Do you think you success is an individual one? Or are there suitable conditions for you to make good movies in your country?
. We can specualte about it, but fact is that I had to leave Macedonia beacuse when I tried making films there, right after I graduated from film school, the establishment and the older colleagues prevented that. İ had a project which received the highest grades from the creative community, but the political and cultural establishment killed it. Then I moved to New York, and came back almost ten years later with the screenplay and the finances for BEFORE THE RAIN. İt was filmed in Macedonia, but the Macedonian government refused to participate until the film was almost completed, and then participated with 7% of the total budget.
How things evolved after your first film Before The Rain? Did you feel the pressure of your first film’s success?
. Yes, I did feel a lot of pressure. İ have always been a straight-A student (the best student), and I alkways wanted to do my work impeccably and meticulously. BEFORE THE RAIN received a lot of incredibly good reactions from very different kinds of people – from regular audience who cried during the film, from intellectuals who wrote essays and organized conferences about the film, from critics who declared it the film of the year in countries like Turkey, Argentina, Sweden and Italy, and from the Hollywood system who offered me dozens and dozens and dozens of projects. It is difficult to keep everyone happy. Instead of repeating what people exp[ected from me, I decided to make as my seconf ilm, a film which was unconventional and at the same playful and almost experimental.
Because Before The Rain is a sort of East European film, did the cinema authorities expect you to shot likely? Are you criticized accordingly?
. Yes, they expected an Eastern-European film. I find that kind of labels offensive and racist. Wht is an Eastern-uropefil? İf Bergman’s PERSONA had been filmed in Polish, would that be a different film? I think it is a bureaucratic and arrogant way of looking at a wonderful thing like the arts. Many filmmakers themselves accept this degrading categorization beacuse it helps them present, finance and promote their films, especially at festivals, but ultimately, that is a cheap way of selling yourself. I am not talking only abou the label Eastern-European (for example), but more so about the expectation to see a particular foreign culture represented in tghe way in which you (the outsider) expect it represented, instead of accepting, experiencing and learning from an original take on the culture as seen by the artists themselves. In other ds, festivals and Western producers and critics often want a SPECIFIC type of exotic self-portrait by filmmakers from the thirld world (including the Balkans), stimulate it, reward it, and this way perpetuate a forgery. I was once told by a French critic that the issue with BEFORE THE RAIN was not that the film was not good, but instead that it did not have “Eastern-European aesthetic.” How arrogant. And he decides what is Eatern-European. (Not to mention the fact that a film should be judged on its own merit, not on whether it fits a geographic profile.) A couple of years ago, an Austrian producer wanted me to re-write the screenplay of SHADOWS because she didn’t find it “Macedonian enough.” And this is from someone living in Vienna, who has never been to Macedonia.
After your first film you had some attempts to work within hollywood such as Three Kings (Warner Bros) and Ravenous (Fox). But you simply could not settle with those big companies. Actually we appreciate your decisions for those times. How do you express those times in hollywood?
. Yes, it’s true, I worked on several Hollywood projects in early stages of the process, developed films with the studios and with some stars. Hollywood is great if you want to make a lot of money. But, it is a waste of time if you want to do anything else – make something creative, appreciate art, spend time with honest people of integrity… I live a modest life and have enough money, and I find it much more important to be spending time with people I appreciate and working on projects that excite me.
For example, french director Mathieu Kassovitz shot a new film named Babylon A.D. and he made an interview about it that tells about how Fox ruined his film. Do you think is it possible to shot a directors movie in hollywood? In order to make an independent film , shall Kassovitz turn to his country and shot however he likes?
. The only it is possible to shoot an author-driven film in Hollywood is only if your taste is the same as the taste of the Holywood producers and distributors. That is the case with Spielberg, for example. Otherwise, there is almost no interesting author’s films created in Hollywood. There are a lot of interesting creative films created on the fringes of the system, and outside the system in USA, people like Todd Solondz, for example. It is a manipulative ego-driven swamp that tries to sell itself a dream factory and a creative haven.
After all of your attempts in hollywood, you made your second film, named Dust. And it was both appreciated and criticized. Do you think Dust achieved its value?
