What was the starting point or the initial idea for this film?
The starting point, I would say: a common sensibility between me and the writer Mihai Mincan, found over a interesting discussion inspired by Roy Andersons's short film World of Glory, and the need of expressing a kind of existential skepticism. Three days later Mihai gave me the first draft of the script.
Can you share an important/funny/moving/surprising anecdote of the making-of this film with us?
We first recorded the voice over with Coca Bloos, and I was searching for an apartment to match the script, but due to the lack of a proper budget, the search was quite difficult, mostly I was asking people if they knew something that would fit the description. In the end we choose the apartment where I and Signe Lillemark (the set designer) were living at the time. Also from the fact that the apartment was decorated in th style of an old people’s home to the degree that we had to remove a lot of nick-nacks for the shooting.
What do you do when not making films?
Actually most of the time I'm not making films, I'm working mostly as a cinematographer, doing corporate videos and other small jobs. So I'm mostly waiting for phone calls to get jobs.
But from time to time it happens that I get to do something that I love, cinema, and this makes up for all the waiting and frustration. I just finished filming a short film in the far east of Turkey, with Erol Mintas, a Kurdish director, and I feel that it is a fantastic thing to be part of the birth of a new Kurdish cinema.
What would you like to say to your audience before seeing your film?
I would say that although not so straightforward enjoyable, the act of trying to understand and empathize with the suffering and the least appealing side of life, is what makes us become better human beings.
I would add that my film The Palm Lines is dealing with the problem of being truthful to oneself, and it is trying to do so in a simple and honest way.
What project(s) are you working on this year?
Mihai Mincan has finished a new short film script last year, but getting the finances for the project was more challenging than I hoped. But we are still trying and in the meantime we are also planning a feature film. I'm also helping Signe Lillemark with her new video art project, and this is for me a new and inciting perspective on film making.