The exploration of sexual violence in its’ numerous forms over the years has been traditionally used as a point of reference in films like THE ACCUSED, DEATH WISH and STRAW DOGS whilst focusing on both the humiliating and victimizing effect it has on the female protagonists in the respective narratives.
Nadja Bobyleva attempts to look at it from a greater female perspective in a more restrained – but equally explicit – at times way in her new short film drama KINTSUGI.
Film And TV Now interviewed the director about her work.
FILM AND TV NOW: This is a very powerful analysis of the effect of sexual assault and its’ consequences. What was the inspiration for the short?
NADJA BOBYLEVA: The initial idea came from Sylta Fee Wegmann, who played Lea. She was interested in exploring the psychological abyss, that may come as a result from such a violent experience of which the main character goes through. I didn’t quite know at that point what to do with it.
One night I dreamed a key scene for the movie, which made me think, that there might be a story worth exploring. So, I started writing. At that time, I wanted to expand the regular scheme of shooting I had learned so far. I wanted to challenge myself to find an unusual approach to my vision. In the end, with filmmaking, everything is possible. That is the beauty of this form of storytelling.
FTVN: What is the meaning of the title?
NB: “Kintsugi” is a Japanese art of restoring broken pottery with gold. The thought of Lea, in a way, restoring her own broken self, having put the pieces together from her past, fitted to this art of repairing/healing.
FTVN: The film uses the suggestion of sexual violence throughout and there are visual motifs that are alternatives to the more common visuals we see in films like DEATH WISH and STRAW DOGS. Did you confer with psychologists whilst you were conceiving and writing the script?
NB: We had a lot of reading material from victim interviews and their stories, which were inspiring for the script, if one can use this sort of description in this context. We have met with psychologists and social workers of a help center for assaulted women, who counselled us.
I didn’t want to make another social drama on this subject, I knew I wanted something raw and brutal in the end, considering the brutality on the act itself. And from the film-maker’s point of view, I was looking for a rather different, abstract approach to tell the story.
FTVN: Tell us about your cast.
NB: Luckily, I was fortunate to have known all the cast members through previous projects or have been acquainted with them otherwise. Through my past, in working as an actress and other positions in the film industry, I met a huge pool of great artists that I can select from.
The actors in my movie are professional actors having careers in film, television, and theatre. There was trust between all of us and before coming on set we took several days of rehearsing in my still empty apartment which I moved in parallel to the production.
Going over the scenes and dialog together, creating an artistic bond I tried to get them to a point where they feel safe coming to set, already having had lived their character. Together we were rewriting dialogues on the go, if something felt not right to them, and they were bringing in ideas arguing from their characters state.
FTVN: Tell us about your production team.
NB: Similar to the actors, I have been working with most of the team members prior to our project. I was fortunate to get the people I admire in their work and respect deeply. I had my dream team. We were about twenty -four people in total.
It was a group of incredible artists, a big mix of nationalities, genders, and sexual orientations, who came from several different countries. I couldn’t have wanted it any other way and I hope to keep this team for future projects and make it grow with more amazing talents.
FTVN: Where did you shoot and for how long?
NB: We shot two days in Berlin, Germany. Then we moved to a little village in Poland.
I have a genius set designer, Bartholomaeus Martin Kleppek, which I always work with, so he was also the location scout for Poland having had worked there previously. He had found a perfect house for us in which we all lived and worked together for additional seven days.
We basically shot at almost every house in that village, each room was a different location. Those days were like school camp. We had breakfast lunch and dinner together and shared our rooms. It was an intense and great experience. In the first few days, it was difficult for us to find a proper catering, so everyone jumped in and started peeling potatoes during the break. I was amazed.
Pretty soon though, the locals found a person delivering super organic food from their own gardens. Every delivery was like Christmas for us. The grip called a friend who came from Berlin to cook for us. The support I experienced was beyond everything I could have asked for. And I´m extremely grateful for it.
FTVN: The plants wrapping themselves around the man is very reminiscent of an infamous moment from Sam Raimi’s original 1981 version of THE EVIL DEAD. Was this an influence on the visual style of the work?
NB: To be honest I have never seen this film. I´m not that big on watching Horror movies, even though they are fun to shoot. Someone did tell me later though that there is a similarity to our basement scene. Damn. I guess there is hardly anything that hasn’t been already done in movies.
The idea of the plants came to us, when my co-writer and I were wracking our brains around what the women might do to the man as vengeance. Everything we had thought of, seemed too literal. The scene with Laura replanting the orchids, was already in the script.
Suddenly I got the idea of using the plants as a metaphor and with this giving them a bigger meaning within the story. I didn’t want to show a realistic explicit rape. That´s also why we had only short moments showing Leas assault.
