04/08/2017

On the Island of the Devourer of Souls

Agnieszka Smoczyńska has just finished shooting the footage for her latest project, Island of the Devourer of Souls, part of the upcoming horror anthology The Field Guide to Evil
Interview by Tomasz Kolankiewicz

Tomasz Kolankiewicz: Your debut, The Lure, was deemed one of the most original Polish films of the last decade and brought you a number of international awards. Though you’re currently shooting your second feature film, The Fugue, another one of your works will be released before The Fugue arrives in cinemas. Island of the Devourer of Souls is a short film which will form part of the New Zealand horror anthology project, The Field Guide to Evil. New Zealand is an unusual direction; how did this project get started?

Agnieszka Smoczyńska: Independent producers Ant Timpson from New Zealand and Tim League from the US got in touch with me a few months after seeing my debut at the Sundance festival. [Lure won the Special Jury Award at Sundance – ed.] They’re the creators of the ABCs of Death series – horror films made up of 5-minute segments, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. The first ABCs made quite a splash and their overwhelmingly positive reception at the Toronto festival spawned further two sequels. The project I’m part of, The Field Guide to Evil, has a similar formula: 8 novellas directed by different filmmakers. The novellas are retellings of local legends and the film’s tagline is The stories just won’t stay dead. Ant and Tim invited a number of very interesting authors from around the globe: Veronika Franz and Severin Fial from Austria, British-born Peter Strickland from Hungary, Katrin Gebbe from Germany, Yannis Veslemes from Greece, Ashim Ahluwalia from India, Cam Evrenol from Turkey, Calvin Reeder from the US, and me. I was free to pick any topic related to local legends as long as I kept my segment under 10 minutes in length. Of course horror remains the overarching subject and concept of the anthology, but the producers liked my mix of genre horror, musical, and black comedy in The Lure. They wanted me to retain my style and hinted that transgressions would be welcome.

Have you seen any of the ABCs films before?

No, because they hadn’t been distributed in Poland, but I liked the concept as soon as I watched them. They made me even happier about the challenge the producers placed before me: a legend from our part of the world, 10 minutes, and total artistic freedom. My first step was to invite Robert Bolesto, the screenwriter of The Lure, to the project. Robert suggested a couple of little-known folk tales from Masuria, his home region. Island of the Devourer of Souls is a compilation of various fantasy plotlines, not just a retelling of a single legend, because we didn’t want our film to follow the fable model with its simple explanation and moral of the story. We wanted to leave the audience with an unanswered question.

The film is set in Eastern Prussia around 1850. Did you choose this particular historical background to show that these lands have their own – currently slightly suppressed – history of a different national and religious identity?

Of course the location is significant – these aren’t natively Polish lands. The fact that the region kept changing hands, that it had been inhabited by Protestants and not just Catholics, gives the whole story a deeper meaning.

A period film requires costumes and complex sets. That must have been a serious challenge. 

We shot the film in loess valleys near Kazimierz Dolny and in the Modlin Fortress. These locations are perfect stand-ins for the olden days. We worked with set designer Jagna Dobesz, costume designer Katarzyna Lewińska, make-up artist Olga Nejbauer, and cinematographer Kuba Kijowski to craft the right atmosphere of dread from the ground up. The world of the story had to be cohesive in all respects and evoke a sense of historical horror film, but with a modern twist, a certain amount of dramatic conventions. We wanted the viewers to be intrigued and unsettled. The soundtrack by Zuzanna Wrońska and sound designer Marcin Lenarczyk will also play a key role in our film.

Did you collaborate with the other directors participating in the project? Do you know what their short films will be like?

The producers gave us the green light to swap scripts, but we didn’t want to be influenced by the other artists’ ideas and decided against it; knowing their work was enough for me. The producers also organized a directors’ meetup in Cannes, but I couldn’t make it due to other commitments. I’m glad that Ant and Tim created a space to collaborate and exchange ideas without making participation mandatory for people who weren’t thrilled about it. I think that’s going to add to the movie’s appeal – like us, the viewers will have no clue what lies in the chapters ahead.

