“Arresting” seems an appropriate word to describe Hamburg writer-director Steffen Goldkamp’s feature film debut Rain Fell on the Nothing New (Regen fiel auf nichts Neues), starring Noah Sayenko in his first acting role. No pun intended!
After all, the German movie, which world premieres in the Proxima Competition lineup of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Saturday, July 5, confronts us with questions about what detention and prison do to individuals, especially young ones.
The festival promises “surgically precise direction, carefully constructed atmosphere, and also the discreet empathy with which the filmmaker discovers the intimacy of his antihero hovering on the edge of society.” And it highlights: “With his softly nuanced performance, Noah Sayenko excels in the main role.”
He plays David, who “has served his time in juvenile detention. His sincere attempts to restart his life as a free individual with better prospects, however, are hindered by a society that can’t overlook the fact that he has a criminal record, nor is it particularly willing to give him a second chance,” reads a synopsis on the KVIFF website. “Will David be able to cope with his increasing feelings of frustration?”
Rain Fell on the Nothing New comes from production firm Tamtam Film and producers Andrea Schütte, Dirk Decker, and Paulina Toenne, with Tom Otte serving as director of photography and Jelena Maksimović as editor.
THR talked to Goldkamp and Sayenko ahead of the world premiere about how they came to work together on the film, its themes, and what may be next.
“I made a similar film, a short film set in a young prison in 2019, which was called After Two Hours, 10 Minutes Had Passed,” Goldkamp highlighted in describing his inspiration for his feature. “At the time, I was somehow interested in finding out what prison was really like – what kind of place it really was. You know the place so well from the movies. But what does the comparison look like in reality? I was able to research and then film it, and we made this film. And after it was finished, many of the people who had actually lived there had relapsed.”
Then made the filmmaker wonder. “I asked myself how and why that actually happened,” he told THR. “And then I watched a court case and dove pretty much headfirst into research, which was primarily about rehabilitation. One of the non-professionals I filmed with had committed a series of robberies, and some of this is also in this film. And I had discussions with judges and social workers.”
Goldkamp initially considered featuring all these people in his movie. “But then it became clear that you couldn’t cast the film authentically with these people, because it would be too difficult for everyone involved,” he explained. “I thought perhaps there is someone we could work with for whom playing someone who’s a criminal isn’t an obstacle. So, we looked around and searched.”
‘Rain Fell on the Nothing New’
Courtesy of Tamtam Film
Casting director Katrin Vorderwülbecke met Sayenko, who was 17 back then, by coincidence, namely outside a martial arts gym when asking him for directions to a school – before turning around and inviting him to a casting. “I thought it was for some kind of YouTube video or something,” Sayenko told THR. “Then she filmed me briefly, I introduced myself, and then she showed it to Steffen, and then Steffen called me, and a month later, I got the casting call somewhere on a playground.”
The 21-year-old returned to his passion for acting with the film. “I had theater in high school. It was fun for me, but the teacher wasn’t really a fan,” he recalled. “When I was younger, I had this dream of becoming an actor, but only because I was inspired by a Russian actor [Maksim Averin] whose performance I saw. But that somehow disappeared.”
Preparing for Rain Fell on the Nothing New, the director and his leading young man quickly developed a strong bond and connection that helped their collaboration. “I try to implement what Steffen wants to do. And I think that has to do with the discipline I have in martial arts,” Sayenko tells THR. Since I also have somewhat of a position of authority in martial arts, because I am also a coach for children and adolescents, I think discipline is very important, especially when it comes to things you want to have. And I also feel I have good control of and feeling for my body.”
One thing that Goldkamp asked his star to keep in mind was that he wanted “as much real behavior as possible rather than acting. “Steffen told me early on that he didn’t want me to be an actor,” he recalled. “He just told me, ‘Okay, you’re in this and that situation.’ Or: ‘You have this and that in your past.’ He didn’t tell me everything about the film, but he always gave me brief guidance before each scene. So, I basically just freestyled, improvised, and was able to fit into the role of David.”
Goldkamp also didn’t want to present a detailed narrative throughout the film. “It’s more of a kaleidoscopic thing, something fragmentary, in that it doesn’t have a claim to be a complete narrative,” the director told THR. “But it’s very much about finding certain places and showing situations that I may not have experienced myself, but that I can understand or feel.”
For example, “you can sit in the kitchen and let your head hang, and that contributes something,” he explained. “And then Noah contributes a lot to that with how he plays and translates things for himself and transforms this into movement and language.”
‘Rain Fell on the Nothing New’
Courtesy of Tamtam Film
Prison feels claustrophobic in Rain Fell on the Nothing New, not that the outside world seems like a much safer place for David. Did the creative team shoot these two worlds in different ways? “The prison is shot on 16mm, and the world outside is shot on 35mm,” mentioned Goldkamp. “There is this distinction that the film makes between freedom on 35, a slightly wider format with more depth, and the prison on 16, which is maybe a bit noisier and a bit rougher and where you don’t feel the depth of the world so much.”
Also, “the concept of light changes,” he added. “Sometimes you lean more into the genre, sometimes you try to be a little bit clearer.”
Without spoiling the experience of watching Rain Fell on the Nothing New, the framing of shots and the speed of the camera and people’s movements also play important roles in bringing the film, its characters, and its themes to life.
Given the importance of visuals and atmosphere in the movie, along with a small production budget, the discipline mentioned by Sayenko, planning and preparation were key parts of the creative process. “We rehearsed a lot, and when we turned on the camera, there were often just two or three takes,” Goldkamp told THR. “I think the last scene we shot four or five times. But overall, we didn’t really shoot that much.”
Sayenko lauded Goldkamp for talking him through scenes and allowing for moments of “simple stillness” to get him into the character and his mood. “In the process, you really start feeling this depression and monotony and getting inside the head of that person,” he explained.
Speaking of monotony, don’t expect a lot of heist or action scenes as Goldkamp was more interested in the psychological and social aspects that lead to a high risk of reoffending. “Nothing much happens in the film and, unfortunately, also in reality,” he highlighted in that regard.
‘Rain Fell on the Nothing New’
Courtesy of Tamtam Film
Both the actor and his director shared that they often ended up feeling the emotion and atmosphere of a scene intensely during the shoot, adding to the sense of authenticity that they wanted to create.
The original working title of the film was Der Optimismus, or Optimism. Goldkamp changed it to Rain Fell on the Nothing New, a variation of the opening line in Samuel Beckett’s Murphy, which says: “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.” Said Goldkamp: “I was looking for a title that signaled a sense of inevitability, such as the weather, and something uncomfortable, like wetness, that nobody can do anything about. So, there is something that has been around for a long time and that is not changing.”
After the intense experience of Rain Fell on the Nothing New, what’s next for the two? While he also has goals outside of acting, Sayenko shared that the work on the movie has ignited his passion for the craft, and he is excited to take on more challenges in front of the camera. “Acting has been my favorite work so far, so I definitely want to continue,” he told THR, adding that he also just finished a short film. “I look forward to future opportunities.”
Meanwhile, Goldkamp expects to do more work in the genre he has worked in, adding: “I’d love to shoot a heist movie.”
Their current focus, though, is on Karlovy Vary and the world premiere of Rain Fell on the Nothing New, which is likely to create debate – and not only back home in Germany.