VOL VI I I INDEPENDENTWOMEN’S CINEMA ELENA SÁENZ ALANA MEJIA GONZALEZ SHIRA LEVIN AISLÍNN CLARKE EMMA PIPER-BURKET HANNAH FORD SOLÈNE GUICHARD FREMDINA BIANCO GABRIELLE LANSNER MEMI KOUPA w o m e n
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Contents 04 PINK 20 The Birch Grove 38 Xiomara Simple 60 5W 86 Turtleneck 104 Childer 126 Dream City 146 Upside Down 172 A day in Chisinau 196 DAM TO DAM Memi Koupa Gabrielle Lansner Fremdina Bianco Solène Guichard Hannah Ford Aislínn Clarke Emma Piper-Burket Shira Levin Alana Mejia Gonzalez Elena Sáenz
Featuring vivid performances and a gentle naturalism reminding us of Cristian Mungiu's cinema, PINK is a stunning film to watch. With her characteristic vérité style, Memi Koupa escapes from traditional narrative form and moves beyond notions of theatricality, into the realm of real experience. The plot of PINK is very simple, yet the implications of its characters’ actions and emotions are profound. We are proud to present Memi Koupa for this special edition of Women Cinemakers. Memi, please tell us something about your trajectory as a meets An interview by Bonnie Curtis and Barbara Scott Memi Koupa filmmaker. What inspired you to express yourself in this medium? As a teenager, I was a passionate fiction and poetry reader and watched a lot of European auteur cinema. When I first watched Liliana Cavani's ''The night porter'', I remeber had an apocalyptic experience. I'd realised the significance of subtext and motive in storytelling and felt fascinated with the medium. At the time, I was also experimenting with still photography a lot and developed a passion for portraits and the observation of humanity, along with the tech aspects of photography. I had no idea that I would become involved in filmmaking, until a few years later. I became friends with a young aspiring director and she made me work for the production of her first feature. That was it. It clicked. A year later, I started my own production company having an
interviewexperienced film producer as partner. For more than a decade, I worked as producer, screenwriter and creative director of music videos, TV commercials and documentaries and had the privilege to work closely with experienced and talented film directors. At first, my focus was on delivering strong visuals with experimental narrative, so I started creating video art, then jumped to writing and directing short documentaries and music videos, before moving on to experimental short films. As a young female director in Greece, I was strongly discouraged whenever I decided to submit a feature project for funding. Until recently, the film world in Greece was very much a man's world. I think that this reality has helped me develop an indie DIY approach to filmmaking. I became much more flexible, determined and serious about my work. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production, would you like to tell us who are some of your chief influences? Main influences and inspiration - although they are many, I'll mention first some of the European auteurs whose directing
style has shaped me: Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman (specifically in ''Persona''), Godard (specifically in ''My Life to Live/ Vivre sa Vie''), Michelangelo Antonioni, Polanski (in Repulsion) Chantal Ackerman and Claire Denis. SEE RANK From the other side of the Atlantic, David Lynch, Gus Van Sant and early Jarmush are definitely my main influences. For this special edition of Women Cinemakers we have selected tPINK, an interesting film that explores the notions of guilt, empathy, loneliness and despair, reminding us of Claire Denis' work: while walking our readers through the genesis of PINK, would you tell us what’s your writing process like? I usually write very spontaneously, trying not to censor or filter my thoughts and the images that take shape in my head, focusing mostly on the feeling, the ambiance and character. I try to edit days or weeks later, when I sense that I'm in a different position in terms of emotional detachment and clarity and then I employ technique and get to work in a methodical manner. I always hand out every finished draft to people that I trust (film directors interview A still from PINK
interviewand screenwriters) and ask them for consultation and encourage them to ask me tough questions. I cannot praise them enough for their valuable input. ''Pink'' was written in rather exceptional circumstances, as a spontaneous reaction to a social event where I was invited and a whole social situation that was building up for months. The theme of the event addressed the issue of Syrian refugees and the kindness shown to them by the people of Greece. I sensed a lot of hypocrisy in what was said while the evening played out and came home feeling puzzled and frustrated. The next day, I wrote ''Pink'' within exactly 30 minutes and decided to go ahead with the production, immediately. I strongly believe that screenwriting is an organic and ongoing process, therefore I always allow for changes to happen during rehearsals with the actors. To me, rehearsals are a useful test drive not just for dialogue, but also for the dynamics of each scene and the validity of the director's work during script analysis. In other words, if something's not working during the rehearsal, you should be flexible enough to get rid of it or work on it from a new perspective. A still from PINK