FTVN: The short does get quite bloody and graphic towards the end, emphasising the effect of the violence on one of the women. Tell us about your make-up and effects team.
NB: If there is a scene for which I got influenced by a movie, than it’s the one in the end where blood is pouring out of her body. The bloody door scene in “The Shining” kept coming to me while I was writing that scene and I would have loved to recreate this moment. Well, we didn´t have the budget for that. So it had to be less blood.
Bartholomaeus and his team were cooking several gallons of blood, it was some kind of a mix from water, fruit sirup, tomato, beetroot, and some other ingredients I don´t even know about. A small budget makes creative and they got super creative on that. The problem was, the house we were shooting at had a white painted floor. Bartholomaeus had found another house nearby which was about to be torn down. That´s where we shot all the blood on the floor.
When it came to the scene on the table, the whole floor was covered in plastic. From the kitchen, the art design team was pumping the fake blood through tubes that were attached to the actors. In the end we managed to keep the white floor clean.
As for the make-up department, Amelie Salomon was the key makeup, who kindly made time to come from Paris to shoot with us. I’ve known Amelie from a show we have done together and I trust her with everything. She and her department were very precise and subtle, though you can feel the growing distress on the characters.
FTVN: Are the themes of this short something you’d like to explore in a feature version?
NB: Honestly, it was quite demanding working on this movie. Watching it over and over again in the post, was an emotional challenge. I think my next movie should be a comedy, which is already in development. Sometimes in the edit, I was regretting making “Kintsugi” a short.
I felt like we could have explored more, dig deeper into the characters and the story. I´m not opposed to following up with a feature based on “Kintsugi”. In fact, I´m writing a feature that has parallels to it. But I also have lots of other stories that are waiting to be told. I´m open to lots of different possibilities.
FTVN: How has COVID-19 affected you as a creative film-maker?
NB: In the beginning, it was scary for sure. I was in the middle of a project which had to be paused and threw off some future plans. It is still scary because no one knows what it means for the upcoming years.
It did teach us though not to rely on plans, which was difficult for me as I am a person who makes plans all the time. I need to know what I am working towards, to have some sort of safety feeling in this unsafe business.
I still have thoughts like…if film-making is the core centre of my life and I live for it, what am I going to do if film and storytelling become obsolete at some point…if we are not going to be able to make movies…if everything becomes just about survival. It is scary and I try to adjust and be in the moment. I tried to keep calm and take the time for things that needed it, like writing half-written scripts or develop ideas.
FTVN: Tell us about the music used in the film.
NB: As with other core team members, Anton Berman is the musician I worked on all my projects with. Our first collaboration was on my feature documentary, which I had made several years ago. Anton is another genius I´m fortunate to have on my team.
In my opinion, he is able to create all the different genres of music and still keep his own specific handwriting. In our documentary, we had mostly melancholic piano music and some Russian folk-inspired songs, all written by him.
With “Kintsugi” we were seeking inspiration from Musicians like Hildur Guonadottir, who created the fantastic soundtrack for “Chernobyl”. For the last scene, I joined him at his studio, it was important to create a certain feeling so being there, while Anton was composing, was essential for the development of the sound.
As for the “Theme Song”, it was something out of my childhood. I needed a song which triggers Lea, bringing back memories. I have had such a song, which was playing throughout the weather forecast and would creep me out every time, while I was trying to sleep. Anton was writing the whole soundtrack, so instead of obtaining the rights for an already existing song, which everyone has their personal feeling to, we decided for him to write a new “80ties Hit”. I think it worked well.
FTVN: Finally, what are you most proud of about the film and what are you hopes for the future?
NB: The whole movie had a difficult journey.
I was full time in the middle of a shoot while preparing “Kintsugi” to start shooting 5 days after wrapping the other one. I have had put all my money into it, despite having heard many times from other film-makers not to do so. I had to learn for myself. I wanted to make this movie at any cost.
For post-production, we had to run a crowdfunding campaign to be able to finish the movie at all. It was my first set to run with that many people and I am proud of myself having managed all of that and having found the right people to jump on board with me.
I am proud of Sylta Fee (Lea) being nominated for Best Lead Actress at the South African Indie Film Festival. Especially because she told me once that usually, directors want her to act “more” with her face and never allow her character to “just exist”. For me, it was the opposite which she welcomed. Her nomination is the biggest compliment for me.
As the future goes, I hope that we all will be able to make many more movies and share them with the world. I have two finished feature scripts which I will be starting to seek funding in the upcoming months. Several other projects are in development.
So my hope is to continue working, collaborating with interesting artists, discover and work with new talents, make movies, and all that with being able to pay my team a regular wage without being personally broke in the end of it. That´ll be fantastic.
