I have now had the pleasure of attending my first screening at the BFI, something I have wanted to do since university. And what better time to go than to see a debut feature from a new director. Gregor Schmidinger’s Nevrland is a sumptuous, unfiltered debut that blends coming-of-age and psychological horror genres into a wonderful visual treat. Accompanied by an endearing lead and a cacophony of colour and sound that will blow your senses away, it is an incredible standout during a time when queer cinema is making new and exciting waves. It is an experience I won’t forget and is the type of film that reaffirms why I want to be a screenwriter.
The film follows 17 year old Jakob (played spectacularly by Simon Frühwirth) whose life is a directionless limbo of cleaning pig carcasses at a slaughterhouse and caring for his elderly grandfather while his father sits in front of the TV and drinking beer. Fear follows wherever he goes, leading to crippling anxiety attacks and unnerving dreams. Jakob finds solace in gay porn sites and dabbles in cam-chatting with strangers. It’s here he meets Kristjan, a 26 year old (initially faceless) torso with a tattoo mirroring Jakob’s own birthmark.
During the post-film Q&A, Schmidinger read off his influences during the filmmaking process. One audience member described it as Kubrickian and he was correct, Schmidinger citing Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut as a primary source of inspiration. This, along with Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void. Funnily enough, Noé’s latest venture, Climax, was released as Nevrland wrapped production, sharing similar themes of mental fragility and psychotic episodes. There’s also a smattering of Bergman’s Persona and David Fincher’s Seven to establish a visual aesthetic; “dark but with detail”. The film is largely left to the audience’s interpretation which makes it even more exciting. Nevrland, a riff on the fictional world where one never truly grows up, can whatever you want it to be.
Much like the film itself, Schmidinger is a product of the Generation Y internet age. On stage he cuts an enthusiastic figure. Young, confident and brimming with potential like so many new directors now beginning to make their mark in the world of cinema with new and exciting tools at their disposal. While this is his feature debut, he is no stranger to success in the film world, having amassed over 15 million views on YouTube for short films such as Homophobia, a long hard look into sexual prejudice in the hyper-masculine army environment. Making films in the time of social media has brought with it a multitude of new concepts to explore. Identity is perhaps the most prominent. Who are the people behind the online facade? How much are we willing to show? Schmidinger uses Nevrland to answer these questions stunningly, even going so far as to remove the ‘e’ from the film’s title to hammer that point home.
Nevrland comes into its own when it strays from the linear narrative. In what is rare to see in a debut, Schmidinger splinters his narrative with long surrealist experiences that dig deep into Jakob’s fragile adolescent psyche. Faces smashing into mirrors, masked figures dancing in a flurry of strobe flashes and intense techno music in a club, pigs being slaughtered and intercut with pornographic sex scenes. They’re brave, striking sequences that keep the film from being a simple coming-of-age tale. Instead it takes those tropes and experiences and strips them back until there is nothing but raw emotion: anger, sadness, joy, fear. Everything that makes us, us, only heightened to their extremes.
Additionally, Simon Frühwirth as Jakob makes a standout performance with abundant versatility to add weight to all these emotions. Jakob is a very complex character that we grow to love and care for as the film develops. If this is the level Frühwirth is leading with in his debut, he has a very bright future ahead of him.
For me, Nevrland has been a film of firsts. The first time I’ve been to the BFI, the first film Gregor Schmidinger has directed, the first Simon Frühwirth has starred in. I have high hopes for these two as both actor and director and will be looking out for them in the future. It really is work such as this that makes cinema an astounding experience and will undoubtedly inspire others to break into the industry. As I said at the start of this piece, it is films like this that make me want to be a screenwriter. I don’t think I will ever forget my time in Nevrland.
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