Interview with Alvin Lee, director of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Where did the idea for this film come from? This story is a cumulative memory of my experiences in attending funeral wakes. I realised funeral wake nowadays have little to do with the deceased. In Singapore, we often see family members and funeral wake guests chatting leisurely, discussing business, drinking alcohol, and […]
Interview with Alexis Pazoumian, director of Bellus What did you want to explore through the relationship between Michel and Santos in the film?Bellus follows Michel’s inner and spiritual journey. The film tells the story from the perspective of the young man. It is not a story of conversion, but of a winding path toward a form of redemption. Evangelical religion plays a very […]
Interview with Tonia Mishiali, director of Daphne Can you tell us about Daphne, the main character, and what led you to write her story?Daphne is a single mum. She has hardly any communication with her socially awkward son, who has been consumed by technology, and she is struggling with that. She works from home due to the pandemic restrictive measures, so she has […]
Interview with Mehedi Mostafa, director of Fantasy in a Concrete Jungle How much are you interested in urbanization? Do you have further projects on this topic?I studied architecture in Dhaka, maybe that’s why I’m interested in urbanism and urbanization. I used to think Dhaka would become a well-designed city and it’s possible. Surely, it was a utopia. But utopia is important for the […]
Interview with Jinkyu Jeon, director of The House of Loss Can you tell us more about the choice of title?Ten years ago, when I was working in a senior care center as a soldier on mandatory duty, everyone was moving forward step by step on their own path, but I felt like I was the only one tied to the place. I don’t want […]
Interview with Amartei Amar, director of TsutsuƐ What was the starting point of TsutsuƐ?TsutsuƐ was born through three spiritually interwoven true stories. The first was from an experience our Producer had when a neighbourhood boy discovered a dead body in an open sewer. As he went to tell others, it rained a great thunderstorm. By the time he managed to get everyone to […]
Interview with Leo Černic, director of Pentola How did you get the inspiration for Pentola?Although Pentola may seem like a pretty silly film (and it certainly is!), it stems from a very personal story. A few years ago I totally fell in love with a man, and found myself facing for the first time a thousand problems, questions and doubts that I had never […]
Interview with Ramazan Kılıç, director of Serpêhatiyên Neqewimî [Things Unheard Of] Your previous short was at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. Can you tell us how you came up with this new idea for a film?There is a photograph taken by Reza Deghati in Ağrı, where I was born. On that photograph, two children carry an empty television frame. Reza photographed a moment […]
Interview with Jan Bujnowski, director of Diabeł [The Devil] Who is the devil here and what does he represent? Why did you choose to portray him this way? The devil in my film represents all the people who prey on other’s weaknesses and try to make a profit from their misery. How he looks like is defined by the time when the […]
Interview with Balázs Turai, director of Amok Why did you choose this topic?I was reading about Jung’s concept of the shadow, the part of our psyche that remains hidden and uncontrollable to our conscious mind. I was inspired to portray someone’s shadow as a cartoony gnome who takes control of their life. Also I was moved by psychologist Péter Popper’s idea that a […]