The movie will be produced in New Zealand and is set to be distributed in the US. The content rating systems in these countries can be pretty strict. Were you restricted in that regard? Did you know from the start that there are certain boundaries that mustn’t be crossed?

That hadn’t been mentioned at the start at all, I was told I’d have full artistic freedom. However, when we received the contracts, we noticed the “no nudity, no sex scenes” clause. That chilled us a little, because our script had a few scenes like that. Luckily the producers decided that the way these scenes are shown wouldn’t violate that clause.

Aurum Film will be your Polish executive producer. What made you choose specifically Leszek Bodzak and Aneta Hickinbotham?

We were already familiar with the company [Aurum Film produced The Last Family written by Bolesto – ed.] and wanted to work with them. We pitched The Field Guide to Evil to them and they liked the project. It was a brilliant idea. Although our film is a small-scale, low-budget endeavor, the company gave us extremely professional aid; we felt it was deeply committed to our success. Aurum also got two post-production studios, ORKA and Dreamsound, involved in the project. We wouldn’t have made it without their support.

The production system isn’t the only unusual thing about this movie. Horror is a relatively underrepresented genre in Polish cinema. Sure, there are “cult” classics like The Wolf, I Like Bats, The Bear, or Sara’s House, as well as several extremely interesting medium-length TV films from the second half of the 20^th century, but we don’t have even one artistically accomplished horror film. We don’t have a Polish equivalent of The Shining, a film that would transcend genre borders. Certain creators make use of horror tropes, as seen in Żuławski’s Devil or, at times, in Has’ The Saragossa Manuscript, but the masters of Polish cinema evidently weren’t in love with horror. What attracted you and Robert to this genre? You already used it in The Lure, although in an ambiguous fashion.

The Lure didn’t start out as a horror film. The longer we worked on our protagonists with Robert, the more predatory they became. They basically forced the genre on us. In the case of The Field Guide to Evil the leitmotif of local legends was the key. Folk tales coupled with horror gave us a lot of creative freedom, the opportunity to shape the form. Our Island of the Devourer of Souls is a grown-up fable about eating human hearts, told in a vague, almost loving way. We wanted to show it all, not dance around the issue and pretend the horror wasn’t there.

Your most important works to date – Aria Diva, The Lure, a TV play about Wanda Rutkiewicz, The Fugue – have one thing in common: they’re films about women. The Island of the Devourer of Souls is your first film with a male protagonist. Did you feel the difference? 

Absolutely! It was a brand-new, very inspiring experience. The Island… taught me that I’d like to make a feature film with a male protagonist. Our design for the protagonist of The Island… was inspired by cowboy films, a genre strongly evocative of masculinity. We wanted our protagonist to be a man from nowhere, someone akin to Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s A Man with No Name trilogy. We wanted to build a multidimensional, intriguing, mysterious character who’d also be attractive in a way. He was, of course, extremely easy to cast – Andrzej Konopka was born for that role! (laughs)

How do you feel about working with your husband? Does a very close personal relationship with an actor help?

It helps me, but hinders him. It scared me a lot while we were making The Lure, our first film as a couple. It got easier – we’re fine as long as there aren’t any erotic scenes. Andrzej joked that he sometimes has issues with that, but you should ask him if you want to find out more. Working with him inspires me, Andrzej gives a lot of feedback on set. He’s very focused – he doesn’t charge ahead, preferring instead to work within his role, within a scene. He clearly likes to improvise. He delivers truth, but isn’t hung up on himself.

You said that things would be different if you were male. Do you feel that women have it harder in this profession? Many female directors I interviewed told me that they felt unwelcome and patronized in film school, that more is expected from them. Have you encountered that too?

