Rotterdam Film Festival

Interviews

On this page you will find numerous interviews, from Festival Director Simon Fields and CineMart coordinator Ido Abram to filmmakers and personalities attending. To open our interview section, we would like to present Naomi Kawase returning to the festival for the fourth time and Katrin Ottarsdottir, Tiger Winner at Rotterdam 2000.

Interview with the director of Bad Company - Tomoyuki Furayama

Not many films have treated the middle school years in Japan so straightforwardly as Tomoyuki Furayama's Bad Company. This portrait of four children subjected to a tyrannical teacher will ring a bell to all those aching memories of their schooling. "I sort of had the idea to make a middle school version of Full Metal Jacket!" joked Tomoyuki Furayama during this interview held in Rotterdam, where Bad Company garnered the FIPRESCI Prize and a VPRO Tiger Award. His first feature, The Window is Yours, was also an award winner picking up the Dragon and Tiger Young Cinema Award at Vancouver.

Interview with Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll, directors of 25 Watts

Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll, both born in 1974 in Montevideo, got to know each other at the University of Montevideo. 25 Watts is their first feature and made its world premiere at Rotterdam 2001. This first feature was rewarded with a VPRO Tiger Award.

An Interview with Memento Mori director Min Kyu-dong

Memento Mori is the tragic love story of two high school girls, Hyo-shin and Shi-eun. When Shi-eun starts to drift from Hyo-shin because of pressures, the latter, unable to stand it, commits suicide. But her ghost returns to validate the old Latin incantation "Memento Mori" (Remember the Death) ... The film has just garnered the Best Cinematography Award at Slamdance 2001. FilmFestivals.com caught up with Memento Mori Director Min Kyu-dong in Rotterdam.

"Our wives are always jealous of us" says Min Kyu-dong about his co-director Kim Tae-yong, with whom he made his first feature film, Memento Mori. "In daily life," he adds, "we were like lovers, we loved each other, we fought for each other. So people who know us very well think that this film is the metaphor of our relationship."

The Star System Even at Rotterdam: Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung Arrive

As the Rotterdam Film Festival is world-renowned for its focus on emerging trends in Asian cinema -- of all the films screening in Rotterdam, nearly 60% are from Asia -- it is to be expected that Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung would get the Star Treatment. In town for the Main Programme showing of one of the most appreciated year 2000 films worldwide, In the Mood for Love, the two were heartily welcomed at the evening Late Show, which was standing room only. It was so packed that the regularly filled-to-capacity late night films were showing empty seats.

Emceed by none other than festival director Simon Fields himself, the press conference with Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung earlier in the day turned out to be quite a surprising moment as the two Honk Kong stars were clearly in the mood for confession and talked about working with Wong Kar-wai in all honesty.

Philip Gröning: Painter of Optimism

Philip Gröning is a happy man. His French-titled road movie L'Amour l'Argent l'Amour (" it would have sounded like sociodrama in German" he remarks) won his lead actress Sabine Timoteo a Bronze Leopard at Locarno 2000 and has been screened in quite a few festivals so far, not least Sundance and Rotterdam. Gröning tells us the story of three characters: Marie, a prostitute, David, an impulsive freebooter, and Kurt, a German shepherd (a dog, not a sheep guardian). Together with the dog, they set off in an old car looking for true happiness. On the way, their love is put to the test in all manner of ways... "I wanted characters who still had a lot of innocence in their heart" says the director. "And who never lose their inner strength, their innocence..."

Katrin Ottarsdottir

Perhaps the name of the Faroe Islands doesn't ring much of a bell to you. Peopled by Celtic and Norwegian descendants, the Faroe Islands have been under Danish rule since the 19th century and the least one can say is that there have been quite a few political problems ever since. The Danish tend to look down on the Faroese while the Faroese are proud to retain their traditions and values. Katrin Ottarsdottir's Bye Bye Blue Bird came as a detonator in this powder-keg of resentments. While Danish critics hit the film with harsh reviews smacking of political old scores, the film was not much welcomed in the Islands either, as it does not throw a sympathetic light on the director's peers. Yet, Bye Bye Blue Bird went on to win several festival prizes in Rouen, Lübeck and even one Tiger Award at Rotterdam 2000. Interview with a strong-willed director who won't say bye bye to films.

Naomi Kawase

"I once made my mother mad pleading with her to teach me how to become a hermit," said Naomi Kawase at the Yamagata Documentary Film Festival 2 years ago. But Naomi Kawase didn't become an hermit; instead, she became Japan's foremost female director and her cinematic "outings" have been quite frequent in the past few years. It is no less than the fourth time that Naomi Kawase comes to the Rotterdam Film Festival, having already screened her first fiction film there (Moe no suzaku, which won the FIPRESCI prize before landing the camera d'Or at Cannes 97) and two documentaries. Hotaru, her second fiction film, which has already landed her the second FIPRESCI Prize of her career at Locarno 2000, will be presented in a special 30th edition section screening new films by former festival prize-winners.