Interview

INTERVIEW: CHRISTIAN PETZOLD, DIRECTOR OF THE FILM AFIRE

Palić also has a bit to do with AFIRE

I am happy that there is a bench with my name on it, and that I can sit on it and watch the lake slowly, hopefully, come to life German director Christian Petzold returns to the Palić European Film Festival with his new film AFIRE, for which he was awarded the Silver Bear for Directing at this year's Berlinale. The film follows a young novelist who plans to spend a quiet summer, dedicated to writing, at his friend's cottage on the Baltic Sea. However, after encountering an unexpected guest in the house, the summer becomes just the opposite - restless and filled with internal and real fires.

How did you decide to make this wonderful summer story AFIRE?

My original plan was to make a dystopian film based on Georges Simenon's novel. Then came Covid. During the pandemic, it was as if the youth were "punished": there were no playgrounds, no clubs, no cinemas; you weren't even allowed to lie in the meadow together. At the time I was reading Chekhov's story "A Misfortune" and I received the complete works of Eric Romero as a gift from our French co-producer. His summer, youth films, and Chekhov, made me think of summer films that exist in American, French and Swedish cinema, but seem to have disappeared from Germany. There was the film PEOPLE ON SUNDAY, then films by Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, Detlef Sierck, but all that stopped in 1932. Then the Nazi terror began and directors fled to Hollywood, and with them summer. And the longing for that is, hopefully, in AFIRE.

You analyze artistic work and the way artists perceive themselves through the character of the novelist Leon. How much of yourself is in your main character?

At first I didn't think there was much of me in Leon. In the end, however, my inner connection with him was exposed, those autobiographical traits that actors reveal. They are so damn smart, but because they are also very funny, it didn't hurt me much, on the contrary.

How did the motif of fire end up in the film? I was in Turkey with my wife right after the devastating forest fire near the Aegean Sea. I have never lived to see such numbness, destruction. A burnt forest is truly dead: the wind cannot be heard. No animals. A picture without colour and sound, only dead silence – this is what was following me while I was writing AFIRE.

You said that you are now filming the "Trilogy of Elements". UNDINE was your film about water, AFIRE about fire. Can you tell us anything about the new film?

Big problem – I am not in the mood for the elements right now. Now I'm making films about groups breaking up. The first will be about family. It could be a horror film, we'll see.

You were a guest of the European Film Festival in 2021 and on that occasion you were presented with the Aleksandar Lifka Award for your contribution to European cinematography?

What are your memories of Palić? Palić also has a bit to do with AFIRE – a poisoned, dead lake. There is no life in it, no fish or other animals. It's like a burnt forest. It scared me; a beautiful place, history, culture – all that is worth nothing, if we exploit and destroy our environment in such way. But I am happy that there is a bench with my name on it, and that I can sit on it and watch the lake slowly, hopefully, come to life.

Jelena Knežević