SEEfest 2021 Interviews: Three short film directors discuss the awesomeness and not-so-awesomeness of directing children
Ana Pasti’s IN BETWEEN follows the connection that transpires between a career driven woman dealing with the emotional tug-of-war caused by a complicated love affair, and a twelve-year-old boy selling used books in the parking lot of a fast food drive-thru. After she makes an impulsive decision to “save” him from the long hours of waiting in the cold winter’s night for his bus to arrive by giving him a ride home, their journey into the night makes it less certain it is who is saving who…
Meni Tsilialidou and Nikos Kolioukos’ comedy SMALL TALK WITH THE BAD MAN is another adult being schooled by a child scenario, where at burglar’s unexpected discovery by a child in a house he’s robbing and subsequent mistaken identity (She thinks he is Batman.) makes him reconsider everything. Maybe he isn’t Batman, but maybe, just maybe, he could be a better man.
Andrej I. Volkashin’s SNAKE tells the bitter-sweet story of the friendship between a precocious nine-year-old boy and an eccentric, gay young man in a remote Macedonian small town. The two find a common ground with the boy, unimpeded by prejudice, welcoming the young man’s friendship while curious about his “different” behavior. The child immediately receives push back by his parents due to their fears and bigotry forcing the two to quickly learn how to navigate around the damage that small thinking can bring while feeling the rewards of acceptance.
It’s an interesting trio of films that recently screened at the South East European Film Festival that don’t simply have children as central protagonists, but also pair them with adults (or in SNAKE’s case, a young adult) in a way that provides lessons for both sides. They also do a satisfying job of steering clear of cloying kid behavior, even when placing their characters in scenarios where there could have been plenty of cutesy land mines.
In the interview, we naturally talk about the challenges and the joys of working with and directing children, including how important it is to “cast” the parents as well as their children. I also have an embarrassing moment where I discover that Ana Pasti actually played the lead in her film and I lamely did not make the connection. We also talk about the filmmakers’ emotional state following the completion of each project and whether they were excited to do the next film or needed to be convinced to do it ever again.
