Check out my review here for more background on the film and story, and the trailer here. As a writer, Van Den Berghe used her own experiences to flesh out the details of squatter culture in Amsterdam in the mid-seventies. Like Karo, she arrived with her parents from Belgium and grew up in those heady days.
ACM: One of the things I thought really succeeded in the film was that it really seemed to capture a 10 year old girl's point of view - without actually being a film for children. How did you approach that aspect of the film?
Dorothée: The main reason I wanted to use that point of view is that it's such a complex thing to talk about, the 1970's. I would have had to make an elaborate documentary, social research... This way, I have a very specific angle, a very specific view of that time.
ACM: As an actor, you've played a wide variety of roles. What drew you to this project in particular?
Matthias: First of all, it's the second time we've worked together. I made another film with Dorothée (2002's Meisje), so to work together again was a heartwarming experience. I was also fond of the script. While I didn't experience it, the 1970's, I tried to inspire myself by reading up on the art and music of the period.
ACM: How did you come to find such a perfect actress (Anna Franziska Jaeger) to play Karo, who really is the centre of the film?
Dorothée: It's a long story! I saw her in a shop and I knew it was her, she was exactly what I wanted. I really followed this girl, and (kept tabs on her). The film took two years to put together, and by that time, she was too old for the part as I had written. She had breasts already, and the part I had written was definitely for a child who was younger than that. So.. I held auditions and auditions, but I never found that quality, what I found in her. I rewrote the script, then, and we had to rethink how to shoot the nudity, for example, because of her breasts. But I think it puts the film into a better perspective, a child that age.
ACM: True - a preteen has the awakenings of discerning judgement, and will begin to question the world of her parents.
Dorothée: What you felt, while you were shooting, is that she really understood it - not the time period, not exactly the same, but the idea of parents living separate lives.
ACM: That's certainly what resonated with me as well, the idea of a child maturing, seeing her parents' frailties and wanting to go her own way, something that connects with modern audiences as well. I have to tell you, while I was watching it, with my North American sensibilities, I felt like something really terrible was about to happen towards the end. If this were a North American film, it would have been a morality play - people would have died or something..
Matthias: Exactly, that's the strength of the film. It's a time document - une tranche de vie - an honest one. I was impressed with the energy of those times, I tried to capture that.
ACM: I like how nuanced it was. Even with your character, Raven, who can certainly be seen as unsympathetic, it wasn't a black and white portrait.
Matthias: No, there was true love involved, that was authentic, love for his first wife, his second wife, and for the child. Certainly, he was selfish..
ACM: ..but aren't we all?
(More about the film here)
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