What was your preparation with actors in terms of reharsal? While writing the script, I decided to experiment with the actors' performances. I gave long pieces of monologue to only one of the characters and not a single word to the other. We rehearsed for almost two months, seeking a fragile balance between what was a minimal physical performance and monologue. It was a challenging situation for the actors in the very beginning, but soon enough we all felt that the outcome was interesting. We introduced a lot of improv exercises in our rehearsals, along with techniques from David Mamet's method and they proved quite helpful. We have appreciated your use of light and darkness to create a sense of heightened reality in depicting street life: can you describe your approach to lighting? Dramatic lighting is a natural choice for me when filming in an urban context, especially in Athens. It brings out the gritty feeling of the city, that for me is part of Athens' identity. This type of lighting also helps put the emphasis on specific architectural elements, character traits interview A still from PINK
interviewand adds depth to the frame. In my work, I'm always going for depth and perspective in every single composition. PINK features expressionistic noir photography suffuses with a subtle nightmarish quality: what was your choice for cameras and lenses to pursue such captivating visual results? The film's DoP, Olympia Mytilinaiou and I had already shot a film demo on Digital Bolex a year ago, and were delighted with the outcome. When 'Pink' came up, we instantly knew that our obvious choice was the Digital Bolex, to get that S16mm grainy film look and feel and to give the film the nightmarish aspect that you're describing. The lenses we used were Zeiss S16mm lenses and we worked within the range of 9, 12, 24, and 50 mm. We daresay that PINK stays in the liminal area between routine night the life and imagination, to urge the viewers to elaborate personal interpretations and especially to find an answer to the question "Who is the savior and who needs to be saved?". Could comment this peculiar aspect of your film? How A still from PINK
much important is for you to address the viewers to a particular interpretation? I find it important for a work of art to raise questions that encourage us to explore our true motives and to ultimately deepen our level of self-awareness. I think the real question that the film asks is whether we are sober enough to acknowledge that most of the time through our acts of generosity, we primarily serve our Ego and seek to cater our own needs. Perhaps the question applies to every individual, and to every modern society. You are a versatile filmmaker and your works oftern incorporate such intimate vision to accurate aesthetics: do you think that your being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value? I've always felt that most women carry the potential to be all-encompassing personalities and creators. I think that the work of women artists and film auteurs can be truly complex and multi-dimensional and thus, hard to categorise, much more often than a man's work. In this respect, maybe my gender somehow defines or affects the value of my work or brings a certain quality to it. interview A still from PINK
Youlika Skafida
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Memi. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? At this point in my life, I'm focusing exclusively on writing and directing narrative and more specifically on arthouse films with strong female leads, exploring aspects of female identity that are under or misrepresented in contemporary film production. I find this to be my raison d' etre as a filmmaker. I've just recently finished writing my first feature, 'Feline'. It's a Greek-French coproduction in development with MarieJosee Croze from France, and Youlika Skafida from Greece, in the leading roles. I'm expecting to start shooting, during the winter of 2017-18. The film is an existential portrait of a woman who had a short and celebrated career as performance artist in Paris, during the early 90s, and who lives a bumpy life in Athens, in the present. An interview by Bonnie Curtis and Barbara Scott
The Birch Grove is a poetic film by New York based mutlidisciplianry artist Gabrielle Lansner: inspired by the novella of the same name by the Polish author, Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, it addresses the viewers to explore the power of family ties through captivating narrative: we are particularly pleased to introduce her work to our readers. Hello Gabrielle and welcome to WomenCinemakers: when walking our readers through your usual process and set up would you tell us if you think that there is a central idea that connect all your works? I come to filmmaking from an extensive background in choreography and performance. During my career as an artist I have always been interested in story, character, emotion and psychology. I have made dance/theater pieces for the stage with actors and dancers and more recently have turned to filmmaking as another medium of exploration. At the center of all the meets An interview by Bonnie Curtis and Jennifer Rozt Druhn Gabrielle Lansner work is my interest in the heart and the psyche and telling stories . Although I am portraying fictitious stories and characters, the emotional threads that are expressed are always truthful and derive from a confluence of my experience and the lives of my performers. A personal empathetic connection to the emotional themes runs throughout the different works. You are a versatile artist and over the past 30 years you have explored a number of artistic disciplines moving from pure dance works, to dance/theater, to film. