Director Nils Keller & Producer Jonas Lembeck On the Ambition and Yearning of Live Action Short ‘Almost Home’

Imagine the only thing you wanted in the entire world was to go home, but you were not allowed. Wanting something to badly is a common thread throughout most coming-of-age films, but Live Action Short Film contender, Almost Home, takes that familiar theme and places it out of our atmosphere and into a sleek, isolated spaceship. Even with its fantastical, out-of-this-world visual effects, director Nils Keller and producer Jonas Lembeck needed to ground the emotion to make it a universal story. It is about emotions mixed with the intellect and how a mother will do anything–even go to space and back–for her child.

Almost Home is one of the longer entries on this year’s shortlist, but a lot of that time is devoted to establishing the mood and feel of the ship in order for it to get into our bodies as a viewer. It was important to Keller that we didn’t feel alienated by our new surroundings, and that connection only strengthened the central conflict when it comes into play.

“It was important to establish that world because it is so distant and strange, in a way,” Keller said. “I wanted to give the spaceship the benefit of the doubt as a home, and there are good things happening for Jakob like the zero gravity and the relationship to his mother. It was important to give this place a soul, because, otherwise, there is no option at all to stay there. There needed to be a special connection right away.”

I was almost hesitant to label Keller’s film as sci-fi because of how well it connects us with Jakob and his mother, Nico. The production design is immaculate, but that becomes almost secondary to Jakob’s plight when he yearns to be back with his father and friends. It was important to Lembeck and Keller that the emotions drive the narrative and not the design.

“It’s great when people say that it’s a great coming-of-age drama and that it touches them emotionally,” Lembeck said. “Let’s be honest here. It was ambitious to set this in space in a short film, but it elevates the drama since it is contained when it’s set in space. It was a challenge to make things happen, and we had to find creative ways to get things done sometimes.”

N”We discussed that with every step of the production,” Keller said. “That is a credit to Jonas and his production team and the director of photography, but to make sure that the conflict and the drama being at the center needed to be supported by all the technical aspects of the film. It was a fight to decide, for example, when the zero gravity didn’t work, to move on in certain places. Jakob feeling free in his body was important but then we would have to move onto something more emotionally taxing like a scene between Jakob and his father. With the limited time frame, we were always conscious of bringing emotion to the center. We had to focus on the characters.”

Nico becomes concerned that Jakob cannot return to Earth because of the risk of an aggressive flu outbreak that can be deadly for those who are immunocompromised. It clearly echoes the COVID pandemic, but by placing the film out of Earth’s atmosphere creates a distance for the viewer to enjoy the story without being reminded of the last three years. Almost Home is not meant to be a political statement of what one should do, but it’s an alarming reminder of how we even talk about sickness has changed.

“The storytelling derived from an article about people stuck on a cruise ship when the pandemic was raging in early 2020,” Keller revealed. “There was a side note that said that there we people on board who think they should stay on board even if they are not sick, because they think that it is safer. Where is the line between safety and freedom? The main story came from there, and it felt important to use this collective experience with the collective coming-of-age experience. We all go through both things together, and who is deciding on our behalf what we want from life? Are we ready to sacrifice? It felt like we were using COVID but also getting away from the pandemic at the same time. We were all negotiating with our families when the pandemic started.”

“We never meant it as a political statement or a statement on the COVID situation,” Lembeck noted. “Of course, it is important that we all went through feelings of isolation at some point or another. Nico and Jakob are going through the same thing in a coming-of-age drama, and a younger generation felt a lot of things while they were trapped in their homes.”

“We never wanted to answer questions about the subject, but we wanted to ask questions,” Keller added. “In the end, this is about this hurting feeling in life when you don’t have a good option and it’s just about what you sacrifice. Do you risk it all and risk your safety? It doesn’t have to be about sickness–it can be about anything. It can be about your career or your relationship.”

Almost Home has better visual language than some feature length films, and Lembeck credited the film’s success to the patience and dedicated team that was assembled. With so many technical aspects (including holograms and actors floating around the set), everything needed to be expertly planned and laid out.

“I was not only impressed with the pitch and the scale, but the other side is the ambition” Lembeck said. “It was important to attach great partners, so it was never an option to just spend money to get the problems solved. As a creative team, it was imperative to work together for distribute money or come up with solutions to issues. We had a great stunt company attached and our DP was amazing. I am grateful that we had the possibility  to work so closely, because we had to. It was always on our minds to prioritize everything to make clear decisions without losing the creative vision.”

One of the strongest elements to Almost Home is how much Keller allows us to see Earth through the windows of the ship. It’s a constant reminder of what Jakob is fighting for and how that tiny, blue marble could, potentially, lead to his demise if he decided to go back.

“It’s important for Jakob emotionally, because when Earth looks that small, it feels like you can touch it or hold it in your hand,” Keller said. “When we pitched the idea, it was like a chamber play, but because Earth is in the window, it makes it feel bigger. The stage couldn’t be bigger, and you feel the longing from Jakob but also his imprisonment. For most of the production, we had to imagine that it would play that much of a role when it shows up. Even when you don’t see Earth for five or ten seconds, it feels better when you see it again. Our visual effects team did a fantastic job of helping us feel that longing.”