UCM.ONE is bringing the award-winning film “Monolith” to German cinemas on the Darling Berlin label from 12 October 2023. In this existentialist film drama, director and writer Julius Schultheiß tells the story of a driven, characterless man’s loss of control and self-dissolution.
Monolith is an “essayistic film noir“ (according to director and author Julius Schultheiß) told with the means of a police thriller, which takes the viewer on an oppressive journey into the protagonist’s inner world. The film succeeds in telling the story of the protagonist’s seemingly deliberate annihilation of his own existence in impressive and powerful images that can hardly be verbalised or described.
Summary
Samir is part of a social circle of friends. One evening, his friend Basil suddenly leaves the group and doesn’t return. Shortly afterwards, Samir’s night shift begins, he gets into a taxi and we follow him for 24 hours: he sets off on a road trip through Berlin at night, one eye always on his smartphone to show him the way. The next day, while searching for Basil, Samir meets people who make him increasingly aware of his dwindling existence. When he realises that he can’t get anywhere on his own, the mysterious Henry appears and offers him a solution that requires sacrifice.
Julius Schultheiß says about the film: “Due to a loss in my personal environment, I had the basic idea of making a very calm and existentialist film. It was to be a drama, but also contain aspects of a crime story. I was keen to limit the action to 24 hours and to follow a single person without interruption. The character should be largely free of clearly defined character traits – lost, depressed and passive, as if he were a spectator of himself. You only learn about the characteristics attributed to him through others and even then you don’t know if they are true.
The result, I hope, is a long-lasting uncertainty about the protagonist’s past, desires and goals.”
More information about: Monolith
More information about the label: Darling Berlin
