AFTER THE ACT
A devastating meditation on love and intimacy, unfolding over 24 hours as three friends face the quiet wreckage of their choices.
Experience After The Act in select cinemas
8pm, Dec 3rd, 2025 — World Premiere Admiral Kino Vienna
7pm, Dec 9th, 2025 — Sputnik Kino Berlin
Dec 11 - 21 — Eclipse Cinema, Melbourne
(no online booking fee)
Thursday 11th— 12:40 PM
Friday 12th — 7:00 PM
Saturday 13th — 1:00 PM
Sunday 14th — 2:00 PM
Monday 15th — 8:00 PM
Tuesday 16th — 11:00 AM
Thursday 18th — 2.40 PM
Sunday 21st — 1.30 PM
SPECIAL EVENT
Saturday, Dec 13th
+ Director Q&A 7pm — TICKET
European drama After The Act to Premiere Theatrically Across Europe & Australia throughout December 2025.
After The Act, the latest feature film from filmmakers Sarah Jayne Portelli and Ivan Malekin of Nexus Production Group, opens in select cinemas across Europe and Australia this December.
The film will premiere on December 3rd at Admiral Kino, Vienna, followed by a screening on December 9th at Berlin’s underground Sputnik Kino. Both events are followed by discussions with the filmmakers and local lead actors Laura Petracco and Jacob Wolf Lefton.
Set in Berlin, After The Act is a devastating meditation on love and intimacy, unfolding over 24 hours as three friends face the quiet wreckage of their choices.
Described by Senses of Cinema critic Bill Mousoulis as “uniquely intimate cinema,” and praised by IndyRed critic Ken Greaves as “a savage emotional rollercoaster," the film continues Nexus Production Group’s exploration of raw, human storytelling through unconventional filmmaking techniques and emotional realism.
Drawing from the traditions of arthouse and slow cinema, After The Act channels the observational intimacy of Éric Rohmer, the elliptical honesty of Hong Sang-soo, and the lived-in immediacy of Berlin mumblecore.
Portelli and Malekin describe their fifth improvised feature, as “the culmination of an ongoing experiment: to make films that feel lived, not manufactured. In embracing the unconventional, we find honesty and in that honesty, we hope audiences see themselves reflected; messy, complicated, human.”
All theatrical screenings include a Q&A with the filmmakers
“Will break your heart as you watch, and challenge you to pick up the pieces.”
Cast
Laura Petracco is a Brazilian-Italian actor who started her path in the performing arts world at the age of nine dancing ballet and singing at the local Choir group in Patrocínio where she was born. A few years later she joined the Co. Maxima de teatro, where she had the opportunity to learn more about acting as well as travel and perform in multiple theatre Festivals around Brazil.
Later she moved to Ireland where she took a part-time acting course at the Gaiety School of Acting and joined the Actors Workshop in Dublin. She recently graduate from the Vienna English Theatre academy where she received classical training, performing in Shakespeare and original ensemble based shows. Currently she is part of the Spanish Theatre association in Vienna, Soles del Sur.
Jacob Wolf Lefton is a non-binary male actor, writer and director from the United States. His rich and varied path in the performing arts started in his youth with theater, improvisation and theatrical roleplay.
Through the years he has studied storytelling, theater, commedia dell'arte, and circus arts. He completed a two-year intensive program and teacher training at the Michael Chekhov International Academy in Berlin.
He continues to act and improvise on film and stage while developing his own experimental formats and creative works.
Jessica Sy is a state-approved actress, born in Munich. She spent her first months of life with her parents in Jamaica, her father's country of origin.
Jessica Sy starred in the film Survival in Brandenburg (dir. Zoltan Paul) and has appeared on ZDF as a detective on the German series Aktenzeichen XY. Her first international advertising campaign took Jessica to Estonia under the direction of director Bugsy Steel.
On stage, Jessica most recently worked for the Residenztheater in Munich in a play called The Promised Land and she is in the ensemble of The Mediterranean Monologues touring throughout Germany.
