It’s Lara’s 60th birthday, and she should be celebrating. She just retired, and prodigy son Viktor is debuting his musical composition at a prestigious concert. Instead, she has reached a moment of personal crisis—years of heartless behavior has alienated her from everyone around her, including Viktor. As Lara becomes fixated to the point of obsession on making Viktor’s debut a success, the action rises to a fever pitch.

“A masterclass of confident, subtle exposition. … Between the writing, the confident direction and the calm camera, we see a complex woman who is difficult and resolutely unsympathetic, and yet, we understand her. Some may even see the worst part of themselves reflected in her panicked, calculating eyes.” – Screen International

“…a far more cynical beast than Gerster’s previous film and perhaps a better one for it.” – The Film Stage

“The slow reveal of Lara’s dysfunction gives this character study a thriller-like tension, accentuated by the noirish score and Lara’s femme fatale getup of blood red coat and huge sunglasses … An excruciating comedy of awkwardness that blossoms into a moving examination of a life lost and chances not taken.” – The Skinny

Born in Hagen, Jan-Ole Gerster moved to Berlin in 2000, where he interned at the production company “X-Films Creative Pool” (Run Lola Run, The White Ribbon). He studied script writing and directing at the Berlin Film and Television Academy (DFFB). In 2010, Gerster started work on his graduation film Oh Boy (released as A Coffee In Berlin in the US), which premiered at the 2012 Munich Film Festival. Oh Boy garnered international acclaim and won the 2013 German Film Prize in six categories, among them Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Film. For his feature film Lara, he shifted the focus to an older generation, in this nuanced portrait of a mother’s strained artistic ambition.