A beloved acting teacher rallies his favourite students one last time to stage his final play.

Director Biography

Carling Ernstzen, a South African born, London based writer, and director and actor. An alumna of AFDA Cape Town Film School. I began my career in acting in Cape Town - TV series, feature films, and international commercials before moving to London a decade ago which has since become my second home.

Director Statement

I am a Cape Town–born, London-based actress, writer, and director. After training in acting and building a career in film, television, and commercials, The Last Rehearsal marks my writing and directorial debut. The Last Rehearsal is a meditation on mentorship, loss, and creative inheritance. The film is shaped around a simple question: who carries the work forward when a guiding voice disappears? Written in response to the loss of my acting teacher and mentor, the film resists explanation in favour of presence. It reflects on unfinished work, artistic lineage, and the quiet ways influence endures beyond physical absence. As a filmmaker, I was drawn to the rehearsal room as a contained and revealing space, one where process is visible, relationships are negotiated in real time, and the boundary between art and life remains porous. The formal approach is restrained and performance-led, favouring duration and stillness over exposition. Image and sound work in close dialogue, foregrounding texture, rhythm, and silence as carriers of memory. At its core, the film is concerned with connection, between artists, across generations, and through the work that remains.

Link to official press kit.