We're continuing our conversation about our
GOETHE FILMS series "Heimat NOW" that starts today with the North American premiere of a debut film fresh out the the Potsdam-Babelsberg Film Academy.
Here's a Q&A with first-time feature film director Bernadette Knoller about choosing a remote island location and casting her father, well-known actor-director Detlev Buck:
What was the idea that started HOLIDAYS?
At the beginning of her story, Vivi has an some sort of breakdown. It could be called depression or burnout. Luckily, it’s not. And we didn’t want to write a story about mental illness per se. She simply experiences a summer full of strange encounters. Because
there is no formula for how to become functional again.
We can’t just strip everything down and explain it all. There is something rebellious about the mysterious.
How did you develop the characters?
It was fun to write the characters, because these are all nice people in some way. They struggle with themselves, but above all we can laugh at them. I really appreciate that about them. Now that we’re starting to write something new,
I realize how important it is to find characters that you want to spend so much time with. And that’s the way we feel about Otto, Eric, Biene and Pete; they’re people who also fight with their peculiarity and their imperfections and don’t have an easy time. Because, fortunately, people are like that: fragile, vulnerable, limited.
And your main character, Vivi?
Vivi was perhaps the most difficult character to write. Always a little like a black hole, a blind spot. Probably because we somehow have a little of her inside of us. The other characters are often clearer to us. Vivi is mostly an observer, she doesn’t say much. Then people say, “Your main character doesn’t want anything, she isn’t active, she doesn’t develop.”
We knew that if we showed a woman in crisis and she expresses so little in words, she must have a hidden strength. She may not have access to it right now, but we can feel it. It was such luck to find actress Britta Hammelstein. She has a sense of humour. And she is always saying something with her eyes. So she’s never a victim.
How did you come to cast your father, Detlev Buck (SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT), as Vivi’s dad?
It just fit for me, so I asked him. It's nice to work with people you love. One interesting thing about being an adult is that you can get to know your parents in a different way than when you were a child. Like Vivi, I have a father with high energy. Sometimes it’s hard not to lose your own strength next to people like that. Sometimes you have to disassociate yourself to find out what you really want. It’s fun to exaggerate everything a bit, and telling stories always helps. In a way, Paula and I have similar fathers. Doers. Perfectionists. Strugglers. Always a little driven. How they deal with it when they get older is fascinating.
What role does the island play?
We wanted a place that is restricted; that you can’t just get away from; that you have to deal with. An island is just right for that. While we were writing, we talked a lot about our childhoods; about memories, the places where we grew up. Places that have always remained imperfect; that have their darker sides. No parents who always make everything better. Things remain semi-finished, abandoned. People try something and then can’t go on; lose their orientation. This may generate a sort of melancholy. But if you accept it, there’s also something conciliatory about it. It certainly brings the characters in the film closer together.
image: Bernadette Knoller, courtesy Filmportal, by DCM Film Distribution, DIF, © Nicolai Mehring, DCM
