'Bauryna Salu' THR Presents Q&A With Director Askhat Kuchinchirekov & Producer Dias Feld | THR Video - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter's Brian Davids sat down with Director Askhat Kuchinchirekov and Producer Dias Feld to discuss 'Bauryna Salu' in a THR Q&A powered by Vision Media.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Brian Davids, and welcome to The Hollywood Reporter Presents Q&A with the filmmakers

00:09of Baurina Saloo, Kazakhstan's entry for a Best International Feature Film nomination

00:15at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards. Joining me today is writer-director Asat Kuchinchirokov,

00:21as well as producer Diaz Feld. Asat, I want to start with you. This is a film about a

00:27young boy who struggles to reintegrate into his birth family after being raised by his

00:31grandmother. You were also raised by your grandmother as part of the Kazakh tradition

00:37of Baurina Saloo. So I'm curious, how much of this film is a recreation of your own life?

00:44How autobiographical is it?

00:46To be honest, this tradition is common to any Kazakh family, and I grew up in this kind

00:55of traditional Kazakh family. And I was curious all my life why this is not shown in any movie

01:03or literature in Kazakh culture, and why still nobody made any poem or movie regarding this

01:13tradition. I wanted this movie to be a reflection of myself, of this little boy who saw this

01:23from being a very little boy from my childhood.

01:30So the director of photography and Asat both grew up within this tradition, and they wanted

01:39to reflect the inner world that they felt in the visual style of this film.

01:48So your Sultan story, is it a mix of both of their stories? Is it a mix of… How autobiographical

01:55is it? How much is actual memories between you and your DP?

02:01The emotional content all comes from their personal experiences, but the plot of the

02:09film is dramaturgical.

02:16I covered a film last year in another country where a mother gave up one of her children

02:20to her sister who was infertile. So the child was raised by her aunt instead of her mother.

02:27So I'm curious about the choice to, I guess, loan out the child to the grandmother. Is

02:33it so that the grandmother isn't alone at the end of her life? What's the reasoning

02:39behind the grandmother as the recipient?

02:41Yeah, this is a very old nomadic tradition, you know, about 300 years that it's been happening,

02:47and there are many reasons why the child can be given away. Sometimes it is because parents

02:55have a kid when they're very young, you know, 15-16 years old. Sometimes the child is sent

03:01away to relatives that live further away to kind of continue the family in a different

03:08place because the people are nomadic and everyone traveled around. I've also heard stories of

03:13families that an older relative, if they can't have a child, sometimes they'll take maybe

03:20a sibling's or some other relative's child into their own care.

03:25Dias, how did the story first come into your hands?

03:29We met through mutual friends, really. I was told there's a young director who is finishing

03:39a film and is looking for support and for help. Well, first of all, finishing and then

03:47getting out into the world. And I saw the film. It was really powerful. And I think

03:58I felt the way many people feel, that it was really representative of our culture.

04:05And I wanted to help it take on a life in the world.

04:13The film at times feels like a documentary. It feels like we're observing real life. So

04:18what steps did the two of you take to kind of help create this realistic world?

04:24The main idea was to create a kind of world that many people could relate to and that

04:35many people from all over could see what this kind of real life looks like in Kazakhstan.

04:42He wanted people to really feel the emotional weight of this tradition. And he wanted to

04:50create a visual style that would help people really in a palpable kind of tangible way

04:57experience what the child is experiencing. He wanted the style to be as close as possible

05:03to a kind of documentary and realistic view, so that people can really understand this tradition.

05:13Several of the characters are named after the actors. So was that another way in which you

05:19blurred the lines between fiction and reality? He wanted this to be a way for the actors to

05:28really inhabit the roles and to feel that what they're portraying is real life and not acting.

05:37There's also a scene where your sultan gets in a fight at school and he bumps into the

05:42camera in the middle of the fight. Did you keep that moment in the film to further sell

05:48the reality of the piece? It was kept in intentionally because he wanted that to be a way

05:55for the viewer to feel like they're really in the room and this is all happening in front of their

06:01eyes. This kind of physicality of it. There's another great scene where your sultan learns

06:08of his grandmother's death and he walks outside in one continuous shot for an impressive emotional

06:15breakdown. How many takes did this first time actor need to pull off that scene?

06:26They rehearsed for about two weeks but this was take four.

06:34We have to talk about the climactic scene in which your sultan finally releases all the pain that

06:39he's been bottling up for his entire life. His father then hugs him for the first time and

06:45refuses to let go. How would you describe the moments leading up to that big dramatic explosion?

06:57He was inspired by a Rembrandt painting where a child comes to his father and falls onto

07:08his knees in front of him and this was kind of the idea behind in a way playing off of that.

07:22There are a lot of animals in the film and obviously you can't direct animals so

07:28did you have to roll with those moments of improvisation at all? Did the animals change

07:33the way certain scenes played out at all? Yeah, they rehearsed a lot with the animals really

07:40getting your sultan to be familiar with these animals and it wasn't really improvised. Those

07:46scenes were the product of a lot of preparation. Also getting the animals comfortable with food

07:51and they tried a few different things. You know there's a scene where the lamb licks your sultan's

07:56face and they tried a few different approaches to get that to happen. Like putting some honey

08:01in his face but just really kind of feeding the animals. Lastly, I always try to close on a

08:07sentimental note. So Diaz this would apply in your case maybe to showing the film at a festival

08:13or any other kind of event but I would like to know what day on set best sums up the experience

08:20for you Asghar. I would love to hear what day you'll be thinking about decades from now when

08:26you remember this experience fondly.

08:34The scene that you referred to earlier with the sultan coming out of the house

08:39and crying after his grandmother's death. Once they were able to get that take

08:46Asghar was really happy because at that moment he knew that they were about to create something

08:52special.

09:01Well I wish you both the best of luck this award season and thank you for

09:04joining The Hollywood Reporter Presents. Thank you so much.

09:07It's been a pleasure.

'Bauryna Salu' THR Presents Q&A With Director Askhat Kuchinchirekov & Producer Dias Feld | THR Video

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