Afleeting image and a fragment of a voice was
all it took for Florian Gallenberger to cross borders. While
filmmakers usually choose foreign locales to spice the film’s
story line, it is the story itself that makes Florian undertake a
sojourn to distant lands. And he then narrates those stories in
the local language, notwithstanding the fact that he does not
speak that language himself. His first film, Quiero Ser, was
spurred by an image of two kids begging on a subway train in
Mexico that ‘remained engraved’ on his mind. The short film, made
in Spanish and shot in Mexico, won an Oscar in the shorts category
in 2001.
Now, the 32-year-old
German filmmaker has chosen to make his feature debut with a
Bengali film shot in Calcutta. And the inspiration came from the
voice of a young girl who was rescued from a carpet factory. The
film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film
Festival. Born in 1972, Gallenberger appeared in various roles in
feature films, TV productions and plays from the age of five. From
1992-1999, he studied Directing at the Academy of Television &
Film in Munich (HFF/M). In 2001, he shot Quierio Ser as his
graduation film. Excerpts from an interview with the filmmaker
during his visit to Toronto.
How did
Shadows of Time come about?
I had a meeting
scheduled with producers where I was supposed to present the story
of my proposed film. Even as the deadline was coming closer, I did
not have a good story. Then I heard a radio interview on German
radio of a little girl who had been rescued from a carpet factory.
The girl’s voice was very fragile and she had a very humble way of
speaking. She was saying that she was glad she got out of the
factory. I started to think about the girl and how her life might
have been like bad what her dreams are and so on. From there I
think something stuck to my mind and three days before the
deadline, I sat down in the morning and to my own surprise I was
starting to write a story that takes place in India in a carpet
factory. It was just the first expose. After two days of writing I
had a story that moved me. I went to the producer expecting he
would say, ‘We said Berlin and what the hell are you going to do
in India?’ Luckily he said, ‘It is a good idea let us do
it.’
Why did you
make it a tragedy?
Because life is a
tragedy. I think always there is a tragic component in life. What
interested me was how destiny interferes with one’s own life.
There is so much wanting, wishing, and trying to go in a certain
direction, reach a certain end, and finally everything comes
differently. There is no one to blame, we are struggling and
trying but finally the outcome is not in our hands. However at the
end (and that is also important for me), it makes sense. At the
end it is important to understand that it is not just about
happiness only but it is about the sense that your own circle of
life makes.
What were you
looking for in your cast of actors?
Casting was very
difficult as in the film we have three generations of same
characters — children, adults and seniors. So we needed people who
look alike or at least believably look alike and who were good
actors obviously. So we cast first the middle part, the adults,
which was difficult because there are no casting agencies in India
the way we know it in Europe or N America. The Indians said we
don’t need casting agencies because we know our actors, I said
‘but I don’t know!’ So I spent a long time seeing films, then I
started meeting actors. They (actors) don’t have agents so you
have to meet them personally. I spent a lot of time and then I had
the two main characters. Now I needed to find children who are the
lookalike of the adult cast, I saw 6,700 children for casting
which was a three month scout in schools in Calcutta. We spent a
lot of time in casting but it was worth it. Especially the boy and
adult look the same, it is amazing!
Why did you
shoot in West Bengal?
The story that I wrote
was obviously not taking place in Germany. At a certain time I was
thinking if I should set it way back into the past such as 19th
century and at that time there were big spinning mills in Europe
where children were working. Since that was the beginning of the
film, that would have been a possible scenario but then I thought
I heard the radio interview from India and somehow the spark came
from there and I thought it would be stronger if the story moves
right up to the present. And then we went to India and made trips
to Bombay, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Delhi, Agra and finally Calcutta. By
sheer accident I got into a jute mill in Calcutta. That was an
amazing location, I have never seen anything like this, so
Calcutta was the place. Then there was the question of which
language to shoot the film in. I thought it would be unbelievable
in English, and though Hindi would have been better for marketing
of the film, I thought shooting a Hindi film in West Bengal would
not have been a welcome move. People in Calcutta were very
supportive and that was probably because we shot it in
Bengali.
Did you learn
Bangla?
I took half a year of
Bengali lessons, acquired a very basic level of knowledge which
would not be good for talking. Theoretically though I understood
everything, knew all the words and we spent so much time
rehearsing also that by the time you hear the sentences again and
again you get a good feeling for whether it sounds believable or
not. And all in all I spent two years in India so you get a good
feeling for the place. How people react in certain situations and
of course I had two very good Indian assistants, I did not find
language a problem at all.
How did you
communicate with the children?
Adults spoke English
but children didn’t, so there was a problem sometimes especially
in the beginning. Both were very shy, the boy had just ran away
from home and arrived in Calcutta five days before I saw him on
street looking for work and living on the sidewalk. When I jumped
from my car and held him on the street he thought he was being
arrested or something! He was very shy, there was a slight problem
in that I could not communicate with him since he was from Bihar
and spoke Hindi and no Bengali. But after four weeks of rehearsals
I felt for them as if they were my own kids, there was not much
talking but you don’t have to talk to get along
well.
Is it themes
from daily life that interest you?
I do not know if they
are incidental, everything works together in a certain way, I love
to travel, to see other cultures, nations, people. I think if you
know your place very well, there is a potential for story telling
because you know the place so well. On the other hand if you don’t
know a place and have the view of an outsider, that is also a
potential because you see different stories. An outsider sees from
a different perspective and finds something else worth telling
than the person who is there for a whole life time. I think our
perspective onto India is a worthy one, it is a different one than
an Indian director would have chosen but you know I just love to
go and find out about another culture by making a
film.
How do you get
into that culture?
We spent a lot of
time, especially for India, if you have no one who takes you
inside you will stay outside. Especially as a German I have
different looks, everybody can see that I am definitely not an
Indian, but I had a whole bunch of assistants, collaborators who
opened the doors to culture for me. Once you have your foot in,
the door does not close. India turns out to be hospitable country,
people are happily sharing everything and then it is a big
journey. At a certain time, I felt I know Calcutta as well as the
Calcuttans know it themselves. I think it is films like this that
cross a certain border that give people the chance to take for 7
dollars a trip to another country for two hours. I think that is
wonderful.
What was your
reaction while watching the film at a public screening in
Toronto?
It was a world
premiere, and I saw with the audience the first time. I was so
tense that I could not see the film. Every time somebody moved, I
thought ‘Oh, God’. I am very happy with the film. It is the film
that we wanted to make. It is what we went for. I am first looking
forward to a break and then will start my next
film.
What is your
next film about?
I don’t know yet. I
think the aim of this film was to make a film that is emotionally
moving and hopefully make audience cry in the end. For the next
film I would like to set a different aim for myself, make people
laugh for example. I am not sure about the story, but I think it
is important and interesting to achieve different goals, this was
an emotional film, the film before was also an emotional film so
now something else has to come.
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