Fest Track On Sirk TV Interview: ODYSSEY [SXSW 2025] - Part II - video Dailymotion

Fest Track

Writer/Director Gerard Johnson and Actress Polly Maberly talk to Fest Track about location, pace and approach in regards to their new film: "Odyssey" playing the Visions section of the 2025 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

Transcript

00:00This is Tim Wastbrook from FesTrackOnStreetTV.

00:29I'm here at the South Baseline West Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

00:59So everyone's already so relaxed, they're not even worried about the camera in the moment.

01:05And also on the film, it was just walking around.

01:07I mean, I would go into, we would get permission from a pub or a club,

01:12but from one person, the owner.

01:14Okay.

01:15So all of those people, when we were coming in with a camera, they didn't know what's going on.

01:19There was a lot of poor bar staff that didn't know anything about biking.

01:22And for me, that's the energy.

01:24The energy of going into a real place and there's a band playing in one club.

01:29There was, you know, people staring at the camera.

01:31That to me, I love because it feels you cannot replicate that without doing it for real.

01:37You can't replicate those nights.

01:40It feels artificial.

01:41So her journey of walking through the night just feels almost like it's going into a documentary

01:46area.

01:47In a way, it is because people are, who are you?

01:50Like trying to grab hold of Polly or trying to grab hold of the camera and like, you know.

01:54Or they don't bat an eyelid.

01:56In central London, they're just like, I'll get out of the way.

01:58I'm going to work.

02:00Yeah, well, it's quite a big set up of the minimal people around the camera.

02:06Do you know what I mean?

02:06Like minimal, but it's still, it's a big camera really.

02:09But it's also amazing.

02:13When I made my first film 15 years ago, people were a lot more inquisitive there.

02:18I think now people are so used to being filmed or being so used to have people having cameras

02:23out the whole time that there's still people who are interested.

02:27But when you're so minimal, people don't really bat an eyelid so much now.

02:33Do you know what I mean?

02:33It's cold.

02:35We are surrounded by cameras the whole time.

02:38Yeah.

02:41Look, he needs moving somewhere else.

02:43He's not safe here anymore.

02:44We just, we need your help to move him somewhere else.

02:49No.

02:49Yes.

02:50No.

02:50Yes.

02:51What are you doing?

02:51Let him go.

02:52It's too late for that.

02:54Douglas tried to pull a fast one on us, didn't he, Douglas?

02:57Oh, yeah.

03:01Well, yeah, I suppose I didn't see it as the whole.

03:03I still put one foot in front of the other and saw it like that.

03:06And what helped was, Korshan's such a wicked guy behind the camera.

03:11The DOP, yeah.

03:11DOP.

03:12And he immediately felt like my friend, you know, because I'm not used to.

03:16Yeah, I mean, it just felt very, very freeing.

03:19And, you know, of course, I felt a bit rabbit in the headlights the first day,

03:22windy day, Mornington Crescent, you know, just my voice was going.

03:28It felt, you know, I warmed up quick, though, I warmed up quick.

03:33And then we turned the corner into Camden High Street.

03:35And we were, that was the first scene we took, actually,

03:38when I was saying to Dylan, you know, about what's the lines, you know,

03:44about how you have to behave and never say small.

03:48What's always compact and all this.

03:49And it just felt really freeing.

03:52And a few days in, I just thought, well, I've made my choices.

03:59She's out there now.

04:00I'm not thinking about that, but you have to tap into her anger at the world

04:05and her justifiable anger at it.

04:08And the feeling of playing out her mission was very useful,

04:13like to just keep breathing and keep moving.

04:16It was really, that's what it was.

04:18It was sort of like the pace that we set was great for me as well.

04:23Who is she really?

04:24Is she evil underneath?

04:26Or is she just, is it just survival of the fittest?

04:29And is it just, you have to get to the top.

04:32That's how you have to win in business.

04:35I need to leave now.

04:37You listen to me.

04:38We're not asking you.

04:40We're done for you.

04:41Okay?

04:45No, stop, stop, stop.

04:46Natasha, just stop.

04:48Stop.

04:50I know, hey, look at me.

04:51I know, it's f***ing mad.

04:53All right?

04:54If you do this and you're going to do this,

04:57yes, you're going to do this.

04:59You get to keep the loan.

05:00I tried to have it feel like, as you say, the walls are closing in,

05:08you know, with the phone calls, the constant phone calls.

05:10What stresses you out?

05:12You know, people asking for money.

05:14People wanting, you know, having to avoid people getting in

05:18and realizing if I just get to this place, everything will be okay.

05:22Because we've all been stressed about money.

05:25We've all been stressed in generally in life, in big cities.

05:31And that always is interesting going into a film

05:39and feeling even more stressed than you are yourself.

05:42Do you know what I mean?

05:43Coming out and thinking, oh, I feel a little bit better now.

05:48It's cathartic.

05:48Yeah, cathartic, but you start to get a real understanding,

05:52you know, from reviews and from, you know, the audience,

05:55you get a real understanding of what really,

05:59what they got from it and what really stood out.

06:01And if people are saying, you know, for instance, South by Southwest,

06:04they said every time the committee watched it,

06:10all they talked about was how stressful it was.

06:12And that to me is brilliant because that's the intention.

06:17The intention of just one character

06:22and just feeling for their predicament in a way.

06:25No more debt, you keep that money.

06:28If you don't do this.

06:35Lovely f***ing brother, Dan.

06:37You have to introduce me to the rest of your f***ing family.

06:40Take care, Taz.

06:43There's always a bit of light in, you know, everything in the darkness.

06:47I think it's Bukowski, actually.

06:50But just, yeah, and I think once she finds the Viking,

06:56the way they embrace, the way, because up until that point,

07:00you're very used to seeing one side of this character, right?

07:04This character, she's alone, she's very business, everything else.

07:07She's looking for someone you don't quite know.

07:09You don't quite know who it is.

07:11And it's just that embrace when they first meet again after all those years.

07:17You see the child in her now, the innocent child, you know?

07:24And the wanting answers when they're in the apartment

07:27talking about what happened and everything else.

07:29And you see that there was an innocent person in there.

07:33Maybe there was a person that wouldn't have been sedated

07:35if she'd have had a father figure, if the mother wouldn't have run off.

07:38All of those things have then made her who she is now.

07:44And she's having also to survive in a male-dominated world,

07:46which is the world of real estate, estate agents,

07:49and had to get cut pro to be the person she is.

07:54And as playing it, I would say that, you know,

07:56that those penultimate scenes and the calm before the storm,

08:00at that point, she's made her decision.

08:02And so there's a sense of enjoyment as well that she gets from those last moments.

08:07I mean, that rises up, that builds.

08:14And so it was nice to make those choices.

08:16It felt, you know, she was a series of decisions

08:20and she just hated being out of control for one minute.

08:22She liked to come back to control.

Fest Track On Sirk TV Interview: ODYSSEY [SXSW 2025] - Part II

Category

Transcript

Recommended