First Look: Tilman Singer’s sensuous thriller Luz, starring Luana Velis

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Poster art and some cool, intriguing stills have arrived online to give a first look at writer/director Tilman Singer's "sensuous thriller" LUZ, which is making the festival rounds and will be screening at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal this summer.

Singer's feature debut, LUZ stars Luana Velis as the title character, Luz Carrara. The film's short synopsis goes like this:

Fleeing from the grasp of a possessed woman, a distressed cabdriver begins a confession in a rundown police station that endangers everyone who crosses her path. 

A longer description: 

A rainy night. A dazed and numb young cabdriver, Luz, drags herself into the brightly lit entrance of a rundown police station. Across town in a nightspot, Nora seductively engages police psychiatrist Dr. Rossini in a conversation. Nora is possessed by a demonic entity, longing for the woman it loves – Luz. She tells the Doctor about her old schoolmate Luz’s rebellious past at a Chilean school for girls. Increasingly drunk on her story, Rossini turns into an easy prey in Nora’s hands, but he’s soon called away to the police station to examine Luz. Supervised by his colleagues, the doctor puts Luz in a state of hypnosis that initiates a series of flashbacks, unfolding the events leading to her arrival. But the entity that has taken control of the doctor wants something more. Bit by bit it slips into Luz’ reenactment and makes old memories come to light.

It sounds like an interesting story, and Singer took an interesting approach to bringing it to the screen, shooting his film on 16mm and playing with the sensory perception of the audience by adding in an additional layer of sound that is meant to add "a past reality to a present reality" in the flashback-filled feature. As Singer says, 

The credibility of both realities is questioned at all times. The viewer attempts to answer this question of credibility and therefore has to, with sharpened senses, fully engage in image and sound."

Velis's co-stars in LUZ include Jan Bluthardt, Nadja Stubiger, Johannes Benecke, Julia Riedler, and Lilli Lorenz.

We'll let you know more about LUZ as it continues to secure festival screenings and make its way toward wider distribution. In the meantime, check out the images included in this article.