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The original english language interview is also available.
Ich hatte das Vergnügen deinen Kurzfilm “Lunatique” im Genre-Block des 19. Landshuter Kurzfilmfestival zu sehen. Als spannender Sci-Fi-Horror passt er dort auch wunderbar rein. Wie kam es zur Scriptidee?
Das offene Ende lässt viel Spielraum zu. Warum hast Du Dich nicht für ein konkretes Happy oder Bad End entschieden? Spielst Du mit dem Gedanken die Geschichte fortzuführen?
Ganz sicher! Ich habe die Geschichte weiterentwickelt und möchte unbedingt in dieses Universum zurückkehren, um die ganze Geschichte zu erzählen. Der Grund für ein offenes Ende ist zum Teil, dass “Lunatique” Teil einer viel größeren Geschichte ist. Und auch, weil ich es für interessant halte, als Filmemacher der Intelligenz des Zuschauers zu vertrauen, die es ihm oder ihr ermöglicht, sich mit dem Film durch seine oder ihre eigenen Bezugspunkte und Wahrnehmungsweisen zu identifizieren.
Man erkennt in dem Film viele Vorbilder. Nicht nur aus Filmen, sondern viel auch aus dystopischen Videospielen á la “Metro 2033” oder “Fallout”. Welche Vorbilder hattest Du selber im Kopf?
Die Umsetzung ist erstklassig. Worauf was Du bei der Ausgestaltung der Bilder besonders Wert gelegt?
Erzähl mir doch etwas mehr über Dich. Wie hast Du die Liebe zum Filmemachen entwickelt und wie kamst du vom Kameramann zur Regie?
Deutschland tut sich etwas schwer bei Genre-Filmen. Wie offen ist Brasilien für solche Stoffe?
Wie geht es bei Dir weiter? Wird es weitere Projekte als Kameramann oder Regisseur geben?
Ich entwickle als Regisseur einige Projekte, die ich in naher Zukunft produzieren möchte, darunter sicherlich die Spielfilmadaption “Lunatique“. Mal sehen, was passiert.
Die Fragen stellte Doreen Matthei
Übersetzung von Michael Kaltenecker
Lies auch unsere Rezension des Kurzfilms “Lunatique”
Interview: Brazilian director Gabriel Kalim Mucci tells the story of the creation of his first narrative short film “Lunatique“, from where he took his inspiration and how genre film is promoted in Brazil.
I had the pleasure to see your short film “Lunatique” in the genre block of the 19th Landshut Short Film Festival. As an exciting sci-fi horror it also fits in wonderfully. How did the script idea come about?
The initial idea was to make a trailer for a fictitious feature film. During the development process, I realized it would be a waste of resources just doing the trailer, so I decided to expand the story to become a short film and approach it as a character/genre study. But little did I know… Since I decided to produce this film without any outside investments, it took nearly four years to complete it, between shooting in ’12 and the premiere in Sitges in ’16.
The open end allows a lot of leeway for interpretation. Why didn’t you decide on a definite happy or bad ending? Do you think about continuing the story?
For sure. I’ve continued developing the story and I most definitely want to comeback to this universe to tell the whole thing. The reason for an open ending is in part, because “Lunatique” is a piece of a much bigger story. And also, because I think it’s interesting, as a filmmaker, to trust the spectator’s intelligence, allowing for him/her to relate with the film through his/hers own references and ways of perceiving things.
You can see many influences in the film. Not only from films, but a lot from dystopic video games like Metro 2033 or Fallout. What inspirations did you have in your head?
This is an example of the answer above… After the short came out, several people came to me saying that they thought the film looked like this game or like this other thing, but the truth is that I’ve never played any of those games. I actually haven’t played video games for a long time. Everything came from my references in films and books… And life. The references are everywhere. We consume countless amounts of information every minute of everyday from innumerous sources and that certainly relates it in one way or another with the work we produce. “Alien” by Ridley Scott certainly is the strongest reference, but other like Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam, Guillermo Del Toro, Philip K. Dick, Stephen King, amongst many others, definitely made their mark on me and were used as inspiration while making “Lunatique”.
The realization is fantastic. What do you particularly value in the design of the shots?
I’m glad you liked it. Being a visual person, of course the aesthetics of a scene/shot are important for me, but firstly, they have to tell a story about something. It can be about the time the story is taking place, the location or the character(s). Of course I try to do this in the most visual way possible and “Lunatique” was a great exercise to do that, since the film doesn’t have any dialogue. Also with VFX you have an important tool to help you make this happen in the most amazing way. It helps creating and enhancing the universe you’re envisioning.
Tell me a little more about yourself. How did you develop your love of filmmaking and how did you go from cameraman to director?
I knew I wanted to work in film since I was very young, but in the beginning, I used to only be a spectator, instead of trying to make them. After high school, I went to film school and later on, I opened a small production company with some friends where we did small commercials and advertising work. That was my “real” film school. I worked in the company for more than 8 years and then I started working as freelance DP. But I was already hoping to direct and then when the short came out, I was invited to work on a few production companies in Brazil. Now, I’m part of a directing duo with a Portuguese filmmaker called Pedro Miguel Oliveira and we’ve been doing advertising work while I’ve been developing some personal projects.
Genre films from German directors – if they exist at all – have a hard time landing in Germany. How open is Brazil to such films?
In Brazil it’s still very difficult to make genre films, but it’s getting better. More and more people are doing genre films and I believe this is a “movement” that’ll certainly grow in the coming years. The Brazilian audiences consume, in its majority, national soap operas on TV (which is almost a national treasure) and American-made content. The American genre films tend to have a decent box office here, so I believe if we keep producing good quality material (and that’ll certainly improve if we get proper budgets to do so) they’ll definitely watch the films and series produced here. Netflix (and VOD in general) is helping a lot to make this happen.
What’s the next step for you? Will there be more projects as cameraman or director?
I’m developing a few projects as a director that I hope to produce in the near future, among them certainly is the “Lunatique” feature film adaptation. Let’s see what happens…
Questions were asked by Doreen Matthei
Also read our german review of the shortfilm “Lunatique”