. It is sad that the audience in Turkey can not see DUST. It is my most daring film, most playful and most complex. İt provoked a lot of people – some people criticized it violently, while other people wrote essays and books about it, organized academic conferences and teach it in film schools. DUST is a Cubist-narrative film. It tries to deconustruct some illusions, some cliches in our head – for example, how history is written, or how stories are constructed. There were criticisms that the Ottoman soldiers were portrayed as brutal; yet – all soldiers in the film are brutal: Macedonian, Turkish, Albanian, Greek, American. The women are really the good guys in this film – it is brutal, but actually romantic. I hope it can be shown in Turkey one day.
What is the reason behind tomatoes? All your films begin with that. And we hear that Shadows begins with tomatoes too.
. Yes, BEFORE THE RAIN begins with tomatoes on a vine in Macedonia, DUST begins with tomatoes in a store in November in New York, and SHADOWS begins with digital tomatoes on a computer in Macedonia. At first it was a matter of this: I love Macedonian tomatoes – thay smell of tomatoes (unlike what you buy in America, which smells of plastic, if anything). Also, I was looking for a simple, compact image that sylimizes Macedonia.
What are the reasons behind shooting film as a director? What are your motivations?
. I wanted to make sure that an incompetent director does not ruin what I create as a writer.
You are also a photographer, writer, journalist and so on. What are you trying to tell or point out to people in all of your proffessions in general?
. Like most artists, I try to communicate feelings and concepts through means that are more precise than words – through art.
Coming to your last film, what was the first sentence of Shadows? In other words, what was the primal idea that motivates you to right that script?
. AT first, I wanted to make an urban scary film. İ was looking at Manhattan from across the river, and thinking what woudl ti be like to set a ghost story in the city that is more city than any other. Then later, as I started developing the idea, it became a dialogue with the dead. You know what’s interesting – the dead in SHADOWS are warmer, friendlier, more understanding than the living.
Does Shadows has a specific sentence fundementally?
. Sometimes the dead speak louder than the living.
Do you think that you could film what you had dreamed while righting your script?
. Film requires more discipline than dreams.
Do you like your film as an audience?
. That is great question. I am not sure – I need a very long time distance to be able to see them as audience.
While shooting your film, do you change scenes a lot? Or are you strictly bound to your screenplay?
. I stick 90% to the script, the storyboard and the rehearsals. The shoot itself is such a crazy situation, the environment is not conducie to creative thinking, so I try to do all of my creative work beforehand.
How are you met in your mother country? Do macedonian people respect you more? Or do they criticize whatever you do?
(The reason behind this question is, productive and creative people are generally criticized in turkey.)
. Some people really respect what I do, some criticize me. But, I hjave to say, that the large majority of people in Macedonia really respect and appreciate wht I do both as a filmmaker and as an intellectual. Their love and affection are sometimes really touching, and they keep me moving. There are some people in the cultural establishment who feel threatened and envious. I only hope that if I were in their place, I would not be as jealous.
As a world-wide known director, do your people or media force you to film about macedonia? Do you feel such a pressure?
. Yes, people expect me to portray Macedonia according to their own desires and dreams of what Macedonia whould look like; not according to what it really is like, or to what an artist needs to do.
As a turkish interviewer, we need to ask some questions about turkey. What do you know about Turkey? Have you ever watched a turkish movie?
. I have seen several Turkish films, and one of them is on my Top 10 list. I have visitied several times, the first time when I was a child, the last time (only briefly) almost three years ago. I love the Turkish culture and tradition – they are at the same time part of my own culture and tradition, and at the same time foreign and exciting. I am very interested in how the Ottoman Empire functioned on the ground level: the mail, the debts, the street cleaning, the census, the food, the languages, the households… And the food – probably the best in the world.
SECOND PART: WHICH ONE?
Close-up or Long shot?
Close-up.
Reality or fiction?
It was fiction, now it’s reality.
Tarkovsky or Bergman?
Bergamn, definitely.
Tomatoes or watermelons?
Both, in enormous quantities. (I am a co-founder of The Bostans, the Watermelon Society of Macedonia).
Still or mobile?
Mobile.
Day or night?
Night.
Common people or noble people?
Common.
People or animals?
People.
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Mad Max.
Lost or Found?
Lost, trying to be found.
Train or Plane?
Plane.
35mm or 16mm?
16mm.
Silence or noise?
Silence.