Premiering in worldwide competitors eventually yr’s IDFA, the place it took high prize, Lea Glob’s (2015’s Olmo and The Seagull) Apolonia, Apolonia is an intense character research of French figurative painter Apolonia Sokol. The Danish director met the artist, who’s of Danish and Polish descent, whereas looking for the protagonist of her first doc whereas attending the Danish Movie Faculty, after which trailed her for the subsequent 13 years.
And whereas the bohemian free spirit, who was raised in a Paris underground theater based by her eccentric mother and father (an outdated VHS tape Apolonia discovers comes with the written warning to not view earlier than she turns 18, although watching one’s conception is arguably inappropriate at any age), is the star, Glob herself can be a foremost character, albeit principally via the doc’s poetic narration. Certainly, the movie is simply as a lot concerning the evolving relationship between these two sturdy and susceptible ladies on reverse sides of the lens as it’s a “portrait of an artist.”
And but it’s additionally clearly a mash be aware from Glob to Apolonia, which likewise renders Apolonia, Apolonia a extremely subjective, oftentimes rose-colored-glasses portrayal — transparently so. As Glob herself admits from the beginning, “No motif has ever caught my eye as she did.” Apolonia is that this director’s muse and the movie actually a cinematic following of 1’s muse, regardless of how lengthy it takes, or to the unorthodox locations — bodily, psychological, emotional — such a journey would possibly lead.
Simply previous to the doc’s Tribeca debut Filmmaker reached out to Glob to be taught all concerning the intense multiyear venture, and the hovering highs and tragic lows of life itself she grew from alongside the best way.
Filmmaker: Since this movie’s manufacturing spanned 13 years, you have to have been taking pictures even whereas co-directing 2015’s Olmo and The Seagull with Petra Costa. So what stage have been you at on Apolonia, Apolonia throughout that time frame? And the way did that movie and/or working with Petra (and/or 2016’s Venus, one other co-directed venture) affect your method to this solo debut?
Glob: Working with Petra Costa, Olivia Corsini and Serge Nicolai on the CPH:LAB-initiated collaboration Olmo and The Seagull was, for me, actually a second movie faculty. I discovered a lot about collaboration, and I met some true artists, who very generously allowed us to discover questions on identification as a feminine artist and about motherhood.
From the collaborations I developed a agency perception in narration as a cinematic device, and likewise a love for the feminine stream of consciousness narration. (Olmo itself was very impressed by the internal voices of the characters of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.) Additionally, the braveness of the nice actress Olivia Corsini to let the story be constructed round her private experiences of fears and doubts round motherhood was a terrific inspiration for me, particularly after I afterward determined to contain my very own such questions into the work of Apolonia, Apolonia. For her half, Petra Costa confirmed me how combating for the easiest minimize of the movie actually pays off. I feel that numerous my very own persistence with this movie is impressed by seeing how Petra at all times insisted on the possibly tougher however artistically attention-grabbing path; to not hand over till the most effective movie attainable is born.
Venus was one other collaboration that allowed us to do analysis on ladies’s relationships in direction of sexuality and to analyze the inner language and imagery round sexual identification within the feminine thoughts. Along with Mette Carla Albrechtsen engaged on this movie, we encountered round 100 ladies who shared their views; from that we found that a lot of the inner erotic or sexual imagery in our minds, the phrases of our ideas, weren’t even our personal. They have been damaging reproductions of a male patriarchal society mannequin.
It was fairly stunning to find what number of ladies, myself included, have been in the long run unconsciously constructing our personal ideas of turning into a girl round these stereotypes. So after I met Apolonia, a younger lady who refused to breed such stereotypes and who hosted a number of the nice feminine thinkers and activists of our time — together with Oksana Shachko, a founding father of Femen — I knew how revolutionary this was. And a feminist like Oksana was utilizing the mass media to make these constructions seen.
Filmmaker: I learn (in my IDFA press notes) that the “energy positions” between you and Apolonia shifted in the course of the course of filming. She went from being an unknown bohemian in entrance of your lens to a globetrotting up-and-comer who many needed to {photograph} (when you remained a documentary filmmaker). Did this current surprising challenges, each on a private and logistical stage?
Glob: After I first talked to Apolonia I used to be dwelling in Denmark, and was looking for a topic for my first movie faculty venture. She was so charismatic that I used to be immediately hooked. She disclosed that she lived in a theater in Paris, and gave me the tackle. She then instructed me to face on the road below her window as soon as I’d arrived and to name her title twice (“Apolonia, Apolonia”). She would then throw me the keys. This was a girl with a way for the theatrical mise-en-scène! As I teasingly say within the movie, “Whether or not it was me who captured Apolonia with my digital camera or Apolonia that caught me in her theater, I nonetheless don’t know.”
So this sport, this energy play between portraying and being portrayed, is a really productive one; and I’ve by no means actually had any “higher hand,” so to talk. We have been very equal. However it’s true that all through the years we have now labored collectively the variations between our artwork kinds have additionally revealed themselves. The artwork world versus the movie world — or, particularly, the world of portray versus that of documentary movie. Should you succeed within the artwork world the work can change into objects of investments on the second market, which isn’t the case for a movie. In order that additionally defines the standing of the worlds we work in. I’m so very proud that Apolonia has manifested herself as a powerful artist inside each establishments and the artwork market. For a younger lady that is an excellent achievement.
Filmmaker: The “theme music,” which is so achingly stunning, actually contributes to the emotion of the movie. Are you able to speak a bit concerning the soundtrack, how that specific facet developed?
Glob: The Polish a part of the manufacturing is kind of substantial, with Staron Movie managing to get the Stettin Philharmonic Orchestra to file our composer Jonas Struck’s compositions. They usually even shaped a choir for the works. The feminine voices characterize the ladies’s tales tied to Japanese European historical past — a historical past that’s ever extra current. That was such an vital ingredient within the compositions.
However the rating itself is actually the end result of all of the efforts of Jonas and his group. Whilst we labored through the years on the movie, our composer was busy concurrently constructing the soundtrack; and the compositions grew alongside the approaching of age of Apolonia and myself.
Filmmaker: Throughout the course of filming you concurrently grew to become a mom and underwent a really private trauma; and surprisingly, the fraught expertise was truly the explanation you determined to proceed engaged on the doc. So how did these life-changing occasions remodel the way you in the end considered the venture? How did they have an effect on the edit when you’d gotten to publish?
Glob: As an artist my private life will at all times have an effect on the works that I do. After I gave beginning to my son I caught a really unhealthy an infection, and was despatched residence from the hospital with out correct care. I acquired very sick and was in a coma for a very long time combating for my life.
From there I needed to be taught every little thing once more — methods to transfer, methods to stroll — every little thing. Whereas additionally studying to change into a mom. That is in the end a life-changing expertise, so I can solely say that this work is a product of survival. I attempt to use this movie to convey that artwork, and creation usually, is one thing very human. If we cease, we die.