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production, we would invite to our readers to visit https://www.memoryhouseproductions.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work: while walking us through your process,would you like to tell to our readers how does your background in choreography and performing influence the evolution of your style? In particular, what does draw you to such captivating multidisciplinary approach and when do you recognize that a technique has exhausted its expressive potential to self? Across my 30 year career, I have moved from creating very abstract dances, to dance/theater
pieces inspired by literature and historical events, and most recently I have turned to film. I started dancing at 10 and began making dances as a teenager. I have always been interested in developing my own work. But, through the years I was also drawn to theater: initially “experimental theater” and then studying acting formally and also pursuing a career in acting for several years. So, the jump from abstraction, to creating “dance/theater” that was story and character driven came after several years of working as an actress. I had taken a break from making dances, but when I started again I became interested in emotion and story. My first project in this genre was based on the Brecht play, THE JEWISH WIFE. Instead of creating abstract movement, I became interested in creating movement that embodied emotion and was able to convey the inner life of a character, as well as tell a story. At this time, I also started adding the spoken word to the works. It was quite by accident that I began filmmaking. I had the opportunity to film some of my work and when I got behind the camera for the first time I realized that this was the perfect medium for my work. My stage work was always gestural and intimate and using the camera seemed like a very specific tool that I could use to direct the viewer’s eye and to capture emotion in close-ups of both body and face. For this special edition of WomenCinemakers we have selected The Birch Grove, an extremely interesting film inspired by the novella of the same name by the Polish author, Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: what has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into the power of family ties is the way you have provided the visual results of your analysis with coherent combination between autonomous aesthetics and visual consistence. While walking our readers through the genesis of The Birch Grove, would you tell what did inspired you to Iwaszkiewicz's novel? I was introduced to the work of Iwaskiewicz’s while I was screening my short film, The Stronger, at a film and dance festival in Tarnow, Poland. A Polish choreographer had made a dance piece based on one of his short stories and suggested that I look at his work. I was immediately captivated by the story and it’s poetic language. A sense of time and place was so evocatively described that I felt immediately drawn in. The Birch Grove, is filled with huge themes: love, death, regret, jealousy, desire, respect, anger: they all come into play as the story between the two brothers unfolds. I was also drawn to the fact that the author was also writing about the characters’ internal and external journeys. Your style seems to be very analytical, yet The Birch Grove strives to be full of emotion: how would you consider the relationship between analysis and spontaneity within your work? In particular, do you like spontaneity or do you prefer to meticulously schedule every details of your works? how much importance does play improvisation in your process? interview
My working process to develop a film is lengthy and has many layers. The Birch Grove is an 80 page novella with many characters and primary and secondary stories. After reading the novella many times, I decided what part of the story I wanted to tell and which characters I wanted to include. I chose to focus on the relationship between the two brothers, and the younger brother’s relationship to love and death. The next step of the process is to develop the choreography. I work in collaboration with my performers to create the dance and movement. In the rehearsal studio each performer will create movement that embodies their character’s emotional journey through a guided improvisation process. Each performer investigates their character and then writes a long list of active verbs that capture their emotions. Then, they choreograph gestures and movements that evoke these verbs. These are components that are created through improvisation and then sewn together to create choreography that is “set.” We also do improvisatory writing exercises during our rehearsal period, as another tool for the performers to explore their characters. I will give “writing prompts” to the performers and then they will write spontaneously in a stream of consciousness style. This sort of exercise helps them to delve into their character’s world. So, there is a lot of improvisation in the developmental stage, but when we go to shoot the film, everything has been rehearsed and choreographed. But, inevitably there are also images and moments that happen spontaneously on the set, and we capture those on film as well. interview
