Peter Brunner returns to the main Competition with his highly vivid film To the Night. The director will present the film’s world premiere together with the rising American star Caleb Landry Jones.
The main character has a loving girlfriend and a new-born son, but his seemingly idyllic life starts to crack once his memories drag him back to his childhood, when a fire that took the rest of his family. He deals with this psychological trauma mainly through art; however, this is more like the Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a mountain, director Peter Brunner notes: “Rather than describing the pathological aspect, I focused on the mythological side of the case.”
The film, which opens a discussion on people suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, is narrated from the inner perspective of the main character. “I often ask myself: how does it feel when you doubt that the others love you? All my characters explore this question, trying to establish substitute families to overcome their trauma,” Brunner explained the idea of the film.
American actor Caleb Landry Jones excels in the portrayal of his character’s inner feelings. He said with affection that apart from the screenplay, he was also really interested in making To the Night as it gave him the opportunity to work with Peter Brunner. The actor has shot several outstanding films in the past years, including Three Billboards Outside Ebbing.
