19/07/2023 - The Macedonian filmmaker speaks about the long journey to get her film made and its underlying commentary on patriarchy

(© Damir Vujković)

We sat down with Macedonian director Eleonora Veninova to discuss her first feature, Things Unsaid [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eleonora Veninova
film profile], which had its world premiere at the Cairo International Film Festival and is currently showing in the Official Competition of the 30th European Film Festival Palić. The film follows a troubled teenager (Sara Klimoska) who moves in to spend a few days with a married couple (Blagoj Veselinov and Kamka Tocinovski) in their summer house, causing the fragile balance of their marriage to crumble, while bringing painful secrets to the surface. We spoke to the filmmaker about the long journey to getting the film made, the origin of some of the main themes and the underlying commentary on patriarchy.

Cineuropa: It took you a long time to get the film made. How did the original idea come about, and how did it evolve during the process?
Eleonora Veninova: Originally, I wrote a short story about these three characters, but then I decided to turn it into a feature film. This was in 2012, and the focus was on Maja's character. It was quite a “typical” coming-of-age story about a girl who struggles with her sexuality and her emotions while growing up. We applied for funding several times, but we got rejected. As time passed, I kept changing the script because I started to feel closer to the couple. It was then when I decided to shift the focus to the relationship between Anna and Filip. And then, just as we were ready to shoot, the pandemic started, so we had to postpone it. Overall, ten years passed from the conception of the idea to its release.

Maja’s character serves as a catalyst, but she also has a story of her own. Was it difficult to find the balance?
It was a huge challenge. I studied scriptwriting in the US, and our professors always said: “Write a film with one protagonist first, and then maybe you can do multiple protagonists”. But I decided to go for three from the start [laughs]. It was quite a challenge to find the right balance, to give all the characters enough space to develop. We worked a lot on the script, but also in the editing room, trying to create that harmony between the characters.

Photography and psychology are two important subjects in the film. Why was this important for you?
Ten years ago, I got truly interested in analogue photography, especially the work of Man Ray. Somehow, Anna’s character seemed like a natural fit for that. Regarding social psychology and non-verbal communication, it is something that I also studied at university, so I was very familiar with it. I thought that these two disciplines made for a perfect pair because both try to interpret reality and discover internal feelings in a very different way.

It becomes really difficult to sympathise with the characters. How did you work with the actors?
It’s always an interesting discussion, whether you need to empathise with the characters or not. To be honest, when I was writing the script, they felt more sympathetic to me. But then, when we started working with the actors, I realised they're not very likeable. I thought it was fascinating that there was a gap between how I see the characters and how everybody else reads them. And I just decided to embrace that and to portray them the way they were written, and not the way I wanted them to be.

In the scene where Filip and Maja walk down the beach, he explains how the more you wait for something you desire, the greater the pleasure is in the end. I guess that doesn't apply to all those things unsaid, which keep accumulating and end up causing greater pain.
I’ve read a lot about delayed gratification, and I've always wondered if it was true. In my case, sometimes it happens that I wait for something for a long time, and when I get it, it doesn't feel that good. When I look at some of my past relationships, either partners or friendships, I find that there was a gap in communication and many things unsaid that piled up and erupted in the end. There are still things we don’t say because we fear that we won't be accepted, which is essentially what happens in the film. When you know that the other person dislikes something, you try to hide it in order to be loved.

As the film progresses, we sense a commentary about the underlying patriarchy in this seemingly emancipated couple. Was that intentional?
When I was writing the script, I wasn't consciously thinking about it, but I made the female characters based on either my experiences or those of people I know. Many times, we tend to think that in these middle-class, educated and progressive couples, there are no patriarchal roles at play. But that is not true. Patriarchy is so ingrained in our behaviour, in how we are raised, that in the end it always comes up. Especially in conflicts like the one portrayed in the film, where women want to have the right to decide how the relationship develops.