interviewEscaping from traditional narrative form, The Birch Grove features a brilliant storytelling: how did you develop the script and the structure of the film? My challenge in developing the script and structure of the film is deciding how best I can tell the story without words. With The Birch Grove I had a fairly clear idea of what sections were going to be danced and which sections would be realistic vignettes. I did make a storyboard before the shoot, which is not my usual practice. For me, this film is the most traditional narrative that I have made. I also knew early on that the film would either have some dialogue or a narration. I wanted the audience to know that this is a story of two brothers and was not sure if that would come across without words. Iwazkiewicz’s writing is beautiful and poetic and I wanted to add that element to the film as well. The narration for the film was written/edited by playwright Ellen McLaughlin. Ellen came on board after I started editing the film. She watched the film many times and had a lot of feedback about what she was seeing. From these discussions the editing continued and the story became clear. Ellen then wrote a narration for the film that was drawn from the novella. The Birch Grove is 80 pages long, the narration for the film, 2 pages. She succinctly was able to choose certain sentences and passages that clarified the story and deepened the emotional impact. We have appreciated the film’s expressive color palette, stunning widescreen compositions: what were your aesthetic decisions when shooting?
The interplay between the various locations for the film, the 1930’s time period for the story, and the summer weather influenced the color palette of the film. The beautiful “floor” that was painted by our production designer, Dean Taucher, was a poetic gesture to create an actual birch grove and also a metaphor for the younger brother’s emotional journey: he is simultaneously living and coming to terms with his own death. I knew that we wanted to shoot many of the scenes on the “floor” from above with a crane. While planning the shoot I was also conscious of wanting to capture the dancer’s full bodies while they were moving in wide shots and getting closeups of individual gestures and faces. The combination between music and spoken words plays a crucial role in the dynamics of The Birch Grove: according to media theorist Marshall McLuhan there is a 'sense bias' that affects Western societies favoring visual logic, a shift that occurred with the advent of the alphabet as the eye became more essential than ear. How do you see the relationship between sound and moving images? Music and sound have always been a crucial and loved element in my work. The music for The Birch Grove, by composer Joel Pickard, was composed after the film was edited. During rehearsal, the performers improvised and created movement in silence. It was only when we choreographed the individual scenes that “temp” music was added to give the performers emotional support and specific timing while rehearsing. After the film was edited the composer created a score that underlined and supported the emotional elements in interview
the dances and realistic scenes. Music and sound were also crucial to creating seamless transitions between scenes: always an interplay between music, image and story. Editing the film was also another form of choreography for me: I was making a dance with images and sound. Many artists express the ideas that they explore through representations of the body and by using their own bodies in their creative process. German visual artist Gerhard Richter once remarked that "it is always only a matter of seeing: the physical act is unavoidable": as a multidisciplinary artist involved both in Photographer and Dance how would you consider the relation between the abstract nature of the ideas you explore and the physical act of producing your artworks? My process to develop work is long and very collaborative. I usually begin with a piece of literature that I want to adapt. I spend time analyzing the work and deciding which themes I want to explore in rehearsal with the performers. The next step of the process is to develop the choreography. I work in collaboration with my performers to create the dance and movement. In the rehearsal studio each performer will create movement that embodies their character’s emotional journey through a guided improvisation process. Each performer investigates their character and then writes a long list of active verbs that capture their emotional arc in the narrative. Then, they choreograph gestures and movements that evoke these verbs: mining their own psyches and emotions to create a character. It becomes a very personal intersection between the performer and the character they are playing. interview
