Nekromantik Day at Legend Club Brings Buttgereit’s Cult Classic to Official Blu-ray, with Exclusive NAQB Interviews
For nearly four decades, the only way to see Nekromantik in Italy was to track down a bootleg copy of questionable quality and hope the VHS tracking held up until the credits rolled. That chapter is closed. Jörg Buttgereit‘s film has had its official Italian theatrical premiere and its first home video release in the country, and NAQB was there to cover it firsthand.
One Night, Three Historic Firsts
“Nekromantik Day” was held at Legend Club in Milan, organized by Rustblade Records and Mostro Production with the collaboration of Drag Me To Fest. A single evening brought together three firsts: the film’s official Italian screening, a live Q&A with the director, and the launch of the Italian Blu-ray edition, accompanied by the soundtrack also released as a collectible liquid vinyl. Rounding out the night was a live performance by Hermann Kopp, who composed part of the film’s original score.
NAQB was on site with interviewer Nyva Zarbano, who conducted two exclusive interviews now available on the blog’s YouTube channel: one with Buttgereit himself, the other with Stefano Rossello, founder of Rustblade Records, the label behind the entire release.
Why Nekromantik Still Matters, 38 Years Later
For anyone unfamiliar with it: Nekromantik was made in 1987 in West Berlin, shot on Super 8 with a budget close to zero. Buttgereit conceived it as an experiment meant for a handful of theaters in his own city, not as a global phenomenon. Yet the film traveled — without the internet, without official distribution — all the way to America, to Japan, and well beyond German borders, becoming one of the most talked-about titles in underground cinema.
That reach came at a cost: German authorities attempted to have copies of the sequel, Nekromantik 2, destroyed, and Buttgereit had to go through a legal battle to recover material seized by censors. His response to that censorship wasn’t to pull back — it was to push further: he made Schramm, which he still considers his most subversive work today.
That history of creative defiance has made Nekromantik an internationally recognized title — and the audience response at Legend Club confirmed it: the room drew a bigger crowd than expected, with a notable presence of younger viewers, a sign the film keeps finding new audiences generation after generation.
Inside the Kitchen Where Nekromantik’s “Corpse” Was Born
In the interview with Nyva Zarbano, Buttgereit walks through the practical genesis of the film: three weeks spent in his own kitchen with the lead actor building the “corpse” that became one of the movie’s most iconic elements. He also recalls the exact moment he found the courage to start shooting, the influences that shaped his style — chief among them John Waters’ cinema — and the relationship, very different today, between underground aesthetics and the mainstream. He doesn’t hold back on his critical stance toward AI in creative work, or on the emotion of seeing his film officially embraced in Italy nearly four decades after making it.
The full interview with Jörg Buttgereit:
The Label Behind Italy’s Release: Rustblade Records
Behind the operation is Stefano Rossello, founder of Rustblade Records, an Italian label specializing in experimental music and underground cinema. He personally handled direct contact with Buttgereit and producer Manfred Jelinski, all the way through to the final physical package, designed explicitly with collectors in mind. The edition also includes the original soundtrack, with distribution reaching the U.S. market as well. Rossello has openly stated his intention to bring more of Buttgereit’s filmography to Italy, titles still largely undistributed in the country.
The interview with Nyva Zarbano reveals a clear philosophy behind the project: an artistic approach before a commercial one, built around the goal of creating a real community around authentic underground cinema.
The full interview with Stefano Rossello (Rustblade Records):
What This Night Leaves Behind
Nekromantik Day wasn’t just a nostalgia trip for longtime collectors: it was a signal that even the most radical underground cinema can still find — even in Italy, even 38 years later — an audience willing to listen. NAQB’s two interviews now stand as a permanent record of that night, for those who were there and for anyone looking to discover where this piece of horror cinema history really comes from.
