- Kinostarts 05.10.2023 - 4. Oktober 2023
- „Katze“ (2022) - 3. Oktober 2023
- 30. Internationales Filmfest Oldenburg 2023 - 2. Oktober 2023
The original english language interview is also available.
Kannst Du mir mehr zum Ursprung der Geschichte erzählen? Es haben wahre Begebenheiten mit reingespielt, richtig?
Als Kind und Jugendlicher habe ich viel Zeit bei meiner Großmutter verbracht. Sie lebte in einer Provinzstadt, in der ich immer noch wohne. Gerüchte verbreiten sich schnell, wenn hier etwas passiert. Eines Tages beging der Bäcker in der Straße meiner Großmutter, der eine große Villa hatte, Selbstmord. Wir alle wussten, dass er eine Vogelvoliere voller Papageien hatte, und es wurde erzählt, dass dies der Ort war, an dem er sich erhängt hatte. Jeder hatte seine eigene Version davon, was passiert war, die Gründe dafür und wie. Als junger Teenager beschlossen mein Freund und ich, in den Gärten rund um das Haus nach den Papageien zu suchen. Es war eine Art magische Jagd, aber sie hatte auch etwas Mystisches und Grausames, da sie mit dem Tod von jemandem verbunden war, den wir alle kannten. Abgesehen davon hat der ganze Film Details und Anspielungen darauf, wie ich mich an mein Aufwachsen erinnerte, mit älteren Freunden und einem älteren Bruder.
Die beiden Figuren sind sehr exemplarisch für je einen Typ Jugendlicher. Kannst Du mir etwas zur Figurenentwicklung erzählen?
Wie hast Du die Sprecher ausgewählt?
Diesmal hast Du Dich für einen reinen Animationsfilm entschieden (nicht wie bei „Wildebeest“ vor realen Aufnahmen). Was lag Dir diesmal visuell am Herzen?
Besonders mag ich die Stimmung Deines Films – es liegt auch eine gewisse Schwermut darin. War das die Intention?
Würdest Du sagen, dass Du mittlerweile zu Deinem eigenen Stil gefunden hast?
Sind bereits neue Projekte geplant?
Ich bin gerade in der Vorproduktion meines nächsten Kurzfilms „Beautiful Men“. Die Animatoren werden im November dieses Jahres beginnen. Es wird eine 2D-Animation vor einem 3D-gerenderten Hintergrund sein. Der Film erzählt die Geschichte von drei Brüdern, die für eine Haartransplantation nach Istanbul fahren. Inzwischen schreibe ich auch an einem Spielfilm, aber der ist noch in einer sehr frühen Phase. Ich hoffe, dass ich diesen eines Tages in Stop-Motion drehen kann.
Die Fragen stellte Doreen Matthei
Übersetzung von Michael Kaltenecker
Lies auch die Rezension des Kurzfilms „Easter Eggs“
Interview: In a conversation with Belgian filmmaker Nicolas Keppens (“Wildebeest“) we were able to learn more about his latest short film “Easter Eggs“, which is part of the ‘Berlinale Shorts’ program, how his own childhood memories, have shaped the story, how important the mood of the film is as well and if he himself thinks he has found his own style.
Can you tell me more about the origin of the story? True events played a part in it, right?
As a child and teenager, I spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s. She lived in a provincial town where I still live. Rumours go fast when something happens here. One day, the baker at my grandmother’s street, who had a big mansion, commited suicide. We all knew he had an aviary full of parrots and it was told that this was the place where he hung himself. Everyone had his own version of what happened, the reasons why, and how. As a young teenager, me and my friend decided to look for the parrots in the gardens around the house. It was kind of a magical hunt but it also had something kind of mystic and cruel as it was linked to the death of someone we all knew. Apart from this, the whole film has details and kind of references to how I remembered growing up, having older friends and an older brother.
The two characters are very exemplary for a type of adolescent. Can you tell me something about character development?
I wanted to tell something about growing up and the shift in interests and view on things that comes with it. As it’s a shortfilm, I thought it was a better idea to focus on two characters, one just before and one just after some big changes, instead of showing the process. For Jason, the youngest, everything is still a game, everything is playful and nothing’s really serious, except for relations of course. The search for the parrots is to him just a funny way for passing time with his best friend who’s confirmation and love he really needs. Kevin has lost a bit his sense of playing, everything is loaded in a way. As an adolescent he wants to be taken seriously, he wants to be seen as an adult. It’s more difficult to convince him to play the game, he wants to have the feeling it was his decision. That’s one of the reasons where the title comes from. Looking for Easter Eggs in a garden only makes sense when you want to play the game as a child, as soon as you lose this sense of playing, wanting to be taken seriously, it loses its meaning.
How did you find and pick the voice actors?
I saw “Girl” by Lukas D’hondt and really liked the tender and fragile voice of Victor (Polster). As “Girl” came out in the same year as “Wildebeest“, we met at the EFA and talking to him, seeing how a wonderful, humble and honest guy he is, made me want to cast him even more for the role of Jason. And for Kevin: Rik is a famous actor in Flanders. There is a serious in which he plays a jerk but with a layer of sadness, as you feel he really wants to be understood. Victor didn’t really “do” a voice, we just asked him to talk softly and apparently he had a lot of training on this for Girl, while Rik did more of a voice where he looked for the tone of a teenager at the moment his voice is changing.
This time you chose a pure animated film (not like “Wildebeest” in front of real footage). What was visually important to you this time?
“Wildebeest” was about not being at your place in your environment. So the technique fitted the subject for me. I also was afraid that it would become a gimmick. I wanted to have the film a nineties look. I was born in the eighties so childhood, for me, has this connotation. It would have felt strange to me to look for a very smooth contemporary visual style. I grew up with the Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill and the Miyazaki films. It made sense to me to look for these colors and styles. In an interview I saw one day with Michael Haneke they asked him why “Das Weisse Band” was filmed in black and white. I was surprised by his pretty naive answer but I really liked it. He said that he imagined this period in black and white because almost all the documentation of this period is. A film on a 17 the century event is often filmed with colours and compositions from the paintings of that era. So I guess, for the same reason, I made the film in the colour and composition of my childhood animations. As the story refers to this. It gives a more anecdotal feeling.
I especially like the mood of your film – there is also a certain melancholy in it. Was that the intention?
Thanks, Yes, sure. We often project only good, nice and fantastical things on children. But I think there is a lot of melancholy in it too. Not fully understanding why people do things, people that tell you stories because they don’t believe you can handle the “truth”. Or just not responding because you’re just a child. I wanted to put this feeling in the scene with the busdriver. Jason is so happy to see her because apparently she takes time to talk to him as an adult, but then, when she has to continue work (adult stuff) she leaves him too. Jason feels of course that Kevin is growing away, and this makes him maybe even more of a hero to him. He wants to know about the scooter Kevin has. He listens to the bullshit stories of Kevin, he even has the same haircut.
Would you say you have found your own style by now?
I think that every project will have a part of what people would define as my style in it. But I hope to find an interesting new way to tell a story with each project. I don’t like the idea of having a too fixed style where you rely on it. I like it when directors look for each project for a new way to tell it, not minding to be recognized immediately. Of course everything is within my own limitations. One of my biggest heroes in cinema is Agnes Varda, I believe she was constantly looking for new ways of showing her stories, and in the end that defined her as a filmmaker.
Are there already new projects planned?
I’m currently in pre production of my next shortfilm “Beautiful Men”. The animators will start in November this year. It will be 2D animation in a 3D rendered background. The film tells the story of three brothers going to Istanbul for a hair transplant. Meanwhile I’m also writing on a feature film but that’s still in a very early phase. I hope to make this one day in stop motion…
Questions asked by Doreen Matthei
Read on the german review of the shortfilm „Easter Eggs“