We daresay that your practice aims to push the boundaries of what dance can be: it's no doubt that interdisciplinary collaborations as the gabrielle lansner & company, a critically acclaimed dance/theater company based in New York City are today ever growing forces in Contemporary Art and that the most exciting things happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project... could you tell us something about this effective synergy? By the way, Peter Tabor once stated that "collaboration is working together with another to create something as a synthesis of two practices, that alone one could not": what's your point about this? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between two artists? The Birch Grove, and many of my other films is the synthesis of a collaboration between performers, designers, composers, cinematographers, editors, and writers. I do have a very strong vision for what I want to create, but I am in constant dialogue with all my collaborators and open to suggestion. Over the years your works have been showcased in several occasions and The Birch Grove has been screened at the prestigious Cannes Short Film Corner: one of the hallmarks of your work is the capability to create direct involvement with the viewers, who are provided with of the the opportunity to become active participants and are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a interview
crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context? I do want my work to be accessible and to have an emotional impact on the viewer. With my more “narrative” films, The Stronger and The Birch Grove, I did strive to tell the story as clearly as possible. I considered using text in The Stronger, but in the end I knew that the story was clear and did not need another layer that was literal. While making The Birch Grove, I did realize early on that I would want to use language to clarify the story. These decisions usually come in the editing and postproduction phase of the process. I am not ruled by the thought of audience reception, but aware. And, aware that the work can’t resonate with everybody since some viewers are not used to seeing a film without language. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Gabrielle. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I have written my first feature-length narrative film, STILL LIFE. It is a fully scripted drama about an American widow who returns to France to reconcile her past. I am in the early stages of development for this film, which I will direct. This is a huge departure for me, but in retrospect a natural outgrowth of how my work has evolved. So going forward, I am not sure if I will continue in a more traditional way or continue exploring the intersection of dance and film and story. interview
Fremdina Fremdina Bianco works in audiovisual contents, directing and producing, but also she dedicates to literature. As a feminist, she always works under a gender perspective. Her stories are carried out by women and relates problems with regard to sexuality, religion and social mandate. Her work is also impregnated of the local identity of Misiones and the logic of small towns. Fremdina doesn’t believe in the boundaries between fiction and documentary. She is sure that there are other ways of telling stories and she bets on a cinema that generates more questions than answers. Fremdina Bianco was born in Misiones in 1990. She studied Filmmaking and Producing at the University of Cinema (FUC) in Buenos Aires. She also studied Management with Gender Perspective and Identification, Approach and Treatment of Gender Violence at the Institute of Historical Research Eva Perón. She is part of “La Mujer y el Cine”. She was selected to participate in the Workshop Filming in Cuba with Abbas Kiarostami at the EICTV. At the age of 20, she directed her feature film, No land without evil (Fiction/S16mm), selected in numerous festivals around the world. She also shoot more than five shortfilms. The Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Nation gave her a recognition because of her young professional trajectory. She won the prize Raymundo Gleyzer, from the National Institute of Film and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA), with her feature film Northern Winds. In this days, she is writting her first novel. Bianco
Hello Fremdina and welcome to this special edition of Women Cinemakers: before starting to elaborate about your artistic production would you like to tell us something about your background? Are there any experiences that did influence your evolution as a filmmaker and a creative? Each experience that I live, however small and insignificant that is, influences my work and my creative processes. I think every work, at some point, is autobiographical. In this sense I like to use images from my childhood in Misiones (the place where I was born) and my condition of being a woman in society, take small elements that I know and take them to other contexts and meets An interview by Francis Quettier and Dora Tennant Fremdina Bianco extremes, in the end fictionalize them. At the age of seventeen years old I moved to Buenos Aires to study cinema and started with directing and production careers at the ‘Universidad del Cine’. I also went to workshops with professionals such as Martín Rejtman, Natalia Forcada, María Laura Berch and Abbas Kiarostami. On the other hand, I am also part of a writing workshop by renowned Argentine writer Diego Paszkowski, from whom I learn a lot. Literature allows me to be free and find the tone of the characters that I take later to the movies. A while ago I trained in gender studies and feminisms and that has marked a before and after in my way of seeing the cinema and cultural industries in general. I deeply realized that cinema is a political tool and that stories also build and legitimize violence and therefore it is urgent and necessary to generate new content with a gender perspective.
