After the stylized maximalism of his 2024 feature Dragon, filmmaker Sebastian Sommer has returned with something different: Revolver, a 30-second black-and-white short that condenses cinema into a single moment. In the film, Sommer is alone at a gun range, the image cut and spliced with experimental edits. There’s no dialogue, no score, just the sharp sound of gunfire and the weight of a moment.
We caught up with Sommer to talk about stripping film down to its bare essentials.
Q: After a feature like Dragon, why make something so minimal?
A: I wanted to work in complete reduction. I was inspired by Rick Rubin who focuses on stripping things down to the essentials. I needed to remind people that I’m not just a fluke.
Q: The edit feels like an action movie. Was that intentional?
A: Absolutely. The cuts had to have the same energy as the action itself. I always wanted to make an action film like Crank.
Q: Where did the idea come from?
A: I was with my girlfriend one day and decided to go to the gun range. I’d been there before with a friend. I filmed it almost impulsively. The piece came together in the edit.
Q: What do you hope people take away from this?
A: I did what I said I was going to do and I am who I say I am. I think that’s pretty obvious at this point. You would have to be really slow not to get that.
Revolver is now screening online and at screenings.
Watch it here:
