You know, kind of marvelling at how Ari could seem to anticipate what he was going to do. And
we didn't know what he was going to do, these were not rehearsed moments, so it's a kind of a
moment in cinema, which I think I'll remember my whole life because they don't happen that often.
I was familiar with Joanna’s work, for her comedy work, but I had seen more of her film work
actually. I knew that she was really known for her comedy and our casting director Shaheen Baig,
when we were looking for talent, suggested her and I was immediately drawn to her because she
had a physical resemblance to my mum and that was quite powerful for me. Uhm, in her in her height,
in her size in her face. Joanna has incredibly powerful eyes that kind of reveal. And my mum
has that, and so that was quite a superficial draw, but that that was quite powerful for me.
Grief is that kind of thing that there is no language needed, really. I think language is
an interesting thing because it can include and exclude. And I grew up in a family where my father
speaks Punjabi and my mum learned how to speak Punjabi so she could communicate with his family
but his kids, we can only speak English. It was quite interesting being in family dynamics where
we were trying to kind of… We always felt like me and my sisters always felt like we were
outside of that circle and I guess you kind of learn how to communicate
through kind of nonverbal forms and you get to pick up cues in a different way
and I wanted that for the film. I wanted Mary to in this dynamic,
although she can speak and communicate with Ahmed’s family when she's with his French family,
it's how is she kind of communicating and creates a connection when she can't really
understand what they're saying. And it's also used in certain scenes to actually get the son
Solomon to kind of manipulate the scene, take control of the scene, of the dynamic.
I like how language can do that. How you can use it to really exclude characters or bring them in.
When we lose people that we love, I think they can actually become more present in our lives, I think
they kind of transpose into the things that they left behind,
into their clothes, into their music, into the recipes that they've left for us. They become,
sometimes they become a bigger part of our life. I think like you know I live in London and I have so
many friends that live around me and I hardly see them. I see them a couple of times a year
and I think there's something about that kind of access to people when you have that access
readily, you don't take advantage of it. But when you've lost someone when you lose them
all you want is to have that kind of final embrace or
another kind of conversation. That kind of searching for the pieces of that person.
Murakami actually said that if anybody wants to turn his short stories into any sort of movies,
they can, anybody can do anything on their own devices
and he might have opinions too about his long stories, but for short stories he was actually
quite fine. And so I had, I had freedom for that. I had my liberty. But instead of taking his words,
I wanted to respect this world, the world that he described by his words, but not the
words themselves. And so, and also I wanted to respect all these characters that he created,
so I wanted to visualise his world rather than his exact words.
And these characters, they don't really talk much in a normal situation,
and obviously you can see, say, a bit hesitant in the beginning,
but they get to talk more as they drive along. And I'm really familiar with the situation myself
and also I wanted to, really want to respect that so that, I just really want to describe that it
takes a while to get them to talk, get them to get talking, but once they talk, they talk. So
that's why it took about ninety minutes for them to start proper conversation as you can see.
I wasn't interested at all in making a period piece. I tried to make the movie be an experience
that could be seen and worked, not regarding the period, not regarding the gender also,
you know, and that was my main question. Can we be this girl
and no matter if we are a man or woman, you know? And no matter if it's the 60s or today,
and unfortunately I know that it is also today, you know.
While talking with Annie Ernaux, I realised that she was trying to get
to her exact memories, you know. And I wanted to do something that could be that could actually
give the audience the same feeling, but not in the same place. I wanted to give the exact feeling
of what it is to be that girl. So to hear her breathing, to move with her, and we made a huge
work with the DP, with Laurent Tangy because he had to follow Anamaria Vartolomei, my comedian
as if they were one and one only person. So it was almost something like dancing, you know,
to have them moving together and I could, and I don't catch that much so you know, we have to
rehearse a lot in the morning and then jump into the void, you know, and see what's happening.
And so I will try… how it is to be a girl walking to the unknown, you know? And the frame
helped me a lot doing that because it's a nearly square frame and so you don't see people coming
into this frame. People just appear. So she's trying not to be seen, and the more
she's pregnant, the more she needs to hide and I felt her tension in her body because somebody,
the people appears on screen and we are in the same feelings as she is you know. So I Had to use
every, it's not tricks, that’s not the right word, but every method that I could
find to be her and give the audience the feeling that we are all this girl.
Totally important to feel that there's some way in which you can enrich the project or hope to,
you know. And also you know if you feel nervous about that. I felt nervous about, you know,
telling a story in what I think is the heartland of America you
know which is the 1925, the West, where so much of the mythology of America is borne.
Thinking back on it, I feel like you know it was, most of those situations there was just, you know,
as few people in this space as possible, sometimes even just Aria myself and Ben and
it was just kind of exciting to feel how Ari and Ben felt into each other or locked
into each other. And you know, maybe I'd just whisper like Can you do that again,
you know, like, try not to break the spell of the mood that Ben had found for himself.
And just, you know, kind of marvelling at how Ari could seem to anticipate what he was going to do.
And we didn't know what he was going to do, these were not rehearsed moments, so it's a kind
of a moment in cinema, which I think I'll remember my whole life because they don't happen that
often. You know, it's nice to be able to achieve a plan, but it's something so much more magical
when real life exceeds your expectation. You know, like for example, when nature itself seems to
collude and you've got you know, leaves fluttering down and is not sort of someone
from the Greens Department throwing leaves in, you know that just actually happened.
I do it really because of the joy of discovery and that things may happen because you're working with
extraordinary actors like Benedict who you intend to set free. They're going to do things you have
no idea what they can be, but with the friendship that you've created with them and the trust,
that there is an opportunity for spontaneity that you that is something I could never actually have
managed as a first-time filmmaker. I wanted more control and now, you know, as I
guess grown up, question, I yearn to be surprised, really, you know.