For this special edition of we have selected the , an interesting documentary portrait of a women living in a town in Cuba, that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your film is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with : while walking our readers through of , would you tell us how did you develope the initial idea? Xiomara Simple was to me an exercise. This short film had begun in a Workshop held in Cuba by the master Abbas Kiarostami, which consisted in the production and integral realization of a short film in less than ten days. He gave us then, the assignment “Cuba simple” (Simple Cuba), he wanted us to film simple people, to find those characters that make Cuba a place out of time and wonderful place. He wanted us to forget the great stories, the extraordinary stories, turning points and instead we had to focus in the details and intimacy of another way of life. I came up with an idea for a fiction and on the second day of workshop i told Abbas about it, he asked me instantly “what are you doing here in class? why aren’t you gathering your things and going to film?”, but at that time I interview
interviewhadn’t directed anything for a period of five years and It seemed to me that my script was really difficult to record with the production conditions we had, so I went back to Abbas and told him terrified, that I couldn’t film. The master recommended me that I should forget all my fears and the eagerness to make great movie. He told me, we were on a workshop to learn, that i just had to follow my intuition and that I should not stop until I’ve founded a character that moved me, because without this character there is no movie. Escaping from traditional narrative form, features a brilliant storytelling: how did you develop the script and the structure of the film? When I met Xiomara i fell in love with her. She reminded me a lot of my grandmother and there is no doubt she treated me as if I was her granddaughter. From that moment, I began to take images to Kiarostami, who also offered to join me at the shooting and proposed me a challenge: it was the right moment and space to put pressure on the side and try new and different ways of telling. On each encounter with Abbas I showed him a preliminary edition of the material and he gave me feedback with new assignments to go to film. In ten days I had filmed at least three completely different ideas: I documented, set up the stage, let It flow, I focused on Xiomara, I
filmed her family and neighbours, I made them act, I infiltrated in their daily life, I turned of the camera, I shared and I lived with them. Xiomara Simple is the result of that exercise. was shoot with the supervision of accomplished film director Abbas Kiarostami: could you tell us something about this experience? In particular, what kind of teaching you received from the Iranian master? Kiarostami taught me one of the most important things about making films: “filming is an exercise”. Maybe he saw in me, a helpless and frightened filmmaker, and so, before looking at anything I had brought, he spoke me how a father speaks to his daughter and that became in one of the biggest lessons I had ever received. With humility and affection he told me: "Filming is a job and it is practise, with more films the better you’ll do it". He told me a little anecdote about a supposed friend of his who made portraits of tourists on the beach, his working season lasted three months and the remaining nine months of the year was engaged in something else, then, the first period on the beach his friend started sketches insecure and sloppy lines, but as the days passed his drawings became more and more accurate and clear, and interview
interviewso, on the last day of the season, he made a perfect portrait. He also told me that filming is an exercise for which we have to think about the world we have within our reach, and finished his idea like this: "Start shooting now, because when you finish this workshop and you have managed to do this short film, you will ask yourself why you didn’t film it before”. At that time, Abbas had no idea that after my first film ('No land without evil') I had dedicated my efforts to produce, a little bit because I liked it and a little bit -stronger- because I didn’t had the courage to direct. The experience with him in Cuba was warm and it achieved that after landing in Argentina I immediately started to organize my next shooting film. Flat images, meticulously composed are a landmark of your shooting style, especially in : what did you use to throughout your film? And what was your approach to ? Mombyry's cinematography was made by Constanza Sandoval who has a rare sensitivity
when it comes to lighting, and that also achieves through the light to transmit the mood of the characters and stories. Mombyry was shoot with a 50mm lens and we worked from a low key, with warm and desaturated colors, and natural light sources, with the aim of always prioritize the intimacy of the character and the world in which lives. Your stories are carried out by women and relates problems with regard to the themes of sexuality, religion and social mandate: in particular, we have appreciated the way NO LAND WITHOUT EVIL explores the wakening of a woman's sexuality. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under". Not to mention that almost everything, ranging from Caravaggio's Inspiration of Saint Matthew to Joep van Lieshout's works, could be considered political, do you think that your work could be considered political in a certain sense? Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of Art in the contemporary age? My feature film was 'No land without evil'. I started working at it when I was nineteen years old while studying film at the University. At that time I was not aware of what it meant to make a movie and much less I knew how or where to put the camera.