'The Hungarian Dressmaker' THR Presents Q&A With Director Iveta Grofova and Producer Zuzana Mistríková | THR Video - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter's Lily Ford sat down with Director Iveta Grofova and Producer Zuzana Mistríková to discuss 'The Hungarian Dressmaker' in a THR Q&A powered by Vision Media.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to THR Presents. I am Lily Ford, THR's UK reporter, and today I am joined

00:10by the filmmakers behind The Hungarian Dressmaker, which is Slovakia's official submission to

00:14the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. I'm joined by Susanna Miscikova,

00:19the producer, and Iveta Griffova, the writer and director of this film. So welcome both

00:24of you, and thank you so much for speaking to me. I suppose, jumping straight into it,

00:28this is an area of World War II history that isn't often spotlighted in film, and I wonder

00:35just sort of how important you felt it was, Iveta, to shine a light on what a lot of people

00:42might not know happened in that area of the world in the 1940s.

00:49Besides the fact that the film is based on a book that's very popular in Slovakia, I

00:54found it very important to highlight the subject again, insofar as it's becoming more

01:01current at present. The most salient commonality between the World War II era and the present

01:16is labeling minorities as the evildoers responsible for our perceived or real injustices and grievances.

01:28And I found it very important to highlight that particular aspect of it.

01:31And forgive me because I haven't read the book, but I wonder how Iveta found balancing

01:38that adaptation aspect of things and what she felt was important to reflect directly

01:44from the book and what she took her own sort of creative freedom with.

01:48It's always difficult to, when adapting a book into a film, to know how much or to what extent

01:58you should be faithful to the original and to what extent you should rely on your own

02:03authorial input, so to speak. So what I did, apart from reading the book, was to do a lot

02:09of my own research and incorporate many stories, authentic historical stories, into the film

02:15that originally were not in the book.

02:21I wonder just quickly then, as you were speaking about it, Iveta, what did you adapt from or what

02:28did you not adapt from the book? Sorry, but rather, you know, decided to do yourself and

02:34wasn't based off the text.

02:37So the main element is the broader societal and historical context of the story insofar

02:46as that's not part of the book. The book is more of a chamber, intimate story.

02:50And the reason I did this was Slovaks are rather reluctant to face up to that

02:58period of their country's history insofar as it does not necessarily correspond to the

03:04positive image, that self-image that they might wish to construct themselves.

03:14And a question for you, Susanna, then, what, as a producer, what attracted you to this project?

03:24One of the most important elements for me is that the events depicted in the film

03:29presented a drastic change to the history of the city I live in, which is the Slovak capital,

03:36Bratislava. Prior to the Second World War, Bratislava had been a multicultural city,

03:41a crossroads of religions and a variety of influences.

03:44And after the end of the war, it never went back to that.

03:48I suppose the story demonstrates what the gradual spread,

04:00the gradual percolation of hatred and ideologically motivated hatred into a society,

04:08does to that society.

04:11Well, I was going to ask, I mean, as Iveta said, you know, this is sort of a side of history that

04:17a lot of people would like to forget. And I wonder, Susanna, if you could maybe speak a

04:22little bit about the audience that you think there is for a film like The Hungarian Dressmaker.

04:32When we started working on the film, we were looking to keep alive the events depicted therein

04:41because we found them important. And it was only when the film was released that we realised how

04:48current it had become in the meantime.

05:00In Slovakia, confronted with a kind of political rhetoric that's painfully, horrifyingly

05:04redolent of that that was widespread in the era of the Slovak state.

05:21And it pains me to admit that this rhetoric is not circumscribed to Slovakia,

05:25that it is in fact rather widespread in other countries, including

05:30the most powerful countries in the world.

05:40Of course, the target audience for the film is related to the cinematic language that the film

05:46employs. So, there is a correspondence between one and the other. The target audience is rather

05:53specific.

05:54I suppose I do sort of want to ask about maybe the current political moment and just for Iveta

06:00or Susanna, if they have anything they want to say in terms of, you know, just sort of

06:09what we're seeing. I think Iveta mentioned, you know, this is something that becomes,

06:13this is a sort of theme and a sort of genre of filmmaking that becomes really, really topical,

06:19today. And I wonder if either of them would like to speak a little bit more to that.

06:33I was working on the script, when I was writing the script. Obviously,

06:37the socio-political developments that surrounded us did have an impact on the way I treated

06:45the act of writing. So, the violence that was beginning to appear in society,

06:50and it did not have to be physical violence, it could be rhetorical,

06:57necessarily influenced the way people behaved. And that's something that affects you

07:06as a screenwriter, as a filmmaker, as an author.

07:15Working on the film, Iveta and I frequently discussed the motif of the protagonists being

07:24faced with mortal danger. Despite the fact that she's faced with this mortal danger,

07:34she is capable of mustering certain values of common humanity, and she acts in correspondence

07:42with them. The danger of sense of threat that we're confronted with today, mostly has to do

07:53with our comfort. And yet, we are often unable to muster that courage and spiritual strength

08:02that the character does in the film.

08:05Although it is true that over the past few months, we have been confronted with

08:15increasingly rabid rhetoric on the part of politicians who have found out that they can

08:22really exploit the fact that a lot of people are feeling threatened. And this is why we believe

08:30that the film is important.

08:32I want to ask about Aleksandra's performance quickly, because it would be terrible to overlook

08:40just sort of what a painstaking and emotional and also really subtle performance that she puts in.

08:48I wonder, Iveta, maybe if you could talk about working with Aleksandra,

08:54and how she embodied exactly what you were looking for.

08:58I thought that Aleksandra would be a good fit for the character of Marika,

09:04after seeing the film On Body and Soul, which showed me that she could deliver a very subtle

09:13and minimalist performance. I wanted to tell the story of an everywoman who wants to be invisible,

09:21but cannot be invisible, and that's a very difficult task for the actor, for the actress.

09:28Yes, so the challenge is to be invisible, but at the same time to engage the audience.

09:37And I believe that Aleksandra has managed that very successfully.

09:41Well, I completely agree. I thought she was absolutely fantastic. And

09:46you mentioned, you know, as approaching it from a sort of female perspective. Susanna,

09:51I wonder if you could maybe speak to the significance of a woman directing this film?

09:56As Iveta has said, the book that the film is based on has a rather different narrative perspective.

10:07The original protagonist of the book is a young boy. When I began to think about whom to engage

10:14in the production of this film, I thought that Iveta would be a good fit, insofar as she had

10:18already directed the film She's a Harbour, which also stars child actors, and that she has a very

10:25unique voice as a director. And that's what gave me the confidence that she would be a good choice,

10:36insofar as deliver that woman's perspective into the making of the film and make it interesting

10:45and engaging. That was great. Thank you so much for your time. And thank you so much

10:49for joining us here on THR Presents. Thank you.

'The Hungarian Dressmaker' THR Presents Q&A With Director Iveta Grofova and Producer Zuzana Mistríková | THR Video

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