Not at school. I was lucky to have good teachers [Smoczyńska graduated from the University of Silesia’s Directing Department and the Wajda School – ed.], I didn’t feel they treated me any differently. Things got tougher after graduation. Women have a much harder time breaking into the market, making a debut and a second film. That’s a fact, it’s just how things are. For me personally the problem doesn’t exist on set. Film crews need to have a leader to follow, someone with a strong personality. That’s more important than the director’s sex. Of course the more you accomplish, the higher the expectations and demands…

Watching you work on the set I noticed that you leave yourself and the actors some space. There are several approaches to directing – some filmmakers arrive on set with detailed plans for eery scene and keep improvisation to a minimum, others allow improvisation, but only at rehearsals. Do you like unexpected events on set? Is it a conscious creative decision, or did this project simply demand it?

I think I like working intuitively to some extent. I like to leave a lot to the actors and the scene itself, give them room for improvisation. In my experience, sometimes even the most carefully planned and scripted scenes don’t pan out; it turns out that my intentions or the scriptwriter’s directions just don’t work. I’d like to work by letting the actors rehearse on camera and shooting additional scenes afterwards if needed. Of course, the method depends on the movie: Island of the Devourer of Souls is a short film with practically no dialogues, we could afford to let ourselves loose. Together with cinematographer Kuba Kijowski we decided to plan and discuss certain scenes and shoot others without any preparation, storyboarding, or assigning lenses beforehand. Storyboards aren’t always a sure bet too – when we were dealing with complex scenes in The Lure, storyboards sometimes impeded our progress. I wanted Island of the Devourer of Souls to be vital and energetic, it needed very intuitive and mobile camera work. That’s why Kuba did a lot of filming, he handled the camera himself. He shot many scenes freehand, we mostly didn’t use mounts in the valley sequence. This direct, unmediated contact between the camera and the operator translates to the final result.

This is your third collaboration with Kijowski, after The Lure and The Fugue. I also recognized many other names in your film crew. Do you like working with the same people?

I have a great working relationship with Kuba. I think we’re growing to understand each other better. Of course a lot depends on the story and the character, these factors dictate the type of camera work I need, as well as set and sound design. I like the interplay and mutual influence of different personalities and artistic visions, I listen to what people have to say. It’s great when members of a film crew influence one another; I’m looking forward to those times when we sit together and talk. That’s when interesting ideas are born, things I know I wouldn’t think of myself. I try to pick people according to the needs of the project. For example, in addition to the music, sound, and set design crew of Island of the Devourer of Souls, we worked with editor Jacek Kamiński and Kaya Kołodziejczyk, who designed the choreography for Ula Zerek (The Maiden), inspired in part by painter Jacek Malczewski’s depiction of rusalka water spirits. I was surrounded by brilliant, creative people.

Along with Kijowski, scriptwriter Robert Bolesto is another key member of your team. What’s working with him like? He’s one of the most popular writers in Polish cinema, his films are widely discussed and screened at global festivals. You’ve been working with him for a long time; we could even say that you filmed his scripts before he was popular. Does he bring you complete ideas, or do you build a framework together and Robert overlays it with content?

Robert does the writing, of course. The process looks different now than it used to – Robert writes new versions of the script, but we discuss and brainstorm potential developments together. With his thespian background, Robert treats working with text as a collaborative process. Though he’s ultimately the author, he accepts feedback. The longer we work with each other, the more I’m fascinated by this process. I’m curious about the writer’s relationship with his text; if we need to cut something, I think Robert feels like he’s operating on a living organism.

You had three shooting days. Now the film’s being edited and you have to turn it in before August 15. That’s a breakneck pace!

Yes, we’re scheduled to premiere in early 2018. My part of the anthology needs to be finished in August before the chapters are assembled. And we’re shooting The Fugue at the same time – the rest of the footage for this film will be shot in November.

Interview by Tomasz Kolankiewicz (translated by Dariusz Kołaczkowski)

read more about Agnieszka Smoczyńska