AN ARRANGEMENT at Santa Barbara film festival

Interview with Director: Noree Victoria, by Emmanuel Itier

Maverick director Noree Victoria is delivering a majestic “tour de force” with this thrilling drama full of unpredictable twists. ‘An Arrangement’ is a pure delight. Actors Bel Deliá, Matt Dellapina and Jessica Damouni are casting a spell of movie magic with their “on the dot” interpretation in this triangle of suspenseful and toxic relationships. You are on the edge of your seat waiting to see what’s coming next; each minute the tension is building to a final genius climax. Noree is for sure a new voice to follow and her film a guaranteed box office hit. Let’s listen to Noree Victoria’s inspiration and vision about her feature directorial debut:

Q: How did this film come together and what was the inspiration?

Noree: It was written by Helen Shang and her partner Bel Deliá, a filmmaker from Australia. It all started around 2016. So, it’s true that a film takes an average of ten years to be made, especially for indie filmmaking. I came on board in 2018. I met Deliá at a series of networking events. She didn’t know I was studying directing. She assumed I was a director because of the way I directed the crowd at various events. And we ended up talking about this project for a year and a half. But then the world shut down in 2020 with covid. It was interesting for me to have a multicolored project with so many different faces in this very politically charged story. It took me a while to find my voice. It’s about this republican candidate and his undocumented immigrant caretaker who is watching after the candidate’s wife who has a problem with addiction. I found my voice by talking to the various actors in my movies and to other friends from the Middle East. Who are from different cultures like Lebanon, Iran, Irak and Palestine. I also talked to politicians. First, I looked at it through the lens of style, what are the shapes of it, what is this story trying to say. I also love films from the silent era. I love symmetry and drawing parallels. Here I can draw a parallel between what a political campaign might be and what stylistically it should look like. And then what does it look like when it falls apart. What it feels like. We go from some very symmetrical shots to handheld phonetics.

When we casted this film I looked first for vulnerability. Vulnerability in real life. Having conversation about their point of view on the World. What their sensibilities are about other topics and not film. And that really worked for me. It gave me more insight and how to shape my shots. How to direct my cast and how to begin a dialogue; not just me giving you instructions and directions. But an actual dialogue on how this comes together.

Q: What were the many challenges you faced making this film?

Noree: There are no challenges in production, haha! First thing that happened is that a day before starting principal photography, my director of photography tested positive for covid. We had spent almost one hundred hours in preparation coming with shots lists and she tested positive, so we had to push the film back by three days. This was the high of the pandemic, so we had to test everyone. It was a time we didn’t know much about covid, so we had to make sure that people were comfortable working together even if they tested negative. For example, I lost a gaffer because her partner who is in medical school didn’t want her to be on the set. We shot in a little town in northern California, Camarillo which has its own film community. And someone from that community came forward to become my new director of photography. With him I was able to condense and stylize my shots. I’m grateful to Lorenzo Gonzalez with whom I develop some telepathic connection. We, at once knew to go from: “this is what we wanted, this is what we have, and this is what we can do”. And we moved so quickly and so efficiently.

Q: At the end what are the themes and messages of your film?

Noree: When you have a person assuming about an entire group of people thinking you are not like them, you are the good one. I feel, throughout the film, each of the characters are saying: “I’m the good one and I’m justifying what I’m doing”. Even so they are carrying the most heinous act they feel justified. It shows how dangerous it is to cherry pick. Cherry pick people in your mind out of that group of people you’re inter-acting with. So be careful about how you judge people based on your perception, maybe wrong, you have of them.

Q: Being at the Santa Barbara film festival, expectations and hopes?

Noree: I really look to connect with other storytellers and see what their process is and how they put their film together. I’m coming here with an opened mind and willing to share and to figure out what to do next on my next endeavor. I am opened to see how other people can impact my journey and see how this affects my next destination. That’s art. I started writing when I was seven. And I never thought I would be in front or behind the camera. Being opened and coming here could bring opportunities and new relationship that could affect my life; and I’m opened about it. Sometimes we don’t just see that part of the larger puzzle we are part of, just yet. I just hope we come together at this time when we need to come together, and we need to keep moving forward.