in the context of various festivals in Germany, Liechtenstein, Croatia, Romania, Sweden, Denmark and Japan. From 2014-2016 he was part of the leading team of the internationally renowned theatre DSCHUNGEL WIEN. In 2016 he was appointed artistic advisor for the performing arts to the Councillor of Culture of the City of Vienna. Since 2018 he has been working as a freelance curator for the Wiener Festwochen, Impulse Theatre Festival in Düsseldorf, Cologne and Mühlheim a. d. Ruhr.
2021/2012. HEY SUCKER (Student Short Film, 30 Min., HD)
Co-Direction with Kolja Burgschuld and Roman Mintert
2020. GEGENSCHEIN (Short Film, 15. Min., 4K)
Co-Direction with Kolja Burgschuld
World Premiere: 39th Flickers' Rhode Island Film Festival, USA.
European Premiere and Nomination for Best Short Film: 15th Five Lakes International Film Festival, Germany.
Asian Premiere: 7th Minikino Film Week Bali, Indonesia.
Regional Premieres: 49th Festival of Nations (Austria) & 47th Filmets Badalona Film Festival (Spain)
2016. GROANING BONES (Music Video, 4 Min., 4K)
Co-Direction with Kolja Burgschuld
Opening Music Video / MY Sound of Music Film Festival (Salzburg, Austria)
It‘s an old motif: A man meets a woman at night. Film history knows many variations of this encounter: from the moonstruck promise in love films (e.g. "Before Sunrise", that - just like "Gegenschein" - was also filmed in the streets of Vienna) to the violent threat to life and limb in the horror genre. James Stanson‘s short story "Gegenschein" uses this well-known motif, but deliberately refuses to be clearly assigned to a particular genre. Instead it places a looming love story alongside a „dark secret“ on the one hand, the solution of which, on the other hand, refuses to conform to common clichés.
We found this ambiguity very exciting, as it contrasts a heated discourse about sexism and concepts such as toxic masculinity or rape culture with two flesh and blood people - with all their complexity, longings and contradictions. To us, it seemed important to emphasize this ambivalence aesthetically in our film, instead of merely reproducing a worn trope.
On the visual level, the story‘s ambiguity finds its counterpart in a simultaneity of seemingly irreconcilable opposites: a conscious play with possible expectations, without deliberately misleading the audience. This is expressed not only in the cast and the acting, but also in the constant change between the main characters’ different perspectives and finally in the music and sound design, which contrasts the picturesque but deserted scenery of historical Vienna with harsh urban electronic beats.
In this way, we try to cinematically suggest the possibility of a romantic chance, without denying the dark associations that the nightly images of deserted, urban places often evoke in us.