Breakfast with K-Nada

An interview with Hubert Charuel, director of K-Nada

 How did you come up with the idea for these two characters who seem completely different, and yet who also seem incapable of moving forward without the other?

The basis for K-Nada was really and truly the desire to make a film for these two people. My co-scriptwriter and I wanted to write a script that brought together Valentin, my cousin and the actor in my school film project, and Grégoire, the editor of the same film. One day they were both there in the same room with us and we thought it would be interesting to put them in front of the camera. As far as their appearance goes, they are very unalike, and yet they can be very close on a number of points.

Your question very neatly summarizes our initial idea; in fact, I often describe the film like that. Two completely different brothers who are going to share the same car in order to attain what they want.

 The characters take turns leading the duo, and it is difficult to say that one or the other is the “dominant” partner, which is an especially subtle approach. You may well have gotten your inspiration from somewhere, but did you consciously try to avoid the sort of comic duos like Laurel and Hardy or Starsky and Hutch?
We worked hard on the script and the editing so that neither character really dominates the other. The film works with two characters who give each other shit, always going back to each other’s failures. Grégoire and Valentin never question their own choices; they question the other’s choices. The way they make progress is by tearing each other down; each one is the other’s conscience. For that to work, the negative forces had to be equal on both sides.

 Your heroes harbor professional dreams but they they go off in search of a life project that will finally work for them. Do you think that this attitude (defining, planning and building a project without achieving it) is a behavioral trait that is common among today’s young people?

I can’t make any generalized observations. The characters are rooted in a social and geographical context, which happens to be mine. I grew up in a poor, rural department, just like them. The economic capital iss an old steel bastion that has been devastated by unemployment and factory closings since the 1980s. Back there, the economic crisis has been going on for thirty years. At one point, I realized that the only dreams that any of us had, my friends and myself, were at the ends of the earth from where we lived: making movies or music, building log cabins, or just living in another country. We wanted to escape all that. When you’re young and you can’t get out of the hole where you live, you imagine yourself already far away, without really thinking about the best way to get there. And on top of that, there’s no one who can really help you out anyway. So in that sense, I would not be at all surprised if the feeling of ever-present depression that we were trying to escape in any way possible was more widespread.

 You chose two characters who are linked by blood. Do you think they could have had the same relationship if they had simply been friends?

I don’t know if you can be that direct or violent with a friend, telling him frankly what you think of his life. A brother will always be a brother, but you can lose a friend. And I would find it harder to understand why these two people who are so much in conflict would spend so much time together.

 For that matter, did you do any research on the likelihood of receiving an offer of illegal work like the one you present in the film?
It’s no secret that some nightclubs out in the country are serious hubs for drug traffiking. My region is a hub and there are tons of articles on the subject (See for example:

http://www.jhm.fr/blogs/justice/2013/03/06/sur-la-route-des-stups/). It may not be all that frequent, but these things exist. As far as the trips to Amsterdam and Maastricht are concerned, I don’t need to do research; I know the story inside and out.

 Are you as sympathetic to the theme of solidarity as your are of brotherhood? Could you have made a film about a larger group of people, or are you more interested in relationship “pairs”? Do you think the “other” is a solution for ourselves?

I’m very sympathetic to the question since I am an only child and regret that. I’m definitely interested in making a film with a group of characters, but with a short format, it’s more complicated. Believing in the other is exactly the film’s message. Believing in the other, even if it doesn’t always work.

 Why did you choose to place your heroes in unenviable relationships with women? Was it your intention from the beginning that neither of them should have a fulfilling romantic life?

I don’t know if their relationships are unenviable; they simply don’t have any. If I put myself in their shoes, then I would say that their situation is unenviable, that they feel that, and that they’re convinced that no one will be interested in them. I’m very much of the opinion that you need to fulfill yourself in order to feel fulfilled for an extended period with someone else, or else the relationship becomes imbalanced. For me, they’re ready for a romantic relationship by the end of the film.

 K-Nada was produced in France. In your opinion, what does the French film industry offer that others don’t, as far as short films are concerned?

The very principle of the French film industry is one of a kind in the world. There is no one else who produces as many short films. We’re lucky. I’ve never been produced outside of France, so I can’t really say what is better or less good. But I do know that making short films in France means the freedom to do what you want to do, without having to depend upon the economic contingencies tied to making money. It’s the best school for experimenting with things that become impossible once you move on to feature films.

Programe for viewing K-Nada: National Competition F11.

More info

The film was screened in the national selection at the Premiers Plans festival in Angers.

Hubert Charuel will also be meeting with high school students who are in charge of a web magazine for LDVTV.