December Evening
Student Annika returns home for Christmas, but the anticipation of the family dinner is overshadowed by tensions: stepfather Thomas invites business partners, mother Monika is focused on sister Maya’s career, and uncle Detlef stirs things up with his comments. When Maya decides she’d rather celebrate with her boyfriend Barir, Annika covers for her with a lie.
But the news of an attack shakes the holiday dinner. Maya is unreachable—and as their fears grow, so do the cracks in the family’s façade. Accusations, mistrust, and long-suppressed conflicts emerge. The family idyll falls apart, word by word, glance by glance.
When Maya finally shows up unharmed, it seems the horror scenario is over—but what has been said remains. The façade may still be intact, but beneath it, the family is changed forever.
Cast
- Annika
- Katharina Stark
- Monika
- Nicole Marischka
- Thomas
- Lukas Miko
- Detlef
- Sebastian Rudolph
- Sarah
- Valery Tscheplanowa
- Martin
- Christian Erdmann
- Barir
- Soufiane El Mesaudi
December Evening
Matthias Kreter
- Fiction
- Production Country / Year
- Germany 2025
- Language
- dt. OF m. engl. UT
- Format
- DCP, Color, 99min
2.39:1, Discrete 5.1
- Original Title
- Ein Abend im Dezember
Director & Crew
Matthias Kreter
Born in 1990 in Frankfurt/Main. Various internships and courses in the film business. Studied Motion Pictures at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt and Directing at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. Active as a director and producer.
Filmography
| 2013 | Eikasia | Kurzfilm | |
| 2015 | Acheron | Kurzfilm | |
| Cans | Kurzfilm | ||
| 2016 | Pein | 360°-Kurzfilm | |
| 2017 | 8:27 | Kurzfilm | |
| 2018 | Breathe! | Kurzfilm | |
| Smog | Kurzfilm | ||
| 2019 | Ein halb-vergessener Traum | Kurzfilm | |
| 2021 | Verlust | Kurzfilm | |
| 2025 | Ein Abend im Dezember | Spielfilm | 2025 |
“The fear of losing control has accompanied me personally for a long time. In DECEMBER EVENING, I wanted to explore this experience cinematically. I was less interested in the perspective of the perpetrators or direct victims, but more so in the perspective of all of us who ‘only’ have to live with the uncertainty: with fears for our loved ones, with images from the news, with the feeling that everything can fall apart at any moment. In the microcosm of a family, I wanted to show how this fear causes façades to crumble, bringing unspoken conflicts to the surface and destroying trust.”
- Writer
- Matthias Kreter
- Director of Photography
- Marc Tressel-Schmitz
- Editor
- Frauke Tietjen
- Production Designer
- Max-Josef Schönborn
- Costume Designer
- Anna-Luisa Vieregge
- Casting Director
- Karl Schirnhofer
- Sound
- Till Kauffer
- Sound Designer
- Antoine Schweitzer
- Music Composer
- Hannes Bieber
- Make-up
- Milena Niehues
- Anna Vinogradova
- Producer
- Nicolas Kronauer
- Alexandra Rilli